Wait...I have work to do?

Ok I know I didn't get around to my usual weekly post, and seeing as how my last two posts were about a trip that happened almost three weeks ago now, I just wanted to say I'm alive! Barely. For some reason, all my teachers recently thought that maybe there should be some studying involved in study abroad, and I've been hitting the library all day since Saturday. I had two exams today, and I admit I haven't exactly been diligently doing the reading for either of those classes all semester...which meant last minute cramming and waking up at 5 a.m. this morning. In addition, I had a paper due for my Hans Christian Andersen class for which I was supposed to find at least two outside sources to support my topic, but had absolutely NO LUCK at all in doing so. After several emails back and forth with my teacher explaining my dilemma, she finally told me that she liked my topic anyways and to forget all about outside research. Win for me. Tuesday done. Moving on to a political campaign video for the most disorganized and undirected class I've ever taken, Political Rhetoric. Try organizing an entire political campaign for a political party you've never heard of until two months ago in a political system you haven't grown up understanding. It's not easy. Next is an 8 page research paper on how Harry Potter fufills the hero myth, originally due Thursday (bad news since I haven't started) but I got an extension to Friday. Another win for me. Other than that, all I have to worry about is avoiding my new obsession with deep-fried waffles, topped with warm nutella and vanilla soft serve. I'm not kidding, one bite will change your life.

Back to the books. Leaving for Russia this Sunday! Just have to get through the week...

PS- It's finally starting to get in the 40s (8/9 celsius) here and it's amazing! I have a whole new outlook on what it means to be cold after surviving a Danish winter, so having it be 45 and overcast is absolutely amazing. But since my mom was nagging me continually to put up a picture of myself in my rabbit fur hat, here's evidence of a colder time:



My friend Holly and me before seeing a movie in February. Side note: Holly and I are going to Greece together at the end of May. I. AM. SO. EXCITED.

Winning London, part 2

Picking up where I left off...

Stonehenge is a bunch of rocks
We woke up early Wednesday morning to take a bus to Stonehenge. It's in an open field in the middle of no where. It was crazy cold and windy, which kept me from being able to concentrate on anything except shivering, let alone what our tour guide was saying. I did take a ton of pictures though, but after a while, you realize you just have 100 pictures of rocks at different angles and it stops being cool. Here's a random selection:







Probably my favorite part was actually visiting the giftshop afterwards and investing in an awesome Stonehenge plastic cup that's like those ones everyone had when they were little of different Disney movies, where there's a layer of watery glitter and charm things floating around when you shake it. I had one of the 101 Dalmatians when I was a kid. Pretty sweet. This one has a cartoon rendition of Stonehenge with floating moons and stars.


Taking a Bath
After Stonehenge, we made our way to the small town of Bath. It was such an architecturally beautiful little town. We had time on our own to explore and get lunch before meeting the group for a tour of the ancient Roman Baths, a natural hot spring where Romans came to socialize way back when. We got to look like uber tourists and listen to an audio tour on one of those huge black cell phone looking things. Observe:



Later in the afternoon, we sat down for tea at Sally Lunn's tea house. Apparently she's famous for her buns, which also makes for an entertaining rhyming scheme: Sally Lunn's buns. Very fun to say over and over. They were actually pretty good. Almost like huge hamburger buns, but flakier, and topped with butter and cinnamon sugar. We also had a bowl of clotted cream (kind of like whipped butter but it doesn't have as much taste) to spread on them as well. I ended up having three (including my own) because some girls didn't want theirs. Then I felt sick. Here is one:



A group of us then took a beautiful walk around the town and by the water. It was so nice and relaxing. Take a look:



For dinner we stopped at the most adorable cottage on the way back to London called The Pear Tree. It had all wooden tables and dim lighting and a fire going. It kind of reminded me of Camp 18 on the way to the beach at home, but smaller and quainter, better food, and no animal heads. It was very cozy and enjoyable. And when we left you could look up and see all the stars, because we were in the middle of no where, and it was just a moment of great contentness because it had been such a good day and everyone was in a good mood and we were having so much fun.

Walking across Abbey Road is easier if you're the Beatles
I'll skip over most of Thursday to the part where Holly, Hillary, and I went on a quest to find Abbey Road. More specifically, the crosswalk the Beatles walked across for their album cover. We found it, and attempted to take an imitation shot. But this proved more difficult than expected. There was a lot of traffic, and to really get a good picture, we would have had to ask a stranger stand in the middle of the street, dodging fast cars and buses and bikes, while we slowly walk across in attempt to look something like that iconic image. There were other tourists there too, and it was pretty comical to watch everyone try to take pictures of themselves walking across. I'm sure people who live in that neighborhood are so over the amount of visitors they get to this random little crosswalk. Here are our valiant attempts:





Notice that Holly actually took her shoes off in the second picture in an effort to make it look more authentic. Props to Holly.


Miley Cyrus wrote the national anthem
That night we got to see Billy Elliot (so great!) and then somehow managed to get a good amount of our group to all go out together, including our teacher Jonas. We ended up at the most quintessential Eurotrash club called The Zoo. We hung in a back room that had it's own bar and everyone was dancing and having a blast. Since coming to Europe, every time we're out and Party in the USA (the Miley Cyrus hit) comes on, it's a cue to every American girl to start screaming and freaking out from excitement. It's like the new age national anthem or something. Somehow we all become really proud to be an American when that song comes on. Well it came on that night at the Zoo, and EVERYONE (guys and girls), all 20 of us or whatever, promptly sung every word at the top of our lungs and had our hands in the air. It was probably the greatest three minutes of my whole week.

Perspective
Friday we visited The Telegraph, which had such an impressive newsroom that made me fall in love with wanting to be a journalist all over again. Here it is:



We returned to Copenhagen that night. All in all, it was an amazing trip. All the exploring I did made me want to do more exploring in the other cities that are a part of my life (Portland, DC, Copenhagen). And I think the trip was the first time it really hit me how much of a valuable experience it is to travel abroad. And not even travel abroad, but just leave home, leave what you're comfortable with. It's only by leaving that we can fully appreciate what we've left behind. I've definitely found that to be true since being here. Leaving Portland for DC has made me love Portland that much more, and leaving DC for Copenhagen makes me miss the fast-paced District more than I ever thought I would. Even leaving CPH for London for the week made me appreciate Copenhagen's unique qualities, the same way returning to CPH from London made me look forward to the next time I'll get to spend time in England.

I've been back in Copenhagen for a week now and things are just coming along. I feel like we're at the point where things aren't as novel anymore, and we're just living our lives, but living them in a different city. It seems odd to have such a normal routine in a foreign city, and sometimes I can't decide if I'm ok with it. But it's actually kind of nice. Although I'm still on the lookout for fun things to do and new things to try! Obviously. Ok I'm off to bed. Hej hej

Winning London, part 1

I'm going to have to do this post in two installments because otherwise it'll be way too long. I'm also going to try and divide it into sections with themed headers...

My week in London last week was amazing. I honestly didn't want to come back. There were several reasons for this, but the familiarity of England to home and the amount of sun I experienced definitely had something to do with it.

America is paranoid and I need to learn how to travel light
We left Feb. 28, so I guess two Sundays ago at this point, and arrived in London after an extremely easy two hour flight. In fact, my whole morning at the Copenhagen airport was probably the most relaxing time at an airport I've ever had. Going to school so far from home, my last three years of flying have been characterized by waking up at 4 a.m., having too much luggage for one person to grogily manage by herself, carry-ons that weigh almost as much as my actual suitcases, and sweating profusely from running around with so much stuff. It's no wonder I hate flying. But this trip was different. We got to the airport about two hours early, breezed through check-in, dropped off my one bag (that wasn't bursting at the seams!), and strolled through security with my one purse. It actually felt weird to not have more things, like I had forgotten something. At security, we didn't even have to take our shoes off or walk through the sensors holding our boarding pass (boarding pass and passport went through the belt). My friend Charlotte and I got a big breakfast at a sports bar and relaxed for an hour. I also saw a Starbucks, which is the first one I've seen since coming to Denmark. We completely forgot that we had to go through customs and started walking to our gate about 15 minutes before boarding. Luckily, that was easy as pie too, and we showed up with plenty of time. Anyways, lesson learned? Americans are insanely paranoid when it comes to flying. We all just need to take a breather and realize that no one is hiding a bomb in the sole of their shoe.

Disappointment followed by euphoria
My first hour or so in London was slightly tainted by the fact that it took me about two seconds to lose my Danish SIM card on our tour bus when I was switching it out with my European SIM card (probably shouldn't have been doing that on a moving bus. But sometimes I'm overeager and do things at impractical times). It dropped on my seat and when I went to reach for it, POOF, into a black hole. I seriously looked everywhere and couldn't find it. Mystery forever. Once I got over that though, the week was great. Monday was perhaps my favorite because I got to spend a lot of time on my own exploring the city. It was so empowering and rejuvenating to navigate a new city by myself. I absolutely loved it. It was a beautiful sunny day and I was just another person in the hustle and bustle of everything. I hate traveling in a huge group of Americans in a foreign place because it attracts so much negative attention. I'd much rather do it all on my own. And London was so much busier and livelier than Copenhagen. People walked with purpose, they spoke to each other on the Tube...as opposed to the Danes who maintain strict silence in places like public transportation and seem to constantly be on a leisurely stroll. While it's nice to be part of a culture that lives life at such a different pace, London is much more of a "me" city. So anyways, I did some shopping at TopShop on Oxford Street and later in the afternoon, wandered to Harrods by myself. Harrods has the most overwhelming shoe display I've ever seen. I was in shoe heaven. I wish I had taken a picture of it, but I bought a pair of black leather ankle boots instead to secure my memory of the room. I did take a picture of the Veuve Clicquot champagne bar though, a champagne that seems to have become a staple at family gatherings at home and that I have learned to love. Here it is:



After Harrods, I got on the Tube to meet the rest of my group for dinner. Riding the train, listening to my iPod, and writing in my travel journal, by myself in London, I was actually in a state of bliss. I loved the independence. Dinner was at this awesome, hip place called 1001 that had a barbecue and outdoor picnic benches, as well as an indoor lounge type area full of hipsters with Mac laptops. Plus a DJ playing tunes by Bob Marley and the like. It had a great atmosphere. Cafe 1001 is also the host of London's only weekly short film screening, called Short & Sweet. The films we watched were weird to say the least.

Seeing the sun is the key to happiness
Every day in London was beautiful and sunny. I was ecstatic. You could literally feel the energy of our group rise becuase everyone was so pumped to not be surrounded by fog, snow, and dreariness ALL THE TIME. On Tuesday afternoon, after a visit to a local PR agency called We Are Social, my friend Holly and I had the most wonderful afternoon walking around London. We visited the Tower of London (just the outside, we didn't go in) and then got a vanilla ice cream in a chocolate dipped cone and ate it by the water as we people watched and looked at the Tower Bridge. Here's a picture:



Afterwards, we made our way to Big Ben and Parliament and had a great walk by the water. Here's me in the sun and the wonder that is Parliament!



All the exploring I did in London made me want to do more exploring in the rest of my life, not just in Copenhagen, but even at home in Portland and at school in D.C. Of course, the sun helped in terms of actually wanting to spend time outside, but still. It was so exciting to discover a new place for the week and it made me want to be more conscious of exploring the other cities that are a part of my life. Ok I think this is the end of part 1. I'm off to bed. Another post will be up soon!