A preview of what's to come...

A glimpse into these next two weeks! :)

Beaune, France

Florence, Italy

Lyon, France

Nice, France

Rome, Italy

Paris, France

Venice, Italy

For some reason they didn't come up in the right order; in JUST a few hours, Miss Emily Graham and I will be flying into PARIS to hang out with CHRIS all weekend :) Then we'll go with Jordy and Lauren to Beaune and Nice. After this, I'm heading to Lyon ALONE (AH!) to meet up with Ari for the day! After Lyon, I'll take a train into Rome, where I'll meet up with Sarah and we'll hit up Florence and Venice over the next week :)

After much deliberation, I decided to bring my computer so I'd have a place to dump photos. Therefore, there's a chance I'll do some blogging along the way! I'll do my best; if not, expect a SERIES of colossal posts when I return on November 14th (CHRISTMAS TIME will be in full swing back in Copenhagen by then, hopefully!). Anyway, wish me luck!! :)

LOVE YOU BYE!!

A little more WOOSTER in CPH!

GUESS who came to visit this weekend :)

ERYN!! She popped on down to Copenhagen all the way from Reykjavik for the weekend :) It was SO great to see her!! We had all kinds of fun planning her visit (we presented her with a printed itinerary upon her arrival!).

Friday evening, Eryn, Emily, and I made dinner and spent time with Emily's host dad. He's so great (even though he DID mention that his favorite part of the United States was ARKANSAS because it reminds him of France. Just HOW many things are wrong with that statement?!). We had a lovely time sitting and chatting, drinking wine and eating yummy food.

After coffee, cake, and some good old Danish TV, we accompanied him to hear his coworker's band at a cute little cafe in the meatpacking district (COOLEST area! AND it's right by my apartment!). The band was a lot of fun, as was the general atmosphere. Before we knew it, we were closing down the bar!

DISCO!

Sparkly pink drum sets make any performance better.

The band! (Can't remember the name, oops)

This was the BEST NIGHT! It was GREAT catching up with Eryn and hearing all about her Icelandic life, as well as getting to know Emily's host dad! He was hilarious and very easy to talk to, and I already plan on going back to their home to meet the rest of her host family.

Taking Eryn to the Deer Park was a MUST, so that took up most of Saturday. The fall colors were beautiful and the deer did not disappoint! I'm so glad we got to see some BIG GUYS with the ANTLERS :)

He ran across the road RIGHT in front of us!

It was also some kind of organized kite flying day! It was fantastic; everyone was flying some kind of themed or generic kite. Some were quite creative, and I noticed that Toy Story kites were surprisingly popular!

They were playing King of the Hill (rock?); I HAD to photograph it.

It's a frog kite!

After the Deer Park (must've walked FIVE MILES in there! We were there for hours!), it was time for some Mexican food and THEN...

Tivoli in October is huge masses of ALL the Halloween decorations EVER - lit up, painted and piled on top of each other. But in a classy way! There was a lovely Halloween market set up, a corn maze, performances, people endearingly dressed as witches, etc. The rides were also still open! Were it not for Eryn's visit I'm sure we wouldn't have made it over there before it closed until its Christmas market opening (SO excited for that!! AH!), so this worked out well for everyone :)

Flying swings - Eryn, Emily, et. al. are somewhere on there :)

Testin' out the new PLAYSTAION! DANCE style.

Tivoli is phenomenal; I love that it does goofy seasonal openings and I CANNOT wait for the Christmas market. My goodness.

The third thing on my Eryn's "MUST SEE in CPH" list (along with the Deer Park and Tivoli) was Christiania, so that was Sunday's activity! We walked through the markets (barely resisting spending billions of kroner on snuggly wool socks and super cool t shirts), wandered through the residential areas by the lake, and played in the child's play area :)

We had dinner at the cute little restaurant I've started going to EVERY time I go to Christiania:

Not so attentive, but I like the hanging beads :)

After finishing the night with the best hot chocolate in the WORLD, we headed home for the night. Another very wonderful day with our favorite Eryn :)

Monday wasn't nearly as exciting as the previous few days; it IS worth noting, however, that I cranked out an eight-page paper in one night (it isn't a half bad paper, either, if I do say so myself!). Eryn left us Tuesday afternoon after a lovely morning coffee date. Miss her already :(

Unfortunately, the workload is actually existent and then some this week, most likely because it's the last week before our two week travel break (EEK!). I have a Danish oral midterm tomorrow, which should be... highly interesting. We'll see how it goes; I've been muttering random Danish phrases under my breath ALL DAY, so if that doesn't prepare me, nothing will. 

We studied at Cafe Paludan today - I'm seriously kicking myself for not discovering this place earlier in the semester! Very "hyggeligt" - candles, books, and warm food are a few of my favorite things in life, and here they were all in one place :)

I'll try to squeeze in another update or so before leaving for PARIS on Friday (they'd better have cleaned up all that trash from those goofy protests in the streets by the time I arrive!).

Hav en god dag! 

(...After a full day of studying, I've concluded that written Danish is just poorly spelled English)

Kulturenatten, the Legoland trip that never was, and pictures of birds :)

For only one night each year, all of Copenhagen's cultural establishments (museums, galleries, government buildings, you know) open their doors after hours and offer to residents and tourists alike a NEW side of Copenhagen! "Kulturnatten" includes guided tours, guest lecturers, street activities and performances, art walks, and, honestly, pretty much anything you can think of (we stumbled upon a tent in which you could fish for CRABS!), and all of it is accessible with the purchase of just one all-inclusive ticket! I had been told a few times that because the city gets so crowded so quickly, it's best to think ahead and pick three or four events to attend to avoid wasting the night waiting in lines or getting lost in giant mobs. So, we sat down and highlighted a few, put on our kulturnatten buttons and went on our way!

What better place to start a night of being cultured than a BEER BREWERY? The Carlsberg Brewery was doing all kinds of cool stuff! There was a tour, a horse-drawn carriage ride, an art gallery, food, and, of course, beer :)

 

Next, we went down the street to the Copenhagen Zoo to see them feed the CARNIVORES :) Well, we didn't actually get to see any feeding, but we saw some lovely animals :) I felt a little bad about the fact that they were being kept up later than usual with big bright lights, but most of them were indoors and didn't seem uncomfortable.

The giraffe on the right DID NOT BREAK EYE CONTACT the entire time we were in there.

Cool Danish animal signs :)

After some zoo fun, we went to Christiansborg to see the Parliament building and the city's ruins beneath it! We learned ALL about Copenhagen's history (fun fact (the only one I remember): Copenhagen, originally named "Havn" (Harbour), was founded in the year 1000). There were cute little jack-o-lanterns places throughout the corridors, but other than that, it was completely dark!

An original rat of Havn, living down here since 1000.

After this, we ate, drank, looked at art, listened to music, fried pancakes over an open fire (they have pans specifically made FOR this), watched a demonstration police rescue (took a few seconds to figure out this was fake!), wandered, and just tried to take it all in. I'd say we did fairly well as far as working efficiently to get in some solid cultural activities :)

Thoughts on Kulturenatten: It was CRAZY packed, even more so than usual on a Friday night, but that was part of the charm; everyone from all surrounding areas (someone told me that people come from all over Denmark to attend this!) comes together and enjoys each others company along with everything Copenhagen has to offer. It's also a great way for museums, artists, musicians, etc. to promote themselves. I don't think we passed anything that didn't have at least something of a crowd! However, this also made things a little stressful. There was a lot of pressure to see what we wanted to see because who knows when we'll attend another Kulturenatten! Also, because there was SO much offered, there was no possible way to see everything in one night. I would love it if this event was once every month (like Sacramento's Second Saturday) or if each district of Copenhagen had its own night so we could see more!

Sunday was a planned excursion to Legoland. However, an unfortunate series of events involving me, my bike, and the concrete led me to the emergency room for stitches instead :( BUT, on the bright side, I got to experience a DANISH emergency room! There was basically no one else there, the doctor was very nice, and I got to keep some cool pamphlets on concussion and stitches written in Danish AND accompanied by pictures :)

Mild concussion + stitches = no Monday classes for ME! Instead, I went to the Frederiksberg park and took some pictures of birds:

They even have their own stepladder!!

Beautiful October scenery :)

Last night after our film studies movie-watching session, I went home with India to have dinner with her and her host family. It was WONDERFUL! Living in an apartment has its perks, but I love coming home to a cozy family environment once in a while. We had vegetable soup and homemade bread, and afterwards we made chocolate chip cookies with her host brother (he is HILARIOUS, speaks perfect English and is very very talkative! We spent a great deal of time talking about Pokemon after dinner). Perfect evening! I'm coming back ASAP :)

Hej Hej!

PS - Sorry about the lack of bike accident photos. If you like, ask me about it and I'll give you a vivid description :)

PPS - I'm writing this on a DANISH keyboard. Å å Ø ø Æ æ!!

Leftover pictures.

Hello hello :) Here are... Folkehøjskole, Deer Park, Christiania, and Swan Lake!

He's gonna BITE MY ARM OFF.

The CREATIVE way to get to the good grass.

Just like puppies

SO MANY DEER at the deer park.

The BEST hot chocolate ever! In a Christiania cup :) (I got this about a month ago and the cup is still sitting on my desk)

All dolled up for the ballet! NOT.

Have a lovely day!