Denmark Vs Germany!

I FINALLY moved to Copenhagen a week ago, after millions of problems, I can say that I’m ”happily” living here!
After 3 years living in Germany, now I can clearly see, that many of the things that I hated at the beginning about the Germans, I got used to and now I completely miss.
I thought that these two countries were very similar, but they are not. Here are some of differences that I have found and some peculiarities about the Danish people.

In Germany you wont see a single German flag, which is understandable because of their history. It seems like if Germans weren’t allowed to feel proud of their country. On the other hand the Danes are amazingly proud of their country, their monarchy, their people and their culture so you see the Danish flag waving everywhere.

In Colombia, if you want to cross the street, you just look and cross or don’t look and cross, but something you don’t do, is wait for the traffic light to let you go… well in Germany if you cross when you are not suppose to, you get bad looks and even bad words from the people that are around you. Without noticing I got absolutely use to it and now in Copenhagen, things are almost as in Colombia, so I discover myself being the only person waiting for the traffic light to let me go…

In Germany, there are timetables in each bus stop, subway station and train station, so that the people can check when exactly the bus comes. If it says that it’ll come at 12:00, that’s the time when you will see the bus stopping in front of you (at least 90% of the times). Well, here they have the timetables too; the difference is that there is no chance that the bus actually comes on time. You have to wait forever, and when it finally comes, many times is so full that it wont even stop!!!

In Berlin, you can go out wearing your pijamas and nobody would even look at you funny, fashion is something that Germans simply don’t care about. That’s why in Berlin you see people dressed in such a way, that it almost seems like if they actually spent time looking in their closets for all the things that didn’t match with each other and wear them all together.
In Denmark, that’s not the case! Here fashion and brands rule the streets, even the kids are perfectly dressed every morning at school. People are pretty and look pretty! I love that!!!

In Germany, normally the main meal is lunch and at night you’ll probably just eat what they call abend brot, which is just bread, cheese and salami. In Denmark the main meal is Dinner and at lunch they eat something call Smørrebrød which is an open-faced sandwich, which is just black bread, pate and salmon.

In Copenhagen it is getting dark around 3:30 in the afternoon and its very cold and windy. At 7:30 pm every night, an ice cream truck goes around the whole neighborhood, ringing a bell and millions of kids run after it, even when its snowing!!! That wouldn’t happen in Germany, because they have no concept of the delivery service!

While in Germany you hardly find an American product, and if you do, you’ll pay 4 times the price as in the States. Here, apart from the products you’ll find Blockbuster, Dominos Pizza (with delivery service, nonexistent in Germany…) and 7 eleven everywhere and they’re open 24 hours. Its GREAT!!

These are only my initial observations after living here only a week, Like everything, there are some pros, and some cons, we’ll see how it goes…

Chris came back from New York!

On Friday the 4th, Chris went to New York to attend a convention and visit his parents. I was suppose to leave for Copenhagen Sunday the 6th,so we had ANOTHER hard good bye at the airport. I believed that this was ACTUALLY the last time I’d see Chris in 2005.
It turns out that, as usual for these days in my life, there was a last minute “change of plans” which was out of my control and AGAIN and I have to stay in Berlin a bit longer…

So Chris calls on Sunday, I guess to say goodbye and finds out that I’m still here and will probably remain there until he comes back on Thursday.
He calls again an hour later to tell me how great it is to walk down 5th Ave and go into my FAVORITE store in the whole wide-world … GAP (which, by the way, they decided to close in Berlin), while I’m here ALONE, all upset about my future and CoLd because the weather here SUCKS!
He said he was going to buy me a present and I thought: “there is no way he buys something that I would actually like or wear…” but it’s a nice gesture anyway!
Well people, to my surprise he did it and he did GOOD too. Not only did he buy one present, but tons of them and every single thing he brought me I loved!!!

Before showing you all the stuff, I need to clarify that I’m not a BiTcH by thinking that I wouldn’t like what he buys. Its just that Chris, more than any man I know, HATES SHOPING so I thought he would just grab the first thing and be done with it. Well to my surprise … again … its obvious just how much time he actually did spend and thought about what I like and need!!

List of presents:

* An amazing BLUE (which is my favorite color) ROBE (I needed one) With matching and FASHIONABLE slippers

* A RED hoodie (which is the thing I like to wear the most)
* BLUE underwear with a STAR (my favorite object)
* A CSI T-Shirt (which is my favorite series) that GLOWS IN THE DARK
* A New York Cap (that wasn’t 4 me but I liked anyway)
* Colgate toothpaste with SPARKLES (which you can’t find In Germany)
* POP TARTS (in my 3 favorite Flavors)
* American Beer call SIERRA NEVADA
* Some kind of alcoholic LeMoNaDe
* Count Chocula Cereal with marshmallow VaMpIrEs
* Honey Bunches of Oats with STRAWBERRIES
* TRISCUITS (my favorite… what ever they are…)
* MACARONI AND CHEESE (2 NEW flavors for me)
* Cheez Whiz SQUEEZABLE version




The best of all:
PooH BeaR got: I LOVE NY shoes



Amazing huh?
Thank you Chris, now I might not have a clear future, but at least I have LOTS of new things to wear and LOTS of American food to eat. I’m not ALONE anymore and Baby Pooh and I have warm feet!!Conclusion: I’m HAPPY!!!

Gracias al colegio...

Este Post es en espanol, por que estos son recuerdos de Colombia, de Bogotá, de la Nena Cano...
Ayer fui a la filarmonica a oir al coro de Berlin, interpretar la obra completa del Messiah de Georg Friedrich Handel; una de mis piezas clasicas favoritas, y no pude evitar llorar de emocion en la parte del hallelujah al acordarme de cuando yo lo cantaba siendo parte del coro de la Nena Cano, dirigido por el Profesor Leal.
El gusto por la musica clasica se lo debo a mi mama; melomana de nacimiento, pero el conocimiento de las liricas y los recuerdos, se los debo al professor Leal.

Vivir en Alemania y todos los viajes que he podido hacer han hecho que recuerde muchisimo el colegio Nena Cano, ya que fue en este alli donde la Nona basada en sus propios viajes nos enseno la geografia mundial y especialmenete la europea que a mi me ha servido tanto. Despues de moldear el relieve de Europa en plastilina sobre un pliego de carton, poner todos y cada uno de los principles rios y finalmente nombrar todo clavando mini banderas hechas con alfileres, estoy segura que todas las ninas de la nena cano, incluso despues de tantos anos seguimos recordando la mayor parte de estos datos.
Y asi como yo los clavava en plastilina, la Nona los clavava en nuestro cerebro y 10 anos despues, reconozco el placer de viajar y saber el nombre de lo que veo, sin necesidad de leerlo en lonely planet.

Lo mismo pasa con Historia del Arte; mi clase preferida en el colegio. Para mi ir a esta clase era un absoluto deleite. Me imagino que por el amor al arte, le debo dar credito a mi papa. Sinembargo fue Gloria Nieto de Arias quien con sus filminas me enseno todo lo que he necesitado para visitar los mas importantes museos Europeos sin ser una ignorante mas frente a obras como la Monalisa o el nacimiento de Venus que toma la foto de rigor y se va sin nisiquiera saber que vio o solo paro por que habia mucha gente en frente a la obra!
Gracias a mis maravillosas clases de arte se de nombres, tecnicas, fechas, epocas a las que las obras pertenecen y mejor aun, se en que museos se encuentran las pinturas que me interezan.

Yo creo que la razon por la que las clases de estas 3 personas fueran excelentes y todo lo que me ensenaron siga grabado en mi cerebro, es que mas que un trabajo para ellos, lo que ensenaban era su passion, , lo habian vivido y sabian de lo que hablaban, y fue eso lo que lo hizo tan interesante para mi.

Baby Pooh's first Halloween!!! :)