castles, etc.

hej! things are going well here, just winding down from another relatively busy few days. i can’t believe i’ve only been here a week— it feels like so much longer because they’ve kept us busy doing and seeing so much.

i only have classes four days a week to give us time to travel and do field studies with our classes every wednesday. this is awesome. however, my classes always start at 8:30 am— which means i leave the house at 7! not so cool. in any case, this will be the first week with the regular schedule of classes and field study, and i’m really looking forward to having more of a routine here.


on friday afternoon i meandered to the queen’s palace at amalienborg, which we had already seen briefly on the scavenger hunt, with two friends from goucher. little did we realize that they do a changing of the guard ceremony at that time…we just walked through the courtyard of the four rococo palaces and found a good two dozen guards in the full uniform of fuzzy hats and long, blue coats. they proceeded to march around the courtyard to a drum and flute tune, yell commands, move their guns around, and do some ceremony with swords. i wish i knew more of the story behind this, but in any case it was pretty awesome that we randomly saw it in an hour-long break between classes. after that trek i headed back to my host family’s home and spent the evening watching movies with them.



the royal palaces just keep coming here. on saturday i went on the optional school-sponsored trip to helsingør (or elsinore, in english). the town is about 45 minutes north of copenhagen on the northern end of the island of zealand. it is denmark’s closest point to sweden and home of the famous kronborg castle, home of shakespeare’s hamlet. we wandered around the old town for a while, which was very charming and small. of course the drizzly winter weather meant that it was a bit tough to enjoy the outdoors, but at least the crowd was limited to other DIS students and a surprisingly large amount of locals. there are benefits to traveling at this time! i had my first falafel in this country, where the recent influx of middle eastern immigrants has brought with it a wave of delicious food such as falafel. it was only 15 DKK (like $3) for an entire meal, while many of my classmates spent upwards of 50 DKK.



after the afternoon in town we hopped back in our very conspicuous tourist buses and went on a tour of the castle. it was gloomy and eerie in the mist, especially when we went to the underground chambers which used to serve as barracks for the danish army. the tour guide was a really interesting older lady who gave us personal details as well (such as her being able to walk across the ice to sweden as a little girl, which she can’t do any more because of global warming, and the fact that she studied abroad in portugal when she was our age). the castle itself was clearly once a place of splendor but had seen its share of destruction by the swedes. the ballroom was amazing—apparently once the place of europe’s best parties— and had a display of textile designs done by students at the local art school.

today i took a walking “alternative copenhagen” tour, which was alright. nothing mind-blowing, but it was nice to hear what a copenhagener had to say about the area. of course a sunday in january might not have been an ideal time considering everything is closed on sunday and the drizzle seemed mighty cold after two hours of walking around outside, but again the tourists were entirely absent. i look forward to exploring the cafes, restaurants, etc. later in my stay here, especially in the funkier districts of vesterbro (once more of a sketchy area known for its prostitutes and junkies) and nørrebro (mostly an immigrant community).

for now, however, i have some serious homework to do. i am giving a presentation to my danish design class on tuesday and need to study up before then!

confidence and classes

(note the small children in onesie snowsuits in this one, in the square by my school DIS)




day four? i am still figuring things out— like the best use of my three-hour break between classes and the fastest way to get to the train station— but i'm feeling a lot more confident than i did when i first arrived. i know that i'd rather wander around and explore the city on my own than cautiously stay at school with some acquaintances. the orientation activities and act of getting to know new classmates reminds me a lot of the beginning of college, but i definitely feel more sure of myself, where i'm going, and what i enjoy than when i did this two and half years ago. and instead of diving head-first into a jumble of activities and extracurriculars like i usually do, i think i'm going to take advantage of my ample free time this semester and try to relax, explore, and try new things. i have gotten lost several times here, but i've now adopted the attitude of being lost with a purpose: being lost in a foreign city is a great way to explore it. i'm going to embrace that and try to get to know the side-streets on my own. in general my navigation and map-reading skills have been improving rapidly since i've been here!

i ventured north, past my usual train station nørreport, this afternoon. i think i made it to "the lakes" that once served as a sort of moat around the old city (but they could be giant ponds that just weren't on the map...i'm not quite sure.) it was really pleasant and i wish i could have stayed longer, but without gloves or a hat i was beginning to shake a little. citywalking will just get even better as denmark becomes warmer and the days get longer this spring. on my way back i found rizraz, a veggie mediterranean restaurant that i'd heard about, which was a pleasant surprise.

i think classes will be really good. i had my core course, cross-cultural encounters (relating to migration) in a european context, this morning. the professor is a young danish man who is completely fluent and really funny in english. i was surprised and impressed that he knew pretty much everyone's name by the end of class! in contrast to goucher and most american universities, many of the instructors here actually hold full-time jobs in their respective fields and just come to teach a class or two here. they are generally not professors who hold phds but experts in the "real world" application of knowledge. i think that it's a good system. i also had my history of copenhagen class, which seems like it will be a real treat. i've never taken an urban studies class but i would have liked to if goucher offered them. we will be learning about the morphology of the city from its beginnings as a medieval merchant's town to today's cosmopolitan capital. i can't wait! i also took danish this afternoon, which also seems like it will be unique, refreshing and challenging. i'm still completely boggled as to how to pronounce anything in danish, but hopefully i will conquer this by the time the semester is over. i like to practice in the 20-minute walk to and from the train station every day, although this probably makes me look a little crazy as i mutter to myself.

DIS (still not 100% sure if it’s denmark’s international study program or danish institute for study, because i swear i’ve seen both!), is awesome. they have been doing it for 50 years so they've really got their stuff together. we got free soup on our scavenger hunt, free bags at orientation, free entrance to a club tomorrow night...of course our tuition pays for it but they put the money to good use (and lord knows money can be tight here...i'm still in shock over some prices!) their facilities are amazing. dis owns a few buildings in the heart of the old city, literally a few minutes' walk from the biggest squares and grandest palaces, which makes it a real pleasure to walk around between classes. the buildings themselves can be kind of labyrinth-like but are really quite charming. i think they were built around 1790, in the neoclassical style, like much of the area around us.

scavenger hunt and inauguration

here are some photos from today (you can see more on my flickr account):







today was really hectic and long but a lot of fun too. i had my survival danish class, which was pretty hard but i was for sure the most enthusiastic and well-rehearsed danish speaker there. i learned the very basics and we went to irma grocery store... then we had the "DIScover it" scavenger hunt, which of course i loved. i'm such a nerd. i somehow became the navigator (i was the only one with a map) and managed to successfully lead my group from DIS all around...we went down stroget to kogens nytorv, then to the parliament island, took the harbor bus to amalienborg and nyhavn, and then walked back. it was great! the city was surprisingly easy to navigate and with the exception of the cobblestones, easy to walk in. we made it all around in less than 3 hours. the colorful rows of old buildings in the medieval city reminded me a bit of baltimore's rowhouses, which i suppose is silly. clearly these are much older and more...european, but overall it has a similar lively flavor. i thoroughly enjoyed the walk around, taking in this quirky ancient city and getting to know some more of my classmates. i also really appreciated the free tomato soup that they provided as a snack!

the day concluded with a get-together at the "bethesda" church down the road from DIS, where we were invited to watch the inauguration on a big screen. it was packed with exhausted american students, but we all managed to give a shout when barack came on. that was a pretty odd and surreal experience but i certainly felt more patriotic than i usually do!

something i’ve found difficult so far is the darkness. it is dark when i wake up, leave the house, and when i return home in the evening. today we were fortunate to get out and enjoy the sunshine while it lasted but i know we won’t be able to do that every day. i’m going to need to leave the house at 7.15 to make it to my 8.30 classes, which will be really hard when it’s so dark out. we’ll see…i am just looking forward to the spring when the light is more abundant than that in the states!

first days in copenhagen

so i’ve been in copenhagen for about 36 hours now and it’s is treating me well so far!

the flight was fine—relatively short, at just under seven hours (it takes me almost as long to get home to seattle!). the other passengers were mostly DIS (my program) students. the flight attendants were fluent in both danish and english and wore black leather high-heel boots and black tights as part of their uniform. clearly european. there was a danish girl sitting in front of me who looked like she was about 10. for most of the flight she read a book in english, which few americans were doing. the flight was pretty empty, so i tried unsuccessfully to sleep on the empty seat next to me.

we arrived at 7.15 am— which felt like 1.15 am— and hung out at the airport for quite some time, waiting for a bus to pick us up. i bought a coffee for 35 dkk, which is about usd $6.24!!!! i know airport food is usually expensive but that shocked me. i guess people weren’t lying about denmark being expensive! eek. it was grey and rainy but not too frigid, which reminded me a lot of flying to seattle as well. after a short and chaotic run through the orientation line, where i picked up all my materials, i was shuffled to an auditorium in which the host parents came and got us. my host mom pernille (pronounced pa-nilla) came to get me and we drove the ½ hour to their house in tåstrup, a suburb west of the city. the house is kind of rambler-style but clearly more modern and danish-looking. it’s all one level with lots of windows, hard wood floors, skylights, and ikea lamps. i have my own room which is somewhat sparse but looks clean, in the danish style of design. my host dad henrik has worked hard to set up the wireless on my computer. both of them are really kind and speak english well. i would describe them both as “health nuts” in that they exercise many times a week, go to sports centers for vacation, and eat plenty of health foods like flax and organic peanut butter. their kids are 6-year-old elise (pronounced a-lisa) and 18-month-old johannes, who is a big troublemaker. johannes likes to toddle around the house and throw stuff. i’m impressed with his motor skills and he seems like a smart kid, but he just cries a lot because he is cranky and tired… i like kids a lot but i must say, i’m not used to living with one (or two!). elise is really sweet and pretty similar to her 6-year-old american counterparts. she likes pink, dresses and hannah montana. i wish i could talk to her more but she doesn’t speak english (yet) and my danish is pretty much non-existent at this point.

this morning i got up and made it to the train station on my own (which i was pretty proud of), took it 25 minutes to the city center, and met ½ my 600 classmates at the ny carlsberg glyptotek, a museum of classical sculpture donated by the founder of the carlsberg brewery. we were welcomed by a wind quintet and the director of DIS. the ionic columns and classical forms surrounding us really made me realize that we were in europe. who else begins an orientation in a fancy museum created by a brewer? the number of students in the program is pretty overwhelming. i haven’t really met too many yet, but i did talk to one guy from bellevue, washington today. most of the students seem to be much more cookie-cutter university types than anyone at goucher. we had some intro sessions today and we have more tomorrow. we begin classes on thursday, which i am definitely looking forward to.

i am going to go to bed now—this jet lag is still killing me!

hej danmark!

hej from danmark!! i made it safely and am incredibly tired so i'll post more later... all is well!

seattle-nyc-philly-bmore-cph!

i hope 2009 is treating everyone well! first of all, some recent snapshots of my life:

meeting up with friends in new york


enjoying the season in baltimore


a little collage i made yesterday, with the wonder that is photoshop


yesterday i made the realization that i have been doing a lot of traveling lately, and hopefully will be doing even more in the near future! on the last sunday in december i was in seattle; on the first sunday of january, i was in new york city; last weekend, philadelphia; next sunday will be copenhagen! of course this travel mixture contains plenty of baltimore too.

i'm really feeling more and more like baltimore is my home. i'm living in a rowhouse in the neighborhood of hampden and wow, it feels just so baltimore. the more and more i become familiar with the city, the more it seems like there is so much to explore. (luckily the day-to-day adult things like grocery shopping, cooking dinner, and commuting still seem novel and fun to me...i'm sure this will wear off with time, but these make me feel exhilarated and content right now.) last week i volunteered at my favorite nonprofit, the creative alliance, and had a handful of awesome conversations with people there. i then took a leisurely walk about three miles across the neighborhoods of highlandtown, patterson park, fells point, harbor east, and into the inner harbor-- a wide swath of baltimore's intoxicatingly uniqueness. i'm really enjoying the vibe of life here and see myself here for a while....but for now, i have four months of exploring copenhagen to do!

i leave for denmark on saturday, get there sunday, and start classes on thursday. until then, it is working, finishing packing, and soaking up my wonderful friends here.

2009

happy new year! my resolutions are to drink less coffee and eat less sugar-- my constant resolutions.

i am happy to report that i am back in baltimore! the trip was long but fine and now i am enjoying the cold but not snowy east coast for a few weeks...