Copenhagen Weekend!

This is the story of my weekend. I apologize for the length, but it must be told!!!: I may have told everyone this story (*cough* Luke & Dad *cough*) who follows my blog. But for future reference I'll write it down!!

So I got on the bus to Copenhagen at 3:30 in the morning. Getting a little bit of sleep here and there, but probably not enough. After getting off the bus, I recognized a Chinese guy (that I'm going to call John because that's what I heard come out of this mouth...haha) with a JIBS (Jonkoping International Business School) bag that they gave out the first week. After talking to him, I decided to go to the hostel he was staying at to see if they had any other rooms available. The only rooms they had were double rooms for 500 DKK /night (danish crowns) a night. So after getting directions to the other hostels near downtown, and saying goodbye to John, I found a place for 400 DKK for two nights...not bad.

The yellow line on the edge of the building is a thermometer! Also to the right, I like the slogan "probably the best beer in town..."probably!

Here's a cemetery that I stumbled upon on my walk the first day..pretty much a garden!

As for looking around Copenhagen, I got a 24 hr bus pass which also had some free deals to museums and other nice sights. Around 6 in the evening, I was walking around a park when I saw John with two other Chinese girls. Haha, he looked quite surprised to see me. After walking around a little bit more, we ate at a pizza buffet and went back to John's hostel and played some card games. A good day I must say so for not having anything planned!!


One thing I know about Jordan, the keyboardist for Dream Theater, is he likes to walk around the city that the band is playing at....so my objective for Sunday was to try and find Jordan in Copenhagen...haha the task seemed a little tricky but I didn't care...He also has been tracking some of the places he has been with his iPhone. Just taking short clips of him, in the city and some clips of the other members before or after the show.

So around 9:30 I started my journey. First, I thought to check some of the more obvious spots in Copenhagen that I would think he would go to...for example, where I went yesterday. I walked up and down some main streets, looking for a bald guy with a wicked goatee...haha

After three hours of constant walking, I was starting to lose some hope...how on Earth would I find find one guy in all of Copenhagen? Maybe he didn't feel like walking around today...that would suck, but definitely a possibility.


At one point, I found myself in the same park that I saw John the day before and took a seat at the bench. After 10 mintues, I see Jordan freakin' Rudess waiting at a crosswalk to come towards the park. After a rush/shock that ran through my body, I told myself to remain calm (as possible) and just introduce myself. I was wearing my Liquid Tension Experiment sweatshirt, which he is a member of that band as well and have some instant recognition of me as a fan. I walk up to him, hand out for a shake and after a couple minutes of me explaining to him what a guy from Wisconsin was doing in Copenhagen, we continued walking around the city. We were pretty close to a cool canal I saw earlier, so I thought it would be a good idea to go over there. At one point, he takes out his iPhone and tells me to introduce where we were...too cool! Here's one of the videos. I enjoy the comments the people have :)

**EDIT** I forgot to mention the ticket situation!!! So, I couldn't get the tickets to the show Friday night off ticketmaster because the show was too close to the date, so my plan was to go to the actual hall and buy the ticket there on Saturday. Well, they weren't open, so my new plan was to get the ticket when the doors open Sunday night. I had a feeling the show wouldn't be sold out, but there was always that chance..so when I was walking and talking with Jordan, we were talking about the concert that night. Not even thinking about it, I told him my situation and he instantly pulls out his iPhone and texts the band manager (rikk = rick) and gives me a free ticket and after show pass!!! Should have proof-read the blog, a good chunk of information missing there...haha

After a 20 minute walk and another video, Jordan and I sat down for a drink at one of the restaurants by the canal we were at earlier. It was really cool just to talk to Jordan, knowing he's a huge and respected musician, but just talking to him about anything else like another guy. I honestly can't remember everything we talked about. I mentioned to him the Flowers band and some of the stories from playing with them. He showed some cool apps he has for the iPhone and let me play with it a little bit...haha again, too cool!!! Two more videos were taken on the way back to Jordan's hotel near the downtown. Both of street musicians. 1st one...and second one

So, before the show I got just a little after show pass that I put on my shirt...and since Jordan hooked me up with a free ticket, I could buy a shirt and still save money!
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The concert itself was great. There were four bands: Unexpect, BigElf, Opeth (from Sweden) and of course Dream Theater. The nice thing about Dream Theater is they like to mix up their line up, so for the third time seeing them, I heard a few new songs (besides the ones off their new album) I hadn't seen before.

I honestly didn't know what was going to happen at the after show. I was hoping to see everyone from Dream Theater and maybe some of the other band members and talk with a bunch of the other people that got to go to the after show.Well, it wasn't like that at all...haha.

After the show, the people with the after show pass were to wait to the right of the stage while the band members got a little break and cleaned up before seeing the few fans that were invited to the after show. There was one guy from Romania who was very impatient and wanted to see Opeth as soon as possible. He said he was a promoter and helped with a 10,000 person festival in Romania...cool I guess, but he was not very nice. Anyone at the show would have been content with waiting for 2-3 times longer than what we did just to see the band members!! Including me!!

So after about 15 minutes, one of the guys who I recognize from the dvds and behind the scenes stuff brought us back to a cafeteria place. After the impatient Romanian guy asked again who he could talk to and get "some answers" as to where Opeth was, he was given the bad news that they had already left...I didn't feel bad for him at all though.
After another 10 minute wait, Jordan came out and talked with me and the two other guys that were sitting at the table. I thanked him again for the free ticket and after show pass. After that, he said goodbye. Earlier during the day, he gave me his email and skype account! So last night I chatted with him a little bit while he had a free day in Berlin.

The other guy I found out was a guitar player who plays clinics and is sponsored by Ibanez. Magnus Olsson from Sweden. He got his tickets from John Petrucci (the guitar player) so the same guy who brought us back went to go get John and see if he would be able to say hello quick. Of course, I stayed too just to see one of my favorite guitar players and one of the guys who inspired me to start learning guitar...seeing him walk down the little hall sent yet another rush of excitement/shock through my body. Had a little bit of an awkward handshake with him: went to shake his hand, no hand was shown on his part, then saw I had my hand out, then he gave me the handshake...haha

Magnus and John talked some guitar tech stuff for a good 10 minutes while I listened not knowing 80% of what was said, but he could be talking in Russian and I would still listen just the same..it's John freakin' Petrucci! Magnuss stated he wanted to see how his rig (amps, speakers) were set up on stage, but they had already torn that down, so instead he asked if he could see one of John's guitars and look at the setup of it....a great request if I must say so myself!!!

John left and came back with one of his 14 guitars he has on the tour. And after Magnuss played a little bit and commented on the setup, he passed it to the next guy, Nickolas, around my age, who played a little bit and then passed the guitar to me...holy s*t! Here I am, holding one of John Petrucci's guitars, playing a little bit of it, while he's right across from me in a cafeteria place in Copenhagen on a Sunday night....if you would have told me that a week ago, I would have thought you were on something and making a very unfunny joke...and yet it happened!!! how great things can turn out just for being at the right place at the right time.

After saying goodbye to John, Magnuss Nickolas and I went our separate ways. The buses stopped going 30 minutes earlier, so I decided to take a taxi. Being in Copenhagen at 1 in the morning on what was a 15 minute bus ride doesn't seem like the smartest time to walk...so I'll pay the extra money this time.

Got back to the hostel, tried sleeping but one of the new guys that was in the room snored soo much! His phone went off around 5, but he was sound asleep. it went off every hour after that. I had the buffet at the lobby, got on the bus at 9, back in Jonkoping at 1:30, class at 3-5, hockey game at 7, back home at 10:30...a very busy and eventful weekend to say the least!!

I still can't believe how lucky I was to see and meet Jordan. One different turn and I could have missed seeing him completely and the rest wouldn't have happened...it's quite funny though: Dream Theater's new album called Black Clouds and Silver Linings has some themes in the songs to the saying of 'black clouds and silver linings'. The same can be said about my situation. Here I was, wanting to go on the Norway trip, but couldn't because of the Marketing Management exam I had during that time. THEN thinking that 'ok, I'll go to the Dream Theater concert instead in Stockholm after the exam' NOPE! Exam is scheduled late in the day so I wouldn't have been able to make it to the concert in time....but making the decision to go out to Copenhagen by myself was the best idea I could have made. So in a very weird way, I have the exam to thank for getting in the way of what would have been an alternate world indeed for me....YAY SCHOOL!!! :)

Busy week....

**Oops!** forgot to post this when i first wrote it....this was from Friday night...

This past week has been QUITE busy for me study-wise...Two exams (one oral). I don't think I've studied this much in a long time...but paid off with the oral exam!!

Today, (Friday) I had my ridiculously important Marketing exam. Basically, I need to pass this exam (60%) to pass the class no matter what. The re-exam period for this is in the 5th week of the next year...WAY past the time I'll be back in WI. Therefore, if I fail this, I fail the class, don't get credit back home, and get in some trouble with the student loan peeps, because I won't be qualified as a full-time student!
I don't want to get my hopes up, so I'll just patiently wait for the results sometime next week. I felt like I did ok...I started to get a headache during the exam from all the intense thinking. This was probably the first exam I took that I didn't have to fill in a little circle in a LONG time! Just a 'X' on a table for each question. And a 60 word MAX for short answer questions. I found it funny at the end of this ridiculously important exam to be counting how many freakin' words I had...more than 60 and no credit!! Interesting ways people have with tests.....

Afterwards, I talked to my parents and let them know how it went. I also mentioned that Dream Theater was playing in Copenhagen this weekend. And after some words of wisdom, told me to go! So now (Friday night) I'm waiting to get on a bus to Copenhagen at 3:30 in the morning... As there aren't many Dream Theater fans here, I'm going by myself and hopefully finding a relatively cheap youth hostel to stay in and take a bus back Monday morning in time for class in the afternoon.

Gränna & Visingö

It's been a while since my last entry....I should have posted something last week about my trip to Gränna & Visingö while it was still fresh in my mind, but I will use this lovely Sunday afternoon to try and remember as much as possible.

Gränna is a small town about 30 minutes by bus from Jönköping. Around 60 people (all International students) went on the trip.

First, we visited a museum and learned about a man by the name of S.A Andrée, a balloonist from the late 19th century. He tried to explore more of the Arctic Sea and Bering Strait with a hydrogen balloon and two other people with him. Basically, they flew for 5 days, crashed, and tried to walk back to land. Unfortunately, they didn't make it, but one of the members of the expedition had a camera and a diary. 33 years later, another group found their stuff, including the camera and diary and able to tell the story of the failed expedition! FUN huh? I thought so!


Next, we visited a candy shop across from the museum. They are famous for making candy canes. The store and the kitchen they make the candy are right next to each other, so you can see the chef making the candy.

After that, we took a 15 minute ferry to the island of Visingö. We had a little "BBQ" aka two hambergers, and rode bikes around the island. At Visingö, there's an old castle that they used back in the 18th century to keep Russian POWs. The island isn't very big, at one point you can see the water from both sides.
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Other than that, not much has been going on. School is going alright. The Swedish education system is a little bit different that I'm used to. There isn't a set day when there's class, or where it's located. You can have 3 meetings a week, or just one, and it can be on the 4th floor or 2nd floor. There are also clashes with classes. So, if both of your classes are at the same time, you have to just pick one to go to and hope there isn't a pop quiz in the other one! I've only had one clash, and that was in the beginning.
There are discussions called "Seminars" where you and your group (that you get paired up with in the beginning of the semester) meet with other groups, and the facilitator gives you a topic for you to discuss. Kind of an interesting way to teaching, because you can debate about the topic and learn that way instead of just reading it out of a book.
There's basically no homework/written assignments, but the exams and project work play a big role in the course.
Most of the classes are at least 2 hours, and up to 4 hours long. Usually, there's a break every hour or so. Which helps you get some coffee and stay awake.

School HAS gotten in the way of a trip to Norway that I hear is very good. I have an exam this Friday in Marketing Management. The exams are usually not that early, but for some reason, they decided to have this one early. The trip itself is 6 days, so you would miss some class anyway. I'm a little frustrated I'm so close to going to Norway, but can't (at least not yet). There is a trip to a place called Kiruna in Northern Sweden that looks great as well. Dog sledding is involved...hopefully I can get on that trip!

Ok this looks like a nice-sized blog. So I will leave you with this much for now! I'll try to keep up with this more than every couple weeks or so...