¡Un Viaje Increíble a España!

While I am not back in Copenhagen, I am currently on a small island in Denmark with my parents, I have made it back from Spain. It was an amazing trip that we packed with about everything we had time for. We flew into Madrid, but took the train down to Toledo, where we spent a couple days. Saw their amazing cathedral, synagogue, another smaller church, and one of El Greco's most famous paintings: The Ascension of Sr. Orgaz, which was pretty awesome. Then we took the train back to Madrid and spent a couple days there. I did some shopping, we went to the Prado Museum, which is one of the best museums in the world! I got to see one of my favorite paintings, Descension of Christ from the Cross by Roger van Der Weyden, which I took a picture of even though I wasn't supposed to. Then we went to the Reina Sofia museum and I saw another one of my favorite paintings, Guernica by Picasso. It's so amazing to have studied all this art and seen the images of these pieces in books and read about their meaning and how you can see different elements, but it's a completely different thing to go and see them in real life. Especially for Guernica, you wouldn't ever get a feel for how large and powerful the painting actually is, without seeing it in real life.

After Madrid we rented a car and drove through what are called the White Cities, because all their walls are whitewashed and so the stick out of the environment. The first stop was in El Escorial, where we saw El Escorial, which used to be a Spanish palace, which had lots of art and a fair amount of information on the architecture of the building including hand-drafted drawings of the plans and details. We then spent the night in Jaen, where I lost my new scarf that I got in Amsterdam the week before, which sad and the next day we drove down to Granada. In Granada we spent 7 hours at La Alhambra, which was pretty cool but exhausting. We spent the night in another White City called Ronda, which a cute little place. The next day we went to Los Arcos de la Frontera, which was another quaint little town where I lay out on the roof top of our hotel in the beautiful sunny weather and got sunburned in less than hour. Ooops, oh well. Finally we stopped in the last White City called Merida where we saw a parade for the beginning of Holy Week, which is a HUGE DEAL in Spain and they were dressed in white robes with large pointy headresses, so that was kind of weird, but totally unrelated to the KKK. You can see the pictures on Picasa and understand what I'm saying. Anyway, we then drove back to Madrid and got a plane to Barcelona where we spent the last three days, most of which were raining so that kind of sucked, but it was cool to see all of Gaudí's work there, including Sagrada Familia and Parque Güell.

I made it back to Copenhagen on Thursday afternoon just in time to do some very much needed laundry and eat dinner and sleep before heading out to Aeroskøbing the next day, where my parents I rented bikes and toured part of the island yesterday.

Sorry this is so incredibly long, but there is just so much to say! Keep an eye out for Spain and Aeroskøbing pictures because they'll be up soon on Picasa!

Well it's been a long freaking time since I have posted. And quite a bit has happened so I'm sorry for being so lax. Anyway. I spent the month of March finalizing my project. I actually designed my own building! Who would have thought? What we had to do for my studio was a gallery infill space. Where we had an empty lot in Copenhagen and we had to create a gallery to hold six specific pieces of art. My project was created through a long process and I really liked it in the end. Pictures should be up soon on Picasa as soon as I download them. My building was two stories with five of the six art pieces being displayed upstairs and the last piece, a cafe, and bathrooms on the lower floor. There was a lot of thought and detail in my building and it's hard to describe in words without being able to point to the particular parts.

The weather is also getting increasingly nicer, which is wonderful and makes me excited because now I can run outside. I decided early this year that I wanted to compete in the first annual Stillwater Marathon, running only the half marathon so I have training for that and so far have gotten up to running 9 continuous miles. But running them outside makes that much better. So that's exciting.

Also, this past week I was in Germany and Holland for my study tour. It was 40 architecture and design students on a bus for a week. But it was AWESOME!! I met some really cool people and saw some of the most amazing things. I think took about 400+ pictures most of which are buildings, but some people. We went to three cities/towns in Germany, and ate a really good steak at a brewery in Düsseldorf. Then we headed for Utrecht in Holland where we stayed at this sweet hotel, that was rated at four stars and we ate another fancy meal, which was delicious. We saw a concert and did a bike tour of Amsterdam and got the afternoon free there. The red light district is totally sketchy and while we were there, there appeared to be some sort of kilt convention because everywhere there were men in kilts. I finally made it back to Copenhagen Saturday morning after an all night bus ride. Only to fly out the next morning to Spain!

So now I'm in Spain, with my parents and my aunt. It has been very busy, but good so far. I think I'll leave the details until I get back to Copenhagen in about a week, seeing as I've already written a short novel!

Miss you all!!

I finally get it!!

So I had originally thought that skinny jeans were just a fad that came to the US from Europe as most styles do. And yes, I partook and bought two pairs of skinny jeans. However, I was horribly wrong. I have found that skinny jeans here actually have a practical purpose. Both men and women wear them here. And this is why: 1. A lot of people walk here, if your jeans are skinny and don't drag on the ground, then they don't get dirty, because after walking for long periods of time here, my jeans have gotten horribly dirty at the bottom from the city ground. Disgusting. 2. A huge portion of the population bikes everywhere. If you wear skinny jeans they don't get caught in the gears while biking. 3. It rains/snows/precipitates here fairly often. Like number one if your jeans are skinny and not touching the ground they don't soak up all that water.

Also people here are particularly fond of boots for many of the same reasons (yes I will probably get some) and skinny jeans fit a lot better inside them than bootcut jeans.

Well there you have it! Oh the discoveries of living in Europe! Needless to say, I am happy I own two pair of skinny jeans and that I brought them both with! There is another phenomenon, for the guys here who do not want to wear the revealing skinny jeans, they simply continue wearing their baggy ones and tuck the bottoms into their socks. It looks rather strange, but I guess it's practical...

Random Danish Thoughts

Here are just a couple of random things I've been thinking about:

Pigeons. For some bizarre reason I have the overwhelming urge to take a running start and jump and stomp with both feet on a pigeon. I know it's cruel, and I would never do it, but they're everywhere and I can't help it.

I love the sound of: car tires on cobblestone roads, bike bells, the voice of the woman who announces the stops on the metro.

Pastries are the best things every invented. There are bakeries everywhere here and the pastries are soooo good. Yesterday I had a marzipan wrapped rich chocolate dough thing. On Friday I had a wonderful piece of chocolate cake, on Wednesday I had a really good cinnamon roll thing, and back and back. If I spend all my money here on pastries I'll feel like it was worth it. And walking by the bakery by my apartment everyday, with its wafting smells, is torturous.

Museums are great, I've been to quite a few since I've been here and have enjoyed them greatly, especially since a lot of them are free or are paid for by my program.

I like speaking in Danish even though I don't do it that often.

Western Denmark and New Discoveries

Well it's been a while since I last posted but I guess it's because I felt like there was nothing too exciting that I had done. But this past weekend I went to Western Denmark with 39 other Architecture and Design (AD) students and saw a number of buildings and sketched them to get their "essence". I have learned that I suck at on the fly sketching. Most of my drawings look like something that a five year old could do better. Oh, well, I guess I'll learn with practice. I met some other kids in the AD program and found out that I dislike more of them than I like. Looks like I understand why there is a stereotype of bros and hos coming to this program. Oh, well better to meet Danes than Americans anyway. I also went to this bar in Kolding called You'll Never Walk Alone and tried Strawberry flavored beer, which was DELICIOUS. Tasted like bubbly juice really. Most of the buildings we visited were absolutely amazing! My favorite was either the Koldinghus castle or the Trapholt Museum of Art, which had an awesome exhibit on shoes that I have pictures from in my Picasa web album, so you should check it out. I am feeling more settled here in Copenhagen. It's still weird living virtually on my own for the first time and I still can't really cook for myself, which is rather challenging. I've been mostly eating eggs and bread, with fruit and nuts thrown in there every so often. My classes are pretty interesting so far, but since we didn't have class on Friday, I haven't had class since last Tuesday, so I feel like I'm not even in school. I went to IKEA last weekend and Lyzz and I did a good job of getting a lot of stuff for pretty cheap. I spent under 20 bucks there! They had a down pillow, which I bought for 19 kroner which is like $4.50. Not bad. I'm pretty much the queen of cheap here since everything is so expensive. I just bought and alarm clock for $2, a winter coat for $27 and a skirt for $15. My architects ruler was the same price as my coat, which sucks but oh well. My goal is to begin to learn how to cook. There's a guy who lives on my floor who's got some of the most delicious smelling and amazing looking culinary creations I've ever seen, which makes me hungry even if I'm already eating. But that's about all that I've been up to, nothing too amazing, but I'm definitely learning to enjoy myself here a bit more than I had been the first couple of weeks. On to week four! At the end of this week I'll be a quarter done with my abroad time, weird.

Watch Where You Step!

Well, I'm finally settled in! We cleaned our apartment, which was satisfying, today we went grocery shopping and got some food, which means I ate dinner for the first time here (consisting of a bowl of cornflakes, an orange, and a slice of cheese. It's expensive being well-fed here). Some things I've learned about the Danish are that they will leave their baby carriages with baby inside outside on the street unattended while they go in a restaurant to eat or a store to shop. Dogs are allowed to poop on the sidewalk and they don't have to pick it up, and a cheap notebook is about 4 dollars. It has been sunny the past two days, which definitely doesn't make it seem as gloomy here. I've finished orientation and can now say a few key phrases such as: My name is Karen, I come from Minnesota, I'm studying architecture, and Can I have a [pastry] (insert other nouns here). I'm still getting used to this place where I don't know the language and I have to pay an arm and a leg for postage. Tomorrow is the first day of classes but I don't have class on Thursdays so I think I'll be out for an exploration to see what neat things I can find. I took a few pictures yesterday on our scavenger hunt (it was pretty dumb) but I'll take some more of my room and post them so you can see where I'm living!

Here at Last

So, after 3 flights, and 30 hours without sleep, I am finally in Copenhagen Denmark. My first day of orientation was a mess to say the least, but hopefully tomorrow will be less stressful. Lyzz (my roommate) and I are yet to unpack as our suite is pretty dirty and there is a lot of stuff that the previous people here left behind, so we've got some cleaning to do tomorrow (pictures will be up later). It rained and was rather dreary as far as weather goes but hopefully it'll be a little better the next few days as I try to become better acquainted with the city. Having only traveled to foreign countries where I understand the language, I feel at quite a loss as to what I should be doing. But it's been a long 30 hours and I'm looking forward to going to bed. More to come later!

Love to all!

Preparing to Leave

I hope that everyone is enjoying their breaks so far. As I am preparing for my trip I wanted to begin a blog in hopes that anyone interested can read it to see what I'm up to in Denmark. I am very nervous, happy, excited, scared, sad, and pretty much any other emotion at this point. I got my wisdom teeth out today, so I'm in a bit of pain and will be out of commission for a few days. But I hope that you find this interesting, and that it gives you a bit of insight into what I'm doing.