photoshop fun

here are some little photoshop projects i've been working on lately. [i think if you click on each it will appear larger in a separate window]

settling in

i am really happy with how things are shaping up here in baltimore this summer! the house is really awesome-- a perfect size, now complete with lots of free furniture from our friends that just moved, decor from IKEA, and my mom's spot-on decorative eye. the kitchen has all-new appliances and thus is gorgeous; in the past week we made buttermilk biscuits, pizza, and banana bread here. we have been taking advantage of the location to go bike riding at the nearby druid hill park and see friends in the vicinity. i am so pleased with this, i think it is going to be a good year on miles avenue!

i started my internship at the state arts council last week and it too seems like it's going to be really good. the program is very well-established and they have a lot of workshops and trainings for the 25 or so interns at various maryland state offices. next week, for example, i have a policy paper-writing workshop; at the end of the summer, we all have to give presentations to the governor! the arts council's most important function is as a funding source for many local arts organizations, giving out grants for various projects and people. i am working specifically for the maryland traditions program, which focuses on traditional and folk arts-- how cool! we have a big showcase event next week, so i have been very busy working on promoting that and making sure all the details come together. i am very interested in this line of work so i couldn't be happier with how this internship has worked out (so far, at least).

my parents were in town the week before last and i think i can say that we all had a good time. we did day trips to the picturesque city of annapolis and to lancaster county, PA-- which was a bit more touristy than i imagined it would be. they were also supremely helpful in getting us all set up here-- trips to IKEA, target, etc. were all key. they also got me a laptop to replace the stolen one, hopefully to be reimbursed by my study abroad program...i know the paperwork is a pain, but i am soooooo thankful to have a laptop again!! all in all it was great to see them, and i hope they got a little more insight into why i love baltimore so much!

best wishes for a great june!

back in baltimore

i have been back stateside for almost a week now, and it has been wonderful! i had such a terrific time in denmark-- i thoroughly enjoyed copenhagen and feel so fortunate to have had that opportunity. however, one of the most important parts of travel is how it makes you appreciate your home in a new light. especially after studying immigration issues in denmark, i have a serious, newfound respect for ethnic relations here. of course there are problems and we have a long ways to go before everyone is on an equal footing in american society, but compared to the pretty blatant disapproval and tension i witnessed in copenhagen i feel that american race relations are not too bad. it was so wonderful to come back to a place where, for the most part, diversity is both a certainty and something to be celebrated. seeing so many different types of people-- in terms of age, size, ethnicity, politics, religion, social interests, dress, etc.-- was a really welcome change from denmark, where i often felt that i was being stared at for wearing a bright red ski coat instead of a black jacket all winter. it seems that conformity is the ideal in denmark, so i was more than ready to come back to the land where we pride ourselves on standing out. i value uniqueness too much to fit into danish society!

another major difference (and something that i have experienced in a mild form of reverse culture shock) is how open and friendly americans are. on my second day back i took a city bus and saw a woman tap the old, slightly disheveled man in front of her, ask if she could fix his collar for him, and proceed to fiddle with his collar until it laid smooth. it was great. later that day a bus driver gave me a free ride to where i needed to be because i was exhausted from walking around in the heat lost for an hour. further examples came with the helpful customer service at the grocery store (i forgot american checkers stand up, make small talk, and even bag your groceries for you-- without charging for plastic bags!!! and they are open in the evenings and on sunday!! certainly not the case in denmark!) and a genuinely apologetic waitress who felt awful that they were out of what we ordered. i am still used to strangers saying hello on the street, which i forgot happened during my four months among mostly private, straight-faced danes.

of course i have taken pleasure in other joys of american life as well: namely, food. i was so happy to once again taste cheddar cheese, veggie burgers, bagels, mint chocolate chip ice cream...perhaps this reinvigorated interest in american food (amerikansk mad, in danish) will motivate me to do some more cooking. it hasn't so far but it has been hard without much kitchen stuff!

speaking of which, i love my lovely rowhouse! timmy did a fantastic job picking the place out, and then moving all of our stuff single-handedly! i came home to the new place with virtually all our stuff in boxes and suitcases, so i spent the first few days focusing my energy on moving in. i am so excited to decorate and settle in-- i love that stuff! the location feels quite urban, certainly more than i'm used to, but in a good way. in less than 20 minutes i can walk to johns hopkins (and the many bus routes located near it), the neighborhoods of charles village and hampden, the baltimore museum of art, two of my favorite restaurants of all time, a gorgeous park, a grocery store, pharmacy, etc...

my parents are visiting next week and i am really looking forward to seeing them and showing them around charm city. it will also be invaluable to receive interior design guidance from my mom!

last days in københavn

it is hard to believe but i am finished with all of my academic work here! i just took my very last final and am not sure what to do with myself now! i got excited and already started packing up my stuff, so that won't take much more time. i leave on sunday but have a good 48 hours left that i don't want to waste. not having a job this semester has been strange and then without classes to structure my day it has been even more odd. i am really looking forward to getting back to the states, moving in to my new home in baltimore!, and then eventually establishing a routine again. i will be interning at the maryland state arts council from june 1- august 15, which sounds like it will work out just swimmingly!

i have been doing some fun things of late. namely, sitting in various parks around town and just enjoying the glorious nordic springtime. last weekend i planned on going to see møns klint, white cliffs on an island south of copenhagen, with some friends-- but due to transportation and other difficulties, we made it about half-way there, to the medieval market town of køge, and ended up hanging out in their public park for most of the day instead. it has been a pleasure to study for my finals outside, although i'm sure it would have been more productive indoors.



another fun day outside was spent at the annual DIS picnic, where all 600 students plus their host families, danish roommates, etc. are invited to celebrate the semester. it took place last sunday in the utterly amazing charlottenlund strandpark in the affluent "whiskey belt" north of copenhagen (sort of like boston's north shore). i had a great time with my host family and friends there together-- and my little host brother johannes (who turns two this weekend!) really bonded with my friend alex!




i have also spent a lot of my last few weeks here looking at buildings. last week i had a great field study with my history of copenhagen class to some new development areas in the "brownfields" (former industrial sites) around the harbor. some of the projects are really interesting, such as cantilevering luxury condos around two old silos (see below-- the gemini residences) and hiring dutch architects to create a very upscale yuppie amsterdam-inspired district of houses on the harbor.



finally, i have been enjoying biking around my house lately. i am very grateful to my host mom for lending me her bike and to denmark for building bike lanes. i have discovered an amazing park just a few minutes away from me that is just perfect for an afternoon adventure. one of the coolest parts about the copenhagen area is that the municipalities have gone out of their way to balance developments with green space. in fact, as early as 1947 they adopted the "finger plan" to keep suburban development along the five railroad tracks extending from copenhagen-- and to ensure green lungs between each "finger" of suburbia. it really does improve your quality of life to know that no matter where you live, you aren't too far from a luscious, well-maintained park! good job, denmark...

springtime in copenhagen

københavn really transforms in the springtime-- everyone comes out of their hygge home and goes to the park! until this wekk, the weather has been absolutely gorgeous since i got back from the break— just perfect for enjoying an ice cream outdoors. it is warmer and lighter and i really feel like i have gotten to know the city well. classes will be done tomorrow and i have a strange amount of free time on my hands. i just finished my danish oral exam (i managed to get an A, but it doesn’t really matter because i am taking it pass/fail!) and just have a few finals left after that.


last week was a holiday called først maj, or first of may, that is best described as socialist labor day. i went to the biggest park in copenhagen with literally thousands of other people—apparently there were some 100,000 people there. it was outrageous! while there were some socialist speeches, a parade, and some booths set up with political agendas, most people were there to sit in the park and party. it was like gig (get into goucher day, an annual springtime tradition that involves the entire student body having a good time on the quad) x 1000. besides the sensory overload, our drunk neighbors hitting their soccer ball into our area, and the vast number of men peeing in the open, it was nice. i just like the idea that so many copenhageners hang out together in one public space. there were all types of people-- including the omnipresent adorable danish baby brigade-- all sharing the park. i am really glad i went! the day before i had spent a total of about four hours in the park closest to dis, called h.c. øresteds parken, doing a variety of things: eating lunch with friends, having our last danish class session, then chatting for a few hours with my danish class... i am really going to miss the laid-back and nearly universal danish appreciation for a good urban green space in which to sun oneself, have a picnic, and see friends!

other recent events include a class trip to the sandholm asylum center (where all refugees and other asylum seekers spend their first and last days in denmark...a strange alternate universe where people live for years without being able to engage in the real world in any way), the open air museum (a sizeable collection of historic buildings from across denmark gathered in one place), celebrating the queens birthday (dronningens fødseldsdag) by watching an anticlimactic wave from her balcony, shopping at the only dollar store in dk, eating lots of ice cream, sitting at the picturesque harbor (nyhavn), getting together with my lovely danish friends/acquaintances, riding my first roller coaster at the folksy bakken amusement park, visiting the historic roskilde cathedral, riding my bike (so much fun!), babysitting my host siblings, enjoying pretty much every moment of my history of copenhagen class/feeling more confident in my recent decision to go into urban planning, accompanying my friend katie to "copenhagen body extremes" to get her nose pierced, writing term papers, going out to dinner with my classmates, and many afternoons of sitting in the park. perhaps the most exciting news of the last week, however, is that i will definitely be moving into a cute rowhouse in the remington area of baltimore (close to johns hopkins univ. and the baltimore museum of art) with my boyfriend, timmy! he signed the lease yesterday and will begin moving this weekend! i am going to soak up these last two weeks in denmark and but am really, really looking forward to moving in this summer!

manchester

i am happy to report that i was very pleasantly surprised with the city of manchester. although i must confess it wasn’t my top choice of places to go and i have never felt a strong desire to visit england, it was on the top of timmy’s list because he is a passionate soccer fan. he bought tickets to see his beloved team fulham play against manchester city a while back and we planned our trip around that. i found that manchester, however, has much more to offer the world than just soccer. i was relieved to return to a place where i could understand the language, although some accents we heard were so thick i had trouble determining which language they were speaking!

my initial impression of manchester was surprise that it was so cute and charming. it, like gothenburg or even baltimore and pittsburgh, is known for its past as an industrial capitol and not so much as a tourist destination today. from an urban planning perspective manchester is a fascinating place because of its many successful urban regeneration projects. we passed quite a few old mill and factory buildings that have been converted to condos, offices or mixed-used facilities. they also had an awesome arts and crafts center housed in a small factory building in the hip northern quarter, where a dozen or so local artists had studio and exhibition space. i was also impressed with their “urbis” center, a combination museum, tv studio, classroom, community center, shop and café all in a striking glass structure in the heart of the city. they had a very thorough exhibit on black panther artist emory douglas, which was interesting to see american history presented from a british point of view. urbis reminded me of baltimore’s creative alliance but on a much larger scale—it could serve as a source of inspiration for many community arts organizations. the people we saw, a strangely large percentage of whom were men, were mostly dressed as if it was summer. granted, the temperature there was the warmest of all of our destinations, but i found it strange that in early april so many people were walking around in shorts and tank tops. the weather was ideal for people watching in the park, which we did plenty of!

most memorable in england and perhaps the whole trip were two events on our last day of traveling, easter sunday. we did some research and decided to attend the easter service at manchester’s gothic cathedral. although i had never experienced an easter service and thus have nothing to compare it to, this traditional church of england service involved a lot of incense, singing, and interesting costumes worn by church officials. i wasn’t always sure what was going on but it was very interesting to observe from a cultural standpoint. later that day we took part in a ritual of the other national religion: soccer. it is hard to describe (you can see timmy’s blog for his take on it) but was quite an experience as well. as fans of the away team, we were segregated in a section constantly guarded by two rows (on each side) of security guards. fulham is not known for their tendency to win while playing away, but they surprised us all with a 3-1 win over the home team. my favorite part of the game was observing the crowd repeating their chanting taunts and erupting with joy at every goal. it is clear that soccer (or football, as it is known there) is more than just a hobby for these people, but a passion that absolutely defines their lives. it was through a mutual love of fulham that we found a place to stay our last night of the trip— we were greeted at the airport by an enthusiastic fellow fan named dan who let us stay in his family’s delightful home in acton town, london. it was a warm end to a wonderful trip and i am very grateful to dan for that. before flying back to copenhagen in the afternoon i did get a chance to meet up with a friend of mine, anne, who has been at oxford this year. it was great to reconnect with her and see how she has thrived in her new life in the uk.

i feel infinitely lucky to be able to have experienced all of these places and to have shared it all with timmy. it certainly energized me for future travels, especially in england and further into eastern europe, but also exhausted me. i was happy to return back to copenhagen and to wash some of my clothes. i am really going to try to appreciate every single second of my life in copenhagen for this next month but i must say i am really looking forward to returning to the states as well!

the baltics.

helsinki


my travel break became significantly more exciting when i met up with my boyfriend timmy for another week of northern european adventures. my mom was extremely generous and gave him her frequent flyer miles so that he could come visit and what a treat it was. we are both so lucky that our travel dreams became actually became a reality! i flew from stockholm to helsinki and met him at the airport. we hit the ground running and took a bus to the student-y district just north of downtown helsinki, kallio, to meet up with the couple that was hosting us over the weekend. our hosts arho and paula were really kind and it was a great introduction to couchsurfing, the network of couches for travelers. we spent a fair amount of the weekend just hanging out with them, talking about life as a young adult in finland and the united states. we also saw a queen cover band playing at a bar, walked around the downtown area looking at the city’s impressive churches and other neoclassical official buildings, and tried to keep warm over coffee. for the most part the city was quiet and nondescript, as if everyone was just minding their own business and living life without having to succumb to tourists. it seemed very genuine. our biggest excursion while in helsinki was when we took a ferry to the sea fortress called suomenlinna (or sveaborg, in swedish) and the water was covered by chunks of ice, which made me a little nervous. the island is now home to a small community of families who live in the old military barracks; there appeared to be a fair amount of industry there as well. i’m sure it’s swamped with visitors in the summer but on that cold april morning we had the island’s bastions and ramparts to ourselves. we got a lovely view of the baltic sea and ate our lunch in peace. i really liked helsinki, although it ended up being kind of a blur, and i would like to return to finland someday. perhaps next time i will get a chance to explore the country’s northern reaches in lapland?

tallinn


we boarded a giant cruise boat in helsinki and rode four hours to the port of tallinn, estonia. the city is famous for its extraordinarily well-preserved old town with its medieval stone wall and gates— and with good reason. it is amazing to see that slice of history! tallinn was more touristy than i thought it would be, and we kept running into the same group of spanish tourists. we spent our two days there meandering around the old town’s winding cobblestone streets, taking in the juxtaposition of cute pastel-colored administrative buildings (their parliament is painted light pink) with run-down concrete homes. i enjoyed walking around toompea, the section of tallinn atop a hill, trying to see the surrounding area through heavy fog. we spent a while in tallinn’s top-notch museums: the photo museum, the occupation museum, the city history museum, the workshops of the craft association. we stayed in a nice but strange hostel that didn’t have a real kitchen. we eventually found ourselves in the modern part of the city, where the majority of the city’s residents live, and saw that it was not all so clean and well-preserved. we stumbled upon a local market where farmers were selling their crops alongside imported goods, cheap tennis shoes, babushka scarves, and lots of other knick-knacks. i am certain that among the sizeable crowd, timmy and i were the only people under 50. it was odd to consider what these tiny old estonian women (the shoppers were mostly women, but there were a few men there too) had been through in their lifetime. estonia was occupied by the third reich in world war two and then the soviet union until 1991. clearly these periods of occupation have impacted the national identity and morale in immeasurable ways, and it was seeing these market-goers that made me realize how influential the nation’s turbulent political changes must have been to these families.

rīga

our euroline bus took us four hours through the estonian countryside to reach latvia, where a landscape of dense forest and soft hills made up for our bus driver’s obsession with passing other drivers on a narrow, bumpy road. rīga, especially compared to tallinn, had a decidedly cosmopolitan feel. there were so many (young) people out and about, packing the sidewalks full. it was obvious that people were trying hard to look good, in contrast to tallinn where everyone had clearly gone through too much to care about what they looked like. the stereotypical eastern european aesthetic was very much at play among rīga’s citizens, with countless women teetering along in high heels, acid-washed jeans and big, fluffy hair. oddly enough these crowded streets and parks emptied at night, transforming the city into a mostly barren collection of art nouveau offices, churches and apartment blocks. i personally felt uneasy venturing out at night considering the drastic language barrier (i knew i was no longer in denmark, where literally everyone under the age of about 30 speaks near-fluent english) and rīga’s tourist-extortion schemes i had read about online. we definitely lucked out in finding a great hostel in central rīga. we stayed in a loft apartment in a very clean, safe and colorful building; while eating our free breakfast (!) in the common room, we met two other americans, who we ended up hanging out with for a few hours. one of them was taking two years to travel the entire world and had already made it to every country in south america as well as antarctica, asia and across russia. we dined on traditional latvian pancakes for dinner two nights in a row; the ridiculously low prices there made it possible for us to go out instead of cooking at the hostel. i was particularly impressed with the massive occupation museum in rīga, but we also made it to the architecture museum, the history and navigation museum, and their insane central market where you can literally find anything you would ever want. we accidentally walked into a room full of freshly butchered pigs’ heads and promptly turned around as my stomach was hit with a queasy wave…sadly our time in rīga ended on sort of a bad note as we experienced one pretty hellish day. we packed up early, checked out and walked through a heavy rain with all of our luggage in order to wait for a bus that would take us to the airport. the ride was about 45 minutes and was not at all pleasant considering the bus was way beyond its capacity and i stood clinging to my purse. i could barely see my other bags even though they were right next to me simply because of how crowded it was. the fun continued as we waited in a few outrageously long lines in the very poorly-designed rīga airport. our ryanair flight to liverpool was definitely the most terrifying flight i have ever experienced; i’m not sure if it seemed so scary because of my already frayed nerves or if the pilot was feeling very playful that day, but it could best be described as “a free for all” that at one point left us suspended nearly sideways above liverpool. we then had an hour-long bus ride and another 30 minutes of walking through the rain with heavy luggage before finding our couchsurfing host’s house in suburban manchester…. more manchester stories next time!