Farvel København

I leave in the morning to go back home to Minnesota. It is still surreal that my final day in Copenhagen is actually here. Although I feel completely ready to leave, my lack of sleep the past week proves otherwise. Every night I cannot stop thinking about everything that has happened over these past four months and it is too much to process, which is why I have turned into somewhat of an insomniac. I feel so incredibly blessed to have had the opportunity to fully immerse myself in another culture, and more specifically the Danish culture.

I have learned a lot from the Danes and gained a new perspective on life. For starters, I am now a big fan of salty black licorice and think that it is totally fashionable to wear black from head to toe. On a more serious note, the Danes have taught me to learn to relax. Anyone who has met me knows that I am just a slight type A... In the past, my perfectionist habits have caused me an unnecessary amount of stress. Living in Denmark and just being abroad in general has made me way less anxious about my future. I no longer feel the need to plan everything. Instead, I am just excited for what the future holds for me. Seeing how people in all parts of the world live has given me the confidence that everything will work out and that is not realistic to plan every detail.

I have already had to say goodbye to Anne, Leah, Anna and Kara, which was quite difficult and I know my goodbye with the Larsens is going to be far from easy. However, it is comforting knowing that I will see them again. In fact, Emma has already talked about visiting over Thanksgiving! Although goodbyes are never easy, I am so excited to see Mike and my family and friends back in my beloved Minnesota. I have always known that I am somewhat of a homebody and this semester has been quite a challenge for me.

I remember Chelsea telling me that it was weird how quickly everything went back to normal when she returned from studying abroad, and that she felt as though nothing had changed. I must say, I am looking forward to that. I am actually dreading the question, "How was it?" because I don't think I will every find the worlds to fully articulate what I have experienced. I think that is how it's supposed to be though. This semester was for me. It was my time to be selfish and independent and just experience the world. Although I can talk about my experiences and the places that I have traveled, I know nobody will completely understand and I don't think they are supposed to.

It is had to believe that I embarked on this journey four months ago. Time has really flown by. I feel like it will take me a while to really process everything that I have managed to pack into this semester. It all still feels kind of like a dream. I am grateful for my parents for supporting me and making it possible for me to come to Denmark in the first place. I am also unbelievably thankful for the Larsens. They opened up their home and made me feel completely part of the family, which made it much easier to be away from loved ones back home. Copenhagen has definitely won me over and I have no doubt in my mind that I will be back to this wonderful little country in the future. Until then, I will have to just remember all of the amazing memories from these past four months. It truly has been the experience of a lifetime. Vi ses København!

The Fun Continues!

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I am keeping myself very busy during my last week in this wonderful little country. Since my last post, which was only three days ago, I have gone to Tivoli, finished my last final, gone to a Danish birthday party, gone to Claire's apartment for a going away celebration, gotten my hair cut and styled by Lisbeth AND gone to an FCK match! It's not hard to believe that this weekend flew by in the blink of an eye when I look back at all of the things that I managed to cram in to these past few days. Here's some pictures of my adventure-filled weekend!

Tivoli was incredible! I have never loved an amusement park so much! Everything was so charming, which is very different from a lot of the carnivals and amusement parks I have been to. We went on Friday because there is Fredagsrock, which are free concerts that you can visit after paying admission. Although we couldn't understand what the bands were actually saying, it was very fun to listen to! We only went on one ride (The Himmelskibet), which is the world's tallest swings! We went right at sunset and had the most beautiful view of the city. 

On Sunday, I went to watch FCK play at Parken stadium with the Larsens. We got to watch the game from the comfort of a suite, which was really cool! FCK played pretty badly and lost but it was still fun to see a game and see the stadium.  

7 Days

I go home in one week. 7 days. 168 hours. 10,080 minutes. In other words, not a whole heck of a lot of time. I am having quite mixed emotions about my nearing departure date. On one hand, I am so incredibly excited to see everyone back home that I have missed so much over the last four months, but on the other hand I am having trouble coming to terms with the fact that this little fairytale of a semester is nearly over. I decided the best solution it to just not think about it (I can process my emotions on my long plane ride home). Instead of being sad about leaving, I decided to just pack my days full of activities so that I do not leave regretting that I didn't do something. It has been a bit of a challenge because I have papers to write and finals to take all week. I was actually relieved when it poured rain yesterday because it forced me to sit down and write two of my papers. I will be completely done with everyone on Saturday, which is good because my weekend it jam-packed. Besides studying, here is what I have been up to so far this week:

On Monday, I climbed the stairs of the tower of Church of Our Savior to get this beautiful view of the city. None of my friends were able to come but it was such a beautiful day that I decided to go anyway. I am actually quite glad I did. It was a peaceful place to reflect and just day in the city I have grown to love.

 Then on Tuesday, I took tradition Danish folk dancing lessons with this character (notice the shoes). My entire core class went, which was so much fun! My professor is the woman in the picture above. She's a hoot and a half. 

Today I went to the Louisiana modern art museum with Anne and Claire. I was very impressed with the current exhibit on Pop Art. The museum is located along the sea and has a beautiful outside sculpture garden, which was also fun to see. 

Luck o' the Irish!

I had the amazing opportunity to be reunited with one of my best friends from Gustavus, Maggie, this weekend in Ireland! She has been studying in Galway for the semester and Annie, Claire and I agreed it was necessary that we make the trip out to visit her. I am so happy that we did! This weekend was one of my favorite trips of the semester because 1) Ireland is beautiful and 2) I got to share it with three of my best friends. We left Copenhagen Friday night and didn't get to Galway until around 2am Friday morning. I forgot about how tired, smelly and hungry I was when our bus pulled up to the station in Galway and saw Maggie and our other Gustavus friend, Jenni, there waiting for us. It was so good to see those two again! They left in December, so I hadn't seen them for over four months. Maggie and Jenni both finished their finals already so they had more than enough time to be our personal tour guides for the weekend. On Friday, they showed us around the city and then we had afternoon tea at the most charming little tearoom in "downtown" Galway. On Sunday we took a full-day bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher. We drove through the Irish countryside along the way. It was exactly as I pictured--rolling green hills, sheep, thatched-roof houses and lots of little pubs. The Cliffs were absolutely incredible! It was very humbling to be in front of such a beautiful natural landscape. I feel so blessed that I was able to share that amazing experience with three of my best friends. On Saturday night, we went to Maggie and Jenni's favorite pub to listen to traditional Irish music. I must say, I felt pretty immersed when the band played "Galway Girl" and the entire pub raised their pints of Guinness and sang along. We didn't have a whole lot of time to do anything Sunday because we had to take the three-hour bus ride back to Dublin to catch out 4:30pm flight. We went out for breakfast and then made a quick walk through the Sunday market (although not so quick that I didn't have time to buy some goodies). It wasn't hard to say goodbye because I knew that I would see Maggie and Jenni again in Minnesota in just two short weeks. It was the perfect ending to my weekend adventures. As always, it was nice to be back in wonderful Copenhagen. It's now starting to hit me how limited my time here is, and I am ready to make the most of these last 10 days!

The original Claddagh ring store

Reunited and it feels so good!

Afternoon tea

Gusties in Galway!

The pub where we had a traditional Irish lunch

The Cliffs of Moher

Livin' life on the edge :)

Yes, that is Guinness gelato

Party in the Park!

Today is the first of May, which is a big deal here in Copenhagen because it is International Workers' Day. The holiday celebrates the past victories of worker's movements and current labor unions and political parties. Every year, between 50,000 and 100,000 Danes go to a massive park called Fælledparken to celebrate. There were a bunch of different stages and tents where concerts were held and political speeches were made. There was also little food trucks and tents everywhere and a carnival with rides for families. The park was completely packed with Danes around my age just hanging out with friends, enjoying the sunshine and drinking excessive amounts of Tuborg and Carlsberg. It was a great atmosphere and a very fun day! 

Amsterdam for the Weekend

This weekend I went to Amsterdam with a friend from class. The sole reason for purchasing my rather spontaneous ticket was so that I could see the tulip fields in bloom. "Frolic in the tulip fields in Holland" is one of the items on my very long bucket list, and I am thrilled to say I can check it off when I get home! The tulips were incredible! So much color for such a long distance. It was quite unbelievable. We went to Keukenhof, which is the world's largest flower garden. Every fall, 7 million bulbs are planted at Keukenhof! There weren't just tulips either. The garden is filled with a huge array of different colorful combinations. There were also indoor greenhouses with different themes and flower shows, which were very interesting. We spent three hours at the park and I could have stayed longer. It was absolutely beautiful!

We did other things besides the tulips while in Amsterdam, although I must say they were definitely the highlight of the trip for me. We went to the Anne Frank house, which was an extremely sad but inspiring visit. As you walked through the museum, you could read quotes from her diary printed on the walls. She was so eloquent and wise with her writing that it is hard to believe she was only 13 and 14 when she went into hiding and wrote her infamous diary. It was very interesting to watch the interviews of the different people who knew Anne, including her father, Otto Frank. Everyone said that she was such a spirited and positive young girl. Nobody knew what was really going on in her mind until her diary was published. I was amazed by how well-preserved the hiding place was. We walked through the original secret bookcase to enter and I was able to see all of Anne's pictures still plastered on her bedroom wall. It was quite the memorable experience. 

The Anne Frank House

On a lighter note, we also did some fun things while in Amsterdam. We went on a 3-hour walking tour, which was really interesting and a lot of fun. I was able to have many of my questions about marijuana and the red-light district answered. On Saturday night, we went to an outdoor little festival that was happening in honor of Queen's Day, which is a holiday to honor the royal family. The actually holiday is this Tuesday, April 30th but there was already stuff happening this weekend. The whole city was decorated for the big event as well. There was orange everywhere! Orange if the official color of the royal family because their last name is Orange-Nassau. The celebration is going to be extra big and crazy this year because their queen is passing down the thrown to her son and the Netherlands will have a king again for the first time in 123 years! The festival we went to had rides, free concerts and lots of food and beer. It was a very fun and relaxing way to spend out Saturday night. I must say, I feel like we got the best of both world's  by coming the weekend before Queen's Day. We got to see the decorations and experience some smaller celebrations, but we also avoided the 1.5 million people that will be flooding the city on Tuesday.

Queen's Day festival

The skinniest house in Amsterdam 

The canal boats all decked out for Queen's Day

Being super touristy on the "I Amsterdam" sign

More Queen's Day decorations

BT Halvmarathon

Today I ran the BT Halvmarathon (half marathon in case you really struggle with Danish) in Lyngby, which is a northern suburb of Copenhagen. I have to admit, I was very nervous this morning and definitely had my doubts about how the race would go. I only recently started running regularly again, and I did not feel all that ready for 13.1 miles. I have found it pretty difficult to find time to run with my busy schedule in Copenhagen and all of the other traveling I've been doing lately. Well, apparently I didn't need the training as much as I thought because I not only finished the half marathon without walking, I also finished in my personal best time! I didn't have a watch on and had trouble keeping track of my distance since all of the markers were in kilometers, so I was pleasantly surprised when I got a text with my official finish time-- 1:53:10! The race itself was a lot of fun! We ran in the city for the first couple miles and then out in the countryside and around a lake for the middle part. The course ended with a pretty tough trek through the woods. It was fun to have absolutely no idea what was going on. I couldn't understand the announcers, or read the signs... I wasn't even sure how far I had left to run most of the time! It all made for a truly unique memory of my study abroad experience. I was so lucky to have the best cheering squad supporting me throughout the race. Lisbeth, Jan, Jose and her boyfriend all came with. Jan and Lisbeth were so great in taking care of all the little details like picking up my race number and translating all of my e-mails regarding the race. Annie, Claire and two of my other friends from Gustavus who are visiting for a couple of days were also at the race cheering me on. They all helped make it a fantastic race!

The race was sold-out with 10,000 runners!