the sun makes an appearance in copenhagen!

this morning i was absolutely thrilled to see the sun as i woke up! the long days of darkness were really starting to wear on me so i could not have been happier to see its shy orange corners inching out from behind the trees. my walk to the train station, although even colder than usual (and slightly damp as the snow is still a few inches thick) was invigorated with the sun. i felt like i was in a real-life gingerbread scene as i passed the rows of brick and red-tile-roofed houses all covered in snow. i suppose it looks like this every day, but for once i was able to see it with clarity. these suburbs look more literally “cookie cutter” than most in the states, but the candles lining the windows, bikes parked outside and the crazy-sounding street names somehow make them more endearing.

today my danish design class was graced with the presence of marie riegels melchior, an ethnologist who just finished her phd in danish fashion. although stylish herself, the focus of her studies were not what makes danish clothing so attractive as much as the social and political contexts and connotations associated with this now-booming industry. she gave us a brief summary of the history of the industry— from wool weavers in rural jutland to today’s hypermodern and hip designers. i learned that the fashion industry, in general, went from a unicentric system centered around paris to a polycentric system that counts copenhagen as the fifth fashion capital of the world. today in recent years the industry has had to redefine itself as most production moved to eastern europe and asia— but the knowledge base that gives rise to the designs is very much here. this isn’t really a topic i usually care very much about, but i found her lecture to be quite interesting!

the afternoon continued with a quick spin around town with two of my closest friends here, alex and kristy. we happen to all be in the same history of copenhagen class and were working on a group project (the danes love group projects!) analyzing different architectural styles around copenhagen. our professor— a really sweet older danish man named carsten— created each group a list of buildings and a map to guide us there. he’s the best. this is definitely something i’d want to be doing on my own so to receive credit for this is great! we found ourselves passing by copenhagen’s oldest (and most delicious) bakery on skt. peder’s straede on the way back to class and stopped to share a heavenly cream puff. it was the best 20 kroner i’ve ever spent!