Christmas Shopping

Friday

I returned my bike today :( But I got 420 kr returned to my card.

I went to return my Developmental Disorders textbook because I finished my paper! Woot! With 2 days to spare.

Then I saw Taylor studying at DIS and that was the last time I ever saw her...

I went shopping around for some very specific Christmas gifts in mind, but I had no luck!

So I got a cinnamon and sugared langos on the street.

Saturday

I needed to find these gifts so I went to Illum which is a huge mall, apparently.

It was decorated beautifully and everything was just so hyggeligt.

Then I walked around some more trying to find a place that sold gift bags.

With no luck. So I decided to go to the Christiania Christmas Market because Taylor went back and found it, haha. But the line at the ATM was super long. Everyone was getting cash to go to Christiania!

The line to get in to the Christmas Market was much longer. 

The things inside the market were beautiful and handmade (mostly) and there was a lot of food and drink, but there were SO many people in there!

I came home and Louise was baking Christmas cookies and Sne was over and Louise brought her friend's dog over because she was watching her, so I was welcomed home by this!

No one knew the dog's name, but she was super cuddly.

Louise made ginger snaps and marzipan and dark chocolate cookies and vanilla spritz type cookies and I had a bowl of cookies with my tea and was in heaven.

Sunday

I had to find gift bags, but Taylor edited my paper for me so I had to finish that first.

I went back to the city to find some bags, and then I got myself a nutella and banana crepe!

The flower markets were selling a lot of evergreen things, and it smelled great.

Will this be my last pandekage in Denmark? :(

Monday

I packed all day and learned that my flight time changed and no one notified me.

I think my bags are fine on weight but I don't know if I get one or two checked bags for my flight, so we'll see if I'll be leaving some things behind!

Finals Week

Monday

I hadn't started studying for my Human Health and Disease final until today because of all the other homeworks I was doing and the fun I was having, but it was good because about five people from my class and I met at DIS to study and it was really helpful!

We had 2 hours to take the final, but it was the same length as all our other tests had been so it only took like 40 minutes to finish! YAY! And I feel like I did pretty well on it :)

Tuesday

Taylor and I went to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, and it was like twenty dollars for a ticket there and twenty for a ticket back, and then twenty for admission, but it was pretty cool and it was nice to see something a little outside of Copenhagen.

This was my water-logged window on the S-tog. Haha.

And Taylor and I each got 2 for 10kr croissants to eat on the regional train on our way there. It was about a 40 minute train ride.

This is the outside of the museum entrance. It's kind of a weird place for a museum, and I think it used to be someone's house or estate or something.

The main exhibit was "Arctic" so there were some cool things about the northern lights and there were some rooms where you felt like you were on the tundra or that you were in the middle of an avalanche. 

This was outside the museum.

There were also many pieces of modern art, such as this, which had some 3D elements like chicken wire and regular wire. I'm not into much modern art, but I did like this one. 

We also saw some of Jackson Pollock's stuff and I marveled at how people think the splatter paintings are genius. I like them, though. I think I will make a few for my apartment.

Then we went to Fisketorvet which is the mall one train stop away from Copenhagen Central Station.

This was our view from where we were eating nachos for lunch.

The guacamole was not good.

The restaurant we were snacking at was called "Presidents" and it was "American" themed. Our nachos were named "Nancy Nachos" and the banana split we had was called "Monica Lewinsky". We think they were all named arbitrarily except for the banana split.

After that, we went to a buddy network dinner at Dalle Valle in the city.

Taylor and I split a pasta dish and we both had hard cider.

And since this event was primarily to use the rest of the budget since everyone is busy and leaving soon, I also got an amokka (bailey's and coffee) to go with dessert...

...which was a plate of ice cream and fruit.

Wednesday

I spent literally all day working on my final for Developmental Disorders which is a case study report. It is the second of its kind; the first one I did was while ma and gma were visiting and it took way longer than I thought to finish and I ended up not really finishing and getting a B- on it which it okay by my Macalester standards but not by my DIS standards. 

I did not finish.

Thursday

Taylor and I went to Grød which is like an oatmeal/porridge restaurant for lunch.

The tables looked like they were cut straight from a tree and they were super rustic and cute.

I got a latte, and it loved me.

I got this dulce de leche oat porridge with apples and almonds for lunch. Taylor had a cheesy risotto and they were both delicious.

And we split a Danish classic Christmas dish: risalamande or ris med mandel.

Also delicious. I definitely have missed oatmeal dishes while in Denmark.

Then we went to Cafe Paludan to work on finals stuff. It was a favorite among students but I hadn't been there yet. It's a huge cafe with two floors and it's also a bookstore.

We got mochas and they came with tiny chocolates and biscottis.

And it was hyggeligt.

And I almost finished my case study! And there were really annoying people talking about annoying things so Taylor and I were making fun of them to procrastinate a little.

Also, Rufus was there when I got home!

He's one of Molly's puppies and he is just as cute as he was the last time I saw him with his longish coat and wrinkly forehead.

But what's new is he kept trying to hump my leg and my arm and ewww...

But I forgive him because he's adorable.

And then I finished my case study (hopefully) and emailed it to Taylor for final revisions. 

Next to Last Weekend! More Baking, Too

Friday

I went to Developmental Disorders even though it was an optional class. Luckily I did, because there were a lot of cookies and fruit there for us! It was also helpful to talk to the teacher and other students about the case study so hopefully this one will be better than the last.

Then I waited for Taylor to be done with class in this lounge, where many people were sleeping, so I took a picture and was caught!

Taylor had a list of second-hand shops for us to visit, so we embarked on our adventure!

It was hailing a lot, though.

Taylor got hit in the eye by a piece of hail!

We went to a couple shops on Studiestræde, first. The second-hand stuff here is still pretty expensive, though.

Then we went to Strøget and found a big trinket-y shop that was kind of like Tiger. There was a long escalator to go up to the second floor, and stairs to go down, but there was a slide at the exit for kids!

Then Taylor and I tried to find the Christmas market inside Christiania, but we couldn't find it and the weather was terrible! We bought some cookies for our trouble and left.

Then we went to The Greasy Spoon and were able to order breakfast food and milkshakes!

I got American pancakes and an open-faced fried egg sandwich with onions, bacon, tomato, and cheese.

Then we went to Tivoli for some gløgg. We also got some æbleskiver, haha. The gløgg was made with white wine here, and it was different but just as good if not better than the red wine one!

Then we went to the Living Room and got some signature drink called the pink lemonade or something. And then we were tired and went home, haha.

Saturday

I mostly did homework and watch TV all day, but around 7pm, Josie's host mom, Charlotte, picked me up and I went over to Josie's to bake!

We had a yummy rice and chicken dish for dinner, but Josie felt sick and couldn't eat and went to lie down.

Her host dad, Kim, and I started to make the dough for kanelsnegle (cinnamon rolls) which was difficult because you just roll margarine into the dough, fold it into thirds, refrigerate it for a while, roll it, fold it, refrigerate it, etc. Josie came to watch.

When that was done, we spread warm butter over the dough and sprinkled cinnamon and sugar over the whole thing.

Then we rolled it up and sliced it. We squished the rolls onto baking paper and froze all but three, which we were going to eat right away, because they taste better if you bake them fresh!

Then Josie's host sister, Cecelie, showed us how to make these hearts and stars from folding and weaving paper!

We also made a chocolate cake that's named after the trivet in Danish (next to it in the picture) because it's brown and round and flat, haha.

It tasted like brownies. 

We tried to watch a movie before bed, the sequel to the weird Arthur movie we watched the last time I was there, but I fell asleep almost immediately. Josie watched the whole thing without me!

Sunday

I slept over and had homemade bread and jam for breakfast, and Cecelie and Kim were making a different kind of cinnamon roll so I had one of those, too.

Josie and I worked on a little homework revision together, and Charlotte drove me home around 1:30pm.

When I got home, I baked two of the kanelsnegle Kim gave me to take home and I ate them both!

Then I did my laundry!

Bjarne and Linda went to Linda's sister, Mette's, for dinner and I wasn't very hungry so I had some brownie cake for dinner along with an orange.

I have a final for Human Health and Disease tomorrow...I haven't been studying for that all weekend but I've been doing all my other homework. We'll see how that goes! I'm studying with some people from class two hours before the exam so hopefully that helps!

Some Fun and a Haircut

Monday

We had our last Medical Ethics class today, because our instructors mom has cancer and so she has to drive her to treatment the day of the would-be last class, so instead we're having our final this Thursday.

I presented the advantages and disadvantages of immigration in Danish class, and then I went back to Tivoli to smell the pine.

This is the Glashallen, where the Crazy Christmas Cabaret was.

Then I walked to City Hall Square to take a picture of the huge Christmas tree in the center, decorated with hearts, of course.

And then I stopped in a shop selling Christmas decorations and I looked around for a while but it was pretty busy in there.

Tuesday

We had our last Developmental Disorders class today, unless we all come to the class on Friday which is optional to discuss questions about our final papers. I'll probably go because otherwise I'll just stay at home all day because that's how I roll when it's cold.

We also had our last Human Health and Disease class, and it was in the CEKU again. This time we were doing ultrasound imaging on each other, which was much less painful than IVs. This is me finding a bladder. We also found the aorta, heart, liver, right kidney, and uterus. We didn't find any babies.

After that, we went to Cafe Klimt (after the artist, and there were copies of his work on the walls) and DIS paid for our dinners and a glass of wine so I got a bacon cheeseburger and some white wine. I also had a burger at my house last night, but somehow I still enjoyed it.

I really wanted to go out, but no one else really wanted to because they had stuff to do in the morning, and I had to wake up at 6:30am but whatever I'm not too sad to stop hanging out with those pre-med students.

Wednesday

Waking up at 6:30 in the morning is super tough when it's so dark out, but I made it. I was gone by 7:30 and apparently that impressed/surprised Linda because she told Chloe I was already up and gone, wow! 

No one was very excited to see the parliament today, haha.

We took a pitstop in front of the royal archives and the black diamond to look at the statue of Kierkegaard there, and we also saw the supreme court and how the prime minister's door is up the stairs from the normal entrance, haha.

The inside of the parliament had this trim painted on by an artist who didn't like politicians, so there are a bunch of satirical sayings painted on. In front of the old telephone room were painted 2 ears because that's where a lot of gossip started, from the people listening in on phone conversations, ahaha.

They have four constitutions, because as it turns out they got some stuff wrong the first time, shocker. Women don't get the right to vote until the 3rd one and they can't inherit the crown until the 4th one even though the 1st one was the end of the absolute monarchy.

This is an elevator that is always moving, and it looks super unsafe but they have very few accidents with it... You just step in and step out and you can miss your step and stuff or hold your hand out as you go up and get it bruised, but whoever is in charge let them keep it running for now. There are a few safety things, like if your feet are sticking out as you reach a floor above the floor will lift, but it still seems dangerous.

And this is like where Congress meets but much smaller. The 8 political parties each get a slice of the cake so it's the more liberals on the left and more conservatives on the right, even though their version of conservative is like what Obama is.

Then our Danish instructor took us to a cafe and bought us glogg or whatever we wanted, and then most people left but like 3 of us stayed so he bought us a coffee. We always end up talking about culture and history with him, and it's usually pretty interesting. Like today we talked about how America is still really religious and that's why it's less progressive than most of Europe.

Then I went to the hair school on Vesterbrogade and got most of my hair cut off!

Before: (aka: this morning)

After:

Then I went back to DIS for no reason, but I passed a book store and you kind of pronounce the word for 'books' like booger and then I was thinking about the word for 'why' which is 'hvorfor' which is a combination of the words 'hvor' which means 'where' and 'for' which means 'for' so it's like 'wherefore' in Shakespeare which means 'why' so basically everything in life makes sense now.

Then I had to take a nap because 6:30 is too early to wake up, and then I almost missed dinner, but at dinner, Linda had to draw attention to my hair for Bjarne and Chloe to notice it, haha. Linda said it makes me look older. I hope not too old. It's also weird because the stylist blow-dried it so it looks straight which it probably never will again.

Now I will study for my Medical Ethics final, so hopefully I do well!