The South.

The south is the place where:

1. Tea is sweet and accents are sweeter.
2. Summer starts in April.
3. Mac & Cheese is a vegetable.
4. Front porches are wide and words are drawn out when spoken.
5. Pecan pie is a staple.
6. Y'all is the only proper noun.
7. Chicken is fried and biscuits come with gravy.
8. Everything is Darlin'
9. Someone's heart is always being blessed.
10. Cowboy boots or Jack Rogers are the perfect accessory to any sundress

They just know...

In dating... Have you ever felt like when it rains, it pours? Or the opposite- you are stuck in a Midwestern state-like drought? I've had several conversations with different friends about if men actually pick up on the availability of a woman...

I find that it can go either way- when you are available and do not care either way, there can be a plethora of guys starting to pop into your life (or back into your life... but you should never trust those individuals...) and sometimes guys come around when they sense that you may not be so available anymore... and they start to test you...

The only way for these types of interactions to turn into something else, something more, or nothing at all, is for a woman to have her own life and not compromise any of her standards for any man's "availability sense." Either way... Sometimes, the guys just know... They just know.

The move/ A lesson in trusting your gut

I recently made the first big (literal) move of my life. Sure, I spent 4 months living in Denmark and not knowing a soul or what I was getting myself into before I went... But, this move was different. This move put me into my first one bedroom apartment- a space all to myself- all paid for by me, myself and I.

I began my apartment search in mid-September- having lived with my Dad and stepmom since I returned from Denmark in May. I went to several apartment complexes and even looked at a few units being leased out by their owners... it was legit 7 or so places and nothing really felt right at all and I was getting super frustrated... until I came to my current address. I saw 5-10 units and once again, was beginning to think I'd never find the perfect spot- until I walked into my current apartment. I could see myself cooking in this unit's kitchen while my friends drank wine and chatted with me at my bar, doing laundry in my stackable washer/dryer, watching the beautiful sunset over the western NC mountains from my balcony, placing my Dad's amazing artwork on my new walls, hanging photos of friends and family in my bedroom- everything. just. felt. right. I knew this was absolutely it. This is where I would begin my independent adult life. Free of everything negative in the past and starting fresh.

If I've learned anything in the past year, it has by far been to trust my gut. I haven't always followed my gut feeling but I've certainly known the feeling this year... To trust why I've made certain decisions, to trust myself enough to spend time with the right people and not the bad, to trust that uneasy feeling that a friendship is no longer mutually beneficial, to trust myself enough to know that a long-term relationship was over the second he got on that plane, to trust myself enough to make the hard decisions that I don't want to face, to trust that I'll be okay no matter what is thrown at me. Trusting that deep down gut instinct has been something that I've had trouble with in the past but these past few months have made me realize how important it is to do so.

A huge challenge for me is giving up on people- I give people that do not have my best interest at heart entirely too many chances to be (what I'd consider to be) a good friend and I hate coming to terms with ending relationships for my own well-being. However, after everything that has happened in the past few months, I've realized how important this is and how those people aren't worth it and I don't need them. I know who my real friends are and don't need the rest.

I'm working very hard to slow my life down- deal with issues at hand, take the time to grieve such a huge, sudden, and unexpected loss, to not force friendships, trust my gut feeling about others, not feel rushed to hang out with people or make new friends in a certain time frame... Just slow things down, let them happen naturally and focus on work, my family, and real friends.

This move has made me trust my gut much more and I finally feel free to trust myself and be more cautious in choosing who I want to spend my time with. To me, this move symbolizing the significance of trusting gut instincts and I am forever thankful for that.

Today.

Today is exactly how I want to remember Denmark: 65F, sunny, minimal clouds, and happy Danes drinking Carlsberg and Tuborg on the canal of Nyhavn, Kongens Nytorv, and Strøget in Copenhagen and now "barbecuing" and eating outside on the deck overlooking the rolling hills of bright green crops and yellow flowers in Farum with my host family.

Absolutely perfect way to end this adventure.

Tomorrow is the day that, as the Avett Brother's sing in a song, "Carolina one day, someday, I'll come home"

PS- This past month has been a blur. More updates on travels to come... as I can get around to it!

Volcano... What!?

In case you haven't heard... A volcano erupted in Iceland and basically, all flights in and out of Europe were canceled  over the weekend (since last Thursday) but on Sunday, some airlines made test runs and a few more flights were completed without harm (from the volcano ash) on Monday. I just read that now, a new cloud of ash that has spewed from the volcano, heading towards the UK, and possibly posing a renewed threat to air travel... but some countries are still moving forward with plans to fly a little more in the coming week. This is crazy! The situation is changing so often which makes it very difficult to keep track of what's going to happen next!
Tons and tons of people have been displaced and even stuck in Europe and I am really hoping that it will be safe to fly by Friday because I am supposed to be going to Germany to visit a friend and attend the Stuttgarter Fruehlingsfest (which is a spring bier festival that includes 2 liters of beer and half a chicken, haha.) and then to Paris next Thursday. Obviously I don't want to fly if it isn't safe but it is just so frustrating because I have been looking forward to these trips all semester!

Volcanic ash from the eruption that is being blown over Europe and keeping planes out of the sky.

A Royal Affair

Perhaps you know or maybe you don't, but Denmark is a constitutional monarchy, which (in a nutshell) means Denmark has a royal family.

Friday April 16th, marked Queen Margrethe II's 70th birthday. Every year on her birthday, the Queen steps out onto her balcony of Amalienborg at noon and waves to the people in the courtyard. Since this was an even year birthday, she rode in a horse-drawn carriage from the Amalienborg Palace to City Hall on Strøget (the walking street in Copenhagen).

Crowds trying to get into the Palace courtyard to see the Queen... it was packed! I couldn't get through!

Danish flag :)

Danes like to use the Danish flag to celebrate!

Holding a Danish flag under the Queen's birthday sign!

Getting ready for the Queen to pass in her carriage...

Police! The Queen must be close!

The Queen is next!

Queen of Denmark and her husband, Henrik, the Prince Consort of Denmark!!!

She went by so fast!

Fountain near my school that had golden apples in it for the Queen's birthday!

It might be hard to see, but on the left hand side of the statue at the top of fountain, there is one of the golden apples being pushed up by the force of the fountain water! This was the craziest tradition! No one ever takes the golden apples... I guess out of respect to the royal family? I'm not sure but there is no way those apples would stay there all day if this were in a tradition in another country.... especially the US!

Regardless, it was so cool to see the Queen so close and experience such a unique Danish tradition!

Copenhagen and London with Heath!

For the second week of my spring break, Heath came to visit me and we split our time between Copenhagen and London. We had such a wonderful time and saw so many great places! I was soooo happy to see him and get to spend the whole week together! I am glad that he came later in semester because now it isn't that long until I come home... Don't get me wrong, I am having a blast abroad, and I still have a handful of fun trips planned... but North Carolina is home and I finally feel ready to start this next phase of my life in Charlotte, no regrets and no "I wish I got to.... while I was still in college." Having Heath see what my life has been like here meant so much to me and I am so happy that I have such a great boyfriend that will travel across an ocean to visit me! :)

 Velkommen til Danmark!

 First Danish meal? Danish hotdogs!

 We tried to make it to the Carlsberg Brewery for a tour but were too late! But that's okay, because their slogan is only "Probably the best beer in town" haha

 Nyhavn!

 

First pub in London!

Yummy Sticky toffee pudding!

Classic English telephone pose

Heath wanted one too :)

London Eye!

(with Big Ben in between our heads!)

Tea Time at the National Gallery

Outside of Buckingham Palace before the changing of the guards ceremony

Royal Guard band that played "Sweet Caroline!"

Heath and I were amused since James Taylor is a NC native!

BEAUTIFUL Daffodils in a park beside Buckingham palace.

So happy that it is finally Spring!

Heath on the Tower of London Bridge

Heath at Heathrow, ready to get back to CPH!

Can you spot Heath?

Oh, you know... just biking around the royal palace in CPH!

ICEBAR! Brrrr

Heath & I in the Icebar!

My Roman Holiday

I had the pleasure of spending the first week of my Spring Break in Rome, Italy. In preparation of my very own Roman holiday, I watched William Wyler's Roman Holiday, starring Audrey Hepburn. I love Audrey Hepburn movies so watching this one before my trip just seemed like the perfect idea! I got to see many of the sites where the movie was filmed and absolutely loved Rome!

I could outline every detail of my trip but that would take forever and I think pictures are more fun... so here they are!

PS- If you get my blog by e-mail, the pictures probably won't show up in the email so you will have to click on the link in the e-mail, which will send you directly to my blog website.

Outside the Vatican wall, entrance to the Vatican Museum

St. Peter's Basilica

This looks like a sculpture in uptown Charlotte called "Disco Grande"

View of St. Peter's Square from the top of St. Peter's Basilica

Me in St. Peter's Basilica

Colosseum!

Me inside the Colosseum

Inside Forum Romanum

Pantheon

Ruins of Ostia

Angel of Grief in Campo Cestio

Baths of Caracalla

Mouth of Truth

Gelato on the Spanish Steps

Castle of Angels

And don't worry... I threw my coin into the Trevi Fountain so one day, I'll definitely be going back to Rome!

To travel is to live

So, I am a little over half way done with my semester abroad but I wanted to recap where I've been and where I'm going...

January 17: Arrive in Copenhagen, Denmark
Feb 4-6: Vejle & Sønderborg, Western Denmark
Feb 28-March 5: Brussels & Brugge, Belgium
March 5-7: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
March 29-April 3: Rome, Italy
April 6-9: London, England
April 17: Malmö, Sweden
April 23-26: Böblingen & Munich, Germany
April 29-May 2: Paris & Giverny, France
May 8: Billund, Denmark (LegoLand!)
May 16-May 23: TBD, somewhere in Europe

Most of these dates are set in stone but there is always room for some change in the itinerary ! My hope is to have visited at least 10 countries while I am here... so during my last week in Europe, I am going to have to go to at least 2 new countries... but I doubt that will be very hard :)

Dansk Musik

Last night I went out with my host brother in Copenhagen and it was a night full of hygge, laughs and long waits for public transportation! The night began unexpectedly  (as I had no plans of going out) at a truly Danish band party hosted by a Danish college and ended with a not-so-happy-non-English-speaking-taxi driver and a lovely Danish couple that I shared a cab with since it was raining too hard to ride home (at 5AM, mind you). It's even a longer story than that, so I won't type it all out... but to my friends and family- feel free to ask me about it, it was pretty humorous :)

So tonight both my host sibs came over for dinner (they no longer live at home) which was great because I hadn't even met my host sister yet because she has such a crazy schedule of school and work this semester. She asked me tonight if I think it is weird or if it gets annoying that all the music over here is in English instead of native languages and honestly, after hearing Danish 24-7, it's kind of a relief to hear something familiar! My host family has introduced me to some great new Danish and European bands...

The Baseballs: A German-rock coverband that takes top-40 pop hits and turns them into rock-n-rock 1950's-esque songs. I love it! They are even coming to Copenhagen at the end of April but (un)fortunately, that's the weekend I'm going to Paris. It's a hard life, I know! (wink, wink!)

The Baseballs: Umbrella (Originally by Rihanna)

Alphabeat: A great Danish pop band with 6 members, both male and female and they take influence from retro 80's melodic pop with British influences as well.

Dúné: A Danish rockband that is inspired by 70s punk, 80s pop and 90s indie rock, and mixed all together, they call their style indielectrock.

For the first time ever, iTunes has completely disappointed me in my quest for Danish music. I usually don't go too far past mainstream stuff so that's probably why but I would have thought that they would still have some albums since these guys are so popular in other parts of the world! I guess that means I will just have to take it back to like, 2002 and actually go to a music store to purchase an Alphabeat album!

This post is kind of all over the place and I attribute that to my lack of sleep today, excitement for study break, and having too much to blog about!

Summer Nights

Yes, I am in Denmark.

Yes, I realize that it is barely spring here and that it is only beginning to get warm and I have many more wonderful things left to do in Europe.

However, I can't help but be excited for summer since I just bought my summer MegaTicket!

What is this, you ask? A series of 7 country music concerts throughout the summer.

This is the first year I have done it and I couldn't be more excited! Here is the line-up:

May 27th: Country Throwdown Tour
June 4th: Brooks & Dunn with Jason Aldean
June 26th: Rascal Flatts with Kellie Pickler & Chris Young
July 11th: Toby Keith
July 23rd: Tim McGraw with Love & Theft
August 27th: Brad Paisley with Darius Rucker
October 1st: SUGARLAND!!! (My personal fave!)

So, here's to future summer nights in the beautiful Carolinas!

Maryah & I at Sugarland in Charleston, SC

Meg, Cat & I in Morehead City, NC before an epic summer night

Fave sorority sisters at Sesh's going away party, Raleigh NC

Heath & I, Labor Day weekend in Charlotte, NC