A Royal Evening.

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen-

In my last blog I forgot to mention my excursion to the ballet! Silly me, how could i forget! So, sit down and I will fill you in.... On Tuesday night, a couple friends and I headed over to The Royal Theater to see a ballet- Don Quixote. The theater is beautiful and the ballet was amazing. It lacked a lot of the Don Quixote story, but the scenery and ballet itself was breathtaking. For those of you who know the story of Don Quixote, he dies at the end- sorry if I ruined it for the rest of you-So, one of the acts is set in Heaven, the backdrop was a beautiful blue with brightly lit stars and the stage was covered in misty white fog- it was by far my favorite scene in the ballet. The acts themselves were quite short, but the Danes like their socializing and drinking- or Hygge- so there were two intermissions so guests could buy their wine. 

Also, Tuesday marked the first- and only- day I have seen snow fall from the Danish

Sky. It only lasted about 15 minutes, lightly covered the ground and soon all melted away. But it was a beautiful site while it lasted.

Overall, Tuesday was a magnificent day!

Important/Exciting News: If you have noticed in the right hand column of my blog there is a New link to my New website! I am super excited about it. I only slept for three hours Wednesday night while putting it together. I've been busy uploading all my photos so those of you without Facebook can view them- plus they are much better quality this way! Also, I have an assignment in which I have to create a blog about my trip to Turkey....so, once I arrive back from Turkey I will be adding this blog to my website as well!

**Please Visit my Website!!!**

Tomorrow I will be busy doing laundry and packing for my three week adventure- Eek , I am so excited! By the time I return my semester in Denmark will be half-way over. I am getting sad to leave, although there are many things I miss about home- esp. Chocolate milk ( Thanks for the Hershey's syrup Mom!)

Well I won't been blogging for the next week, so-  Have a Great week everyone!

About to embark on the Trip(s) of a lifetime-

   Your European Expert, Vicki

A Dream Forest

Hello Far-Away Friends-

     I will soon be embarking on the adventure of a life-time, but this also means that I will be lacking a computer so my communication with the outside world ( all of you lovelies) will be limited/non-existent. Sorry to say- but I don't really care...I'm going to be traveling Europe!! What could be better?!

I have survived my sickness and I am back to a normal level of functioning. I would like to catch you up on some exciting news from this week:

     FIRST- Our wonderful PCD Intern informed us that she was able to have DIS buy us all tickets to see....(drum roll, please.....).....CIRQUE DU SOLEIL in AMSTERDAM!! PCD freakin rocks- it is by far THE BEST program at DIS..mainly thanks to Jenn, our hard working intern. The Cirque Du Soleil I will be seeing is called Varekai-

 "In a Dream Forest, Acrobats and Beauty Meet"

Check it out: (i can't get the link to bring you right to the Varekai section, so you can go to the main website and click on Varekai if you are interested)

• VAREKAI

SECOND, My Group for my PCD- Children in a Multicultural Context class had a paper and presentation due this Monday, which I think I mentioned in a previous blog. Anyways, we did an AMAZING job- as usual. We got everyone in a nice little discussion about our topic, played some clips from the interview and then- thanks to my craft skills- I made an awesome diorama/view box.  Our project was on the Freetown Christniania Kindergarten. Inside this Kindergarten there is an 'Adventure Room'- It is a room used for story-telling and is fully painted floor to ceiling as a magical fantasty land and I re-

created this inside a shoe box...TA DA!!!

THIRD- I got to see my first Hand Ball Match. The other night, Frederikke- My 11yr old Host-sister had a Hand Ball match, and the whole family dragged me along to watch...of course they didn't really have to drag me, I was eager to go! Hand Ball is very similar to basketball...in the sense that you have to dribble and pass a ball- the ball is smaller than a

 basketball, bigger than a soft ball- The players than have to throw the ball into what looks like a hockey net to score. Freddie scored 3 points! I was very impressed.I hope when it gets warmer outside she will teach me how to play. The picture at the right is of Freddie's team playing Hand Ball at the indoor gym. This Gym was also amazing. it was huge. So many rooms with different things going on. My host-dad walked around to say hi to different friends of his. So first we walked around this gym, next to hand ball- there were tennis courts, then at the other side of the gym- there were girls doing gymnastics. We then went into another room where people were doing Karate, and Then we went into yet another room where there is a table tennis club and a bar!! My host-dad said the Table tennis club is fun and cozy because they just sit around and drink beers and then play ping pong. Amazing!

K- I should get started on some work...I have two more papers and one more presentation due this week...but I can't complain because once this week is over I have three whole weeks off to see the world!

Talk to you all soon, Miss you Bunches!

Eagerly awaiting my upcoming adventures,

  Vicki- xoxo

Ketchup.

A photo for Pure Enjoyment

(Miki and I practicing our 'Stink Eye')

Hello folks-

   I am bored- mainly due to a recent cold, but also due to the fact that I am looking for some distractions from my heavy work load- so, I am here to play a bit of Ketchup (Catch-up) with you all. My host-family arrived home today from their vacation. Thank goodness! I was getting mighty lonely and the silence was driving me nuts. I was told that Nicoline was complaining about wanting to go home the whole trip and when she first got here she said how happy she was to be home. I was glad to have her home as well. We played a bit of dress-up, where she did mine and Frederikke's fake make-up, then we had a little tea party, then we ran around the house, and then we sat and watched t.v. while Nico styled my hair. I'm getting better at understanding her- and for the most part, I can get the gist of what shes saying. Usually its just "Come, Vicki" and I follow or "Nej, Vicki", which is 'no'- and in that case I just stick my tongue out at her until she laughs.

This week I was sick and in bed for most of the time. I have been fighting off some sort of sinus infection/flu type sickness. My glands were HUGE and my head felt like a brick. After playing with kids all day at my school on Thursday, I came home around 4PM, immediately passed out and didn't wake up till Noon the next day! I had a great day at my practicum site this week. Usually on Thursdays we go to this Indoor Gym, but this week was different. I got to stay at the school with The Birds- the Kindergarteners. I was told how different the Danish Education Philosophy was from back at home- but the more time I spend at my site, the more similarities I see. This is very comforting. So, on Thursday the kids were learning about emotions. They were specifically learning about fairness- the difference between what is fair and what is not fair, what it feels like and correct ways to act. They also learned about the difference of doing something by accident and on purpose. In order to portray there ideas the pedagogue had several large flash cards with pictures of children on them- portraying different scenarios and feelings, as well as puppets for acting out different events. The Amazing thing is- this Exact system ( pictures, puppets, etc) was used at the Kindergarten I assisted in back in CT! I WAS SO EXCITED!!

This week I also visited a Red Cross Asylum center- for refugees. It was really depressing and is an experience that will have a lasting impact on my life forever. We got to talk to the actual people living at the center, trying to seek asylum in Denmark. For those of you who are not aware- Due to Denmark's most recent government, Immigration is not something the Danes look upon highly. It is near impossible to gain residency in Denmark and Immigrants from any country are not welcome. The main problem is that many asylum seekers are coming from Iraq-because it is currently not safe for many people to live there, especially Christians. Anyways- Denmark will not give these people asylum, but they also won't go back to Iraq and Denmark does not have an agreement with Iraq to send them back- so They get stuck here! I talked to one man who has been stuck in the Asylum center for 7 years. Denmark doesn't allow Asylum seeker to get jobs either, and they are only given about 600DKK every two weeks- Thats about 120dollars. They publish a newspaper about their stories and the hardships of being an asylum seeker. 

• Check it out: Newtimes
  

What stood out the most to me was when asked what they thought of the Danish Immigration system key words used were: Unprofessional, Inhuman, and Disgusting- most seekers claimed they got to Denmark by Bad Luck. It is such a depressing situation.

To get a feel for Denmark's Government, its tactics and ideals- check out this video. You don't have to understand Danish to get the gist of the underlying message...it's scary...

• Dansk Folkeparti Video

 

Also, I am getting more and more nervous about coming back to The States. Please vote for someone who will stop spending money, or who at least someone who knows something about economics! (Hint- spread the word about Ron Paul!) Check this out....(Thanks, Jan. )

• Pizza and Beer..no longer cheap!
  

And, of course- no Blog is complete without photos... unfortunately the 'easy' uploader isn't being so easy at the moment- So i will post them as soon as its working.

Until then....