COrAl's COpeNhAgeN AdVEnTUReS

Coral is spending the Spring ('11) of her Junior year studying abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark!

Monday, May 16, 2011

Only a few more days left...


So I haven't been the best at keeping up with this blog. I guess I've just been too absorbed in school work and experiencing Europe/ Copenhagen. I've had many more travels since I last posted... Paris, Scotland, Berlin, Iceland, England, and Sweden. My parents have visited. I've finished my classes and had oh so many amazing adventures!

I am so grateful for the time I've spent here. It has been incredible. In the midst of packing and reviewing for my final exam, I'm feeling sad to leave but excited to begin a new chapter(s) in my life. Summer Post-Denmark, Senior Year at Bowdoin, Time Post-Undergrad... There are many wonderful adventures lying on my horizon and I feel beyond blessed to have this abroad experience to look back on for strength and happy memories.

Here are a few pictures from the last two months to give you a taste of what I've been up to...

PARIS
I went to Paris with my Impressionism Class. This is us! How amazing it was to study art works and then experience them in a city I've been dreaming of visiting my entire life!
BERLIN
I went with my host-sister. We had a blast!
ICELAND
Iceland was probably the most beautiful place I've ever been to in my entire life. 
I traveled there with my Vikings and Sagas class. What a great group of people! I had so much fun! 
We went riding on Icelandic horses. It was very cool and the outfits were to die for...
The last day we went to the Blue Lagoon, an exquisite naturally heated lagoon. It was luxurious!
PARENT'S VISIT
Two sets of amazing parents! 
We did lots of wonderful city exploring and although it may have been raining this first day we lucked out with incredible weather the rest of the time!

ENGLAND

Mom and I went to London for the day. Stop One was the Globe Theater.
 We also went to Big Ben, Platform Nine and Three Quarters, etc. It was a great, sunny day!

We were visiting our dear family friends, who I consider family, in England. I stayed for a few days after my parents left. This is Hil, Sebastian, and I on Easter.
SWEDEN
I went to Malmö, Sweden for the day and biked around. This is one of their famous monuments, the Turning Torso.  It's a very sustainable city and it had the coolest library I've ever seen! I had a good time.
MORE COPENHAGEN
A Night at the Opera House. I went to see the Royal Ballet. So much fun!
This was at the final DIS picnic. Shortly after this picture was taken I decided to jump into the Ocean in Denmark! 
My friend Amy and I on top of the Round Tower a few blocks from school.
I went on a sail boat for the day with the organization I volunteered for this semester. It was such a treat! I loved being out on the ocean.
My Art Matters teacher had recommended we check out this Graffti Park in Copenhagen. Amy and I were so impressed.  I wasn't so sure about all the spray cans littering the ground but there was some incredible art!
After that trip we had a really enjoyable girls night!
Tomorrow is the Concluding Ceremony and then Wednesday I'm off to Tivoli Gardens! I'm glad I've done this update even if it isn't fully adequate. Thanks for reading! Hugs!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Slideshows Galore!

Hej (Hi)! It's been a while! I'm off to Paris this weekend and really wanted to update my blog so here it is...

I figured out how to insert iPhoto slideshows of my pictures and it has saved a lot of time! Any background music was unintended. I'm still figuring this system out. But play the slideshows you want to see, ignore the ones you don't. Hopefully, they all work!

These are some pictures of a field study with my Art Matters class to an art studio on an island in København.


Images from the S-tog (train) I take into and out of the city. I take the B or the E line to/ from Lyngby. This is when I see the ocean each day. It's nice to be reminded it's near by. :)


One of my classes is Divine Gardens and Earthly Paradises. We had a field study to a local garden that is modeled after a classical landscape. But more importantly... there were elephants!!! And a pacifier trees for toddlers to tie their pacifiers to when they've gotten too old for them. I thought it was sweet but my classmates thought it was rather strange. I guess it was a nice 'ol mix of both. Our field study last week was to an incredible Islamic Art Museum. Sadly, I don't have any pictures from that.



The week of my birthday my host parents were off on a trip so I had my very nice host grandparents stay with me. On the night before my birthday and before I flew off to Dublin, my host sister Robyn made me a scrumptious birthday dinner. It was beyond sweet of her! Layer cake is the special birthday (føselsdag) cake in Denmark. The Danes usually decorate it with Danish flags so mine had American and Danish flags. :)
The actual day of my birthday was really nice. I woke up to a birthday breakfast with the fam, went to classes, flew to Dublin with my friend Erin, found our hostel, went to a Ben Folds concert, and then out to the oldest pub in Dublin! One of the pictures is of Erin dancing with a guy from a bachelor party. There was live irish music with a bar full of people singing along. Everyone emptied out immediately after the music and then I took a picture. I thought it was funny that the emblem for the Dublin bus looked like the emblem for the pastry shops in Copenhagen and that there was a restaurant by the name of sultan (because that means hungry in danish). And then, of course, I was excited by the business card for a celtic women's group, all the health food stores, and the full moon on my bday!
We lucked out with a gorgeous, sunny Saturday to explore Dublin. We went on a walking tour in the morning and then headed over to the Guiness Storehouse. I really liked all the James Joyce quotes on the windows... brought me back to the great days of AP Literature. :) We found a cheap cocktail bar called Captain America's and then met up with my high school friend Carolyn and her buddies for a sushi dinner. I finally got to blow out a candle which was important to me. Then it was off to the club to dance!

Carolyn and I said farewell (for a week) on Sunday after a yummy brunch. She likes olives now! This was a big discovery. On my trip to Greece I sent her multiple postcards pertaining to olives and olive trees reminding her that she shouldn't be jealous of where I was because there were lots of olives and she'd hate that.

Christiania is the little hippie kommune in the middle of Copenhagen. I loved it! There's a store that refashions old stoves (one pictured below) and one was in the first Deathly Hallows movie! The first picture is of the mural that gives the history of Christiania.

The following weekend Carolyn and her friend from BU/ Dublin, Sam, came to visit. We went out to a fancy place the first night (hence the pictures of fancy looking drinks) and spent the day Saturday seeing many of the sights of Copenhagen. I finally made it to the statue of Han Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid. She's a big deal... although, pretty small in person. I still want to see the crown jewels inside the castle pictured. We saw the ice bar, the royal library, some museums, and the peace watch. It was a great weekend!
I've been to a few Danish birthday parties since my own. I still need to learn the songs though! They're soo long. A young girl in the family had one. Berit and I were looking at an Islamic art book at her party and decided we both liked the picture in the slideshow. For Berit's birthday Robyn made another fantastic cake and I decided to take pictures of our dining room just because I thought you might want to see it!
I, also, took pictures of my wonderful room if you'd like to see it...

Scotland! I travelled with my Positive Psychology class to the lovely land of the Scots for a week. We went on hikes, saw Edinburgh Castle, Loch Lommond, the adorable Glasgow metro trains and more. I got to see my friend Amy from Bowdoin, although sadly we didn't take a picture together.


This past week two friends from Bowdoin came to visit two of my other Bowdoin friends studying in Denmark. It was fun to spend time with everyone.
Last Sunday, I went to a soccer match in the city. Two huge rivals were playing so it was a big deal! I actually thoroughly enjoyed the game. Soccer is a lot of fun to watch and the fans were so into it! There were over a hundred people singing/ chanting different tunes throughout the entire game. I definitely feel like I've been introduced to a whole other side of Danish culture!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Hyggin' out in København!

It's now been 3 weeks since my last post and a month since I arrived (edited). Craziness! Thanks for your patience.

Walking down the cobble streets of København, the other day, I heard a bell ringing and saw a group of little children going for their walk. I felt like I was back on the Bowdoin Quad happening upon the children center toddlers on their walk with chapel bells ringing in the background. It was a sweet moment.

There have been many of those... Every time the accordion player is playing I feel like I'm in a European film full of saturated light, romantic music, and beautiful people. It's fun.

Walking or biking to the train station, taking the B or E train, and then walking or biking to school has become second nature. There are still a lot of new, exciting things to experience and learn about each day but being in some sort of routine feels really nice.

The bike my host dad fixed up for me!
Public transportation in Copenhagen has been pretty easy to figure out. My school provides me with a transport pass for all the zones I need to from my house to school. It's still really expensive for locals from what I hear - hence all the biking. My host family has a car and there was one morning that Morten drove me to the city. I realized how few routes I've walked, biked, and/or taken public transport more than driven in my life. 
An attempt to capture the cool view
in the metro (different from the train)
I've definitely done some quality exploring around the city. Although, I look forward to doing more when people come visit!

They don't seem to dress most of the
mannequins here.
Pretty horses outside an irish pub on
the main shopping street (Stroget)

Lot's of cool artwork! Some
in the form of graffiti.
A cool historic church
turned art museum
Playground behind the church! There
are a lot of sweet playgrounds here!
My host parents are both teachers. The schooling system is different here but in U.S. terms my host mom works with middle schoolers and my host dad works with high schoolers. The equivalent to high school (for lack of a better term) is gymnasium. My friend Erin and I were able to go and visit my host dad's gymnasium on the night of their open house for prospective students. It's a the most recently built gymnasium in greater København and the most sought after. It was really beautiful! We took pictures!
Erin on the roof terrace!
Chill out space for students... So cool!
Erin on the amazing
spiral staircase
The amazing spiral staircase
We walked out the door and they had
their video projected on the building
across the street. How cool?!
When I was really little one of my favorite parts of going to the movies was choosing what treats I wanted and filling my little bag with candy from the rows of plastic boxes. I think it was Clarks Pond in South Portland that had it and I'm not sure when they got rid of those boxes but I remember being young and sad. So when I walked up the stairs after paying the astronomically expensive movie ticket fee (a little less than $17) I was thrilled to discover that this cinema still had the rows of self serve candy boxes. The only problem was that a good two thirds of the candy was licorice. Danes loooove their licorice! Thankfully, I was with my host sister and her roommate who were able to warn me if something contained licorice. They also convinced me to try one type of licorice candy and it wasn't too bad!
The Candy Boxes!
Each door in the ladies
bathroom was adorned with
the last name of a movie star
Robyn and I
Comfy Seats!
In the land of dairy, my dad (who hates dairy products) may fear that "Something's rotten in the state of Denmark" but all that matters to me in regards to that statement is that it means Hamlet's castle is right near by!
To the castle!
My host dad in front of the castle

Kronberg Castle!
An aerial view picture
Robyn! :)
It was the first time I'd been at the
ocean since I'd arrived. Sooo nice! 
Lots of towers
Me with a miniature of the castle
Pretty exterior
Hamlet!
This doll house reminded me of
the one I had when I was little!
I love the iron oxidation of the houses!
This is a very common house color. 
Most the trees in denmark are trimmed
so they have these round scabs(?) on
the end of each branch. 

There's this lovely yoga place I've now gone to three times. The class I attended last week was my first "official" anusara class and I loved it! I will definitely be going back.
This is their pretty sign!
My friend who was in København [cope-en-hown] last semester recommended the raspberry hot chocolate (varm chokolade) at a restaurant near school. Two of my friends and I went and had some. It was incredible!

My Positive Psychology class went on a Short Study Tour to Jutland [u-lan] last weekend. It was a lot of fun to see the more rural part of Denmark in the west and get to know my class a little better!

An adaptation of "Waiting
for Godot" in Aarhus?
Pretty building in Aarhus





Our Ghost Walk tour guide!
(Loved the cap and cape!)
The author of "How the Other Half
Lives" is from Ribe.
Licorice (ick) candy pipe
No idea what it is but it
was in the back of the
Ribe Cathedral

The mantle of the Ribe Cathedral


Gotta love the pagan influences.
This was on the side of one of the
pews. It looks awfully like the
green man to me!


A painting I really loved in the
Ribe Art Museum
Ribe Viking Museum!
This is the sign above all the bakeries
in Denmark. I thought it was a pretzel
but apparently it's a type of cake!
Lobster! In the Viking Museum!
Kids section of the Ribe Viking Museum!
 My friend Erin and I went to a Citizen Cope Concert in Copenhagen! It was a lot of fun!

Other random pictures...

They have handball courts in the
middle of the city rather than bball
courts. Handball is like soccer just
with hands. It's a BIG deal here!
My host sister brought me to a Wellness
Fair in the city! It was right down my
alley... This poster was on the stairwell.

This coming weekend I'm off to Dublin for my birthday! More to come soon! 

Vi Ses!