Happy Thanksgiving! / Helsingor, Denmark pictures!

Hey All- Happy Thanksgiving! I know its a bit early back home, but still...I'm tryin to get in the mood since the Swedes don't celebrate it! My friend Ghazal and I organized a big Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow with a bunch of the UC kids and a few others...its going to be potluck style so everyone will be bringing things. We expect around 30 or so! Ghazal & I are waking up to the early task of cooking a turkey (among other things...). Saturday we have the official EAP Thanksgiving dinner as organized by the EAP program. It will be held at the Grand Hotel here in Lund so it should be pretty fun!

After this dinner later tonight I really gotta get workin' on a 10 page paper on the democratization of Czechoslovakia due Monday. I've put it off for awhile and it's time to face the music. In other class related news, I dropped my Human Rights course today since it has continued to overlap with another class and would be too much work. That leaves me with 4 total classes I would have completed here which is still probably 1 more than I will be able to use back home. Last Friday I presented a short powerpoint in my Global Environmental Justice class on the consequences of climate change in Bolivia. This coming Wednesday, for the same class, we have organized into groups to simulate the COP-15 (climate change) Conference that will be happening in Copenhagen, December 7-18. It is going to be a big event that President Obama will be attending around the 9th. I am part of a group representing OPEC (oil-producing countries) so that will be quite interesting. For my Scandinavian Models of Equality class I will be taking part in a seminar with my group on December 8th when we explore the debates surrounding assistant reproduction when it comes to infertile and lesbian women. Another interesting topic. I will also be writing a research paper for the class on a similar topic, comparing the various views of Sweden and the United States.

Last Saturday I went with my friends Ming & Sara to visit Helsingor, Denmark and Hamlet's Castle. We began by spending some time in Helsingborg (Sweden) at a bakery we had been to before. They have the best princess cake there, which for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, is pretty much the best dessert ever! From there we took the 25 minute ferry across to Denmark where we spent a couple hours. Below are some pictures from our day (in no particular order).

Time is sure flying by. I am approaching the 4 month mark of my stay, meaning I only have 1 more month to go. I return January 5th. Sweden has been amazing and so have the other countries I have been able to visit. It looks like my friends and I have one more trip planned. In December we will travel to Barcelona & Madrid, Spain and Marrakesh, Morocco and then I will continue a few days and visit a friend in Granada, Spain before heading over to Milan and Rome, Italy! More info on this to come later...goodnight everyone and Happy Thanksgiving!

The Helsingborg (Sweden) City Hall building with a cool statue in front!

Hamlet's Castle in Helsingør, Denmark! Also known as Kronborg Castle.

Helsingborg, Sweden at sunset.

Part of the moat surrounding Kronborg Castle.

Sara & I on top of Helsingborg Castle.

On top of Helsingborg Castle with a view of the city behind me.

The amazing princess cake! It's sooooooooo good!

Part of the moat surrounding Kronborg Castle...its so colorful!

Despite the cranes, this picture of the sunset in Helsingor is still nice!

We found this cool orange-colored building outside the castle in Denmark!

With Ming & Sara outside Kronborg Castle in Helsingor, Denmark. You can see Sweden in the background.

Kronborg ("Hamlet's") Castle! Some birds had just landed in the water causing those cool lookin' ripples!

With Sara & Ming outside Kronborg Castle.

On the train to Helsingborg!

Helsingborg Pictures!

Took awhile to get these up...it was hard to pick which ones to use here since so many were good, so I just put up a bunch! These are all pictures from Helsingborg, Sweden, which is about a 30 minute train ride north of Lund. Cassandra, Ming, and I went there last Monday, Sept. 14. I wrote more about what we did in the blog entry below this one. I hope you enjoy =)

Me standing in front of an organ inside a historic church in Helsingborg.


Ming & I in front of the Helsingborg Castle!

Ming & I in front of an awesome fountain in Helsingborg Castle.


Ming, Cassandra, & I on the top of Helsingborg Castle with a view of the city behind!


Cassandra & I on the top of the castle with an even better view of the city.


After walking around the main part of Helsingborg, we went to the Sofiero Castle...this was the entrance to the grounds.


Upon entry into Sofiero, we saw this...it couldn't have been a better day! In the distance you can see the castle.


Was just trying to be artsy with this one...behind me is Sofiero Castle, one of the former summer homes of the Swedish Royal Family...awesome place!


A nice scenic shot of a little creek.


Having some fun in the woods outside Sofiero Castle.


Ming & I inside the gardens at Sofiero.


Sitting on the steps behind Sofiero Castle. Down this path aways we came to the Baltic Sea where we could look across and see Hamlet's Castle in Helsingor, Denmark.


The three of us in front of Sofiero Castle. The entrance to the place can be seen towards the back right between the trees.



Cassandra & I having some fun with little kids' hats...


We found a cat and played with it for quite awhile!


Thought this was a pretty cool picture of the cat!!


Amongst the MANY stunning dahlias in the gardens next to Sofiero Castle.

Thought this would be a cool shot...the three of us looking through the "windows" of the garden.


We had a little too much fun...


Ming took this one...a cool B&W shot of the dock and sea.


The three of us in front of the City Hall building in Helsingborg, Sweden.

A final shot of the harbor just before dusk.

Helsingborg & This Past Week

Today Cassandra, Ming, & I went to Helsingborg and had an awesome time! We took the train from Lund around 10:30AM and arrived in Helsingborg around 11:10 or so and began walking around the town. We first checked out this cool castle-like building within the city and walked up to the top of it where we had a nice view of Helsingborg, the Baltic Sea, and Helsingor, Denmark. After we went to a bakery nearby and had some fresh baked desserts...my first "meal" of the day!

We then took the bus to the former summer home of the current Swedish Royal Family. First we toured the home, which was very ordinary compared to the palace in Stockholm. We then took a path down through some trees, along a creek, and to the edge of the sea. This little walk down had some of the best photo opps yet, but there were many more to come! Around 3PM we grabbed a quick lunch at the cafe on the premises and then went to check out the rose garden, where we spent around 2 hours! Here we found some of the best landscaping thus far...all kinds of plants, flowers, roses, dahlias, etc. You name it...and, a cat that we played with for a bit! After we took about 100 pictures amongst the scenery on the three of our cameras we took the bus back to town, visited the city hall building, grabbed dinner at a Korean restaurant, and then took the train back to Lund. Definitely a fun, fun day...pictures to come.

**

This past week since the football game on the 5th has been pretty low key...with a few exceptions. Oh, and its gone incredibly fast! In fact, the first half of this month has just flown by. I've somewhat forgotten what I did this past week, but remember a few things.

At one point Ghazal, Alex, and I took a walk around the whole part of Lund we hadn't seen yet. We went under the bridge near the train station, over to Vildanden (a far away housing complex), and around the train station and back to Sparta. Quite a walk and the first time we had seen that side of Lund since arriving! On the way back, a few Middle Eastern guys pulled over, rolled down their window, and started screaming at us in Swedish...Luckily, I didn't know what they were saying so I felt a bit innocent. Turns out, as Alex later told us, they were telling him to "nicely" take of his shirt which merely showed an Israeli Red Star...no controversial remarks or anything. He said they added some name calling, too. That was a bit scary.

Wednesday afternoon I went over to visit Luise & Ming in Delphi...then went to Willy's (a local grocery store I've been hearing good things about) for the first time! Afterwards, Cassandra and I hit up Krischansta Nation and had dinner with Nora, Anita, Tim, & Alex. Thursday we all met up with Jess and a few others and went to Sydskanska Nation for dinner, a live band, and more music. Pretty fun night, good food, and met some cool Danish girls.

Friday was the crazy one...we had planned for a big party in Parentsen but started off in my corridor once I found out we were having a party the same night. A couple glasses of wine & a cocktail later we headed over to Parentsen. It was quite a raging party! Lots of people, great music, and many new friends. Downside of the night came when we found out some drunk idiot had thrown a glass bottle at Vishnu's face. He had to get a couple of stitches but he's all good now. We all had quite a night, so we just crashed at his place. We woke up the next morning and hit up the flea market outside of his building...cool stuff but you'd mostly only buy the type of things they had if you were living here. Before going back to Sparta we all went to Kalmar Nation and had their brunch which was great for 40 crowns!

Sunday was pretty low key too...met Cassandra and her corridor mate's mentor group for brunch at Hallands Nation....definitely love this place! Low key day after that...came back, took a nap, and then went to the gym later with Melanie. Thought about going to Helsingborg Sunday too but held off, which was a good thing since it began to rain later. At night Ghazal and I visited Jasmine's place in Vildanden to make dinner...had these vegetarian patties that we're pretty darn good and a first for me. Also discussed the travel plans Ghazal's been lookin' into for Poland, Prague, Budapest, Barcelona, and Morocco...so excited! Ohh, then we watched this movie called Prime w/ Meryl Streep...its the one where her son turns out to be dating her patient...after her patient has told her all this stuff about their dating...yeahh, pretty funny. That's it for now...