Six days of sunshine

Denmark, from what I've gathered, has quite a reputation for less-than-desirable weather.  Before coming to study here, many people warned me about the "freezing cold temperatures" and the cloak of darkness that falls on the country in the winter months.  Since I consider myself in part a New Englander, this clearly didn't discourage me from coming here; however, since I've arrived, its basically been jeans and scarf weather (which I have no complaints about, you know how I love my scarves) and it has misted/drizzled at least once a day.

...except this whole entire week.

I am in the best mood ever because the weather has legitimately been PERFECT.  Every morning I have woken up to perfect blue sky contrasting with the bright yellow house outside my window, and every day I have walked to class without even just a light jacket.  If my computer wasn't near death, I would be sitting outside right now.  So so so perfect.

Tuesday Amy and I decided to go browsing through some local thrift shops in lieu of doing homework because it was so nice out.  Although we didn't find any nice clothing, we decided to stop in the supermarket on the way home.  Again, this blog always seems to involve food.  We made the spontaneous decision to make eggplant parm for dinner, so we gathered some supplies and went back to my apartment and got to work.  Considering I had never done it before, it was kind of a shot in the dark, but it turned out WAY better than expected.  (And I still have leftovers.. which equals delicious dinners for the next few nights, yay!)

Mom, you should be so proud...

Yesterday morning my Danish class had a field study in Nørrebro at Assistens Cemetery where some of the most famous Danes are buried.  It's also started to serve as a park too, and lots of people walk or ride their bikes through.  We started off the morning with a picnic breakfast under the trees (ps: there were chocolate croissants, I was in heaven.. no pun intended) and then walked around the cemetery to visit Niels Bohr, Ben Webster, Hans Christian Andersen, and the singer of "Calabria 2007."  Back out on the main street, we walked past the site of the former youth house in Nørrebro, which has now been demolished.  Long story short, it caused quite a bit of controversy a few years ago- and by that, I mean the worst riots in recent Copenhagen history.  Now there is a huge mural there done by the same artist that designed Obama's campaign posters.

Totally legitimizes the quote on the bottom of my blog.

H.C. Andersen- "Life is the most wonderful fairytale!"

At the former youth house

After my field study, Amy and I stopped by the brand new indoor market right by Norreport station and I grabbed some fancy Kenyan coffee.  Then I went to meet Sarah at the square right by DIS to embark on our nice-weather-adventure!  Sarah hadn't been to The Little Mermaid yet, so we took the water taxi down to see her.  Although still anti-climactic, the second time was much better because it wasn't rainy and cold, AND I still got to witness some poor person wringing out their socks after falling into the water.

We took a walk back toward Nyhavn looking for a cafe to grab a snack.  Instead, we found the ice cream place that my visiting family recommended.  Definitely hit the spot, and it was just what we needed.  To continue in the spirit of "treating ourselves" we also stopped for a slice of pizza on the way back.  Such a great day, and it felt so nice to soak up the sun while we still can.

Continuing our adventure, Sarah and I went straight to the Royal Library, aka the Black Diamond, after class and spent the morning studying there.  By the way, the Black Diamond is supposedly the #1 place to flirt in Copenhagen.  Fortunately, today I was able to take a break from my sweet-talking smooth moves (HA, joke) and study for my Danish quiz tomorrow.  We got seats right by the window and had an amazing view of the harbor.  As we sat their pretending to be studious Danish university students, all of a sudden we heard bells and chimes that seemed to come out of no where and that went on for a good five minutes.  We were quite confused, especially because no one else seemed to think it was strange.

(Creepily pulled out my camera to get a recording of it... I tried to be stealth, which it why you get a great view of my laptop case, and also a pretty decent view outside the library!)

When I was there, I thought back to days (and many long nights) spent studying in the science center at Stonehill.  The Atrium was my favorite study place, and on sunny days there was an amazing view across the perfectly groomed green lawns at the front of campus.  Although the Black Diamond doesn't come with the advantage of Dunkin Donuts iced coffee, the view was more than sufficient.  :)  Also, sitting in the window, it was cool watching the canal tours go by, knowing that they were talking about the building and the students that study there.  It was so cool to actually be one of those students.

My view while studying :)

Ah, study abroad life...  I don't hate it.  :)  :)