Goodbyes Are Hard To Handle . . . Physically.

It’s started.  People have begun to pack up and leave Copenhagen.  On my floor, out of ten bedrooms, four lie empty.  It’s eerie to walk by a vacant room.  I’ve become so used to seeing these little rooms with my friends and their belongings inside.  Now each vacant room has resorted back to it’s penitentiary feel. Where as the aftermath of someone leaving is sad, the night before each person leaves we strive to have the best night ever!  So far I’ve experienced three send off evenings. . . which have been fun. . . but it has been a physical challenge as well.  I’m starting to get tired and I still have four nights left.  So far though. . .

German Goodbyes and Birthdays – We’ve determined that birthdays happen 5-7 days earlier in Denmark.  Our German roommate, Philip, has a birthday that falls on December 20th.  Since Philip will already be back in Germany on the 20th we found that is was incredibly convenient that his Danish birthday fell on December 13th.  To celebrate our floor decided to cook a nice holiday meal.  Giulia cooked homemade lasagna, Helena cooked Swedish sausages, T cooked Canadian Maple Syrup Pie, Sarah made some Mashed Potatoes, and Will and I tackled stuffing a couple of chickens.  I’ve never stuffed anything before so it was pretty funny.  We whipped up a great meal to celebrate Christmas, Philip’s Danish Birthday, and our last night with everyone in Copenhagen.  Since our kitchen isn’t big enough for everyone to eat we had to think creatively.  We planned on eating in Giulia’s room because she has a very large bedroom.  We wanted to bring the kitchen table down to her room, but were unable to fit the table down the hallway due to the mental ward width of the long hallways in our building.  Instead we moved my gigantic desk into Giulia’s room and made it look like a fancy restaurant. . . um where you eat on two desks pushed together!  It did look very lovely.  There were candles lit, we turned Giulias bed into a sofa for the “lounge” area, and there were streamers and ornaments hanging.  

The meal was great, everything tasted amazing. . . even my chickens came out well.  I attribute the success of the chickens to the Old Bay.  (Thanks Julie and Melanie!)  After dinner we had a few friends from upstairs down for drinks and dessert in the “lounge and restaurant” of Giulia’s room.  Quickly singing and dancing to Christmas songs took off and before we knew it it was 2:30 am.  A few of us went out for a “nightcap” (although I don’t think you can call it that at 2:30 in the morning) near Kongens Nytorv.  And before I knew it, our German roommate had gone back to Germany.

Canadians Deserve Two Send-Offs – I’ve become quick close with a few of our northern neighbors.  My friend Andrew and my other American friend, Aaron were getting ready for their last night in Copenhagen.  Since Aaron had a final on the morning of his last day in Denmark, he was a bit more hesitant to go out and celebrate.  However, Andrew took quickly to celebrating!  He celebrated with a Gin & Tonic while cleaning and packing.  He continued to celebrate with me in our kitchen over some Polish Vodka.  Then the celebrations moved to my favorite pub, Charlie’s Bar.  When we first arrived it was quite crowded and we could only score a little window ledge to sit and enjoy our beers.  After about 20 minutes, a few people left and we got to move from coach to first class and sit at the bar!  We sat and reflected on the semester and talked about future plans.  As with everyone getting ready to leave, there is always a conversation of our next reunion, where and when.  This held true with my Canadian friend.  Apparently I’m supposed to go to Seattle and then British Columbia next October.  Sounds great. . . hope I have a job by then.  Anyway, we sat and talked for a while and then decided to head home around midnight.  Upon returning to our building we ran into  a group of our French, Italian, and Dutch housemate that were heading out to celebrate.  (The Frenchies were leaving the next day too.)  We were convinced to turn around and head to Trykbar.  At Trykbar the proper sendoff encompassed fooseball and card games.  Eventually we all got tired and decided to head home for real this time.  I said my goodbyes to my new Canadian friends and promised not to make fun of them so much anymore.  I may have even promised to defend the Canadians whenever Americans spoke poorly of them. . . although I think that was the beer talking.  

Dutch Goodbyes are the HARDEST – My roommate Will left today.  Last night is a whole other story. . . so this will have to be continued at a later time. . . I have to attend a Swedish goodbye tonight.

I Never Have To Learn Anything New Again. . .

I’ve been working on my MBA for two and a half years now.  Yesterday I finished.  It’s as simple as that three worded sentence.  I sat for my last exam at 8:00 am, wrote for four hours, finished and handed it in.  When I walked out of the exam room I was partially expecting Ed McMann and the Prize Patrol.  Well, or maybe just something or someone to mark this occasion as momentous.  It was strange to complete something that’s taken so long, cost a lot of money, and so often been the end of many sentences. . . “I wish I could go, but I have school”.  Since Ed McMann and the prize patrol failed to get the memo about my completion of my MBA, I walked off campus and bought myself a cookie to celebrate.  When I got home I found a few of my roommates and coerced them into going to The Malmo for a beer.  The Malmo is a little værtshus (read: dodgy pub where old danish men go to smoke cigarettes and drink beer during the day.) right below my apartment.  We went around 1:00 pm, which is prime time for The Malmo.  We sat in this smoke filled pub and enjoyed our 17 kroner beer.  One of my roommates lifted her glass and made a toast to all of us being done finals and to me for never having to learn anything else ever again.  I’m not sure if she meant to be funny or if the way she translated from Italian just came out that way.*  But nevertheless, it was such a funny toast to make.  

We sat around The Malmo for about an hour and returned to our residence to watch ELF.  Everyone decided it would be good to rest up in the afternoon since we would be going out that night for our Italian roommate’s Danish Birthday (her real birthday is December 23rd, but we’ve decided that birthdays happen a few days earlier in Denmark.) and my Dutch roommate’s last night in Copenhagen.  All in all, the cookie, a beer, and ELF with some foreigners. . . not a bad way to wrap up my MBA.  Maybe I really do know it all now?  

*  I speak of translations this way because my Italian roommate was commenting on how some days she feels like she can’t speak English and other days she can’t speak Italian.  She told me that she was so confused the other day when her phone rang that she couldn’t remember if she should answer in English or Italian.  Instead of saying “Hello” she answered her phone with a nice polite and enthusiastic “Yeah!”.  I guess this is the cross between an english and italian phone greeting.