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My first view of Germany - from the ferry


I woke up the next day at 6.30 in order to get into the city by 8.15. Thank God I didn't miss the trains or anything or else I would've been screwed. I had to pack for 3 weeks so I have this humongous pink suitcase that I got for 60 USD (score!). It's so heavy - and everybody laughs at me when I pass. whatever, man. whatever. My study tour group took the bus onto a ferry, where I ate wiener mit pommes frites (sausage with fries) whilst on my way to Germany. We visited Sachsenhausen, an ex-Soviet-ex-Nazi concentration camp. It was so strange walking on the dirt where so many horrible things happened. Other parts of my Berlin tour included 3 and 4-course meals provided by my program, one including a VIP lunch on top the Reichstag. That was pretty amazing. The only other Korean girl I know was on the trip with me- and she and I have been craving hanshik since the program started. And we took our group of friends to a place called KimChi, where they charged even for banchan. But the waitress unnie was sooo nice to us - she gave us advice on how to maximize our order and gave us 20 Euros worth of food gratis. I don't even know her name - but she will now and forever be my Berlin Kimchi Unnie.


"Neutral Zone" - pretty much, the sign says "You will be shot immediately if you step here"


Original bell at the Berlin Olympic Stadium. Remember when the games were held in the capital during the Nazi times? Notice the swastika at the bottom...


Hotel Transit - 5 girls


the wall.


The night before my travel break started, my little host sister had a friend over, and my roommate and I took her to Fotex (mini supermarket chain). They wanted to make waffles, and we just wanted to try the Easter beer and get ice cream. The Americans rode our bikes, and the younger Danes strapped on their roller blades and held onto the back of our bikes. I love how you don't need a car to get anywhere in Denmark. It was fun - but tiring - dragging the girls but it was a good time :)

Indian restaurant where they gave us mango shots for dessert.


Just call me speedieunny


Holocaust Memorial


Brandenburger Tor


Reichstag



In Prague I we did the touristy things. It's seriously a fairy tale city.. They use the Czeck Kroner , and its the cheapest so far. 20 CKK is equivalent to 1 USD. I got a headpiece for Skype for 5 dollars in the department store. Skype me fools - I have a mic now! it's eunice.ahn. I met up with Caro and spent an extra night in Prague with her. My friends and I ate the whole freaking time. My double chin has now become doublepointfive. It was really nice being with a group of girls and just doing everything together. Definitely the most enjoyable period of time since I came abroad.. oops its late but oh well.

Marketplace


People staring at the Astronomical Clock


The Astronomical Clock


Martyr in an art-nouveau courtyard


So the news is that someone insulted by the inscription behind Jesus recently destroyed the Hebrew writing that's behind the cross.


Czech Folkdancing


No we're not that small. He's just that tall.


Caro dropped me off at the metro in Prague, and then I totally on my own until I met my friend Anna in Barcelona. I literally said, "ok. It's just you and me God.." and it hit me like a punch in the stomach that I was humanly utterly alone. I flew into the city a day before Anna did- and so I had to find housing for that first night. I did couchsurfing.com and got connected with a 29 year old woman and her boyfriend. Basically I get to stay at their place for free. I was kind of freaked out about it- it's the gutsiest and potentially the stupidest thing I've ever done- but when I leaving Prague alone I was more worried about my travels to Barcelona than my first night's stay. Every time I've flown during this whole trip, something bad went wrong. On the way to Europe my luggage got left behind and then lost. Coming back from London, I missed my original flight. And this time my ticket said I was on a different flight than what the airport website said. But it turns out that the flight I was on was a partnership between two airlines and so I was on the right flight. And a girl from my study tour ended up being on the same flight as me to Barcelona. It never ceases to amaze me how well God takes care of stuff and answers prayers.. even the little selfish ones. I don't like to admit it- but I became afraid of being alone and little blessings were sent my way. The couchsurfing thing turns out to be the best thing - my hosts provided a private room and bathroom and bought me breakfast in the morning, and Anna and I decided to stay in our original hostel for just 2 nights and spend the rest of the time with Sara and Ignacio in their flat. We made some German friends from Konstanz at the hostel, though. They took us to the beach and Tibidibo, where there's a church and an amusement park and a view of the whole area. Those pictures will come later..

Happy now, Justin? geez.

... falling down, falling down

Portobello Road















This gentleman hit on me while I was looking through the lens at houses down the street. haha how creepy. just kidding. He was funny. I didn't know he was there until after Narae took the picture







big ben and a wall of Parliament.


London Bridge is falling down.. my fair lady ~

yall know that the bridge is still standing. But speaking of falling down, I turned to walk up a flight of 3 stairs today but the first step was much higher than I had expected, so I completely tripped up the stairs. It was embarassing, bu even more so it hurt. Some nice British business lady was all concerned and made sure that I was okay, which was really nice. But it still hurt.


So -- I decided on Sunday night that I was going to take a trip to London and see Narae. So I bought a last minute ticket and got here on Wednesday evening. It stinks because she has classes and it's the beginning of crazy midterm time, but it's my fault that I just imposed myself on her like that. Oh well. I got to go around the city a lot by myself, which I really liked.

I flew into Stansted and took the train to Liverpool Station, where my highschool friend Sam met me. We live 3 minutes from each other at home, but I haven't seen her for about 2-3 years anyway. Since high school. But we walked around and caught up, and ate McDonald's for the first time in a while for both of us. Then she took me to Narae's place, but she wasn't back yet, and so we dropped my stuff off and went to Parliament/Westminster and the Thames. It was so pretty.. The architecture in itself is astounding, but the lighting just made it so beautiful. Yea- it goes without saying that I took mad pictures. She dropped me back off at Narae's, where I waited for like 2 hours for the girl. Turns out that she couldn't make it back because the night buses weren't running- so she got her roommate to pick me up and I slept in Narae's bed. all alone. hahaha

Thursday, I got dressed and set out for Oxford Street. My intentions were to go down there, Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus, and end up at the National Gallery. And that's just what I did. But going down Oxford Street, some police guy started talking to me. And he kept walking with me and it didn't seem like he was going to go away, so I said I was going to head into the department store to look around, goodday. I was kind of weirded out, but kind of happy because he was so nice to me. Friendly people make the world go round. I eventually got to the National Gallery but I had lunch before I went in. Some tiny hole in the wall cafe, where I got a toasted avocado and bacon sandwich on brown bread with some mayonnaise. OMG. It was one of the most delicious things I've ever had. Maybe because I ate it with a fork and knife, or maybe i was the raspberry cranberry Snapple. But it was soo good. And I sat with this older British lady who spoke so softly that I had to chew slowly as so I could hear her better. She loves art and just talked about what I should see when I got into the Gallery.

Alright this is involving too much organization and thinking so I'll just do this the way I used to do my xanga.


Friday Lunch in a church courtyard. tripped and fell on my face in another church courtyard. St. Paul's Cathedral. so beautiful I couldn't do anything else but stare for a while. and by a while I mean about 2 hours. Crossed the pedestrian Millennium Bridge to see Tate Modern. saw the famous lobsteronaphone thing and that artistdude's fesces in a tin. confirmed that modern art is not my thing. Dinner with a high school friend. Saturday Met one of my longlost best friends from elementary school for breakfast in Kensington. she took me to Buckingham Palace and Platform 9 and 3/4. it was pretty anticlimactic. but I did get to see some little boy seriously try to run through the wall. Walked around Portobello Road with Binnarae. Went to Westminster Abbey last minute to go through the cloisters. Dinner with Young and her friends at Covent Garden. Ice cream in some plaza, where I gave away a dollar to a couple who didn't have enough money for their gelatos. i like that i helped them eat icecream. Sheesha and chicken shwarma- we looked so random in the all-middleeastern cafe. Sunday Definitely got confused about what to do about daylightsavingtime and the time difference between Denmark and the UK and telling 24-hour time. definitely woke up when my plane left. Definitely missed the grace-period for another flight by 9 freaking minutes. definitely almost cried in front of the girl with bad eye-makeup. Definitely waited in the airport for 4 hours for the next flight, fell asleep in the waiting area sprawled out, and had a nice flight nonetheless. definitely appreciate Copenhagen more, which is good.

The closest I'll ever get to Princes William and Harry. I touched the guard's sleeve omg. The crowd laughed at my face while I took this picture





definitely a beautiful city, London is. Definitely one of the most unplanned and expensive weekends of my entire 21 years of living.

1. Do these paintings look familiar? My only illegal photograph at the National Gallery 2. This dude was listening to Michael Jackson and singing along to it as he danced. He reminded me of Twannie Twan Twan. But Twan can sing. and he can dance. This dude cannot do either.. and the girl in red was singing opera. It was pretty funny seeing the two of them together. 3. This is where the Brit policeman started talking to me. I stopped to take the picture of Laura Ashley, which my mom dressed us in all the time, and he started out by asking if i was alright. 4. Westminster Abbey Cloisters






My friends think I'm creepy because I like to take pictures of kids. But they're so cute. Like this one watching a procession.



Sam, one of my high school friends.



Reunited with one of my best friends from elementary school. Thanks facebook :)



Madame Edna shooting some commercial.



Us.




I thought of Bryn Mawr. Inside the Tate Modern

Eating kimchi in the house...

... isn't that great. My mom sent me this whole package with different types of ramen and rice and kimchi and even something similar to jippo (dried fish deliciousness), but when I opened the bag of kimchi the whole house stank up. hahahahaha. I felt horrible, and my little host sister would not step anywhere near me except to pose for a picture of her holding her nose next to my food. The family opened all the windows and the doors, and I had to eat my food freezing. Danes are really homogeneous and seriously aren't 'open' at all.. it's the typical way of life because that's just how it is here. My host family is actually a lot more 'open' to other cultures and all that corny stuff, but last night just proved how Danish they really are. I made my host dad eat some kim and bap and a tiny tiny tiny bit of kimchi and he refused to accept that's what Korean food tastes like. This is the same dude who tried to feed me chop suey jawns and claimed it was Korean food. Whatever, they mean well I guess. But I was getting pretty offended at how he kept saying that couldn't be Korean food; he knows what Korean food tastes like and kimchi certainly wasn't it. hahaha omg. Danes... I need to find a good Korean restaurant soon so I can just eat kimchi in the open and not worry about stinking up the house. Because this specific kimchi really does smell horrible. But I like it :) I know. I'm a barbarian.

The Ungdomshuset was torn down today. After the police moved in a few days ago there have been riots all over the city, and at least 600 people have been arrested, many of whom probably weren't doing any rioting, just there for kicks. I was so tempted to go but I decided against it, which is good because there's no such thing as bail here. If I were arrested, which is highly likely because so many were-including Americans- I would've had to spend the night in jail. The people working on the deconstruction have to wear face masks to protect their identities from the angry teenagers. I heard that the goings on here have made U.S. News- but it's honestly such a tiny thing compared to everything else that goes on in the big world. But for Denmark this is humongo. Like HUGE. Not only just a schism between the youth and the rest of Denmark, but also the evangelicals. And the police. It's crazy how an ordeal that's been going on for the past 20 years has climaxed while I was in the city just 10 minutes away.

I have two midterms tomorrow and all I did instead of studying today was look through facebook and watch the GCC Praise Night videos. omg. And I'm skipping classes on Thursday and Friday to see some FOINE female specimens in London. But I have a midterm on the Monday I get back and two papers due that Friday. damn

Ungdomshuset

So for the past twenty years there has been this big controversy about a building. The government promised it for the youth to use as a clubhouse; they gave Copenhagen's youth their word that they would never get kicked out. But the government sold the house to some big organization that wanted to move out the youth and tear down the building for other uses. Needless to say, the youth of Copenhagen and Denmark were p-oed and there's been a lot of protests and problems. Another organization came in and offered to buy the building back from the first organization so that the youth can keep it, and it seemed like the perfect solution. But at the last minute, people of the Ungsdomhuset (the youth house) rejected the idea, claiming that no one should have to pay more than 1 Danish Kroner for the house, since the government had given initially given it to them for free. So the protesting went on; a girl in my Danish class even sat in on a peaceful pink protest when we first got here. The police went in today and took over the house.

You never really hear sirens go off in the city, but all day today the sirens didn't stop. My program's in the center of Copenhagen, and a little north of us is the neighborhood of the Ungdomshuset. My church is at the southern end of that neighborhood, called Norrebro (there should be a slash through the first 'o' but I don't have that key on my laptop). The police tried to get into the house early this morning, but resisters had barricaded the inside so they couldn't get in. So the politik landed by helicopter and broke in through the windows, and kids gathered all day today and the neighborhood was shut down because of protests and preparation against them. On my way to the train station 3 politik vans full of students passed me. It was weird.

It's not that big of a deal, this whole Ungsdomshuset thing. You won't find it on cnn or msnbc or bbc or anything because no one's died. It's a huge deal here though because it's the youth vs. the city and a "big, racist, elitist Christian cult organization." People here are calling it "a war in the city." Cars are on fire and all that jawns. It's like history in the making. weird.

On another note, I finally got the package that my family sent me! It has two pairs of tights and Korean snacks and RAMEN RAMEN RAMEN. Ichiban, Shin, Chappaghetti, etc. Rice, kim, Gorae Bap, Honey Mustard pretzels, heavenly goodness. :)