Notice anything different?? I finally decided to swap out the dreary winter picture of cold, frozen Nyhavn for a bright, summery picture of yes, my feet (and Annie's). I don't know why I like taking pictures like this, but I do. I think I've taken enough to compile a mini series entitled something like "Traveling in Kelsey's hobbit shoes," haha but I'll spare you :)
It's weird that we only have three weeks left! I know everyone says this, but this semester has really flown by. I think I'm ready for summer though. Instead of working on the four papers I have to write, or studying for finals, all I want to do is laze around listening to beachy music like Tennis on repeat while sipping cold beverages. That is kind of what I'm doing right now, but hey, nothing says summer like freedom.
Here are some pictures from my sister and Mom's visit. I'm so glad they came! It was awesome being able to show them what my life is like over here.
Sunny day in Nyhavn
Rossieeee!
Amsterdam
Trying to stay awake during the canal tour
Keukenhof gardens
Annie really liked the flowers...
...maybe a bit too much
But I was guilty too.
:)
tulip fields!
bahahahaha
getting weird looks in the Amsterdam airport
Fredensborg
I don't know what I"m doing in this picture, but I like it.
Hey I'm back! My mom and my sister just left today, after coming to Copenhagen and then taking a trip to Amsterdam and back. It was so nice to see them! (Thank you so much for coming!!) Made me miss home. One of my main goals for this semester was to travel, so after traveling nonstop for two weeks and accomplishing what I really wanted to do, I could've easily skipping finals and just hopped on the plane back with them :)
Anyways, the trip to Spain and Italy was amazing. My friend Sam was so easy to travel with and everything was so pretty. In Barcelona I loved the weather & architecture, and seeing my friend Pria was really nice too. Even though they speak Catalan in Barcelona, I still was able to use my spanish which was cool. It was the first time I've actually used it in a real setting after how many years of spanish classes? So much for practicality.
The city of Venice itself was pretty unbelievable. It amazes me that its still standing. Besides all the cool buildings and canals, the city was, in a way, overrun with tourists. Venice doesn't have much industry so I think their economy is completely dependent on tourism, which is kind of sad. But we still had a good time and were able to experience a different type of city-one that operates on water completely.
In Florence, the views were amazing! It was that Tuscan countryside that you always imagined...or if you've seen the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" you know what I'm talking about. (ahaha you don't have to admit it) Anyways Florence was wonderful and we stayed in such a nice hostel, it was more like a bed and breakfast. Rome, on the other hand, was crazy. There was so much stuff to see but we were pretty tired by the end and just took it easy. Not to mention we got lost every 5 minutes. The first day, it literally took us 1.5 hours to find the Colosseum even though it was only a 15 minute walk from the hostel. Ah oh well. Sam and I kept making Lizzie Mcquire movie references the whole time too, which was hilarious. (Okay don't judge my movie taste from this post!) We definitely had the most fun going out in Rome. We bumped into more DIS students (second time we stayed in the same hostel as one) and met some really cool people, including an awesome kiwi (not to be confused with the fruit).
I took so many pictures, so I'll try my best to cut it down to the essentials!
BARCELONA
Las Ramblas
La Boqueria Market
the beach :)
Arc de Triumf
Gaudi Building
La Sagrada familia
VENICE
Piazza San Marco
public transportation
FLORENCE
view from Piazza Michelangelo
I want to live here
Boboli (aka booby) gardens
Il Duomo
ROME
sulky shot necessary after 1.5 goose hunt to find it. haha but we made it!
Rome at night :)
inside the Vatican
meeting Paolo at the Trevi Fountain, what else? (or should I say why not?)
Colosseum again
Annie and Mom, you deserve your own post so pictures of your visit are to come! Also I've been collecting vintage postcards of the places I've been so I want to post those later too. And congratulations if you made it this far! Gold star. I reward you with this lovely song. Can't get enough of it.
Ok, I lied. 2 week hiatus will officially start after this post. I just really wanted to do a post about this singer that I love: Coeur de pirate. She's like the french equivalent of Regina Spektor. I think I may have posted a song that she was in awhile ago (Brutual Hearts w/ Bedouin Soundclash), but I found more!!
And here is her singing in English...
Yet another reason why I should learn French. If only Danish sounded more like this and less like nasally regurgitations...haha au revoir!
Travel break is in a week! And I'm really unprepared. I've planned out stuff for the second week when my mom and sister are here, but I haven't figured out anything for the first week in Spain and Italy. So on Wednesday I think I'm going to knock out the basics and then wing the rest.
I went on a field trip for my marine mammals class on Saturday, which started at the ungodly hour of 7:45 in the morning. Meaning I had to get up even earlier so I could catch a train at 7. Ugh. Well it turned out to be better than I expected! We first drove to Odense to see the zoo there, which was alright. Our guide was the director of animal management and welfare, so she had a lot of interesting things to say about animal training and how they've improved things to make the animals lives better.
SLOTH
this giraffe was HUGE. her skin is wrinkly because she hasn't grown into yet (and is already a giant)
manatees!
scratching the zebras
such cute baby goats
which apparently didn't like me...
oh hey tiger
After the zoo we drove to the Fjord & Baelt research center. They do research on both harbor porpoises and harbor seals. It wasn't as cool as the zoo, but that makes sense since they're not there to entertain. Also it was a really nice day so that made everything ok by me.
the harbor
and done.
What made Saturday even better was that my off campus package was waiting for me when I got home! It was so unbelievably nice to read all the notes and random stuff that people put in there. Especially random was the pheasant that Stacie and Jackie gave me. Hahaha I love it, thanks guys! And if anyone else that reads my blog sent me something, thank you!! You're awesome.
I probably won't have time to update before I leave so expect a two week hiatus! Hope everyone's enjoying spring!
