No Pun Intended

Midterms means my wit has decreased momentarily, so no Danish pun for the title. Sowwy.

Anyway, the past 10 days have been pretty crazy and since it takes me forever to write a blog entry, I just haven't had the time (and still don't) to sit down and do it the right way. Therefore, brief update on my life.

1. I went to my visiting sister Maria's high school play last week with my friend Becca. We ended up arriving late so we sat outside the auditorium for the first act. It didn't hinder our understanding of the performance because we had no idea what was happening in the first place - it was completely in Danish. Anyway, Maria was fantastic, and it was a really great cultural immersion to see a Danish play (written by the students at the school!) and be in a Danish school. 

2. I visited the Louisiana Art Museum on Saturday. It's a modern art museum, and has some really amazing pieces (a few Warhol paintings and lots of Picasso, among others). I forgot my camera (wah) so I didn't take any pictures. However, it's situated on the most beautiful beach, so when it gets warmer (or perhaps when Lizzie comes in April yay!) I want to go back and spend a long time looking at the rest of the museum (it's massive) and hanging out outside.

3. Sunday, my other visiting sister, Lotte, took me to the castle that inspired the play Hamlet (and the title of this blog), Kronborg in Helsingør. Her boyfriend, Mikkel, also came with us. They were absolutely adorable, and hanging out witih them was so fun. The castle is on a beach, and you can literally see Sweden from the coast, so we walked around in the freezing but beautiful weather and admired Sweden! After exploring the castle and it's castmates (passageway/dungeon type things) we grabbed lunch and I tried pickled herring in a curry sauce - it was actually really good! I also had some other traditional Danish food including frikadeller (a meatball which apparently has veal in it but tastes delicious... I'm still struggling personally with the fact that I may or may not have eaten veal... ever since my brother told me what it was/how it was killed when I was little, I have vehemently refused to eat it), remoulade (a condiment that has vegetables and mayo and other stuff in it) and many more. I refused to eat the liver pate (liverpostej as it's called in Danish)... I don't think an explanation is necessary. After a loooong lunch, we visited the aquarium that only has fish/plants from the water between Helsingør and Sweden, and I touched an anemone. We finally headed home, and after an 8 hour adventure, I fell asleep in the car. 

Kronborg!

Me looking extremely cold

Mikkel and Lotte being so0o0o cute. Yes, this was a creeping pic.

The ice covered rocks (courtesy of Lotte!)

4. This week has been pretty uneventful minus lots of studying. I had an exam today, another tomorrow, and another on Monday. The exam went fine, but was rather annoying to study for. I'm really unmotivated even though I find my classes really interesting. I guess it's just harder to get back into school mode when you aren't actually at school.

Random: As I procrastinated, I decided to search on google images "Danish" and this is what came up:

Oh, Minnesota.

Okay. I promise to update with cooler things next week after my last midterm. Vi ses!

S'il Vous Plaît-ing in Paris!

Sorry for the hiatus - I literally took one when I went to Paris this weekend! (Hence the pun in the title!). Also, this week has been super busy, but more on that later.

Ben (a friend from Mac who is also in Copenhagen) and I left on Thursday night and arrived in Paris at around 10:00 PM. We then took the RER to get to Lizzie's stop (after getting lost and very confused in the airport) and met with Lizzie and Elle (who was also visiting!). We pretty much hung out and went to bed that night since Ben and I were pretty tired.

Friday, we woke up really early (8:15 OMG) and went to the Eiffel Tower! The weather was absolutely AMAZING - almost 60 degrees and gorgeously sunny. We took pictures with the tower (duh) and thanks to my bright idea and great odd-object spotting skills, we were able to take these gems...

Bonjour!

Just being French

After that, we went to the Arc de Triomphe, took some more pictures, and walked down the Champs-Elsees to the huuuuge ferris wheel (which we rode on, of course!) and took some sweet pictures. Then, because it was so beautiful, we sat outside at a park and people-watched until it was 3PM and we could go to Laduree (a really swanky restaurant known for their macarons and delicious sweet things). We got mini macaron (an almond paste cookie type thing) and tea, and pretended to be really sophisticated. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, and the food was definitely worth the price tag!

Arc de Triomphe!

Lizzie and Ben in the ferris wheel

Yeah!

So good I accidentally took a bite before taking a picture.

I want to live here.

Friday night Lizzie hosted a birthday party wiht some of her program-mates in her dorm room, and then we went to a club that was underneath the Seine. WE DANCED THERE. How cool is that? I danced BENEATH the Seine. Okay, enough boasting, but it was really awesome.

Saturday we went to An American Diner in Paris! (exclamation point is actually in the title) to get some real American breakfast since we'd all been craving it pretty badly. Then we did the Louvre, and then the Musee d'Orsay (a more modern museum). I loved loved loved the Orsay. It was filled with Impressionist paintings and cool sculptures and artsy fun. Afterwards, we went to Montmartre to see the entire view of Paris. After climbing a tonnn of steps, we made it, and saw the nighttime skyline. It was one of the most breathtaking sights I've ever seen. I kept thinking to myself (and saying out loud) "I can't believe I'm in Paris. I've always wanted to be here. I cannot believe this." It was truly one of the most special moments of my life.

This doesn't give the view justice.

After a long day, we grabbed some dinner, went back to Lizzie's dorm and passed out. Sunday morning we grabbed some breakfast and then Ben and I set out to the airport for the worst experience regarding travel of my life (but I'll spare you the frustrating details). Basically, if you plan to fly out of Paris-Orly, be prepared to be really confused, spoken to extremely rudely, and eternally searching for someone who actually knows the layout of the place of their employment. But I digress.....

Other than the land of baguette and romance, I've been pretty happy in Copenhagen. I actually even missed it while I was in France. I joined the most amazing gym (facilities are fantastic, plus taking a shower that feels like you are standing in a thunderstorm doesn't hurt either!), and have been working out every day since I joined (minus my vacation). This week has been busy! Yesterday was my floormate's birthday so we had a delicious Mexican-themed potluck and went to a few bars to celebrate. Today, I had 2 field studies (basically field trips) and still have one to go! For my public health class, we visited the UN's Population Fund, an organization focused on giving everyone reproductive rights - it's a really amazing organization! Then this afternoon, my Danish class went to the Danish Resistance Museum (from WWII) which was AMAZING and then we watched  a really intense movie about 2 of the resistance heroes. I'm still a little shaken from it. Tonight, for my History of European Ballet class, we're going to see the Royal Danish Ballet perform A Midsummernight's Dream. I am BEYOND excited - I grew up watching the RDB and now I'm actually getting to see them live. Life is good.

Aarhus, in the middle of the street! (Get it? Bad joke.. sorry!)

I am back! You all probably didn't even know I was gone since I don't think I ever actually updated about my brief hiatus from Copenhagen. First, on Wednesday, I went ot the Carlsburg Brewery - it was awesome! We got to try 2 different kinds of beer after our self-guided tour. Here are some pictures!

I drank all of those.

Just hangin at the brewery, makin some beer in the stable.

Delicious!

 Anyway, back to the main point of this entry. I went on a short study tour to Western Denmark with my core course. Between Thursday and Saturday, we visited Aarhus, Kolding, and Horsens. Here is a day-by-day account of it, since I'm sure you all are DYING to know what I did! Also, there are cool pictures, so you should definitely read this obscenely long entry.

Thursday, we arrived in Aarhus after a very exhausting 4 hour busride. We saw a PET scan center and the Center for Integrative Neuroscience. We also visited a general practioner. While the visits seem cool, they were actually pretty disappointing - we sat through really long lectures about things that had nothing to do with our class, and saw way too many MRI scanners - not actually pictures of scans, just the machines. That evening we went to a really delicious Italian restaurant and a cool, privately owned brewery/bar. We stayed in a really beautiful hostel that served amazing breakfast.

My baby beer at the Sankt Clemens Brew House (it doesn't look like a baby sized beer, but compared to the other glass sizes, this was for tiny tots).

Friday we went to the University of Aarhus' hospital which was definitely cooler than the other 2 places. We saw a pig undergoing lapriscopic surgery and learned about different types of synthetic heart valve replacements. After that, we were able to walk around the center of Aarhus, and I grabbed lunch with a few of my classmates at a pretty terrible buffet (everything tasted like shawarma - even tho it was an Italian buffet haha). After that we went to the most amazing modern art museum, ARoS. We had a lackluster guided tour, but then were able to explore on our own for about 45 minutes.  Below are some pictures of my favorite exhibit by Lemmerz, and here is a link if you want to learn more about him/are as obsessed with him as I am. http://www.faurschou.com/artists/christianlemmerz/info

"Boy"

I don't remember what this is called

Something about the Pope in the afterlife. Lemmerz didn't like the Catholic Church

Strange Fruit

After the museum, we grabbed some hot chocolate, took a bus ride to Horsens, and went cosmic bowling after a buffet at the bowling alley! It was a really nice place - much less sketchy than bowling alleys in the US, and the Danish pop music they were playing at first (they quickly changed to US pop) was hilarious. I actually did pretty well - I got a 70 in one of the games! I'm thinking of going pro.

Some bowling hotties

Saturday, we drove to Kolding where we visited Koldinghus, a castle that burned down in 1808. However, after a renovation by some famous Danes, it's back on its feet and holds a Beatles exhibit (so weird to experience The Beatles in a castle...). The view from the top of the tower was amazing (see below) and it really showed me how out of shape I am since I could barely breathe after the 158 steps to the top. Later, we got lunch and went to Trapholt - a Danish art and design museum. I have never seen so many effing chairs in my life. What was worse was that you weren't allowed to sit on any of them. You just looked and took pictures and listened to the tour guide tell you how sophisticated a wooden chair is. I don't think I'm cultured enough to appreciate that museum. However, we got really delicious cake afterwards, so I was pretty content.

I'm Queen of the World! Or just Koldinghus...

These are chairs on a wall.

This is a chair.

This is also a chair.

This isn't a chair, I just like gnomes.

So, that was my study tour. I arrived back last evening, and then went to a dance club with some of my friends. We met hilarious Italian men, one of whom pretty much confessed his love for me (I'm pretty used to it though- it happens a lot). Today I did a lot of pretending to do homework, and now I'm continuing that by updating here.  Congrats to those of you who made it all the way down here! Vi ses! (That's a way to say good bye in Danish. That's your reward for reading all of this!)