Today I wrote my first essay (it's a small one) in Danish, which is definitely a step in the right direction! It's pretty simple, but the mere fact that Danish grammar is so difficult to learn makes me happy that I was able to type this out:

I dag jeg har eksamen af økonomi og det var svært. Efter det, jeg går gik til italiensk klasse. Jeg studere italiensk ofte, og  jeg taler italiansk godt. Det italiensk sprog er svarende til spansk, og jeg taler spansk meget godt. Så, italiensk er nem for mig, fordi jeg taler spansk meget godt.

I sommer jeg rejste til Danmark på mit første rejse til Danmark. Jeg har mange familiemedlemmer i Danmark, og det mest bor i København. Én kusine bor i Vanløse og arbejder nær rådhuspladsen. Én mere kusine bor i Christianshavn og arbejder på et Palace Hotel i rådhuspladsen. Min grandonkel Svend bor i Ballerup og ikke arbejder. Han er pensioneret. Svend er det bror af min farmor. Han har en hyggeligt lejlighed og laver hans mad hver dag.

              

and since virtually nobody reads Danish except for Danish people, here's the translation:

"Today I had an economics exam and it was difficult. After that, I went to italian class. I study Italian often, and I speak it well. The italian language is similar to spanish, and I speak spanish very well. So, italian is easy for me, since I speak spanish so well. 

This summer I travelled to Denmark for my first trip there. I have a lot of family members in Denmark, and most of them live in Copenhagen. One cousin lives in Vanloese and works near the town square. Another cousin lives in Christianhavn and works at the Palace Hotel in the town square. My Great-Uncle Svend lives in Ballerup and doesn't work because he is retired. Svend is my grandmother's (dad's mom's) brother. He has a cozy apartment and cooks his own meals every day."

I'm very pleased with that little essay. 

On Friday i went to the Jewish center to celebrate the end of the jewish year with my roommates.  It was actually a really nice dinner,  and am interesting experience!  I think we're going to do this dinner every Friday night as a "family dinner." Although my roommates and I stay very busy,  we always try to have at least two dinners per week where we all eat together. 

As I'm sitting here listening to my 1980's hits playlist on the computer, I remembered that I should blog. I'm busier academically than I ever have been.

This year I have so many languages rolling around in my head... For my language credits at Yale, I'm studying Italian, and that's 5 days every week, only taught in Italian (no English allowed...even to ask a question in class). In a matter of three and a half weeks, I have gone from knowing nothing in Italian to writing three different essays in Italian, and being able to talk and understand my roommate who is from Milan when we talk. The language program here is really rigorous, but it teaches the languages phenomenally well.

On top of that, I'm incredibly afraid of losing my ability to speak Spanish fluently because  I am learning Italian and the two are so similar. So, I end up trying to read the news and watch a couple short news programs in Spanish every day or two.

And then on top of that, I am also taking Danish language classes privately taught through a language fellowship I won. I meet with my teacher twice per week, and he is already making me write an essay in Danish. That is incredibly difficult...I can understand the spoken language pretty well, but I have a really hard time writing my thoughts out in the language... so I suppose writing in Danish regularly is a good thing to do.

So it's a daily battle to continually hone my language skills, and switch from thinking in english to Danish to Italian to Spanish. My roommates and I speak Spanish in the suite so that we don't forget it, so that helps.

I also wanna post a sunset I took from my bedroom window last week.

Last night I commuted into  New York City to meet two of my cousins from Denmark, and it was a great time! I also was happy to spot one of the diesel locomotives of Amtrak at the New Haven train station. I took the train into Grand Central and then we went out to dinner.

And today, I got two packages from home! How great?!
I'm tired right now, but I'll post more details tomorrow evening.

I've really gotta get this whole regular blogging schedule down. I am now going to shoot for twice per week, but I'll see if I can do more. I'm less busy and more busy all at the same time this year. But anyways, here's some pictures of my last week.

I got my Georgia flag up on my wall, and I like it. I think it looks nice over the fireplace.

Yesterday I walked with my roommate to get some good fresh doughnuts...square doughnuts. I ate them before I could get pictures, so I have no pictures of the square doughnuts. Rest assured that Krispy Kreme is much better than this though. 

And then for lunch we went to Louis' Lunch...the first hamburger joint in America. It's still just as it was back when it opened over 100 years ago. Really good hamburgers too!