As I lounge on the couch under a blanket, with my computer in my lap, tea & saravanna cookies in my stomach, and CSI:NY on in the background, I find myself thinking, as I have more frequently the past couple days, about how much there is I still want to do in Copenhagen. With 10 days left before I go home, this has become quite the pressing issue. I now think that if I don't sleep for all of next week, I should be able to get most things done- spend time with my fantastic host family, pack, study for my 3 final exams, and check the rest of my Copenhagen To-Do list off (Carlsberg brewery tour, Sleeping Beauty ballet at the Royal Theater Old Stage, ice skating, maybe a few more museums/markets). Sounds reasonable, right? Unfortunately, this weekend is lost to Copenhagen exploring as I will be heading to Cologne, Germany tomorrow afternoon for a Shakira concert on Saturday night with 3 of my friends from this semester. Rough life, I know. With this in mind, my past few days have been quite busy- classes are wrapping up and I think I may be the only person who had all their work last week and none this week, so I've been taking advantage of that as much as possible.
Last Friday, I came home from class in the afternoon to join a christmas cookie baking party that my mor (danish mom) hosts every year. I made chocolate chip cookies, my mor's sister made rumballs, her Norwegian daughter-in-law Kristen made coconut macaroons, and my mor outdid us all with pebernodder (little spicy brown danish cookies), vaniljekranse (vanilla cookies), and little brown snap cookies whose name I didn't catch. It was a very delicious afternoon and we had a great time. Kristen brought her little daughter Sarah, who's going to be a year old next Wednesday!
 |
| My chocolate chip cookies |
 |
| Mor with her cookies! |
The next day, Saturday, I had a christmas lunch (known as a julefrokost) at my core class teacher Peter's house in nearby Farum. He took the 10 members of my class who came on a walk through the woods surrounding his neighborhood, and then we went to his house for an afternoon of gløgg (hot spiced wine with raisins and almonds), Æbleskiver (essentially pancake-puffs), and other assorted snacks. We also learned how to make some danish christmas crafts!
 |
| Walking through the woods of Farum |
 |
| Our class with Peter and his family! |
My cultural excursions were put temporarily on hold until Wednesday, when my friend Taylor and I paid a visit to Assistens Kirkegården in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen. It's the final resting place of Søren Kierkegaard (apparently the founder of existentialism), Hans Christian Andersen (the ugly duckling! the princess and the pea! the little mermaid!), and Niels Bohr (atom theory), among many others. We wandered around the cemetery for a while, enjoying the snow, before wandering back towards city center (and I'll admit we went into some cute shops along the way).
 |
| At Assistens Cemetery! |
 |
| With the snowman we found in the middle of the cemetery... |
Yesterday was one of the few Wednesdays I've had a field study, so after getting back to the center I went to Islands Brygge, a metro station in the southeast of Copenhagen, to meet my class (the one on Copenhagen's history and development). This field study was focused on developing areas of Copenhagen, modern architecture, and new ideas for sustainable, people-focused environments. It was really cool! We got to see some great (and some very weird) buildings I would never have seen otherwise, so I definitely appreciated it. And the head-sized cinnamon rolls our teacher provided us with to combat the less-enjoyable aspect of standing in the cold for 2 hours.
 |
| Apartments made from Grain silos |
 |
| "Slanted mountain" building to allow light to all apartments |
 |
| Another "mountain" type apartment |
 |
| Glass triangles apartment building |
 |
| Snack! (note how big it is compared to my hand...) |
Today was another day of culture, as the only class I had was at 4:30 this afternoon. I met Taylor at noon and we went back to Assistens Cemetery, to use a ticket we had for free museum entrance. We soon found out, however, that the very small museum was only in Danish, so the poor man in charge let us wander for approximately 10 minutes before we gave up and wandered back out into the snow. Fortunately, we were armed with more ideas and a map, so we headed out into the city once more, this time back towards Kastellet, the Citadel in the north-slightly-east of Copenhagen. The snow looked so beautiful there we couldn't resist wandering through the citadel for a while (nor could we resist stopping in an adorable nearby cafe for the 3rd time this semester) before finding our way to another museum that accepted our ticket- the Danish Museum for Art and Industrial Design. It was great! After spending what feels like forever hearing about "Scandinavian design" I got to see huge amounts of collections from the famous designers who established that whole idea in the first place. Some were strange, but most were really cool.
 |
| I can't read danish... |
 |
| Kastellet in the snow! |
 |
| "Reading" a Danish chair made of newspapers |
 |
| A snow-topped statue of King Christian X |
Eventually, Taylor & I left and went to go meet Jen & Aaron and go to the Christiania Christmas Market, which just started today. It was really cool and very crafty, but before long we had to head back to DIS for actual classes. Fortunately, our teachers surprised us and brought pastries from La Glace, one of Copenhagen's most famous (and expensive) bakeries. Yum!
 |
| My La Glace strawberry cream puff :) |
After spending so much time wandering Copenhagen, it's off to Cologne tomorrow! Now if only I knew what to pack...
No comments:
Post a Comment