Goodbye Copenhagen

As cliché as it sounds, leaving Copenhagen was incredibly bittersweet. My go-to explanation has been “I’m excited to go home, but I’m not excited to leave.” These are two completely mutually exclusive events. I’m excited to go home to be in my own house, see my dog, catch up with friends, and just be able to understand what is being said around me…and to me. But there is a lot about Copenhagen that I will miss. There was something about the unfamiliarity that added a little excitement to my every day, whether it was not being entirely sure where I was going or never knowing if another person was going to address me in Danish and I would have to embarrassingly ask them to speak English. Or just do what I started doing at the end, which was answering in English when I understood what they said in Danish. I think I confused them every time. 

This past semester was entirely life-changing and the most incredible of experiences. I wouldn't change it for anything. 

Ruby

I forgot to mention Ruby last time, but she probably deserves her own post anyway. This is the wonderful bike that I rented for the past few weeks. After some difficult starts and a little wariness on both ends, we became good friends. She was so helpful in getting around, even if I was a little nervous about it. She was a touch too tall for me so there were some wobbly starts and stops originally. For instance, I had to stop at a red light once and almost fell off her upon stopping. As luck has it, the light then quickly turned green as I struggled to remain upright, and a young boy zoomed past on his bike. He glanced over his shoulder at me, and I'm sure he was wondering why a 20-something year old in Copenhagen was having so much trouble biking. I swear there are three-year-olds who are more stable on their bicycles than I am.

I returned her today and it was a sad goodbye. She was a loyal steed, and I will miss her. 

Some Last-minute Sightseeing

Two posts in three days!? Aren't you proud of me?

Today I was in town with Tim, and we happened to walk past the round tower. On the spur of the moment, we decided to go up. It had been on our Copenhagen bucket list, and what better time to do it than our last day here? It was the perfect day for it: blue skies and sun. 

View of the shopping street below.

In other news, I have spent the rest of the day doing errands and trying to get ready to leave for Sweden tomorrow. Packing has proved itself to be more difficult than I had originally imagined, but I think it's coming together slowly. Everything should fit...hopefully.

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

This weekend Tim and I went to the zoo! It was really exciting, especially since I hadn't been to the zoo since I was really little so I don't really remember it. He didn't realize how "zoo-deprived" I was (that was the phrase he used to describe it...pretty accurate I'd say). I absolutely loved being there, but we all know what a zoo entails so I'll spare you the boring written explanation. Here are some pictures!

She kept holding onto his tail and not letting him go play.

Baby hippo

Tim brushing the pony.

Momma sleeping with her cubs. 

Some Updates

Well it has been a while. Part of my excuse is that I have had so many final papers to write, and the rest of my excuse is that I'm a little lazy. Anyway some quick updates as to what I've been up to...other than boring paper-writing.

1. Last Sunday I went to the DIS Picnic. It was kind of like a farewell get-together with food and games. The weather in the morning seemed promising, but as soon as we got to the site the clouds rolled in. It still wasn't too bad though, warm but cloudy.

2. Later that Sunday I went to the airport to pick up Felicity, a family friend from England that I hadn't seen for about eight years. It was great to see her! And very hard to say goodbye. Tim joined us for drinks in Nyhavn and then we wandered the city for a little bit before returning to the hotel. The next day we went back to the airport to meet my parents! I was so excited to see them after four months. Also, I must add that I greeted everyone like a true Dane with little Danish flags at the arrival gate. I fit right in. We didn't do a whole lot for the three days that they were here, but we ate a lot of good food and chatted a lot. They left on Wednesday and my parents, who went to Sweden, will be back on Thursday to pick up Tim and I to go back to Sweden. I can't wait to go visit everyone!

3. On Wednesday evening I went to a small reception for an award I had applied for. It's called the Intercultural Leadership Award and it's based on immersion during the past semester, explained through a brief application and a short essay. I was a finalist so I went to this meeting to receive the letter of recommendation and honors cord for graduation. It was nice to chat with the other finalists afterward, especially since I only really knew one of them. The only downside to the reception was that they had originally told us that it was in another building and after getting very confused, not finding the room, checking my email and finding a correction email did I find the correct room...about five minutes late, resulting in me walking into a room of people listening to the woman who had already started talking about the award. Whoops! She was very nice though, and it was fine.

4. On Thursday I went to my visiting family's summerhouse in Næstved, a town on the water about an hour south of Copenhagen. It was very nice and relaxing, and it reminded me of my aunt and uncle's summerhouse on Öland in Sweden that we go to every summer. It made me even more excited to head over to Sweden on Thursday. I only stayed one night, but it was perfect. We walked by the water and bought ice cream, and we even had a little bit of sun on Friday!

The summerhouse

Bixie and Baya

Norway

Last week was our last travel break. For the first half I stayed in Copenhagen and relaxed, and for the second half, I went to Bergen, Norway with Tim. Bergen was a really nice city, and despite the rain and really cold weather, we had a great time. Unfortunately we did not make it to any of the well-known fjords, but we did take a funicular, or cliff railway, up the mountain and went hiking. Yes, I just had to look up the word funicular. Fun fact for the day! The railway was called Fløibanen and it went up the mountain of Fløyen. In terms of the weather, it was one of our better days in Norway, but still not exactly warm. 

On our last day, we decided to go for a walk in part of Bergen we hadn't ventured to yet. We stumbled upon the aquarium, which we had been considering visiting but hadn't gotten around to. We spent most of the day there and it was really fun. I wasn't a huge fan of the snakes though...

View from Fløyen

A sign on one of the hiking paths.
We got some weird looks from people passing us when we were discussing dinosaurs.
Apparently they hadn't seen the sign.

Alligator at the aquarium

Not a huge fan of this guy.
Didn't help that Tim kept saying that it was trying to escape so it could eat me.

Food time!

We saw a show with this seal and his friend. They're really cute.

That calls for a Carlsberg.

On Tuesday I went to the Carlsberg factory with my friend Derick. It was a self-guided tour and we learned about the company's history as well as beer making. It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny. Although the tour was interesting and a good way to spend the day, I have to admit that my favorite part was petting the horses in the stables and making friends with a cat who was wandering around. We named him Carl. 

Here are a few pictures. 

Dipylon or Double Gate

Elephant Gate

Guinness World Record 2007: World's largest collection of beer bottles
(This record is now held by a man in the US)

Derick and Carl

Carl!