Don't Call It a Comeback

Hello my friendly neighborhood blog followers! I know, it has been an almost two month hiatus, but I am back! I know you probably weren't that disappointed, but you had to have felt a twinge in your heart that is now cured, or you had a heart attack. Either way, life has probably improved after the writing of this blog post. There is so much to talk about, but of course, I am not going to relay every story from the last 6-7 weeks because it would take way way way too long, but I can give some highlights and some words of thought and whatever I can think of. I only have about 8 more days in lovely Copenhagen, and my last night made me ill, so if I forget anything, I will come back to it on my final post next week.

To start, the 3 week travel break was amazing! I would do everything again if I could. 8 cities in 3 weeks was exhausting, and the first week on study tour wasn't too terrible, minus some of the academic visits (aka Czech National Bank where we had a meeting at 5:00 pm after a day of walking around in the sun with the main topic being about the Euro and all of its pluses/minuses for the Czech Republic. WTF!). I managed to get everywhere without too much trouble, but I did cut some things close, like when I got to Zurich and had to run to my train to Basel because the platform was so long and the board was not visible from the platform I left. My hostels were so-so, with the bad side highlighted by the hostel in Florence that was a camp ground in the middle of fucking nowhere, and the hostel in Paris that was full of screaming French teenagers whom I wanted to smother, drown, maim, or any physically-harming action in the English dictionary. Meals were excellent, when I chose to go out, such as my last meal that I shared with a girl that I gave an empty bed to, which was right next to the Tuilerie Gardens leading down to the Louvre. It was more of a pastry-breakfast place, but we had a lunch that was fantastic, where we drank such rich hot chocolate which the place was famous for, and I ate like a 13 dollar pastry that had so many layers of goodness it could have been its own meal. The bad side of my ingestion formula came in Paris too, when I was given a free pizza at a restaurant after its kitchen was closed by a guy not standing behind the counter, and I took that back to my hostel and washed it down with a 1€ glass of wine, and I think had food poisoning for the next few days. Finally, we get to the nightlife, which I enjoyed decently, although I am not the foremost expert. I spent a night in Berlin at a small jazz club with great live music, late one night I saw a bunch of people running out of an electronics store all with huge plasma TVs and what not, looking like they robbed it, and finally, the best (and worst) night came my last night in Prague when I spent about $300 dollars on cigars, messages, drinks, and strippers. At the strip club, I got drunk, got whipped by a belt (twice!) and got a hands-on lap dance that I vaguely remember, but it kept me out all night, and I got my digital camera stolen in the process. Unfortunately, I lost most of my German and all my Prague pics, but I still enjoyed myself. I got back into Denmark about 3 weeks ago, but it took me 3 trains and a bus to do it, long story of travel with delayed trains, trains that stopped short, crowded buses and an early morning DSB train that got us in at about the same time anyway, so no big deal. It was nice to get back.

Since I have been back, I have kept a low profile because my money supply took a hit with that romp around Europe. However, three incidents stand out. First, I went with a huge group of people to Legoland, where we saw sculptures and small cities built out of Legos, which spoke to my inner child. I got to share it with my best friends, and we all had a fabulous time riding the rides and buying souvenirs, and we were given a great day to do it. They had a fully-functioning airport and rocket launch all crafted out of Legos, how cool is that! I was so glad that I got to go and enjoy myself there, it was totally worth it. There was no funny story to come out of it, but it meant a lot to me because it was one of those things I had to do before I left. Second, Fisty, Kira, Allison and I went to Bakken, which is apparently the oldest amusement park in the world, going over 200 years in existence. It wasn't that big a place, and the rides were not all top notch, but it was fun. We went on roller coasters, one of those Pitfall-type rides where they shoot you up and down a huge tower, we played shooting games where you sit on a horse and shoot pirates or something, and we saw a 3d movie that I saw years ago in Florida I believe. Afterwards, we went into town, where we had some drinks, like me with my White Russian, which I had to suck down unfortunately because they all wanted to leave early and catch the last trains home. I got on mine, but fell asleep, like I did in Prague, and ended up at the end of the line, 7 zones outside my home. I could not take a train, no more were running, or a night bus, because my pass didn't work and I did not have the money to buy an all-zone pass or 8-zone pass like I would have needed. Also, a cab ride would have cost 500 kroner, which really shows how far out I was. I didn't wanna wait 3 hours at the Koge train station, so I decided to follow the tracks back in the direction I came from, while using the night bus stops as my points to let myself know that I was going the right way. I walked for something like 3 1/2 hours, pretty much on just one road as night buses came and went, pissing me off so much. Eventually, I made it like 18 or 19 km, which was about 10-11 miles, and then I knew the trains were running again, so I walked to the nearest train station, rode 2 stops over, and got home about 6:30 am. I proceeded to sleep until 3 in the afternoon, capping off a nice night. My third and final highlight of the last few weeks came yesterday when I had my European Business Strategy exam. I studied almost all night, but didn't go to the review session because it was early one Thursday and I knew my teacher would not be organized. I was right, and no one knew what the fuck was on it. Then, last week, he sends an email saying we should study business models and Arla, and that was it, not really clarifying much. When I got there, like a minute late. I sat down, with everyone making grumbling noises before I got the test. Once I got it, I understood why. There was stuff on there we didn't go over in class or didn't see before, prompting the peanut gallery to act out and speak up to our proctor, who wasn't our teacher, just a DIS employee. It was so bad that she left the room once, and when the door was shut, everyone just looks at each other and is like, `what the fuck is a Diamant model?` Luckily, we were given the option to say that, if we thought, that a question was bull shit and give a reason; I utilized that option twice, making notes after answering the question because I had no confidence in my answers. I left disgusted, sort of, and most everyone, or probably everyone else did too. I decided to take our proctor's advice and go out to drink. I went with Allison to the mall to help her pick out a confirmation gift for her host brother, and I truly got to a place where I am gonna miss little things about Denmark that I wish I could take with me; I got to walk around, even in stores, drinking a beer. I loved that! So, she bought her gifts, we ate some hot dogs, and went back to DIS so she could meet up with Fisty. I bought another beer and we parted ways. I went back home after finishing this beer, and decided to get drunk. I made a quarter pot of coffee and finished off the cream liquor in the refrigerator, but I still wasn't done, so I went against my conscience and opened a bottle of wine. I drank and drank for hours and hours, after my host sister left, and after everyone came back. I polished it off completely, getting me completely trashed, and I must have been annoying because my host family was making lasagna, but they would not let me help, they shunned me off to my room to take a nap. I did just that, I passed the fuck out. I was doubly angry when I woke up around 1:00 am, still drunk and hungry. Although, I had the spins slightly and didn't wanna leave my bed, so I passed out for another 8 hours or so until this morning. So, I was drunk by like 5-6:00 pm and slept til about 9:00 am. It was an interesting evening sort of, but I forgot about the test, that's for sure.

In closing, I have a little over a week left, and will do another blog post before that to give me an even 10 for the semester, which isn't completely terrible considering all the stuff I have in my journal about my break, which I still have yet to finish because of all the work I had to accomplish since being back. I am done with school work completely by Monday though, and will be going places during my last 5 days of freedom, like Sweden and what not, maybe take a boat tour of Copenhagen. I will now leave you a quote from Old Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra, who is one of my favorites. It makes sense in light of yesterday's events. He said, ´Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the Bible says love your enemy.´Truly something we all can attest to. Have a great week everyone, I will be returning to the States shortly.

(P.S. I read today that Manny Ramirez of the LA Dodgers and formally of the Boston Red Sox got banned for 50 games from MLB because of a failed drug test that goes against the league's substance abuse policy. They found abnormally high levels of testosterone in his system, but they nailed him for hCG, which is a fertility drug to bring your testosterone to normal levels. The news put me in such a sullen mood because I love baseball, and I was honestly shocked to hear about this. I don't even really like Manny, but he didn't need the steroids or drugs at all, and now, my feelings on the purity of the game have changed dramatically, and it's just a sad time, for me and baseball fans everywhere.)