Picasso & the Little Mermaid

I finally made it to the Little Mermaid! On Saturday it was a little warmer and the sun was out, so I thought it would be a good day to make the trek. It turned out to be so frigid that by the time we made it to the statue my eyes were watering from the wind. Haha I probably looked like a crazed tourist. Anyways, after taking pictures as fast as we possibly could, we headed back.

Den lille havfrue

I was talking to my host parents about the Little Mermaid and found out that its been subject to a lot of vandalism. The poor thing has been painted on multiple times, blasted off her rock, had an arm sawed off, and had her head cut off. Twice. Kind of ridiculous right?

Picasso Peace & Freedom

Today I went to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebaek. Sometimes modern art museums can be too much, but this one was really cool. I saw art by Asger Jorn, Walton Ford, Warhol, Pollock, and Picasso-which was definitely my favorite. I learned a lot of interesting things about Picasso that I didn't know before. Here are some Picasso quotes I liked:

"The world today doesn't make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?"

"Abstract art is only painting. And what's so dramatic about that? There is no abstract art. One must always begin with something. Afterwards one can remove all semblance of reality" 

"It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child." 

 

The Charnel House. 1944-45

Dove with olive branch

Walton Ford

Art is tiring, I'm going to take nap. Hope you had a good weekend!

Successful wandering around: part 2

I got a turban!! I FINALLY found one. I've been obsessed with them ever since last semester (thank you Em!). After a few botched attempts at knitting my own, I gave up. But the Danes are so damn stylish that I see them everywhere. So while wandering around after class I found a little accessory store that had them and it literally made my day. 

I had my first Danish quiz today and it was super easy. I can't pronounce anything correctly, but I sure can stare at a piece of paper and memorize words! Unfortunately, my transportation pass still hasn't showed up. I think I'll have to buy another one. Ugh oh well, what can you do? 

I've been planning spring break and I'm officially going to Barcelona, Venice, and Rome with my friend Sam! We're flying to Spain first, and then flying to Venice after a few days. I think we're going to buy a train pass for Italy so we can go wherever we please. Also my sis and mom have started making their plans to come during the second week. We'll hang out in Copenhagen for a few days, then possibly go to Prague? Ahhh I'm so excited! This cannot be real life. 

We got snow again :/ Yeah I know Minnesotans, I shouldn't be complaining. Today the sun was out though! Its amazing what sun does to this city. It literally makes everyone come alive. Well, I should probably take a stab at some reading. Hope you're having a lovely week :)

Sounds like Spring

Here's my recent band crush-the Generationals. I'd say on a hipster scale from 1 to 10, they're only around a 5 or 6. But who really cares, I like their music. It's very sugary 1960's pop music, which I'm a sucker for. So if you're hoping for winter to end like I am, I suggest listening to them!

Also "Say for Certain," "When They Fight, They Fight," and "Greenleaf" are all good songs.

p.s. Does anyone know how to post songs embedded in a player?

Surprises

It has been a super long week. I went to to see a Midsummer Night's Dream at the Royal Danish Ballet. It was so cool! I think I've been to a ballet once before, but I was too little to appreciate it. After some majoring cramming for a test and a critique on Friday, I went out with friends to a beach bar. Whats a beach bar doing in Copenhagen? Haha uh I'm still not quite sure, but they even had sand! We were told that they have sand castle competitions too, but when we showed up there was no such competition. I felt a little mislead. Anyways, the disaster of the night was that I lost my transportation pass. Ughh it sucks! But I think there's a pretty good chance that if someone found it, they'll mail it to me. So I'm crossing my fingers.

Last night Emily's host mom threw a surprise birthday party for her. It was really fun! Emily had absolutely no idea. Her host mom made dinner for us, provided drinks for a "happy night" and even invited over a friend to act as a bartender for us. Haha so Danish. 

Reallly excited for the surprise, Danish flags ready...

....and surprise!

I love surprises

playing a game which made us look like sailors

So despite a minor disaster, it was a good weekend :) 

Hyggeligt

Today I got the best Valentine EVER. My friends back home sent me one via snail mail. Seriously, I love you guys. So thank you :) (and thank you mom and dad for yours too!)

Thanks to the blustery winds which cause the worst brain freezes, I mean the absolute worst, I'm staying indoors tonight! So in true Danish fashion, I'm lighting a few candles to make my room "hyggelit" (cozy) and just relaxing.
And its not like you need visuals, but hey why not?

Step 1. Find some matches. Or a lighter. Or whatever you want. 

Step 2. Light them UP!

 Step 3. Yeah, just keep lighting 

And wah-lah. You're hyggeied-out

Don't forget the jazzy music. Its totally optional of course, but highly recommended. And keep in mind you might be severely judged if its not included. Haha just kidding. (kind of)

Have a hyggelit night!

Dyrehavn

So yesterday my host parents and I went to Klampenborg to go to Dyrehavn! In English it translates literally to "Deer Park." Uh what? Yeah I wasn't so sure myself. Basically its a really big forest park that covers 11 square kilometers (about 7 square miles). For the first half an hour I only spotted a few deer here and there, far off in the woods. But on the way back we went right through the middle of the park and found ourselves in front of not one, not two, but three herds of deer. Holy crap. I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty nerve racking to have every male deer staring us down. Thankfully after some cautious maneuvering, we made it out unscathed!

Dyrehavn

A house that the Queen owns but doesn't use. Alright. 

You can see Sweden in the background!

AHH deer. 

Trying to figure out the best way not to get mauled

Oh just hanging out with the deer

Little deer. 

I look really awkward in this picture because I was half looking over my shoulder/half looking at the camera...

After going to Lotte's family get together on Saturday, I have a new idea about the Danes. They're not automatically friendly, but they're not rude either. They kind of have to "feel you out", then they'll gradually come up to you and introduce themselves. Also, not everyone is on same interest level, which is okay! I did meet a few very nice people that were interested in talking to me. Overall, Danes are very considerate. Several times during the night the people around me switched over to English when they realized I wasn't picking up on any of their danish. They even let me choose a song in English to sing from the pamphlet, so we all sang "Imagine" by John Lennon. Okay, I'm really starting to love Denmark.

Have a good Valentine's Day, or as a guy in my class calls it, "International Single Awareness Day." Hahah I thought that was funny :)

Local Natives

I like them. Found this on MFR


Local Natives | Who Knows Who Cares | A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.


Also the Strokes have a new single called "Under Cover of Darkness" which is pretty good!

Barbra Streisand

Last Wednesday I had a field study to the Zoological Museum for my Marine Mammals class. I had pretty low expectations for it, but it was SO COOL! I wasn't expecting that at all-I figured we would see a couple exhibits aimed towards kids then call it a day. Instead they let us into their private collection which is around 100 million specimens. They have 5 floors with two big rooms on each floor and we only saw one. In the mammal room I saw soo many bones, skeletons, skulls, and taxidermy animals. I've honestly never seen so many antlers in my life. I'm so mad I didn't bring my camera! It was SO unbelievably cool.

It reminded me of this...

http://www.bunchfamily.ca/tag/royal-tenenbaums

Another cool thing-in my Human Health and Disease class we practiced lumbar punctures (on a dummy) and IVs yesterday. We practiced on fake hands with fake blood first then got to try it on each other. I managed to successfully put an IV in my friend Ben! Cool huh?

Here's a list of things that you may or may not know about the Danes. Its not earth-shattering or anything,  just kind of fun :)

-They don't use ice

-Light switches are never where they should be

-Sorry is not a common word in their daily vocabulary

-an H&M can literally be found within any 1 km radius

-They like to mumble. haha yes!

-Women can braid their hair in  ridiculously cool ways

-They eat almost everything with a fork and knife-even pizza (gasp!)

-They celebrate the day when beer companies introduce their Christmas brews

-They also do this for easter?

-Royal family birthdays are a BIG deal

-Everyone has heated floors!

-They love candles so much that they even light them in hospitals. eee fire hazard

-It's rude to be late and its rude to be early. Who knew.

-Its totally socially acceptable (and legal) to drink in public

-Its also okay to bring your dogs on public transportation. I wonder about cats?
-They'll always assume your Danish until you open your mouth and say something

Also, I don't know if you've heard this before (you probably have) but this song is SWEEPING the Danish nation. And I love it. So have a listen.

Got to go to a family party-get together thing. Missing everyone back home!

Just walking around

I think my new favorite pastime is walking around. I only had one class yesterday, so I wandered around before I went home. And guess what? I ended up running into a really cool thrift store! Seriously, I need to do this more often. I'm obsessed with stripes, and I found this sweet black and white striped shirt for 30 kroner. Chyessss

Here are a few more I took while wandering around...

AHHH its so windy here

oh  yeah! listen to "A Million Years" by Alexander (crazy hippie from Edward Sharpe went solo!)

Western Denmark

I got back late last night from our short study tour to the western part of Denmark. It was really fun, but I was soo tired afterwards. I think the space bus + sleep deprivation + academic visits + cultural mumbo-jumbo all had something to do with it.

So according to Jamie (one of our tour leaders) this bus is the most expensive bus in Denmark. Apparently the bus driver also drives around pseudo-Danish pop stars in it. Cool right? I just couldn't help but notice that it also looked like it was used as a space bus in the movie "Space Jam." So, the bus was re-christened Space Bus. 

Welcome to the Space Jam

Alright...

In Odense we visited the Hans Christian Anderson Children's hospital, then headed to the Jelling Stones. The Jelling Stones are these ancient runestones which Harold Bluetooth made for his father Gorm. Yes thats right, Gorm. He also built a few mounds? Sorry tour guide, but I still don't get it. It started raining/hailing when we went outside, but we decided to suck it up anyways. I literally couldn't stop laughing! 

 Woo! A jelling stone. 

part of the group

me & Emily

 "Want to climb to the top of the mound? Sure, okay."

Then it started hailing...

and we peaced out

The next day we visited the Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience in Århus, which was really cool. We saw a bunch of fancy, highly magnetic machines used for imaging. Before our stop at a general practitioner's office, we went to lunch at this random restaurant in the middle of nowhere. We were early (story of our trip) so we walked down the road along the water. 

The food at this place was sooo good. Good enough to take pictures of it was so fancy. Later on we were dropped downtown Århus for dinner and went out afterwards. Århus is the second biggest city in Denmark, and is kind of like a mini-Copenhagen. This is when things got a little sloppy, but it was definitely a blast. 

 

Oh betsy. 

Oh hey there. 

On Saturday we had a scavenger hunt in downtown Arhus, where we ended up losing our sheet and most likely coming in last. I wasn't too bummed about it though. We just wandered around on our own and got some hot dogs instead. Later on we went to the ARoS modern art museum. This was by far my favorite. So many weird sculptures and cool abstract paintings. 

Having some trouble with the scavenging...

Arhus

ARoS

creepy super realistic boy

optical illusion time

Overall it was a great trip. Western Denmark kind of reminded me of Ireland because its so green and hilly. I can't wait for our long study tour to Berlin and Poznan! Sorry this was such a long post-I'll cut to the chase next time :)