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.

 

Stage One: Denial (and maybe a bit of Bargaining)

I really cannot believe I only have 3 days left in Denmark. The strangest part is not that I’m going to be leaving, but that I don’t know when I’ll return. It’s crazy to be saying goodbye to everyone I’ve spent the past 4 months with, not knowing when or if I’ll see them again. Of course, I’m hoping to do some cross-country visiting, as well as returning to Europe soon, but none of that is at all certain. Luckily we have Facebook nowadays, so I’m certain I won’t completely lose touch with people, but I’m certainly going to miss everybody, especially my amazing host family!

Speaking of, last Saturday we all went to Tivoli together (and met up with Kenneth, friend of the family and owner of Oswald–pronounced OSS-vel–cutest dog ever). We took the train so we wouldn’t have to pay for parking, which made for a pretty funny switching of roles. Usually it’s my host family showing me around and telling me how to do things, but since they rarely take the train or go into Copenhagen at all, it was me and Nanna showing everybody how to do it. It was nice to know that I’ve learned at least one useful thing these past four months.

We started out by going to Nyhavn, which is the canal area you will always see if you look up photos of Copenhagen. Despite its fame, it’s actually pretty small, and even my host family was surprised when we reached the end of the Christmas market there after only about 10 stalls. We then headed over along Strøget towards Tivoli. It was pretty weird being in the area I walk around all the time with my DIS friends, but with my host family. We stopped in some of the shops along the way to look at the Christmas sales, but unfortunately all the cafes we checked had no free tables. So instead we went to a cafe when we first got into Tivoli to have gløgg (mulled wine with raisins and almonds) and æbleskiver (the Danish pancake balls)–very typical Danish Christmastime fare. It was pretty cold outside, so we all enjoyed the chance to warm up a bit and chat for a while.

Tivoli itself was a whole different place (compared to the last time I went). It was covered in lights and decorations (Russian Christmas theme this year) and filled with Christmas market stalls. We wandered around to see all the pretty decorations and stopped to shop at a few of the stalls, including one making fresh flødeboller! We bought 2 boxes–white chocolate and coffee flavors. Yum yum. After we made it around most of the park once, everybody was cold, especially Cille, so we decided to head home for an ordered pizza dinner.

according to my host mom, the swans are because of the "ugly duckling" story

The pizza was actually an interesting experience in and of itself. We stopped on the way home to pick it up, and we each got to pick out our own. There were some really interesting topping choices, including shawarma, lettuce, and dressing. I ended up getting one with gorgonzola (one of their main cheese options), onions, ham, and bacon. It was not a typical pizza by American standards, but it was actually pretty tasty.

On Sunday, I had a relaxing morning of sleeping, watching TV, and cleaning my room up a bit before Shuyao arrived for a sleepover! Originally both Mariya and Shuyao were going to come, but Mariya had a 12 page paper due Tuesday for her class at København University, so she had to stay home and work. My host dad left that afternoon for a business trip (and won’t be back before I leave, so  had to say goodbye–so sad!), so it was a girls-only evening. Charlotte’s good friend Christina came over for dinner, for which we had a traditional Danish meal. I don’t know what the Danish name for it was, but it was basically like brisket with mashed potatoes, gravy and green beans. Yum yum yum. For dessert, we had gløgg and æbleskiver and had an interesting conversation about politics. Then Shuyao and I watched Love Actually, a Christmas classic, with cookies and milk before falling asleep for a lovely 9 hours. It was really fun to have another friend over to visit with my host family, and the whole evening was quite hyggeligt.

The next morning Shuyao and I walked around the outside of Frederiksborg and the Baroque Gardens before she caught the bus to the train station. When we parted ways, I headed down Hillerød’s own Strøget to do a bit of shopping. Though I was supposed to be Christmas shopping, I ended up buying some things for myself. Oops? Still, I was able to cross a few things off my list, and I had a great time doing it. It was also just fun to hang out in my own town and being able to walk home at the end of the day instead of worrying about bus and train schedules. It made me wish I’d spent a little more time in Hillerød this semester just exploring rather than always heading into Copenhagen at every chance.

Yesterday (Tuesday), I met Elise in Copenhagen around 1pm to do some more shopping. It was a pretty gross day out, with plenty of wind and rain to go around, so we tried to stay inside as much as possible. We walked all the way down Strøget, popping in shops along the way, and Elise found a circle scarf while I finished off the last of my Christmas list. Midway through our excursion, we stopped at Agnes Cupcakes for a delicious $6 treat that was so worth the extra money.

That night, I went to Lacey’s house again for one last farewell dinner. We had spaghetti with cookies I brought for dessert, and I was able to give Frida (her little host sister) a photo of me for her Vennerbog that I filled out last time. It was very hyggeligt, and we watched the Danish Christmas calendar show together. Apparently every December one of the networks puts on a miniseries that runs every night in December. It continues about a half an hour every night until Christmas. There are at least a couple different shows–one for small children, this year about elves in Greenland, and one for older children about kids living in a castle with ghosts. It seems most  Danish families keep up with the shows, so I’ve seen both from time to time, but have not really followed the plot very closely (plus it’s a bit difficult for me to know what’s going on, seeing as it’s in Danish).

It’s been so weird saying goodbye to people–so far I have had to say a (probably) final goodbye to Elise, Lacey, Lauren, Matt, my host dad of course, and possibly Shuyao if I do not see her again tomorrow.  I really cannot believe I am leaving Saturday–a couple nights ago Charlotte asked me about my flight times so we could plan when we’d leave for the airport, and I got freaked out for a second as I was forced out of my denial, before slowly shoving that thought back into the back of my head. Even though I’ve started packing now (and it looks like my bags will be underweight yay!), there’s some huge part of me that really just thinks this is all made up, and I’ll go back to classes any day now.

Feelin’ Classy

I must warn you, this won’t be the most FUN or EXCITING post as it is intended to be packed full of informational material for all you prospective DIS students out there. Basically, I promised I’d talk more about all the classes I took this term, so here goes. I’ll also review all the housing options and my impressions of them (even though I only personally experienced the host family one–if you want to see some first-hand accounts of other housing options, read the other student blogs).

Classes:

Danish Language and Culture: This, in my opinion, is a must-take class if you’re doing DIS. Even if you’re not “good at languages” and, like most everybody else, will not be using Danish after our semester abroad. Taking this class really helped me understand a lot more of what was going on around me, both at home with my host family and out in the city (especially on the trains, where the announcements are all in Danish!). Don’t get me wrong–I definitely do not speak or understand Danish fluently, or even at all. But I was surprised by how much my limited knowledge has helped me to not be totally lost. Plus half of the class is culture, which is definitely helpful, especially if you are not in a host family learning about Danish customs and eating Danish food. You learn a lot about Danish history and discuss the reasons behind Danish norms that might help you understand why Danes do what they do. If all that didn’t sell you, the Danish classes also do some fun activities, such as movie days, eating traditional Danish food, and going to a Danish football game sometime during the semester. There’s also an intensive Danish I-II version if you want to focus more on the language and less on the cultural aspects.

Positive Psychology: This was my core class, so we went on a short study tour to Western Denmark and a long one to Milan. There were 4 sections of this class this semester, and we all went to different places (others went to Madrid and Scotland on their long tours). Each class had a different focus as well–mine ended up mainly being about life coaching, since that was the profession of our teacher. It was definitely an interesting focus, since we got to try out a lot of positive psychology interventions in class, and even created one ourselves and used it at the end of our long study tour. I won’t lie–getting to class at 8:30am twice a week was quite a struggle, especially when it meant leaving the house before dawn towards the end. However, when you travel as a class, you get to bond a lot, and I really enjoyed getting to know my classmates over the course of the semester. Plus our study tours, especially the one to Milan, were really fun and educational, and we got to talk to some of the most important researchers in the field right now.

European Clinical Psychology: This class is going to be a core class starting next semester, which I think will be excellent. I really enjoyed this class–it was a bit of both abnormality and clinical psych this term because there was no particular abnormality prerequisites, but I think that will be changed in the future. We did a lot of different exercises in class to learn in different ways (rather than just listening to lectures). I especially liked our field study to a social clinic for those with mental disorders, and a couple guest lectures we had from a friend of our teacher, who is a psychologist works with cancer patients. The core class won’t have the same teacher we had this semester, but she is working closely with the new teacher to revise the class (because this term was the first time DIS had it) and make it even better for next term. I provided a link above to information on the new core class, but I know that they’ll be having a long study tour to Vienna to study Freud.

Adolescence in Northern Europe: This class was also in its first semester, so there were a few kinks that I think will be worked out in the future. Despite some organizational issues, I really enjoyed this class and I think with some minor tweaks it’ll be really interesting in the future. It was a more free-form style so rather than learning in a traditional fashion we had the opportunity to help decide what we would learn about and our teacher gave us a lot of choices about how to complete our different requirements. Of course, that style is certainly not for everyone, but I thought it was a nice break from the usual lecture-style. One of my favorite parts of this class was our field studies to different youth-oriented organizations, and our learning lab, which gave us the chance to go on our own to a site of our choice.  We learned a lot more through these hands-on experiences than we would’ve by reading a textbook, and it was really cool to take advantage of the opportunities provided by our location in Europe.

Applied Psychology: This was definitely my favorite class this semester. We basically learned about different kinds of therapy, and got the chance to practice using the therapeutic techniques of all the different schools. My own school doesn’t have a class like this, so it was a great opportunity for me to learn more about what I think might be my future career. We also had some really interesting visits from a music therapist and a psychologist working with brain-injury survivors, plus our teacher talked about her own experiences as a therapist, so we had a few different perspectives on what it’s like to do therapy. The class also explored the theme of creativity in therapy, and it definitely changed the way I think about creativity in myself and others.

Turkey at the Crossroads: This was a 1-credit class to go on an optional study tour to Istanbul during the second week of travel break. It was taught by the same teacher as my Adolescence in Northern Europe class, so it was fun to get to know her a little better. The tour itself was amazing–Istanbul is a beautiful city and we got to see a lot of amazing history (and eat some delicious food!). It was also such a relief to travel with DIS the second week of travel break rather than having to organize the whole thing by myself.  Taking a class along with the trip also gave us the chance to see a different side of Istanbul, and to know what was going on around us rather than just being regular tourists.

Housing:

Host Family: Obviously my favorite option! I loved my host family this term, and I wholeheartedly recommend this option. Not only do you get to really immerse yourself in Danish culture (including home-cooked meals–OM NOM NOM), but you get to bond with a family, and have a real solid support if you have a bad day. My host family is definitely what I’m going to miss most about Denmark (I can’t believe I have to leave them so soon!). And I’ve not only had my immediate host family, but I’ve gotten to participate in family events from baptisms to birthdays, and gotten to meet lots of extended family members and friends (just read about my Danish Thanksgiving for an example). I loved coming back home after a long day at school to a hyggeligt dinner followed by tea and cookies in front of the television. Plus there’s nothing like having a host dog greet you excitedly every morning and evening. Of course, the nature and size of host families differs a lot, so be sure to be specific about your needs on the DIS Housing form. Commutes also differ greatly–mine was about an hour or so door-to-door, but I know of commutes both longer and shorter.

Kollegium: Kollegiums are kind of like the Danish version of dorms, although they are not associated with any particular school. I didn’t know that many people living in kollegiums this term, but I know of people who really loved theirs and others who were not as happy. The key to kollegiums, I think, is being willing to put yourself out there to meet the other people living on your floor because Danes are not likely to leave their doors open or do any of the things Americans usually do to make friends. However, it’s definitely possible to bond with both the Danes and Americans on a kollegium floor, and I know of several kollegium groups that got quite close over the semester. The other difference with a kollegium is you have to cook your own food, so you get a meal stipend from DIS, but my impression is that that money does not cover everything, so you may have to be prepared to spend a bit on food. As for commutes,   kollegiums tend to be within a closer range than host families (which are all over). Generally I haven’t heard of any kollegiums more than 20 min. away from DIS but I could be wrong.  A lot of kollegium people are able to take the bus or the metro (rather than the train) into DIS.

Danish Roommate: I think this is one of the less common options, so I only knew a couple people who chose it, but they were both pretty happy. Like host families, roommates vary a lot, so you could have another Dane your age, or you could be living with a single mom (for example). In general, I think it’s kind of like a host family option, but provides more independence because you make your own food and you aren’t expected to do anything more than be a respectful roommate (rather than participating in family events etc). This also means you might have to make more of an effort to get to know your roommate, if you want to become friends with them (rather than just two people who happen to live together). Danish roommates also live closer to DIS though I don’t know enough people with this option to say for sure how far out you could end up. Generally though the “roommate” thing implies apartment, which means somewhere in the city rather than outside it.

Folkehøjskole: I have heard a lot of good things about this option. Basically it’s like a boarding school for young people to go for about a year, in which they explore their interests without grades or requirements–they do it just for the love of learning. You can read more about it on the DIS website, but basically the DIS students who live at these schools have rooms at the school, and get provided breakfast and dinner (but the meals are provided on a schedule, and thus DIS students may often miss a meal or two and have to find food on their own). There is a folkehøjskole in Hillerød fairly close to my house, so I ride the bus with the DIS students there fairly often. This option is a really great way to meet Danes your age (or international students if you are in an international one) because the students have a fair amount of free time and do a lot of events together. Thus, it’s a bit more of a tight community than a kollegium, although the commute is always fairly long (none of the folkehøjskoles are located in central Copenhagen)–usually at least an hour.

DIS Residential Community / Living & Learning: These two options are basically American-only living situations (minus a Danish SRA–sort of like an RA in the U.S.) provided by DIS. Most of them are located about 5 minutes walk from DIS, although I do know of one which is slightly further away (maybe a 15-20 min. commute). Though I have never visited one, I’ve heard the housing is really nice, although it does mean that you are not automatically immersed in Danish culture, and will have to make more of an effort to meet Danes. Like the kollegium, you must pay for your own food with a DIS stipend card.

The Living and Learning Communities are mostly like DIS Residential Communities, but they are also responsible for holding events and being actively engaged in the topic of their housing (right now there is the Green House and the Culinary House). The Green House, for example, put on a sustainable party at the end of the semester.

Of course, you can also always find your own housing (some people do this if they have family in Copenhagen), but most people choose one of these options.

So that’s all folks (for tonight). More fun updates coming soon, I promise. In the meantime, don’t forget to ask me if you have any questions about the stuff above, or anything else Denmark/DIS-related.

 

DONEZO (and some other good news).

Yes you’re reading that correctly–I’m completely DONE with all my work for the semester, with one week left to enjoy Denmark (a fact I’m not prepared to deal with quite yet).  I’ve been doing all kinds of fun things, though, which is not exactly helping me to get ready to leave…

On Wednesday, I got to hang out with Audrey! We met first thing in the morning at her hotel to begin our day exploring Copenhagen. First we went over to Nyhavn and walked up to the Little Mermaid along the water. It was my first time seeing the Little Mermaid (yes I know that’s pretty sad) so it was nice to finally cross that off my list! We also happened upon the changing of the guard at Amalienborg as we walked back toward the center of town, and then we went over to Sankt Peder’s Bageri for a pastry. Nummy.

After our delicious snack, we headed over to the Nationalmuseet, another important tourist destination I had not yet visited. The museum is actually huge, and we only saw a small portion of it, so I’ll be back this coming week (there’s free admission every Wednesday).

Look who we found in the ancient Greece section!

By this time it was pretty gross outside–some combination of rain and hail and wind–so we went over to DIS so I could show Audrey where I spend my time, and also to warm up/catch up on each other’s lives (though I think we mostly ended up talking about Harry Potter…). It was so nice to see her again (since we hadn’t talked since high school) but at 6:30 it was time for me to go off to the Nutcracker, while Audrey went to see Tivoli.

Allie and I signed up for the Nutcracker together, so we met up and stopped at China Box for a quick bite before heading over to the Royal Theater. It was a DIS event, so we’d gotten our tickets for significantly less than the regular price. We got handed tickets that seemed like they would be together (16 and 17), bought some snacks at concessions, and went to find our spots. When we got there, however, we found out that 16 and 17 were actually on different sides of the row because the odd and even numbers were separated. So to avoid stealing somebody else’s seat, I went over to 17 by myself. Luckily, as other DIS students arrived, it turned out that two girls from our Turkey class, Gilli and Kelsey, were in the same situation as Allie and I because they had seats 14 and 15. So we pulled a swapsies and everybody was happy. Sometimes things just work out so well! The show itself was really good, though I didn’t have a lot to compare it to since I haven’t been to see the Nutcracker since I was about 9 years old. Unfortunately, the Queen was not in attendance that night, so I still have not seen her, despite the fact that she walks around freely without security or anything.

just seeing the theater itself was worth the price

After the show, Allie and I met Lauren and Matt for a NORTH SHIELD REUNION. We originally planned to go to the Dubliner, an Irish pub on Strøget (I know Irish is not the same as Scottish but it was the closest we could get) but that was filled with football fans, so instead we headed over to an adorable cafe/bar called Cafe Retro that Lauren and Matt had recently discovered. It was a super local, non-profit cafe with comfy chairs (including some really cool hammock chairs) and no big beer companies like Carlsberg. They have a back room that’s a bit quieter and more private that we claimed, and we had a super cozy evening.

On Thursday I was up somewhat early again to meet Audrey, this time in Hillerød. I showed her my castle and gardens (yes, Fredriksborg belongs to me now), and a bit of Hillerød’s own Strøget. Once we couldn’t stay in the cold any longer, we walked back to my house where we made Christmas cookies with Charlotte and Nanna. It was super fun and hyggeligt, and really nice to be able to share my host family with somebody from home.

just walking around my neighborhood. nbd.

Friday was my last day of school-related activities. I had my final test for European Clinical Psychology, and it was wonderful to finally be officially DONE! However, it makes it all the more real that I’m leaving soon and I’ve got to enjoy every minute I have left! To that end, I went ice skating with Elise, Shuyao, Mariya, Scarlet, and everybody else who signed up for the DIS event. There was a bit of doubt if the event would still happen since it’d been raining on and off all day. But the rink was still open, and everybody voted to try it, and it ended up being really fun! The rink had hockey skates, which was good for me because I play ice hockey (though not very well) at Carleton, and I think I would’ve tripped over figure skates. It was really good to get back on the ice after not playing for about 10 months–I’m really excited to get back to hockey in January.

After ice skating, the event organizers treated us all to a hot drink because we didn’t get quite as much time on the ice as the event had originally said. I had some super yummy hot chocolate. Then Mariya, Shuyao, Scarlet, and I were still hungry (or mostly we just wanted to eat stuff) so we headed over to Central Station where we got some noodles at YamYam. Then we met up with Mariya’s friend Olivia and went out for some drinks (all of us except Scarlet, who had to head home). It was really nice to hang out with my travel buds again, and to finally meet Olivia, who we’d heard a lot about from Mariya. I ended up not getting home until about 3am, but it was definitely worth it.

Anyway, I had such a fun couple of days, and I’m only going to have more! Another update coming soon, but today I went to Tivoli with my host family, and tomorrow Mariya and Shuyao are coming over for dinner and a sleepover! Then I’m going to Lacey’s for dinner on Tuesday, Nationalmuseet on Wednesday, shopping sometime, and starting to pack for my trip home! It’s all going by so fast, but I’m determined to get as much out of the next week as I possibly can.

Don’t forget to ask me questions if you’ve got any! I know way more about DIS than I probably should because I got really excited before coming here… or if you have questions about Denmark or whatever. Either comment on a post or send me an email or something and I’d be happy to respond to whatever you’re wondering about!

Hej hej for now!

Gone With the Wind

Yeah I’ve been sitting on that title for about a week now… My apologies for the delay of this post. Lots of work with very little motivation does not equal blog post, apparently. But here I am, back in business, ready to tell you about my trip to Amsterdam! And some other stuff too.

Amsterdam:

stroopwafel... two layers of wafel cookie with mapley syrupy stuff inside. so addicting.

Allie and I were both pretty tired post-Thanksgiving and we also were in different stages of colds so we decided from the get-go that we wanted a pretty relaxed weekend… i.e. we definitely went home at like 9pm every night. Still, it was a really fun weekend, and I loved our approach to it. We got to stay with my dad’s old friend Carole, who has been living in Amsterdam for the past 4 years. She was kind enough to let us crash in her loft a few floors up from her apartment, which was located right on a canal on the edge of the city center. Perfect. Not only did we get a cozy living space all to ourselves with convenient access to the city, but she also fed us breakfast and Dutch goodies, like stroopwafels (pictured above on the right). Yummy!

so pleased about my life choices

After settling in on our first day, we just spent the evening wandering around the surprisingly small city center. We found out later that we’d been wandering in the Red Light District (I think all the coffee shops and passing the Sex Museum should probably have given us a hint). First we stopped and got some of the famous Dutch frites; I had mayo and onions on mine–DELICIOUS. Then we had dinner at a Chinese restaurant (to get the authentic Dutch experience, obviously). We had a lovely time chatting over dinner, and talked for over two hours after the waiter cleared our plates until we found out that we really had to ask for the check in order to get it! Obviously we got dessert as well, and I sprung for a fancy schmancy apple strudel.

We began Saturday morning with breakfast and tea with Carole. We got to chat with her about her experiences living in Europe, and I updated her on my dad’s happenings. Then Allie and I headed out for a day of exploring, which included the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank House. Luckily Carole warned us to buy our tickets online ahead of time, so we didn’t have to wait in any lines! We also were able to walk around the whole time (rather than taking public transit) because everything in Amsterdam is surprisingly close. Of course, we also found the flower market and some cheese shops along the way. I may or may not have bought a cheese wheel and some balsamic mustard… (after trying all twenty of the samples in the store, obviously).

on the way into town, we walked right past the zoo, which is apparently "the 2nd most popular destination in town." I wonder what is the first?

one of my many, many canal pictures...

I was in heaven...

I enjoyed the Van Gogh Museum a lot. It was a good size (fairly small) and very well organized, so you could follow his life while seeing the progression of his artwork.

can't go to Amsterdam without this picture, even if there are strangers awkwardly in your photo...

our lunch was one of my favorite meals. it began with these...

I couldn't resist the raspberry juice... soooo yummy

I had a whole wheat bagel with sun-dried tomato cream cheese and olive tapenade with sun-dried tomatoes. Definitely a trip highlight.

Amsterdam had even more bikes than Copenhagen--a feat I didn't think was possible.

we stopped for some delicious hot chocolate before our evening reservation at the Anne Frank Huis... so hard to resist getting a second.

The Anne Frank Huis was a really well-done museum, and a really powerful experience. We paid a few extra Euro for an introduction in English, so we would know a bit more about what we were seeing. It was just crazy to know what people had gone through exactly where we were standing many years before.

For dinner that night we had Italian (we really immersed ourselves in the Dutch culture…). Then we went home early, grabbing some Turkish rice pudding along the way (missing Istanbul already!). Snuggled up in our loft, we each read our respective books (Harry Potter in French for me and Breaking Dawn for Allie, which she found in the loft). It was really a great end to a lovely weekend. Sunday morning, we slept in and ate a late breakfast, still reading. The weather was pretty windy and rainy, so it was just as well that we decided to stay in. We headed to the airport around noon, where me and Allie had different flights because of a sudden price-change midway through our booking. Just as I was about to get settled at my gate, C9, I found out that it had changed, and had to go all the way to D58. Then the plane was a bit delayed because the crew had gone to C9. I thought I was done with travel issues, but Copenhagen had other things in mind for me.

When we were about to land, there was a windstorm going on (unbeknownst to me) and the plane was experiencing a lot of turbulence. In fact, when we went down for landing the first time, the plane was tipping back and forth, and the pilot decided to pull back up and try again. Not exactly confidence-inspiring. However, when we went around and tried again the plane landed successfully and everybody applauded. Again, I thought finally I could have a smooth trip the rest of the way home. Again, I was mistaken.

I made the train successfully and settled in, excited to see my host family again. The train was shaking a bit, but I didn’t particularly notice until the train stopped and the driver gave a couple of longer-than-usual announcements. I heard the girl sitting across from me (who was talking on the phone) say in Danish, “The train’s only going to Birkerød,” and sure enough, the list of stops changed and Birkerød (two stops and about 15 min. before my own) became the end of the line. I thought I heard something about a bus that would take us the rest of the way (the announcements are all in Danish, so I only understand key words). So I was feeling okay about piling off the train, and prepared to wait for the bus. There was no bus immediately though, and many of the other people were catching taxis so I started to get a bit worried. After a few minutes of waiting, checking rejseplanen.dk in the station’s computer to see if there was a bus that could take me closer to Hillerød, and watching to see what other people were doing, I eventually called Søren to ask for a ride. Of course, once he was about 10 min. away, the bus finally came, but by that time it was easier to just wait for him.

On the way home, he told me that the wind storm (which I’d noticed by then after being blown around by the wind) had apparently caused a tree to fall on the track, which is what caused my train to stop. Apparently the train that encountered the tree falling (which could not have been more than one or two trains before mine because our train driver only discovered it halfway through the ride–good thing my plane was delayed!) had to stay put for several hours because they were worried about the danger of electrical shock. Of course, Søren also told me that you were supposed to avoid driving as much as possible, and I saw why as the car got pushed a foot or so over every few minutes as we were driving home–not exactly a relaxing ride. When I finally got home, I checked the weather and apparently the wind was gusting up to 60mph, and in some parts of Denmark it was hurricane-level wind. So in other words pretty serious storm.

Luckily by the next day my train was all fixed up and everything was normal again (definitely not something that would happen in the U.S.). Overall, our trip was really fun (even if it had a bit of a hectic ending), and I was really proud of myself for packing only my backpack! I know it’s not a terribly impressive feat for a weekend trip, but I feel like all this independent traveling has made me a more efficient traveler and packer, and I just feel like I’ve gotten better at the whole process.

Other happenings this week:

Det Frie Gymnasium! For my Adolescence in Northern Europe class, we had to complete a learning lab, in which we visited a site to see Danish adolescents in person and use the experience to answer our research questions. My group visited Det Frie Gymnasium, or “The Free Gymnasium”, a Danish high school (or the equivalent) in Copenhagen. The school is known for being super democratic, so the students are involved in all official decisions, from what the cafeteria serves to what to do with the new building the school has acquired. We talked to a girl named Anna, who is family friends with my teacher. She gave us a tour of the school (which is covered in graffiti because the students voted that they should be able to paint wherever they wanted, except on chairs of course). The students are on an equal level with teachers, and are able to question what they’re learning and have some say in the way they are taught (though of course they have to complete a certain curriculum, and in subjects like math there aren’t very many ways to teach the material). It was really cool to see such a different school environment and talk to some Danish teens in person. It definitely tied together a lot of things we’d been discussing in class, and was a really unique opportunity.

SO MUCH HOMEWORK. Three presentations and two papers, to be exact. Hence the reason I haven’t been blogging all week. But I’m close to being done (two papers and two tests left), and soon I will just be enjoying my last two weeks in Denmark . Wow it is weird to type that. While I’m getting even more excited to go back to the U.S., I’m also really enjoying Christmas season in Denmark at the moment… Charlotte hung a little bag (sort of like a stocking) on each of our doors, and she has been giving us little gifts (I mean the Nisse–the Danish gift-giving elves that supposedly live in your house). I got an advent calendar and some little Danish cookies. The advent calendar has definitely been helping my motivation… It’s a lot easier to get out of bed when you know you get a surprise chocolate candy!

Tomorrow is my first Danish birthday party, and it will be a 50 person affair. More specifically, it’s my host farfar’s (grandpa) 70th birthday. Danes go all out for birthdays, so I’m sure this will be pretty epic, and definitely will last late into the night. Then on Sunday I’m going to an FCK (the Copenhagen “football” team) game with all the Danish classes. Should be a really fun weekend, but I’ve also got to write an essay and study for a final sometime in there. We’ll see how that goes…

Happy holidays from Hillerød!

Getting in the [Eating] Spirit

Okay, so, yes I did intend to do a little better blogging-wise this week. And yet here I am on Saturday, once again, writing a post about the whole week. My work ethic has not exactly been in tip-top shape since returning from travel break, so there are many things that probably should have gotten done which, well, didn’t. Better late then never though right?

Overall, I’d have to say it’s been a pretty good week, with a few healthy moments of I WILL NEVER MAKE IT THROUGH THIS sprinkled in. Gotta love college. Here are the things I have failed to update about until now.

La Glace: My, was that a good decision. Conditori La Glace is Copenhagen’s oldest bakery, located only a few blocks away from DIS. It is especially famous for its lagkage (Danish layer cake) but all of their pastries are exquisite, with prices to match. One slice of cake costs 52 kr., or about $10. Not exactly in my budget for a regular stop, but definitely worth going at least once if you come to Copenhagen. Last Saturday Allie and I decided to check it out as a special motivational treat. It took us way too long to figure out how to order and sit down (we tried to sit down like 3 different times and kept getting sent back to the counter), but we finally figured it out–when in Denmark, always remember to take a number and then you can make it through anything. So we finally ordered (I got their sportskage (pictured on the right), their specialty lagkage, and Allie got a mocha eclair) and sat down in a cozy little corner to enjoy our expensive goodies. I can’t speak for Allie’s (though she seemed pretty pleased) but mine was just WOW. Danish lagkage is usually a few layers of cake and cream, but this one was just all cream. The middle cream had crushed nougat, and was slightly thicker than the outer regular whipped cream. It had a chewy macaroon bottom and little carmelized choux pastries on the outside for decoration (like a French St.Honoré pastry if you’ve ever had one). AMAZING is all I can say. Just thinking about it makes me want to go back…

Projects/Semesters: This was the I WILL NEVER MAKE IT THROUGH THIS part of my week. I have 3 group projects that were assigned this week which will be due during the same 3 days (in addition to two 8-10 page papers). So some stress is definitely headed my way, especially because the weekend preceding this craziness I will be in Amsterdam, an experience I do not intend to taint with schoolwork. Of course, complain though I might, I failed to get ahead on any of this work even though I had very little homework this week. So you must take my complaints with a grain of salt. Adding to the difficulty of this time period is that Carleton is doing finals now, and will thus be done starting next week. At Carleton we have 10-week trimesters, so our winter break is Thanksgiving through New Year’s. I’m giving up the majority of that break to be at DIS, which is on a semester system. Even though I had semesters in high school, I have grown really used to the short but intense Carleton term, and I thus have mixed feelings about the length of this term. On the one hand, I am so happy to be able to stay in Denmark for four full months, getting to know my host family, DIS friends, and Copenhagen itself all the better. However, that’s also a really long time to be (mostly) consecutively going to class and doing homework. Coming back from two weeks of traveling around Europe and seeing all my Carleton friends’ Facebook statuses about being almost done has not helped either. At the same time, I cannot believe I only have 4 weeks left here (my host family and I just had a conversation about the day I leave!) to do all my shopping, eating, touristing, and enjoyment of Denmark! I guess what it comes down to is I love being here, but not doing schoolwork. Of course, I suppose that’s why they call it study abroad.

Chinese Thanksgiving: On Thursday night, Mariya, Shuyao and I (along with Shuyao’s good friend and amazing cook Scarlet) had a travel group reunion! We (mostly Shuyao and Scarlet) made a Chinese food feast in the common kitchen of Shuyao’s kollegium (the Danish version of a dorm, though it is not connected to any particular school). It was my first time in a kollegium, so I was very intrigued to see another DIS housing option. They all differ, obviously, but this one seemed really nice. Shuyao has her own mini-kitchen in her room (which she shares with her friend Yen) and there is also a DIS-specific common area downstairs, which is where we did our cooking and feasting. It was really fun to reunite with my travel buddies (and Scarlet of course) and to participate in one of our favorite activities–EATING. We had shrimp with bok choy, Mongolian pork, pumpkin noodles, tomato with scrambled egg (Shuyao and Scarlet were horrified when Mariya and I told them Americans would usually put cheese in our scrambled eggs), and a dish with sprouts. LOTS of food. We also exchanged presents from our second travel weeks, and I got an adorable little London double-decker bus magnet from Shuyao.

It was a unanimous vote that i should get the big bowl. I wonder what that says about me?

Networker’s Lounge: On Friday night DIS was hosting an event called the Networker’s Lounge for everybody in buddy networks to get together and meet people from other groups. I had been originally planning to stay in the city after class because I didn’t have time to go home before it started, and I was going to use the current 7/11 croissant deal (2 croissants for 10 kr., or about $2) for my dinner. When I told Lacey about my plan, she scoffed and suggested that I just come over to her house for dinner instead. So after our two afternoon classes together Lacey and I caught the train to head to Skovbrynet where she lives with her host family. She takes the A train (whereas I take the E) so it was kind of exciting to see the different stops and try to pronounce them. There were definitely some Danes laughing at us as we tried to copy the pronunciation of the announcer. At Lacey’s house, I got to meet her host dad Rene, adorable 8-year old host sister Frida, and pet bunny rabbits. It’s always fun to see other housing situations, partially because it makes me realize how much my own house has really become my home over these past 3 months. Over dinner we discussed music and Coen brothers movies (Lacey’s host dad has good taste) and before we departed I dutifully filled out my own entry Frida’s Vennerbog (“Friend Book”) with much translation help from Rene. I think I may be required to give Lacey a picture of me for Frida to paste in there as well… she’s very thorough.

The Networker’s Lounge itself was fun. DIS gave out tickets for free crepes from a little cart around the corner (I got one with nutella, though I was scolded by everybody else for not getting bananas too)–yummy! I also found Shuyao and Scarlet for a bit, and made plans with them to meet up at the DIS Christmas lunch on Sunday. Overall a lovely evening.

Bingo Banko: I believe I have brought this up before, but I’ll explain it again–a wonderful show that I wish we had in the U.S. Bingo Banko is basically a gameshow for the whole country, because anybody can play. All you do is print out bingo cards (Danes call them “plates”) and tune in at 8pm on Saturday. Throughout the show they do crazy games (everything from beaver racing to tattoo Pictionary) and numbers come up every once in a while for you to mark on your bingo cards. There are 3 chances to win: one row, two rows, and a whole card (3 rows). The prizes are huge (sometimes you get a chance to risk your prize and play for a better one, but you may end up with just a rubber glove filled with soup). I’ve played twice, once with Søren, and again last Saturday with Charlotte, but so far we have not won. Tonight is the last game of the season, so we’re going to go all out and have cards all over the floor. New refrigerator, here I come.

DIS Julefrokost (Christmas lunch): Tomorrow is the DIS Christmas lunch. There were originally about 500 spots and they’re all sold out, so it’s going to be a HUGE event. DIS is providing some food, and everybody is asked to bring a dish and a wrapped gift worth about 10 kr. I’m excited, though a little curious about how such a huge lunch is going to work. Most people are going with their host families (including me) so it’ll be a real range of ages and cultures. I’m also hoping to find Shuyao and Scarlet somewhere in the masses, so we’ll see how that goes. In any case, I think it’ll be really fun with hopefully a lot of good food.

And now time for me to return to all that work I’ve been putting off all week.

I also updated my Danishness page this week so check out my new reflections on Danish culture!

Vi ses (hopefully sooner than next week)!

Agnes Cupcake, Risalamande, Belgisk Vaffel. Heaven…

Another great (and delicious food-filled) weekend!

Friday afternoon in my European Clinical Psychology class, we had a field study during class time since some people have a conflict with our scheduled Wednesday time. We visited a really cool social psychology clinic called SKC, where anybody with mental health problems can drop in and chat with staff or participate in activities. It’s focused on giving people a chance to interact with others who have experienced similar things, and is very egalitarian, as most of their staff has no formal psychology background.  It had a very different feel from most programs I’ve seen in the U.S., and it was really interesting to hear about their perspective. That night I went home for a yummy pasta bake dinner before the DIS Midterm Party at Studenterhuset (a bar/cafe near DIS for all students in Copenhagen).

The party was meant to be a costume party, but most people didn’t dress up, probably because we’d all had a really busy school week without much time for costume shopping/creation. The highlight of the party was definitely the FREE Agnes Cupcakes (the best cupcake place in Denmark). I got a pumpkin one, and later on a milk chocolate (and I also tried my friends’ caramel and red velvet ones). Sooooo good. Most of the party itself was a dance party with a live karaoke band. I ended up running into almost all my friends there at differnet parts of the night (without planning it) which was fun, and I ended up doing “Eye of the Tiger” with Elise and her friend Alicia. We originally wanted to do “Survivor” but another group got to it first. Overall the night was even better than I expected–much like every other DIS event I’ve attended.

Saturday I slept in and relaxed most of the day, getting laundry done and watching Project Runway (can’t wait for Finale part 2!). Then in the evening, Koe (I found out this is just a nickname–his real name is Nikolai) and Karen, their daughter Nikolina, and an American friend of their daughter, Ashley, came over for Christmas dinner! Originally Koe and Karen had thought Ashley was going to CBS (and they’d told us so) but it turned out she was another DIS student, which was pretty funny.

Charlotte always gets really excited about Christmas, and normally isn’t allowed to start decorating until November (after Søren’s birthday on the 1st). Since we were having Christmas dinner (because it was Danish food I hadn’t yet tasted), she was allowed to put up just a few decorations (i.e. a Santa, an elf, a little Christmas village with fake snow and working lights, and a Christmas table cloth–apparently it’s just the beginning). I also love Christmastime, so it was really fun to have such a cozy holiday atmosphere (though it was weird to come back to reality at the end of the night and realize it was only mid-October). We had most of the Danish traditional Christmas food, including Flæskesteg (pork roast with a layer of fat on top that’s cooked at a high temp so it gets crispy–it tastes like really crispy bacon), potatoes with gravy, “brown potatoes” (with a carmelized sugar sauce), purple cabbage, and risalamande (sort of like creamy rice pudding with almonds). The risalamande was really good (made by Karen, who is famous for her desserts!) because it was light and fluffy with whipped cream and vanilla instead of just milk, plus we had cherry sauce and chocolate bits to put on top. Definitely had some more for breakfast this morning… Apparently the tradition at Christmas time (we didn’t do it because it wasn’t actually Christmas) is to have only one whole almond in the risalamande, and whoever gets it in their portion wins a prize.

After dinner, Charlotte surprised us with a Christmas game. It was sort of like a White Elephant thing, as there were a bunch of little presents on the table that you could win (usually it’s organized beforehand and everyone brings something so nobody knows what all of them are but Charlotte got them all this time because she wanted it to be a surprise). Instead of simply taking turns picking them (like a White Elephant) we went around rolling dice, and if you rolled a six you got to take a present. Once all of them were taken, someone sets a timer for a random time (this time Søren did it) and you do another round, where if you roll a six you get to steal somebody’s present. It was pretty competitive, and the adults were all fighting over a foldable ruler whereas the kids/young adults (all girls) all wanted a romantic comedy on DVD. In the end, I actually ended up with two great prizes (and a cute little toy fire truck), but I cannot disclose them here because I’m going to give them as Christmas presents. The whole evening was super duper holiday hyggeligt, complete with overfull tummies, and I had a lot of fun. Once all the guests left, Mickey Blue Eyes was on TV, a movie that I enjoyed when I was younger but haven’t seen in years, which was a nice quiet way to round off the night.

This morning I had to get up a bit earlier (10:15am instead of 11am haha) to be ready to leave the house for my classy jazz canal tour! It was organized by the DIS Student Activities Committee, and it was way more popular than the number of spots, so I felt very lucky to have gotten a spot. It was a bit hard to motivate myself to leave the house, especially because when I was leaving (into the cold) I could hear Cille starting to watch the Sound of Music on TV and I was definitely jealous because I love that movie, but I knew the canal tour would be great once I got there. I had to leave the house pretty early because on Sundays my bus runs only every 40 minutes, so I arrived in Nyhavn about two hours early for the tour. Luckily as I was coming out of the Metro station, I noticed an entrance to a mall, so I spent my first hour shopping around (but not buying anything–success!).

my yum-tastic vaffel

Then I still had a long time, so I wandered around Nyhavn for a bit, taking in the gorgeous (though still very chilly) day, and the street music. Then I came upon a “vaffel” and ice cream place, which was very intriguing. Having a belgian waffle with soft ice (Danish soft serve) has been on my Denmark to-do list for a while, and I thought this would be a good opportunity to cross it off. I debated for a while, first standing outside the shop and then going in and observing the waffles on display for a few minutes, before finally deciding to go for it. I even ordered in Danish for the first time (and the guy responded in Danish!), which was very exciting. I couldn’t understand anything the guy said to me besides the price, so I just smiled and nodded, but it worked out. The vaffel turned out to be a great choice–it had an unexpected slightly crispy cinnamon sugary coating, and was much doughier/more bread-like than American waffles… hands-down the best waffle I’ve ever had.

After enjoying my waffle sitting on the side of the canals, I walked over to an area near the canal tours dock and sat on a bench, since I still had a good 45 minutes to wait before the tour. At first, everything was perfect–there was a guy singing American songs (well) nearby and I just sat enjoying the afterglow of my vaffel and remembering the fact that I’m in Europe! Of course, after about twenty minutes it started to get cold, the guy stopped singing, and I was about ready for the canal tour–I really was super early.

Soon enough, the DIS people arrived and I headed down to the dock to check myself in and grab some cheese, crackers, chocolate, and chocolate covered cakes courtesy of DIS (gotta love ‘em). The tour itself was wonderful–the “jazz” part was actually a live little band playing on board and they were really good. Sailing around the water listening to the jazz was so peaceful, and towards the middle of the tour I was actually getting sleepy because it was so relaxing. Lucky for you I also took lots of pictures.

(Take note pictures from boat were through a window so may not be the best quality.)

This week is gonna be pretty darn busy, but mostly with fun things, including a dinner with visiting Carleton staff, and a field study to Malmö, Sweden! In the midst of it all I’ll try to stick in one more update before I’m off on two weeks of travel to Paris, Prague, and then Istanbul!

ALMOST FORGOT. On the train home today there was a super cheerful ticket checker guy (I’m sure there’s a better/real name for them but that is what they do). Normally they are very stern and intimidating, but this guy said “Godt aften!” (good evening) to everybody and when somebody showed him their correct ticket he was like “Awesome!” It was a nice change of pace to have somebody so friendly, and it definitely brightened my day (which was already pretty swell).

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!

I Scream for Ice Cream

Blog update, as promised.

First off, my field studies on Wednesday! They were both even better than I expected. First I went to the Davids Samling Museum with my Turkey at the Crossroads class. It looked pretty small from the outside—if I hadn’t known what we were going to see I wouldn’t have even thought it was a museum—but it had a surprisingly large collection on the inside. The museum was created by a fund made by a really rich guy—C.L. David, who died in 1960—so it’s basically about what he was interested in. We split into two groups and got a guided tour, which was nice because we got to learn a lot more about the history of the museum and the art that we would’ve if we’d been browsing on our own—not least of which because most of the explanatory placards were in Danish. We looked at their Islamic art collection, some of which was from Turkey/the Ottoman Empire, but it basically from anywhere Muslims lived (i.e. much of Europe, the Middle East, and northern Africa). My personal favorite exhibit was their collection of miniatures—apparently the largest collection in the world that is open to the public. The paintings were, well, miniature, and the details in them were just amazing. The tiny figures had facial expressions and complicated patterns on their clothing. Our tour guide informed us that some of the details were done using a brush with only one hair—crazy! After the tour, Allie and I went back and spent some more time looking at the exhibit because it was just so amazing. I think most of our class definitely plans on going back to the museum sometime, especially because entrance is free!

After seeing the museum, Allie and I went off to find a library (Københavns Hovedbibliotek) that Lauren, a girl in our Positive Psychology class, had told her about. I think it might be a new favorite study place. It was really nice inside, and a lot closer to DIS than the Black Diamond(and there was free wifi). Plus there were a lot more places to sit, including some funky desk armchairs that I will have to try out next time.  I ate my lunch and we chatted for a while about various things, and then I left for my Danish Language and Culture field study while Allie got to working on our Positive Psychology paper that was due Friday.

I met my Danish class near Christianshavn metro station, and found them all already buzzing with anticipation for our tour of Christiania. Most of my class had never been there (I went there briefly for my Buddy Network dinner) and we were all excited to see the [in]famous Copenhagen landmark for ourselves. Our Danish teacher had told us we would have a very special guide that she likes because he not only has lived in Christiania for 20 years, but he does not do tours very often so he is still very excited and interested in talking about his home. She also warned us that he was very much a Christianian, so to speak, and would be “very representative” of Christiania culture. Indeed, the first thing Joker (yes that was his actual name) did when he met up with us, about 10 min. late, was take out a small tin of pot and start packing a pipe.

He actually ended up being a great tour guide, though, because he had a lot of personal knowledge about the history of Christiania and could really articulate what it was all about. I’ll only give you a brief overview, since I don’t want to spread incorrect information (you can read more on Wikipedia). Basically, Christiania was founded in the 1970′s as a place where people could be free from the rules of society and just be themselves. Joker explained that they started out without any rules, but over the years they’ve had to develop a few: no hard drugs, no violence, no guns (or bulletproof clothing), no (private) cars, and no private property (buying and selling real estate).  The rules are not always able to be enforced, especially since the government has had problems with Christiania a few times over its forty years (Christiania had its 40th birthday last Monday, and was celebrating all this week). Joker said the private cars rule has especially been difficult recently because, as he put it, many people put so much money into their cars that they feel they ought to be able to drive them where they like. Joker also cleared up a popular rumor about Christiania: they do pay their bills (water, electricity, etc.), they just do it collectively. Apparently to live in Christiania, all you need to do is pay a monthly fee, and then you pay for however you want to build your dwelling (materials, labor, etc.) Because there is no buying or selling of property, you cannot “own” a house, you merely live in it.

One of my favorite stories Joker told us was the story of how he came to live in Christiania. When he was first living there, he had no intention of staying–he just wanted a job. So he went to a cafe and asked the man he assumed was the owner for a job, and received a set of keys. After he was working there for a couple of weeks, the man he thought was the owner came to him and asked him for a job. He was really confused, but he just gave him a job and kept working there for about a year. Then somebody else came and took it from him, which he assumed was because they were in charge. It was only a few years later that he found out he had ‘owned’ the cafe for that year. Apparently the man he’d thought was the owner had given him the cafe (by giving him the keys), and thus then had to ask him for a job. The next person that came along was just becoming the next ‘owner.’ Anyway, after finding out that he’d owned a cafe for a year without knowing it, Joker decided he had to stay in Christiania.

Joker also had a really interesting take on drug use, which surprised me a little bit because of the first impression he’d made. He said that he believed in the legalization of marijuana so that it will not be “cool” for young people to smoke it. He pointed out that places where marijuana has been legalized, only the “losers” smoke, and young people are too busy living their lives to bother. He thought it was unfortunate when teens get caught up in smoking rather than getting an education and growing up, and end up reaching their thirties without having done anything with their lives, or developed the skills to start doing something.

Here are a few pictures of Christiania. Unfortunately pictures are not allowed on Pusher Street, where they sell pot openly, because although people are open about it in Christiania, it is still illegal according to the Danish government, and police do regular raids of Christiania to try to put a stop to it. Apparently there used to be a lot of kids helping the “pushers” on Pusher Street because it was an easy way to earn a lot of money. The adults in Christiania wanted to find a way to change that, but they knew that forbidding it would only make the kids more likely to do it. So instead they built an indoor skate park to give the kids something better to do, and now the average age on Pusher street has increased by about ten years. Joker said it was a great example of Christiania’s creative/collective decision-making at work. Of course, they aren’t always able to find such a perfect solution, but it’s cool that they tried to find an effective solution rather than the expected response that would probably happen if a government had been involved.

And now for the pictures…

this store has all the building materials you need to make a house, and according to Joker they'll even order something for you if they don't have what you need

some guys were brewing beer outside on this huge scaffold structure, maybe a special birthday brew?

the Christiania flag represents the 3 dots of the i's in its name--the flags were all over for the birthday celebration

The "Put and Take"--exactly what it sounds like. Joker was about to put down some flowers, but then a guy came over and was like "oh I want those" and took them from him

there was lots of graffiti and murals on the walls of buildings

the cafe Joker owned for a year

this was a "children's area".. there was a little beach and some play structures around the corner

a cool house; unfortunately I didn't hear the story Joker told about it because I was in the back of the group, but for some reason the chimney is in the shape of a frog/dragon

Gray Hall is where they have all their town meetings, and sometimes have concerts. According to Joker, a lot of famous people come there, and Bob Dylan actually requested to do a concert there.

After all the walking, I was exhausted so I went home and took a nap, then spent most of the evening working on homework. Thursday we had our first quiz in Danish, and it seemed to go pretty well. After class I still had two essays to finish for the next day, so I went home and worked on them. I was so worried about finishing everything that I actually got done early–about 9:15pm, and got to relax fo the rest of the night. Søren was out of town on business and Charlotte was at work, so Nanna made us pasta salad for dinner and she, Cille, and I had a cozy dinner in the living room in front of the TV watching Friends.

Friday morning I woke up bright and early, exhausted but excited for my last day of class before Milan. I ended up being able to grab some leftover pasta salad for my lunch instead of making a sandwich, and made it on an earlier bus so I could get to DIS with time to print out my paper before class. Even though I was out of the house before 7am (usually a bad sign) I could already tell it was going to be a great day. In the main DIS building I ran into many of my classmates, also printing out their papers and commiserating about their tough homework weeks. I found Allie and we went together to class, where we were the first ones by several minutes. It felt really good to finally turn in my paper, since we’d been working on it for about two weeks, and then at the end of class we got a really interesting presentation about The Last Supper, which we will get to see in Milan! Apparently the painting has gained a ton of popularity since The DaVinci Code (my host mom was shocked when I told her I hadn’t read it) and now it’s very difficult to get tickets to see the painting, so I’m really excited to get the opportunity (and for free!).

My day continued to increase in excellence as I ran into several of my friends when sitting in DIS between classes, and then decided not to get a pastry during lunchtime, despite my nagging hunger, so as to save money for Milan. Turns out, it was a perfect decision because in my last (and favorite) class of the day, Adolescence in Northern Europe, my teacher bought us ice cream! Most of the class was spent talking about our upcoming learning labs, an assignment in which we will go to a Danish school and direct our own project or research through our visit. We were turning in research proposals that day (my second paper of the week) and figuring out which schools we wanted to go to. I was really excited because I got into a group with my friends Lacey and Red to go to the “Free” Gymnasium (a Danish high school) which is an alternative school where the kids are really self-directed and on an equal level with teachers. We get to visit our sites in October and November, and I’m really excited to get to talk to some real Danish adolescents (aside from my host siblings). The best part of the class was when my teacher asked if we wanted to spend some of our class budget (she is very into an alternative education style, and encourages us to do what we want and is always asking us what we want to learn) on a walk through Strøget (the walking street) to observe some people or to get a treat. Of course, we all got really excited and asked if we could get ice cream. She said yes (and mentioned baking a cake at the end of the semester!), so at the end of class we all trouped down to a nearby ice cream stand. We each got to spend 35 kr. (about $7!) so we could get 3 scoops each. I was at the back of the line, so I planned my order out very carefully and got Lemoncello, Vanilla, and Kinder Surprise with whipped cream and strawberry jam (very typical Danish toppings for ice cream cone) in a waffle cone. It was SO GOOD. I made the perfect order, and it was a gorgeous sunny day–perfect for ice cream. Red, Lacey and I then walked to the train station together eating our ice cream, and managed to extend our discussion of the particulars of ice cream all the way to the station.

When I got home we had a yummy dinner and then Charlotte suggested we go out into the town because it was a special celebration night in Hillerød. We started walking and then Nanna joined us later on her bike. All the stores were open until 9:15pm–very special in Denmark–and there were sales everywhere. We walked through the “big” mall (about the size of a medium to small one in the U.S.), and Nanna ended up getting a dress and a coat. It was fun to be out around so many people, and the atmosphere was very spirited. In the square there was live music playing, and it seemed like everybody in Hillerød was out, both young and old. Charlotte and I stopped in the “Candy Bus” (Sweet Factory-style portable candy store) to get some candy to bring back to Cille, who had decided to stay home. That night we watched a Danish sketch comedy show and then Terminator 2, but I started falling asleep on the couch before the end of the movie and decided it was time for bed.

Today has been very relaxed–I was in my PJ’s until about noon–and the day has been gorgeous (record breaking temperatures for October). Søren’s parents came over for a bit and we sat outside and enjoyed some yummy raisin cake his mom made. Then Cille and I played about ten rounds of UNO, and now I am sitting outside updating you all on this week. Tomorrow I will pack for Milan, and then after dinner Søren will drive me over to the train station so I can go to Allie’s house, where I’m going to spend the night. We have to be at the airport waaaay early Monday morning, earlier than my bus runs, so Allie and I will go together. I’m super excited to go to Milan, where I will be sans laptop, and enjoying beautiful summery weather (by Copenhagen standards).

So long until next week!