Upon realizing I am becoming very poor, I have been going on the slimmest budget you can imagine (yes it still affords bikes but that can be sold back you see). It's actually amusing the things I have stopped buying...lets just start with toilet paper. Now don't be alarmed, remember I said gypsy here and not 'gross person.' I also have a reason behind not buying the pricey toilet paper anymore - I was the only person who ever bought it, and I get tired of that. If no one else will ever buy it here then neither will I! I thought it would just make someone else buy it at first...but this is not the case.
No, I steal toilet paper slowly from public places. i will just wind a bunch around my hand (I'm getting really good at it, what a skill!), and then put it in the bottom of my bag, take it home, store in room, saving money! Often as well I think (while at my apartment), Hmm I have to use the bathroom, I'll go in Field's on the way to class...hehehe. It amuses me. I'm still hopefully though that someone will buy some...but yeah. It's much easier to steal toilet paper (and I could just be going there to use it all the time...so I'm just taking it some place else so they don't have to clean right?), ...anyways, it's easier to steal toilet paper than to steal delicious pastries. So I buy those!
Speaking of delicious things....it just so happens that outside of my Danish class today Jenna (another Australian friend, she's super cool, don't know if I have mentioned her yet), and I spotted some .... leftover cake! Outside of the same door that one time had all these water bottles so a bunch of us poor students helped ourselves to those too...
This cake looked pretty good. Hard to afford kage here (cake)....so I helped myself to just one of the three random pieces....and yum! so good, so moist, chocolate icing with coconut on it...during the Danish break we split another...and I may have the last piece here wrapped up in a napkin that I will be having after I make myself dinner, which I meant to be making right now but...just in that writing mood while I have so much on my mind you know? Hmm...
I don't know what else I do that is especially gypsy-ish, maybe that was too strong of a word to use and UGH ghost whisperer is on I despise this show what a waste of an English language show....But! I do a lot of pretend shopping, being a girl (I think we all like new clothes and thing to some extent but also I blame the media, we are pressured to buy things and look nice and have more clothes items than men I think), anyways, I'll see things that I have decided are affordable and just want them...talk myself out of them always, and today I even tried on things while walking to my bike to go home, and talked myself out of everything! Feel very proud about that :)
I also had the strangest experience today and I think its the sunrise at 4 30 am that is getting me - I woke up and thought 'oh I need to bike into the city but I definitely slept in, it must be 11 am!' but no, it was 7 30, and I looked at how bright it was and thought, 'noooo my phone is broken, that's so sad, whatever shall I do,' and I thought I'd just go back to sleep until my 8:08 alarm went off, but suddenly I was flipping through a yearbook laying on my bed on my side just like I was sleeping, and trying to find pages that matched, there were so many, and I thought 'ah I'm getting tired of this I'll just get up now and get ready, why waste my time with a yearbook, and I started to get up but then realized my eyes were closed AND THAT I WAS SLEEPING. And seriously this was withing 7 minutes of waking up the first time! So...I thought that was very strange..
Okok now I will cook, I have to study a lot tonight because I volunteered in class today to have a mock oral exam in Danish in front of the whole class (oh humility!) but thought that'd be good encouragement for me to study....can't hurt anyways....oh and another cheap thing - besides the fact that I buy the broken delicious food to save 10 kr (oh how I want the prettier ones with more icing..), I have now invested in juice concentrate, so I just mix that with water and will have another drink besides water now. Yay!
I say all this, but then I bought a 'Find Holger' book (the Scandinavian version of Where's Waldo - and they say find instead of where is, which would have been hvor er) as I saw it two days ago...I have a 'Where's Wally' (the Australia/NZ/UK) version already from once while stuck in the Sydney airport for a layover, and well, I just want to collect these...it amuses me, plus seriously I like the idea of finding things...it's an amusing book! And seriously how did Waldo turn into HOLGER.
Mmm...food time!!! :)
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
For somebody who don't drive, I been all around the world...
Ok I know I haven't (sadly) been all around the world (yet), but I have recently purchased a bike!!! So everyday (ok this has been my first full day of riding in København) I have that 'Brand New Key' by Melanie song stuck in my head so I'm always softly singing "I rode my bicycle past your window last night..." etc etc. It's so good I love that song. About my bike - it's amazingly old :) Sort of this awesome rust color painted over the rust, no handbrakes, just have to backpedal, sweet wire basket I can put my goods in...strange seat, loud little bell I used today when I just passed someone on the way home from class :) I feel sooooooooooo Danish!!
So, about biking - apparently I haven't done this in awhile? I got it last night from this Danish man (min nabo Daniel basically found it online for me, bid on it, and then took me there to pick it up whilst I brought the cash) and thought, oh yeah, let's bike ride so I can find my classes on the Amager campus! Maybe 40 minutes or so of riding, I'm in love with it, today 9 am get to the bike to go into the city and well, my butt is so sore, AMAZINGLY sore. I'm so out of bike-riding shape, it's just been far too long!! At first it was fun being jolting around on random cobblestones, but for maybe the next few days (hopefully just a few days!) I will be standing up during that portion.
I am also a very nervous city biker. I've never really done anything bigger than cross the highway on the way to Jeannette's....seriously. Now I'm suddenly on roundabouts and crossing many lanes and using bike lanes, hand signals, my sweet bell....It was sort of really nerve-racking at first but maybe tomorrow after two more separate trips into the city (Ahh I need to strap a pillow onto my seat but it could rain!) maybe I'll get the hang of it more. I currently am not sure how I will even get back tomorrow after class without following someone. On my first 'by-myself' journey in the city today after running errands I found myself...just following people again haha. It's so much easier, then I don't have to worry about doing something wrong, surely the Dane's know what they are doing. Hopefully soon I'll have a really good feel for the city/at all the direction of things, especially since it is absolutely GORGEOUS to bike around.
Seriously though, when I was saying bye to my neighbor who I followed in, the first thing I did was ALMOST run into a pole. And for a bit I was getting nervous and I'd just walk with my bike instead of bike-lane turning left turns. I mean a car could hit me right? But apparently not- THOUGH, not to worry anyone, but as I am proudly biking along, knowing what I'm doing for once, some insane taxi pulls a U-y and yeah...scary, thought I would die, but here I am typing! At least it was not my fault :)
Anything else good to say about biking? I like biking through puddles...Eh. I think I've covered it, just need to buy some bicycle lights tomorrow :) Should only be 20 kr ($3.80) Yay! I apparently was quite lucky with the price of this bike as well, 600 kr, but it came with this ancient and awesome complicated lock, which locks apparently cost around 200 kr? Says one of my flatmates. I do not want to verify with a Dane in case they make me feel like I got ripped off. Generally people pay 600 lowest for a nice working bike (did I mention the new tires), and will easily pay 800, and these are all for used crappy ones. When I was looking at the pretty classic city style bikes (nothing fancy here, no carbon no crazy good names that I know of), even the cheapest ones are in the thousands. Everything is just more here!! However, I will be selling this bike before I leave, hopefully for 600 kr!!! I mean it came with a basket too!!
Also, I was SOOO tempted to buy a metro pass today, the monthly that I usually get but expired the day I got the bike...it's 320 kr a month, so just 60 bucks for constant access to buses, trains and metros in the main two zones I use, and while it's such a cheap deal I think, I just want to not buy it and just bike everywhere, save that money!!! So tempted though...my kroner was just staring at me in my wallet...but no!
Another very awesome thing that happened today - not bike related - As I was sitting studying earlier in the city there was a fish tank sort of in the middle of the room, and this small child beating the fish from the outside with his apple. Of course, being an insane kid as I think all kids must be, he only smashed the part that he had bitten out of, just one bite out of the apple. Against the glass. Over and over. And the fish would just sort of shake in the water, and then swim a bit, shake some more, and particles of apple were smushed on the glass...I probably watched this for 10 minutes. As did his parents. Hehehehe...it amused me greatly.
Now back to studying! Actually I'm going to make food...I bought an eggplant recently (they are just beautiful I think), and...some asparagus....what do I do with that? Build my muscles for biking! Aww wait I bet I need to eat meat for that...noo...
So, about biking - apparently I haven't done this in awhile? I got it last night from this Danish man (min nabo Daniel basically found it online for me, bid on it, and then took me there to pick it up whilst I brought the cash) and thought, oh yeah, let's bike ride so I can find my classes on the Amager campus! Maybe 40 minutes or so of riding, I'm in love with it, today 9 am get to the bike to go into the city and well, my butt is so sore, AMAZINGLY sore. I'm so out of bike-riding shape, it's just been far too long!! At first it was fun being jolting around on random cobblestones, but for maybe the next few days (hopefully just a few days!) I will be standing up during that portion.
I am also a very nervous city biker. I've never really done anything bigger than cross the highway on the way to Jeannette's....seriously. Now I'm suddenly on roundabouts and crossing many lanes and using bike lanes, hand signals, my sweet bell....It was sort of really nerve-racking at first but maybe tomorrow after two more separate trips into the city (Ahh I need to strap a pillow onto my seat but it could rain!) maybe I'll get the hang of it more. I currently am not sure how I will even get back tomorrow after class without following someone. On my first 'by-myself' journey in the city today after running errands I found myself...just following people again haha. It's so much easier, then I don't have to worry about doing something wrong, surely the Dane's know what they are doing. Hopefully soon I'll have a really good feel for the city/at all the direction of things, especially since it is absolutely GORGEOUS to bike around.
Seriously though, when I was saying bye to my neighbor who I followed in, the first thing I did was ALMOST run into a pole. And for a bit I was getting nervous and I'd just walk with my bike instead of bike-lane turning left turns. I mean a car could hit me right? But apparently not- THOUGH, not to worry anyone, but as I am proudly biking along, knowing what I'm doing for once, some insane taxi pulls a U-y and yeah...scary, thought I would die, but here I am typing! At least it was not my fault :)
Anything else good to say about biking? I like biking through puddles...Eh. I think I've covered it, just need to buy some bicycle lights tomorrow :) Should only be 20 kr ($3.80) Yay! I apparently was quite lucky with the price of this bike as well, 600 kr, but it came with this ancient and awesome complicated lock, which locks apparently cost around 200 kr? Says one of my flatmates. I do not want to verify with a Dane in case they make me feel like I got ripped off. Generally people pay 600 lowest for a nice working bike (did I mention the new tires), and will easily pay 800, and these are all for used crappy ones. When I was looking at the pretty classic city style bikes (nothing fancy here, no carbon no crazy good names that I know of), even the cheapest ones are in the thousands. Everything is just more here!! However, I will be selling this bike before I leave, hopefully for 600 kr!!! I mean it came with a basket too!!
Also, I was SOOO tempted to buy a metro pass today, the monthly that I usually get but expired the day I got the bike...it's 320 kr a month, so just 60 bucks for constant access to buses, trains and metros in the main two zones I use, and while it's such a cheap deal I think, I just want to not buy it and just bike everywhere, save that money!!! So tempted though...my kroner was just staring at me in my wallet...but no!
Another very awesome thing that happened today - not bike related - As I was sitting studying earlier in the city there was a fish tank sort of in the middle of the room, and this small child beating the fish from the outside with his apple. Of course, being an insane kid as I think all kids must be, he only smashed the part that he had bitten out of, just one bite out of the apple. Against the glass. Over and over. And the fish would just sort of shake in the water, and then swim a bit, shake some more, and particles of apple were smushed on the glass...I probably watched this for 10 minutes. As did his parents. Hehehehe...it amused me greatly.
Now back to studying! Actually I'm going to make food...I bought an eggplant recently (they are just beautiful I think), and...some asparagus....what do I do with that? Build my muscles for biking! Aww wait I bet I need to eat meat for that...noo...
Monday, May 3, 2010
Did you just call me white? ...Did you just ask for money, again? :( I love Africa!
I feel I just take ages to write about things on here but I'd love to be caught up... I am currently doing this 'danish study - email people back - danish study - figure out contract things for home - danish study - possible blog post?' thing. Which is where I am now! And since Africa was soooooo amaaazing I figure I should get on to tales about that because seriously people, it changed my life. It's been terribly long since I've been there though now so I will just forget the chronological order of things and tell you whatever I feel like.
(then about a week passed before I finished this - seriously, how did I get so busy! I thought I didn't ACTUALLY have to do schoolwork here...if only Purdue didn't take the actual grades and it was just a pass fail...)
So, Africa, where should I even begin? I love it, I hardly got bit by mosquitoes. Apparently it's not the season for that so I'm glad I didn't bother with malaria pills! Especially since they were 1000 kr....Wow this is difficult when I wait for so long!
Besides amaaazing food (a lot of peanut sauces as they farm peanuts, rice, and fish), the Gambians themselves were entirely interesting. They did not hold back on asking for money, which was the only annoyance of the trip. Here is how it would be - we would say 'how far is the walk to the ATM? and the taxi controller man would say 'its impossible to walk, you need a taxi, will take two hours at least' and refuse to tell us the directions. Then KEVIN (this guy who tried to get us everrryyy day to go on some Senegalese official tour with him) would pop up, guilt us with things like "i waited for you guys yesterday, thought you said you would meet me at 6 (which we never said), and as soon as he heard we were just going to walk somewhere he would tell us 'oh, you need a guide for that, come, i'll get you one', then when we said no he'd say, no you cant walk that far ever, you need a taxi'. Often we would just leave and walk. Turns out it was a nice 30 minute walk! But even on the way there some Gambian followed us the whole way trying to get us to eat at this place or that, and then wanted us to guy him dinner? I really became ruthless in The Gambia, just a rude white woman!
You can really get yourself in some random and epic adventures walking around. Once this man was all "hey, let me show you this, come come,' and as we were sort of just wonderful AND as I am traveling with a 6'5" white guy (yay intimidation factor) we decided we'd see what he had to show us, and turned out it was the poorest place I have even seen in my life, and definitely the dirtiest. It had a ridiculously high orphan population and was just so....touching, especially when all the kids would come and go 'tobak, tobak!' (white person), and touch you and just go on in whatever language they spoke. You have to ask a lot before taking photos of people's extreme poverty as well, but generally after asking them they were OK. The kids though...the kids just break your heart, you want to do anything for them, especially to get them from growing up and turning into the swindling tourist guys. This particular village sometimes has peace corps volunteers, which to most of the people I met on this African adventure was the only type of American and had ever seen. However I wonder what they did there because it was still sooo poor, just building these mud huts that would be ruined in the monsoon season...I dunno. This village also had an amazing trash dump...everywhere. Of just...pieces of cloth and bras (? weird I remember stepping on a few), and just paper...yeah...I'll have to put up some photos on here.
Lets see what else did we do....we went to markets in both Banjul the capital (such an amazing CAPITAL, I mean, I think Mt. Vernon is small and behind the times, this really puts you in your place!), and ...something that begins with an S...Serre Kunda! which were supposed to be the biggest markets in The Gambia. The ones in Banjul were super fun due to the fact that they had all the tourist stuff, so the necklaces and wraps everyone wears, all sorts of paintings and wooden things, and you could bargain like MAD. In fact i often just said horrendously low prices because i wanted to let them know i wouldn't buy it and they would go 'ok :( you're my first customer, i have to sell it'. also apparently I am related to lots of dark complected people. Sister, sister come here, take this necklace for free, (which I did, thank you....person whose name I forgot.. I now only remember Fatima the fruit lady!)....but yeah. I bought so much stuff there and it was probably all less than 10 USD. The Dalasi is a high currency though (I possibly just made up that term), so I'd be slightly alarmed when things would be 100 Dalasi, because I'd think, 20 dollars, no way! acting like it was the Kroner, when in fact it was more like three dollars....hehe...or the amazing ice cream we got in the Serre Kunda markets for 25 cents...
Speaking of those markets, those were not for tourists. Seriously, Daniel and I were often the only white people in sight. Also its difficult to really bargain there, our taxi driver came with us and we would give him money so he would get us Gambian prices....but I mean, we do have so much money compared to them and it's...obvious, we simply cannot blend end.
Serre Kunda was this endless array of market food and ... crappy clothes....for example, I saw a kid wearing a Dairy Queen polo, like a workers polo. Something I couldn't even buy at home. Very interesting...but they sell it all and they at least didn't try to sell us a lot of that stuff because tourists just go their to look...And its just like you would think African markets would be like - insanely colorful, loud, music everywhere, people EVERYWHERE, busy like you can't imagine and we were on the least busy day....just amazing, I loved wandering the markets for sure. Our young taxi driver took us to the black markets too, where things that were stolen were being sold and we were given fishy looks...I think I also saw some prostitutes while I was there...but not sure, wasn't about to ask! And then at the end he took us to this 'slaughter house'. Was that ever a food science NO. I seriously don't know how I didn't vomit - it's almost as though the smell and the sights were actually that bad your body couldn't even register how gross it was. heads of animals just on the ground, everything is outside so flies are everywhere, but it was in this open walled barn sort of thing and really dark, and just piled on tables everywhere were random disgusting things, I hardly wanted to take out my camera to have it around that....but the people were awesome, trying to sell us these disgusting things as a joke, because obviously we were not there to buy...intestines? The Gambians definitely had a good sense of humor. Once, Bob (who I have mentioned before) said something like 'you all right?' but with their accent I decided to misinterpret it to make a joke and said 'did you just call us all white?' and he was so shocked and then laughing a lot, but they were almost making jokes about our whiteness and how to get BLACK AS EVER like them so figured I'd join in!
Before I go to bed (and tomorrow I'll have to load some photos) I will also mention this monkey walk we did once - went to the national park where the signs are all 'don't take peanuts' but our guide of course brought peanuts for us, and suddenly monkeys are everywhere, including jumping out of trees onto my back. It was amazing, it was magical, earlier we had petted crocodiles, oh and our guide let us know that basically everyone in The Gambia believes in pretty insane powers of ....herbs and stuff. The would go on and on about how the president had found the cure for AIDS, don't you know? And so many other cures just from each leave on every plant, and also a lot of people wore these Juju belts I think, and seriously the guide for crocodile and monkey day literally thought that if I were to take a knife and stab him, his skin would NOT be pierced. He also told us the story of his circumcision. Seriously the things you don't want to know, yay cultural differences! Alllways makes for an interesting time.
I'm thinking Senegal stories and .... pictures tomorrow. Sleeep tiiiime! :)
(then about a week passed before I finished this - seriously, how did I get so busy! I thought I didn't ACTUALLY have to do schoolwork here...if only Purdue didn't take the actual grades and it was just a pass fail...)
So, Africa, where should I even begin? I love it, I hardly got bit by mosquitoes. Apparently it's not the season for that so I'm glad I didn't bother with malaria pills! Especially since they were 1000 kr....Wow this is difficult when I wait for so long!
Besides amaaazing food (a lot of peanut sauces as they farm peanuts, rice, and fish), the Gambians themselves were entirely interesting. They did not hold back on asking for money, which was the only annoyance of the trip. Here is how it would be - we would say 'how far is the walk to the ATM? and the taxi controller man would say 'its impossible to walk, you need a taxi, will take two hours at least' and refuse to tell us the directions. Then KEVIN (this guy who tried to get us everrryyy day to go on some Senegalese official tour with him) would pop up, guilt us with things like "i waited for you guys yesterday, thought you said you would meet me at 6 (which we never said), and as soon as he heard we were just going to walk somewhere he would tell us 'oh, you need a guide for that, come, i'll get you one', then when we said no he'd say, no you cant walk that far ever, you need a taxi'. Often we would just leave and walk. Turns out it was a nice 30 minute walk! But even on the way there some Gambian followed us the whole way trying to get us to eat at this place or that, and then wanted us to guy him dinner? I really became ruthless in The Gambia, just a rude white woman!
You can really get yourself in some random and epic adventures walking around. Once this man was all "hey, let me show you this, come come,' and as we were sort of just wonderful AND as I am traveling with a 6'5" white guy (yay intimidation factor) we decided we'd see what he had to show us, and turned out it was the poorest place I have even seen in my life, and definitely the dirtiest. It had a ridiculously high orphan population and was just so....touching, especially when all the kids would come and go 'tobak, tobak!' (white person), and touch you and just go on in whatever language they spoke. You have to ask a lot before taking photos of people's extreme poverty as well, but generally after asking them they were OK. The kids though...the kids just break your heart, you want to do anything for them, especially to get them from growing up and turning into the swindling tourist guys. This particular village sometimes has peace corps volunteers, which to most of the people I met on this African adventure was the only type of American and had ever seen. However I wonder what they did there because it was still sooo poor, just building these mud huts that would be ruined in the monsoon season...I dunno. This village also had an amazing trash dump...everywhere. Of just...pieces of cloth and bras (? weird I remember stepping on a few), and just paper...yeah...I'll have to put up some photos on here.
Lets see what else did we do....we went to markets in both Banjul the capital (such an amazing CAPITAL, I mean, I think Mt. Vernon is small and behind the times, this really puts you in your place!), and ...something that begins with an S...Serre Kunda! which were supposed to be the biggest markets in The Gambia. The ones in Banjul were super fun due to the fact that they had all the tourist stuff, so the necklaces and wraps everyone wears, all sorts of paintings and wooden things, and you could bargain like MAD. In fact i often just said horrendously low prices because i wanted to let them know i wouldn't buy it and they would go 'ok :( you're my first customer, i have to sell it'. also apparently I am related to lots of dark complected people. Sister, sister come here, take this necklace for free, (which I did, thank you....person whose name I forgot.. I now only remember Fatima the fruit lady!)....but yeah. I bought so much stuff there and it was probably all less than 10 USD. The Dalasi is a high currency though (I possibly just made up that term), so I'd be slightly alarmed when things would be 100 Dalasi, because I'd think, 20 dollars, no way! acting like it was the Kroner, when in fact it was more like three dollars....hehe...or the amazing ice cream we got in the Serre Kunda markets for 25 cents...
Speaking of those markets, those were not for tourists. Seriously, Daniel and I were often the only white people in sight. Also its difficult to really bargain there, our taxi driver came with us and we would give him money so he would get us Gambian prices....but I mean, we do have so much money compared to them and it's...obvious, we simply cannot blend end.
Serre Kunda was this endless array of market food and ... crappy clothes....for example, I saw a kid wearing a Dairy Queen polo, like a workers polo. Something I couldn't even buy at home. Very interesting...but they sell it all and they at least didn't try to sell us a lot of that stuff because tourists just go their to look...And its just like you would think African markets would be like - insanely colorful, loud, music everywhere, people EVERYWHERE, busy like you can't imagine and we were on the least busy day....just amazing, I loved wandering the markets for sure. Our young taxi driver took us to the black markets too, where things that were stolen were being sold and we were given fishy looks...I think I also saw some prostitutes while I was there...but not sure, wasn't about to ask! And then at the end he took us to this 'slaughter house'. Was that ever a food science NO. I seriously don't know how I didn't vomit - it's almost as though the smell and the sights were actually that bad your body couldn't even register how gross it was. heads of animals just on the ground, everything is outside so flies are everywhere, but it was in this open walled barn sort of thing and really dark, and just piled on tables everywhere were random disgusting things, I hardly wanted to take out my camera to have it around that....but the people were awesome, trying to sell us these disgusting things as a joke, because obviously we were not there to buy...intestines? The Gambians definitely had a good sense of humor. Once, Bob (who I have mentioned before) said something like 'you all right?' but with their accent I decided to misinterpret it to make a joke and said 'did you just call us all white?' and he was so shocked and then laughing a lot, but they were almost making jokes about our whiteness and how to get BLACK AS EVER like them so figured I'd join in!
Before I go to bed (and tomorrow I'll have to load some photos) I will also mention this monkey walk we did once - went to the national park where the signs are all 'don't take peanuts' but our guide of course brought peanuts for us, and suddenly monkeys are everywhere, including jumping out of trees onto my back. It was amazing, it was magical, earlier we had petted crocodiles, oh and our guide let us know that basically everyone in The Gambia believes in pretty insane powers of ....herbs and stuff. The would go on and on about how the president had found the cure for AIDS, don't you know? And so many other cures just from each leave on every plant, and also a lot of people wore these Juju belts I think, and seriously the guide for crocodile and monkey day literally thought that if I were to take a knife and stab him, his skin would NOT be pierced. He also told us the story of his circumcision. Seriously the things you don't want to know, yay cultural differences! Alllways makes for an interesting time.
I'm thinking Senegal stories and .... pictures tomorrow. Sleeep tiiiime! :)
Saturday, April 17, 2010
No really...do you smell that? Is this a ... massive joke?
Alright. Let me just set the scene here.
2 weekends ago at a friend's birthday party in Tietgen, this intense party dorm where everything insane seems to always be happening (Brazilian men sunbaking in the nude - Gross!). Lots of people here celebrating and also just doing normal weekend drinking, not really sure if it was all for the birthday or not or just a pre-party for the dorm party downstairs.
Anyways, people will sadly have to remain nameless. :( Only I will know their true identities...
So, noticed one person at the party smelling especially rank, just, hadn't showered for awhile it seems, I mean ok, we're all busy alright I can get over it. Just when the arms would be raised around me I would think, you know, for being a girl, it's amazing to smell this body odor wafting towards me...not SO bad though that it's like walking past the boys locker room in high school - Puha! (Danish, and funny)
Party progresses. Cake is given. etc.
French man comes over, compliments said rank girl ON HER PERFUME! I am standing in this talking threesome, thinking, WHAT! This still blow my mind. The girl insists there is no perfume, it's body wash, she doesn't even have perfume here. He insists is perfume, smells her closer, agrees with himself, she is giggling and laughing, 'No really, it's just body wash!' And then after further arguing, he taps his nose and says 'I have a French nose, I know a good perfume when I smell one,' and that is the end.
Meanwhile I am standing there just dying to know if this is a joke or not, or can he not smell? or....are all of our stereotypes about the French actually true haha - that they don't bathe and therefore smell bad? Oh if I could've just entered this man's brain...I still want to know so bad if he didn't like her smell or not, or if he's just insane...ahh!
End result - I suppose the French do not bathe after all... Kidding, but stereotypes can be fun :)
2 weekends ago at a friend's birthday party in Tietgen, this intense party dorm where everything insane seems to always be happening (Brazilian men sunbaking in the nude - Gross!). Lots of people here celebrating and also just doing normal weekend drinking, not really sure if it was all for the birthday or not or just a pre-party for the dorm party downstairs.
Anyways, people will sadly have to remain nameless. :( Only I will know their true identities...
So, noticed one person at the party smelling especially rank, just, hadn't showered for awhile it seems, I mean ok, we're all busy alright I can get over it. Just when the arms would be raised around me I would think, you know, for being a girl, it's amazing to smell this body odor wafting towards me...not SO bad though that it's like walking past the boys locker room in high school - Puha! (Danish, and funny)
Party progresses. Cake is given. etc.
French man comes over, compliments said rank girl ON HER PERFUME! I am standing in this talking threesome, thinking, WHAT! This still blow my mind. The girl insists there is no perfume, it's body wash, she doesn't even have perfume here. He insists is perfume, smells her closer, agrees with himself, she is giggling and laughing, 'No really, it's just body wash!' And then after further arguing, he taps his nose and says 'I have a French nose, I know a good perfume when I smell one,' and that is the end.
Meanwhile I am standing there just dying to know if this is a joke or not, or can he not smell? or....are all of our stereotypes about the French actually true haha - that they don't bathe and therefore smell bad? Oh if I could've just entered this man's brain...I still want to know so bad if he didn't like her smell or not, or if he's just insane...ahh!
End result - I suppose the French do not bathe after all... Kidding, but stereotypes can be fun :)
Happy Birthday Queen!!! (a day late now)
As I have epically been failing and updating my blog regularly, I have decided to make most of today a slew of various blog posts, still probably leaving out Paris, Senegal, and The Gambian adventures, as those will be easier to remember later, and some verrry interesting things have been happening in my everyday life.
And then somehow I managed to not finish writing or posting this allllll yesterday, though what did I do yesterday? I cooked amazing food...and went bartending! That's right, turning a new page in my book. It's not paid but it's really nice, I'll be doing it next Friday as well. Another bonus of volunteer bartending at Studenthuset (student house, but everyone goes there), anyways, you don't get to keep your tips, (well you're not supposed to), and you just put them up in this tip umbrella. So! this being said - when middle-aged guys sit next to the bar apparently to chat you up when you are making people drinks etc, I don't feel it necessary to stay there and chat longer or stay over there for any extra moment at all, because I don't even want a tip, it's not for me, hehehheehe...And also, it's just strange...but the two olderish men seemed happy enough sitting there. People are just weird. But interesting...
Other than that, I enjoy having a pretend job. I don't think I speak enough Danish to get a real job yet, (however my Danish is improving SO MUCH, I spoke so much last night I am just falling in LOVE with it), anyways, working here is just so good! You meet so many people, you get free drinks the whole time, have an after party with tons of free food, and get free drinks when you're not even working (I have 9 left yay!), so yeah, sort of like money...in alcohol? But hey I'm a student, that's good enough! (sort of)
Interesting events from last night -
So apparently people here don't take home food a lot for leftovers. Frugal me decided, hey, I'll take this giant half burger home, lunch for tomorrow, and meat! (meat is expensive so meat is AWESOME WHEN I GET TO HAVE IT, saying this I do try to have meat everyday still and probably mostly do...not today yet) But then, I am RIDICULED! By this Dane named Davey sitting next to me, 'oh you put your burger in your BAG, you take your BAG home, why do you do that!' Ahh I can mock Danish accents now by the way, it's so much fun :) So after saying 1. I am poor 2. I want to eat this later 3. It is delicious and look at that meat! I go about my business, chatting with other people, and then suddenly he's nudging me going 'I'm eating your BURGer, I took the BAG from the ground and now I am just EATing it, just wanted you to KNOw" and while I am sad, because there goes my food, there is not much I can do, and it's pretty messy therefore amusing to watch. After somewhat lamenting and pitying myself and my lost burger - oh by the way, the random capital letters are to try to put the strange Danish accent in there, but I'll probably just have to tell you in real life sometime - anyyywayys, then Davy cant FINISH the burger. Ohhhh, and DID I just learn how to insult people in Danish? And by learn I don't mean in class, I mean self taught/making Danish friends telling me if I'm doing it right...hehehe
So the things I end up saying are something like this ' Du er en mand, ikke?' "Er du en mand!" Er du en KVINDE?" Spiser det nå! and then in succession of pointing to the burger, his mouth, and his stomach "Mad. Spiser. Maven"
All of this translates roughly into, 'you are a man are you not? are you a man? are you a woman!? eat that now! ' food. eat. stomach." I can really do a lot of harm with my limited vocabulary and I loooove it. As he ended up getting drunkenly offended/sad at my ridiculing, he had to give up and say 'Ja, ja jeg er en kvinde' (I believe I then asked if he was a little girl, en lille piga, and he just looked down sadly, but then I saved it all by saying I was sorry for everything 'Undskyld for alt", and now we are friends :)
Basically, I LOVE DANISH. I just adore learning languages...I like to tell people they are human beings - Du er et menneske!" It's just amusing...there are so many things I like to say. When we were learning how to say 'do you have a __ I can borrow for a moment/ til the morning" and "do you have ___ I can have", everytime there was an option of saying borrow or have, I'd just ask to have it in the set up dialogs we use in class. 'Har du et Dankort jeg må få?' and then the person would have to say something like 'of course' or 'yes, here you go', when I just asked for a credit card of theirs to have...hehehe...the simple pleasures...
Unfortunately (desvarre is unfortunately I think), this is exactly how I learned Spanish, poor Sra Madden having to put up with me all the time! It's just...easier to learn when you make it funny. Though a lot of Danes will go 'what ... what did you say it like that for, no one says it like that Laura... such as when I say 'det var så latterligt lidt' for 'it was so ridiculously little' when someone says thanks to me - I like to say ridiculously, because people will say tak for something like, sheesh, you just say tak for everything, and I like to mix things up. Anyyyywayyyys...
Well not I don't really know what else happened at the bar. It was just awesome and nice. Met a girl from Georgia the state, Columbians, cool Dutch people, just so much friendliness! :) And in other news before I post this - I also desperately want to buy a bike! Everyone here just bikes so I'm going to go to an auction and try to get a crappy one for just a few hundred Kroner...It will just help me really get to know the city and ahh I like biking! Everyone here bikes!
Oh yeah, and it was the Queens birthday yesterday so that was on all the channels, she is older, pretty, and waves a lot. And then Danish people sing songs in Danish and it sounds weird. hehe :)
And then somehow I managed to not finish writing or posting this allllll yesterday, though what did I do yesterday? I cooked amazing food...and went bartending! That's right, turning a new page in my book. It's not paid but it's really nice, I'll be doing it next Friday as well. Another bonus of volunteer bartending at Studenthuset (student house, but everyone goes there), anyways, you don't get to keep your tips, (well you're not supposed to), and you just put them up in this tip umbrella. So! this being said - when middle-aged guys sit next to the bar apparently to chat you up when you are making people drinks etc, I don't feel it necessary to stay there and chat longer or stay over there for any extra moment at all, because I don't even want a tip, it's not for me, hehehheehe...And also, it's just strange...but the two olderish men seemed happy enough sitting there. People are just weird. But interesting...
Other than that, I enjoy having a pretend job. I don't think I speak enough Danish to get a real job yet, (however my Danish is improving SO MUCH, I spoke so much last night I am just falling in LOVE with it), anyways, working here is just so good! You meet so many people, you get free drinks the whole time, have an after party with tons of free food, and get free drinks when you're not even working (I have 9 left yay!), so yeah, sort of like money...in alcohol? But hey I'm a student, that's good enough! (sort of)
Interesting events from last night -
So apparently people here don't take home food a lot for leftovers. Frugal me decided, hey, I'll take this giant half burger home, lunch for tomorrow, and meat! (meat is expensive so meat is AWESOME WHEN I GET TO HAVE IT, saying this I do try to have meat everyday still and probably mostly do...not today yet) But then, I am RIDICULED! By this Dane named Davey sitting next to me, 'oh you put your burger in your BAG, you take your BAG home, why do you do that!' Ahh I can mock Danish accents now by the way, it's so much fun :) So after saying 1. I am poor 2. I want to eat this later 3. It is delicious and look at that meat! I go about my business, chatting with other people, and then suddenly he's nudging me going 'I'm eating your BURGer, I took the BAG from the ground and now I am just EATing it, just wanted you to KNOw" and while I am sad, because there goes my food, there is not much I can do, and it's pretty messy therefore amusing to watch. After somewhat lamenting and pitying myself and my lost burger - oh by the way, the random capital letters are to try to put the strange Danish accent in there, but I'll probably just have to tell you in real life sometime - anyyywayys, then Davy cant FINISH the burger. Ohhhh, and DID I just learn how to insult people in Danish? And by learn I don't mean in class, I mean self taught/making Danish friends telling me if I'm doing it right...hehehe
So the things I end up saying are something like this ' Du er en mand, ikke?' "Er du en mand!" Er du en KVINDE?" Spiser det nå! and then in succession of pointing to the burger, his mouth, and his stomach "Mad. Spiser. Maven"
All of this translates roughly into, 'you are a man are you not? are you a man? are you a woman!? eat that now! ' food. eat. stomach." I can really do a lot of harm with my limited vocabulary and I loooove it. As he ended up getting drunkenly offended/sad at my ridiculing, he had to give up and say 'Ja, ja jeg er en kvinde' (I believe I then asked if he was a little girl, en lille piga, and he just looked down sadly, but then I saved it all by saying I was sorry for everything 'Undskyld for alt", and now we are friends :)
Basically, I LOVE DANISH. I just adore learning languages...I like to tell people they are human beings - Du er et menneske!" It's just amusing...there are so many things I like to say. When we were learning how to say 'do you have a __ I can borrow for a moment/ til the morning" and "do you have ___ I can have", everytime there was an option of saying borrow or have, I'd just ask to have it in the set up dialogs we use in class. 'Har du et Dankort jeg må få?' and then the person would have to say something like 'of course' or 'yes, here you go', when I just asked for a credit card of theirs to have...hehehe...the simple pleasures...
Unfortunately (desvarre is unfortunately I think), this is exactly how I learned Spanish, poor Sra Madden having to put up with me all the time! It's just...easier to learn when you make it funny. Though a lot of Danes will go 'what ... what did you say it like that for, no one says it like that Laura... such as when I say 'det var så latterligt lidt' for 'it was so ridiculously little' when someone says thanks to me - I like to say ridiculously, because people will say tak for something like, sheesh, you just say tak for everything, and I like to mix things up. Anyyyywayyyys...
Well not I don't really know what else happened at the bar. It was just awesome and nice. Met a girl from Georgia the state, Columbians, cool Dutch people, just so much friendliness! :) And in other news before I post this - I also desperately want to buy a bike! Everyone here just bikes so I'm going to go to an auction and try to get a crappy one for just a few hundred Kroner...It will just help me really get to know the city and ahh I like biking! Everyone here bikes!
Oh yeah, and it was the Queens birthday yesterday so that was on all the channels, she is older, pretty, and waves a lot. And then Danish people sing songs in Danish and it sounds weird. hehe :)
Sunday, March 28, 2010
A lost camera found by all of The Gambia
This will be a little post about a trip we made to Banjul to see the markets in the capital :)
The green taxis are 'tourist taxis', which insure the tourist and not just the locals like the yellow taxis. I sort of thought it was a bit of a rip-off since they generally made you pay a bit more (so maybe 4 dollars instead of 2), but then they actually do have a point - after the first day I left my camera in a green taxi apparently, and didn't realize until the next morning. When we left that morning to go see if we could shake hands with some crocodiles I told the taxi people, and they called the taxi I had been in (I had Abdoulie's business card along with SO MANY OTHER PEOPLE'S business cards, everyone wants you to call them and they will help you later, more money for them! sometimes the business cards were other people's cards, but with numbers and names crossed out and written in pen elsewhere)....
Lost train of thought there. So I had left my camera and reported it right? After I told taxi people, they called and Abdoulie came back later and checked his car and well, basically the next day the taxi controller who stood outside our resort came up to me, said 'hey, when you lose things, you come to me' then pulled my lovely camera out of his pocket, and I became the happiest person in the world :) :) :) BUT super weirdly for the rest of the trip random taxi drivers and tour guides would come up to me and tell me how they helped me find my camera, how nice of them, and so I thanked I feel AT LEAST 20 people for their very important help, and didn't give anyone money for helping me. I also am still under the impression that the only people who were really involved was the driver, who I also say later and heartily thanked, the main taxi guy, and maybe the guy who called in the first place for me. Very strange very strange...
Correction. This is no longer a post about the markets in Banjul. Instead that will be tomorrow - apparently the time is changing tonight so I lose an hour and I have a biiig week ahead of me. So posts of The Gambia and Senegal events will be more sporadic and spread out, which will be a nice break from horridly long posts like the London one.
Bonne nuit! :)
The green taxis are 'tourist taxis', which insure the tourist and not just the locals like the yellow taxis. I sort of thought it was a bit of a rip-off since they generally made you pay a bit more (so maybe 4 dollars instead of 2), but then they actually do have a point - after the first day I left my camera in a green taxi apparently, and didn't realize until the next morning. When we left that morning to go see if we could shake hands with some crocodiles I told the taxi people, and they called the taxi I had been in (I had Abdoulie's business card along with SO MANY OTHER PEOPLE'S business cards, everyone wants you to call them and they will help you later, more money for them! sometimes the business cards were other people's cards, but with numbers and names crossed out and written in pen elsewhere)....
Lost train of thought there. So I had left my camera and reported it right? After I told taxi people, they called and Abdoulie came back later and checked his car and well, basically the next day the taxi controller who stood outside our resort came up to me, said 'hey, when you lose things, you come to me' then pulled my lovely camera out of his pocket, and I became the happiest person in the world :) :) :) BUT super weirdly for the rest of the trip random taxi drivers and tour guides would come up to me and tell me how they helped me find my camera, how nice of them, and so I thanked I feel AT LEAST 20 people for their very important help, and didn't give anyone money for helping me. I also am still under the impression that the only people who were really involved was the driver, who I also say later and heartily thanked, the main taxi guy, and maybe the guy who called in the first place for me. Very strange very strange...
Correction. This is no longer a post about the markets in Banjul. Instead that will be tomorrow - apparently the time is changing tonight so I lose an hour and I have a biiig week ahead of me. So posts of The Gambia and Senegal events will be more sporadic and spread out, which will be a nice break from horridly long posts like the London one.
Bonne nuit! :)
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Boss Lady goes to The Gambia!
I am completely in love with Africa/The Motherland, and was in love with it before I even went (the music, insane cultures, languages, animals, enticing danger...). After finally seeing the 'real Africa' (have been to Morocco before but as everyone says, it's not 'Africa'), my love for the Motherland has been confirmed. Here is why.
First let me tell you a little background knowledge on Africa, which I have read in a book that I have called 'Africa' (how many times can I say Africa I wonder...especially before it loses meaning as a word...).
So! The continent of Africa itself is the oldest, and the deepest...remember when you see those little videos of how all the earth plates moved and were all together at the beginning, well, the piece that was Africa never ever moved. Africa also has very few mountains, because unlike the other plates, it's not colliding with itself and wedging one plate over or under another - in fact Africa is EXPANDING, how weird is that! You can see the continent 'stretch marks' somewhere in Ethiopia I think...besides that and random information about giraffes I think I should probably go one with my Gambian tales, oh wait - another interesting point maybe to remember is that, yes we all know Africa in general is underdeveloped, often disease ridden, and just way behind the times, BUT we often fail to realize that for A REALLY LONG TIME people (yes like us dear Americans) went there to take the biggest and strongest MALES (leaders) and make them do menial tasks. So yeah, didn't really help. :)
Anyways after getting a visa and random injections and flying for about 8 hours with a stop in the Grand Canaries (which I had no idea was a part of SPAIN), we arrived in the warmth and haziness that is The Gambia on the west coast of Africa! It was cheaper for us to arrive and not know where we'd say till we got there, and found out we were staying at Kombo Beach, this fancy resort which IRONICALLY I pretended was my address when I was filling out my visa, how coincidental is that!!
First thing besides the body odor we noticed was that EVERYONE wants to help you, everyone wants your money. You know how the 'I'm thinking Arbys' commercials have that hat above their head? It's like we had dollar signs above our heads. And everyone saw that...constantly. What else I have learned is that it would be really good to have planned to have lots of American one dollar bills with me...people definitely like those :) It's in the movies too, and looks so different from ALL the foreign currency I have dealt with so far. Am I becoming slightly sentimental about the American dollars? Yes.
Our resort was sweet with a free huge breakfast and nice pool, right on the beach too. It was interesting how hazy everything was, it wasn't cloudy ever, it's just that the sky was never...clear or blue. Just this amazing African haze that to me was very fitting. Don't know if it's different during the rainy season though. A British guy I talked to told me that in The Gambia they play a game called 'spot the cloud.'
Anyways the first day we really just walked around, got hassled by tons of people to take their tours and rent their bikes etc, also I was called 'Boss Lady' a lot, which will forever remain my favorite nickname I think...the ocean was lovely, the people are deeefinitely friendly, and we ended up meeting the coolest Gambian (part of the Jola tribe when we ate at his restaurant. His name was Bobuka or something like that, we called him Bob, and he was the youngest in his family, which he then told us that everyone with his name is the youngest in their family :) Very interesting, all the eldest children often have the same names too!
I think I will just have to write more later after I study some Danish, there is so much to tell....maybe another one tonight :)
First let me tell you a little background knowledge on Africa, which I have read in a book that I have called 'Africa' (how many times can I say Africa I wonder...especially before it loses meaning as a word...).
So! The continent of Africa itself is the oldest, and the deepest...remember when you see those little videos of how all the earth plates moved and were all together at the beginning, well, the piece that was Africa never ever moved. Africa also has very few mountains, because unlike the other plates, it's not colliding with itself and wedging one plate over or under another - in fact Africa is EXPANDING, how weird is that! You can see the continent 'stretch marks' somewhere in Ethiopia I think...besides that and random information about giraffes I think I should probably go one with my Gambian tales, oh wait - another interesting point maybe to remember is that, yes we all know Africa in general is underdeveloped, often disease ridden, and just way behind the times, BUT we often fail to realize that for A REALLY LONG TIME people (yes like us dear Americans) went there to take the biggest and strongest MALES (leaders) and make them do menial tasks. So yeah, didn't really help. :)
Anyways after getting a visa and random injections and flying for about 8 hours with a stop in the Grand Canaries (which I had no idea was a part of SPAIN), we arrived in the warmth and haziness that is The Gambia on the west coast of Africa! It was cheaper for us to arrive and not know where we'd say till we got there, and found out we were staying at Kombo Beach, this fancy resort which IRONICALLY I pretended was my address when I was filling out my visa, how coincidental is that!!
First thing besides the body odor we noticed was that EVERYONE wants to help you, everyone wants your money. You know how the 'I'm thinking Arbys' commercials have that hat above their head? It's like we had dollar signs above our heads. And everyone saw that...constantly. What else I have learned is that it would be really good to have planned to have lots of American one dollar bills with me...people definitely like those :) It's in the movies too, and looks so different from ALL the foreign currency I have dealt with so far. Am I becoming slightly sentimental about the American dollars? Yes.
Our resort was sweet with a free huge breakfast and nice pool, right on the beach too. It was interesting how hazy everything was, it wasn't cloudy ever, it's just that the sky was never...clear or blue. Just this amazing African haze that to me was very fitting. Don't know if it's different during the rainy season though. A British guy I talked to told me that in The Gambia they play a game called 'spot the cloud.'
Anyways the first day we really just walked around, got hassled by tons of people to take their tours and rent their bikes etc, also I was called 'Boss Lady' a lot, which will forever remain my favorite nickname I think...the ocean was lovely, the people are deeefinitely friendly, and we ended up meeting the coolest Gambian (part of the Jola tribe when we ate at his restaurant. His name was Bobuka or something like that, we called him Bob, and he was the youngest in his family, which he then told us that everyone with his name is the youngest in their family :) Very interesting, all the eldest children often have the same names too!
I think I will just have to write more later after I study some Danish, there is so much to tell....maybe another one tonight :)
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