hello all!

i've been really busy lately as midterms approach. i have had time to squeeze in a few fun things, though. alex and i went to the carlsberg brewery which was pretty neat. we got to see all the inner workings of the brewery. i personally thought the room with all the brewing devices and levers and pulleys and creaking noises was a little bit creepy, but overall it was a good time. they have lots of pretty draft horses at the brewery which used to pull loads of beer around but are now just "ambassadors" for carlsberg. we got to taste some beers at the end of the tour, which, needless to say, i didn't enjoy very much. after that visit, we trekked on over to the national museum. unfortunately, it closed about an hour after we arrived so we only got through one exhibit. after that, alex and i set off in search of mexican food. we failed miserably and ended up having chinese instead. i miss minneapolis food soooo much. i can't wait to have a giant mexican feast when i get home.

in other news, i went on a great adventure for my nordic mythology class. we visited several viking-related sites this past saturday.

First, we went to the viking museum in roskilde. they have several rebuilt viking ships discovered at the bottom of the sea. morten warmind, our fearless leader and viking incarnate, told us all about the history of the ships. our next stop was actually not so viking-esque, but was a neolithic burial mound. we got to go inside the burial chamber which was incredibly dark and a bit spooky, but ultimately cool. after that, we moved on to a ship-shaped burial at lejre. lejre is where beowulf takes place! all that's left of the burial sites is a handful of stones, but it was pretty cool to be there. our second to last stop was the viking fortress at trelleborg. this was probably my favorite stop, despite the crazy wind and rain. the remains of the fortress were incredible. the museum wasn't actually open, but morten took us to the fortress anyway. our final stop was a church that was closed as well, but we got to see a runic stone outside the church which morten translated for us. he speaks old norse in class rather frequently.

here are some pictures of my adventures!