Back to the daily grind!

Not much has happened the past couple days (well, I guess stuff has happened but not much compared to last week). Monday I spent all day writing in this blog (this is not hyperbole, think about how long it took you to read that post and then think about how long it took to write!) and then all night skyping with my lovely parents!

Tuesday was back to school which was very strange but good! I almost fell asleep in my first class but thankfully a stimulating lecture on the echolocation of odontocetes (toothed whales, includes dolphins and porpoises) kept me awake (in case you missed that, that was a little Danish sarcasm). But, after a slow first class, I saw all of my friends in Danish class and the day picked up! Tuesday is my late day so I was in class until 5:15 but I got my philosophy midterm back (the one that I was FREAKING about) and I got an A (and I beat my friend from Williams which makes me happy because I'm secretly jealous of his school)!!!

After class I went home and had dinner with my host family (spaghetti with mussels - we eat that quite a bit) and then met up with my friends from Germany (not actual people from Germany, but the people I traveled to Germany with) for 20 kroner beer night (20 kroner is $4 and the absolute cheapest beer you will ever find in all of Denmark - thank your lucky stars that you are in the US and can buy a 30 pack of beer (bad beer but beer nonetheless) for about 10 bucks!). After a hectic manhunt for my friend (also named Katie, got lost on the metro, I had to go find her) we were able to relax at the bar and have "hyggeligt" which is a Danish term for the concept of being with friends/being together/enjoying people's company/etc.

Today, I was riding the train home (I stayed in my friend Amanda's Kollegium (dorm) the night before because my train stops running pretty early in the night on weekdays but because she lives closer to the city she can get a later train) and I was about 3 stops from my house when the conductor came around to check everyone's pass. This is a pretty routine thing so I showed him my train pass and he moved on. HOWEVER, he came back about 5 minutes later (my stop was the next) and asked to see my pass again. I thought this was a little strange but I showed it to him anyway. He looked at my pass and proceeded to tell me that I didn't have enough zones on my pass (like many train systems, Copenhagen and the surrounding areas are split up into different "zones" and you pay to ride the train through certain zones)! I told him that he must be mistaken, and that I ride the same train line every single day to and from this stop. By this time we were at my stop so we got off the train so he could write me a ticket. While he was writing the ticket the other conductor showed me how indeed my pass had the wrong zones on it and I've been riding the train illegally to my stop since the beginning of January (I haven't gotten caught before this because I have all of the correct zones leading up to my stop so I literally just need that extra last zone to go from my stop to the next stop before it and I've never had my pass checked so close to home). At this point I was pretty freaked but they told me that clearly whoever issued my pass at the transportation center just made a mistake (I need zone 52, they gave me zone 51) and if I go talk to them I can probably get out of the ticket (thank goodness that Danish guys love American Damsels in distress!). So, hopefully it will all work out, but a $150 fine for someone else's mistake is no way to start the day!

After my train incident I went home, had breakfast, then went to the gym (good stress reliever). After the gym I came home and did homework pretty much all day (unfortunately the big papers and midterms are starting to pop up). Anne is in Iceland on business, Henrik had soccer practice, and Peter worked late then went to spinning class so it was just me for most of the night but when Henrik got home we ate leftovers and watched a show about these crazy Australians that climbed Mt. Everest (sure the tops of mountains are cool, the view is probably fantastic, but honestly, you'd have to be crazy to want to do that!).

Tomorrow is kind of up in the air, I have one class in the morning and then I'm going to go and try and deal with my train pass (I have fake tears ready and waiting). Then, depending on how I feel, I might either come back home and do more homework or possibly go to see the crown jewels in Rosenborg Castle which is right in downtown Copenhagen.

Food Log:

Breakfast: toast and jam

Lunch: ham sandwich, and Toblerone

Dinner: spaghetti with mussels and stir-fry chicken (leftovers)