I was a Foolish Man

I am so sorry to leave everyone hanging, but I have been busy with school. Well, not really, I have just been busy being busy. I know that makes absolutely no sense, but so much has been going on and I haven't had time to reflect on it all. For any of you who actually do read this, I suppose I should let you know that I did eat all of that pastry and more! I also am running up to an 1 hr every other day and riding my bike everywhere, so I can spare a few calories. I just pray that when I get back to the States I will be able to keep it up since yes there is a wedding coming up in Nov. and not to mention I have a half marathon and possibly another later on in the Fall.

I left off with the pastries, so I will pick up with the Lasagna. The UNCC MACC family enjoyed my Gran's lasagna Danish style. It was a hit even with a Polish guy and thankfully no marriage proposals from anyone this time when I made it! (Living it guys). I think I like it the way Gran, my mom, and I make it in the States better, but I will say when you use fresh mozzarella it kicks it up a million notches! Note to self Mom!

The rest of last week was pretty uneventful until Thursday night. We were scheduled to go Tivoli the amusement park were Walt Disney got his inspiration. I must say it was quite fun . . . I had been with Erin, so I really just went for the ice cream! I rode my bike there which only took about 12 mins from my residence. I love this biking thing they have going over here. You get exercise and get from point A to point B relatively faster than you would walking or using the Metro since you have to walk to the Metro. I left Tivoli a little early because I was tired and had to get on a boat for Oslo the next day.

I ended up running into one of the UNCC guys and the roommate to one of the girls I have met in class. I stayed outside talking with them and in the process a German guy came up too. Rumor was that every one was going out to a bar where you paid 60DKK and got to drink all you wanted from 11-2 I think those are the hours. Regardless the four of us were not planning on going out so we all ended up playing cards and drinking our own already paid for beer. I learned a great new Russian card game which translates into Foolish Man. Long story and I am not good an making them short. . . One of the girls in the London MBA program is from Russia so she taught the others in her program this game and so now Sean and I have the upper hand on this Russian card game! North Carolina watch out!!

After a couple rounds and only one beer later for me it was time to hit the hay! And yes as the title suggests I was the Foolish Man once!

mmmmm yeah . .

mmmm. . . no written words can really explain what is in the photos.. really I am not sure what words I was saying as I ate these goodies!

east met west and west met east

I wish you luck reading the following post. I am still very very dizzy from the ferry ride b/t Denmark and Germany. I never got sick, because I took my medicine, but now I feel like I the top part of me (mostly my head) wants to start spinning and rocking like the boat. So a few words my be horribly misspelled inserted in others or just left out. I do apologize. Now with that disclaimer here is how Berlin was! And it is lengthy! and still more to come on Berlin.

We began our journey at 7:30 am from the my dormitory and rolled out of Copenhagen on the Bratwurst bus at 8:00am. I and my bus buddy had the front row due to my tendency to get motion sick. I am happy to report all was fine on the two hour ride to the ferry. That is when things (my body) got a little wacky.

The ferry was not a typical ferry boat that you hope on and tour around New York or Boston in. This was an actual ferry line where the cars, buses, trucks, bikes, etc all drive up underneath and then the passengers must all go above the parking deck to the other three decks during the 1h45m ferry across a small portion of the Baltic Sea. The Baltic Sea was full of ocean liners transporting goods and windmills where in the middle of the sea. Quite neat, b/c I am sure I have seen a shipping document from a ship that set sail on the Baltic Sea and eventually ended up in the States then the products ended up in the hands of a GW client. Pretty cool to see one chain the process I get to audit. (only another accountant will think that is neat) We arrived in Rostock, Germany and got back on the buses and the buses pulled out and there I was amazingly in Germany! And Amazingly not sick, but I definitely felt the rocking and will never go on another cruise after this Oslo cruise. It was a little overwhelming for me to look out an only see water. I love water, but I really like to sea land and water preferably my feet should be in the water touching land and I am happy!

So, I have so pictures on my Picasso page of the drive. I was on the autobahn!!! That was very cool after reading about it in history class. I really felt like I was on a field trip which in a sense I kinda treated this like one. We only had two nights and one full day in Berlin so the plan was to make the most of it! At about 4.30 pm we arrived at the hostel in East Berlin and then we were own our own the first night in Berlin. Yikes!

Thankfully Claudia (my bus buddy) had been there before and knew where to walk and just see Berlin. So we Portuguese, Mexicans, and one American file to the train station, only to find a lot of other CBS students trying to understand the system. We quickly realized no one really let on that they spoke English. We ended up kinda joining forces with a group of 3 american guys and 1 Czech guy in order to get discounted tickets and to have one sorta German speaker among us. Drew, Bill and Erin your lessons you gave me proved useless. I am a bad student.

First order of business was to find a place to eat. Oh and get Euros. So about 5:30 the international group went into Berlin to find something to eat. Of course being such a large group we ended up splitting up to find food. I opted to go find food with the Americans and the 1 Czech guy since their English (obviously was better) and I didn't want burger king! I ended up eating a bratwurst! MMMMM good! I did feel a little bit weird, tagging along with a bunch of guys, but they were much more decisive than the Mexicans and Portuguese! and you know me!! They were all undergrads 1 from a university in Prague 2 from Minnesota 1 from Texas (acct. major!) It was really neat talking with then 1. b/c it was in English and 2. they were just nice guys, and 3. They cared about seeing the city and remembering their time in Berlin! It was refreshing to hear a conversation about something other than having a and I quote - "A wicked time last night" Yea really heard some kids saying that on the bus down to Berlin..

We all met back and some of the group (we thought) were going to go on the Berlin Pub Crawl, which didn't sound fun to me! If I were to go to a pub I would go park it in one pub and then preferably not crawl home , but at least enjoy a few good German Beers. Anyway a few guys short . . . 2 americans, 1 Czech, 3 Portuguese, and 4 Mexicans began to just walk around Berlin. From the famed TV tower in East Berlin to our final destination the Gate which separated East and West Berlin. Someone had to meet back with the other 2 Americans to get the transport tickets, so after seeing a church the Beliner Dome and the island of Musuems 2 Mexicans went off looking for the the 2 Americans. 45 plus minutes later the entire group minus the Czech (he went adventuring on his own) begin to their walk to Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate). We made it and it was beautiful at dusk! The walk itself was quite interesting, the closer we got to the got the nicer and more modern the city got. Which made sense bc we were getting closer to the east side of West Berlin which was under American, French , and GB control when the city was split up after the war. On the way we ran into some others from CBS, just sipping coffee and beer at an outdoor cafe, and they told us we needed to go to Reichstag were the German Parliament meets. There they built a glass dome on the top in 2000, that is open to the public, just you have to wait in long long lines to get to the top. The doors closed at 10pm and the dome shuts down at 12am. Meaning that if you are are not in a correct place in line when they let the last bunch in you don't get in. Two of our guys were standing in line and the rest of us doubted that we would get in, well the doors open and it was like the start of a marathon. Everyone that was just lingering around rushed in and the entire group made inside! 4 Americans, 4 Mexicans, and 3 Portuguese all counted for!

I am so glad we did that, I mean that is probably one of the most beautiful architecture structures I have been inside! The way the architect designed it was neat. From the dome you can see into Parliament chambers and then from the chambers you can see up into the dome and see "the People" walking above you! Signifying that the people will always be above the Parliament. Very symbolic and speaks some truth if you ask me! We didn't leave there till shut down time. We then had to find our way back to our hostile out in East Berlin. It was relatively easy actually got on the street car trains had to make some stops but made it back about 1:00am. All of us thinking yea we have to be up by 7 am to eat and meet with our tour guide! I slept quite soundly that night . . .honest I don't think I moved once!

That is only the first night in Berlin and I passed from East to West Berlin easily or as they like to call it now I went strolling in the New Berlin no restrictions no papers to show! I think I was the only one out of our group that really remembered something happening in 1989 when the wall fell. I remember seeing something on TV and the pictures in the paper. I also didn't quite know what it all meant that the wall was falling/coming down. East and West Germany were now one as were East and West Berlin. I just remember watching the Olympics and seeing all the gymnasts from Eastern Europe that had leave their homes, b/c it was not safe for them to live there. I remember how sad I was about that and asking my mom why someone would have to leave their home and if we would have too. I have always wanted to go see these places, not sure if I wished that those places didn't really exist or if I just wanted to be there with the people and helping them and sharing my teddy bear with the girls that were my age. I knew there was difference b/t the two places, but I never understood what it was until history classes in elementary and in high school why they were so strikingly different, and the reasons behind not be able to live like we lived. I think being in Berlin and passing from one side to the other which literally meant crossing the street in most places made it all come full circle for me. I saw those images of what I remember seeing when I was younger and the history of Berlin came alive.

2 guys a girl and some serious southern comfort cooking

Seriously tthe places you will go for some good ole comfort food. By comfort food I mean the kind your grandmother or momma used to make! I come all the way to Copenhagen expecting to eat yummy foods or normal foods on a regular basis. Well, think again my friends. Eating out in Copenhagen is VERY expensive and for what you get it really isn't worth it. So, I find that buying at the discount grocery stores and then cooking is a whole lot cheaper.

This past Tuesday the UNCC crew (2 guys a girl and some serious southern comfort cooking) got together for a southern feast. I did absolutely nothing in the preparation of the meal, except look cute in the corner! The guys love cooking one used to be a chef. I am not sure you really ever lose that classification once you become a chef so for what it is worth he still is a chef. They made fried chicken, mashed taters with an amazing gravy, mac and cheese, green peas (one healthy thing) served with some white wine and finished off with a huge chocolate cupcake. Only to find out it was Marzipan. Actually quite tasty!

This will now become a weekly thing with our group! Next week it is Lasagna! Thanks to my Gran's Recipe! I am off to Berlin for the weekend and will hopefully post a little before I leave!

What do you call it in America . .. . uh Stuudiing no Studying that's it!

I am officially studying! Well, I studied a little last week, but I have the accounting templates downloaded onto my computer so I can work problems twice as fast now. As much as I hate managerial accounting this is actually fun now that I have fun accounting templates. I bet no one reading this has ever said the word fun accounting and templates in the same sentence. Except for you dad. And you might be the only other person that reads this. So here's to Accounting dorks!

As far as International Monetary Economics goes aka the Economics of Exchange Rates I have a lot of reading to do. I am not sure I will use fun in a sentence with Econ, because it isn't the most fun topic. Thankfully I enjoy learning about economics even if I don't quite grasp what is being said I can take it home and work it out in my way to understand! As long as I spit out enough at the end of the semester for my professor to understand what I mean I should be A-Okay! Or B-Okay what ever the case may be!

Time certainly flies when you are having fun . . . or just sleeping late.

This week in Copenhagen has been absolutely amazing. The weather is beautiful. It has been about 77 F and sunny without traces of humidity!

I do not miss the Mississippi or North Carolina humidity one bit. But do not worry the fact that there is no humidity will not keep me here.

Well, let's imagine for one moment that I did in fact decide to stay and make a life here in Copenhagen. I would finish out school at CBS paying CBS tuition which is quite a bit more than UNCC. Since I would be paying so much for school I would not be able to afford to eat, drink coffee, or drink the local beer. So far this doesn't sound too good. Then as soon as I finished I would start working and the Danish government would start taxing. 40% to start and apparently you begin to move quickly to the higher tax brackets. Let me clarify, the highest tax bracket is taxed a whopping 68%. We all wonder what you have to be making to be taxed that much. So, there again you get taxed heavily and you still can not afford to eat. I hear there are loopholes in the system, so maybe I could find those as my accounting expertise increases. So far I don't really like what is in store for me if I stay. Oh wait I forgot a big part of me staying, Drew would fly over in a heartbeat as would my parents and bring me back, but lets say they couldn't come get me. I am not sure I would like being that far away from Drew and my parents in fact I would not like that at all. And how could I forget these two: No one gets married over here anymore, they just live together and have little babies, maybe they stay together maybe they don't. And then 2: No one goes to church, well a very small percentage of this population goes to church. I think there were 30 people at church the other Sunday. Hardly anyone here is religious.

There are some pluses to the living here though. The government takes care of everything. How do they do that you ask, well they tax the h-e-double hockey sticks out of your paycheck. The government pours money into healthcare, the arts, the royal family ( by the way they live tax free hmmmm?) They have nice long holidays and a very good paid maternity leave, but at the expense of being taxed and the name of Socialism. So far only one of those sounds terrific: the long holidays! I will admit that Americans probably do work a little to much and not hard enough sometimes and forget how to play!

Well, all that being said I think seven weeks is the perfect amount of time for me to live here, not be taxed, but sadly watch my bank account dwindle down. But that's alright because it is after all about the experience. I am seeing how much we do waste at home. And how thankful I am for Walmart and Target. Yeah, most of us hate either one or the other or both, but oh my gosh it is quite nice to only pay $25 dollars for all your toiletries, paper towels, etc. . . instead of $50+ over here.

So, I should say thank you to the Danish government for really caring about how their country looks! They have done a wonderful job keeping it green and bike friendly and clean. Like I said in an earlier post, Urban Planners for Charlotte really need to do a case study of Copenhagen! American towns and cities all over are going to start to see changes in the way cities are developed as prices across the board rise. It is just the way it happens, change is necessary and change will happen! I was talking with one of the guys from my group today and he said that the population in Copenhagen is split 3 ways. 1/3 ride their bikes, 1/3 use public transportation, and 1/3 use their cars to get to work. That definitely cuts down on traffic woes especially since the metro and train are efficient!

If I do take one thing from this country other than what I am learning in class it is efficiency. The danish take time to design things that are quite practical, efficient, and add an element of style to the mix. Everything they design serves a purpose and if it doesn't then why is it there?

Please do not think I am bashing the Danish culture, I think I am just saying it is not for me! Yay capitalism, Yay small government, and yay to spending more on the education of American children! We should learn another language. Not that we really need it, b/c the business world speaks English, but it really helps broaden our sense of place in this world.

So, changing the subject to the new pictures that have been posted. I have had a lively week exploring and being a real tourist. Jazz Festival has begun and what a way to spend your evening winding down with a local beer (tuborg is my favorite) and listening to some good jazz music about New Orleans and Chicago. I hope to get some pictures of the festival posted soon!

I went today to the NY Glyptotek Museum. It is free on Sundays and Wednesdays. The collection started as the private collection of the Carlsberg family and now the collection boasts over 10,000 works of art divided into 2 collections. Ancient Art from Greece, Italy, Egypt and then the Danish and French artist collection. For those with curious minds Glyptotek means a collection of sculpture. Wow what an impressive collection. It does not rival those in Rome and Greece, but definitely if you are a local here - going there could save you the expense of traveling to Italy and Greece.

After that my group in the alphabet was scheduled for a Canal Tour of Copenhagen. The name speaks for itself and if I need to explain I am not. The tour was definitely a great way to see the city. I was worried I was going to get a little sick b/c before we even started I felt like the shore was moving. I survived! It was nice to hear explanations of the buildings I have been looking at for the past two weeks! Wow, I can't believe I have been here 2 weeks now.

For those of you like my parents who are concerned about the real reason I came over here . . . SCHOOL. Do not worry classes are going well, and it is pretty much self paced on the reading. There are no assignments for grades, just a final in each of my classes. The classes are not going to be that easy. I will be reading and working on problems and case studies on the days I don't have class. I am trying to reserve my weekends Friday thru Sunday for touristy things! That of course is in good Danish form - don't work too too much!

And speaking of studying I better get back to it!

More photos . . . and click the link on the top right side bar to see even more photos!

Get out there and Dance

Amazing Race Amazing Times

So, it has been a few days since I posted. I have been quite busy the past week getting to know my fellow classmates and showing Erin this great city. This city will wear you out. My legs hate me and my back has given up on carrying my books around. Oh well I can’t complain really, because I am miles away from the humidity and thankfully do not have to carry my books across campus in North Carolina this summer!

Where shall a start? Helsingor, Denmark. Erin and I took the train to Helsingor on Saturday to visit Kronborg Slot. This castle was made famous by Shakespeare in Hamlet. The castle itself was never a residence, but rather a place that the king could watch out for incoming and passing ships and tax them. Leave it to the Danish to find a way to tax you. I found out that some individuals(most) are taxed 60%. YIKES The castle had a dungeon that we were able to tour. They have created a great atmosphere in the dungeon. You actually have to purchase(go figure) a flash light to be able to read the facts on the walls. I have pictures posted, so you can see for yourself just how amazing and well preserved Kronborg Slot is.

On Sunday Erin and I ventured to church again. This was Erin’s first time to attend a church service in 10 months and we had to leave early.

After church is when it got all too exciting. Our school has a social program and they had arranged for us to have mock “Amazing Race” around central Copenhagen. I tell you what after that everything makes sense here. My group number 6 and team name “We need another minute” was probably the best team. . .aside from the fact we didn’t win or come close to finishing on time. Throw a bunch of business students together from around the world and what you get is strategy and efficiency. We were not allowed to break up, so we thought it would be a great idea to stop at the places we passed on the way to other places in order to make up time and win the game. Well unbeknownst to us we were supposed to stay in order. So 4 plus hours later and minus 3 team member we turned in our form. It was funny how many of us wanted to cheat or lie and say we had been to a place when we were tired hungry and ready for a beer . . .Perhaps not funny kinda scary considering our future professions! Oh well we think a few of the people in charge were a little too strict and some were much more helpful!

So, the race ended at a pub on one of the pedestrian streets so we could watch the Euro 2008 finals. We found a table drank yummy Tuborg beer and ate till we were stuffed and met some more Americans studying abroad for the summer. They are studying design and architecture. The pub by the end of the game was loud and unlike anything I have experienced in America. I figured that the Danes didn’t like the Germans since Spain was the favorite at the Pub. Spain won!

All in all a great end to my first full week in Copenhagen