Well, I just wrote up a long blog post and then it got deleted on accident so now I am sad. :(

Anyways, hi mom and dad (pretty sure you're the only ones who read this). Sorry for not writing for a week but they keep me very busy here. I am very much looking forward to when things calm down after the study tour. The only pro to my first blog post of today deleting itself is that now I actually can remember what I did last week without having to go through my syllabus and email so that's good.

I'll start with Wednesday since that's where I left off.  We started Wednesday morning with a studio class where we were supposed to visit museums that were assigned to us for a presentation. However, my group decided to go pick up our bikes instead (priorities! woohoo!). After we picked up our bikes, we had our first Visual Journal lecture which is my 1 credit hour class where we basically practice sketching techniques and learning how to document and save design inspiration stuff. The first lecture of it, while the professor is interesting, was horrible because I could barely keep my eyes open. After class, me and my friends who live in my hall rode our bikes home for the first time which was quite an experience. I am actually picking up on directions and areas pretty well here which is nice, so I was the leader, but the Danes are very skilled and quick bikers and driving in the bike lanes is much like driving a car only surrounded by many other bikers in close proximity so the first time riding on the bike lanes on the highways was pretty terrifying. Later that night, I took the metro to a soccer game at the canal with my friends Morgan and Rachel and we ended up a little further from the canal than we thought but we got to have a nice walk through the smaller canals and a cute little park. I also had a wine cooler drink from a gas station called Dirty Passion and Rachel had one that was apparently "Wild Cactus" flavored so that was interesting.

Thursday was the day I decided to wear shorts for the first time in Copenhagen. It was also the day that happened to be the coldest its been since I have been here. Apparently iPhone weather apps do not function very well here. Not only did I have to ride my bike to class the day after being .03 seconds too late for the bus, but it was also the day we had our first Visual Journal class where we sketched outside for 3 hours. Luckily though, it is very common to have blankets at the outdoor seating areas of restaurants here and a waitress lady was kind enough to bring me not one but two blankets. I am still undecided whether or not I developed some level of hypothermia that day but nonetheless, I am a survivor. After the 3 hours of sketching, my presentation group (my friend Lex who has been previously mentioned and a girl named Anna who is one of the ten kids in my graphic design class) went to the museum. Our assigned museum was the Statens Museum for Kunst, which is actually a pretty cool museum. There is, however, a very creepy exhibit in the modern art section that was supposed to be a replication of a hospital room where the wax figures in the bed are "dying". It was just a white, sterile, very hospital feeling room that you were supposed to walk through in silence while you contemplated your own mortality so yeah.. pretty creepy. At the museum, we were supposed to study the graphics in the way findings and branding materials there. The graphic design program is very integrated with the architecture program which is fun. Pretty sure after that, everyone just relaxed at home that evening.

Friday morning, we had studio in the morning where Lex, Anna and I started putting together our presentation. Afterwards, we came home and napped. Later Friday night, a very large group of DIS (my school) kids went out to the bars. Being legal is fun! We started the night by drinking in the court yard of the DIS housing closest to the bars, but had to evacuate the premises once the clock struck 11 because after that we aren't supposed to drink at home. At the court yard, there was probably close to 35 of us but we all broke up into much smaller groups to bar hop. I am not really sure how many bars I went to, but I do know that I had a mojito (mmm), met some nice Danish people here and there and went to McDonalds at 3 am as the sun was already rising. In Copenhagen, it is okay to walk around the streets with open beers which is pretty nifty. However, I do not like beer (because I am a weenie...sorry Dad) and have developed quite the love for ciders here.

Saturday morning, I slept til noon (old habits die hard) and then attempted to go to museums with my friend Morgan. However, the first museum we went to was closed unfortunately so we decided to try to go to SMK (the museum I did my presentation on). After waiting for the bus for awhile, it never showed up and people were starting to get confused so we decided to just walk (according to my iPhone maps, it was only about 1.8 miles and it was a nice day out). However, as iPhone maps usually do, it took me to some random place that was actually a hotel on the beach and nowhere near the museum. We re-mapped it and we had to walk an additional 2 miles to get to the museum in which we then only had about a half hour to spend there until we had to leave to be back home. It was still fun to get lost in the city, which just lead to me getting even more familiar with it. At 5, we headed back home to go on a canal tour with our building. We went down to Nyhavn --which translates as New Haven (if you google "Copenhagen" its the colorful buildings that literally show up in every picture) for our canal tour, which was actually slightly miserable because it was freezing even though I had on pants and jacket, and the seats were wet because there was a surprise rain (that's apparently how Copenhagen weather goes). After the canal tour, which was nice aside from the horrendous weather conditions, I got my first Danish hot dog. It was delicious! It is a super long hot dog wrapped in bacon, which is then put into a bun doesn't have a slit in it like American hot dog buns but rather is has a hole going in the long ways where they pour the sauces in and then put the hot dog in. After that, everyone came home and napped. Well I napped. Most people were out for the night but being the night owl I am, I woke myself up at 9 PM and ended up playing on my computer for a few hours researching different ad agencies in various cities until my friend Ian (a fellow night owl) texted me to tell me everyone of his friends were also sleeping but we did not want to waste our first Saturday night in Copenagen and we proceeded to bike out to the bar scene at 1 AM and go to this cute little Irish pub where we were at until about 3 AM. The Danes go out really late and stay out really late, which is awesome, and perfect for me :)

Sunday morning I woke up planning to ride my bike to the beach (it was supposed to be a nice day) only to realize my bike had been stolen. I decided to take the metro to the bus instead to the beach where it then proceeded to pour rain on me. So sad ;( Later Sunday, Anna, Lex and I finished up our presentation and Anna bought us Dominos pizza which was the highlight of my entire life and it was everything I could have ever asked for in a pizza. Thanks Anna! After we finished, Rachel, Morgan and I met up with some friends at a little dive bar called the Happy Pig to watch the USA game where I met a girl who just recently graduated from UMich and is interning at the US Embassy. Woohoo for Big 10!

Monday-- Lex, Anna and I were the first group to present and we did pretty well I think! After sitting through an additional 2 and a half hours of other presentations of fellow graphic design students and architecture students, I desperately needed a nap so I came home and napped (everyone else eventually came home and napped too-- we love napping here in Amagerbro--that's where I live). After I woke up, I took a shower where I then proceeded to blow the fuse in my bathroom because apparently European outlets do not like hair dryers. As soon as I plugged it in, I noticed my hair dryer smelling bad and glowing orange (which is NOT supposed to happen) so I unplugged it really quick which was followed by a "boom". Luckily, all I had to do was flip the switch on the electrical thingy in my room. Problem solved. Then, like everyone from DIS went to this bonfire thing on the beach which is like a big holiday here celebrating the longest day of the year and in the past, they apparently used to burn witches on this day so yeah. It was pretty fun! I saw a jelly fish in the ocean.

Today (Tuesday) was our full day study tour to "Greater Copenhagen" where we had this bomb dot com bus that was tables in it so we could seat four to a table and there was a small kitchenette in the back which we didn't use but it was still cool. Our first stop for the day was a church. The second stop was the Danish Maritime Museum which was actually really cool and really makes me want to be like an experience designer so I can design cool museums and stuff like that. I also had the best brownie in my entire life there and was wishing my mom was here to share it with me because she would have liked it too :) Next to the maritime museum was the castle that is apparently in Shakespeare's "Hamlet" which is pretty cool too. Our last stop of the day was the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (It was not in Louisiana, it was in Denmark... obviously). While the museum itself was nothing that excited me too much, it was on the ocean with a lot of trails and big grassy areas so I pretty much just laid out the whole time and did some nature sketches.

So that concludes my analysis of my week. Reading back on it, it sort of seems like a lot of things have gone wrong but it doesn't really matter when you're in EUROPE :) The good absolutely has outweighed the bad. We are now preparing for our week long study tour to Sweden and Finland so that should be fun.

I miss Taco Bell so bad though OMG I even googled today how far the nearest Taco Bell was. Apparently Europeans are not impressed by Taco Bell though and basically every one they have opened has failed so that's extremely unfortunate but that will make my reunion with Taco Bell that much better. Distance makes the heart grow fonder, right?


Well that is all for now! I will try to write more often so that my posts don't make me develop carpal tunnel.

Hej hej! (That means bye in Danish)

Yours Truly,
Beanie