TAK!!!!

You don't really hear much about Copenhagen. Sure, it has the Little Mermaid (which we didn't see) and it's known for its Danish pastries (which we didn't eat). Copenhagen offers a little taste of Scandinavia: blonde hair, blue-eyed, fair-skinned people who are very friendly in a very clean and beautiful city. Sadly, the only thing missing from this trip was my Puppy. I realized I left him sitting underneath the TV once we got to the train station.

Den eneste måten er Oslo!

In the midst of frantically finishing our dissertation, S asked me if I had any plans in the coming month after we were done. I said no, and he said, "Why don't you come to Norway?!" Half an hour later, I bought my ticket to Oslo and still manged to finish writing a conclusion that night!

Three weeks later and I was on my way to what S calls "the greatest country in the world!" (Slightly biased opinion, but I digress.) I got lucky with the weather because the whole time I was there, I had sunshine and clear skies. So, we took advantage of it and walked the city.

Oslo is still developing. S told me to come back in 10 years when all the construction is (hopefully) done. It has a mix of old and new, undecided as to what it really wants to be. I quite liked the old part... well, I'm counting the Nobel Peace Center as old. The new has its perks too. S, C and I sat on the top of the Radisson watching the sun set for the longest time. Thank you high-rise hotels!

The trip was short but sweet. A little taste of a vast area of land that is Scandinavia. Next time, I hope to see the Northern Lights and visit C's 500 person village. I can't even image living there! Tak, Oslo!

The Only Way is (no longer) to Essex

I thought this day would never come... the day I would say goodbye to Colchester. When I started my Master's, I knew it wouldn't be easy. I was very right! But in this one year, I learned a lot. I learned a lot about what International Relations really is. I learned that I'll never be a statistician. I learned I'm pretty good at writing essays as long as I plan ahead. And I learned that there's a lot of ridiculously smart people out there. I will walk away from this experience with my head held high saying that after some odd years of being out of school, I was able to do it again and do it well. My answer might change come December once I get my final marks, but at the moment, I'm proud that I survived!

Ich bin ein Berliner!

The last time I was in Berlin, W and I went to three Holocaust museums in one day was depressed the whole time. This time, I had a different approach... bike around the city and take pictures with the Berlin bear instead.

And it worked! We discovered that Berlin is very laid-back, artsy-fartsy meets a truck-load of history. I think if I could, I would try to live here. The people are nicer than their friendly neighbors to the west (i.e. Hamburg). But it also has an international feel which Hamburg is seriously lacking, but I'm getting off-topic now.

Berlin is awesome because I <3 Berlin bear!

The Sexy Mashup

Covers are cool. Why? To have the ability to rehash a well-known song into something completely different and yet, still recognizable takes a lot of skills. Case in point... Have a look at LMFAO's "Sexy and I Know It": (Venice Beach!!!)

And the new version:

Awesome! :)