Early tomorrow morning I will wake up, jump out of bed (or at least roll out), finish packing my bags, eat some breakfast with Jesper, Andreas and Rebecca and then I will head to the airport and take off on my big spring break adventure.  From tomorrow until Friday I will be in Austria with my class, Sustainability in Austrian Architecture. I don't quite know what to expect from this trip.  The class is a 1-credit class so we only met once a week, which means I will be spending the next 5 days with acquaintances that I have met a few times. However, they all seem incredibly nice and I certainly hope by the end of the trip (or even the end of the first day) that I can call them friends.  From what I know so far we will be visiting public places like community houses (called culture houses) and outdoor parks, and we are visiting some business, architecture firms and such.   Even though we are analyzing sustainable architecture, we are also doing a locational study of Vorarlberg, the western most state in Austria.  We each have a specific topic that we are to write a paper about once the trip is over.  We have done/will do research on our topics and then we are supposed to interview random Austrians on the street to get first hand experience.  My topic is "Clever Family Initiatives".  I have not done very much research yet but hopefully being there will really give me a good perspective to work off of.  I am planning to compare Vorarlberg to Copenhagen, and maybe even an American city as well in terms of what family programs are available and such.  Hmm, we'll see.

Then, Friday evening instead of flying home to CPH I will fly to Barcelona to meet my cousin Hannah and a few friends who are studying in Barcelona. Then it will be 4 days of sight seeing, beach-going, tapas-eating and so on and so forth. I am so pumped! I see many great photo opportunities in my future : ) 

Yesterday after I handed in my final assignment for my European Urban Design Theories class, I did a mountain of laundry and began packing. It didn't quite feel like spring break. Today completely made up for yesterday's lack of spring break-ness. I had the most hyggligt day with Jesper, Rebecca and Andreas.  Rebecca, Jesper and I managed to talk Andreas into going swimming so this morning, after breakfast, we all packed our swim suits and went to the beautiful svomehal (swim pool) in Bagsvaerd. It is a pretty new pool and it is just great. There are all kinds of toys and obstacle things to play with, there is a rock wall in the deep end so you can climb and then jump off into the water, there is a slide and also plenty of room to just frolic around in.  Although my shoulder muscles have enjoyed the months-long break from swimming...the rest of me has actually really missed it.  It was great to be back in the water.
After we had our fill of sliding and frolicking, we went to the grocery store and the movie store.

We picked out the movie Despicable Me (Gruesomme Mig in dansk) because I absolutely adore that movie and thought the kids would like it, and Andreas found a Danish film he had heard about.  We also rented The Social Network, which is the movie about the making of facebook. It seems like a fascinating story.  

Back home, after a yummy lunch of smorrebrod, Andreas and I watched the Danish film.  It was a sad movie about bullying in schools and the awful things that can result from it. After it was over Andreas asked me if I thought it was good.  I hesitated and eventually said that yes it was good but I am just so used to happy endings...and Danish films simply do not have happy endings, at least not in the way Americans are used to.   It was a very meaningful movie, but it was just a little depressing. I guess I just got spoiled by "...and they all lived happily ever after."  

Anyway, it was a really wonderful day outside so we all ended up playing a rousing game of futbol. I simply love that I have little siblings to run around with.  They have even taught me a few things about the game, although I definitely need to practice more seeing as I tried to do a fancy footwork trick and ended up face first in the dirt. Oops.  With some luck I can get the ball away from Andreas and Jesper sometimes, but I have to say they are quite good and mostly I just try to make myself not look like a huge fool.  

Since Karina is gone this weekend, we all decided it would be the perfect night to have Jesper teach me how to make Danish pancakes.  I have to say this is probably the most useful knowledge I have gained since I've been here...and that is saying something because I have learned a ton of very useful things.  I will most definitely use this recipe when I get back to Iowa...many, many times I hope.  I had a blast sipping on a special Easter Beer (the name is literally  Kylle Kylle..which means Chick Chick) while Jesper showed me how much of what to put in where and how to actually cook the thin, delicious pancakes.  I even learned how to flip them in the skillet.  With a spatula? you ask.  Oh no...in the air. That's right, I can flip a pancake in the air...AND catch it again (most of the time).  I do believe I will need to show off this particular skill when I get back : )

Mmmm, it was a most hyggeligt dinner followed by more hygge as Rebecca, Andreas and I snuggled in Andreas' bed and watched Despicable Me.  It was really the most wonderful way to start my spring break.  And now it is late and I should probably sleep because 6 am will come very quickly and I will need to be ready to hop right out of bed!  I hope I can write a few quick updates while I am on my trip...if not, don't worry, you will get all the (hopefully) exciting stories once I get back! 

Happy spring!

P.S. Have you been watching the decorah eagles?  I honestly didn't think it would be that interesting...but then yesterday I just sat and stared at the video for at least 20 minutes. Not only was I not bored,  but I could hardly tear myself away. Tiger (the Larsens' cat) was also pretty interested when he heard the bird noises.  Unfortunately I don't think he quite understood the concept of the video, even after he had sniffed all over my computer.  Poor guy. 

Goodnight!