Playing a little catch-up

As aforementioned, Sunday, March 20th was awesome.  Rebecca turned 10 on Friday the 18th so she had her fødselsdagfest (birthday party) on Sunday.  Around 11:30 10 or so little girls came over bearing adorable gifts and lots of energy.  Rebecca opened her presents and then I got to do Zumba with the girls! They were very good despite the language barrier and me forgetting a few of the moves.  They seemed to really enjoy it....at least that what I gathered from their smiling faces.  Plus, I had a great time!

We had delicious hamburgers for lunch (reminded me of summertime in Iowa) and for desert all the girls got to make their own layercakes! (including me:)  Layercake is what it sounds like: layers of cake with fruit and creme in between.  We had bananas and pineapple and various kinds of creme and icing.  And sprinkles....lots of sprinkles.  It was super fun...and very delicious.   

Karina explaining the layercakes...at least I think that is what she was explaining. 

The rest of the party was a lot of running around, painting fingernails, doing hair and singing Barbie Girl on the karaoke game.  I think I heard Barbie Girl more times on Sunday than I have in the last ten years :)  For those of you not familiar with Barbie Girl, it is a rather amusing (but often obnoxious) song by the band Aqua (which is actually from Denmark!).  I had a great time listening to the girls try to follow along with the English words.  "I'm a Barbie girl, in the Barbie world"  I have to say they did a much better job than I would have at Danish karaoke.  They even put on flashy costumes and whipped out some dance moves.  As did Andreas...which I really wish I could've gotten a picture of.  It was about the funniest thing ever.  "Come on Barbie Let's go party."
Well, I certainly hope Rebecca had as much fun as I did at her party because I thought it was just great :)

Right after the party, Andreas, Jesper and I put on some layers and headed off to the FCKøbenhavn fodball game.  I was super excited. DIS students got tickets for free since it was a "field trip for danish class" and then I was able to get two more tickets for the boys.  Andreas let me borrow his FCK scarf and I bought myself a fancy new jersey.  As of right now, that is the most expensive shirt I own.  But I have been telling people all semester that a jersey was one thing I was for sure buying.  And I for sure did...and I love it!
FCK won 3-2 against Brøndby, another Denmark club that is FCK's big rival.  We heard lots of amusing FCK fight songs over and over and over (literally for the entire game) and saw a lot of toilet paper getting thrown.  I even had my first København hot dog!  A hot dog and a Carlsberg at the fodball game...what a perfect firsthand cultural experience.

The stadium! (the biggest in Denmark)

DIS friends! 

Me and host brother, Andreas. I just plain adore this. And I adore him. 

Monday and Tuesday were crazy days of trying to get work done and making final plans for my Scotland trip.

On Monday my architecture class visited a building called the Teitgen kollegium.  A kollegium is kind of like a dorm, but the residences don't necessarily have to go to the same college or university.  So you get to meet a lot of different people, rather than only meeting people very similar to yourself.  The Teitgen kollegium is very new and was built to last a very long time and was designed so it would look the same in 100 years as it does now.  Guess we won't know until 100 years from now if it worked but that was the goal at least.  This kollegium is very innovative in that it is shaped like a circle.  It is very community based and all the residents are very involved in social life and "extracurricular" activities.  This is a great example of Danish design for you:  innovative, community-based and sustainable. 

Imagine this on every side...it's a big circle with a courtyard in the middle.

Most beautiful practice room I have ever seen.  It's overlooking the canal. 

I love these washing machines and dryers!

Tuesday I had classes and then in the evening I made BLTs for my family before going back to town to meet Lauren, Katie and Assiyah and help Katie celebrate her 21st birthday. We did this the only way we know how:  cider, cocktails, tequila shots (yuck!), lots of laughing and dancing! 

Copenhagen is so good with its mannequins. They are real attention-grabers :P

Well, Wednesday morning came quickly, as you can imagine, and soon I was off to Scotland!  But for now, I have to get to bed. Big day tomorrow with class and then our final presentation for my positive psychology class.  I still cannot believe that some of my classes are coming to a close.  It sure is making things hectic...but it also means that I have been here for over 2 1/2 months.  People said my time abroad would fly but I didn't know they meant it would go so fast it would break the sound barrier.  Consider the sound barrier broken.  

Anyway, sweet dreams to all!  Thanks for sticking with the blog and not getting bored with my silly stories and pictures.  

Knus! (hugs in dansk)

So...

We got back to Copenhagen late Friday night and my wonderful host dad picked me up at the train station.  I spent the weekend unpacking, making my Milan movie (see previous post) and catching up on some homework.  Sunday I visited the 8-tallet again with Erin (friend from previous duck adventure); we are in a group together to present about the building, so we needed to see it , touch it, take pictures and so on.

Not the best view, but I love the crazy angles within each apartment. 

It was a beautiful sunny day and it was pretty fun to explore the area again.  I think the 8-tallet is a pretty controversial housing development.  I have decided that I love it, but Erin has the opposite opinion, which is also very valid because it does have quite a few disadvantages.  The idea of it was to take the components of a neighborhood (businesses, residences and recreation) and put them all in a sustainable development.  It does not provide much privacy and is very open to the public, especially since it is so new and revolutionary so it is quite a tourist attraction.  The whole building is made of aluminum, wood and glass, so it does have a somewhat cold feel.  I think all of that is worth how beautiful the inside of the residences are and what a great view they have.  It is maybe not a place I’d like to live my whole life, but I could definitely see myself living in a building like that (if it wasn’t, you know, in Copenhagen) for a few years.  Anyway, Monday was our presentation on the building so I have learned quite a bit about the Architectural Vision of the development and the Urban Context it is in.

The week after the return from Milan was fairly normal except much busier with work than most of my other weeks have been.  In the midst of working on my psychology paper, the slides for my 8-tallet presentation, an assignment for my Austrian Architecture class, homework for Danish language, and our big intervention plan project for psych, I finalized plans to visit Hannah in Scotland.

Friday was my host sister, Rebecca’s, 10th birthday.  We had a great dinner with family and friends: I cannot get over how much I love the Danish birthday food.  I think I have to bring the layer cake tradition back to my Iowa family.

Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day…and I spent all of it at DIS working on group projects L  But eventually we finished the dreaded projects and then came Sunday which was an awesome and fun-filled day.  Aaaaaaaaand, I’ll get back to that later.  Sorry!    

The rest of Milan!

Just a little taste of Milan. More description below.  

Ok, the moment you have been waiting for...I will finally finish my elaborate description of the Milan trip.  I can't believe that was already more than 2 weeks ago.
So Wednesday morning was the viewing of The Last Supper.  After that we split into two groups and went separately to lunch and an academic visit. My group first went to a company called Well at Work.  We watched a presentation describing what they do (help companies who are having difficulties, either with low production or poor employee satisfaction and they help find ways to increase well-being in the workplace) and then we reviewed a case study and made up our own solutions to the company’s problem. Well at Work is not fully based on psychology, but they do use lots of Industrial/Organizational Psychology theories and methods.  It was interesting to see that information being put to use in a real-life situation.
 By the time that visit was over we were very ready for the delicious lunch we had at a restaurant called the Fashion Bar.  Food was great…and I got to sit in a throne.  What more could I want?

Thursday was by far the best day in Milan (and that is tough because they all were really great!).  We got on a bus in the morning and drove through the hazy Italian morning towards Lake Como, a lake and small city north of Milan, which is only about 5 km from Switzerland.  Too bad we didn’t spend an extra 10 minutes so I could’ve crossed another country off my list. Oh well I would still like to actually visit Switzerland at some point in the future.  So Lake Como…ah gorgeous, gorgeous Lake Como.  The weather was phenomenal.  We had about an hour of free time before we met for a walking tour.  Lauren and I explored the Duomo a little (different Duomo than in Milan, obviously…that is just the general name for “massive house of God”).  Then we window shopped and bought a few souvenirs.  I bought a cute Italian scarf  from a street vendor and we found some pasta and honey at a sweet little shop run by a super cute older couple.  Then we went on our walking tour and finally, our boat tour.  It was amazing.  This city is right on the edge of the lake which is surrounded by hillsides that are just packed with beautiful villas of all shapes and sizes.

If I recall correctly, this is the oldest building around the Lake area.

Lake Como is very well known for the many famous people who reside there for at least part of the year. George Clooney and his 3 villas were the most anticipated photo op of the day.  Unfortunately George won’t live there again until May and we only saw his 3 villas from far away and through the haziness.

Yeah...they are in there somewhere, I promise. 

But still…it was pretty cool knowing George Clooney spends a few months of each year enjoying the lake we were currently enjoying.  After the boat tour Katie, Kelsey, Leslie, Lauren and I found a swanky restaurant that had outdoor seating…on a rooftop balcony.  It was breathtaking.  Wonderful weather, delicious food and a great view of red-roofed Italian houses and green Italian gardens.  Gah, I miss it already.
The trip to Lake Como ended in gelato (surprise!) and the purchase of my new Swatch Watch!

Thursday evening we got all gussied up and went out to a jazz show.  Granted it was not the greatest jazz I have ever heard (I think it was a electronica/rock/sound effectsy kind of jazz…not exactly music to my ears), we still had a good time drinking wine and soaking in the atmosphere.  We decided to head back to the hotel but I was very persistent about wanting to find a place to dance.  I thought maybe we could find a club or something but we found something even better! About 2 blocks away from the jazz show we begin to hear some folksy music and shortly after that we saw a bunch of people in the middle of the square doing line dances!  It was amazing.  We quickly joined in…having no clue what we were doing and busting a gut laughing the entire time.  The kind Italians tried to explain some of it to us and we did our best to figure out which leg to kick when and how many steps to take to the right and left.  It was a hoot and a half.  I think that was probably the best bonding experience I have had so far because I got to see my friends being awesomely ridiculous, enjoying the music, experiencing a completely different culture and not caring that we didn’t know what was going on.   Thanks to the Milano Clown Festival (the actual reason of the dancing) the rest of the walk home consisted of singing and dancing and hilariously high spirits.  It was such a great way to spend our last night in Milan.

Friday was our final day in Italy.  We had one academic visit to a researcher named Fredrico Colombo.  He is a “big-wig” in the Italian Association of Positive Psychology and most of his work is based off some older theories of The 14 Fundamentals of Happiness.  I don’t have my notes right now so I will post the specific 14 steps later, but it was a fairly interesting visit.  A lot of us didn’t actual agree with the idea that happiness is as easy as 1...2...14, but it is still a great learning experience to see a professional and learn what you do and don’t agree with.
We then had some free time, which Lauren and I used as time to search for the perfect cannoli…and accidentally end up on the complete opposite side of the city than the place we were supposed to meet the class  for lunch.  We had a great time, perused some bakeries, wandered around a strange version of a farmer’s market (there were stalls with candy, meat, cheese, jewelry, shirts, scarfs, underwear and so on and so forth) and finally found a place to get cannolis.  It was then that we realized where we actually needed to be so we began a very fast paced walk towards lunch. We made it, sweaty and tired, but the sandwich I had at lunch was pretty epic with its thinly sliced smoked tuna, spinach and oranges.  I have never had an orange on a sandwich…and to make it even better, this was a red Italian orange (that seems like a major contradiction…but yes, oranges in Italy are more red than orange). But it was delicious and I am pleased I branched out a little.

And finally how could we end to trip without some final gelato?  We couldn’t.  DIS bought us all gelato and just to live it up, I had 3 scoops!  Of course I finished it all without too much trouble and was quite satiated.
Back at the hotel we had a quick wrap up session, packed our stuff and got back on the bus to the airport.
I could hardly believe it was over so quickly.  5 days in beautiful Milan was more than I could’ve asked for and it was definitely a trip to be remembered.  Arrivederci Italy…tak for all the memories.

Photo update

New bangs! Photos courtesy of host mom, Karina :)

And here are some from the Duomo in Milan (2nd largest cathedral in the world)

Epic DIS photo op

There are over 1,000 statues and the most important one is the golden Mary in the center of this photo. 

Do I know this guy? Nope, but I thought this was pretty sweet. 

Italian flag!

Too much construction :(

The Duomo's epicness was just too exhausting for Eliot :)

And some randomness from the rest of the trip

First espresso! (or maybe not the first but one of the many because I had at least 2 espressos every day)

And I'll be back with more later :)