Biking Bornholm

This past weekend was spent biking on the lovely island of Bornholm. Bornholm is a small Danish island located in the middle of the Baltic Sea. It's actually closer to Sweden than it is to Denmark.  Unlike the rest of Denmark, Bornholm is extremely hilly. Most of Denmark is extremely flat- flatter than Iowa if that's even possible. There's one small hill by my house and I refer to it as the mountain because it practically is one compared to the flat expanse that surrounds it. Well compared to that "mountain", Bornholm felt like the Himalayas (and it certainly felt cold enough at times).  
I left with a giant group of about ninety students at about 11 on Friday night. We were bussed to the coast and then took a ferry to the island. It seemed more like a ship than a ferry to me but I guess I'm just not educated enough in water transportation. And it was actually really exciting because that was the largest ferry/ship/boat I had ever been on. Some students rented cabins to sleep on for the ride over but I didn't want to pay extra so just I slept on a section of seats. There was a ton of rain and wind that night so the ride was rather rocky. I actually didn't mind that though. The rocking of the ferry was more soothing to me than it was unsettling. Even so, sleep didn't really happen that night. That's mainly due to the fact that the lights were on the entire evening despite the fact that literally everyone was asleep. The ride took about six hours and it was really confusing because when we arrived at the island (in the town of  Rønne), it was still dark. My sense of time was completely messed up by this point. 
We were then shepherded off the ferry and onto another bus that we took to Gudhejm on the other side of the island. Thankfully, it only took about half an hour. When we got to the hostel, we were given rooms, ate breakfast, picked up bikes and were set loose for the day.  Originally, I was planning to bike around the island myself because I didn't really know anyone else going on the trip. And thanks to my dad's influence, I had thoroughly researched what areas I wanted to see on the island and how to get there. Well it turned out that the two other girls I was rooming with had no idea that there wasn't a guide for the trip and ended up deciding that they wanted to go to the same places I did. So the tree of us ended up biking together all weekend along with a few other people.

 

Inside of the ferry

 

My makeshift bed

 

The giant ferry

 

This is our hostel with everyone preparing to bike around!!

 So that first day about seven of us biked down the eastern coast. We ended up going from Gudhejm to Svaneke. Along the way we stopped at a Baltic Sea Glass shop and studio. It's a famous place on the island with beautiful hand made glass items. There were lots of wine glasses and plates and some jewelery. It was all so beautiful and even though we didn't get to see an actual demonstration, we saw a video on how it is all made- it was extremely impressive. I wouldn't mind learning how to do it. 

 

The coastline 

 

Me on the coastline

 

 

We walked around and collected sea glass. I felt the need to take a picture of myself holding it because that's what my youngest brother always does with things he finds in Florida.

 

Glasses and bowls from the Baltic Sea Glass shop

 

Impressive plates

 There wasn't a ton to do in Svaneke but it was a really cute little town that's actually famous for its smoked herring. We went to the smoke house and I tried their smoked salmon which was amazing. One of the girls in my group wanted to get the smoked herring on bread. Well, I guess she wasn't specific enough because instead of giving her slices of herring on bread, they gave her an entire smoked herring (face, bones and all) with bread on the side. Thank goodness mine was just a piece of salmon. It wouldn't have gone well if I had been given and entire fish.

 

Town of Svaneke

 

We actually got to watch a glass blowing demonstration here

 

 

Famous smoke house

 

 

Smoked herring....yum....

 

My lunch of smoked salmon (actually really delicious) 

 

 After Svaneke, we went with three other people, to a round church. These aren't very common and Denmark is extremely famous for them. There are about seven or nine of them in Denmark and four of them are in Bornholm. The one we went to was in Østerlars and it was really interesting. Though, it seems a little impractical because from any point in the church, there are always a few spots that you can't see. But we did get the chance to walk up to the top of the church which was really cool. There were tons of beams up there and parts of it were so dark that you couldn't see even a few feet in front of you.  However, getting to this church was horrible. Instead of biking back up the coast and cutting inland to Østerlars, we decided to bike inland the whole way. It a) seemed faster and b) for some reason we thought it wouldn't be as hilly inland as it was on the coast. Well that was a mistake. The whole way there consisted of nonstop hills. And they weren't the hills that you can power up either. They were really slow and gradual so that by the time you're half way up, you're already on the lowest gear and your legs are burning like crazy. And then there was the wind. The wind is awful in Denmark. Not only is it always windy but the wind is always against you. I'm not kidding. No matter which direction we were biking, the wind was always against us. Hills just got ten times worse. Lets just say that getting back to the hostel that night and sitting down and eating was the best thing ever. 

 

Round church

 

Inside of the round church

It's actually really hard to understand what the inside of the church looks like from a photo so I took a video

 

 

Grounds of the church (it's actually a graveyard)

 

Danish farmland (and one of the people I was biking with)

I expected to be sore the next day but, surprisingly, I wasn't. No one really was. We were all a little bruised from sitting on the bike all day but other than that it wasn't bad. Actually, there was one girl who was so sore from sitting that she couldn't bike that second day which was a bummer because it was even better than the first. We biked up the coast that day to the Hammershus Ruins. The ride there was beautiful. The fist day it was cold and gray and rainy and almost miserable at times. And while there were definitely points like that on the second day, we did at least get a little bit of sunshine right as we were on the coast. There's really no way to explain how beautiful it was to see the water crashing on the rocky cliffs with tons of sheep sleeping not that far from the shore. It was amazing. It was also painful. The entire ride there was basically uphill. A slow and painful uphill where, with the wind against us, even on the lowest gear we literally weren't moving. No matter how hard we peddled there were times where we just weren't moving anywhere. We had to get off our bikes and walk them up the hills a fair number of times because it hurt too much to try to bike up the hill. However it was an exciting ride because I had a little bit of an accident. And it naturally happened on one of the few downhill spots. I was biking down a gravel path in a patch of forest and it suddenly became very winding. And for some reason, my breaks weren't really working and would only break half way. So I ended up going off path and pretty much jumping over a bunch of tree stumps and falling into a pile of leaves and tree branches. It was one of those times where I was really grateful that I used to be a gymnast because I was at least able to roll into fall so that I didn't hurt myself much. Just a few bad bruises on my legs where I fell on the bike. So it was a really exciting bike ride. 

 

Country side- right on the sea

 

Me and one of the girls I went biking with

 

 

Sheep!

 

More sheep!

 

A town we passed through

When we finally got to the Hammershus Ruins (about three hours after when we stared out) it started pouring. So we went to the cafe to eat lunch first. I had more smoked salmon but this time it was part of a sandwich. So yummy. Thankfully it had stopped raining by the time we were done eating. Perfect opportunity to explore the ruins. They were amazing, places right on the cliff at one of the northern most points on the island. It's also Northern Europe's largest Medieval Fortification. 

The bike ride back was so easy because it was pretty much all down hill. There were a few hills we had to walk up but for the most part it was much better. And it took us less than an hour and a half. That's half the time it took us to get there. I really appreciated the easy ride. 

 Pictures of Hammershus!!

 

Its very back lit but it gives a good sense of the space

 

 

When we got back at about 4 in the afternoon, we had to pack up and take the bus back to Rønne. From here we took a different ferry to Sweden. It was a really nice ferry and though not as large as the fist one, still felt a lot bigger than a ferry should be. This ride only took about an hour and a half. We were then bussed from Sweden to Copenhagen. I didn't get back until sometime after ten on Sunday night. It really was an exhausting weekend but also so much fun. We biked a total of about forty miles.  And I would do it all over again in a heartbeat- wind, pain and all. 

 

Gudhejm!

 

Ferry from Bornholm to Sweden

 

View of  Rønne from the ferry

 

Sweden! I was excited because it's the only picture of Sweden I have 

Now it's midterm week. I'm actually not stressed at all. I really don't have a ton to do. Just two tests at the end of the week that I'm not to concerned about. Especially compared to Grinnell, this week won't be hard at all. And when it's over, I get to go to Athens and Rome for a week. I'm really excited to travel. Especially after Bornholm and my short study tour, I'm really in the mood to travel and see everything. It will be extremely different from Copenhagen. Bornholm was already pretty different. The people there actually said hi to you on the street. I was really excited about that. We'll see how people are in Athens and Rome.

Little Lessons in Danish Culture

This past week has been fairly low-key. It's been a nice change from the jam-packed days I've had lately. However, last Tuesday was rather exciting because I got to go out and eat with a bunch of American and Danish students. I signed up for a program called The Buddy Network. Basically everyone who signs up gets assigned to a group of about fifteen fellow DIS students and a few Danish students and they get to do a lot of fun activities with their group throughout the semester. And the best part is that it's all paid for by DIS. So my group meet for the first time last Tuesday night and we all went out to dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant. It was so much fun to get to talk to more Danish people my age. There was one girl who was 23 and was super cute. She's studying Spanish this semester and then plans to study French next semester and when she gets to college, she wants to study English. I was impressed. Especially because her English was pretty good already. It was cute because she started talking about how tired it makes her to speak in English for such a long time and how she was going to crash when she got home. Good thing it seemed like she was enjoying herself. She and I also bonded a lot over awkward encounters where someone says hi to you and you have no idea who they are. I was telling her how I look a lot like my mom and, when I'm home, some of her neighborhood friends that I don't know will say hi to me or mistake me for her and I just pretend to know them. Apparently she has the same problem as well as the same solution. Also, good news, there were absolutely no spiders involved in this encounter!

On Wednesday Izabel had to go on a field study in the morning so I went into the city with her and power walked around for four hours. See, exercising has been a bit of a problem here. I went from exercising nearly everyday this summer, to hardly ever here. And for some reason, I just can't seem to get into running here (you'd think I would because Izabel is a runner). So, with four hours to myself in the city, the only logical solution to me was to turn it into a mega power walking session. It was wonderful! I ended up going to a lot of places we had already seen but it was really nice to be able o see everything again.
While I was walking, I came across these two older Asian men who were staring at a map with clearly no idea of where they were. So I slowed down to see if I could help them. Well, it turns out I could, and boy was I the right person for them. They came over to me and immediately started speaking in Japanese. They didn't even try to speak in English. Maybe they assumed I was Danish and didn't try it because they couldn't speak Danish. But anyway, they asked me where they were and I thought, "Oh, you speak Japanese? Well not to worry, I'll just respond to you in Japanese". It was great. I got to tell them where we were and give them directions in (very rusty) Japanese with a few English words thrown in. And it wasn't until the end of the conversation that they processed the fact that I was half speaking in Japanese. Towards the end one of the men said "Oh, you speak Japanese?!" (in Japanese of course). I was really happy to be able to help them and it was a really cool fusion of three unlikely cultures. An American student who knows Copenhagen well enough to give directions but says them in Japanese. There was something about that cultural fusion that was really amazing to me. And it was definitely the best event of the day.

Pictures from my power walk!

Frederiksborg Palace Grounds

 

Cool old fashioned windmill that doesn't actually work

 

I was amazed by how clear the water was in this park especially because it's in the middle of the city

 

Swans in yet another lake

 

Really awesome ship  in the harbor. It made me think of my dad and youngest brother. Maybe they could tell me what it is.

Although I didn't to a ton on Thursday, I did get to go back to Capella (the Danish after school program I observe at once a week).  I was also able to pick up some of the kids from their school a few blocks away. An adult stands at each corner between Capella and the school the children attend in the morning. Then each child checks in at their school and walks to Capella by themselves. They're not required to walk with an adult and the only rules they have are not to play in the street and to walk their bikes and scooters instead of riding them. And when the students reach Capella, they check off their name on a sign in sheet. I was talking to one of the adults about this and she said the reason they let the kids walk by themselves is so that they learn to be careful and pay attention to their surroundings. In may ways, this makes a lot of sense to me. Also, Danish caregivers can't get sued like they can in the US. Due to this, Danish caregivers are able to give children a lot more room to grow and make mistakes. This explains why kids can use sewing needles and knives at school. It also means that Danish caregivers don't interfere in conflicts between students as much. They give students a lot of room to work things out on their own and if that doesn't work, then the adults will step in. Also, the place I visit has about a million and one things for the students to do and because there's no structure, the kids can choose what they want to do. This means that kids are really engaging in what they want to and because of that, can have a sense of accomplishment. Both engagement and accomplishment are two factors in a positive psychology theory of well-being called PERMA. It stands for Positive Emotion, Engagement, (Positive) Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment. I'm really fascinated this relationship between the Danish school system and positive psychology.

On Friday Britta went to a friend's house for dinner which naturally meant she wouldn't be back until 11pm at the earliest. Izabel and I took advantage of that to have a relaxing evening watching a movie on the couch. And this is a big deal. The couch is kind of Britta's space. Actually, Izabel and I view the entire living room as an extension of Britta's room because whenever she's home, she's always laying there and watching TV and doing crafts. Izabel and I don't really spend much time in there and when we do, we don't get to sit on the couch. A few weeks ago we watched a movie with Britta and when we went to sit on the couch she basically told us she was going to lay down there and we had to sit on the chairs instead. I wasn't a big deal and Izabel and I didn't really care but it did make sitting on the couch on Friday night really exciting. Sadly, it wasn't quite as comfortable as it looked.

Saturday was spent shopping around the city... without buying anything. Another way in which Izabel and I are really similar is that we wait to buy things until we've seen all that's out there and we only buy things unless we absolutely love them. So it will probably be a while before either of us actually purchase something big.

Then on Sunday a bunch of Britta's colleagues were meeting up for a picnic and campfire of sorts and Izabel and I got to tag along. It was both fun and awkward. Most of Britta's colleagues are younger and have children under the age of eight and while it was nice to meet them and their children, none of the children spoke any English... so they pretty much ignored us. The adults also didn't really say much to us either. This was probably a combination of then not being really good at English and their culture. It's not really a Danish thing to talk to strangers at all. Even though we had been introduced, it's not really in their culture to go out of their way to try and talk to newcomers and make them comfortable. As a reslut, Izabel and I just enjoyed observing for the most part. Though there was one Dane who actually did go out of his way to talk to us a little. It was probably because he had a lot of friends in the US so he knew a little bit more English and about our culture. Even though we didn't talk a ton, we were still able to connect with everyone there on some level. When we made a fire and cooked bread, the wind kept blowing smoke into everyone's eyes. At one point, pretty much everyone was crying from the smoke in their eyes and everyone was just laughing about it.
Also, during the afternoon, I kept hearing people saying something that sounded distinctly like "spider". Pretty much every time I heard it, I looked up from what I was doing. When I finally asked Britta about it she laughed at me and then proceeded to explain that the word they were saying means "scout" (as in Boy Scout). Well the Dane who had been talking to us earlier heard this conversation and of course Britta gave him context by telling him about my fear of spiders. He adopted a very serious expression and told me that I had to be really careful about all the poisonous spiders here. For a split second I believed him. And even though it was only a split second, I guess I still looked petrified...which everyone found to be really amusing. So even though no actual spiders were involved, they still managed to creep their way into the conversation. 

 

Me drinking tea and most likely burning my tongue

 

Baking bread!

 

Me and Britta eating bread. A lot of people take the bread off the stick and put ketchup and a hotdog in the hole. I just eat the bread.  :)

 

Everyone around the fire

Another thing I've noticed about the Danes is that they don't say "hi" to each other on the street. They actually don't really make eye contact at all. This particular cultural aspect has been particularly difficult for me to adjust to. It's easy enough for me to try not to be awkward and make eye contact all the time but the hard part is that I really want to.  I really miss these small interactions with total strangers. For some reason, I really love those small moments when two people who don't know each other at all are able to connect even on a very basic level.  Moments like that make me really happy and it's hard not really having that here. Before coming here, I never realized how much I make eye contact with people on the street or say "hi". Tourists are about the only people who will consistently make eye contact with you. 

A Party Bus and Danish Gangsters

About two days have passed since I've returned to Copenhagen and I am still exhausted. I definitely could have used another day to recuperate. One day between a three day long study tour and classes was not nearly enough for my mental sanity. 

My class left the city at 8:30 am on Thursday morning. I was expecting to ride in a large bus similar to a greyhound. Instead, my class got to ride on what was quickly dubbed "the party bus".  Instead of multiple rows of seats facing the front, there were clusters of four seats all facing each other around a table. The back of the bus was even fancier because it was basically like a large booth with a narrow table in the center. There was also a mini bar in the middle of the bus and the whole place was decorated in a very unappealing combination of blue and red. Minus the shine and sparkle, the seats were very reminiscent of a 50's diner. And about half of the time it is smelled awful, truly awful (think outhouse or sewage awful). With over ten hours total on the bus we all quickly grew to have a love-hate relationship with it.

 

I sat in the back of the bus in the booth. That's my professor on the right. 

Pretty view of the road from the back of the bus.

 

Our first destination on The Party Bus was actually lunch. We stopped at an inn just outside Århus (or Aarhus) and the buffet they prepared for us was extremely fancy. There were piles of food and all twenty-three students, one professor, one intern, and one bus driver could hardly put a dent in it. 

 

The next stop on the list was to a lecture about ACT from a woman named Louis Nielson. She works at the Århus university hospital and runs therapy session fro people with functional disorders. Functional disorders are when someone has physical symptoms that cause extreme discomfort and distress but have no organic cause. The patients that Louis works with either have a FD of bodily distress syndrome or health anxiety. She used ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy) to in group therapy session. It's actually really interesting because ACT basically says that people's thoughts aren't the problem and that the problem actually lies in the attempt to avoid thoughts. ACT also focuses more on what an individual wants their life to be about and what stops them from living that life...so it has a lot to do with individual values. In the therapy sessions, they do a lot of mindfulness based exercises. Personally, I think there are a lot of really good things going on in ACT and that it could be used as a complementary therapy for lots of different things.

After the lecture, we drove to the Århus museum where we were given a tour and examined the relationship between art and psychology. Naturally, I was extremely excited about this portion of the trip. While the tour fell a little flat because the tour guide didn't really know much about psychology, the museum itself was really cool. The architect built it to reflect Dante's Inferno. So the basement is painted black (it only has installations) and represents hell. Then there is a spiral staircase that although it says it has about nine levels, only actually has seven landings. Each landing is supposed to represent one of the seven deadly sins. The idea is that, with each level you go up, you purge yourself of each sin. You have to go outside to get to the top level and it's a large circular walkway that's rainbow colors. Clearly this represents heaven. Being able to understand all the symbolism and the circles of hell made me really appreciate having read Dante's Inferno (something I really wasn't able to do while I was reading it).

 

Outside view of the museum.

 

Our class probably stood here for five minutes trying to decide whether or not this was a real person. It isn't. 

 

Giant figure. Izabel says it looks just like her brother Noah. 

 

View of Århus from the rainbow. 

 

This is the spiral staircase that rids you of all your sins.

Next stop: the hostel. This place actually turned out to be really nice and was much more like a hotel. Once we got there and checked in, we were on our own for the evening. Somehow, I ended up in a dinner group with the five guys in my class and our professor (partially it was because I felt bad that she was with only guys). It was a lot of fun though and my professor and I did some good bonding over the ridiculous things the guys were saying. Izabel was also in Århus that night so she met up with us part way through dinner and afterwards, she and I walked around the city. There were a lot of festivals going on because Århus is trying to be the new cultural capital of Europe.

 

View of  Århus from the back of the bus.

 

My hostel room!  I shared with another girl from my class.

 

Århus at night.

 

Canal that runs through the city.

On day two (Friday) we woke up bright and early go to to the Kaospilots. Now, contrary to the name, these people aren't actually pilots (it was kind of a disappointment). But the Kaospilots are actually amazing. It's a school whose focus is on teaching people about navigating life in chaos. It's a three year school that is like a psychological economics school can be considered a bachelor's degree. Students learn to work with organizations, with people, learn about how to be a good co-worker and a good leader. And it sounds kind of stupid but the things they learn are quite amazing. No one really thinks to teach life skills but this school does a lot of that. They help give people focus and teach them about balance and living a valued life. For a semester, each class year or "team" (which is only about thirty people I think) goes to another country and does a research project or works with a company to form and advertise new products. So they do a lot of this sort of thing. I think it's really cool. It's not as fluffy as it may sound. It's actually an internationally recognized school.

After the Kaospilots, we went to Esbjerg and met the director of another sort of school. It's not really a school but functions like one. It's called the Skills Project. They take students ages 16-25 who come from difficult childhoods and have had no success at school or have no where to turn in terms of education. Then they place them in this program and it basically helps the students find themselves and accept their past. You could think of it almost as a therapy school. They eat breakfast there everyday and they learn about economics and psychology and health. But all the work is very individual and in that way acts as a sort of therapy. The whole philosophy of the Skill Project is founded in positive psychology and awareness of individual strengths and awareness of well being and happiness. As the project manager said "students start to find the road to happiness".

Finally, we went to a new hostel in Ribe. This one wasn't quite as nice but it worked. The whole class also went out to a Mongolian Barbeque which was basically like a giant stir-fry. It tasted so good! And one of my classmates complimented me on my form when using chopsticks which was exciting. After dinner we had a bonfire and instead of making s'mores, we (naturally) made bread. This is how the Danes do s'mores. The owner of the hostel prepared a bunch of bread dough and we wound it around sticks and cooked it over the fire. It was so good!!

 

Hostel room in Ribe. 

Saturday was day three and we got to do a giant scavenger hunt around the quaint town of Ribe. It's pretty much a quintesental European town and I belive one of the oldest towns in Denmark. Our class spilt into teams and ran around to different points trying to answer questions about history and architecture. It was a lot of fun and though some people weren't into it as much, I love this sort of things so I tried to get my group into it (it also helped that I was pretty much the only one who was good at reading maps). My team ended up winning and we were rewarded for our hard efforts with chocolate. It was a pretty good way to start the morning.

 

Smallest house in Ribe (possibly in Denmark as well).

 

Street view or Ribe.

 

The winning team! Yay!

Next we went to a Castle that seemed to be pretty much in the middle of nowhere. It was smaller than I expected but very beautiful. The grounds were spacious and there were tons of mazes and gardens to wander around. They had also turned part of the grounds into a mini attraction site. There were a lot of fun activities there along with some very boring motorcycle museums that I avoided at all costs. After another wonderful buffet lunch and three hours of walking around the grounds, we all got back on the bus and headed back to Copenhagen.

 

Castle! They never told us who's castle it was though. All I know is nobility used to own it.  (I think the descendents still own it actually.)

 

There was a bunny pen and a couple of Danish children were throwing leaves into it to fee the bunnies. They flocked like crazy. 

 

We did a large maze with a tower in the middle. This is a view of the grounds from the tower.

 

Treetop garden walkway! So much fun! 

It was a really fun three days and it definitely helped me to get to know my classmates better. I'm really excited to go on the long study tour to London with them. It was also exciting because today in class, I could finally recognize everyone.

Sunday was a very relaxing day. Izabel and I went to the beach again and made baked apples which were delicious! We also started knitting. We kept telling Britta to teach us. It really ended up being Britta teaching Izabel how to knit and just reminding me how to cast on. We're both making infinity scarves and I can't wait for mine to be done! With colder weather closely approaching, the more warm things I have the better.

There were a few interesting things I noticed about Danish culture while traveling through western Denmark. The fist was that highway rules appear to be the same as in the US. People wanting to pass or go fast drive in the left lane. Also, they drive on the right side of the road here not the confusing way on the left side. I've also noticed that they eat a lot of sandwich meat at breakfast. At both hostels it was a big thing to have lots of bread next to piles of cheese and sandwich meat. I didn't eat any of it though because it felt way too much like lunch for my stomach to handle at eight in the morning.

Izabel has also completely changed my eating preferences in the short time we've been here. If I hadn't already said, she's gluten and mostly lactose intolerant and is vegetarian. So we eat a lot of rice and beans and salad at our house. And I've actually fallen in love with it. Rice and chickpeas or quinoa and chickpeas are my new favorite things (especially with avocado and spices and herbs). I also really like nuts and raisins now. My family better be warned because when I come back in four months, this is all I'm going to want to eat. Also, raw food cake is probably the best thing in the world. All you do is put a bunch of walnuts, dates, and cacao (NOT cocoa) in a food processor. Then add chopped up almonds, spread in a pan and freeze. It's one of my new favorite desserts. So good.

Last night Izabel and I had some wonderful adventures on our way home. Naturally DIS just likes to inflict cruel and unusual punishment on it's architecture students so Izabel had a class yesterday that went until 8:15...PM. It was awful. And it was strange because we were so exhausted mentally but had so much energy physically that we felt really hyper and delirious on the train ride home (our failure to pack sufficient lunches that day didn't help). Then when we were getting of the train, the button to open the door wasn't really there and instead there was just a flat metal plate. It was really confusing and rather frustrating. And the conversation went something like this...

Izabel: Oh my god, we're going to be stuck on this freaking train! If we can't get off this train, I'm going to yell at the conductor.
Me: And I'm sure as you do so, you'll throw in the names of some of the train stops (she was saying them nonstop on the ride home).
Izabel threw her arms up all gangster style and aggressively announced the name of one of the stops. I started laughing hysterically mainly because that's the last thing I would have expect Izabel to do.

Five minutes later:
Izabel: Do you know what this makes us?!
Me: No...
Izabel: Danish gangsters!

These are the kinds of conversations you have on the train... at 9 pm... on a Monday night...especially after waking up at 6 am and having been in the city for over 12 hours. Welcome to Mondays with Izabel and Claire.