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.