It's Still All Danish to Me... Days Two and Three in Denmark

After a good night's rest, Nathan and I got up to hit some more sites. We took the meto back to the old part of town and started with the Royal Navy Museum, which we honestly did not find terribly exciting.



Next, we headed over to the old hippie part of town. There was a village created called "Christiania."



It was an area where people who no longer wished to live in the EU gathered and lived. The area was filled with free art, unique people and a lot of interesting living conditions. Not to mention the smells of drugs everywhere. In fact, we weren't even allowed to take pictures inside (even though I snapped this one shot posted below)! It was an interesting stop.



Throughout the day, Nathan and I were amazed by the number of bikes we saw. There were certainly more bikes on the roads than cars. With flat terrain and easy to access bike lanes on every street, Copenhagen is a great city to live in for people who love to bike.



To close up the day, Nathan and I headed to Tivoli Gardens, where we walked around, saw the copy of the Little Mermaid, and saw some of the free shows they hosted there before heading back to the hotel.



On Sunday morning, it was already time to head back in our own directions. I had to leave to Norway and Nathan for Germany. The weekend certainly flew! However, it was great to see Nathan again, hear a bit of Danish (even though I obviously understood nothing) and explore Copenhagen.

It's All Danish to Me... Day One in Denmark

The night of July 1 I headed to Denmark. I was to embark on an 8 hour journey by bus before I would meet my little brother, Nathan, in Copenhagen. Since he is currently living in Germany, it was the perfect opportunity for us to meet up in a place he'd always had dreams of traveling to... the land of our Grandpa Nygard (my mom's dad).



It was an early Friday morning when we met up and neither of us had slept at all that night. However, we got to work finding the tourist information, found a free walking tour, and began making our way through the main sites in the old part of the city.



We first headed to the city center, which is the beautiful building posted above. Then we checked out the museum of Hans Christian Anderson.



Carrying our Copenhagen guide, we walked the streets filled with old landmarks and stories, taking lots of pictures and learning lots of neat things.



After that, we headed to the National Museum, The Prince's Palace and The Royal Chapel. We spent several hours touring them all and learning a lot about Danish and world history.



Finally, after attempting to figure out the Danish metro system, we somehow managed to take the metro to our hotel and find where we would be staying the night. We relaxed, watching the Brazil soccer game, going shopping at the nearby mall and hanging out.

160 USD...Is That All?

I had heard the rumors that Norway is expensive. However, while rumors are rumors, there is usual some foundation or reason why they began. So I came prepared to not be sticker-shocked. The second I stepped off the plane in Norway, I was ready to accept the prices as they may be and brush it off saying, "Well... it's Norway..."

Haha... brush off the prices? How naive I was...

My first price scare was my taxi from the airport to the university. After a 25 minute ride, I was charged 160 USD. And that was at 1/2 the cost it would have been had I not booked the taxi ahead of time. I almost cried as I handed over 3 full days' salary.

Scared by the prices, I refused to buy anything. However, leaving for Denmark to visit my brother, I was dying of thirst and needed to buy something to drink. Browsing for the cheapest item, I came across two choices: a 12 oz bottle of water or a 12 oz bottle of Coke... both for the low price of 4.35 USD. ALMOST FIVE USD!!!!!! Was this place insane?!? 5 USD for a bottle of Coke?!?

For 8 USD, you can buy a can of beer. For 5.79 USD, you can have yourself a McDonald's Big Mac (the highest price in the world). And for only 6.27 USD, you can fill your car with a gallon of gas.

This is no cheap place to vacation. While to Norwegians the prices are completely normal, they are almost unbearable to the rest of the world. In Norway, however, pay is very high. The lowest salary workers (street cleaners and deliverers) make over 24,000 USD year. Norway doesn't even need to have a minimum wage because those who earn the least are still able to earn enough to live.

As I struggle to buy laundry detergient, bus tickets and bottled water on my Brazilian wages, it's incredible to think of how rich the country of Norway really is. So rich that even the poor have the money they need to purchase the things I can't even afford here.

Hei Norge! (Hello Norway!)

On Sunday, June 27, I landed in Norway. After a ten hour flight from Sao Paulo to Germany, a 7 hour lay-over in Munich and a 2 hour flight from Germany to Norway, I had arrived. That afternoon, I set foot on the land of my ancestors...good old Norway.

It was an interesting feeling. A bit uncomfortable, a bit exciting and a bit adventurous. As I stepped off the plane, I was among a sea of blondes, something I had certainly never seen in Brazil, and maybe hadn't seen to that extent in my entire life. And that's when it hit me... I was in Norway!



I will be here for six weeks, taking courses at the University of Oslo along with 600 other students. As many of you know, I am here on a Peace Prize Forum scholarship covering the fees for my room, board, airfare and tuition. I was one of 10 American students to receive the scholarship.

At the university, I will be taking an intensive course in Scandinavian Politics every morning from 8-10. In the afternoons, I will be attending a seminar for Peace and going to guest UN lecturers and visiting UN sites. It's quite the program!

Here is a picture of the dorms I live in... beautiful!



While I am currently antsy to get home, I think this time in Norway will be a great adventure for me. It will be a time for me to look at the politics of a different country and really see how the UN is playing a role in world peace. I'm hoping to really learn and grow from this experience.

See You Later Brazil...

It was a Saturday afternoon. After a full year in Brazil, it was time to say goodbye. Or, not necessarily a goodbye, but at least a "see ya later." Adriano was busy with an event he had been planning for months and my host mom had to go to work, so I was heading to the airport alone. Or so I thought. At the last minute, me friend Leo came all the way to accompany me to the airport and send me off.



A year. A year is a long time. And yet nothing. It flew. And yet was cram packed with memories. In a year I learned so much, grew so much, changed so much, matured so much. I'm not the same person I was when I left. And I'm okay with that.

A year. Wow. It was a hard goodbye. A lot of hugs. A lot of kisses. A lot of tears. But it was a necessary goodbye. It was just hard to leave the place I had loved for 12 months...

It's good for me to leave and have the opportunity to see if Brazil is really what I want. It's important for me to finish my college education. And, of course, it's going to be great to see my family and friends from back home again. But it was hard... very hard to say goodbye.

As I said goodbye to Leo, I cried. As I worked my way through security, I cried. As I got my visa stamped and worked my way through customs, I cried. As I boarded the plane, I cried. As I took off, I cried. But they were good tears, full of all the great memories I had had in the past year. And, thank goodness, I know I'm going back.

As I left Brazil, Leo left me with a note talking about our friendship and my time in Brazil. And the last lines were the lyrics to the song "Wheel" by John Mayer. They fit the situation perfectly so I had to post them for you.

"And airports
See it all the time
Where someone's last goodbye
Blends in with someone's sigh
Cause someone's coming home
In hand a single rose...

And if you never stop when you wave goodbye
You just might find if you give it time
You will wave hello again
You just might wave hello again"

I'm starting a new phase in my life, being in Norway and traveling through Europe. I'll be finishing up college and concluding some research projects. And... I'll be hopefuly starting out on my own again in Sao Paulo.

It was a great year. And hopefully just one of many more to come.

Dad's Reflections

As Erin’s father, I am writing this article as a follow up to one I started a couple of months ago but never sent in for her to post. In March Marlene and I were privileged as Erin’s parents to visit Brazil and see the place and the people with whom our daughter Erin has spent the last year. It has been a wonderful year for her – filled with new places, people, ideas and passions. From a distance we have read of her exploits and on Skype we have been able to see her, hear her or chat with her. By the time she returns home this summer she will have turned 21 and in some official way become an adult. With her brother in Germany as a foreign exchange student this year – it has been a year of change for our family – our kids venturing out to new places and we as parents learning a new chapter in our own as empty nesters.

Our time in Brazil was a great experience. We saw Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo, some of the surrounding countryside and some of the beaches. We learned much about Brazil – a rapidly growing economy that looks like a world leader in many ways – and a developing nation with much left to work out in others. We saw more motorcycles on the roads than we’ve seen in other places. We saw lots of efficient cars and lots of luxury cars. And Sao Paolo must be one of the capitals of the world for high-rise buildings. There are tall buildings everywhere! And Rio was beautiful and fun and we enjoyed a tour of the city, beaches, food and bossa nova music.

A few weeks after we returned to the United States, we heard of floods in Rio. The areas where poor people live, called “favelas,” had been washed away in some places. Many homes were destroyed and many lives were lost. These areas are places where people build their homes on poor quality land, often with beautiful views, but literally stacked one house on top of another (sometimes seven stories high!). When the rains came, the poor quality of the ground meant buildings collapsed and lives were lost. Had we not just toured these communities we would have hardly noticed the story on the news. But since we had just seen these places and met some of the people there, the story of the floods took on a new image and significance for us. It is a good reminder of how traveling opens our eyes and our minds to whole experiences and ways of life that we might otherwise miss.

Another piece that was important for us was that this was a time and place where we visited our daughter on her turf. She knew the place, the people and the language. She was the knowledgeable one. We were the guests and she was the guide. It was nice to see what a capable woman our daughter is becoming and to see her talk to people in a language she didn’t speak just a year ago – and to do it well.

Erin is leaving Brazil this week. She won’t be coming home to us but is heading off to Oslo for another adventure as part of the Nobel Peace Prize forums in Norway. More new places, people and stories. It will still be a few weeks before we see our daughter but it is nice to know she is growing up with her eyes and ears and heart open to new people and experiences. It is a different world than the one we grew up in just a generation ago and she and others are preparing to lead it – and I think they are going to be ready to do it well.

Birthday in Brazil

21 years old. On June 25, I turned 21 years old. Because I didn't get to celebrate my birthday with friends or family the year before, I wanted to make sure to celebrate my birthday this year.

And celebrate I did! My host mother made homemade pizza and cake for my birthday. We had a variety of family friends come over to join in the fun. Starting at 8:30 that night, the people began to pile in. We enjoyed a late night of food and and good conversation. It was a happy birthday!