Vacation with Mom in Denmark!

A couple of days after my last (and only) final exam, my mom showed up at the Copenhagen airport. She was dressed all in pink with a bright pink suitcase; she was easy to find among the other arrivals. I was so happy to see her for three reasons (other than of course I’d missed her). One, we had planned for a small vacation in Denmark, and a small one in Stockholm as well, and I was looking forward to traveling with her. Two, I was happy that I didn’t have to completely take care of myself anymore – my mom could do a little of that for me! And three, it meant that there were only ten more days until I finally went home!

Over the next couple of days mom and I explored the area a little more. I’d gotten a couple free tickets for a boat cruise in Lyngby. I wasn’t sure where it was, because I didn’t realize that there was a series of large lakes right in Lyngby, the town DTU is in. Whenever I walked downtown I turned left into the town. If I had turned right, I would have walked right up to the end of one. They were beautiful, surrounded by large houses, and because it was spring, there were green trees, flowers, and ducks everywhere. The cruise was very pleasant. It stopped at many points around the lakes, but we just took it as a round trip. There was a stop where there were kayaks and canoes for rent, a stop with what looked like a small art museum on the water, and a stop that looked like one of those huge manor house hotels with a big lawn.

Mommy and me lake cruise 🙂

I feel like in Denmark, maybe because it is so small, the neighborhoods change so quickly; I could never get a grasp of the mood, or the character, of a place. I think that’s why it felt so foreign; I never understood quite where I was. I could walk ten minutes one way from campus and be in a poor(ish) area, but if I walked ten minutes a different way, I’d be in the middle of an old-fashioned village! I was always surprised by what I discovered when I went for walks (or on a lake boat cruise).

Our big hurrah of Denmark was going to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. This was my third time there; I blogged about it briefly in Spring Break, Part 1. We were going not for the art museum, but for a small piano performance by my mother’s friend. But, since we were going to be at the museum anyway, we figured we’d go early and visit the museum itself first.

The Louisiana

I mapped out the trip on the useful trip planner website (for those of you studying abroad in the future, this website is invaluable!), and found that we had to take a bus from campus to a train. I took the bus often, back and forth from Copenhagen, so it was a breeze to get to the bus stop on time and board. However, after we went a couple stops, I realized we were going the wrong way! We were supposed to take this bus to the last stop – in the opposite direction of the city! As we were arriving at a stop, we saw the bus going the other direction approaching across the street. We got off and ran across the street, where we just managed to catch it. Crisis averted, we took the bus all the way to the last stop, and then transferred to a train which took us to Humlebæk- the town the Louisiana is in. From the train station it was a short walk through a residential neighborhood to the beautiful, shore-side, museum.

I find it strange that this gem of a museum is nestled in such an unassuming neighborhood. Imagine how many tourists come through these streets, and yet we passed maybe one shop, and one restaurant. If this place were in the States, I’d suspect that there’d be far more commercial establishments set up near the museum to take advantage of the high traffic this town receives.

Sunbathers in the beautiful backyard of the Lousiana

We spent a couple hours at the museum. It’s a really beautiful museum, overlooking the Sound that divides Denmark and Sweden. If you’re ever in Denmark, especially in the Spring or Summer, make sure you take some time to get out the Lousiana.

There was an exhibit by Yoko Ono, which I found generally uninteresting. Most of her art was absurd and it seemed that she expected people to find value in it by writing on or about it that she was married to John Lennon. “My husband John Lennon this”, “John Lennon that”, “John Lennon, John Lennon, John Lennon.” While I am happy that she is fond of her late husband, I hope that she has some self worth without him; it didn’t seem like it based on her incessant references to him. What was interesting was that she was actually in the building to give a talk of some sort at the same time we were there. We didn’t, however, see her, so I guess it really wasn’t all that interesting.

There was a large temporary exhibit of Pop Art as well. I love Pop Art. It’s so fun to look at; I could spend all day in the exhibit! The most exciting part of the exhibit was a piece by Yayoi Kusama: Gleaming Lights of the Souls. It was a room made of mirrors, with water on the floor, and a platform to walk on. When you walked in, you closed the door behind you, which was also covered in a mirror. The room was filled with lights hanging from the ceiling that slowly changed color. Because of the mirrors, it seemed that you were in an infinite space. It was very meditative. It also reminded me of the portrayal of internet that is often made when characters in TV shows or movies are able to somehow enter cyberspace.

Gleaming Lights of the Souls – Yayoi Kusama

The piano recital was an bizarre but lovely affair. It was held in a renovated boathouse behind the museum. Before the show we were welcomed in by a grandfatherly fellow. Soon, there was champagne on the patio outside overlooking the Sound. My mother and I got the distinct impression that everybody there already knew each other, and we were somehow outsiders in a country-club-type setting. A couple came up to us and introduced themselves as the pianist’s (my mother’s friend) friends. They spoke very highly about him; they sounded like they were very close friends, but when asked how they met him, they replied that they met last night at this very same performance! They explained to us that this was an avant garde performance of both traditional and modern pieces, at which all the guests were supposed to act as hosts: welcoming everyone else and becoming friendly with the other guests. It turns out that the man who ushered us in, who we both thought was an employee, was in fact just another guest! We weren’t sure how we missed the memo.

The performance was absolutely incredible. There were only about 40 guests, and we were all sitting very close to the performers. It was captivating to be so near to them when the played, to see all the emotion in their faces and the small movements that you wouldn’t see in a bigger performance. I think there were only five rows total, and we were in the second.

This is a terrible photo showing the piano and the windows overlooking the waterfront patio

After the show there was wine and a small buffet dinner including plenty of the delicious rugbrød (Danish rye bread) that I miss so much. We sat at two long tables and chatted with the other guests about studying abroad, engineering, and how good rugbrød is. When we finally left, it was getting dark and I wasn’t looking forward to the long trip back to my room.

We had to walk back to the train station, where we just missed the train. It was kind of a drag, because the trains were only running every half an hour, but it wasn’t terrible. We met an older woman who sang the praises of Yoko Ono. She had yellow hair, bright blue eyes, and skin that looked like it spent too much time in the sun. It was covered in blue tinged tattoos, and when she spoke, it was gravelly, as if she smoked a lot. She was quite a character. For the first time in my whole time abroad, the train was delayed, first for five minutes, then ten, then fifteen, and on and on. Eventually she got impatient and was able to take a bus to her destination, but we couldn’t. It got to the point where I was very worried that we would miss the last bus that could take us home. We waited for almost two hours! but finally the train came and we caught the second to last bus back. We left early the next day for Sweden!

I’ll be writing soon about the trip to Sweden, which marked my last, but favorite, week abroad.

Distortion

I recently realized I never posted about my last weeks abroad. It’s been pretty crazy since I last posted. My mom came to visit, I came home and immediately went camping in beautiful Maine, and then I got up and moved again to start my new job! I’ve been so busy enjoying being home that I never got around to writing about my last weeks in Scandinavia. I’ve actually been working on this post for a couple months!

After I last posted, things got kind of slow. People were holed up in their rooms, studying for finals or perfecting projects. Also, many other international students started going home. It was so weird to say goodbye to these people who I had spent the last 5 months getting to know. Even though we have Facebook and people travel often, it’s very likely that I may never see these people again. How do you say goodbye knowing that?

One thrill of finals week was going to Distortion. Kind of…

Distortion is yearly street music festival held in Copenhagen. I’d heard about it from Danes and other students at RPI who had studied abroad in the past and had been planning to go ever since I knew I’d be in town (country, continent?) for it. As it got closer, many of my friends backed out of going, saying that they had finals to study for, bags to pack, etc. Finally, we decided to only go to the final of the three days, a Friday. We were ready to go in the afternoon, and headed to building 101 (the student union type building) to meet up with others. We hung out outside, waiting for more people, for what ended up being a couple hours, until it started raining! It had been such a nice day, so that was a bummer. Finally everyone showed up, and we rambled out to the bus.

Pre-Distortion fun!

We took the bus to Norreport, and then people decided they were hungry and we got shawarma, which was very popular there, and cheap compared to everything else (25 crowns). Then we took a train to Christianshavn and proceeded to get lost. Not really, but we didn’t really know where we were going. The city was busy and we tried to kind of follow the general direction of the crowds. It didn’t work at first, but eventually we got headed in the right direction.

Our path led us past Christiania, which I wrote a little bit about in my previous post “Spring in Denmark!” Basically it’s a hippie anarchist commune in the middle of Copenhagen on an old army base. The girls and I decided to make a pit stop here (Bad Decision #1) because I wanted to get a t-shirt for my boyfriend. We ended up walking around a bit after, and met an interesting chap who went by the name Ion the Lion. He followed us to the pond, and sat down near us, playing his guitar. Just a little creepy, but mostly curious and delightful.

Ion the Lion and us

He  was carrying around a notebook that he said contained a movie script. He told me I should be the movie star, because I was a queen! He was too strange for me to be honestly flattered, so I told him that I was a princess, thank you very much! I sat down with some of our male friends who’d just found us. The girls left to get beers because they were thirsty  and I stayed with Ion the Lion and the gentlemen.

The girls returned with a beer for me, and I guzzled it down (Bad Decision #2). I really should not have, considering that I had already had some alcoholic beverages earlier, but I was really thirsty as well. After drinking our beer and talking to Ion a little more (he told me to find him on Facebook, but I never did), we continued on our journey to Distortion. We walked out of the commune and turned right, following the throng of people. Luckily, by this point, the skies had cleared to once again reveal a beautiful, warm day.

Headed to Distortion!

Christiania was the furthest I’d ever been in this direction, so it was all new territory to me. We kept walking down the road, past the end of Christiania, passing fewer and fewer buildings, going over bridges, until we ended up near some grassy knolls. It was really beautiful and interesting to explore a new part of the city. The crowd of people had consolidated into a line, waiting to get through a gate and pass over the hills to where I expected Distortion to be. I was confused at this point, because I heard music, but couldn’t see where it came from. The path seemed to wind around back onto itself and not go anywhere. When we got to a point where we were almost back where we first came through the gate, almost everyone decided to go home, except me and one other girl (Bad Decision #3).

We passed over many bridges.

Finally we found the end of the line. I don’t have any idea how we got there, because, like I said, it didn’t look like the path went anywhere. Were I to go back, I don’t think I would know how to get where we did. We were in the middle of a warehouse district. The music had stopped There were cups and other trash all over the ground, and people were walking the other way.

We made it…

After that whole adventure, we had missed Distortion! At that point, it was probably a stroke of luck that our night ended early, because it was getting dark, and we were two girls alone with some drinks in us. As you may have noticed, the best decisions were not made that night. My friend and I were now terrified because we had no idea how we had gotten to where we were. But we both put a strong face on and made our way back. Once we got out of the gated area, it was one long road back to the train station, so it wasn’t difficult. Somehow, it was still daunting. We talked ourselves through the night with constant affirmations: each time we noticed things we recognized from earlier in the night, coaxing ourselves through the fear of being along in a foreign city.

Where are we?

We made the long trek back, took the right train, caught the right bus, and made it back to our rooms. Our beautiful and terrifying adventure was over…

I’m hoping to start this blog up again, for myself. I’d had so many adventures this summer, and took few pictures. I hardly remember them already! My next post will be about my mother;s and my trip to Sweden! And then maybe a couple about my summer back in the states. 🙂

Rainy Day in Copenhagen

It’s been quite a while since I last posted! I’ve been keeping busy with the last weeks of classes and final things going on. Fortunately, I had some time for a little adventure, and I’d love to share it with you guys!

This past Sunday I went with a friend of mine into Copenhagen to support a couple of guys in our kitchen who were running the marathon! We were planning to go in early, explore the city for a bit, and then cheer them on at the finish line. The race started at 9:30, and that’s when we decided to leave Kampsax. We walked to the bus stop and read that the next bus wasn’t coming for 35 minutes. It was a bummer, but instead we walked down into Lyngby and took a train from there to Norreport in Copenhagen. At this point it was a bit foggy, but we didn’t mind. The past couple of days had been really sunny, and we’d spent hours sunbathing. (I don’t normally spend much time in the sun, but it’s a rare occurrence here in Denmark so I wanted to soak it in while I could!) We walked to the Botanical Gardens, which are right next to Norreport Station.

The Botanical Gardens in Copenhagen house Denmark’s largest collection of living plants. They are a museum run by the University of Copenhagen. It is very beautiful, especially right now in the spring. I visited it in the winter, when I first got to Copenhagen, and it was actually beautiful then too.

Bridge over pond in garden

We walked through the garden and found that we could get into the greenhouses.

Beautiful greenhouses

When we walked in, we were surprised by the thick scent of the tropics. It was balmy, and the place was full of palm trees, vines snaking around our heads. There were a couple of spiral staircases that led up to an iron walkway which circumnavigated the room. It was magical, reminiscent of the Secret Garden to me.

“Up” Staircase

View from the walkway

Staircase from the terrace

There were four smaller greenhouses that we explored after. They contained all sorts of different plants from different climates. There were even frogs and tadpoles in one! There were lots of different fruit trees, including avocados, lemons, peppers, and berries.

Peppers!

When we emerged from the greenhouses, it was pouring. Buckets, cats and dogs, you name it. We were soaked within minutes. We continued to explore the garden. There were many different types of beautiful rhododendron bushes, all in bloom.

Rhododendrons

There were also these little guys all over. Like worms that come out in New York when it rains, the snails come out when it rains in Denmark.

Snails!

When we left the botanical garden, we found our way to the Strøget, avoiding the marathon, which wove all over through Copenhagen. We went a different route than I’d taken before, but we made it. By the time we found somewhere to eat, we were completely soaked through. I am very surprised my camera still works after Sunday, but here’s a picture of us, looking like wet dogs.

Selfies and Shawarma

After lunch we shopped a bit, and I got a pair of really cool pants. I don’t have a picture, so you’ll just have to wait and see me wear them. It was getting close to 3 hours after the marathon started, so we headed to Amager, where the race started and ends. Except I read the map wrong and we ended up in the middle of nowhere near a Chinese market. Eventually we found our way to Amager, but we were really worried we already missed our friends.

Copenhagen Marathon

Amager is across the canal from the center of Copenhagen, and it took us far longer than we wanted to find a bridge to cross. We found it, and walked alongside the route until we got near the end, hoping we hadn’t missed the guys. About a minute after we took our spots, one of them ran by! We almost missed him. We yelled and cheered, but he didn’t notice. He was in the zone. We were relieved, because we had a feeling the other guy was behind the friend who had already passed, so we hadn’t missed either of them.

As we waited for our other friend to pass, the Sirius Sledge Patrol passed, pulling a sleigh. The Sirius Patrol are a group of extremely healthy, fit military men who police the arctic regions of Greenland (which is part of Denmark!… kind of). I read their Wikipedia page, and they seem really intense. Apparently there are only twelve of them, and patrol the arctic by dogsled in pairs for time spans of up to 4 months with limited human contact. If they do the winter shift, they spend many months in darkness because the sun sets in November and doesn’t rise again until late January. Because a regular marathon isn’t enough of a challenge for them, the run the marathon pulling a sled. I didn’t get a picture (I became scared to take my camera out because it was raining so hard) but I found this one on Flickr if you’re curious what it looked like. http://www.flickr.com/photos/nakedcomms_cph/4659456704/

After about 40 minutes of waiting, we saw our friend run past. We almost missed him, but we cheered for him and he saw us and smiled. I have never really been interested in running, but since coming to Denmark, I’ve done a little to try to stay in shape. Seeing people, young and old, running for over 3 hours straight, persevering, was inspiring. Standing near the finish line, I saw so many different emotions of those who ran past. There were those who were ecstatic. Some were very focused on making it the final 40 meters to their goal. Some people looked like they were in extreme pain. The most heartbreaking were those who fell right before the finish line, and had to be helped to finish. I saw people who were soaking wet, bleeding, but they just kept going. And I struggle to finish 5 kilometers! I was very impressed with everyone, it was an amazing feat.

Finish Line!

We struggled through the crowd and congratulated our friend. Both of the runners both could barely walk that evening.

We walked through a part of Copenhagen I had never seen and took the train from the last stop back to Lyngby.

Copenhagen

I was sure it was around 6PM, but it was only like 2:45 when we got on the train! We were exhausted from walking all over the city in the chilly rain. On our walk back from the train station we stopped at Lagkagehuset (a bakery) and got ourselves a flødebolle (don’t try to say it, it’s not pronounced that way.) It means cream ball, and it’s like a fancy Mallomar. To be honest, I prefer Mallomars; the flødebolle didn’t have enough of a cookie on the bottom. But it’s always nice to try pastries! Then I snuggled in bed with some hot tea. If I was this tired after a day walking around in the rain, I can’t imagine how the runners felt!

At this point, I have finished the final presentation/papers for three out of four of my classes. I have a final exam on June 3rd, and until then, I’m not sure what I’m going to do. Study obviously, but I have about 10 days to study for one exam. Hopefully I can have one last adventure before a friend comes and we go to Sweden together. Then I’m coming home soon after! Although I am finally enjoying my time here, I am very excited to go home and see my family, cats, and friends! Of course, I won’t be home for long, because I’m moving again for the next six months. It’s a busy year for me. 🙂

Spring in Denmark!

Hi everyone! I’ve been super busy lately, which is awesome. The weather is finally beautiful here, and everything that was grey and ugly has sprung to life in green. There are patches of flowers all over, and the trees, while still bare, are starting to bud. I’ve been spending a lot more time outside, and I even have some tan lines! It’s great. Unfortunately, the good weather comes along with cram time. Classes end in two weeks, and all of a sudden I actually have work to do. It has been a very weird semester. For most of the time I felt like I was on this extended, lonely, vacation, where classes didn’t really mean much. I went to them, but very little work was required of me. Now those final projects and papers are looming closer, and I have been spending hours every day at my computer researching, typing, and procrastinating (unfortunately!).

I’ll give you guys a little review of what I’ve been up to in the past 3 weeks. On April 20th, some of the RPI exchange students and I went back to Christiania. I have been there a couple times before, but never past the initial touristy “green-light district.” We walked through that and kept going. We passed a playground, a couple of young women leading ponies around, and many interesting run down homes. There was one that was painted to look like a circus tent and looked like it was made up of leftover wood from some other project. There were many that looked like half a nice house, with the other half shabbily built to extend the space, or fill a gap. The architecture was creative, crazy, and awe-inspiring. I wished to take many pictures, but photography is frowned upon in Christiania, due to their illegal activities. I took only one, but there were some far more curious houses.

The back of house in Christiania

After a walk around a lake in the town, we emerged from the commune and went in search of lunch. Passing a sushi joint, I noticed they advertised something called a sushi dog. My interest was piqued, and the others love sushi, so we went in. I ordered the tempura sushi dog. It was delicious. These should be a thing in the United States. Sushi on the go!

Sushi Dog (with a bite taken out)

After lunch, a couple of us got dessert at a delicious bakery called Lagkagehuset. It’s a chain in Denmark. I remember going to this specific one with my mother a few years ago when we visited Copenhagen together. That time I got some honey marzipan tart. This time I got a piece of chocolate cake. It had a marzipan icing, hidden beneath a layer of chocolate. It appears to me that marzipan is very popular in Danish baking. Either that or I am somehow drawn to it whenever I pick out my treats.

Chocolate Yum

The next weekend, we tried to have a barbecue. Kampsax has a few grills that people have been using as soon as the first whispers of spring came to Denmark. My friend bought some quick start mini-grills because he couldn’t find charcoal by itself, and we just used them to grill instead. We had cheeseburgers and hot dogs. It was a relief to have something social to do, and especially that it was outside. Unfortunately the weather was a bit cloudy and windy, so we moved inside after the meat was cooked and ate inside someone’s kitchen.

BBQ’ing

At this gathering, we all kind of realized that we found this exchange to be disappointing. None of us are miserable and homesick anymore. But we came into this experience expecting “the time of our lives” as so many exchange students before us had claimed the experience was for them. But for most of us, we’re lonely and bored most of the time. Not for lack of trying. Maybe we’ve been spoiled by the social life and great friendships we have back at RPI. At least the change in weather means we can emerge from our rooms more often than we had during the long winter.

On Saturday night, my kitchen held its TDC. TDC stands for Tour De Chambres or tour of the rooms. I’m not sure why it has a French name. It’s a party that every kitchen in Kampsax holds once a semester. It starts with a big dinner. Then we go on a “tour of the rooms” stopping in each room for twenty to forty minutes. Each person serves a drink and has music and activities planned. Our TDC was ocean themed. Danish people love to dress up. They don’t really celebrate Halloween, but they use every other excuse to wear costumes. I can’t count how many times I’ve walked though campus or Kampsax and seen people in fully body costumes. It’s intense.

Our dinner consisted of twelve pizzas, cooked by the new Italian exchange student and another guy who recently moved in. Even with fifteen at dinner, we didn’t come close to finishing them. The first six were devoured pretty quickly though. They really like meat pizzas here apparently, because all of the pizzas were covered with mixtures of chicken sausage, bacon, ham, and beef. I wish there was at least one veggie pizza, because that’s my favorite.

Three of the pizzas

They also have a pizza style here where you put salad on top of the pizza. I was skeptical, but it was actually really good. The fresh, crunchy, lettuce and carrots were refreshing in juxtaposition to the gooey cheese and the cooked meats.

Salad  on my meatball pizza slice

I was dressed slightly tropically, with some leis and a flower in my hair (I guess I forgot to pack my mermaid costume). There was a turtle, a couple pirates, some fish, a sailor, and one guy dressed as David Hasselhoff from Baywatch. About half the guests did not dress up at all.

Me and my neighbor Kristian

Turtle

The TDC was really fun. My room was fourth. I signed up to be towards the beginning because I didn’t know how late I would be able to stay up. I made some yummy drinks by mixing Malibu coconut rum with Mild Morgen Juice – a juice mixture of apple, orange, and pineapple juices.

My drinks

One of my neighbors had us all play limbo in the hallway. It was very entertaining. When you fell, they all started singing a song in Danish and you had to chug your drink.

The Hoff does limbo

There were many shenanigans. One of my neighbors had his leg shaved in one of the girl’s bathrooms. Another one of my neighbors had a fog machine, and filled the hallway up so much that you could barely see four feet in front of you. Still another had his bed spiced with paprika. I kept my door locked all night to guard from such practical jokes.

This weekend some friends of mine and I went into Copenhagen to a bar called Farfar, which means grandpa in Danish. It was a pretty cool bar. Very cozy, with good music. In the basement there was a dance floor. Unfortunately the music down there was terrible. At about 1AM we left and headed to the Drunken Flamingo. I tried to get in, but it was 21+. After that we decided to head back to the bus stop. Some people got shwarma from a little shop next to the stop. It was a good time until we got off the bus. At that point some guys started yelling and us and I was so frightened I didn’t get a chance to check out on my travel card.

The next day I held a Cinco de Mayo party! The weather was beautiful. We made pina coladas and margaritas, and ate chips, salsa and guacamole. One girl brought some delicious lime sugar cookies. We sat in the sun for about three hours, listening to someone’s music playlist from his high school Spanish club playlist, dancing, talking, laughing, and playing cards. (My super cool 3D cat cards!)

The Fiesta

Trying to “twerk” – the new dance style

After the fiesta, the girls went to the DTU sauna. It was really nice and relaxing. This day was one of the best I’ve had since I’ve come to DTU. The next day I even woke up with tan lines! It was a day spent with friends, music, good drinks, and sun. Perfect.

Now I have two weeks left of classes. Within the next three weeks I have six papers due and two presentations. It’s crunch time. Too bad this is also the time when I finally want to just lay outside in the sun and get all that vitamin D I missed out on the past three months! Wish me luck. 

The One with All the Pictures of Food

Hello everyone, hope you’re enjoying the spring! We finally are here in Denmark. It feels like summer today. It’s great.

Yesterday marked the two months mark for me. Not two months since I’ve gotten here, but two months until I leave! It’s a weird feeling. When I first got here, I (unfortunately) was really looking forward to going home, but it felt like I never would. My brain knew I would, but the time left was too long for me to feel like I would be going back soon. Now that there are only two months left (59 days to be exact), I’ve finally internalized that my time here is fleeting and I need to make the most of it! While I still am looking forward to going home and seeing my family and friends, I am also sad that my time here is slowly coming to an end. I’m conflicted, I suppose. I feel like I can’t possibly take advantage of everything Denmark and study abroad has to offer with the remaining 8 weeks I will have here. I don’t know where to start. I wish I had come here with a close friend, because I have found it hard to get involved when I have to do everything alone.

This past weekend I took part in some local culture by attending the Marathon Bar at Saxen, the Kampsax bar. (I just learned this weekend that the bar has a name.) What is the Marathon Bar, you ask? It is a three-day-long party. The bar opens at nine, as usual, on Thursday night, and instead of closing around three the next morning, it stays open until noon on Sunday. There is a DJ, a dinner offered on Saturday, and strippers. Yes, they hired a stripper on both Friday and Saturday night. My kitchen took part by partying a lot this weekend, both at the bar and in our kitchen. While I did not join them for all of it, it was great to have so much socialization in the hall. I always like going in to a full, rather than empty, kitchen.

I attended the bar on both Thursday and Saturday night. I was present for the stripper. I found out that, unlike strippers in media, they actually get naked. It was really weird to see. What was more interesting to me was watching all the guys’ faces as she rolled around and stuff. They were entranced by a small, naked, Snooki look-alike! Some other funny things I saw while at the bar included a man so drunk that he put his coat on upside down and spent a full ten minutes trying to figure out why it fit weirdly, why he couldn’t zip it, and why things were falling out of his pockets. I also saw a man who was so drunk he decided he had no need for pants, or underpants, anymore. When I say these things are funny, they did make me laugh, but they also made me a little sad. I hope I never have a reason to drink that much.

That night did not end up being one of great fun. Being alone (as in without a boyfriend) at a bar apparently gives drunk men the impression that they can grab me. I am not going to rant about it here, but I will post this link that my friend shared with me. It is a well written commentary on the things women have to deal with when we go anywhere unaccompanied. http://jhruoftmag.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/the-invisible-fiance/. I recommend reading it, if you have a moment.

If you are wondering about the title to my post today, it’s a reference to Friends. I have been watching it since I’ve gotten here, since I found a website that hosts free episodes of it. I promised my friend I would share what I’ve been cooking for myself since I got here, so here are some pictures:

Basic scrambled eggs with toast and butter

Scrambled eggs with peppers, and tea 🙂

Banana, peanut butter, corn flake, and yogurt parfait. Danish rye bread on the side. That bread by itself could be a small meal!

French Toast Stacker with pan potatoes on the side.

Grilled peanut butter and jelly with a honey drizzle. Was for lunch, should have been a dessert!

Fresh Salad

Fried Rice with chicken, egg, peas, and carrots. I made this a few times.

Macaroni and Cheese with ready-made Danish meatballs (a.k.a. Frikadeller)

Cornflake encrusted chicken with pasta and broccoli

Fajita with chicken, cheese, tomato, peppers, and coconut water on the side

Spaghetti with meat sauce. It was supposed to be meatballs, but I messed it up! It still tasted fantastic.

Brownie with vanilla ice cream and homemade raspberry sauce. Yum!

I have also been eating a lot of egg salad, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chicken quesadillas, mac and cheese casseroles, and other chicken dishes. I love trying new recipes, so send them over. The less expensive the ingredients, the better 😉

Spring Break, Part 2

Hi all. I’ve had a busy first week back in class after Easter break. Nothing super exciting happened this week, just business as usual. Which means I have a chance to tell you about the second half of my break!

On Wednesday, we left early and took the train to Malmö. It was a sunny day, but still quite windy. We started out walking from the central station to the Turning Torso, a skyscraper I mentioned in my earlier post, Malmö for the weekend. It’s the tallest building in the Nordic countries. To be honest, I thought it was ugly; it sticks out like a sore thumb. Up close, however, I found it remarkable. Standing beneath it, staring up at it, with nothing else even close in height to it, gave the impression that it was swaying.

Turning Torso

It’s in a great area in the city. It seems like the neighborhood is up-and-coming. It used to be an industrial area, but a bunch of new apartment buildings are going in, as well as a huge park. It’s also right by the ocean, so it’s probably a great place to hang out during the summer.

We couldn’t go into the building, because it was residential, but we did get a view of a couple of window cleaners. Boy, I would not want their job. I was terrified just looking at them up there!

Window cleaners high on the Turning Torso.

After a brief visit to the Torso, we walked back in the direction of the train station and headed to the Lille Torg, or little square. It’s a cute square situated adjacent to the pedestrian “stroll”, where numerous cafes spread across with outdoor seating. We had lunch at the Expresso House, the Swedish version of Starbucks. (Really, I saw one around every corner there).

From the Expresso House I navigated our way to St. Peter’s church (St. Petri). Reading the map in Malmö was funny. Normally when looking at a map, everything seems closer than it really is. Not in Malmö. We were always surprised how quickly we would come upon things that looked like they were all the way across the city. I guess they were across the city, but it’s just a tiny city! St. Peter’s church was charming. Upon entering we were struck with the lovely scent of beeswax candles, and wondrous organ music was coming out of the speakers located on the walls along the pews. We were lucky, and visited when the organist was practicing.

The center aisle of St. Petri

From there, we walked toward the Modern Art Museum. My aunt and I noticed a tiny house squished between two apartment buildings. She went up to it and discovered that it is the smallest museum in Malmö. It was free to enter, so we walked in and were told that this museum “Ebba’s House,” was the home of an elderly woman who lived there from the early 1900s until the 1980s. When she moved out, she donated her home to the National Museum, because the interior was the same as it had been since 1910. It was a tiny home, with only one bedroom. Apparently, at some point 6 people lived there! What’s even more mind blowing is that this house was not a lower class home, it was actually the home of an upper middle class family.

After Ebba’s house, we made it to the Modern Art Museum. It was rather odd. It was pretty small, and the exhibit was very political. It was not our cup of tea, but it was briefly interesting. After a short visit there, we found our way to the Mazetti chocolate factory. We were under the impression that this would be a factory tour with a chocolate museum. When we got there we found that it was really just a small cafe with some old chocolate artifacts in it. While I was disappointed (I love both chocolate and factory tours), I was appeased by the numerous chocolate samples.

On our walk back to the train station, we passed a second-hand shop, and my aunt wanted to go in. I ended up getting two summer dresses and a pair of sunglasses, all for about $25! I was happy to start thinking about the summer. Unfortunately, the weather only got worse after Wednesday.

Thursday we woke up quite early for our trek to Legoland! We had bought train tickets already, and even reserved seats because we were told that the trains to Jutland (the mainland, peninsular part of Denmark) are always overwhelmingly crowded before Easter. I was glad we did! It was a three hour train ride to Vejle, and people were standing, filling the aisles of the train. At Vejle station we caught a bus to Legoland. It was only about a half an hour from the station.

Hotel Legoland

Unfortunately, it was a cloudy, gray day, but it wasn’t too cold. After dropping our bags off in the hotel, we headed out to the original Legoland! How exciting! I took about 150 photos during my one day there.

Me and Lego Darth Vader!

When we got into the park, we weren’t sure where to start. From the map, it looked like it was a big place. We started on a little tram ride around Duplo Village. It looked just like all the little toys I used to play with when I was a toddler, except life-size!

Duplo Village

There was also the Lego driving school, which brings back memories of my trip to Legoland, California. I was probably about 7 years old. This was where I got my first driver’s license. It started out with a short video on safe driving, and then we were let loose onto the driving course! The first think I did when I got into my car was try to pull a U-ie and get stuck. A Legoland employee had to turn my car back around. After that I was fine, driving around, stopping at stop signs and red lights, and signaling when I turned.

“Toyota Trafikskole”

Unfortunately, I was a little too big to participate in Traffic School this time. From the monorail, we headed to Miniland, a collection of famous buildings, neighborhoods, and even boats, made up in miniature out of over 20 million Legos!

Miniland

There was also an area of Miniland with recreations of scenes from Star Wars. I recently watched the three old Star Wars movies, and I didn’t recognize any of the scenes, so they must be from the new movies.

Lego Star Wars

Remember that you can click on these photos to see a bigger version of them. You can barely tell they are made from Legos at this size!

We hopped on the Lego Train, which took us a in a little loop around the Lego Safari, Lego Miniland, Duplo village, as well as some other Lego figures. The Lego Safari was only for little kids as well, but I still got some pictures of the wild (Lego) animals.

Lego lion

Lego elephants

After the train completed its loop, we continued our exploration of the park. We came upon pirates and Vikings. We went on some fun little rides: a pirate ship that swung and spun us around, as well as the pirate equivalent of Disney’s spinning teacups. The park employees really got into their roles as pirates, interacting with the little kids a lot. It was great. We walked into a couple of shops. In one, I saw the cashier struggling with some juggling balls. It was painful to watch, so I gave him some tips on juggling pattern.

Pirate banjo player. He even has hair, made of Lego “antennas.”

We made a loop through the park in just about an hour and a half, and we were worried that that was it, that we had already seen all there was to be seen. We went to a “4D” cinema, and watched Lego racers. It was odd, because unlike most Lego movies or games, it was not made up of Lego figures. It was a short movie about a car race through different climates. There was no dialogue, so it didn’t matter what language the audience spoke. There were 3D effects (we wore 3D glasses) as well as smoke, as well as a “snow storm” in the theater.

Once the movie ended it was late enough for us to check into our room. We were staying on Castle Street.

The Wizard on Castle Street

After some cocoa, we headed out for another 4D movie. This time it was about Chima. I was really confused, I thought Chima was the Danish spelling of China, but it’s actually a fairy tale world where Lego animals live. The movie was in English; this time it had dialogue. It was really cute, but it also involved some fighting between the evil crocodile and the good lion prince.

When we emerged from the theater this time, we realized that there was an aquarium right next to it. My aunt loves fish, and has quite a few at home, so of course we made a beeline for Atlantis.

Lego Atlantis

It started out with a little video that was in three languages: Danish, German, and English. It followed a diver in submarine who was traveling to find Atlantis. Following the movie, we were released to a viewing area of a huge tank. The tank had Lego submarines, divers, and treasure, as well as numerous and diverse fish. There were rays and even some small to medium sized sharks! There was a glass tunnel though the tank, and a shark seemed to be resting on top of it. From our angle, you couldn’t see the glass ceiling and it gave the illusion that we could reach our hands out and touch it. It was a bit disconcerting!

Lego Skeleton

There were a couple more tanks of crabs and seahorses, and a small “petting zoo” of marine life. I touched some jiggly sticky animal.

Me, in the crab tank!

When we left the aquarium, I pulled out my map of Legoland and discovered that there was a whole section we had missed our first time around. We discovered a cool Medieval roller coaster that gave us a tour of a Medieval castle before plunging down in a thrilling ride.

We went on another, scarier roller coaster, and then found an Egyptian themed interactive ride where we went through a tomb and shot at skeletons, snakes, and other scary tomb things. It was nice to have the interactivity, but I almost wish that we had gone through again just to look at the amazing Lego construction.

Lego Egyptian Tomb

The last ride we went on was called Ice Pilots School. We were given a card when we walked in and directed to put it into a computer. Then there was a touch screen where I picked out five movements. I didn’t really know what to expect, so I kind of picked randomly. Then we waited for a couple minutes and saw what we were in for! The movements I had chosen would be acted out by a robotic arm holding two seats! When my aunt and I got onto the ride, it was so exciting. The arm shook us this way and that, twisted us upside down and hung us sideways. It was exhilarating. I was glad it was short though, any longer and I probably would have gotten a bit sick.

By the time we were done with that ride, the park was almost closing. We walked past a penguin exhibit with some very playful penguins, then moseyed through some more shops before retiring to our room before dinner. I was ravenous, and ate a lot at the dinner buffet that night.

Lego Tourist

The next morning we returned to Lyngby via train. We hadn’t gotten reserved seats, and were surprised when we had to push thorough to find a tiny  spot just to stand on the train. After we passed the Billund airport, however, it cleared out and were were able to have seats for most of the ride back to Copenhagen. That night we wandered around DTU and I showed my aunt the Netto I use for shopping, though it was closed for Good Friday.

The next day I said goodbye to her at the airport and returned to my room to catch up on homework.

It was a really interesting week for me. I learned more about my surroundings and discovered that I can find my way around better than I thought I could. I found some interesting places I’d love to go back to now that the weather is starting to resemble spring. I also did some “important research” while at Legoland, because I just accepted an offer to work a co-op at Hasbro! I’m working with Kre-O, which is a building block toy similar to Legos. I’m really excited, and the trip inspired me to get even more excited about my new job.

Spring Break, Part 1

Spring break, or Easter break as they call it here, is coming to a close for me today. Instead of me going anywhere, my aunt came to visit me here, and we did all the touristy things that we could do in and around Copenhagen! Since we managed to do so much this week, I’m not going to try to stuff it all into one post. This post will be about the first half.

Saturday, I picked my aunt up from the Copenhagen airport. Unfortunately, she was about an hour late because her luggage had been lost. The upside of this was that we were able to go straight into the center of Copenhagen for dinner, and she didn’t have to worry about lugging her bags around behind her. We took the train from the airport to Norreport station, then walked to the Strøget (the main pedestrian street in Copenhagen). As we were walking back to the station, I found a restaurant that I recognized from the trip my mother and I took to Copenhagen about five years ago. We had gone there for lunch a few times. It was open late for dinner. I had a falafel and my aunt had various salads from the salad bar. Then we took the bus back to Lyngby.

Remember this place, mom?

Sunday, we took the train from Lyngby to Copenhagen Central Station. We went to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, an art museum which is free on Sundays. The collection is based on that of the son of the founder of the Carlsberg beer brewery, Carl Jacobsen.

“Water Mother” in the Winter Garden at the Glyptotek

After a couple hours there, we walked to the Danish Jewish Museum. It’s on Castle Island, home of Christiansborg Castle, The Royal Library, and many other museums. The Danish Jewish Museum is in the old Royal Boat House. The architecture is quite interesting. The interior was designed by Daniel Libeskind to make visitors feel like they must constantly reorient themselves. The walls and floors are curved and slanted at odd angles to each other. It is supposed to evoke the feeling of an immigrant or refugee arriving in a new country. I have to say that while the architecture was quite interesting, it did what it was meant to do. I felt quite uncomfortable in the museum at times because I felt like I was falling over even when I was standing up!

There were no cameras allowed inside; this is a photo of a postcard from the Danish Jewish Museum.

After the museum we walked over a bridge and went to Christiania, the hippie commune of Copenhagen. It has an intriguing history. The residents claim to be separate from the government of Denmark, and engage freely in smoking marijuana and selling it on the street (pusher street). The government of Denmark and Christiania have had many arguments about paying taxes, police engagement, and utility bills, among other things, over the years. I’m not sure what the current state of affairs is between Denmark and Christiania, but when we visited, pusher street was quite active. We walked through and the smell of pot was potent. We didn’t stay long, because the smoke was really getting to us. It might be an interesting place to explore again, however. I have read that there is more to see past the touristy “green light district.”

Outside Freetown Christiania

As we headed back to Norreport, we decided to stop at one of the many hot-dog stands and get some pølser, or Danish hot dogs. They were nothing spectacular. Then, as it was really cold out and we didn’t know where to go next, we stopped in a coffee house and got dark chocolate hot cocoa. The way they served it was wonderful. We were given a mug of hot sugared milk and a stick with a lump of bitter dark chocolate on it. We were told to mix it until it melted into the milk. It was delicious. I’d like to make hot chocolate like that again. It was luxurious.

On Monday morning we took a nice long walk in the deer park, Jægersborg Dyrehave. This park is a twenty minute walk from my room. It is a forest park where many herds of deer roam about. We walked through the beautiful park right up to the Eremitageslottet, or Eremitage Castle, a manor house which is currently under restoration. It has some exquisite statues and molding on its roof.

Eremitageslottet

French Sphinx

From the castle we could just spot the ocean, so we decided to walk to the sea. It was a beautiful sunny day, albeit a bit windy. From the water’s edge we could just make out the outline of Sweden in the distance. We walked along the street a little, and saw some beautiful waterfront homes.

Waterfront boat inspired home.

After our walk, we took the bus to Norreport and walked to Nyhavn for lunch. Nyhavn is an adorable strip of restaurants along a canal where sailboats are anchored. We had a typical Danish smørrebrød for lunch, which consisted of  two types of bread, salmon, shrimp, roast beef with onions and bacon, and chicken salad. We put our own open faced sandwiches together. We shared one plate, and it was plenty!

Nyhavn

From Nyhavn, we had a lovely walk along the water to visit The Little Mermaid, the “mascot” of Copenhagen. A life size statue, The Little Mermaid often disappoints tourists who are expecting something akin to The Statue of Liberty. It was commissioned to be made by Carl Jacobsen, the same gent whose collection provided the base for the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. The statue is based on the Hans Christian Andersen story of The Little Mermaid. Most of us are familiar with the story due to the animated Disney movie. However, the story Andersen wrote is much more depressing than the Disney version, as the mermaid sacrifices her life to be with the prince on land, only to have him marry someone else. The mermaid in the statue is unhappy, as the mermaid in the story would have been.

The Little Mermaid

Tuesday was a busy day. We left early in the morning and took the train from Lyngby Station to Hillerød, and then took a bus from the station to Fredericksborg castle.

Fredericksborg Castle

The castle was exquisite, and it was decorated as it would have been at different periods of time during its use. There were magnificent paintings and tapestries that decorated the walls. The ceilings were ornately carved and painted, and the floors were tiled.

Chapel

From Frederiksborg Castle, we walked back to the train station as we were enjoying another sunny day, and took the train to Helsingør. There we saw Kronborg Castle. Kronborg Castle is the castle that is referenced in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Kronborg was more of a museum than a reconstruction of history. The interior had been destroyed in a fire in 1629 and was never remade to quite the same grandeur as it once was.

View from the courtyard of Kronborg Castle

View from the tower overlooking the castle

The final stop on our journey was the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. We took the train from Helsingør to Humlebæk and walked from the station to the museum. It was in the middle of a residential community, overlooking the ocean. They currently have a special pop-art exhibit, which was really awesome. I love pop art. I wish I could have taken pictures to share, but there was no photography allowed in the museum. They also had a outdoor sculpture garden. If you ever visit Denmark and have any interest in modern art, I would highly recommend giving the Louisiana museum a visit.

I named the one on the right “The Juggler.” I don’t know what it is actually called.

After our visit, we took the train back to Lyngby, and a bus from Lyngby to DTU. After such a busy day, it was really nice to relax that evening.

After navigating the city for a couple days, I came to realize that I knew the city and the transportation system better than I thought I did. I learned that the maps are actually quite simple to read, and it gave me a lot of confidence in myself to be able to figure out how to get everywhere. Sometimes you just need to do something to show yourself that you are capable of doing it.

Keep tuned for Spring Break, Part 2, coming soon!

Halfway Through Semester, Review of Classes

So, I’ve gotten some responses that you guys are interested in knowing a bit more about the classes I’m taking. It makes sense, since I am here primarily to take a semester of university! As tomorrow starts Easter break, and I’m more than halfway through the semester here, I can now give a good impression of what each class is about.

I am taking 4 classes here at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU): Innovation in Product Development, Introduction to Statistics, Energy Systems: Analysis, Design and Optimization, and Knowledge and Innovation in Networks. For those of you from RPI, these classes count as Studio 6, MAU, TF II, and 3 credits of an advanced humanities class, respectively.

Innovation in Product Development is a project based class, where each project is centered around an invention that a DTU student or employee has created. The class has been split into groups of three, with each group concentrating on a different innovation. Each of the groups of students is paired with a group of three students from Copenhagen Business School (CBS). Together, we are expected to improve the original idea, make a business plan, entice investors, and ideally, bring the product to market.

My team has been assigned to work on a hospital bed ventilation unit. One of my team members made a basic website for it, which is here. The project consists of a couple of fan and filter units which would blow air across a patient in a hospital bed, filtering any airborne pathogens. It also includes air curtains on the sides of the bed, which would protect doctors if the patient were to cough facing up, as well as prevent any cross infection from patient to patient.

We meet twice a week for four hours each time. At the first meeting of the week, it is only the DTU students. For the first 6 weeks of the class, we had lectures about different technologies and information we need to know to complete the project successfully. For example, we had classes about 3D printing, Arduinos, and patent law. For the rest of the semester we are meeting in another building on campus called the Innovatorium. It is an inventor’s dream. It has a cozy lounge with vending machines, machine tools and free materials, a 3D printer, and plenty of desk space and computers available. We can use the time in the Innovatorium to build prototypes of our design.

Introduction to Statistics meets once a week. It consists of a two hour lecture followed by two hours of problem work, with a TA available to help us. The lecture is in Danish this year, so those of us who do not speak Danish can watch last year’s lectures online in English. I find that reading the textbook is normally enough, since the lecture is simply the teacher going over what is in the textbook. The class is extremely similar to Statistics AP, a class I took in high school. It kind of upsets me that I couldn’t get the credit for this class with my AP credit, but it is not a big deal to take it again. The problem work time is normally fun; I sit with a bunch of other exchange students from the US and we figure things out together. This is the only class I have with a final exam. My whole grade depends on just one test!

Energy Systems: Analysis, Design, and Optimization is my hardest course here. We are learning about applied heat transfer, entropy, exergy, and other similar things, including turbines and power plants. The grade in the class is based on 6 group projects, each due every 2-3 weeks. My group is made of of myself and three other exchange students: two from Sweden and one from Germany. They are lots of fun. At the beginning of the semester, I dreaded this class, because it lasts from 8AM to 5PM with only an hour break for lunch. However, now I look forward to it, because I enjoy the company of my group, and most of the class consists of group work, not lectures. I feel like I am learning a lot from this class. Not just the content of the lectures, but more how to write scientific reports. In fact, I don’t know how much of the actual content I will remember. Because of the structure of the course, after the project is over you don’t have to remember anything from that subject material. There is no final cumulative exam or paper. Even though I may not remember all the specifics of what I have learned, I still feel that I am learning a lot. We are applying the subject to real examples of engineering problems, and writing technical reports about them. One complaint I (and almost every other student ever) have had in my engineering course work is that I don’t understand how what I’m learning applies to anything. So sure, I can learn these equations that you throw at me, but I will never know when I should be using them. In this class, it’s the other way around, where we are given a problem and we have to figure out how to solve it.

Knowledge and Innovation in Networks is a management engineering class focused on the various methods that are utilized to innovate new products. These can include what people and/or companies get involved in the process, how these individuals and firms communicate, how the product evolves, and other things that influence the end product. The whole grade in this class depends on one, 2000 word, individual paper. Talk about pressure! We recently had a group assignment due which was a prerequisite for this final paper. It was a similar, more general paper. My group wrote about the RepRap, an open source 3D printer. The paper was about how the RepRap evolved and why it developed the way it did. Now each of our final papers has to be on a specific aspect of the innovation process leading to where the RepRap is today. The RepRap is actually a really interesting product, and if you’re interested in 3D printing at all I would suggest looking into it!

Some central themes I’ve noticed in all my classes are wind power and 3D printing. I wonder if these are both as popular back in the US? Let me know, I’m curious! I’m on Easter break now, so when it’s over you should expect new stories and adventures!

St. Paddy’s Day in Denmark

After writing my last post, I was worried I would not have much new and exciting to write about this week. The novelty of my situation has worn off, and I am getting into a routine here at DTU. I am not complaining about this; it makes me feel at ease in my not-so-new environment. However, the recent Irish drinking holiday provided fresh fodder for my travel blog.

The excitement started a bit early, on Thursday, as this is the day that the Kampsax bar is open. (For those of you who have not followed my previous posts, Kampsax is the kollegiet, or dormitory in which I live). As I was eating lunch in my kitchen, one of my neighbors asked if I would be interested in being a bartender at the bar that night. I did not think he was serious at first; I know nothing about bar tending, and I can’t even drink legally in the States! When I realized he meant what he asked, I said yes. I have decided to say yes to as many experiences as possible, as long as I don’t have a worthy reason not to. I hope that this new stance will lead to a more exhilarating and  intriguing life. I’m really doing this for my blog readers, of course. Nothing blog-worthy happens when I spend everyday alone in your dorm room doing homework!

After my yoga class that evening, I ate dinner and changed into a green shirt. I needed to wear something green for the St. Paddy’s day party! Then, around 8:30, I headed to the bar. It’s only about a 2 minute walk from my room.  The bar opens at 9 every Thursday. I helped hang up some green and orange streamers, then learned the prices for the various drinks available that evening. We were serving Guinness and Kilkenny beers from the can, and Tuborg Classic and Green on tap. I also got a funny Guinness hat to wear for the evening.

While I was a bit nervous when the bar first opened, I quickly got into the swing of things. I learned how to pour a beer from tap properly, so you don’t get only foam. I learned how to make White Russians and Jägerbombs. I also drank a bit too much while I was doing this. I was not paid for my efforts, but I got unlimited free drinks. Customers bought me shots, (even though I could have them for free), and the other bartenders offered me several mixed shots as well.

I got a different perspective of the party by being on the other side of the bar. I saw some things I wish I had not seen, I met new people, and I saw some delightful sights. I got to see a strange guy doing some very complicated moves on the dance floor and watched as others joined him. It was eye-opening. I was supposed to stay until 4 or 5 in the morning, but was fading by midnight. I am not a night owl, I prefer to sleep and start my day early. I finally left around 1:30 in the morning, and fell asleep immediately. I felt bad to leave early, because that left one less person to clean the bar after the party. I was asleep on my feet though, and would not have been of much help. I would love to do it again, but I know that I will not be able to stay up as late as I should.

Friday night I abstained from social events as I did not want to put my body through more abuse from alcohol. I have started working out recently, and my whole body was exhausted on Friday from yoga, brisk walks, squats, crunches and push-ups. I got some much-needed sleep, and slept late the next morning. Saturday night I was fresh and ready to go again. But not really. I got tired early and while I wanted to try to do something fun that night, I was losing hope that I would find something to do. At around 8 I was ready to give up, change into my pajama pants, and watch a movie in bed. Cozy, but boring.

Thankfully I was saved from a warm night in by a downstairs neighbor. He invited me to go hang out with some exchange students in their dorm on the outskirts of Copenhagen. My new philosophy of saying “yes” to new adventures had me scrambling to get ready in 10 minutes. From the dorm we took the bus to the middle of the city and went to Kulørbar, the same club I went to during intro week. Absurdly, I had to use another girl’s ID to get into the club, because apparently their Fridays and Saturdays are 21+. I felt ridiculous coming all the way to Denmark and still getting ID’d! I don’t think the bouncer cared that much as it is not law that I couldn’t be in the club, just a rule. Also, the girl whose ID I “borrowed” went in only 2 people before I did. I had a lot of fun at the bar, dancing the night away (until 3AM)!

I finally got home at 4 AM, but only slept until 10. I am not used to sleeping late and my inner clock wouldn’t let me. I had to get up soon anyway to prepare an American brunch for my international introduction week group. I made “French Toast Stackers” a favorite meal of mine from Manory’s – great breakfast and lunch place in Troy, NY. It’s basically a breakfast sandwich (eggs, bacon, and cheese) on French toast, and drizzled with maple syrup. So delicious!

I can’t wait to go back and get one from their place. I think what I miss the most about Troy are all the quirky breakfast and coffee places scattered around. There’s nowhere for me to get brunch within walking distance of my room here, and if there was, I’m sure I couldn’t afford it anyway!

French Toast Stacker!

I was exhausted after cooking, and still in my pajamas when I heard a knock on my door. “Are you fresh?” asks one of my Danish neighbors. He wanted to know if I was up to going into Copenhagen for the St. Patrick’s Day festival and parade. “Yes, of course” I said, and once again had to rush to get dressed and ready in 15 minutes. We drove into Copenhagen; my neighbor has a car. It was nice to not have to deal with the hassle of public transportation.

The square with Tivoli in the background

We walked to the Centrum, or the central area of Copenhagen, near the Copenhagen Central Station and the Strøget, the main walking street in the city. There was a tent set up in the square. Inside, there were people selling Guinnesses, Kilkennys, and Irish coffee. I couldn’t resist getting an Irish coffee. We all ordered one, and the other three got free Guinness hats while I got a free “Irish True”  Tullamore Dew t-shirt. (I already had a hat from Thursday.) There was live music in the tent as well. It was very pleasant to stand and drink our warm coffees and listen for a while.

The musicians

After a bit, we headed down Strøget to see what was happening in the bars for St. Paddy’s day. We went in one Irish bar for about 10 minutes and enjoyed some more live music and rowdy drinkers. Drink prices were exorbitant, however, so we headed back out into the cold. We stopped for a while outside a toy store so I could drool over the new Furby. I was really excited when the new ones came out, and if I have some extra money this summer I’m definitely going to get one!

A cart full of rambunctious St. Patrick’s day partiers!

We ambled back to the tent after stopping for some delicious churros, and found that there was a performance going on outside on the small stage. There was a man dressed up in a gaudy green shag jacket and a pope’s hat emceeing the performance. We dubbed him Irish pope. He was rather funny, always dancing along with the Irish dancers or pretending to play an instrument for them. There were several performances of Irish dancing. It was quite lively and at one point even the birds seemed to be dancing along.

Dancers

It was a lovely day, but by 5pm, when the parade started, we were all frozen. We stayed to see the beginning, but then drove back home.

Malene and me with our Irish coffees!

Cheers! or should I say Sláinte! I hope you all enjoyed your weekend as well 🙂

Malmö for the weekend

Hello all!

I hope you didn’t miss me too much last weekend. I went to Malmö, and I didn’t have a chance to write about it because I was busy having a great time!

I actually didn’t do much sightseeing because I was visiting family (almost). I was invited by my boyfriend’s uncle to visit him and his wife and son at his home in Malmö. How crazy is that! My boyfriend was super jealous that I get to visit his uncle before he did! It was refreshing to hang out with Americans (well, his wife is Brazilian, but that’s still South American!).

I took the train from straight from Copenhagen to Malmö. It took about a half an hour. It was a great trip. The train goes over the Øresund Bridge, which is actually a dual tunnel-bridge. The tunnel is on the Copenhagen side, and goes for about 2 and half miles to an artificial island. Then it goes the remaining 4 miles as a bridge. It’s a great view. It was sunny on Friday (as it had been for the past week and half!) and the sea looked great. There are some huge wind mills in the strait, and it was quite impressive to see them as the train passed. You can also see them as you’re flying in or out of Copenhagen, because the airport is nearby.

Here’s a map of the trip that I made on Illustrator. It’s not the best map, but it should give you an idea of how close Denmark and Sweden are. If you click on the picture it will get bigger so you can actually see the bright yellow line that represents the train trip from Copenhagen to Malmö. If you are interested in geography, I would suggest looking at a real map, of course.

I arrived at Triangeln station, a new train station in  Malmö. It was very modern looking, with beautiful big chandeliers and shiny metal walls. I wish I had taken some pictures, but I was too busy getting lost. After about 10 minutes I found my host and his son, and we walked to his apartment. It is quite close to the train station, about 5 minutes away. It had one of those old elevators that you can still find in some buildings in New York City (the kind in West Hall, for those of you reading from RPI), with the gate you have to close before the elevator moves. He lives in the attic apartment. It’s very big with a spacious kitchen!

It was decided that we would have take-out for dinner because the little boy might not be able to behave during a dinner out. He is a great kid, but he probably would have run around the restaurant! He has so much energy. We had Chinese take-out. It was great. Apparently eating out for two can cost upwards of 100 dollars. Sweden is even more expensive than Denmark!

After dinner we watched Flight, a movie about an alcoholic airline pilot. It made me very nervous, knowing I would be getting on a plane in a few months to go home. I hope that my pilot is not inebriated. Watching the movie was great though, because they had put up a projector in their living room, so we were watching on a really big screen. We also had fresh popcorn.

The next morning we had fresh fruit with yogurt and granola for breakfast. I liked it so much, I’ve been having something similar for breakfast ever since I’ve gotten back to Denmark. (Expect a post about food soon). We also had a poached egg on toast. The bread in Scandinavia is so good. It’s thick and grainy and nutty. It gives a new meaning to whole grain – you can see whole pieces of different grains in the Danish Rye. I’ll have to find a recipe for it so I can have it when I get home. I’m pretty sure it’s healthy as well, although not as much when you put a big pat of butter on it like I do.

After breakfast we went out for a walk in surrounding Malmö. It was a grey day, unfortunately, but it wasn’t too cold. First we went to the American Store. It was awesome. They had ShopRite brand chocolate chips. I almost started crying when I saw them. My boyfriend’s uncle was very generous and bought me them, as well as some good ol’ American peanut butter, and baked beans.  I was sad to leave the store, I felt like I had been transported home for a while. There were Elvis posters everywhere and lots of American candies, including Skittles. Apparently Skittles are very hard to find here. Good thing I’m not a Skittles addict.

American Store Malmö

Next we headed to a nearby mall. It was rather small, and it seemed very fancy. We went to the liquor store there, for some wine for dinner. It was explained to me that there is only one liquor store in all of Sweden. It’s called System Bolaget, which literally translates to “the System Company.” It is a government run alcohol monopoly. They have some very odd rules about how things can be sold; for instance, no product can be favored over the others, so they can’t refrigerate any of the beers because that would mean they would have to refrigerate all the beers. That would simply be too expensive. In addition, all the wines have been tasted and chosen to be sold in Sweden. They have extensive labels on the shelves explaining where the wine is from, what flavors are in it, and what it goes with. They don’t leave much up to chance.

Frog

We continued our walk around Malmö, stopping briefly at a small design museum. There were so many adorable old buildings everywhere. That is something that reminds me I am in Europe. Surprisingly, it can be easy to forget that I’m so far away from home because people are still people, no matter where you are, and where I am living, there are so many cultural similarities to the States. However, it just isn’t possible for there to be so many old buildings in the United States because the continent hadn’t been colonized when many of these buildings were built . I was speaking with a Dane the other day and he joked that it was funny going to the United States and seeing plaques stating that cities were founded in the 1800s. That’s so recent in terms of European history!

Design Center

We decided to go to the newly renovated train station for lunch. It reminded me a bit of that food hall in Quincy Market in Boston, just much smaller. After trying to go first to a Boston inspired Sports Bar, and second to the Swedish version of Starbucks called Espresso House, we ended up in Starbucks. It was quite similar to the Starbucks we all know, although apparently Starbucks is a fairly new (~5 years) addition to Sweden. There was a funny 24 hour analog  clock, which I tried to take a picture of. I think this clock must have been a remnant of the old train station, before the recent renovations.

24 Hour Clock

When we finished lunch, (mine was a blueberry muffin and a hazelnut hot chocolate), we walked to the harbor. This is where the ships to Copenhagen used to leave from, before the Øresund Bridge was built. There were lots of old maritime factories there. One, which used to be a submarine factory, has been updated to instead produce the tubes for the bases of windmills.

Harbor

Old Maritime Factory

One of the most famous landmarks in Malmö, the Turning Torso, can be seen in the background of the above image.

Turning Torso

This building was designed by a Spanish architect and was opened in 2005. It is the tallest building in the Nordic countries. It’s actually a residential building. Although it is quite interesting to look at, and quite a status symbol to have an apartment in the Torso, I don’t think I’d like to live there. Due to the angles in the windows, people get a bit confused as to what is vertical. You can’t open the windows either!

Old Pharmacy Building

After our walk back, we headed to a grocery store to pick up ingredients for dinner. It was quite a big grocery store, the biggest I’ve seen since coming to Scandinavia. We had steak, mashed potatoes, and peas for dinner, and homemade apple pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert. It was a great taste of home.

The next morning we had pancakes for breakfast, along with the fruit and yogurt. I definitely ate a lot over the weekend, but it was all so good! And it was nice to not cook for myself.

I was sad to go back to my dorm, back to college life, because I felt so comfortable hanging out in Malmö. But, an hour and half after I left Triangeln station in Sweden, I was back at my room, ready to get to some neglected homework.