Bikes N' Sun

As of a couple weeks ago I'm officially a Copenhagen cyclist! It's nice to be outside riding amongst the Dane's rather than sitting alongside them on the bus.  Strangely you seem to have more of an interaction with them this way even if it is just yelling at you for doing something wrong in the bike lane.  I bought my bike in Nørrebro at a place called Cyclebixen.  Many of my friends recommended that I go there because they would buy back the bike when I'm done with it.  And after doing a little searching around on my own he was the best deal.  Now my bike just can't get stollen!  The bike ride to school isn't so bad at all.  It takes about 25 to 30 mins and its relatively flat to slightly downhill.  However that means on the way back home is a lot more strenuous.... slightly uphill isn't so bad for a short period of time, but when at least a 3rd of the way is, its kind of a bitch.  But hey its a really good exercise for me at the end of my day.  

I've noticed that the weather and even just the sun has a HUGE impact on the city.  Before I left for spring break the weather was 45 with lots of sun.  It seemed to make the city come alive.  People are sitting outside in every possible ray of sun in the streets and parks.  It's really nice to see.  I do the same every chance I get.  The sun really has impacted my mood.  When it's out I seem to be the happiest person in the world.  I feel like its that way for most Dane's too because you don't really get much sun most of the time.  The bridges into Nørrebro are packed with people. One night on my way home there was a bon fire and music.  Wished I could have joined!

I've also seen some interesting things on my bike and wished it were easy to take a picture while riding.  The bike lanes are not only used by cyclists.  The other day I saw someone rollerblading I told my friend she should do that because she doesn't know how to ride a bike.  I think it could be a good option for her.  My SRA and I tried to teach her how today.  She almost got it a couple of times.  Unfortunately for her they don't make training wheels for adults.  I've also seen a good amount of electric wheel chairs.  It's funny to see that to me.  The scary users in the bike lanes are the motorized scooters.  They seem to come from behind out of nowhere.  I also don't think I would want to drive a car in Copenhagen.  It seems impossible to turn right because of all the bikes.  Im sure I wouldn't see someone and end up them running into the side of my car.   

Long Study Tour

Amsterdam, Netherlands ~ March 4th

Sunday we left Copenhagen and arrived in Amsterdam and made our way to our hotel.  It reminded me of a place we stayed when I was in France.  It was adorable and fancy.  Then we took the tram to the Lloyd Hotel.  Interesting place that was transformed throughout time.  At one point it was a prison, but apparently they kept them in the basements and if they were bad they would put them in the cell.  Some one also said they would chase the prisoners around to tier them out so they simply didn't have the energy to escape.  Later on they gave it to a bunch of artists who could do what ever they like, like take out walls, to make larger studios.  Now its a hotel and there is a restaurant that we ate at.

After lunch we went to Borneo Housing, which was designed by West 8.  I could notice their work by the bright red bridges.  They were pretty cool and wacky.  I felt like I was in an amusement park walking up the one.  The facades were nice to see because none of them were the same.  They each had their own character unlike most housing developments in the US.

Upon return to Amsterdam we had the rest of the day free.  Naps were well needed before we went on a hunt for dinner.  We found this really cool place in a library.  It was called something like Viviano.  It was cafeteria style where you go and order your food from different lines.  We had a great time!  Afterwards we wandered around to try and find a bar.  Our wanderings lead us into the red light distrct.  There were so many different reactions in our little group.  It was really funny to see.  One of my girlfriends was loving it looking at all the girls.  One of my guy friends was like a little boy in a candy shop haha so giddy.  I was more or less indifferent about it and somewhat appalled and a little on the uncomfortable side.  My other friend was even more uncomfortable than I was.  I felt awkward looking at them but was way more uncomfortable by the creepy men around.  We finally went into this quant little pub.  The bar tender was some character.  He was born and raised in Amsterdam but his accent sounded almost australian to me.  He had this biker mustache and a tattoo on his head of himself pushing a lawn mower.  I think he said it was symbolizing him going bald? But I don't remember exactly.  We stayed for a drink and then headed home.  Climbing into bed felt amazing.

Monday March 5th

We started out our day at BO6 architecture bureau for an office visit.  Nothing really too exciting to talk about here. But after this we had the rest of the day on our own in Amsterdam.  I wandered around with the Prat girls to go see part of the newer housing complexes and part of the old with intricate canals.  The house boats in this area were really cool to see.  Most were extremely old some looked like junk yards.  Then we wandered to a park.  I thought it was beautiful but the girls I was with were like "why would he suggest we come here?"  I think its because spring wasn't quite here yet and the lawn had some dirt mounds.  It would have been nicer if it were sunny out and the flowers blooming.  

After this I broke off on my own because they wanted to go to the Heineken Brewery and I didn't really care to do that.  SO I went to the photography museum called Foam on my own.  I wanted to get some inspiration for my fairly new hobby of photography.  A lot of it I think I could have taken a picture of.  I think I took a couple pretty good ones on this trip. 

Then instead of going back to the hotel before dinner I wanted to go to see the Southern Cross Church, which is the first church in Amsterdam.  Now this church is in the Red Light District, but it was 4 oclock in the afternoon so i figured I had nothing to worry about right?..... Wrong... I turned a corner to go down a narrow side street and found to the left and right of me almosted naked women in the windows waiting to be "bought".  There was no turning back now.. I was by myself so I walked as fast as I could and tried to look like I wasn't uncomfortable... But in reality I have never been more uncomfortable in my life. So many creepy men wandering around the area.  And then when I got to the church you had to pay to go in. (Ironic to have a church in the red light district no?)  So i just walked around the outside and saw this hefty woman with her boobs pressed up against the window. Gotta have variety right? 

On my way back I avoided going through the district and walked about 10 mins out of my way to dinner in this building that looked like a castle.  Before dinner I saw my friends go into I waffle so shop... I joined.  we had dessert before dinner :) One of their stories of the day was one of them made a new friend.  Some guy came up to her with a map over one eye and asked where central station was.  She pointed out the direction and the guy was like "your not lying to me right? are you sure?" She started to laugh.  hahaha he was clearly high out of his mind.  They saw him a little later... he was still lost with the map over one eye.  

After dinner we went to a Spanish Guitar Concert.  Not what I was expecting.  It was basically a never ending concert with an orchestra playing accompanied by a spanish guitar.   I fell asleep....... All plans of going out that night were squashed after the 2 hour lullaby.  Also I've come to notice that Europeans LOVE to applause.... they seriously don't stop clapping.  I found it the strangest thing when the conductor was leaving and going up the steps, he stopped at the top and turned back around for an encore of applause.  He didnt just do this once either....

Tuesday March 6th

Today we left Amsterdam for a day in Utrecht.  Here we looked at buildings on the university campus as well as visiting the Schroder House.  It was smaller in person and I think its pretty ugly.  I like the concept but not the execution.  Its really neat that you can change the upstairs floor plan opening and closing different walls to make 4 separate rooms.  

After the Shroder House two of my friends and I got lunch at a place called the Basket (there was a basketball court on the roof).  I ordered my first drink at 21- hot chocolate with kaluha_soo delicious. 

Old Utrecht feels like a smaller more quant Amsterdam with canals that have ledges close to the water.  My friend and I wandered around for a bit and got a drink at a coffee shop.  So much cheaper than Copenhagen.  

Birthday dinner was so delicious! 5 course meal soup, pasta, salad, chicken with pepper sauce and dessert!  They also sang to me and brought out my dessert with sparklers on it.  Our TA also bought everyone truffles for my birthday :).  

After dinner it was back to Amsterdam.  Before we went out we as the days would say "warmed up".  We met up with friends from the other group and we went into Cafe Club Smokey.  I had such a blast!  Most fun birthday I have had in a while.  Couldn't have asked for a better night for my 21st.  

Depart for Germany~Wednesday March 7th

3 hr bus ride to this really sweet renovated industrial place in Germany called Zeche Zollveren.  I think this was one of my favorite stops.  The place used to be a mine.  Most of the buildings were renovated and are now museums.  

Then it was back to the bus for Cologne.  1st stop Kolumba Museum.  The way the architects incorporated the ruins in with the new architecture was really done well.  We had very little time in the museum but I wanted to go to the Cathedral more anyway the Kolner Dome.  I absolutely love cathedrals.  There is something so moving about them.  The architecture is amazing and building them themselves is an art.  So much history in them.  

Then we departed for a night in Dusseldorf.  We had dinner on our own at the Brewery House.  I don't think I like German food very much.  I ordered blackened sausage thinking how bad could it be... the flavor was good but the consistency was not what i was expecting.  and was weirded out by it.  Stuck my fork in it, and it was mush....  don't want to know what exactly it was that I was eating or what it was soaked in.  

March 8th-9th

Hamburg Germany- Not much happened here.... we went on a tour of a development on the harbor and then had a couple hours on our own to keep wandering around the area before dinner... way too much time spent there.  The next morning we had free as well to explore.  We mainly wandered around the expensive part of town looking in shops.  (wish we wandered in the cheaper end) oh well.  Before we left for Copenhagen we had lunch, buffet style,  I ate soo much!

On our way back to Copenhagen we had to get on a ferry.  First time I've seen a train on a boat, and a giant tub of nutella...

Such an exhausting and eventful week.... if I see one more bowl of tomato soup i think I'm going to cry..

Way over Due

At the time of our short study tour to Western Denmark I had been here almost 4 weeks.  It was this marking point that I had literally zero time to myself for three weeks.  Studio here is also a time warp.  SO here goes catching up on this blog.

The Short Study tour was a really fun and exhausting weekend.  Staying up late and waking up real early to fit in as much as possible.  The Cities that we went to were Kolding, Aarhus, Aalborg, and Sorø.  Places that we went~ Friday~ Trapholt Museum, Laerkehavn, Nordkraft.  Saturday ~Gug Kirke, Utzon Center Aalborg Harbor, Aros Kunst Museum, Aarus A walk.  Sunday Nicolai Square, Koldinghus, Sorø Kuntsmuseum, Pedersborgkirke.

Needless to say this was a lot of architecture and a lot of museums in one weekend.  There is probably so much to say about all of these place and about the weekend, but now I am back tracking and don't remember a lot of the details.  A lot of this trip was going going going from place to place, but I'll tell you about a couple highlights of the trip that were my favorite.

   The Aros Museum 

Here they had an outrageously awesome exhibit that was just different colored lights and fog.  When you walk into a color you are completely blinded seeing only that color.  As time goes by your eyes start to adjust if you stay in one place.  But when you walk into a different color it happens again.  And changing your speed throughout this is wild too.

Pedesborg Kirke

My other favorite place to see was a small little church on top of a hill.  The name of it is Pedersborg Kirke.  What I think gives it it's character is the fact that its on a hill surrounded by beautiful landscaped graveyard.  Even though we couldn't go in it, I think it was so charming.  I just find churches so moving.  I think its because they have a lot of history in them.

After the tour there isn't much to tell.  We had our studio project a week and a half after the short study tour.  Needless to say that was rough because I wasn't even at the designing stage yet.  I don't think I was ever more frustrated with a project.  I think its because my process was all screwed up, missing a step in between analysis and design.  In the end the critique went as good as it could have.  It's interesting how they do them here.  Instead of presenting with your class, your mixed up between different design projects.  My friend from my studio and I presented with 4 other architects.  It was kind of nice to see what they are doing too.

The friday before our project was due I did go out.  My first Danish party!  It was with my soccer team.  I had a lot of fun just sitting and chatting.  It was nice to get to know some of them better.  Hahahaha we also played a game that involved clucking like a chicken and making glasses out of ur hand to put them on ur face (only can be played when you are already pretty buzzed).  It was so funny, you go around in  a circle and take either one of ur hands  (depending on the direction you are going in) and extend your arm down making a noise like a chicken.  You basically all look like idiots, but if you laugh then you are out.  Needless to say there was still a LOT of laughter.  Soccer keeps me pretty busy during the week with studio.  It takes me about an hour to get there from my kollegium so its takes almost 4 hours out of my nights Monday and Wednesday.  Its a little rough sometimes, but I really do enjoy playing.  Its also a great exercise!

Here comes the sun doo doo doo doo! ......
Anytime the Sun is shining in Copenhagen is a glorious day!  Its such a mood changer and a whole new world in Copenhagen.  People seem more alive filling the streets and squares soaking up as much sun as they can.  After our second studio project was done on March 2nd a bunch of us got some drinks and sat out in the town hall square.  I think at this point it was one of the 1st times I've actually really really enjoyed being here.  The first half of the semester I felt like was about settling in and getting used to everything.  Although it didn't take too long, I just seemed soooo busy!  That and the weather wasn't the greatest.

The friday before I left for long study tour was certainly an eventful night.  I went to a birthday party for one of my girls on the soccer team, and then ended up in a line to go into some club with people I had just met... This left me with a couple options: just call it a night and go home, go in and have it probably be really awkward, or go to Drone a club where I knew people were at.  I chose the last of the three, but I still had one problem, how to get there?  My friend finally called me back who invited me earlier and told me to stay put he'll come find me.  When he arrived I was a little surprised because he was a by himself and b on a bike and told be to hop on.  "umm what? how?" was my response.  I somehow managed to sit on the seat while he peddled.  This was probably the stupidest thing I have done in a while.  IDK how many times we almost crashed before we actually did into the back of a taxi.... so what did I do? hopped off the bike and kept on walking.  Which was probably the best thing I could have done to get out of that situation even though nothing really happened after the taxi driver was yelling at my friend in danish.  We finally made it to the club alive and had a lot of fun once I got there.  It was the latest night I've had in a while.  I don't know how the Danish do it.  they don't really go to the club till about 1 in the morning.  Luckily it was the first saturday where I didn't have much to do.

Time is certainly starting to fly by! I booked my flights for spring break a couple weeks ago and Im already leaving in 2.  First stop Florence, Italy to visit a friend from home.  Then meeting up with two friends from DIS in Madrid.  Last stop Portugal for my surf trip!!! I'm unbelievably exited! Now its a grind the next two weeks.

Settling In

           It feels like I have been here an eternity in some ways and others its gone by with a blink of an eye.  I've been here for two weeks and I think I've come to the reality that I'm living here, not just visiting or traveling.  I'm going to be a Danish resident with an actual cph number (like a social security number).  I have to commute to school, which I don't think I am a fan of... I don't like busses.  I need to get a bike (as soon as the bone chilling cold goes away).  I'm not as hardy as the danes.  Which I've found out why they are so.  They put their kids outside to sleep for naps.  Nowhere else in the World is this a custom.  The Danish believe that it is good for them.  Which I can see how the fresh crisp air could be.  I saw this first hand when we went to visit SolHuset, Solar House in english, for my Integrated Sustainability Class.  This building is a day care or preschool and one of the rooms they showed us looks like a chicken coop.  

This was interesting to see.  The building itself was pretty cool. 

The building was designed with the environmental elements in mind using the sun to be more sustainable.  The way the building is angled is to optimize daylighting and solar energy.  The last picture is a screen to tell you how the building is doing energy wise and functioning.
          Getting out of the city and going to this was good for me.  I need my view of nature and the whole ride out there I got a view of the country side.  I think I've realized I'm not much of a city girl.  This is the most populated area I have ever lived in.  I don't think I went through culture shock, for me it was city shock... All this concrete everyday gets a little depressing for me.  Luckily I live in the suburbs and have a pretty nice view out my window to some backyards.  I've also found a new gem right around the corner from my kollegium.  It's a beautiful park with walking trails around a lake.  So now anytime that I need a pick me up from the city blues I just have to walk two blocks and find some nature :).

view from room

park

Literally "wrapped" in nature

        On Saturday I went to Kronberg Castle and Helsignør.  Kronberg Castle is most famously known from Shakespeare's Hamlet.  They still do the play there every year.  It dates back as far as the Middle Ages located on the narrowest part of the Øresund.  From here the King's men could control who sailed through the sund and make sure that all passing merchants paid there Sound Dues to the King.

Portrait of Shakespeare

The Chapel 

This room was gorgeous! It had beautiful carvings.  

The Ballroom- was the largest royal hall in Northern Europe

This is a replica of the fountain that used to be in the central courtyard.  It was a 10m high bronze fountain which Frederik II ordered from George Labenwold in Nurnberg, Germany in 1576.  It was an impressive indication of the king's power with its 36 figures and the god of the sea, Neptune.  In 1658-60 Kronborg was occupied and the fountain became Swedish spoils of war along with several other statues.  Denmark has tried to get them back recently but Sweden refused.  

Tunnel into the dungens

Viking King

Swedish Coast... Hope to go to Malmo for a day, but for this weekends adventure its to Western Denmark.  

            

The Beginnings of Seeing Copenhagen

 One week in... DIS has kept us pretty busy all week with different lectures to go to, information sessions, and social events.  I feel like this was a good way for us to get on a schedule and to get over our jet leg better.  I'v met lots of new people and have already seen a lot of places throughout Copenhagen. Wednesday I had what DIS called the Amazing Race where they had us find significant landmarks throughout Copenhagen where we were met by a faculty member who would tell us about the history.  Despite the cold this was a really nice way to see the city.
Here are some places that I went to:

                                                               Our Saviour's Church  

                                                          Canal in Christianshavn

                                                                Amalienborg Castle

                                                                    Kongens Nytorv


On Friday my Urban Design Studio went for a bike tour to different public spaces.

Matrikel No 8

                                                                    Sønder Boulevard

Temporary Urban Space at Carlsberg- I think that this is really cool.  Its just a bunch of ropes hanging down from the ceiling.  But it responds to the windy weather of Copenhagen and people tie a bunch of knots in the ropes.  Its a very creative jungle jim.  

Frederiksberg Plazas- there is usually water fountains in the area that is gated off

Green Cycle Routes

Ravnsborggade Action Spot

Biking is a very good way to see the city and be more like a dane.  However by the end I couldn't feel my toes...

New Horizons

Yesterday I set foot in Copenhagen.  My new home for the next four months: scary and exciting thought... Before boarding the plane I was extremely nervous and felt unprepared,  but then I met my first new friend on the plane.  We immediately found comfort in each other because we were doing the exact same thing, studying abroad at DIS.  As we began to talk more and more about our time abroad she not only is in my orientation group but is also going to Portugal during one of the travel breaks to learn how to surf too!  A pleasant and coincidental surprise.  As the day went on I met more and more people, everyone eager to be here.  Some I may not see again, others are in my building.  But the more and more awkward first encounters I've had, the more comfortable I've been.  Although the day was a little rough from not sleeping the night before, I powered through it overcoming my jet leg.  Which in return made my nights sleep a lot better.  

The title of this entry is called New Horizons because thats exactly what this semester is.  I woke up to a different sunrise this morning to the sound of a rooster.  Definitely wasn't expecting that.  Each and everyday will be a new experience, new people, new routes, and new discoveries.  This semester really will be about stepping outside of my box.  I feel like the first major accomplishment was finding my way around downtown Copenhagen (at least around DIS) and then finding our way back to the Kollegium.  The bus ride felt a lot longer when no one else is leading you.  The only way to find out where to go is to try and find your own way.  I find that I remember where I am better that way.  They say it only takes a week in a new place to remember how to go places.  We'll see if thats true by the end of the week.      

Nerves

With only a week left here in the US, the nerves are kicking in.  I don't think that I will ever feel fully prepared.  Studying abroad will be challenging, but I feel in all the right ways.  I believe that it will be a great experience and teach me some important lessons for life.  I feel like this isn't something that I just want to do but something I need to do. The more and more that I have learned about Denmark and Copenhagen over the past couple of weeks, the more and more I believe that I couldn't have picked a better place for me to study abroad.