Hej igen,
Det er mig. I am quite well indeed. Have now started Danish lessons which I attend on a week-daily basis. the lessons are very S.....L....O.....W...................... they just go on and on and on and on....... I'm sure we'll get there in the end though. Some of the people in the class are... interesting. On Friday which was our 2nd day, we had a different teacher who didn't know what we had learnt yet and asked us to call out some Danish phrases that we knew so as he could write them on the blackboard. After he'd already written up a fair few (ie. it was obvious as all hell what we were all doing), someone yelled out "tomorrow never dies!". This evoked little response so he continued to yell it out until the teacher said, "ah, yes - do you know how to say that in Danish?" to which the guy replied, "oh, are we supposed to be saying Danish things?" No no, or course not dear boy, we were just wondering if you'd seen any Bond lately. Smeghead.
So, aside from these so called 'lessons', at Easter time, Colin & I went for a bike ride up to Helsingør (AKA Elsinor) where we saw Hamlet's castle & spent the night at Kristian's parents' house with his sister. The next day we caught the ferry over to Sweden, where we rode around a bit, saw a castle that was built for an old Danish king, ate some tasty sugary/buttery Swedish pastry delights, passed by some porn shops (no, we didn't go in), visited a cemetary that had in its grounds lovely little bunnies hopping around amongst the blue spring flowers & did the grocery shopping (excitement +). We then caught the ferry & softing out of riding again, caught the train home. the little duck 'Twat' rode in Colin's bike basket the whole time whilst the hippo 'Bilbo' was having a culture filled experience in France. Sadly, Bilbo decided to not yet return. Maybe he enjoyed the stinky cheese there too much, who could say.
Well, that's all from me for now.
Vi ses,
Elena.
Monday, March 25, 2002
Hey peoples,
Colin (boyfriend) has now made it to Denmark. He's already given everyone a great impression of Australia by:
a) Not wearing shoes, despite having toenails so disgusting I wouldn't touch them with a 10ft pole and then telling everyone that in Australia, he never wears shoes at all. Apparently 5 degree weather is but a small obstacle - he has to toughen up his feet you see (for what? who knows...)
b) Telling everyone that the national dish of Australia is MEAT - and not nice meat, really ordinary meat such as chops with lots of fat on the side
c) Being passionately and very vocally proud of the fact that it has taken him 7yrs to get his dreads so filthy that they're black (shudder)
d) Telling everyone that all Australians are really lazy
I think that these factors, combined with Colin & I's extra yob performance of 'Advance Australia Fair' contributed to many people's decisions to never visit our beautiful sunburnt country. But such is life.
Yesterday Colin summed up in one statement why he has so much difficulty with the Danish pronunciations when he said "the reason I can't pronounce anything properly is that I can't be bothered to read the whole words - I just look at the beginnings and endings and guess what the middles are going to sound like". Oh Colin.... you are true blue.
Colin (boyfriend) has now made it to Denmark. He's already given everyone a great impression of Australia by:
a) Not wearing shoes, despite having toenails so disgusting I wouldn't touch them with a 10ft pole and then telling everyone that in Australia, he never wears shoes at all. Apparently 5 degree weather is but a small obstacle - he has to toughen up his feet you see (for what? who knows...)
b) Telling everyone that the national dish of Australia is MEAT - and not nice meat, really ordinary meat such as chops with lots of fat on the side
c) Being passionately and very vocally proud of the fact that it has taken him 7yrs to get his dreads so filthy that they're black (shudder)
d) Telling everyone that all Australians are really lazy
I think that these factors, combined with Colin & I's extra yob performance of 'Advance Australia Fair' contributed to many people's decisions to never visit our beautiful sunburnt country. But such is life.
Yesterday Colin summed up in one statement why he has so much difficulty with the Danish pronunciations when he said "the reason I can't pronounce anything properly is that I can't be bothered to read the whole words - I just look at the beginnings and endings and guess what the middles are going to sound like". Oh Colin.... you are true blue.
Monday, March 11, 2002
Hello one and all,
Goddamn............... today the "marathonbar" finally came to an end. It is a great tradition in the bar downstairs - once a year the bar opens for 4 days and all the crazy Danes compete to see who can stay for the entire 72 hours and drink the most beer. They all seem to take it very seriously, with speeches and all -"I would like to thank everyone in my kitchen for helping me to reach this goal. I've drunk a lot of beer over the past 4 days. I truly believe that nothing is good without beer..." and so on. (At least I think that's what they were saying - the transalation may be shady at best). Køkken (kitchen) Q has won the beer drinking contest for a few consecutive years, so when in danger of losing, they hastily bought 6 crates of beer for all to share. First thing in the morning and furthermore, giving all due consideration to the fact that the best beer was about 7.5%, beer makes for much incoherency, resulting in diary entries such as this. Aside from all of this, I have made wehat I seriously believe to be a step up the ladder from ING & will hopefully soon commence a job delivering pamphlets. Fresh air, no office politics... what more could I possibly want? Will also be starting Danish lessons very soon.
Adios.
Goddamn............... today the "marathonbar" finally came to an end. It is a great tradition in the bar downstairs - once a year the bar opens for 4 days and all the crazy Danes compete to see who can stay for the entire 72 hours and drink the most beer. They all seem to take it very seriously, with speeches and all -"I would like to thank everyone in my kitchen for helping me to reach this goal. I've drunk a lot of beer over the past 4 days. I truly believe that nothing is good without beer..." and so on. (At least I think that's what they were saying - the transalation may be shady at best). Køkken (kitchen) Q has won the beer drinking contest for a few consecutive years, so when in danger of losing, they hastily bought 6 crates of beer for all to share. First thing in the morning and furthermore, giving all due consideration to the fact that the best beer was about 7.5%, beer makes for much incoherency, resulting in diary entries such as this. Aside from all of this, I have made wehat I seriously believe to be a step up the ladder from ING & will hopefully soon commence a job delivering pamphlets. Fresh air, no office politics... what more could I possibly want? Will also be starting Danish lessons very soon.
Adios.
Tuesday, February 12, 2002
Hey,
So I've finally made it to Denmark. Here's (in brief) what I have done so far:
Stayed with Lothlorian & Adam in the (terrible) cider making town of Taunton (Loth, did you finish that bottle yet?). The round-a-bout was most exciting though all the pubs closed at 12:30, which left little time for merriment (not that we really felt like drinking warm flat Fosters anyway...).
I then went on to London for 2 nights & stayed there with Hilton's friend. London was nice & I walked around for a while and saw, amongst other things, lots of cute little furry grey squirrels.
Then I flew in to Dublin (thankfully making it in one piece despit technical problems with the aircraft) and went to Galway to stay with Emily. Here I was not even given time to drop my bags off at the house before I was bombarded with pints of guinness from Em's friendly Irish friends (hey, who's complaining though?). Needless to say, the guinness in Ireland was fantastic, though Australian guinness is not so much poorer as many make out. I spent my week and a half or 2 in Galway wandering through the beautiful cobbled streets and eating by day and drinking guinness and bulmers (cider - much better than that of Taunton) by night.
And so, a little tubbier I left on a bus to visit Christina in Wellington county, Wexford. Here I struggled accross the street, a ridiculous sight, having aquired even more luggage, the more uneccessary of items including my beloved coffee plunger (which I had bought in England after a few terrible days of instant coffee) and Em's double doona. Unable to take another step, I collapsed in a lovely room meant for 4 in a B&B. The next day I was met by Christina and her fiance, James. We went back to spend the night at a 21st in the middle of the country (where Chris got outrageously drunk and danced up a storm & insulted & made fun of basically everyone on the dancefloor). After spending the night at James' parents' house, I caught a bus to Dublin the next day.
On my first night here I walked into a pub just around the corner from my hostel and, strangely enough, found myself standing face to face with Julia Mynott, an old friend from Primary & High School. Anyway, the next afternoon we went pubbing together (people in Ireland drink at all times of the day), blah blah blah etc. etc., the next day I caught a plane to London, followed by a plane to Malmo (Sweden), followed by a bust to Copenhagen where I was met by my Dad's cousin, Lilian and her husband, Niels.
I stayed with Lilian & Niels for about a week and then moved into the kollegium in Bagsværd (close to Copenhagen), which is a big block of rooms (intended) for uni students. Somehow I managed to get a room there, which is extremely fortunate as the general waiting period for an appartment here ranges from 1 year to 10 years, generally falling somewhere at the higher end of the scale. People here actually pay money to real Estate agents to have their kids on a waiting list as soon as they are born so that they can go straight to the top of the list when they want to move out in 20 odd years. No joke. Why don't people tell you these things before you arrive in the country??? Anyway, it's all good. Colin arrives soon so he'll have to hide out in my room until June or July - I was extremely lucky to meet someone at the kollegium whose older brother is going to Sydney for about 8 months and has said that we can rent his appartment for that period. So anyone coming to stay with us, if at all possible, schedule it for then or you'll be sleeping on a mattress on the floor of my cosy little dorm room. As for a job, I currently have none. However, being a Danish citizen I am now elligible for government assistance. So for the time being, dole queue, here I come!
Ok, enough of my rambling. For those of you who complained that I didn't tell you what I was doing, here you are: I present you with a small and boring novel. For those of you who were not concerned in the slightest, I am terribly sorry.
So goodbye, from the land of cold and dark,
Elena.
So I've finally made it to Denmark. Here's (in brief) what I have done so far:
Stayed with Lothlorian & Adam in the (terrible) cider making town of Taunton (Loth, did you finish that bottle yet?). The round-a-bout was most exciting though all the pubs closed at 12:30, which left little time for merriment (not that we really felt like drinking warm flat Fosters anyway...).
I then went on to London for 2 nights & stayed there with Hilton's friend. London was nice & I walked around for a while and saw, amongst other things, lots of cute little furry grey squirrels.
Then I flew in to Dublin (thankfully making it in one piece despit technical problems with the aircraft) and went to Galway to stay with Emily. Here I was not even given time to drop my bags off at the house before I was bombarded with pints of guinness from Em's friendly Irish friends (hey, who's complaining though?). Needless to say, the guinness in Ireland was fantastic, though Australian guinness is not so much poorer as many make out. I spent my week and a half or 2 in Galway wandering through the beautiful cobbled streets and eating by day and drinking guinness and bulmers (cider - much better than that of Taunton) by night.
And so, a little tubbier I left on a bus to visit Christina in Wellington county, Wexford. Here I struggled accross the street, a ridiculous sight, having aquired even more luggage, the more uneccessary of items including my beloved coffee plunger (which I had bought in England after a few terrible days of instant coffee) and Em's double doona. Unable to take another step, I collapsed in a lovely room meant for 4 in a B&B. The next day I was met by Christina and her fiance, James. We went back to spend the night at a 21st in the middle of the country (where Chris got outrageously drunk and danced up a storm & insulted & made fun of basically everyone on the dancefloor). After spending the night at James' parents' house, I caught a bus to Dublin the next day.
On my first night here I walked into a pub just around the corner from my hostel and, strangely enough, found myself standing face to face with Julia Mynott, an old friend from Primary & High School. Anyway, the next afternoon we went pubbing together (people in Ireland drink at all times of the day), blah blah blah etc. etc., the next day I caught a plane to London, followed by a plane to Malmo (Sweden), followed by a bust to Copenhagen where I was met by my Dad's cousin, Lilian and her husband, Niels.
I stayed with Lilian & Niels for about a week and then moved into the kollegium in Bagsværd (close to Copenhagen), which is a big block of rooms (intended) for uni students. Somehow I managed to get a room there, which is extremely fortunate as the general waiting period for an appartment here ranges from 1 year to 10 years, generally falling somewhere at the higher end of the scale. People here actually pay money to real Estate agents to have their kids on a waiting list as soon as they are born so that they can go straight to the top of the list when they want to move out in 20 odd years. No joke. Why don't people tell you these things before you arrive in the country??? Anyway, it's all good. Colin arrives soon so he'll have to hide out in my room until June or July - I was extremely lucky to meet someone at the kollegium whose older brother is going to Sydney for about 8 months and has said that we can rent his appartment for that period. So anyone coming to stay with us, if at all possible, schedule it for then or you'll be sleeping on a mattress on the floor of my cosy little dorm room. As for a job, I currently have none. However, being a Danish citizen I am now elligible for government assistance. So for the time being, dole queue, here I come!
Ok, enough of my rambling. For those of you who complained that I didn't tell you what I was doing, here you are: I present you with a small and boring novel. For those of you who were not concerned in the slightest, I am terribly sorry.
So goodbye, from the land of cold and dark,
Elena.
Tuesday, January 01, 2002
Hello all,
Welcome to the first entry in Elena's blog. I'm in Taunton with Lothlorian & Adam. Taunton is not especially exciting. Happy New Year to all & feel free to send me an e mail (euchrideuchrow@yahoo.com.au) and update me on your exciting lives. Tonight Loth & I will be going to the local round-a-bout for New Years - apparently a tradition in this crazy town. Will update you soon when there is any news to tell... Happy holidays.
Elena.
Welcome to the first entry in Elena's blog. I'm in Taunton with Lothlorian & Adam. Taunton is not especially exciting. Happy New Year to all & feel free to send me an e mail (euchrideuchrow@yahoo.com.au) and update me on your exciting lives. Tonight Loth & I will be going to the local round-a-bout for New Years - apparently a tradition in this crazy town. Will update you soon when there is any news to tell... Happy holidays.
Elena.
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