hej all!

my mom was here a little while back, and, needless to say, it was great to see her. my aunt and uncle also joined her. we had a lovely time while they were here. our itinerary included a visit to lund, sweden, lots of good meals, much walking around the city, a visit to the royal stables at christiansborg slot, and a great company. i wish she was still here!

it was also the queen's birthday recently. every year at noon sharp on her birthday, the queen and the royal family come out on the balcony of amalienborg slot (the royal palace) and wave hello to the adoring public. well, this year, i was part of that adoring public. alex, sarah and i went down to the castle to witness this celebration. the palace guards marched, people cheered, the family came onto the balcony, and the whole thing was over in about 20 minutes. it was, however, a really cool experience and i'm glad i went.

other than that, life here has been filled with a lot of studying. it's final paper and final exams time here in copenhagen.



i almost forgot! DIS arranged a trip to legoland a few weeks ago, which alex and i participated in. it was so much fun -- much more than i expected. they had an amazing lego-world, where all these famous buildings were built out of thousands of legos. there were rides, as well. most were pretty tame, but they had one where you programmed what you wanted the chair to do, and then you got to ride what you had just programmed. it was pretty intense, i must say.

here are some pictures to further explain as i get back to my paper. :P

museum in the round tower.

swan guarding her eggs at rosenborg.

nyhavn in real life...

lego nyhavn!!!

at legoland, they had a big shark.


little kiddies at the queen's birthday.

the royal family

i miss my mom.

my epic journey: part two

the second week of my journey was travel i arranged on my own. i met up with alex in copenhagen and we took off for london. we got in at three in the morning and had to navigate the streets of london, but we finally made it to our friend matt's dorm in camberwell. matt graciously hosted us for our three days in london. we had a really good time in london, just hanging out and going to pubs with matt and some of his friends. we also visited the tate modern museum, which has an excellent collection. we walked around london a lot so we could see the major sights. london was a blast.

after london, alex and i hopped on a plane to paris. right from the start, paris was pretty hard to navigate. the people we encountered were less than willing to help us out. the first day there we spent two hours in the train station trying to buy our tickets to grenoble. paris was probably our least favorite part of the trip, though it was still a good time. at one point, we were walking down the champ elysees. it was sunny at one end and about halfway down the street, it started hailing. it was an interesting walk.

we decided to move on to grenoble early and spend the night there. we stayed in a real hotel, which was a nice break. grenoble itself was lovely. i liked it much better than paris, actually. it had a much friendlier feeling and it is situated at the base of the alps. we had a view of the alps from our hotel window! the main attraction in grenoble are these cable cars that go up to a lookout spot. when we first got to the top, it was snowing pretty hard, but after about 15 minutes the weather cleared up and we had absolutely breathtaking views of grenoble and the surrounding alps.

after our great but too-short time in grenoble, we caught a bus to the grenoble airport to meet the DIS group going skiing. during the week, i learned that i am a horrible skiier! the week was still fun, despite that fact. the alps are amazingly beautiful, and we stayed at a nice place with pretty delicious meals.

after skiing, we returned home, bruised and tired, but content.





the little village by les deux alpes, the skiing resort we stayed at. it was adorable.




big ben at night.


the hail storm in paris. ugh.

grenoble!

the view from the top in grenoble.

my epic journey: part one

hej all.

i'm pretty much recovered from my illness, so i think it's about time i write about my adventures. i might have to cut this entry up into sections. in fact, i think i will.

so, part one! france!
the first week of my travel break i went to france with my european culture and history program. it was called a "study tour", but we didn't really have any assignments, just academic visits and such. the trip started with a horrendous 15 hour bus ride to verdun. verdun itself was pretty cool. we visited the battlefields and the fortress there. the fortress was pretty impressive. it was originally built for 700 or so soldiers but usually housed about 4000. the technology was amazing overall. the actual town of verdun was pretty sleepy, but mostly cute. we had our first classic french meal there -- duck and lots of wine.

once we left verdun, we headed towards reims. reims was one of my favorite places from the trip. it was a really cute city and we just generally had a good time there. the cathedral in reims in amazing and far more impressive than notre dame, in my opinion. one of the stained glass windows was designed by marc chagall, which blew me away. besides the cathedral in reims, we got a fair bit of time to wander by ourselves. during this part of the trip, i really bonded with two of my trip-mates, jon and sarah. we had a great time running around reims, looking at facades and escaping the rain. we also visited a champagne cave and had a tour. it was interesting to learn how champagne is made and that some of it is still turned by hand. crazy! we got to sample, as well. i can now say i've had real champagne.

our last stop was paris! as dorky as it sounds, i'll always remember my first glimpse of the eiffel tower. i visited all of the touristy sights in paris, the louvre, the champ elysees, arc de triomphe notre dame, musee d'orsay, and the seine. i also did some less touristy things. with the program, we went on a literary tour about baudelaire. it was maybe the most boring hour of my life. everyone hated it, even the teachers. i visited the pere lachaise cemetery and saw jim morrison's grave. i saw the moulin rouge. we also went to a contemporary dance performance that involved big plastic balls and lots of plants. it was quite odd.

i think sacre coeur was my favorite thing in paris. it is a gorgeous white church that sits on a hill an area of paris called montmarte. the view is incredible and the church is amazing. i also really enjoyed hanging out in cafes. over all, paris was beautiful but the majority of people there were less than friendly. i'm guessing the majority of this relates to my inability to speak french, but it was still a bit off-putting.

now for some pictures!
battlefields of verdun
the cathedral in reims

inside the cathedral

sarah and me in front of the eiffel tower!


sacre coeur.
van gogh!

i apologize about the lack of updates, but i've been sick since i got home from spring break. when i recover, i promise i'll spill.

i will be setting off on three weeks of travel early tomorrow morning, so i probably won't be posting anything in the near future.

i'm off to france with my program for a study tour, then alex and i are going to london and paris for a week and then on to a ski trip in the french alps. i'm so excited!

lots of love,
caitlinincopenhagen

hello all!

i've been really busy lately as midterms approach. i have had time to squeeze in a few fun things, though. alex and i went to the carlsberg brewery which was pretty neat. we got to see all the inner workings of the brewery. i personally thought the room with all the brewing devices and levers and pulleys and creaking noises was a little bit creepy, but overall it was a good time. they have lots of pretty draft horses at the brewery which used to pull loads of beer around but are now just "ambassadors" for carlsberg. we got to taste some beers at the end of the tour, which, needless to say, i didn't enjoy very much. after that visit, we trekked on over to the national museum. unfortunately, it closed about an hour after we arrived so we only got through one exhibit. after that, alex and i set off in search of mexican food. we failed miserably and ended up having chinese instead. i miss minneapolis food soooo much. i can't wait to have a giant mexican feast when i get home.

in other news, i went on a great adventure for my nordic mythology class. we visited several viking-related sites this past saturday.

First, we went to the viking museum in roskilde. they have several rebuilt viking ships discovered at the bottom of the sea. morten warmind, our fearless leader and viking incarnate, told us all about the history of the ships. our next stop was actually not so viking-esque, but was a neolithic burial mound. we got to go inside the burial chamber which was incredibly dark and a bit spooky, but ultimately cool. after that, we moved on to a ship-shaped burial at lejre. lejre is where beowulf takes place! all that's left of the burial sites is a handful of stones, but it was pretty cool to be there. our second to last stop was the viking fortress at trelleborg. this was probably my favorite stop, despite the crazy wind and rain. the remains of the fortress were incredible. the museum wasn't actually open, but morten took us to the fortress anyway. our final stop was a church that was closed as well, but we got to see a runic stone outside the church which morten translated for us. he speaks old norse in class rather frequently.

here are some pictures of my adventures!

yesterday i visited my host sister louise's school. i sat in on her english class, which was pretty interesting.

some observations:

-everyone has a pencil case!
-people raise their hands in a different way. they raise their index finger and the rest of the fingers remain in a fist.
-holy p.d.a.

it was pretty fun overall and interesting to see a danish gymnasium. the school itself was really nice, too, and smelled of cookies.

when i got back, i went out to play with the animals. here are some pictures, finally!



pony nose!

how majestic...

the furriest pony ever.


i thought this goat was going to kill me, but it just wanted some lovin'.
bearded pony!


vi ses,
caitlinincopenhagen

hej!

it's been a really busy couple of weeks here in copenhagen. i had my first danish celebrity encounter! there is a tv show here called X-Factor, which is pretty similar to american idol. i watched it with my host family last week. the next day, alex and i were walking down stroget, one of the main walking streets, and who should we see, but one of the contestants from X-Factor! there was a large crowd gathered around him and he was playing music right in the middle of the street. he was actually pretty good. here's a picture:other than that, alex and i tried to go the carlsberg brewery, but it was closed when we got there. we'll have to try again. i also drove to the ocean with my host mom last weekend. it was beautiful, but kinda cold.

i just got back from the short study tour with DIS. my group went to odense, kolding, and arhus. the first day we visited the hans christian andersen museum in odense. it wasn't terribly excited, but the man was a master of paper cutouts. see: (we weren't allowed to use flash)

we then continued on to kolding where we visited the kolding castle. it was very pretty, but we weren't there very long. we spent the night in kolding and had an amazing danish buffet in the dungeon of the castle. the next day we traveled on to arhus. we stopped along the way at a scenic viewpoint (mom, you would have loved it!) and the tour leaders produced a bottle of alcohol. it was gammeldansk, a traditional danish liquor. it smelled and tasted like medicine, but did have a lovely warming effect.

once in arhus, we had the night to ourselves. we mostly walked around the city and ate dinner before going back to the hostel. the next day we went to the arhus art museum where one of the exhibits was a chopped-up horse carcass. needless to say i was a bit horrified. after that we had time to wander around arhus and one of the girls on the trip and i ventured to the old town in arhus. it was adorable! they had old-fashioned shops and exhibits and stuff and really good old-fashioned pastry. that was pretty much the end of the tour and then we headed back to cph.

here are a few more pictures from the trip:
this is a picture from the scenic area. there is a song that goes along with drinking gammeldansk that our leaders sang. Skol!


this is old town arhus. so cute!


ok, so this isn't actually from the trip, but i like this picture!

hejhej for now!!
caitlinincopenhagen

all DIS students leave for short study tours early tomorrow morning. i am going to arhus and kolding, two cities in jutland. i promise i'll write a big entry when i get back!

this one's for you, dad! taken in frederiksborg castle.

this picture was taken at our orientation session at the "black diamond" library. it's a pretty neat building.

i also wanted to post my address in case anyone wants to send me a... real letter! it would make me incredibly happy!


Caitlin Thompson
c/o DIS: Danish Institute for Study Abroad
Vestergade 7
1456 Copenhagen
Denmark

a picture for today, a picture for yesterday

and much love

train rides are fun, but they can be a little confusing.


the best.burger.ever.

Towards an Understanding of Danish Fashion, Predominantly in Boys and Young Men

as the title of this post suggests, i have been seriously observing the fashion trends here in Denmark. i have some preliminary comments.

-the first major thing i've seen is spiky hair. i'd say maybe 75% of the boys here have majorly spiked hair. so much so that the gel they use is often flakily visible. faux hawks, eighth-grade straight-up spikes, creative arrangements i never imagined--they have it all.

-the second thing i've noticed continues to baffle me. a large number of people pull their socks over the bottom of their jeans. yes. you read that correctly. i can't tell you how many plain white socks i have seen pulled over a pair of jeans. this causes an interesting effect on the pants, leaving a little puffed out area where the top of the socks rests on the jeans.

these are things i've noticed. more to come (?)



sorry for the lack of pictures this weekend; carlye was visiting from berlin!! it was great to see her and to show her the tiny bit of this city that i know at this point. we went out to dinner and to a really cute little pub down the street from my school. it was all candlelit and cozy with a dog running around.

on sunday alex and i visited Frederiksborg Slot, or Frederiksborg Castle in Hillerød. the castle is gorgeous and was a nice chance to learn a little bit about danish royal history. we also drive by the sea to get there and saw where the rich danes live. overall it was a great, but busy weekend.

i'm off to finish my homework!

Vi ses! Hej hej!

Caitlin in Copenhagen

The sun came out! This doesn't happen enough. Here's a picture of the plaza right next to DIS.