Kathrine's Going away party

I was staying with my friend Kathrine while in Denmark. On the Friday of my stay, she had a going away party planned since she is returning to China to work for the 2010 Expo as a tour guide. How exciting! The party was at her parents house and they cooked soooo much food. Not to mention that they had all kinds of drinks available. Here are the notes I jotted down at the party so I would remember:

• Beer and wine
• Pizza and pigs in a blanket
• Lots of wine
• wine wine wine
• And a case of Coke

Haha even the Danish friends were laughing about how much her family liked wine.  The crazy part about it though?   I'm pretty sure that I was the only one who got drunk.  I mean I wasn't belligerent drunk, you know the kind of drunk where you think the family dog from next door has pretty hair and you'd like to bark back at it.  Only liquor makes me like that!  But I did try to keep pace with them, and I am a bigger dude (100kg).  It was no use.  Those skinny Danes have a propensity for good food and drink, and enjoying themselves at large gatherings.

I was the only person in the room who didn't speak Danish.  There were a few didn't speak English, and the Danish would often be translated for my benefit.  They all were curious who I was and engaged me in conversation.   I had learned enough Danish to know when they said 'Munich,' 'American,' 'Bobb,' etc, so it was pretty easy to know when I should jump into a conversation.  There were many stories told about Germans (especially from Kathrine's uncle who reminded me of my uncle Butch.)  The party was an amazing time which lasted 12 hours, not including clean up!

Mom, Dad: Kathrine's dad found me in the cellar admiring the wine selection.  He showed me his cool bottle openers and even the dull sword he uses to pop the cork on the sparkling wines.  I told them how you both enjoy a bottle a wine together on a pretty regular basis, and that you often take trips to Vineyards to restock.  Kathrine's dad takes trips to France to buy 100 bottles of wine when they get low...  You've been invited to come meet them if you ever make it to Europe with me!  Maybe they can meet Sally and laugh at our collective American "intolerance."

Am Autobahn!!!

So at the beginning of my Germany adventure was some difficulty.  Kathrine and her dad were nice enough to drive me to Flensburg, GE so I could pick up my rental car.  There was an accident about 45 minutes north of the border and it stopped traffic for 1.5 hours.  Thus we were 1.5 hours late picking up my car.  I had to rebook the rental in Kiel, which was another hour south.  Luckily I still had a ride and after a little while, the keys to an Opal 4-banger were in my hand.

I drove from Kiel to Munich in one day.  There was a bad traffic jam in Hamsburg, so I got off to go look for a German cell phone.  Everything in Germany seems to be closed on Sundays!  I ended up dozing off in a parking deck for a few hours, then hitting the road again.   I had to put 2.5 tanks of gas in the car for the 1000km drive, and my speeds were 160km/h or above when there weren't speed limits.

Yes, that might surprise some of my readers.  There are speed limits on the Autobahn.  They are 80, 100, or 120 km/h depending on the reasons, such as windy bridges, city limits where there is a lot of traffic merging, and construction areas.  The speed limits weren't really enforced as I saw only one police car in my 10 or 12 hours of driving.  It was wonderful- at that point there wasn't a speed limit so I blew past him.  I got paranoid but didn't get chased!  

My car was an economy, small 2 door hatchback.  The speedometer maxed out at 200km/h, yet no matter how hard I tried I couldn't quite reach that speed.  My fastest was ~195.  Even with the expensive gas, this was definitely worth the money for the experience.  I have something to one up my Dad!!!  Even with his gimpy foot, he likes to refer to himself as 'Fast Bob.'  For those of you who don't know, he is a BMW Club Driving Instructor and has taught many people how to drive fast.  I've never had the money to get into the track circuits with him, but now I can say, 'Hahaha I've driven on the Autobahn!'  I called him from the road to let him know that, and my dad gave me a classic quote: "Drive fast and be safe."  :)

Small world connections

I have a short story about a trip to Alabama. I was in Staples to buy photo printer supplies when one of the employees recognized me. We were both students at York Technical College. How weird, I thought. He had moved to Alabama to be with his girlfriend.

Well as life went on, I graduated from YTC and then moved to Houston to be near my fiancee. It didn't work out, and I moved back home 3 months later. Then I moved out of my parents' house and started a full time job at Zobo.tv. One night while sitting at Waffle House, I was reading a book when the guy I saw in Alabama came up to me and said hello. What are the chances of that? His relationship had also ended and he moved back home. Twice we bumped into each other, hundreds of miles apart.

So I was sitting at my friends Jay and Ashlie's house talking about home theaters not too long ago. Ashlie mentioned that Nicole's parents have a theater with the good theater seats and a projector system. Then she tells me that they live in my parent's neighborhood.

What a weird coincidence, I delivered seats to a home theater in the neighborhood a long time ago when I worked for Zobo.tv. As it turns out, I have met Nicole's step-dad when I dropped those chairs off. I haven't seen her to tell her about this yet, but I have thought about dropping by his place to watch some TV. I can't do that for a while though, as I'm in Denmark writing this post.

These sort of co-inky-dinks happen pretty often where I'm from. Our town has a population of around (60,000) so it is pretty small. It doesn't seem to happen that often here since Aarhus has a population of around 300,000 from what the locals tell me.

But there again, while I was in Qingdao, China I ran into some Canadians at the hostel where I was staying. It just so happened that this one cute Canadian girl and her classmates knew a Canadian friend of mine who studied Chinese with me back home.

Its a small world after all...

Danish words I've learned so far

Hai- 'hi'
hai hai- 'bye'
Tak- 'thanks'
De vas a litz- 'you're welcome'
Ro- 'ass'
Skol- 'toast/ prost/ ganbei'
Slagter- 'butcher'
Dansk- 'Danish'
McDonalds- 'McDonalds'
Is- "ice cream"
God- "good"

Neun- "nude"

There's a story about the neun- a german came and asked a Danish girl on a date. She agreed, and he wanted to set the date for 9pm. He asked "kommst du neun?" She was offended and said no. He was confused and asked "Halb neun?" It got worse :)

And of course I can't pronounce any of the words correctly. When I say 'ro' I sound like a dog barking instead saying ass. Damn it lol

Katherine's Bathroom, a video blog from Youtube

My current location

The butcher marked at A is just to the left of Tommy and Gina's apartment.

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Starting back up

Hey all,

This is my first blog post since forever ago.  I've had a couple of thoughts that I've saved as drafts, but right now I want to share some thoughts on Denmark.

I arrived in Aarhus, Denmark yesterday after about 20 hours of traveling.  I'm having a lot of fun so far!  There's nothing terribly special about this small town except that I have some great friends here.  Tommy and Gina have a 7 week old baby girl named Ella.  She's a bit fussy at times but she is cute enough to forgive haha.  Tommy and I walked down to the beach with the stroller while Gina took a nap.  It was pleasant albeit a bit cold.  I should have brought my big jacket!  It will be summer time soon enough, and I was told that I should come back to catch the topless sunbathers.  Its ok though, the Danish reality TV shows make up for it.   Nudity and sexuality is not so taboo as in America.  Its just part of the human experience anyways...

While we were walking and chatting, Tommy told me about an incident in 1997 between the New York police and a Danish actress when she left her 14 month child outside.  She was in a bar for a drink with the baby's daddy who lived in Brooklyn.  Do the googling if you want to find it some info; I would add a link, but so far I've found a bunch of other bloggers who wanted to bash Europeans and say how we do it right in America.  I, on the other hand, I find it to be an interesting cultural difference.  In Denmark, it is very customary to leave babies outside in their strollers to nap it off, even sometimes in the snow.  Its so they can absorb the 'frisch luft' (fresh air.)  Tommy was telling me that the nurse responsible for Ella suggested they buy a baby monitor so they can hear her wake up outside.  This leads to a culture that likes the fresh air, so many restaurants have outdoor seating.  It is also common to see strollers left outside of small shops, such as butchers or boutiques.

Well this is gonna be a short post; I'm still a bit jet lagged and now there's a baby threatening to spit up on me.

OH YEAH, I get to see Katherine tonight too.  I'll add some pics to the blog soon!!!

Hi-jack

Khilid and Racheal are awesome

Shopping around Hartsville

Weekend Trip to Hartsville, SC

This weekend I will be traveling with one of my best friends to Hartsville, SC.  Khilid and I are going to visit our friends Rachael and the Hartsville crew for the weekend.  Its about 1.5 hours to Hartsville where we can hang out at the Midnight Rooster, mosey about Walmart, and probably get some McDonalds.  That's about the extent of the available excitement in 'Small Town,' South Carolina.  Yet with good friends, you can always find a great time!  I'll get into the story about how Khilid and I met the Hartsville kids when he and I get bored over the weekend.  I need his memory for it anyways, haha!  

I definitely remember one part: 

"-get off here! -Ok, which way?  -I dunno, take a left. -Ok"

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Hungry, Thirsty Americans

Today's post is mostly about the pictures. Last night I was shopping with my good buddy, Shawn Donahue. We went to the BiLo near his apartment and bought some beer. I found myself laughing about the huge selection of domestic beer and small selection of imports.

I remember seeing Budweiser in China and hating it. I see it all over the American grocery shelves. The wine selection has become better over the past few years and many grocery stores have "wine cellars" near the beer section. In my state, hard liquor is not legally sold at convenience stores like this. We have "ABC" stores: Alcoholic Beverage Control. Its not like this everywhere in America. Florida has drive-thru liquor stores. But here in the South (as many like to call it, "The Bible Belt,") we're super uptight about controlling alcohol.

Sadly for the longest time, we could not buy alcohol on Sundays. I've had interstate travelers leave my restaurant because they couldn't buy a beer and watch the football game. Only a couple of years ago did a law pass (pushed by the business owners) to allow frosty brews to be sold by restaurants on Sundays. The gas stations and grocery stores still are not allowed, and every Sunday there are ropes or bars closing off the alcohol selections.

I also took pictures of the frozen food section and the deli. The frozen food consists of pizza, microwavable meals (Hot Pockets are amazing, and whole dinners are available too), frozen chopped vegetables, ice cream, frozen drink concentrates, and seafood to name a few. The deli has 'fresh baked bread' available. I say it like this because most of the bread is made elsewhere and delivered daily. Also the deli makes meals and side items to buy and take home for immediate consumption. We Americans like everything fast and now!

The American Experience

My name is Bobb and I live in Rock Hill, SC. I was born at the hospital in the center of town and we lived 10 minutes out of town for the first 16 years of my life. Then we moved into the city; my neighborhood is marked on the map (taken from Google Earth). Rock Hill is about 20 minutes south of Charlotte, NC and has a population of around 70,000.

If you ask anyone local to Rock Hill, generally you fill find that there is never anything to do around here. Kids are always bored and looking for something to do. While I used to feel this way, my experiences in China have taught me to come to that decision a little slower. Rock Hill has only a population of around 70,000.

Within 5 minutes of my house is a movie theater, a mall, a book store, 2 ABC stores (where you go to buy hard liquor), a bowling alley, a few bars, and two interstate on-ramps. It takes about 20 minutes to drive across 'Rock Thrill' and the trip will pass numerous activities of past and present. I have very many memories dotted across this area. Rock Hill is my hometown. I think that I will not miss it while I am gone, but like last time, I will have a new and profound appreciation from home when I return from my semester in Germany.

Thinking Ahead

Its the new year, and its almost time for a new semester. While many American students will be returning to school in a few weeks, I will be attending the Sommersemester in Munich. The Junior Year in Munich program will be my second semester as an American student studying abroad. School will begin in April and end in August, so currently I am in my longest break for this year. My time is being spent hanging out with some of my best friends and enjoying my hometown.

I'm looking forward to my trip. I will be in Europe for almost 6 months, studying, drinking, meeting new friends, being a tourist, learning to be a local, and perfecting my German language skills.

But now is the pre-departure adventure. Upcoming is the tie-dye party, a night out to the Chinese restaurant, Shawn and Emma's wedding, and many more good times with great friends.