England: Part 2

So today I went to the Danish History Museum with Karina and it was so crazy. There were a ton of artifacts from way, way long ago, like 4000BC and they were so much more advanced than I expected. We think we're technologically advanced, they had glass beads and intricately craved axes. These people made the most beautiful red amber jewelry, not what I expected. And we went on a grocery store excursion, I realize this part doesn't sound as super exciting, but I really love Danish grocery shopping. It's just different from the US, there's a super small American section in the store we go to, but everything else is in Danish and not a box of Triscuits in sight. I also just finished making pumpkin bread, it's puffing up in the oven now, Karina has family coming over tomorrow and she requested I make it. Plus, she bought liquid cup measures, I realize this sounds like a cop out, but measuring a bunch of milliliters with a one deciliter measuring cup is quite hard and not at all exact. Anyway, that was today, with a little homework in there  and some lamb for dinner.

I thought I'd give you part 2 of the English journey too. I've decided to do this in 3 parts because its works best that way, considering I went to three different places.

So I was on Wednesday, we arrived in London in the afternoon and went to the London School Economics for a really interesting talk on sustainability. We met with a woman from the London Sustainability Exchange and learnt about what the group is doing to integrate environmental, social, and economic sustainability. It was pretty cool plus we got coffee right before and it was cheap, woohoo! Then we went to the most awesome Indian restaurant for dinner, I'm telling you those Brits do Indian food well. So, so, so good. After that we got some time on out own and went to some local pubs. They closed a lot earlier than they do in Copenhagen, a curfew was a weird concept. Anyway, we had a pretty cool time, sang with some older Irish men and an Italian guy. A pretty cultured night, I'd say.

Chicken curry, all delicious good things.

Megan ogling over our pistachio ice cream with lots of other stuff in it.

We had a super full day on Thursday, the hotel breakfast sucked. We had bread and jam with the world's worst coffee. Oh did I mention the shower water was burning hot, like I turned red and couldn't stand directly under the shower head hot. Oh and you could feel every metal spring that was in the mattress, worst hotel ever. Well we went to Hackney City Farms in the morning, a farming initiative in Hackney, a rough borough in London. There was the largest pig I've ever seen there, and the people there do a ton of work in the community, trying to revive the area but sustainably. After that we went to lunch and had fish and chips. And yes I had some of the fish, but it was actually so battered you couldn't taste the fish; however, I love a good french fry. After that we went to the Tower of London, and had the most amazing tour guide. He was a funny, Scotsman and good lord was he hilarious. We got to walk around after our tour was over and take a look at the crown jewels and a bunch of knights armor. Basically, it was really awesome and historical. We had the evening to ourselves so I walked around with some girls, look a gander at Hyde park and bought a bunch of shortbread cookies, which were gone in about two seconds. Of course, I was feeling like poop from a late night out/a week with my class and had to stay in, but the sleep was terrible because of the shower and springs as mentioned above.

Hackney City Farms.

Residents of Hackney City Farms.

Meet Ginger.

An English classic.

The Scotsman.

The White tower, I think, at the Tower of London.

London Bridge is falling down.

Friday, our last day in London, was also impressive. We got a tour of the Globe Theater, which was awesome I got to sit in the Queen's box and well it was a really awesome place. It's built based on the historical plans after the original burnt down. We also got to go to the Tate Museum of Modern Art because we had some extra time before lunch. Oh and lunch was also amazing, a Turkish restaurant with a ton of appetizers. I was disappointed not getting baclava but what can you do. Then we got to walk through the city, saw the London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster abbey, all the big names. The end of our London stay was at Transport for London to talk to them about what they're doing about making London sustainable for the Olympics. All cool things. Then I saw the class off and headed to Paddington to go visit our family friends. End part 2.

The Globe Theater

The Macbeth for kids set up.

A bunch of ceramic sunflower seeds.

Get good Turkish food here.

Kara and I and Ben

The weird lizard on a bike man.

Even weirder tiger in a basket on a table man.

Big Ben

The London Eye

Westminster Abbey

Telephone booth picture, classic.

England: Part 1

So I've had the most dreadful week, it started out with a cold, I got sick the last days in England, and then had two papers due today and nearly slept through class, even after getting 8 hours of sleep. So here I am finally able to update all of you guys at home with the exciting adventures of Kristina Berg in England. I have so many pictures and things to explain that I have to do this in several installments, plus I want to milk my trip into several posts so you all have more to read. I've heard blog following is quite posh and I wouldn't want to gip you of the fun.

Our trip to England started early early Sunday morning, 6 am at the airport. Pulling myself out of bed at 5 am was the worst, but thank goodness Kara let me sleep over or else it would have started at 3:30 or earlier. We arrived at Heathrow at 9 in the morning and took a ride on an silly backwards bus to Paddington Station. We had lunch way too early in the morning and headed off to Devon on a scenic train ride. It was super long due to construction but the English countryside was to die for, I would recommend everyone vacation there. It's too beautiful to explain and you really just have to go see it. We stayed at the most beautiful "hotel." It was an estate in the countryside and had secret passageways and back doors. It looked onto a vineyard and farm land, it was called the Sharpham Estate. We got there in time for a delicious homemade dinner then went out to a super cute English pub. It was the local, old pub and we ended up taking over the place but it was a good first pub experience.

Any old day at Paddington Station, there were birds flying all over the place too.

Proper English tea.

Our room, it had a fabulous view and cute vintage chairs.

Pumped for England!! And cheaper coffee!

The estate's cows live in those buildings.

The vineyard (you can't see it that well but its there, a couple sheep live over there too)

The estate, nbd.

View of Totnes

Monday was a super packed day; we had homemade jam with our breakfasts and more than enough tea. We sat down to a presentation about Transition Town Totnes, a community run project trying to transition the town from heavy fossil fuel use to more sustainable town. It was pretty freaking cool, they've started their own energy company and a cool project called Transition Streets. The project encourages members of the community to get together to talk about energy issues and provide ways for everyday people to save money and become green. I was super impressed they toured us around some of there pilot project sites and  we went to a green funeral company and a cool mushroom grower guys place. Then we got to have dinner in a local pub, I got a side order of chips just to be super English. And then we ended the night at a different local pub that doubles as a brewery and I of course got a half pint of the local beer, I wasn't about to pass up that unique experience.

Deb leading us through Totnes.

Sea Salt, the cutest shop ever, like Martha's Vineyard back home. I love these/I wanted to be shopping at the Cape.

Dana, a cutie in a red telephone booth.

A tracker in a regular parking space, the usual.

The Mushroom Man!

Mushrooms growing on wood shavings in a bag.

Your everyday castle in the countryside.

Local Beer!

Tuesday was my favorite day in Devon; it started with some more homemade jam. I can't get over that stuff it was delicious and our cook made it right there and raved about how she gets together with friends to make jam. After that, we left for a hike in Dartmoor National Park; it was SOOOO beautiful. The weather was amazing, which is surprising for Western England, the ground was dry, it was sunny, and few clouds in sight. We hiked around on the moor and took a ton of pictures. And of course we had a bit of a lecture about Gaia Theory, but who could turn down a lecture looking onto a valley. There were controlled burns happening across the valley but they just added to the sights. After a couple hours outside, we traveled to the Riverford Organic Farm. On our way there, our bus hit a pole and got stuck teetering on the side of the road, we had to get out and wait for our driver to fix the situation. We nearly had heart attacks, it was a more exciting drive than we'd planned for. OH THE LUNCH WAS SO SO SO SO GOOD! The food was local and we got a pork roast, potato gratin, cauliflower bake, green bean salad, and chocolate hazelnut tarte for dessert. They don't sound as good as they were but believe me they were more than delicious and we were so so stuffed afterwards. We got a brief tour of the farm and then went back to Sharpham. We got to walk around the estate and pretty much went straight to dinner. Vegetarian chili for dinner is fabulous but I didn't need more food after that huge lunch. Anyway, the estate was fabulous, fabulous but we had to leave on Wednesday super early back to London. The views were so beautiful and I'm so glad I got to back at the end of the week.

Views from the moor, it was super super awesome! Beats class indoors!

The controlled burn.

The Riverford Field Kitchen.

Again: most amazing meal ever.

I love organic farms!

River on the estate's property.

View from the "hotel" the morning we left, I don't know why we left.

I am leaving for England tomorrow.

Holy poop, it's already here, I'm leaving for my England sustainability trip tomorrow. I get to go to Devon and London and then on to Westbury to see family friends from Saudi. It's going to be so awesome, except I haven't really packed yet and I leave at 6 am tomorrow morning. I'll have to get over that. Anyway, get excited for some super interesting stuff when I get back.
Anyway, this week was fun, I had a super day today and had a busy week. On Wednesday, I had planned on going to Karina's work but apparently I was stressed from my two papers and test so I needed 11 hours. I know a ton, but she didn't mind and I really needed it, I guess. Then, because I had no study tours, I went shopping for a classy gym bag, I needed it for the next day, and then went to kickboxing. And yes it was terribly hard again, but a little less hard than the previous Wednesday so I can't complain. Then a delicious pasta dish with the family with a ton of carrots in the sauce and study, study, studying was on the agenda after that. On Thursday, I had the busiest day ever! I went from school, then to meeting with a group, then to tutor (which actually didn't happen because of parent teacher conferences which was a super relief because I needed some down time), then to cycling class, then to Dans2Go, a ballet performance at the Royal Theater, and then finally home at 11. I got an awesome pesto sandwich and smoothie at the juice bar on my way to the performance and it was the pick me up I needed to pay attention at the ballet. The performance was super awesome; there was a more classical piece first, a Serenade with 17 women, and then an all men's portion that was danced to Metallica songs. I know don't freak out about the Metallica part, it was actually awesome with cool light effects and they danced in red sand. Oh and I totally killed my test, or at least that's what I think. Friday was Friday, I should have gone out in the city but I really needed to get on my summer job business so I was super lame and sat on my computer all night. It was probably a good thing because Karina and I spent several hours shopping in the city today. I still need to pack and stuff so getting an application out of the way was probably a good idea. Anyway, we shopped around I really wanted to buy some black booties but I couldn't find any that were less than $250 or so a pair and well I'm cheaper than that. And we went to a Raw Foods place for lunch; it was super hippy and the bread wasn't really bread, it was mushed squash in a rectangle. BUT...it was actually delicious, however I think it's stupid to call it a sandwich, it was a salad with toppings and two "slices" of squash mush. Not a sandwich. I'm going to leave after Indian for dinner to Kara's kollegium to spend the night so I don't have to wake up at 3:30 am to trek on over to the airport by myself. I mus go shower and pack now, otherwise Ill never get to England.

The "sandwich" and "lasagna" meal of ours.

The most awesome playground ever with a cute little guy in his onesie snowsuit outfit.

And the website of the show we went to (and it should be the English translated version, but I promise nothing): http://kglteater.dk/Alle_forestillinger/Ballet_10_11/Dans2Go.aspx

Whew.

I know, I know, I'm not so good at posting at a certain point every week but I promise you I have been swamped with work lately. Well swamped enough that in between cool this I'm doing I have to do reading and work. Anyway, so it's Tuesday and last time I reported in it was Wednesday so I have a couple of days I have to account for.

Wednesday: Never take cardio kickboxing at Palm Fitness, holy cow your legs will fall off. It was a miserably hard hour and I made Kara suffer through it with me she's such a good sport. She's opting out of it tomorrow, but of course I can't resist a really, almost embarrassingly hard challenge.

Thursday: School, school, school, oh yeah my midterm. Rocked it. My first grade is down in the books, well she probably hasn't graded it yet but my work is done. That was good, I had to work on a project around Gender Equality in parental leave, it consumed part of my homework over the weekend as well. And I had LAP tutoring and then a super awesome session with the funniest Danish cycling instructor, Kim. So far he's compared cycling to hiking across Burbank Alaska and eating a cupcake, I definitely don't believe the last one. I had to fend for myself for dinner, Rasmus had handball and Karina was in Budapest for the EU's crime prevention conference. Thus it was probably not an interesting meal worth reporting. However, I had the Gender project to work on, my reflection paper for my Gender class to do and a paper on CSR issues in the textile industry to work on. Well I didn't really do much of anything actually, but I wanted to sound studious and productive.

Friday: A super day at school, pretty easy, actually really easy. I then put my time in at Palm Fitness and found two partners to workout with on Fridays. Don't expect too much, the weight machines are funky and we even had issues with one because we have boobs, how unfair. I hope no one was worrying because I did actually do work on Friday; I had planned to hang out with Katie and some friends of hers but the plans just didn't work out. However, Peter and Karina arrived in Copenhagen so I still had a good time. We watched little documentary shows about super brains and memories. It was actually pretty interesting; my favorite was the one in Danish but the study included all Americans or Brits so I got the gist of everything without needing much translation. It's hard to fake understanding Danish when it's neuro jargon.

Saturday: Work done, well some of it. Then handball, handball, handball, probably the most exciting handball game Rasmus has had yet. It was soo close and they won by a point; Karina and I were yelling and jumping in our seats the whole time. Though pretty plain, the day was awesome, basically because of the handball game.

Sunday: I saw Picasso!! Karina, Peter and I went to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and it was awesome. A bit, wayy to crowded but the art was fabulous and they have good museum cafeteria food. We spent most of the day there and had a scenic ride along the coast on our way there. They took me by Peter's childhood church which was really cute and tucked away in the Danish countryside. Little things like driving are super fun and interesting here. And while doing my readings, I had to watch Million Dollar Baby with Karina and Peter (I'm such a good student I know)

Monday: SOO much work, I practically wrote my CSR paper all day long and still stayed up too late finishing it. Of course I had LAP, which was super fun, Natalya joked and played around and we're now facebook friends :) And then cycling with Kim again, he referenced eating a cupcake today, it's not true: cycling is not as easy as eating a cupcake.

Tuesday: So freaking tired, dragged myself to class today and well now I'm plopped on the couch watching TV avoiding studying.

I'm going to Karina's work tomorrow (I think) and shopping/working out with Kara, somewhere in there I have to study for my renewables test on Thursday. I swear I shouldn't have to do work, it's so unfair.

So I don't have any pictures of my at the Louisiana, but I did make sure to hold on to some pamphlets for my scarp booking endeavors.

The church Peter grew up going to

The Danish countryside, Peter's mother's house is out there, it's actually really close to the church.