It was fantastically sunny here the past few days -- Tuesday to Friday was brilliant. I snapped several outdoor pictures, and finally convinced myself to stop off at the Lakes and take some pictures of the swans.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Swans on a sunny day
It was fantastically sunny here the past few days -- Tuesday to Friday was brilliant. I snapped several outdoor pictures, and finally convinced myself to stop off at the Lakes and take some pictures of the swans.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Leaving CPH soon
I meant to update earlier this week, but I've been pretty busy. Let's rewind to last Friday.
Friday: watched the results of X-Factor wherein the best singer almost got voted off, tried to go to Palermo, but they were having another private party, and ended up at Out of Juice for a bit. Went home pretty early, but made plans for dinner the next night with Anna and Caitlin.
Ended up at their kollegium and we and their friend Matt had pancakes and some frikadeller (meatballs of a sort) and strawberries (which were surprisingly ripe and cheap). Also watched "Across the Universe" -- but since we had all seen it were also kind of talked through it, but that's the way to go with movies sometimes.
On Tuesday (Saint Patrick's Day), we of course had to go out to an Irish pub. We chose The Dubliner, by virtue of it being the closest to the Metro stop we all decided to meet at. We got there around 9:45 and it was, of course, absolutely packed and probably had been all day. There was a three-legged race/pub crawl earlier in the day, wherein the competitors had to race around to several Irish pubs and drink a beer at each. I had wandered around a bit earlier during the day and saw some of the competitors and the
crowds around the pubs. But, we went in and fought our way to the bar, each got a beer, and then went to find a place to try to see the live band (doing covers -- Oasis, U2, etc.), and ended up standing on benches and/or table to do so. Probably the best choice, as we were then mostly above the rest of the crowd. So we stayed there for a couple of hours and sang and danced until we were tired and sweaty and wanted to make use of the trains and regular buses, and not wait for the night bus. Got home by 12:30, took a shower, went to bed.
On Wednesday I had a field study to the Danish Resistance Museum with my Danish language class. Basics o
f Denmarks involvement in World War II: occupation started in April 1940, and the government cooperated with the Germans until 1943 (during cooperation they were able to still hold elections, administer most things as normal). After August 1943, there was more open resistance, and of course there was an underground resistance movement that assassinated German officers, sabotaged trains/supply lines, etc. Denmark successfully evacuated the Danish Jews (all but about 500) to Sweden in in October 1943. It was pretty interesting, they have a lot of cool artifacts, but we were only there for an hour and it was a museum better suited to individuals, as all the information was in Danish and English and I probably would have gotten more out of it if I just went around and read all the placards myself.
That's about it! Now, I have to basically pack for the first couple of legs of my trip tomorrow, and then we fly to London on Sunday afternoon!
Friday: watched the results of X-Factor wherein the best singer almost got voted off, tried to go to Palermo, but they were having another private party, and ended up at Out of Juice for a bit. Went home pretty early, but made plans for dinner the next night with Anna and Caitlin.
Ended up at their kollegium and we and their friend Matt had pancakes and some frikadeller (meatballs of a sort) and strawberries (which were surprisingly ripe and cheap). Also watched "Across the Universe" -- but since we had all seen it were also kind of talked through it, but that's the way to go with movies sometimes.
On Tuesday (Saint Patrick's Day), we of course had to go out to an Irish pub. We chose The Dubliner, by virtue of it being the closest to the Metro stop we all decided to meet at. We got there around 9:45 and it was, of course, absolutely packed and probably had been all day. There was a three-legged race/pub crawl earlier in the day, wherein the competitors had to race around to several Irish pubs and drink a beer at each. I had wandered around a bit earlier during the day and saw some of the competitors and the
crowds around the pubs. But, we went in and fought our way to the bar, each got a beer, and then went to find a place to try to see the live band (doing covers -- Oasis, U2, etc.), and ended up standing on benches and/or table to do so. Probably the best choice, as we were then mostly above the rest of the crowd. So we stayed there for a couple of hours and sang and danced until we were tired and sweaty and wanted to make use of the trains and regular buses, and not wait for the night bus. Got home by 12:30, took a shower, went to bed.On Wednesday I had a field study to the Danish Resistance Museum with my Danish language class. Basics o
f Denmarks involvement in World War II: occupation started in April 1940, and the government cooperated with the Germans until 1943 (during cooperation they were able to still hold elections, administer most things as normal). After August 1943, there was more open resistance, and of course there was an underground resistance movement that assassinated German officers, sabotaged trains/supply lines, etc. Denmark successfully evacuated the Danish Jews (all but about 500) to Sweden in in October 1943. It was pretty interesting, they have a lot of cool artifacts, but we were only there for an hour and it was a museum better suited to individuals, as all the information was in Danish and English and I probably would have gotten more out of it if I just went around and read all the placards myself.That's about it! Now, I have to basically pack for the first couple of legs of my trip tomorrow, and then we fly to London on Sunday afternoon!
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Ballet
I went to see my first true ballet last night at the Royal Danish Theater -- "Romeo and Juliet." I signed up for it through DIS and got a discount -- and through some mix-up they bumped our seats up; we ended up being in the last row on the floor, under the first balcony/mezzanine, so it wasn't an amazing view but pretty sweet (of course, front row of mezzanine is ideal for any performance, but I think we would have been higher up originally). The balconies went pretty high up in that building too.
Right before the performance started, everyone in the crowd stands up and we're like, "...what?" But then we found out from some Danes in front of us that the queen was there. So everyone had to stand up and wait till she was seated to sit back down. And there were two intermissions, so this happened three times.
It was a long performance -- three hours with two intermission, longer than I expected. But it was entertaining. I think I appreciated the orchestra more than the actually dancing. And the sets! The sets were amazing, moving seamlessly -- I really liked how it was staged. One scene in particular, where the friar details the plan to make Juliet appear dead, etc. was done well. There was this sort of "acting troupe" within the ballet that as Juliet and the friar stood frozen in the foreground, acted out the plan. Thought is was interesting.
And they all made dancing en pointe look ridiculously easy.
Right before the performance started, everyone in the crowd stands up and we're like, "...what?" But then we found out from some Danes in front of us that the queen was there. So everyone had to stand up and wait till she was seated to sit back down. And there were two intermissions, so this happened three times.
It was a long performance -- three hours with two intermission, longer than I expected. But it was entertaining. I think I appreciated the orchestra more than the actually dancing. And the sets! The sets were amazing, moving seamlessly -- I really liked how it was staged. One scene in particular, where the friar details the plan to make Juliet appear dead, etc. was done well. There was this sort of "acting troupe" within the ballet that as Juliet and the friar stood frozen in the foreground, acted out the plan. Thought is was interesting.
And they all made dancing en pointe look ridiculously easy.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Random observation
While watching the Danish version of "X Factor" with the host family last night, I saw something surprising. Now, this show is watch by like, half of Denmark's population, is a family show, and is on at eight o'clock Friday primetime on the nation's second most watch television channel.
So imagine MY surprise when a sign supporting one of the contestants was shown, reading, "MOHAMED -- YOU'RE THE FUCKING GREATEST!" and was shown no less than three times during the broadcast, and it passed by without comment from any but myself.
Apparently this sort of thing is just accepted.
So imagine MY surprise when a sign supporting one of the contestants was shown, reading, "MOHAMED -- YOU'RE THE FUCKING GREATEST!" and was shown no less than three times during the broadcast, and it passed by without comment from any but myself.
Apparently this sort of thing is just accepted.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Another week gone by
I can't believe we're already one week in to March. In two weeks and one day, I will be in London for the CMM study tour/first week of travel break.
Travel break for me, looks like this:
March 21-27: Program study tour in London and Oxford
March 27: extra night in London
March 28-April 2: train to Paris on the 28th, fly out to CPH the night of the 2nd
April 3: One day in CPH to recuperate
April 4-April 11: Krakow
I'll be meeting and hanging out with Heather in Paris -- she's even staying with me for the first two nights at the hostel. I posted a message on the DIS forum at the end of last week, asking if anyone wanted to go to Krakow in the third week, and someone actually responded: a full year student named MaryElise. We booked everything this afternoon. The flights were pretty cheap, but the price on the hostels was AMAZING. No more than $15 a night; for seven nights it was still under one hundred dollars for two people. I have a feeling I will love the cost of things in Poland. Then, Heather will be visiting me from April 23-27, so that'll be fun too!
What else has been going on this week? Last Saturday, I went out in the morning to a small photography exhibition called "Mirror" by Camilla Holmgren, because I need to write a 4-page exhibition review due this past Monday of an exhibition of a female artist. I also went to H&M and bought a cute shirt off the sale rack, and a necklace. Caitlin, Anna, and I went out to a bar called Palermo, where we paid for overpriced drinks. (Basically all cocktails were 75kr, almost $13.) But the place was cool, and we found out that cocktails are only 50kr on Fridays before 11, so we might go back there next week. We all decided we would rather stay in tonight. And Kathryn lives so far away that she has to crash somewhere if she wants to meet up with us in the city -- last weekend we acquainted ourselves with the night bus system. We had to take one, and then get on another heading in the opposite direction to get to my home, and we would have ended up walking like 15 minutes in high-heeled boots if the second bus driver hadn't been extremely helpful.
My first class of the day was cancelled on Monday, but I (and about 25 other people) didn't know because our teacher had posted a message on the forum but not e-mailed it to us. I got up at 7am when I could have slept till like 10 instead. Ack. On Monday night, Anna and I went to a restaurant called Peder's Oxe for their Monday night burger special -- great, decently sized burger for 35kr (compare that to the cost of a drink mentioned earlier and it would only make me angry). We ended up having to wait for awhile because they have a really inefficient serving system, but it was worth it.
Tuesday was my Danish written exam (cultural things, easy) and my Danish Politics exam (which, although I was kind of... improvising on a couple of the short essays, I still got an A on the test when we got it back today). Wednesday was our field study to the Venstre (Liberal) Party Headquarters. We just had a short talk and Q&A session with one of the higher ups, it was okay. Most interesing parts of that field study, though? The candies with wrappers emblazoned with "Venstre" and the backwards clock. The numbers and hands went around counterclockwise. It was freaky.
Today I had my Danish oral midterm, which went well. But yeah, I'm staying in tonight and likely watching "X Factor" with the host family, and then I don't know what I'm doing for the weekend yet! I think we're going to make the trip up to the Little Mermaid on Sunday at some point, and maybe we'll go out for dinner or a couple of drinks tomorrow...? We'll see!
I haven't taken many pictures lately, but one of these days (hopefully when it's sunny -- a rarity) I'm going to stop off at the lakes and take some pictures -- especially of all the swans! I don't think I've ever seen so many in my life.
Travel break for me, looks like this:
March 21-27: Program study tour in London and Oxford
March 27: extra night in London
March 28-April 2: train to Paris on the 28th, fly out to CPH the night of the 2nd
April 3: One day in CPH to recuperate
April 4-April 11: Krakow
I'll be meeting and hanging out with Heather in Paris -- she's even staying with me for the first two nights at the hostel. I posted a message on the DIS forum at the end of last week, asking if anyone wanted to go to Krakow in the third week, and someone actually responded: a full year student named MaryElise. We booked everything this afternoon. The flights were pretty cheap, but the price on the hostels was AMAZING. No more than $15 a night; for seven nights it was still under one hundred dollars for two people. I have a feeling I will love the cost of things in Poland. Then, Heather will be visiting me from April 23-27, so that'll be fun too!
What else has been going on this week? Last Saturday, I went out in the morning to a small photography exhibition called "Mirror" by Camilla Holmgren, because I need to write a 4-page exhibition review due this past Monday of an exhibition of a female artist. I also went to H&M and bought a cute shirt off the sale rack, and a necklace. Caitlin, Anna, and I went out to a bar called Palermo, where we paid for overpriced drinks. (Basically all cocktails were 75kr, almost $13.) But the place was cool, and we found out that cocktails are only 50kr on Fridays before 11, so we might go back there next week. We all decided we would rather stay in tonight. And Kathryn lives so far away that she has to crash somewhere if she wants to meet up with us in the city -- last weekend we acquainted ourselves with the night bus system. We had to take one, and then get on another heading in the opposite direction to get to my home, and we would have ended up walking like 15 minutes in high-heeled boots if the second bus driver hadn't been extremely helpful.
My first class of the day was cancelled on Monday, but I (and about 25 other people) didn't know because our teacher had posted a message on the forum but not e-mailed it to us. I got up at 7am when I could have slept till like 10 instead. Ack. On Monday night, Anna and I went to a restaurant called Peder's Oxe for their Monday night burger special -- great, decently sized burger for 35kr (compare that to the cost of a drink mentioned earlier and it would only make me angry). We ended up having to wait for awhile because they have a really inefficient serving system, but it was worth it.
Tuesday was my Danish written exam (cultural things, easy) and my Danish Politics exam (which, although I was kind of... improvising on a couple of the short essays, I still got an A on the test when we got it back today). Wednesday was our field study to the Venstre (Liberal) Party Headquarters. We just had a short talk and Q&A session with one of the higher ups, it was okay. Most interesing parts of that field study, though? The candies with wrappers emblazoned with "Venstre" and the backwards clock. The numbers and hands went around counterclockwise. It was freaky.
Today I had my Danish oral midterm, which went well. But yeah, I'm staying in tonight and likely watching "X Factor" with the host family, and then I don't know what I'm doing for the weekend yet! I think we're going to make the trip up to the Little Mermaid on Sunday at some point, and maybe we'll go out for dinner or a couple of drinks tomorrow...? We'll see!
I haven't taken many pictures lately, but one of these days (hopefully when it's sunny -- a rarity) I'm going to stop off at the lakes and take some pictures -- especially of all the swans! I don't think I've ever seen so many in my life.
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