forår.

i know you've all been eagerly awaiting my next installment about my trip to poland and germany, but i feel the need to interrupt regularly scheduled programming in celebration of spring.

today i wore a skirt without tights and left my coat at home. i strolled around a park with my dear friend becca and the sun was shining. and there were flowers.

we sat on a bench and ate lunch without wearing mittens.

what a lovely day. hooray for spring!

this post is also a celebration of the two additional pages of editing techniques included in the updated version of picasa.
life is good.

oh, and it's 6:30pm and the sun's still up.
spring has made it across the pond.

kærlig hilsen,
kati

bruxelles.

the next event in my study abroad saga? a trip to brussels to meet up with my dear friend c-ray!

c-ray has been in france since fall of 2011 teaching english. when i found out i was officially studying abroad, we decided to meet up in belgium because:
1. it is in between denmark and france.
2. neither of us had been there before.
3. they have waffles.
so a few weeks before our agreed upon weekend, i purchased a eurorail pass that would allow me 6 days of unlimited travel in germany, denmark, belgium, luxemburg, and the netherlands. by taking the night train, i could save myself money on a hostel and technically get two days of travel for the price of one since the pass only counts the morning after the night train as a travel day. so take the night train i did.
there's something romantic about traveling by train. however, since it was a night train, i missed out on all that gazing out the window at the european countryside. on the other hand, i was able to befriend a dutch man moving back to the netherlands from denmark. he was a computer programmer who had been working in spain and then denmark for a cumulative total of 10 years. he was finally returning home and was excited to leave denmark. apparently the danes are little too private/not sociable enough for him.
we ended up chatting for about five hours until we decided it was about time to go to sleep. unfortunately, i got off the train while he was sleeping and we never exchanged names, so he'll be forever preserved in my mind as the nameless stranger who helped me pass the time on the train in a very enjoyable manner. something romantic about that, too.
when i arrived in brussels, i went immediately to the ticket counter to try to purchase a return ticket. i got my ticket to brussels in copenhagen but they were unable to sell me a return ticket on the night train because it appeared to be sold out. the woman at the counter advised me to wait and try to purchase it in brussels instead since they sometimes limit the number of tickets that can be purchased at other stations leaving some available for domestic purchase.

unfortunately, the train was still sold out so i ended up having to buy a ticket for travel home all day sunday. unfortunate to lose a day to the train, but i was glad i just sucked it up and got the ticket. i think it ultimately made the weekend less stressful and caused me to take full advantage of saturday since it was the only day i'd have in the city.
and take advantage we did. we had such a refreshing and enjoyable time together but we certainly packed a lot into it. by the time we found each other and dropped our luggage at the hostel, we were both pretty hungry so we grabbed a map and headed towards kebab street. after a bit of meandering and stopping to take pictures, we eventually found a little indian restaurant. it was my first indian food in over a month. deeeeeeelicious.

after lunch we hit the museum of musical instruments, a fun and relatively extensive museum full of...pretty much just instruments. when you enter, you're handed a pair of headphones which you then plug in to the many headphone jacks throughout the museum. since the plaques were all in french, i pretty much just flitted about, listening to didgeridoos and harpsichords for about an hour and a half.

then we moved on to the royal art museum, the attraction c-ray was most interested in. it was absolutely one of the most fantastic museums i've ever been to. the art was beautiful but i was almost more impressed with the way in was arranged and presented. the whole museum was just very aesthetically pleasing. also, c-ray may have contributed quite a bit to my enjoyment of the museum. as a classics major with extensive knowledge of church history, he was able to explain what was happening in pretty much all the paintings we saw. you know how much i love learning. beautiful art + a free education from a wonderful friend = totally worth the three euro i paid to get in.

having been in brussels for about six and a half hours now, it was high time for some waffles. the extremely useful map we got from the hostel suggested a cafe in the city center for cheap waffles so we headed over to check it out. waffle with chocolate? wise decisions.
however, in case that wasn't indulgent enough, we decided to try a street waffle as well. it cost about half as much and we both actually thought they tasted better, too. so many waffles. so much love.

we spent the rest of our evening meandering about the city as the sun set. after dinner at a halal restaurant, we decided to go to the top of a parking garage to try to see the atomium, one of the major draws for me in brussels. unfortunately, the view of the atomium was lame. but the view of the rest of the city definitely wasn't.
since we couldn't see the atomium well from the garage, we decided to make the trek out to the end of the metro line to check it out. usually you have to pay to get in and see it but having gone and stood in the parking lot outside and had my fill, i'm not sure why you would. perhaps our entrance fee lets you travel to the top of the sculpture. there's a restaurant in the highest ball.

the statue is a representation of a 9-atom iron crystal. it was built for a world's fair some time ago and is adjacent to mini-europe, another big attraction in brussels which sadly didn't open until march (we were there the last weekend in february). the statue was incredible at night. the lights made it look stunning. i think i still would have thought it was cool in the daytime, but at night it was crazy cool.

and with our excursion to the atomium, we concluded our adventures in brussels. the next morning we had just enough time to enjoy breakfast at our hostel before i was off to catch the train. it was a brief trip, but so good for my soul to spend time with my dear friend.

and so concludes the record of my first european trip by myself. i don't think i could have asked for a better first experience. things i learned?
1. trust the street food.
2. the brits make delicious diet coke with cherry.
3. riding a train all day by yourself is mind numbing.

not even a week after this trip, i boarded a bus to poland for my long study tour. until i can say more about that, enjoy this long-exposure photo of brussels at night.

kærlig hilsen,
kati

den polterabend.

the week following short study included the info session for the photography brittany and i have founded here at DIS and a celebration of my friend elise's birthday.
the info session had a relatively good turnout and everyone who showed up seemed really excited to have the chance to develop their photography skills over the course of the semester. we've since hosted a technical workshop in which peter, a member of the DIS faculty with extensive photography experience and a passion for sharing his knowledge, offered some basic information about how a camera works and gave some tips on how to take better pictures depending on what kind of camera you have. we've also gone on a "photo excursion" which i'll describe in more detail later.

elise's birthday actually fell on the weekend of short study tour so we decided to have our celebration the following weekend. highlights included my first pastry purchase in denmark (after being there for almost a month. yes, they all though it was just as weird as well.), a trip to cafe paludan for a live jazz concert (it was the end of the copenhagen winter jazz festival), dinner at chili milli (a health food restaurant reminiscent of grins), and an invitation to attend a danish bachelor party. i suppose the last item warrants a story.

as we enjoyed our dinner at chili milli, we noticed a virtually constant stream of men coming from what appeared to be the bathroom. we hadn't noticed any of them let alone that many of them going in to the bathroom so we eventually stopped one of them and jokingly asked if there was a party going on back there. he replied that they were actually a bachelor party celebrating johnny's impending marriage. being a large group of women, the idea of a wedding got us instantly excited and we proceeded to cheer every time a man came through the door from then on. eventually a large group of men had accumulated on the sidewalk outside the restaurant and they appeared to be seriously discussing something. three of the men reentered the restaurant, approached our table, and proceeded to ask us if we would like to join them later in the evening. i think we were generally quite surprised but someone with enough moxie and initiative managed to get the details. we then launched into a discussion of what should be done.
let me interject here to note that while i would generally not give a second thought to such invitations, as a group, we outnumbered the bachelor party and...we're in denmark.

it was only about 7pm and we weren't asked to meet them until 11pm. we made an executive decision to go to becca's kollegium, watch a movie, and then make an official decision around 10:30pm when we would need to leave the kollegium to show up on time. since we're in denmark, the obvious movie choice was the prince and me so we had a highly enjoyable evening identifying the landmarks pictures in clips in between scenes. sadly, the movie wasn't actually filmed in denmark but we were too proud of ourselves for being able to recognize that fact to really care.
all of a sudden, it was 10:30pm and we all ultimately decided to give the bachelor party a shot. on our way out of the kollegium, we were pulled in to the club in the basement of becca's kollegium (apparently copenhagen is your destination for one stop fun, shwarma, and housing)and enjoyed a short dance party before grabbing the metro into the city. sadly, the story ends there: even though we told the bouncer we were there for johnny's bachelor party and he had reserved a VIP table, we still had to pay the 80 kroner cover to get in. ultimately decided it wasn't worth it but hey--we'll always have the story.

i believe that story requires enough digestion for it to have it's own entry. so i'll save the chronicling of my trip to brussels for tomorrow. until then, enjoy this photo that confirms that i am too short to ride public transit in a stable fashion.

kærlig hilsen,
kati

rejse til det vestlige danmark.

holy canoli. i knew it had been a long time since i last regaled you with my adventures in denmark, but a month? that's a little obscene. i can't attribute it to anything other than sheer laziness. in my head, it takes a great deal of energy to compile my thoughts about my adventures. definitely false. and so, out of a contrite spirit, i will set out to post something every day this week so that i'll be all up to date by the time i leave for my two-week european adventure (get pumped. it's going to be "off da chain" as the kids say.)

i believe i left off just before leaving on my short study tour to jutland. this was a phenomenal trip and study tours will definitely stand out forever in my mind as one of the best parts of DIS. each program has two associated study tours: a short one to western denmark, sweden, or another place we can get to quickly. the tours are intended to supplement what we learn in the classroom with visits to relevant locations and institutions interspersed with fun cultural activities and delicious foods. what's not to absolutely love about that?

my short tour took me to århus, denmark's second largest city, and ebeltoft, a much smaller city, both of which can be found on jutland, the largest of denmark's islands. we had three academic visits during our time there (which was quite brief. i think we left on a thursday morning and came back saturday night.). the first was to the PET center, a institution that specialized in neuroscience research with an interdisciplinary approach. members of their faculty include musicians, philosophers, biologists, psychologists, you name it, they've probably got someone. all of their studies involve looking at brain function or structure in one way or another. one of their particularly interesting studies seeks to explain the phenomenon of pathological gambling. quite intriguing.

our second visit, and potentially one of my favorite things i've done here in denmark, was to a danish general practitioner's office. here we met with one of the doctors who works in the practice and enjoyed a fantastic presentation on the structure of the danish healthcare system along with some comparison to the US system to put it in perspective for us. i think that session might still be my favorite academic experience here in denmark. i just loved finally knowing exactly what danish healthcare looks like and coming to understand why it's able to function the way it does. the more i learn about it and the more i hear danes talk about it, i'm convinced such a system would never function in the US. it's not so much that we don't have the money or human resources for it; it's that it goes so completely against american capitalist ideaology. there are two things without which universal healthcare absolutely cannot function. the first: a stable economy. the second: the people have to have complete faith in the government to use their funds appropriately. danes pay obscenely high taxes (50% flat rate with an additional percentage graduated by income level) but they generally don't mind it because they trust the system will come back to them in one way or another. i think the bipartisan political system of the US will make it virtually impossible to have any more than 50% of the population to trust that the government has their best interests at heart. until that issue is somehow resolved, i think it would be of very little benefit to our country to try to implement a system of universal healthcare. we could definitely do with a little more regulation of the system, however. you know, just to stop this ridiculous price gouging/inflation business.

our last academic visit was to århus university hospital, the biggest hospital in denmark. my impression is that it's århus university that gives life to århus. the city is home to 50,000 students, 35,000 of which attend århus university, and huge numbers of other residents are affiliated in some way with the university. it struck me as being very similar to ann arbor in that way. maybe that's why i enjoyed it so much.

sadly, this visit wasn't very memorable. i say that because i had to turn in an assignment about my short and long study tours yesterday and i truly struggled to come up with anything to say about the hospital. however, one of the things we saw there will live on forever in my head: pig surgery. we were allowed to venture down into the basement where fourth year medical students were practicing their surgical skills on pigs. one group was performing an appendectomy, the other just practicing suturing, cutting, and cauterizing. it was awesome. but smelled unsettlingly like bacon.

our cultural, non-academic visits on this tour were also phenomenal. our first one was dinner and bowling at a very tiny bowling alley in ebeltoft. it seemed like an odd thing to have us do at first but i think it effectively bonded us as a group. on this trip we weren't just with the other members of our section of our core course--we combined with section a which ended up being an awesome thing. it was great to get to meet and spend considerable time with other students from the same program that i probably wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet otherwise. the section a-ers also traveled with us on our long study tour and the end of it felt a little like graduation when we realized we wouldn't get to see these people all day every day anymore.

anyways, the first night was bowling and food. our next non-academic visit was destined to become one of my favorite places in denmark: the aros modern art museum. i think this museum got me excited about museums. i've never been a huge fan but this one just had so many pieces that i loved and was structured in such a phenomenal way that i fell in love. highlights included a 5-meter tall statue of a boy, a room filled with fog and colored lights, and the rainbow panorama. the rainbow panorama is a circular hallway on top of the building. the outer panels are tinted in a rainbow gradient so depending on where you're standing, you see the city in different hues. people come from all over just to see this piece. it's definitely worth it.

this is how the panorama looks from the exterior.

aaaaaand the interior. way cool. i took pictures of the city through each of the colors. feel free to check them out on my facebook.

our next visit which i have trouble categorizing into academic or non-academic, was to a very small museum of medicine. here we were shown through their main exhibit that describes the progression from the very beginning of medical care to the modern day, showing examples of old instruments and machines as well as simulations of what old doctor's offices and pharmacies would have looked like. the highlight of this museum was definitely their temporary exhibit. it was one fertility treatment and contraception. the main attraction (that was probably not intended to be the main attraction but became so for 30 college students)? a giant uterus.

big enough to crawl inside with pillows and warm red lights. and a track of a beating heart playing. to make the whole thing seem more realistic, of course. here's a picture of a couple of my classmates lounging inside.

i think at this point in the trip we were all so tired from going and going and going non-stop that we would have been quite happy to curl up together and sleep in the hyggeligt uterus. unfortunately, the museum was closing and we were ushered out and back onto the bus.

we also had the opportunity to see the jelling stones, a very important piece of danish history. the stones are engraved with runic text that tells of how harold bluetooth christianized the danes and they also contain the first mention of the name "denmark". i think in the early 2000s they were officially declared unesco monuments so they've been encased in glass to protect them from the elements. it's often hard for me to comprehend the age of what i'm looking at when i'm confronted with objects that are hundreds of years old. i just can't imagine anything being that old. i think, were i to make a list of the top five differences between europe and america that i've noticed during my brief time here, the concept of time would definitely make the cut. europe just has so much more history than our country does. for danes, it's no big deal that there's a 17th century church around the corner from their home but in america, since our history has been so brief, we tend to make a huge deal about the historical elements we do have. even homes built before 1900 are a big deal. hm. such a fascinating difference.

our last stop before going home was a handball game. handball is a very popular sport in europe. apparently. i don't know that i was actually aware of its existence prior to coming to denmark. when i first got here it was hard to ignore: the danish national team won the european handball cup (or some other tournament of equivalent importance). it's an intriguing game. it appears to be a mixture of soccer, frisbee, and extreme catch. every time i see it played i'm struck by how terrifying it would be to be the goalie. giant men jumping and whipping balls at your face? yikesyikesyikes.

so that's our first study tour in a nutshell. i love that DIS offers us opportunities to travel in such a structured way. and to see things in denmark that many danes don't even get to see. my danish professor was one of our chaperones for the trip and she loved getting to see this side of denmark. her background is in business so all of these medical-themed visits were brand new to her. it was fun to watch her experience that. and to watch her grapple with her curiosity and gag reflex when we went to see pig surgery.

stay tuned for the tale of my whirlwind trip to brussels to see my dear friend c-ray. until then, here's a picture of another fantastic piece from the aros modern art museum.

kærlig hilsen,
kati

eventyr i bygninger og kanyler.

gooooooooood morning!
(at least it will be morning by the time most of you have an opportunity to read this.)

i find myself with a little chunk of free time and the presence of mind to record my thoughts so i figured i'd attempt to expand upon my list of events from the last post. i'll begin with my afternoon of exploring with brittany.

my dear friend is taking a history of copenhagen course which requires her to explore the city and answer questions/take pictures of what she sees. i benefit quite a bit from her enrollment in said course because i get a free travel guide AND touring buddy. win-win.
her first assignment took us to the city hall. it's about a block away from the main building of our school. it was officially opened in 1905 and is actually the third city hall in copenhagen's history. the previous two burned down. a lot of things in this city have burned down. like the whole city.

fun fact: the clock tower adjacent to the main building makes the city hall one of the tallest buildings in copenhagen. apparently they opted to have tall humans at the expense of the height of this buildings.
above the front door is a golden statue of absalon, the bishop who founded copenhagen along with christian the fourth. the hall contains quite a few offices, a large hall that any citizen has the power to rent for social events, and a very interesting water fixture.

out on the plaza in front of the city hall is the zero mile marker. err...zero kilometer marker. upon it you'll find the distances to other portions of the city. although upon further examination, taylor realized that it gives three different distances to the same place. moving to google maps was a valuable choice.

next stop: the church of our lady. this ridiculously old and beautiful church is also just a block away from our school. the history of this place includes another series of fires and moving the site of the building from place to place around the city until the area it now resides in was settled upon. it fell victim to the british bombings of copenhagen in 1807 and needed to be rebuilt yet again. construction began in 1817 and was finally finished in 1829. the big controversy surrounding the rebuilding was the erection of the church tower. the old building, having been built in the medieval era, had a tower but the architect designed the new church in the neo-classical style which apparently has a prohibition against church towers. however, the tribe spoke pretty forcefully and they got their church tower.

the sides of the church are lined with marble statues of the 12 disciples, judas iscariot replaced with the apostle paul. at the head of the church is the christus. apparently quite a while ago a mormon prophet entered the church, saw the statue, and exclaimed that this is what jesus looked like. he had copies of the statue made and i believe there's one in every mormon temple.
in 1924, the church of our lady was officially named the national cathedral of denmark. however, it doesn't look like any huge events have happened in there for a while. in 1648, frederik the third was crowned and then, after a sizeable dry spell, the current crown prince and his wife were married there in 2004.

our exploration was cut short after this visit as i had to get to class. however, this wasn't your ordinary class. it was clinical skills day and i learned how to use a stethoscope, place an IV, and perform a lumbar puncture. it was a pretty big day. i think the craziest part of the whole deal was how nonchalant our professors were about the whole affair. as if it were the most normal thing in the world to give a bunch of 20 year-olds needles and allow them to stab things. including each other. yes, we were given the option of practicing our IV insertions on each other. a sweet girl in my class offered herself to be stuck but was too nervous to do it herself. i took her up on the offer and was ultimately unsuccessful, but she assured me (in response to me repeatedly asking, "am i hurting you?") that it really didn't hurt her. crazy day. i think it still hasn't truly hit me that i tried to put a needle in another human being.

we had a short week of classes because we all left for our short study tours that thursday. and since that was such an incredible weekend and deserves a post of its own, i'll stop here for today. but i'll leave you with a picture of some graffiti on the outside of the church of our lady.

kærlig hilsen,
kati

alle de ting.

hej, friends!

since my last post to you, my life has been quite a whirlwind. here is a summarizing list of things that have transpired in the last week:
1. tried to go to the ungdomhuset (the youth house) for a cheap vegetarian dinner only to find that dinner is only served on thursdays. it was a monday. alternatively, we (the sweet group of girls i was seeking sustenance with and i) enjoyed pizza at big ben's pizzeria.
2. explored the city by accompanying brittany while she completed an assignment for her history of copenhagen class.
3. went to two more meetings of the ICC bible study.
4. attempted to insert an IV in a classmate.
5. showed up 45 minutes late to a field study at the panum institute, a research facility that conducts multiple studies on HIV and AIDS.
6. spent the weekend traveling on jutland, the largest island of denmark's 406 islands.
7. visited a danish GP's office.
8. went to a fabulous modern art museum where i saw a 5-meters-tall boy and walked through the rainbow panorama.
9. did some relaxing inside a very hyggelig giant uterus.
10. started riding my bike to school.
11. held a conversation on the train with a man from afghanistan in danish. because he didn't speak english.
12. spent the night at brittany's host family's house in hvalsø, a 40 minute train ride outside copenhagen.
13. visited christiania, the free town of copenhagen.
14. held the first meeting of the DIS photography club which brittany and i founded.
15. was offered a job because of the aforementioned club. i'll get paid $8 an hour to go through their photo library, sorting them into folders and adding appropriate tags.
16. went to another copenhagen hucks practice.

and now i am finally home after a very long day, cuddled in my bed and enjoying some g-chatting with the parents. i promise i will expand upon this list with photos and prose later. but for now, i'll leave you with a picture of myself taken in the rainbow panorama. you can check it out for yourself here: http://www.aros.dk/samlingen/your-rainbow-panorama/
i was pleasantly surprised to find that my museum brochure unfolded into a free poster of the museum with the rainbow halo around the top. it now hangs next to my map of europe which i use to record the places i've been and to prevent myself from being so ignorant of european geography.

so much more to come.
kærlig hilsen,
kati

og nu med en cykel.

as of today, i've been in denmark for two full weeks. it simultaneously feels like it's flown by and feels like i've been here forever. i love how much this seems like a home. i already have so much of a life begun. but i find myself wanting to be busier. i think i just need to get a handle on traveling at night. too many nights spent in has made me anxious.

although considering the number of things i did this week, the preceding statement is borderline ridiculous. i suppose it just means i'm still adjusting.

in my last post i left all of you on an exciting cliffhanger: i had plans to go to the little mermaid statue. i know you've all been on the edge of your seats since then, so i'll not leave you in suspense any longer. here she is:

the danes always apologize for the statue because it's so small. i thought she was fun either way. very picturesque on the harbor and whatnot.

fun fact: she's been defaced a number of times. lots of painting. one time someone added a bra. but the big thing to do is decapitate her. who knew?
in addition to visiting the mermaid statue, our walking group made an unanticipated stop at a street hot dog stand. excellent decision. hot dogs in denmark are classy business. less mystery meat and more quality sausage. topped with yellow mustard, honey mustard, chili ketchup, onions, fried onions, and pickles, this thing was delicious. for the sake of my girlish figure and my wallet, i'll not make a habit of them, but i'm certainly glad i gave it a whirl. and all those who visit me in denmark will be making a stop at one of these stands. without a doubt. who wouldn't want to participate in this level of excitement?

our afternoon together as kollegium-mates ended with cake a coffee in the 5th floor party kitchen. our SRAs brought some danish cake recipes and we experimented with baking in grams, milliliters, and degrees celsius. it just makes me nervous. the cake was delicious, though. ended up having it for dinner. not such a wise idea before my ultimate frisbee practice.
speaking of which, frisbee was phenomenal. i'm so glad i got hooked up with the team here. however, it took about 10 minutes of practice for me to realize this wouldn't be a semester of athletic slacking off. our practice began with 30 minutes of circuit training followed by an hour of drills/throwing practice and finishing with 30 minutes of scrimaging. i had a blast but my body ached for the next three days. today was the first day i was able to climb the stairs to my room without groaning. despite the pain, i'm extremely grateful for the opportunity to stay in shape while i'm here. and i made a bunch of super athletic danish friends and another DIS girl, coincidentally named katie. even halfway around the world, i can't escape it.
the team practices three nights a week (monday, wednesday, and friday), but for the sake of trying new things, i think i'll stick to yoga on monday nights and do frisbee on wednesday and friday. fridays are scrimmage and hang out days. sounds like perfection.

thursday was a typical day of class that ended with a trip to a cafe in vesterbro with my danish language class. we had a cozy evening and enjoyed some danish cuisine courtesy of DIS. i enjoyed sparkling conversation with my table mates and left with three new friends, one of which i'll be traveling with this weekend on my first study tour.

the highlight of friday was our first patient interview in my core class (human health & disease). all of us gathered in a room with a 70 year-old woman and took a patient history. four students led the questioning and the rest of us added what we thought needed to be said when they were done. it was an intimidating experience at first but mostly just exhilarating. our first doctor-like act. this program is awesome. i can't believe the opportunities it's offering me--in the first full week, even. i'm so glad God led me to denmark.

on friday night, our kollegium had a rocking, five-floor party. each floor prepared some food/drink in their communal kitchen and we traversed the floors on a "tour-de-kitchen". we all ate entirely too much but enjoyed hanging out together in a relatively classy context. sadly, i'm still just not that much of a party girl. i stayed for a while but cut out after dessert--right before the drinks & dancing floor. with all this meeting people all the time, you just need some me-time every once in a while.

saturday was pretty low key--lots of grocery shopping and making plans for cooking. i made a helpful little sheet for taylor and i with easy recipes and ingredient lists with danish translations for simple shopping. i'm loving the opportunity to cook here and taylor and i are trying to take full advantage of the opportunity to cook for ourselves. to that effect, i had two girls from my amazing race group, karen and jill, over for dinner. the four of us enjoyed eggplant pomodoro and garlic-oregano chicken with a side of sparkling conversation. ah, the blessing of fellowship.

and that brings us to today. i enjoyed my second sunday morning at the international church of copenhagen and then went over to the studenterhuset to...

GET MY BIKE.

that's correct, i'm now a københavn resident AND the owner of a bicycle. as soon as i signed the contract, i felt instantly fabulous and european.
and then i had to carry my bike down the stairs to take on the train and felt very clumsy and american. but scrapes on my legs from the pedals and inexplicable black marks on my face could not kill my optimism--i will master københavn by bike. and it will be awesome.

i apologize for the picture-emptiness of this post. this week was mostly class and readings. but never fear: i'm accompanying brittany on her history assignment on tuesday which means lots of pictures to post. her class assignments are to explore. she's given a list of places and told to go check them out. this place is phenomenal.

i leave you with a picture of my kollegium mates and i with the little mermaid. this will give you a better perspective on her size. see if you can recognize my roommate yet. ;)

kærlig hilsen,
kati