I'm back! Hola Madrid!

Oh boy. So it's been over three weeks? I'm in trouble...I've actually been putting off blogging about everything because so much has happened and I know there is so much to catch up on! I think I'm just going to break the last three weeks into chunks and write much shorter than usual posts about all the things I've been doing. Mom comes Wednesday and then I'll be in Itally and then Russia, so if this doesn't happen now I'm not sure how long it will be until I can post again.

The first week that I skipped blogging was spent in the beautiful, and most importantly WARM city of Madrid.I went on the trip with my Positive Psychology as our "long study tour" to learn more about Positive Psychology and how it is studied and used in different countries. Positive Psych is a pretty new field, so I have a feeling there were not very many options for our educational activities. They told us that we were first trip they had sent to Madrid, which became very clear after our academic visits. There's just not a lot of research being conducted and if there is any, it's in very early stages. A lot of the things we discussed with professors at the University of Madrid had little more than correlations to back up what they were talking about, which got kind of frustrating after 2 days of lectures. I think it was also a little odd because a big part of positive psych is used in companies and businesses basically as management strategies to increase productivity, and most of my classmates are more interested clinical and developmental psychology. If I hadn't taken management and business classes this summer I would have been lost for a while.

The highlight of our academic visit fails had to be the "Positive Psychology Clinical Center." It was just absurd. From the name, I inferred that the center was some kind of therapeutic center that worked with patients  in a generally traditional manner. We should have know that was wrong when we received an email telling us to wear socks and comfortable clothes to the visit. After a super awkward powerpoint presentation given by the guy in charge in Spanish, very loosely translated by the UMadrid student who accompanied us, we were instructed to take our shoes off and sit in a circle.  The next hour and a half was filled with running around the room screaming waving your hands, standing in a circle with your arms around your neighbors and swaying back and forth as one, and sitting down with 3 other people in a square, closing your eyes, and feeling everyone's hands. As fun as it was to goof around for a while, everyone was pretty finished with this after the first 30 mins. It was hillarous watching our group tour leaders play along though.

The much more fun part about Madrid were all the cultural things we did and the superfun nightlife! The most crazy thing that we attended, though, was a bullfight. I don't know about you guys, but when I hear bullfight, I think matador with a red flag waving it around and then its over. Oh boy, was I wrong. I only found out an hour before the optional activity that they kill the bull. Huh? They do what?? Yeah. They kill it. And I watched this happen. Three times.  Even though it is a huge and meaningful part of Spanish culture it was probably one of the most horrifying things I've seen. It was actually just banned in a different region in Spain, so I'm not sure how much longer it will be around in Madrid either.  The whole thing felt kind of unfair to me. In the beginning the bull is chased around, and then stabbed with a huge stake by a man on the horse. He leaves and then the bull is stabbed with these little baby daggers by the "helpers," and its not until after THAT that the matador comes out with his red fabric and his sword. He chased the bull in circles basically until it couldn't circle anymore. My friend Sarah and I sat there in tears after the first bull was killed while the entire stadium burst into applause. It was kind of surreal, I had never seen anything die before like that. We were all kind of in shock and left after 3 bulls even though there were 6 in total that would be "fighting."

In the bullfighting arena--clearly before the fight started because I am still smiling.    

The parade of bullfighters before it started

Other things that were awesome:

1. SEEING COURTNEY. She's studying in Madrid and just HAPPENED to be turning 21 while I was there! It was so fun seeing her and meeting her friends and then I brought her to meet all my psych friends at the club everyone was at. It was SO good to see someone so familiar and it's such an awesome coincidence that we'll get to celebrate birthdays together--hers in Madrid and mine on Christmas eve!

old friends in new places!

2.The Prado Museum. One of the most beautiful art museums I've ever seen! There was SO much to see! I had never seen Botticelli or Durer or Picasso or all of these famous paintings I've studied in history in real life. It was incredible. 

3. Flea Market. So much shopping and everything was SO much cheaper than Copenhagen! I got a gorgeous bracelet from a silversmith and scarves. There were so many handmade goods and lotsss of leather! 

I spent a significant amount of time drooling over stands like these...

4. Flamenco Dancing Lessons. We spent about an hour learning a few steps. It was hilarious to watch everyone else get into into it and tons of fun. Especially because they were taught by THIS GUY, so Spanish with his flowing brown locks haha how can you not crack up just looking at him? Also, he was wearing jeans that said Angel and Devil in rhinestones on the pockets. Priceless

He finished every dance step by saying PA PAA and throwing his hands in the air hahah

5. Other Sightseeing Madrid was beautiful! The architecture was really cool and there were lots of green spaces. 

Royal Palace

Royal Cathedral

 

some of my fransss

Puerta Del Sol

I'll try to update later with posts about Billy's visit and the last week or so! Mom comes Wednesday I'm so excited I can't contain myself! It's also unfortunately midterms week here so I have 3 midterms while she's here so I'm trying (and kind of failing) to get all my work done before she gets here. Miss everyonee!
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Paris, je t'aime!

So apparently I'm really bad at this whole "posting regularly" thing...but I feel like there's just always so much going on! Last week was a whirlwind of tests (why do they have those abroad?) and counting down the days to Paris! I left on Thursday and had a short layover in Zurich. So I guess I can check Switzerland off the list! Also, for anyone flying around Europe right now, Swiss Air was the besttt. I checked my bag for free, which was awesome, but the best part--the complimentary food! Over my 4 short flights between Copenhagen, Zurich, & Paris, I got 2 little brie baguette sandwiches, some delicious Swiss ice cream, and chocolate bars on every flight. The flights were all really short though and it was funny watching the flight attendants speed down the aisle throwing food onto our trey tables to make sure they got to everyone before it was time to land.

And then there was Paris.... I've been before with my mom a few years ago and we sped through everything so quickly that I knew I needed to go back while I was here. Every time I am there I feel like I just shouldn't leave. And it was so fun reuniting with high school friends in a totally new/foreign place! And you could tell that even though they've been there a short time they've already got the hang of things and were awesome tour guides. I stayed in Alexandra's apartment which was adorable and right on the same street as an outdoor produce market. All of the food looked SO much better than produce here in Copenhagen. I feel like all of the fruit & veggies here are packaged so weirdly (picture shrinkwrapped cucumbers...) it was nice to buy food this way. My first night we picked up some baguettes & brie and ate some avocados & tomatoes from the market with all the girls before wandering around la Bastille.

Friday we explored Alexandra's neighborhood and walked around the Marais and grabbed some lunch at a cafe. It was one of those typical French places with outdoor seating all facing the street and it was so great being able to order and understand everything in French! Je voudrais un croque monsieur! After being surrounded by a language that is so unfamiliar it was really nice speaking in a foreign language and being understood. I was surprised at how much I remembered once I was thrown back into it. I forgot how nice it is to be able to read signs around me, too! My French classes for the last 12 or so years definitely paid off...I can't wait until I go to Nice and I can practice again!

Then we walked to the Musee d'Orsay after a quick stop at the Arc de Triomphe and walking around the Tuileries and the Louvre. We couldn't have asked for better weather. The Musee d'Orsay was amazing and luckily we got in for free! Being a student definitely pays off in Paris. It was close to closing time by the time we got there but we still got to squeeze in some Van Gogh and Degas as well as some other things that I've studied before. It was so great being able to see things that we've talked about so much in class. 

Overlooking the Seine

Here is the inside of the Musee d'Orsay...it used to be a train station!

Just some Van Gogh....

Alexandra and I went to dinner Friday night at a cute restaurant on the Place de Voges, which is the oldest "place royale," or planned square in a city with a completely symmetrical design and identical house fronts on all the edges, and a statue of the monarch in the center. They became very important in European city planning in the 1600s and Copenhagen has quite a few of these place royales as well. We learned all about this in my history class the next day when I came home! After dinner we met up with Elizabeth and some other friends and went out in the city. It still amazes me how late Europeans go out at night, I can still barely keep up. Friday night we went into one of the bars around 2:30 and it was basically empty, but my 3am it was so crowded there was a line outside! Luckily we got there just in time to avoid the line and it was fun talking to people switching back and forth between French and English. We met some people who had actually lived in Copenhagen for 6 months, and my friends in Paris were invited to a picnic the next day! Yay for making friends with the locals!

La Bastille at night--Alexandra lives so close to this! It was also good place to grab our daily crepes haha

Saturday we woke up and headed for Versailles. It was amazing. Ridiculous. Not real life. It also continues to baffle me that all of these enormous things were made so long ago before they had so much of the technology that we have today. All of the painted ceilings and cloths and statues were crazzy. Thinking about what a huge deal it would be to construct (and maintain!) something the size of Versailles today makes me realize just how absurd it was for the time it was built. I also just can't believe that people actually lived there. Not going to lie I was definitely humming songs from the "Marie Antoinette" soundtrack and picturing Kirsten Dunst running around the place in her giant dresses the whole time I was there. Probably not exactly the most historically accurate thing to be picturing, but it was still fun.

It was also packed...lots of big groups with tour guides and you had to be kind of aggressive to make sure you saw the stuff you wanted. Also one of the best parts--we got into the castle for FREE! Paris sure knows how to treat it's student tourists. We only had to pay 8 euro to get into the gardens! Here are some picturess! I took a zillion pictures like in every single room but I thought it would be excessive to put them all on here haha so if anyone wants to see more they are on my facebook or just email me or something!

Hall of Mirriors

Pace does Versailles

The Queen's Bedchamber--I'm OBSESSED with the fabric patterns 

Gardens!! 

Back view of Versailles

Some more gardens--can't believe how well kept they are! There was not 1 stray leaf!

We also made the long walk through the gardens to see le Petit Trianon. Louis XV had it built and his mistress Madame du Barry stayed there for a long time. When Louis XVI took the throne he gave the baby castle to Marie Antoinette so that she could escape the court and all of the crazy nobles at Versailles. It was really cute inside and managed to be beautiful even though it was not anywhere near as ornate as Versailles. 

Saturday night Alexandra and I visited the Eiffel Tower and made sure we were there when it lit up and sparkled, which happens every hour on the hour after 10pm. We got crepes (sooo mannyy crepess--I may or may not have gotten one today in Copenhagen as well...problems) and sat and just stared at the tower for a long time. SO BEAUTIFUL.

So those are the highlights of my Paris visit! I was so glad I went and the mix of being surrounded by familiar faces and a somewhat familiar language made me so so happy! I still have a lot more to write about but I think this post is already long enough and I have my first Danish quiz tomorrow so I have to go study! I've had 2 really interesting study tours the last 2 days though so expect some posts about the Danish Citadel, Amalienborg (the Royal Palace), and Christiania! But I also leave for Madrid on Saturday for a week--hopefully I can squeeze it all in! 

Norge

I'm back from Norway! It's been an adventurous and tiring weekend, but totally worth it! And the whole world is still rocking I still feel like I'm on a boat.  Friday afternoon I boarded the cruise ship with Annie, Karen, Lindsay and a postcard with Sammie's face, because she couldn't make it but wanted to be there in spirit. The ship was much bigger and nicer than we expected, and there were a ton of people! There were two whole decks of cars that people drove onto the ship, too! To give you an idea of how cheap/teeny/tight our room was, we stayed in a room that was actually below the two decks of cars. I'm pretty sure were underwater--there wasn't a window (probably a good thing) so we had no idea.We decided that if we were in the Titanic we definitely would have been the ones locked in the bottom who weren't even allowed to try to escape. Lowest of the lowest class--that's us.  But the room ended up being really cozy and comfortable for what we needed. The ship had so many places to hang out with amazing views that it didn't matter at all.
We had absolutely perfect weather and tried to make the most of it by sitting outside but it was so windy that we had to retreat indoors after the ship debarked except for some obligatory pictures with the sunset. Then we tried to locate the pool's "Adventure Club" promising a sauna, steam room, and pool. The name was a little bit ambitious for the size of the area but it was nice to relax somewhere warm. Then we all showered and got ready to go out after dinners made of various snacks we brought on board--everything on the boat was SO expensive! There were some fun places to go out and dance on the boat so we did that and then hit the hay so we could have energy for Oslo!

I'm on a boat!! (sorry I had to...)

When we landed in Oslo about 930am we were a little confused and probably should have better planned what we were going to do for the day. We ended up buying tickets to one of those hop-on, hop-off buses that takes you to all the big attractions in the city, which I think ended up being a good move. We probably could have gotten a better price for just transportation to where we wanted to go but it was nice to take the scenic route and see things we probably wouldn't have seen, like the Royal Palace and this huge shopping street. And there's this giant ski jump in the middle of the city that we got to see from afar. The first place we got out was this amazing sculpture garden--Vigeland Sculpture Park. There were hundreds of sculptures of people spread out and they all were made to depict different human emotions. They had old people and babies and parents with kids and couples and friends and it was so weird because usually statues don't really seem to have personalities, but I really wouldn't have been surprised if these guys had just started walking around.

We hopped back on the bus and rode out to Bygdoy which was much more rural and had beautiful rolling hills and woods and things like that. We stopped at the Norwegian Folk Museum, but actually entering the museum was unfortunately a little pricy so I just browsed the gift shop for presents from the homeland for my family. We did a lot of walking into the lobbies and outside of museums but failed to enter any of them because we were too cheap and were running out of time. I'm kind of regretting that now, though. Hopefully it won't be my last time visiting Norway. I keep being torn between feeling like I should just suck it up and spend money where I am because who knows when I will have these opportunities again...and also realizing that there are other places I will want to travel and that I should probably remember to keep saving for those things too. That seems to be my biggest struggle here...deciding what is worth spending on and what is not. Unfortunately pastries really seem to be winning in the "worth it" department so far....

Anywayss....we hopped back on our bus and headed back to downtown Oslo where we walked around some shopping streets and along a harbor. We ran into some kind of food festival which was filled with free samples! I tasted fresh apples, all kinds of smoked salmon, and crepes. There was SO much food and it was all free it was amaaazzing. Next on the Norway List was to hit up a few touristy shops and find ourselves some authentic Norwegian sweaters. Andd I got one. It's awesome. I am actually wearing it now. Definitely goes with the pastries under the "worth the money" category....it's soft and fuzzy and my favorite colors--cream, grey, and various shades of blue! Surprise!
We attempted to go to the National Gallery, which my guidebook promised was free, but alas, another museum fee. Stupid lying guide book...the group I was with was still not into those fees, so unfortunately we didn't get to see the famous Edward Much painting, "The Scream," which I was actually really looking forward to. By this point in the day we were fading fast and all I could think about was my cozy boat bed (which was actually one of the most comfortable places I've ever slept) but we decided to make one last stop at the national opera house. And I am SO glad we did! I don't know anything about architecture but I can tell you that this building is one of the coolest most brilliant buildings I've ever seen. It's right on the water and the roof basically is connected to the ground by these ramps....never mind it's hard to explain but I will show pictures! And I got to eat an adorable Norwegian heart-shaped waffle with jelly while sitting on one of the slanty parts. Perfect ending to the day!

As soon as we got back on the boat all 4 of us crashed and took a nap and woke up to watch the ship debark. Overall I'm really glad I decided to go to Norway. I picked up some soil for you, Aunt Barbara, but I didn't see any of the names you gave me! It was cool to think that I have some anchient ancestors that could have hung out around where I did, and if I go back I definitely want to stay longer and go up into the countryside, it looked beautiful.
That evening we hung around like old people playing cards and reading until "dinner"--more pb&j/nutella sandwiches and going out again. One of the clubs had karaoke, and another had a live band playing ABBA songs and Grease medleys, which all made me the happiest girl in the world. It was stormy last night on our way back and the boat was way more rocky than it had been the first night. I think that might be why I actually still feel like I'm on a boat. It's a really funny feeling.

Today after I got back I had yet another transportation struggle. As some of y'all know I managed to lose my bus pass on my short study tour last weekend....I purposely put it in a zippy pocket that I was sure it wouldn't fall out of. Fail. It obviously fell out somewhere because it was not in my bag when I tried to take my bus back to my kollegium. So I've been biking a lot more which has been awesome, and I no longer wince every time I sit on my rock hard teeny weeny bike seat anymore! It's a big step. Anyways....I bought this 10-ride clip card that I'm supposed to stamp before I ride a train or a bus so that you can tell when it's used up. Taking the metro home today, we couldn't find the stamper and just assumed there was some Sunday deal that sometimes happens with transportation discounts (which turns out is only the first Sunday of the month), so I just got on the train anyways assuming that it wouldn't be a problem because in the whole month I've been here nobody has ever bothered to check my train ticket. So of course y'all can see where this is going.......it ended up with me getting written up by the transportation officer who didn't really seem to care that I was just a tired and confused study abroad student who had actually paid for my clip card and actually looked for the stamper and couldn't find it and that I really wasn't trying to take advantage of the system. Needless to say I'm still a little bitter. Mostly because I have to pay a whopping 750dkk fine. Which is equivalent to about $150. Oh yay. Clearly Danish transportation is just not my thing.

On a happier note, I'm really excited about this week! I have a test tomorrow and Tuesday. Tuesday's class in my Espionage in the Cold War test was explained to us as one that "has no right or wrong answer I just want to see what you think" so hopefully I don't fail that one. And tomorrow's test will be in traditional European style where I already have all the questions and someone from the class will pick which question we actually have to answer. And then Paris on Thursday! I'm so excited to go see how much French I can remember and frolic along the Seine with Elizabeth and Alexandra and eat brie and baguettes. It will already be my third weekend away from Copenhagen in a row though and I think I'm going to appreciate having the weekend after this one here. I still haven't seen the little mermaid! I should be ashamed. I'll update again soon!

Procrastination at its Finest

Helloo! I have my first test tomorrow, so naturally I'm blogging instead of studying. The last few days have been busy and full of fun! Also, today is a very important day because it is the Danish Parliamentary election day! The results will be released later tonight, but from the earlier polls, it was looking like Denmark might have their first female prime minister. The Danish Parliament is full of many parties and they end up forming coalitions to support one another to get laws passed, and it's basically divided into a "red" side and a "blue" side. Currently the "blue" side( the more conservative and pro-capitalism one by Danish standards, but still extremely far left by American standards) has the majority, but the "red" and more socialist side might gain the majority tonight.

Here's what else I've been up to....

Eating delicious and adorable cupcakes from a new market that opened nearby
with Alexis from high school

Making friends with statues of seals outside the City Hall 

(while on a scavenger hunt/assignment for class)

Frolicking through the Royal Library gardens--anyone who visits me will be taken here, weather permitting, they are perfect and quiet and beautiful. And used to be part of the old harbor and completely underwater!

Climbing the Round Tower. This thing was amazing. King Christian IV built it for his father because he had such a love for astronomy. There are no stairs--it is a spiral ramp going to the top so that a mini horse-drawn carriage could get to the top. Way too much walking for royalty, obviously.

This is the inside of the tower...

And the view from the top! With some friends from my Urban History of Copenhagen class

Then I baked my own pop-tarts for tea with Cyndi on Wednesday! Overflowing with blueberry jelly...whoops. They were insanely easy to make, especially because I just used a pre-made pie crust....just fill with jelly and bake! I'm not quite at the making-your-own-pastry-dough-level of comfort here yet with cooking...silly me even forgot that the ovens here work in Celsius not Fahrenheit! It took me a few minutes to figure out why the oven would only go up to 250! Dumb...

Tomorrow I have my test and then I'm cruising off to Norway! I'll only be in Oslo for about 8 hours before we take the overnight cruise back to Copenhagen. I'm so excited, though. Even though I don't really know any of my Norwegian side of my family except for my grandma since it was so long ago, my nerdy history-loving side of me is freaking out and I think it's cool that I get to go to a place where part of me is from! My aunt told me that I will be the first one of my family (from Norway) who will have been there in 134 years! Thanks Barbara! I'll keep my eye out for the names you gave me! And I'll be sure to take lots of pictures!

Hope everyone at home is doing well!