Three written exams, one oral exam, and two papers later, it's finally time for spring break! While the last week has been a whirlwind of studying, internship phone interviews, travel planning, and transferring all my perishable groceries from my refrigerator to my stomach, I finally get to relax for the next three weeks and really enjoy everything that Europe has to offer (not to suggest that I didn't enjoy the whole food transfer thing..)
Although this one week has been pretty rough academically, I definitely feel as though Bucknell's academics are more rigorous overall. Two of my midterms were rather difficult due to the mass amounts of information we've been assigned to read, but the other one was pretty manageable. My Danish oral went surprisingly well considering I didn't think I knew anything about the language, but I'm actually finding that I am able to hold basic conversations and know a fair amount of words, although I'm sure my pronunciation has quite a ways to go. The good thing is that they're all over and I won't have to have a week like last again until finals!
Now for my break ... tomorrow morning, at 7 a.m. yessss, my class and I will take off on our 18-hour bus ride to Paris. I know I sounded like I'm really excited for this whole adventure, but this part I think I could probably do without. On the bright side (I think it's the only thing over there), I'll get a chance to see a whole lot of European countryside!
Anyway, we get to Paris in the middle of the night and then will spend Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday morning there. While we'll be given some time on our own, my program has arranged the following things for us: a walking and bus tour of Paris, guided tour of the Louvre, discussion with a DR correspondent, night boat cruise on the River Seine, and visits to the Eiffel Tour, Sacre Coeur, Montemarte, and Notre Dame.
On Tuesday we head to London. I'm particularly pumped about this part of the trip because I'll get to see some of my good friends who are studying there and a few Bucknellians are spending their spring break meeting up with us there too! Back to the academic agenda, our plans there include riding the London Eye, visiting The Telegraph newspaper, making a newspaper at the Guardian Newsroom, going to the Lord of the Rings musical, touring BBC, and touring Tate Modern Museum. While this is a study tour and we'll have some work, it seems like it should be pretty minimal and basically just a great chance for us to see some new cities courtesy of DIS's wallet.
When my program travel ends, I'm traveling with a friend from home to Rome, Venice, Florence, and Cinque Terre in Italy. I'm then flying to Granada to visit some of the Bucknell in Espana gang and a friend and I are spending the weekend in Malaga. Then it's back to Copenhagen! Although it seems like a pretty packed few weeks and I'm sure I'll be exhausted, I'm so glad I'm getting to go so many places and see so many people. I will almost undoubtedly be so broke by the end of it that I won't be able to do things such as eat for the rest of my semester here, but I guess those are just minor details.
I recognize that this entry is basically only talking about the future, but I figured these plans would be a lot more interesting than hearing about all of the scholarly knowledge I've recently gained ... Hofstede's five dimensions of culture, anyone? I may not have a chance to write while I'm gone, but I'll take lots of pictures and try to remember all of the amazing things I do so that you can live vicariously through them!