Home

So I’ve been in the U.S. for a few days now, and had a significant amount of Mexican and Thai food (with some bubble tea thrown in). Many non-European foods are still to come, but besides my ever-lingering jetlag (I’m still falling asleep on the couch around 10pm and waking up at 5am) I’m feeling fairly settled. It’s been weird to come back because as soon as it sunk in that I was actually in the U.S., it was hard for me to believe I was ever in Denmark. At times part of me believes that someone magically implanted all this information about Denmark into my head just to mess with me. Of course, whenever I think of hygge or my host family or delicious pastries, I do feel a pang of nostalgia, and I’m certainly already scheming of ways I can return to Europe sometime soon. For now, though, I’m enjoying the holiday season stateside (American Christmas pales in comparison to Danish holiday traditions) and trying to prepare myself for returning to Carleton (i.e. semi-real life). Last night I saw the Muppet movie with one of my friends and my sister (I highly recommend it) and I’m feeling generally pretty culturally acclimated. Of course, I’m still amazed by America’s cheap prices and shiny city lights and I definitely miss my quiet little Danish commute, complete with daily castle viewing. Still, it is so good to be home and enjoy such delicacies as the baby-sized burrito:

GOOD STUFF let me tell you. Anyhoozle, I think I’ll be wrapping this up (my LAST blog post) because today I’m going to pick out a Christmas tree for the second time this season.

Yes you read that right–I won’t be continuing this blog any longer, mostly because my life at home is not nearly as interesting as my life in Copenhagen, and I’m not sure anybody wants to read about how I sat around and watched TV then took my dog for a walk. Still, I have really enjoyed blogging about all the food that I encountered on my travels these past four months, and it’s possible I may continue that in one fashion or another. If it actually happens (read: it would be a Christmas miracle if I managed to do anything productive over this break) I’ll be sure to post a link here.

In any case, I guess this is hej hej for now. Thanks for reading about my adventures–I hope you didn’t mind my lazy food ramblings too much. And for all you DIS prospectives/future students out there (or anybody else who’s curious I suppose), please continue to feel free to ask me any questions about my experience in Denmark. I really truly enjoyed this semester, and I would highly recommend DIS to anybody who’s considering it!

Once a List-maker, Always a List-Maker

So, this will probably be my LAST BLOG POST before my return to Seattle. Crazy, scary, exciting? Yes, yes, yes. The past few days I have been re-reading my earlier blogs, and it’s so funny to think back to my first couple of days here, when I was so unsure of how my semester would unfold. Since then, I have experienced so many wonderful things (and tasted so many delicious foods), I cannot hope to sum it all up in one final reflective statement. List-maker that I am, however, I will attempt to do so in a few different statements. Probably fighting a losing battle, but it’s the best I got.

This Semester I Learned:

• To actually enjoy tea.
• How to speak Danish (not really) and understand it (just listen for key words)
• How much I really do LOVE eating.
• The procrastination fairy exists all over the world.
• How to eat with a knife and fork and not look like a 3 year old (now I eat more like a 9 year old).
• To love candles (never mind the fire hazard).
• How to make proper smørrebrød
• How to use Danish kroner (though I may have forgotten how American money works…)
• What I’ll probably do for my career/life (kind of important)
• How much I love Europe (and how to travel around it by myself)
• The importance of hygge

Jeg vil savner (I will miss): 

• My favoritest host family (and my bestest host dog!) <3
• Wienerbrød
• Home-cooked Danish food
• Danish 7/11s
• My commute (and seeing Frederiksborg Castle every day!)
• Candles/hygge
• Tea, cookies, and candy every night
• Danish fashion and shopping (so many sweaters!)
• DIS friends–Why won’t you all just move to Minnesota?
• Being a short  plane ride away from anywhere in Europe
• Hearing Danish everywhere I go
• Being a short walk away from hundreds of years of history and culture

I’m looking forward to:

• Eating Mexican/Thai/Indian/Japanese/Chinese/Vietnamese/all non-European food
• “Cheap” not being defined as under 100 kr.
• SLEEPING ALL DAY EVERY DAY
• Seeing my sister and my doggy!
• Driving my car!
• SO MUCH BUBBLE TEA
• Being able to understand people around me
• Seeing Carleton people again! (and returning to Carleton academics…)
• Giving everybody all their European gifts
• Regressing to my baggy sweatpants self (but also bringing a little Danish fashion back home)

Obviously all those lists could go on forever, but that’s a brief summary for you. If you couldn’t tell, I’m pretty conflicted about all this–on the one hand, there’s so much to look forward to about going home, but there’s also so much that will be missing in my life once I leave Denmark. Luckily, I still have one more day to see a couple last friends, eat my last morsels of Danish food, and have one last hyggeligt dinner with my host family (or rather, Charlotte and Cille). Above all, it’s my host family that has really made this experience as great as it was, and I can’t thank them enough for everything they’ve done for me. This has truly been an amazing semester, and I am SO glad I chose to come to DIS.

 

Never Want to Say Goodbye

So I’m (almost) officially done with work now. Just one test left on Friday, and I’m home free! That means more time to eat–I mean blog. I’ll start by catching up on my weekend, which was busy but lots of fun and very Danish.

Saturday was my host farfar, Eric’s (Søren’s dad) 70th birthday party. In the afternoon, my host mormor (Charlotte’s mom) came over from Jylland (Jutland) with her husband for lunch. We all went to the party around 5pm to be early because it started at 6pm. The first part of the party began as all Danish get-togethers do: lots of handshakes and introductions. In Denmark, you’re supposed to say hello and goodbye to each person individually, even if there are 50 people in attendance at a gathering, like there were on Saturday. Charlotte informs me that this is why it’s important to be early (so you can stand around while others come and say hello to you, rather than having to make a tour around the room). After probably about half an hour, we were lead to our seats by our table leaders. I was sitting with Charlotte, which was nice because she tried to give me some idea of what was going on with all the toasts and songs and such. And there were a lot of toasts and songs and such. At Danish birthday parties, it’s customary to write songs for the person of honor and have everybody sing them. So throughout the meal we were constantly being stopped and handed a set of lyrics or listening to a toast or something. And this was not a short dinner. We had a few different courses–appetizers, main course in the form of a buffet, fruits and cheese, cake (a special Serbian cake made as a present by one of Eric’s friends), coffee, more drinks, and finally a “go home” meal of sandwiches around 2am. Apparently this was a “short” party because most of the guests were elderly and could not stay out for dancing. It was really fun though, and I enjoyed getting to experience such a Danish tradition.

On Sunday, I attended another quintessential Danish event–a fodbold (i.e. football, i.e. soccer) game! This was an event done by DIS for all students in Danish classes, as well as those lucky enough to buy the extra subsidized tickets DIS provided before they sold out. The game was FCK (FC København) vs. AGF (Århus GF?). Obviously most people were rooting for FCK but AGF is Charlotte’s favorite team, so I had to stay loyal, obviously. I was a bit worried about finding my way to the stadium at first, but on the way I ran into several other DIS students waiting for the bus. Of course, when the bus finally showed up, it let about 2 people (out of maybe 15) on and then drove off. So we decided to walk. Luckily it was not that far, and it turned out to not be a super popular game, so there were plenty of seats left. I found Shuyao and Michelle amidst the crowd and settled in for what I thought would be a long game. But it actually went really quickly. Obviously all soccer games are basically the same length, but I think I’m just used to watching baseball games with tons of standing around and extra innings. Of course, I had to get a hot dog and a Carlsberg to complete the experience, and Shuyao also bought some popcorn that I had a significant portion of. All in all, it was a fun time, though slightly disappointing since neither team scored at all. The fans were super intense though. At the beginning both sides had flares and then there was an FCK cheering section that was bellowing organized cheers and bouncing in time a bunch. So that was fun to see.

Monday we had our last Danish class! It turned out to be really fun because our teacher Ditte Marie brought in her daughter, Amanda, and some Christmas treats for us. First we enjoyed some Christmas cookies and æbleskiver–basically like little pancake balls. Traditionally they have apple slices in them (hence the “æble”) but now you can just get them frozen and they don’t come with the apple. Apparently you can also get them at Trader Joe’s in the U.S., so I’ll be on the lookout when I get home. Then we had a Christmas decorating competition (kind of a mix between Danish and American cultures because Danes would never compete like that–everybody has to be equal). Our team was the smallest, and we also did not get any help from Amanda, so our table ended up looking a bit sad. Still, it was lots of fun, and I managed to make a Christmas star all by myself (you can see it on top of our “tree”). Needless to say, we did not win…

Which brings me to TODAY. A lovely day, if I do say so myself. I began leisurely, since I finished Positive Psychology last week. We got treats in both my European Clinical Psychology and my Adolescence in Northern Europe classes–no complaints there. The highlight of the day by far was my dinner at Den Tatoverede Enke as a reward for being a blogger this semester! It was super fancy, with three different courses and a beer especially paired with each one–definitely something I would not have paid for myself, but such a wonderful and hyggeligt experience! I took pictures of all the food and beer (unsurprising if you’ve been following this blog at all). It was fun because I didn’t know most of the people in attendance that well, and I got to chat with a variety of people including other bloggers, videographers for DIS, and one of the Architecture and Design interns. Additionally, they announced the Blogger of the Year, which was Perri VanderClock. She has a great blog you can read here (or it’s also on the DIS Blogger page). As a prize for all the bloggers, we also got super pretty customized Moleskine notebooks with our names imprinted onto the cover, so that was pretty cool (I am a big fan of Moleskine and was actually about to buy a new one for myself! Good thing I waited…).

two kinds of bread with herb butter and a Danish beer with a bit of spice

this was the second beer (same as bottle above). had an orange flavor to be well-paired with the duck.

duck confit with red cabbage, parsnip puree, a potato, and i think some apple sauce or something. it was exquisite.

panna cotta with almond. basically a play on risalamande, with all the ingredients separated and in a different form. sooo tasty.

this was the beer paired with our dessert... it was made from cherries and tasted sweet and not very beer-like. meant to be the "cherry sauce" for the risalamande theme.

So anyway I have to wrap this up because I am waking up early tomorrow, not to go to class, but to go exploring around Copenhagen! My high school friend Audrey who now goes to University of Edinburgh is visiting on her way home for break. She’ll be my first (and only) visitor in Copenhagen, so I’m really excited. We’re gonna go to Nyhavn, Sankt Peders Bageri, and a museum or two. On Thursday she’s coming up to Hillerød to see Frederiksborg and to meet my host family! Basically, this week is awesome, and I never want to leave Copenhagen!

Just about a week ago when I was in the midst of work, I thought I was prepared to leave, but now that I have time to spend I am starting to realize (for the bajillionth time) that I’m going to miss all of this sooo much! It’s absolutely INSANE that I only have a week and a half left here, and I’m already freaking out a bit. There’s so much to see and eat and shop for! At least I have finally gotten myself a big fatty circle scarf, which is an absolute staple in Danish fashion (it actually took me like 3 days to decide which one I wanted, which Lacey has not stopped making fun of me for, and I am in love with it because it is so cozy!). While I’m excited to show that and other Danish traditions to people at home and at school, I cannot believe I’m not returning here in the immediate future! I guess I’ll just have to soak it up as much as I can, but I don’t think anything will prepare me to leave this country and the people I have grown to love so much over the past 4 months. It’s funny to look back at my first few days here, when I couldn’t believe I’d be staying here for 4 full months. Now I can’t believe I’m not living here forever!

Turkey Day

Well, I meant to do a quick update post-Thanksgiving and pre-Amsterdam, but obviously that did not happen. My apologies. Here’s the first part. Amsterdam update still to come.

Thanksgiving was fantabulous. I was pretty stressed about it, because we were cooking for seventeen people and neither me nor Charlotte had made most of the foods on the menu. We did it though! And by we, I mean mostly Charlotte because I was in class (Danish final test successfully completed, for better or for worse) and as those who know me well can attest, I am not exactly terribly efficient at, well, anything [e.g. she peeled about fifty potatoes to my ten]. Everything turned out wonderfully though, even our HUGE (9 kilo) turkey, despite the fact that we did not get it until Thursday morning, and were unable to brine it according to the recipe. Altogether, we made turkey, stuffing with bacon, onion, and sage, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, green beans, gravy, cranberry compote, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie. Not bad if I do say so myself. Although Shuyao did not make it because she was already on her way to Vienna for a study tour, Scarlet did make it just in time for dinner (despite a brief moment in which I believed she was lost in the cold and the dark without any way to contact me). I explained the holiday and the food ot everybody, since they’d never tried most of it before. Everybody seemed to really enjoy it though, and although I could not understand 90% of the conversation, I did hear a lot of “laekkert”s and the whole experience was very hyggeligt. We had decorations courtesy of Karen’s sister who lives in the U.S., and one of the little girls took home a paper turkey to show her kindergarten class the next day. ADORABLE.

Overall it was one of my better Thanksgivings, and certainly the biggest one I can remember having–funny that it happened in Denmark. Experiences like this definitely make me look at my own culture in a different way though. I’m sure I’ll be reflecting on this a lot more as I prepare to return to the U.S. in less than 3 weeks (CRAZY) but being in Europe for a semester has really allowed me to look at American culture from the outside. There are things that I wish were more like the Danish system, and things I definitely miss, but most of all it’s just really cool to be able to see it as a culture at all. I think as Americans we have a tendency to see ourselves as the center of the universe, and as bland/non-defined, maybe partially because our culture is so globalized. Being here has really allowed me to see my own culture for what it is, both the bad and the good parts of it, and it’s a perspective I hope to be able to carry with me even when I am re-immersed back at home.

our giant turkey, pre-cooking, with pen on top for scale

on the door to greet the guests

Famous for a Day

So you remember what I said about that new refrigerator from Bingo Banko? Didn’t exactly work out that way. I’m sure you’re shocked and dismayed. I did get a couple of (separate) full lines though! Unfortunately that happened when we were going for the whole board… Still, it was a really hyggeligt time with my host family. Speaking of hygge, that concept has been so integrated into my vocabulary, I’m going to have a hard time not using it all the time when I go back home! Just the other day I was talking to a friend from home and I just said “hyggeligt” without even thinking about the fact that they don’t know what that means. I think I might even have more culture shock returning home than I did coming here!

On Saturday I also got to skype with my friends Lauren and Kendall from home. It was really nice to talk to some familiar people, since it’d been a while since I’d skyped with anybody, and I’d been feeling just a touch homesick (the most all semester actually) after returning from travel break and still having a month left to go. Now I am quite revived and back in the Copenhagen spirit–just in time to be whisked away to Amsterdam for the weekend. I’m sure it’ll be really fun, but it’s definitely not going to help my ever-struggling motivation to do schoolwork!

Sunday was the DIS julefrokost, or Christmas lunch. Danes have these meals several times both before and after Christmas–at work, with different groups of friends, and then with family during actual Christmastime–so it actually wasn’t weird to have one in November (they don’t have Thanksgiving as a buffer for Christmas spirit, so decorations are going up all over the city,and Christmas spirit is in full swing–makes me really confused about what date it is!). The event was huge–about 500 people, including DIS students, staff, host families, Danish roommates, friends, buddies, etc. I went with my host family, and successfully met up with Shuyao and Scarlet. We ate a lot lot lot of all the traditional foods–flæskesteg, sild, rugbrød, fiskefillet med remoulade, risalamande, cake, and lots of candy. Then we played the Danish Christmas game, although this time none of us won anything because we were sitting in the middle of the long table–way too vulnerable for gift-stealing. We were hopeful for the Christmas tree raffle, but no luck there either (it was not our week for winning prizes). At the end of the meal, we had a group sing-along of both American and Danish Christmas songs, including “12 Days of Christmas” and a Danish song where you join hands and run around (usually the house, but all 500 of us ran around the giant warehouse-type room) singing over and over, faster and faster until you can’t go anymore. People were a bit hesitant at the beginning, but by the last song everybody was having a good time running around. It was oddly hyggeligt even with so many people. I also got to see Lacey and Frida (her 8 year-old host sister) again, and Frida actually remembered me and wanted to say hi to me! Yay! She even gave me a piece of her candy, and didn’t want to leave until we were leaving (I think she had been hoping I’d be going home with them. So cute!).

Then last night I had my TV debut! That’s right, I’m a star now! (Not really…)

What actually happened is that my Danish family took me to see a taping of The Voice (the Danish version, obviously). You may not have heard of it, but the first season in the U.S. happened last spring… it’s a singing competition like American Idol, only during auditions, the judges are actually facing away from the singers, so they can’t judge them based on how they look, they only hear their voice (hence the title). I had never been to see a taping of any show before so I was really excited. The premiere of the show is happening this Saturday, so the episode we saw is actually not airing until January, but my host mom promised she will let me know if we show up and will try and send me a Youtube link. The actual taping was interesting… we had a lot of waiting time, and they had to film some of the scenes a few times so we had to repeat our excited faces/clapping several times. My hands hurt by the end. Also, they had an apparently very funny guy entertaining the audience (probably to keep us happy so we are smiling during the takes) but of course he was talking in Danish so I couldn’t understand any of it. I mostly caught a lot of “Fantastisk!”s from the judges… but that’s about all I understood. Still the singing was really good, and the songs were all American songs that I recognized. It makes me really want to watch the show now… I’m curious to see how they put together the shots and how they choose to edit it. We’ll see if we show up on television!

On the way home, one my (home) family’s favorite Christmas songs came on–”Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer”. If you haven’t heard it, you’re missing out. My host family had never heard it before, and they thought it was pretty funny. It was nice to have a little taste of the home holidays and share it with people here.

Also, for dinner we had risengrød, which is basically like rice porridge. You put butter and cinnamon sugar on top. Very unlike anything I’d have for dinner in the U.S., but it was super yummy! You put the butter in the middle so it melts all over the porridge while you’re eating it… perfection.

And now time to eat me some risalamande and study for my Danish test tomorrow! Mostly the former though.

Scandinavia and the World

Here’s a funny comic about the Scandinavian countries: http://satwcomic.com/

Sahlep Satisfaction: Study Tour to Istanbul/Travel Week 2

When I first went to the Copenhagen airport to begin my next travel adventure, I was still honestly still a bit sad to have left Prague. But Istanbul soon proved to have its own advantages (for starters, we got a complimentary full meal on the plane both ways–Turkish Airlines is a new favorite). (For those of you not caught up on my life, this was an optional study tour, for which I took a 1 credit class–Turkey at the Crossroads.) On the way to our hotel the first evening, Koray (our guide) was explaining the layout of the city to us. Our hotel was in the New City, which is actually from the 14th century. Throughout the trip we were surrounded by so much history it was amazing. And we’d find out so casually, like “Oh by the way that monument you’re standing next to is over two thousand years old.” It was just crazy. Rather than give you a blow by blow retelling of the whole week (and leave you sitting here for an hour reading all about my life) I’ll just talk more in detail about the highlights of the trip.

Transportation: Rather than go around by bus, we used public transportation, which allowed us to see more of the city and the people. We used both cards and “spoons,” which come from the fact that the transportation passes used to be actual little spoons. Here’s a picture of my dear little spoon:

Topkapi Palace: An old palace from the days of the sultans. All of the walls were covered in intricate tile designs, particularly in the Harem where the Sultan and the women servants lived. Of course, it was all missing all the lavish tapestries and decorations and it was still unbelievable. It’s hard to imagine how amazing it would have looked in the past. We stopped in the treasury and saw a HUGE diamond that was actually originally found in a trash bin and sold for about 3 lira before anybody realized it was a diamond. We also saw some old weapons including some swords that were so huge it was impossible to imagine somebody actually using them. Mosques: There were mosques everywhere. Luckily there weren’t any right next to our hotel so we weren’t woken up at 5am every day, but it was really cool to hear the call to prayer every once in a while while we were exploring. Plus they were beautiful to see in the landscape.

our view from one of our lunch places. nbd.

Turkish Rugs: As an extra treat we got to go to a rug gallery where we basically got a sales pitch on Turkish rugs. It was actually pretty amazing, as they explained just how much labor it takes to make each rug: the women can only weave for 4 hours a day because the work is so detailed! The salesmen just kept pulling out rugs, handling them as if they were as light as feathers. We were all really tempted to buy them, but even the little baby ones cost as much as 350 lira. Not exactly in my price range… Turkish Bath: One of my personal favorite parts of the trip was our visit to the Hamam, or Turkish baths. DIS paid for our basic entry, and I decided to spring for a soap scrub and an oil massage because how often do you visit a Turkish bath anyway? It was definitely worth it. As for clothing when we were there, we each got a pair of disposable underwear and a towel for the bath portion. At first it was a bit awkward but we all got used to it pretty quickly after being surrounded by half-naked women (the men had a separate section for the whole process). The only weird thing for me was that I had not brought my contacts to Turkey, and I couldn’t wear my glasses into the bath because they would just steam up anyway. So I was sort of blind the whole time and couldn’t see people’s faces very well (sorry if I gave you any weird looks!).

Anyway, first we all laid down on a hot stone while we waited for soap scrubs. You got tokens to indicate what services you had paid for, and every once in a while a large Turkish woman would come over and point to one of us, indicating that she would do our scrub. I think they were pretty used to guiding tourists around who don’t speak Turkish (according to Maja, our professor, it’s mostly tourists at the hamams ever since houses got running water), because the woman who did my scrub just tapped me and pointed when she wanted me to do something. After our scrub, we were told to go sit in a separate room with a large warm tub to soak in. It was really pleasant for a bit, but after a while all the steam and humidity and heat were starting to feel like a bit much, so those of us who got massages headed over to the next stage in the process. We went into yet another room where we got new big hot fluffy towels and sat to wait for our massages. This took a while and I was one of the last ones picked, partially because I couldn’t see the womens’ motions (since i still had no glasses) when they came into fetch us so I was slower to react than the others around me. I briefly wondered if the massage was worth all the hassle, but once I finally got there I was so glad to have gotten it.

My masseuse was really nice and a bit cheeky. She made fun of me for my ticklishness because I twitched every time she got anywhere near my feet and she kept insisting that I relax more. When I was done she poked me on the nose and sent me on my way. The whole experience was definitely something I will remember for a while. I never get massages or anything for myself at home, though after that experience I’m tempted to do a little more self-pampering. Everybody came out of the baths in such a good mood and our class was buzzing about it for the rest of the week.

Armenian Village: On one of the days we got to sign up for one of three different small group visits, to give us a chance to see a part of Istanbul without the whole group of 26 tromping around. I chose to go with Maja to see the Armenian Village (not actually Armenian, or a village, but just a neighborhood in Istanbul) and to talk to her sister and her sister’s mother-in-law, a clinical psychologist who had lived in the area for several decades, about their experiences living in Istanbul. There were seven of us in the group, and it was really nice to talk in more intimate setting and finally hear about someone’s personal experiences in Turkey, rather than a lecture on politics or current events (though those were really interesting as well). We also got delicious cakes and sahlep (my new favorite drink–elaboration forthcoming), and Maya read Matt’s future in his Turkish coffee grounds.

there were so many jellyfish! no swimming for me.

Lectures: Speaking of lectures, we had two formal ones on the trip: politics and current events with Martin Selsøe, a Danish-Turkish journalist reporting on Turkey, and Orientalism and gender in Turkey with Nora Onar, a originally American professor who has been living in Turkey for over ten years.

Martin Selsøe’s talk happened just before lunch, so I think some of us were a bit distracted by the bread on the table, but it was really interesting. He talked a lot about Turkey’s relationship with the EU and its current status with regards to membership application. According to him, Turkey appears to have decided to cease their strides towards membership after comments made by other countries that they would never be able to become full members. He also explained how EU membership is not necessarily the best path for Turkey to take. He also discussed the issues that Turkish journalists face when attempting to report accurately about Turkey, and about the current issues with Turkey’s political leadership system (especially the involvement of the military chiefs). It was really helpful to hear a little more about what decisions and complications Turkey is currently facing so we could understand the climate we were in.

Nora Onar’s talk was one of my favorite academic visits of the trip. She discussed the theory of Orientalism as it pertains to Turkey and really challenged us to think harder about our assumptions about veiled women. She talked about how Muslim women are starting to veil themselves in different ways, with loud and fashionable scarves, perhaps using the veil as more of a religious symbol than adherence to the religious doctrine itself. She also explained the tension between veils as oppressive (i.e. forcing women to cover themselves and protect their family’s honor rather than living independent lives) and liberating (allowing women the freedom to have their own jobs and go out in public without being surrounded by men). It was a really helpful academic take on what we’d been seeing all around us, and I only wish it had happened earlier in the week (rather than on the last day) so we could have had more time to observe the situation in Istanbul in light of the theory we were presented with.

Turkish Dance: Although we did not get to see the Whirling Dervishes, we did get to attend a dance performance, displaying traditional dances from different regions of Turkey, including belly dancing! The dancers were amazing–one of the men walked on the tips of his toes without toe shoes, and there was a woman who isolated parts of her body in ways that I didn’t know were possible. There was even a dance with black light effects. My only complaint about night was a German lady sitting behind Allie and I, who first asked us to switch places so she could take pictures (because I was supposedly too tall even though we’re about the same height sitting down). Then at the intermission she asked us to switch again because she kept sticking her camera over Allie’s shoulder and catching her hair in it (and she didn’t even apologize!). My experience of the spectacular performance was impossible to ruin, however, and the free Turkish delight in the lobby definitely made up for the rudeness of our fellow audience member.

Blue Mosque: One of the must-sees in Istanbul is the Blue Mosque, which was built in the 17th century. The name comes from the blue color that used to cover the whole interior of the mosque–now you can just see patches of the color it used to be. It is still used for worship today, but hundreds of thousands of visitors also come between prayer times. Normally the girls would have had to veil in order to enter the mosque, but because it is such a popular tourist destination, veiling is no longer compulsory. We did have to take off our shoes and carry them around in little baggies though.

it was a bit difficult to take pictures because there were a bunch of cables coming from the ceiling to hold various lights and speakers. also we could only stand in a blocked off area in about half the mosque.

Hagia Sophia: After seeing the Blue Mosque, we just walked across the street to visit the Hagia Sophia. It’s crazy to be typing that. The Hagia Sophia standing now is actually the 3rd one that has been built in the same spot. Of course, this third one (built by Justininan) is still from the 6th century! INSANE. The first one was built by Constantine in the 4th century out of wood and was burned down. It was rebuilt by Theodosius II but destroyed again in the early 6th century in a riot. Some of the ruins from the second Hagia Sophia are still sitting outside the current one though. Though it was originally built as a church, it was used as a mosque for several centuries after the fall of Constantinople. Today it is a just a museum to avoid religious conflict. It is also HUGE. The Blue Mosque could actually fit inside it!

This is actually a mosaic made from hundreds of tiny tile pieces. The silver part that Mary is standing on is very rare because silver mosaic tiles are difficult to make; usually the silver oxidizes and turns black before they can be put together.

Turkish Film: Another one of our academic visits was with Ümit Ünal, a Turkish filmmaker. We watched a literally no-budget movie that he directed, Ara,  and then had a question and answer session. I actually really liked the film. It was the kind of movie that is aimed to make you think, rather than endearing you to the characters or the situation. There were many different vignettes in mixed up chronological order, and sometimes you would see part of a scene and not see the whole sequence until much later, giving you two very different impressions of the same event. A funny fact came out in the Q&A session when Matt asked why he has chosen to film in black and white. Ümit Ünal first said “Well actually it was a mistake” and we all laughed, assuming that it was a mistake in the filming process. It turns out the projector had just started playing it in black and white and he hadn’t wanted to interrupt the screening to fix it!

Lamda Istanbul: Our other visit that day was to Lamda, a Turkish LGBT organization that works with all kinds of issues, and collaborates with leftist, anarchist, and Kurdish movements. There was a bit more of a language barrier for this presentation, because although the presenters could speak English they clearly weren’t very comfortable with it. In the end, they ended up speaking Turkish and having Maja and Şarl, another one of our tour leaders, translating. This was interesting in itself, and a more effective way to hear what the presenters were saying about the situation for LGBT folks in Turkey.

The North Shield: On the way to almost anywhere we passed a pub called the North Shield, about which Allie made a couple comments in the beginning of the week, saying it looked classy and she wanted to go. We ended up making fun of her a lot for this (I’m not sure why) and pretty soon the North Shield was a big overblown inside joke. So of course we had to go check it out. It turned out to be a very odd place–an overpriced Scottish themed pub with a music selection ranging from Jessica Simpson to “Singing in the Rain.” There were chairs with rooster print and rarely more than a couple customers (besides our little group of four). Later we found out that it was not only a chain, but a Turkish chain (but still Scottish themed?). It was really a strange place, but one that will always hold a special place in our hearts.

a second North Shield--the realization that it was a chain

Shopping: Shopping is an important part of any vacation, especially one to Turkey, where you can haggle! I love haggling and it’s always tempting for me to buy things just to haggle even if I don’t actually need them. Needless to say, I did a fair amount of shopping throughout the week, both at independent stores and at the Grand Bazaar (which we went to as a class) and the Egyptian Spice Market (instant Sahlep ftw). I got a lot of presents–many for myself, but also crossed off some final Christmas to-do items. One of the most interesting things about shopping as a woman in Istanbul was the catcalls from the men running the shops. In the Grand Bazaar, I went on my own to maximize efficiency, and got a lot of interesting comments. Everywhere we went was pretty crowded, so it was pretty safe, and most of them were just trying to entice us towards their store. One of my favorites was “Let me change your life today. I’ll give you a deal: only 20 lira for this scarf and me!” In the Egyptian Spice Market Allie and I also got followed out of a store by a man who at first seemed to be offering to sell himself, but then seemed to be offering us money in exchange for something. Needless to say we did not accept.

The Asian Side: While the majority of Istanbul is in “Europe”, there is a part of the city, primarily residential, that is technically in Asia. So on our last evening, we took a private yacht cruise (WHAT?!) around the Bosphorus and over to the “Asian side.” In reality the two sides are pretty much the same–if anything, the Asian side seems more like Europe than the European side. Still, it’s pretty cool to say that I went to Asia for dinner. While we were there, we also went to the top of a huge hill (Istanbul has many, including a large 70 degree slope–half slope, half stairs–we had to climb every day to go anywhere from our hotel) where we could see all of Istanbul. The city is HUGE. According to Koray, it stretches (at minimum) 50 km. on either side of the Bosphorus. Plus the whole thing is basically city because they are really no suburbs, so most of that is apartment buildings rather than houses.

this doesn't really do justice to how huge the city is, but you can get an idea. also, it's important to note that this was only one side of the hill--on the other side, the city stretched out for a while as well.

Atatürk’s Death Day: Thursday was the anniversary of the death of Atatürk, the man who basically secularized Turkey and is still identified as a major leader figure in the country. At 9:05am on that day every year, all Turks stop what they are doing for a full minute and just stand still, remembering him. We were told about the moment and sat to watch it happen. It was so cool to see people just suddenly stop in the street, and cars refuse to go at the green light. There were some people who obviously didn’t know what was happening, and were weaving their way through the stopped crowd or honking their horns at the cars stopped in the street. I would have taken a picture, but obviously everything is stopped on film.

FOOD. You thought I’d neglected my favorite topic didn’t you? I was just saving the best for last! There is a lot to write about, so I’m just going to show you the typical foods we enjoyed on our many meals.

All of our meals began with a sort of tapas appetizer, called mezes. Basically bread with all this stuff (usually communal--in this picture we each got our own). It was next to impossible not to fill up on bread and toppings before we got our real food.

We usually got at least one börek--usually filled with just cheese, but one of them had sausage in it too. Some were small (like this one) and some were quite large--almost a meal in itself.

Not sure what this was, but it was filled with meat and it was delicious.

These were eaten like shrimp... just grab the tail and bite the rest off. Just like popcorn?

I never ordered fish, but it was always served whole, complete with lots of bones. I witnessed some pretty creative maneuvering from people trying to de-bone their fish.

Turkish meatballs. One of the common menu options. Usually came with a grilled tomato, a jalapeno, and either rice or french fries.

What we theorized was lentil or some kind of bean soup. It was really finely ground so the soup was really smooth. Quite delicious!

Döner--the Turkish version of shawarma. Basically, the meat is cooked on a rotating spit and bits are shaved off as they are cooked. Very tasty!

Cay (pronounced "chai") tea--typical in Turkey.

Apple tea in a typical tea cup. We got served tea or coffee on almost all of our visits. Apparently real Turks don't actual drink apple tea though--it's only for tourists.

Sahlep--my new favorite drink. It's made from orchid root, which makes it a bit thicker, but it tastes like sweet milk. You put cinnamon or nutmeg on top and it is SO GOOD. I bought some instant Sahlep to bring back--we'll see if it tastes as good as the real thing.

Turkish coffee: I never ordered it because I don't like coffee, but apparently it's like coffee only thicker and stronger (and often with a lot of sugar added). It's served in a little espresso cup, and when you're finished you turn it upside down for a few minutes before allowing someone else to interpret the grounds. Maja found everything from a couple sitting on a car to a seal and a "lionness" in this one.

Baklava: very tasty! The only difference I noticed in Turkish baklava is that it's often made with pistachios instead of walnuts.

Turkish delight--definitely not for everyone. It's kind of like a gelatinous cube with different flavors, and sometimes nuts inside. Personally I think it's tasty (depending on the flavor) but some people were not so taken with it.

a piece of cake--called "pasta" in Turkish, which confused us a lot at first. this one was caramel flavor and was mostly cream on the inside. yummy!

I don't remember the Turkish name for this, but it was one of my favorite desserts. Basically really gooey pudding-like substance. This one was burnt on top (on purpose) but you can also get one with cinnamon (my favorite) or a traditional one with chicken (sounds weird but is apparently tasty).

This one is milkier and thinner than the other pudding (basically sweet rice pudding), but also has cooked top. Yum-tastic.

So that concludes my trip to Turkey! I have to say, as much as I enjoyed my two week travel break, it was definitely exhausting and I am glad to be back in Copenhagen with my host family. The more unfortunate part of returning is going back to classes and homework! I only have five weeks left here (crazy!) so there are many final projects, papers, and tests awaiting me. Plus I am going to be so busy fitting in all my last bucket list items, hanging out with my DIS friends as much as possible, and enjoying the holiday season in Denmark! A big event on the horizon is cooking Thanksgiving dinner for 16 people with my host mom. I’ve never even really helped cook Thanksgiving dinner before because my dad always handles it all, so it’ll be interesting. I think me and Charlotte are starting to realize what a big task it’s going to be, and freaking out a bit, but in the end I’m sure it’ll be really fun. Then I am going to Amsterdam for a weekend with Allie, possibly having a friend visit Copenhagen, and then it’ll be finals! This is going by so fast! Though I will be happy to go home again for break and then to be back at Carleton, I will also be so sad to leave my amazing host family, and Copenhagen, behind.

That said, I still have not finished unpacking (oops?) and I have a lot of homework to get done today, so my sappy reminiscing will have to be cut short for now. I will try to keep updating regularly in all the craziness of the next few weeks, but it’s definitely going to test my (somewhat lacking) time management skills.

[Also, check back soon for an update on my "Danishness" page. I have been slacking on that front recently, but I hope to add a few more items in the coming week so stay tuned!]

Hej hej for now!

Oh The Places You’ll Go

What a week. And in less than 24 hours I will be in Paris, hopefully practicing my French! It’s so weird being at this point in the semester already, knowing that when I return from these TWO WEEKS of traveling (and, let’s face it, eating all the delicious treats I can get my hands on), I’ll only have five weeks left in Copenhagen! It’s crazy how fast this semester has been going by and how soon I will be back in the U.S. (almost as unimaginable as being in Copenhagen was before I got here). I’ve gotten so used to being here I can’t believe it’s almost time to leave! There will be time for reminiscing later though. Now, I am off on a wonderful vacation. Paris, Prague, then Istanbul. Oh the things I will eat… Let me back up a bit, though, and give you an overview of my week.

Monday I went to Rosenborg Castle with my Fribillet (free ticket) leftover from Kultur Natten. It is one of the only places you can see the crown jewels (in any country) and I’m so glad I decided to check it out because it was so cool! Here are some highlight pictures:

Tuesday I had my final Turkey at the Crossroads class, and our teacher brought us baklava, Turkish delight, and tea! (It was actually an idea from my group–the “food group”–for our pre-trip assignment.) It was all super delicious and made us all even more excited to go to Turkey in a couple weeks! We also got to see a draft of the schedule for the week, and it looks amazing. We’ll of course see a few mosques, churches, and palaces, and we might even go to a Turkish bath! I don’t know people in our class that well yet because we’ve only had five classes together, so I’m really looking forward to getting to know them all during our week in Istanbul.

That evening, there were a lot of staff and faculty from many people’s home universities because DIS had brought them to Copenhagen to show them the program, including classes and field studies. So the visiting Carleton staff took all the Carleton students to dinner! We went to a nice little place called Cafe 22, which was across the lake in Nørrebro. We had some delicious food–pasta with pesto and sun-dried tomatoes, and pancakes with homemade ice cream for dessert! Needless to say, I was pleased. Of course, we also had lovely conversation, and it was so great to be surrounded by Carls again for an evening (gotta love that Minnesotan accent).

Wednesday I had not one, but two field studies. Luckily the first one was pretty low-key–my European Clinical Psychology class had breakfast and a movie! It was actually very hyggeligt. We had a very typical Danish breakfast: rolls with butter, cheese, and chocolate (yes Danes put chocolate on their bread–BEST. IDEA. EVER.). Of course we also had OJ and two kinds of wienerbrød! Yum yum. We watched the movie Girl, Interrupted, which was actually very good (I hadn’t seen it before) and it was a really pleasant way to start my morning.

In the afternoon, I had one of my favorite field studies so far–a trip to Malmö, Sweden with my Adolescence in Northern Europe class! It’s crazy to just be able “pop on over to Sweden” for an afternoon. It was also my first time going to Sweden–another country to cross of my list of places that won’t appear in my passport. We went there to visit Fryshuset, a youth house that hosts many different programs, sort of like a YMCA or Boys & Girls Club, but I think in the Fryshuset the individual programs are more independent from each other. We got three different presentations from people who worked in three of the different programs–Elektra, CIDES, and United Sisters. Elektra is a program that tries to educate immigrant families and prevent honor killings. CIDES involves youth in preventing street crime and violence. United Sisters works with girls to promote their self-esteem and self-confidence. All of the presentations were really interesting, but some highlights include basically getting a sex ed lesson from Alan Ali, the representative from Elektra, and doing warm fuzzy activities with United Sisters. It was really interesting to compare Sweden to Denmark and the U.S. throughout the presentations and I definitely learned some things that I would like to bring back with me to the U.S.

The past two days were mostly spent working on homework (I had a Danish oral midterm and a paper for Positive Psychology), and of course doing last-minute planning for my travel break! I still have not started packing, or cleaning up my room, so I will have to leave you hanging for a couple weeks while I go galavanting around Europe. I may sneak in an update halfway through, but no promises as I’m going to be exhausted (but oh so happy).

See you in a week or two! [and happy Halloween!]

I Have Not Forgotten You!

Sorry about the lack of updates this week… surprisingly little has happened since I got back from Milan, and then now that things are happening, I haven’t had much time to post a blog about it! A larger post will be coming this weekend once I get some free time (I’m going to a baptism with my family on Saturday!) but here’s some tidbits to get you through your Friday.

• Lack of homework- for some reason this has been a really laid-back week (probably because I turned everything in before long study tour) so I have had very little work, to the point of feeling like I’m forgetting things! That said, next week I have a midterm and a paper due (neither of which I have started on), so I probably should have been using my free time a bit more productively…

• Giant snegl – at Sankt Peder’s Bageri (my favorite bakery–delicious, great student discounts, and close to DIS!) on Wednesdays they have large snegls (technically that is Danish for snail in case you Google it and get confused, but it’s also a swirly pastry, kind of like a cinnamon roll) for very cheap (10 kr.). I heard about this MARVELOUSNESS from Allie, and decided to check it out this Wednesday. I got one with glaze, and it was just heavenly. I’m not sure what I’m going to do when I return to Carleton and I can’t get any more motivational pastries!

• Field Study – I had a field study for my Positive Psychology class on Wednesday. We were supposed to walk around Copenhagen and observe Danes and see why they are so happy. At first we were nervous about interviewing random people on the street, but we got some pretty good answers from some nice people, including a window washer who first thought we were asking why he was washing the windows (he said “well… to keep them clean…” and we had to rephrase ). It actually turned out to be pretty fun (though it was super cold and windy out!) and I also got a delicious raspberry muffin from Paludan Cafe while we did some people watching there. Yummy!

• CAKE- On Wednesday night at dinner my host mom mentioned baking a cake the next day… but the whole family was like “why not tonight?” She was debating whether to do it, and then she looked at me and said “Well, I know I don’t need to ask your opinion” (because she knew I always want cake–she knows me so well!). So she baked a yummy yummy cinnamon sugar cake… I didn’t catch the name of it, but it’s a buttery cake (similar taste to a pound or coffee cake but more bread-like) with a cinnamon sugary crust topping. SO GOOD.  I really had to restrain myself from eating like half of it that night.

• Movie Theater- Last night Nanna, Cille, and I went to the movies! We saw Footlo0se (the new one… for some reason it was released a day earlier in Denmark–it comes out in the U.S. today I believe), which was a typical American bland/predictable movie, but the experience was really fun. First off, I ended up bringing my bag even though I didn’t really need any of its contents since I wasn’t paying. But it turned out to be a good decision because we went to the candy store around the corner (instead of the theater snack counter because it’s so expensive) and bought candy and soda to sneak into the theater, and used my bag to hide it all. Some things are the same everywhere! The movie theater itself was SO nice, with (assigned!) seats that were essentially squishy red armchairs for everybody. My host family keeps being surprised when I say things are nicer here, because I guess people in Denmark assume everything is nicer in the U.S., just because it’s bigger. Definitely not true.

• Kultur Natten- Tonight is “Culture Night” in Copenhagen, which means that all kinds of stores, businesses (basically everything) is open late with special free events and activities for those who buy a Kultur Kit. DIS is having an American Halloween event, so there will be pumpkin carving and a haunted house that a couple of my friends are volunteering in. It ought to be really fun (though I haven’t been able to read the huge program because everything is in Danish) and I’m excited to participate in such a big local event.

And finally, for your listening pleasure, here’s a music video by Medina, a really popular Danish singer:

P.S. Today was the first frost in Copenhagen! Days are getting shorter (and colder), and winter is quickly (much more than I expected) coming upon us. For some reason I failed to pack much clothing between early fall and mid-winter weather, so I’ve been using some interesting layering strategies to cope with the icy wind without breaking out my winter coat in mid-October (though everybody else in Copenhagen has). I’ve been shopping for a light jacket this week, but haven’t found the right one yet… so if anybody in/near Copenhagen has any suggestions, I’m all ears!

Nothing But Sunshine (and Gelato): Long Study Tour

So I’m back from my long study tour, and it was AMAZING. This post is gonna be a biggy, so buckle your seatbelt and prepare to be here a while.

Saturday/Sunday (still in Copenhagen):

Saturday night I played Bingo Banko with my host family. It’s basically a nation-wide crazy televised bingo game, where anyone who wants to play can print out a bunch of cards (as many as you can keep track of) and compete for prizes. During the tv show, they play crazy games (including tattoo pictionary and beaver racing) and do silly things (asking people on the street random questions) to come up with the bingo numbers. There are tons of great prizes, from socks to refrigerators. You compete for first one row, then two rows, then a whole board, and if you get the right numbers then you have to be the first one to call in. The whole thing is super silly, and really fun. I played with Søren and Cille, and we each had 9 cards. Sadly it was not enough, and we did not win anything, but I still had a great time. The show is on every Saturday, so I’m sure we’ll try again soon!

I spent most of Sunday packing and double-checking my passport, camera, money, and other essentials. That evening Søren was nice enough to drive me to the train station, where I headed over to Allerød to spend the night at Allie’s house. It was fun to meet someone else’s host family and we played some pretty competitive Wii games with her host brother. Plus we had some leftover brownies and tea for dessert.

Monday (Day One):

Monday morning began bright and early with a pre-dawn walk to the train station. It was nice to be going with a friend, though, so if anything went wrong we’d be in the same boat. We got a random offer for a ride from a Danish guy in a big sketchy black van, but we decided to stick with the train. Luckily, all went smoothly and everybody got to the airport in time for our flight. After an hour-long bus ride and a quick stop to check in at the hotel, we were sent off on our own for Urban Awareness: Milan Edition. Team Awesome (me, Allie, Ansley, Colin, and Dylan) decided to go the low-key approach, and started out at the Parco Sempione. The park was absolutely gorgeous, especially in the beautiful weather, and we sat for a while on the grass just soaking in the Italian atmosphere. Then we continued on through the other DIS recommended spots to visit, and grabbed some cheap pizza for lunch. A great first afternoon in Italy.

best hotel ever. FREE soda and cookies in every room, refilled each day.

view from our spot in the park--Arco Della Pace

supposedly you get good luck from spinning 3 times on the "delicate parts" of the bull in the center of the Galleria

For dinner, we ate as a group at a place called Art Factory. First we got huge plates cheesy pasta with bread and little breadsticks, and everybody ate until they were full. Then it turned out we had a second course–mozzarella, tomato, and prosciutto. So yummy, but way too much to finish.

That night we had some free time, so Jenna, Allie, Ansley, and I went to a little restaurant-bar Ansley had spotted on her run earlier. Ansley and I had the most delicious margaritas, and it was lovely to just sit outside and chat for a while. We went home on the early side because we were all exhausted from the long day.

Tuesday (Day Two):

We began the day with a wonderful hotel breakfast buffet (I perfected my selection throughout the week–fresh machine-squeezed OJ, yogurt, cake, fruit, salami, proscuitto, and cheese, saving cookies for a mid-day snack) followed by our first academic visit. We heard from a researcher on subjective well-being, and it was really interesting, though it was hard to get in an academic mood with such gorgeous weather outside. Then we went to the Galleria D’Arte Moderna, which was beautiful. I mean, the art was great too but the building and gardens were gorgeous.

For our group lunch we went to a local sandwich chain (way nicer than Subway) and had paninis. I had a Fattore, which had salami, cheese, and something called aurora sauce. YUM.

At lunch, my friend Shuyao joined our trip because she’d had visa troubles that wouldn’t allow her to go to her own Scotland study tour. It was a shame for her to miss her tour, but it was fun to have her along.

That day we also got to see DaVinci’s Last Supper! Waiting to see it was pretty intense because there were a couple of airlock doors to go through, and there were guards around making sure nobody did anything wrong. As soon as we got into the room, some poor lady took a picture and one of the guards was like NOPICTURENOPICTURE and ran over to her and made her delete it. The way he was running I half-expected him to tackle her or something, but obviously that didn’t happen. The painting itself was really cool to see, even though it’s pretty faded and has had to be restored so many times. It was just crazy to be seeing something that old and that famous/influential.

Our next stop was a wine tasting at That’s Wine. Unfortunately we got lost trying to find it (a common theme of the trip) and the group was getting a bit cranky because most of us hadn’t eaten since lunchtime. Everyone was overjoyed when we finally found it, and our group completely packed the tiny little wine bar. The tasting itself was super fun, and I actually really liked all the wines we tasted. Plus we got some delicious bread, cheese, prosciutto, and salami to accompany it. After three glasses of wine, we all were desperately in need of dinner, so we tromped around as a group until we found a restaurant called Flash Pizzeria. The food turned out to be really good, and I had gnocchi and split some bruschetta with a few other people. Afterwards we got our first Italian gelato at a place near the Duomo, and it was definitely as good as the hype.

group picture in front of the Duomo

Wednesday (Day Three):

Wednesday morning we had an academic visit with Prof. Paolo Inghilleri and a couple of student researchers at University of Milan. It was a long visit, but really cool because we got to hear about real research that’s being done right now around positive psychology. We also got a tour of the University, which is in a very old hospital building. It was really beautiful, and it was hard to imagine being a student and having classes there every day.

We had lunch as a group at Original Pizza. At first only one type of pizza (pepperoni) showed up and we were pretty disappointed because it meant only one slice per person. But after a few minutes, another pizza came, and then another, and it seemed like they just kept coming and coming. I think we had four or five pizzas in all, and my favorite had gorgonzola cheese and corn. We also got dessert, either ice cream balls or Italian ice–even more delicious when it’s paid for by DIS!

After lunch we got to go individually to the Duomo, but since everybody went at about the same time it was sort of like a group activity. This was what I’d been most excited for, because I’d heard the views from the top of the Duomo were spectacular, and I was not disappointed. At one point we thought we’d seen it all, but luckily the elevator man closed the lift and told us to go down the other side. In the process of looking for the “other side” we discovered the stairs up to the very top of the roof. Moral of the story: the Duomo is HUGE, and there’s always something more to see!

We also went inside the Duomo, which was HUGE. I could’ve spent an hour just looking at all the details and exploring the place, but we wanted to get the most out of our free afternoon, so we only took a brief tour around. It was dark inside, and you weren’t supposed to take pictures anyway, so I have no pictures for you all, but I assure you it was really amazing. For dinner we had a quick bite from a food cart near the Duomo and did some shopping at a designer department store. The clothes were so wonderful but so expensive and we left quickly to avoid further temptation. That evening we had a visit at the La Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University (apparently they are located all over the world) and go to speak with a woman about the importance of meditation and peacefulness in daily life. The whole atmosphere was very calming, and it was really interesting to hear a different point of view on well-being.

After the visit we searched for an open pasticeria because Ansley really wanted an Italian Napoleon, but almost everything was closed. We ended up at a little place near our hotel, where I had a huge cannoli. Yummmm.

Thursday (Day Four):

Thursday morning’s academic visit was one of my favorites, because we were talking with Antonella Della Fave, one of the first positive psychology researchers ever, and the most important one in Italy. She and her fellow researchers talked about their work and gave us a lot of great information on how the positive psychology principles we’ve been learning about in class can be applied in practical research. Even the presentation was three hours, it went by really quickly, and I think we were all sad to be leaving at the end of it.

We had a fancy group lunch with risotto then pork with wildberry sauce and potatoes. The restaurant was dark so my pictures didn’t turn out very well, but the food was scrumptious. After lunch we got espresso courtesy of DIS. In the afternoon we visited with Dr. Morandi at Ayurvedic Point, and learned about Ayurveda as well as traditional medicine in general. It was probably my favorite visit because he talked to us about the philosophy of traditional medicine and how he approaches his Ayurvedic practice as a Western medicine-trained physician. He emphasized how Eastern and Western traditions should work together, rather than competing, and his perspective was really fascinating. I definitely want to learn more about Ayurveda and how it can be applied to a psychological context.

That night we got the evening to ourselves, so Ansley, Allie, and I took some relaxation time before going out to dinner. I took a marvelous bath (with jets!) in our hotel room, and it was great to get some time to just chill after having such a busy week. For dinner we met up with Jenna and her Italian friend she’d met a few years ago while being a camp counselor. We found a nice place with outdoor seating by the canals, and splurged a bit on fancy food and some wine to accompany it. For dessert we went back to the hotel and found a gelato place nearby, and I found my new favorite flavor–crema.

Friday (Day Five):

Our last full day in Milan began with another academic visit with Antonella’s researchers. This time it was focused more on disability and positive psychology, which was really cool because it was very different from the other research we’d heard about the rest of the tour. As a surprise at the end of the visit, we each got Kinder Bueno bars from our tour leaders. Then for Liia’s birthday they took us out to free gelato, the best gelato I had that week. It was a place called Gelatissimo, and unsurprisingly the owner was very happy to have forty customers at once.

I got Crema Catalana and Pistachio--delicious!

We had the afternoon free, so Shuyao, Jenna and I walked through the Parco Sempione (neither of them had gotten to see it the first day) to the Pinoteca di Brera, an art museum that was highly recommended by, well, everyone. I know next to nothing about art history, and the captions were all in Italian, but the paintings were mostly from the early 1800′s or the 1500′s. There was a ton of religious art and many depictions of the Virgin Mary with Jesus. I love art museums, but I’d never seen such old art before so it felt like an entirely new experience. My favorite painting depicted a young woman, relaxing in a chair while shirtless. I know nothing of the context of the painting, but she just seemed really relaxed and content, and it was a nice contrast to all the stark religious imagery.

For our last night, we had a group dinner followed by a jazz show at Blue Note Milan. Everybody got dressed up for the show, and it was fun seeing everybody all fancy (though a lady at the restaurant apparently thought we were in high school). It was dark in the restaurant so my pictures are not spectacular, but we had three wonderful courses–pasta, sausage with veggies, and flan! We also each got a glass of wine or soda to accompany the meal.

tried using the flash for the second course--not a great result (but the food was delicious!)

Shuyao didn't want her flan, so I ended up having 1 and 3/4 flans (what is the plural of flan?!)

I didn’t think the day could get any better, but it definitely did. The jazz show was simply amazing. Allie, Ansley, Jenna, and I got bar seats right on the balcony so we got a good view of the performance. The singer was Luca Jerman, accompanied by several musicians and a couple of backup singers. His very first song was “Ain’t No Sunshine” by Bill Withers, which I had just downloaded the week before, and it pretty much set the tone for the night. Everything about the performance was amazing and his voice was really incredible. Luca Jerman was also accompanied for one song by another singer, who turned out to be a really famous Italian singer who won a singing competition show followed by an Italian music award.  Apparently he was taught by Luca Jerman, which was why he showed up for the performance. Everyone in our class was buzzing about it afterwards, and it was a truly perfect way to end the trip. Plus, on the way home, Shuyao and I found Spongebob randomly painted on a wall.

Saturday (Day Six):

Saturday morning I had a perfect last breakfast, including a creme puff covered in chocolate mouse–obviously a great way to start the day. We loaded all our stuff onto the bus and departed for an afternoon at Lake Como. The lake was so beautiful, and the town was adorable. It was nice to see someplace other than Milan, which is beautiful but has a lot of cars and busy streets (stark contrast from Copenhagen).

After getting our lunch money and directions from our guide, Shuyao and I headed over to the Funiculare, a gondola-tram-thing that takes you up to the top of one of the hills surrounding the lake. When trying to find it, we first went up this tiny alleyway, thinking we were headed the right way, and we were surprised that nobody else was around. Then when we reached the top of the hill we came out onto a regular busy street, and were really confused. We asked a woman where to find the Funiculare, and she told us we had to go all the way down the hill, and it’d be right there. OOPS. Turns out what we’d thought was a cafe was actually the ticket office.

walking through the little town

We were starting to get hungry, so we decided to try to find some lunch up on top of the hill. We wandered through the streets for a bit, starting to wish we’d paid more attention to the map of the town near the Funiculare station. Finally we decided to ask for directions from a guy at a small grocery store. He pointed us to a little trattoria tucked away in a side street. The restaurant was adorable, and there were only about three options for each course. Shuyao and I decided on two different pasta dishes because we didn’t want to spend too much. What a great choice. After a long wait, the waiter brought out our pasta, and it was the best food we had all week. The ingredients were really simple, but it was all super fresh, including the pasta, and we felt like we were experiencing the real Italy.

We decided to head back down again for dessert, and we found a gelato place by the docks that looked really good. The woman there spoke only Italian, so it was a little difficult making our orders, but the gelato was delicious, as always.

We walked back into town and explored a street market there for a while, and I bought a scarf. Then we went to see the Como Duomo (haha I couldn’t resist), which was obviously much smaller than the one in Milan, but still very beautiful.

On the inside the ceilings were very detailed and and covered with gold embellishments, but I didn’t take any pictures because you’re not supposed to (though many people do anyway).

On the way to the airport, we did a positive psychology intervention where everyone filled out positive comments about everyone else in the class, including themselves. Later on everybody received a packet with all their positive comments. All the comments were so thoughtful, and it was really nice  to end the trip with a positive feeling.

We arrived in the airport way too early because of the lack of traffic, so we had about an hour to waste before we could check our bags. Ansley, Allie, and I sat at some tables and shared all our Italian purchases and ate our last few snacks leftover from the hotel breakfast. Once we finally got to check our bags, we checked out a gift store where Allie bought a souvenir and then went to find something to eat. There was only one choice for food in our terminal, but it turned out to be really good. I had a sandwich with prosciutto, cheese, and arugala, and a pastry for dessert.

My sfogliatella (lobster tail). It was (to my surprise) really delicious--my own farewell to Italy.

Unfortunately, when we got back to Copenhagen at 10pm, it turned out that some of the trains were not running. Luckily Allie and I were together so we searched for a solution. First we went from Nørreport to Central Station to figure out what was going on. All the info booths were closed, and when we tried to figure out the bus we needed, we couldn’t find the stop to meet it. In a stroke of genius, Allie ended up buying a hot dog while we figured out what to do. We asked the man at the hot dog stand if he happened to know anything about the buses/trains, and he told us that if we took the one train that was running to Hellerup, we could catch our train from there. We went for it because we had no other ideas, and fortunately he was correct. We each ended up getting home at like 12:30am, but we got there!

Told you it would be a long post. Now it’s time for me to prepare for a return to a normal schedule, homework and all. This trip was better than I ever thought it would be, but I’m so glad to be back in Copenhagen. It is so nice to be in my own room with my own bed, and I’m actually really excited to return to my normal commute tomorrow morning. It’s funny how Copenhagen has become my new home and frame of reference as I travel around–even American money is starting to look foreign!

Arrivederci and vi ses!