Well well well. Here I am.

At the moment, I am just relaxing in my room, catching up on some tv shows from home and doing some laundry. Not taking it too rough tonight since I was in studio last night til about 3:30 am. And I had to be up by 7:30. So I have been pretty tired all day. Managed to run a few errands after studio, then I just came back and laid down and *siiighhhh* relaxed.

This past weekend was pretty good. =) Hai signed up for a host family to just keep in touch with (he's not living with them) and this past...Friday he met them for the first time and brought me along. I don't know what he was afraid of, but he just didn't want to go alone. So, I went with him. Which worked out well because I haven't seen him in forever it seems, so we got a chance to catch up. The couple we met up with were really really nice. The lady's name is Marianne and her boyfriend/husband's name is Per. We had a great time just chatting and eating...Marianne was trying to teach me some Danish and it is SUCH a hard language. I don't think I was doing too well, but at least I tried as I was helping her chop carrots and potatoes for dinner. WHICH WAS SO GOOD. There was potatoes and carrots obviously, and beef roast and salad and wine and ohmygosh it was delicious. We were actually there until about 1 am and by the time we left, I was exhausted!! I was just not looking forward to taking the metro back to my stop and walking....I was just feeling lazy really. But overall, a great evening.

And then Saturday....I spent very little time in studio and then went over to Sas and Liza's apartment for dinner. Now these two lovely ladies go to Pratt! They both go to Pratt for a master's program in Environmental Systems Management. Urban planning-type stuff. They are both a little older than the rest of the crew here, but I get along well with them because I don't really want to go out and party and get wasted every night I am super excited to get to go visit them once we get back to New York. Liza actually lives in Dumbo, which I think is pretty darn cool. But either way, I went over to where they are staying here in Copenhagen and had dinner WHICH WAS AWESOME. They also made a cocktail called the Porch Swing, made with Pimm's...which I didn't like too much to be honest, but all in all, it was great company and a great time. I really feel like I am making some pretty substantial friends here. But I have to say, it's tough now to maintain the friendships we established at the start of this semester because then we were all grouped together. Now, the interiors are separated from the architecture who are separated from the urban design. So it kinda sucks now that we don't all see each other anymore!! But I'm sure it will be fine either way. We are just getting to meet even MORE people now.

And speaking of peopless..I miss my peoples. Like all my friends and family from home. And I have to say I'm going to be such a girl right now and say I MISS MY BOYFRIEND!!! This really sucks a lot. It has been a total of 7 weeks now that I haven't seen him and I still have 3 more to go. I didn't really think it would be this much of an issue for me, but it really really is. I have decided it is because we haven't really been together for that long. It has been 5 1/2 months, and for almost 2 of those months now we have been apart from each other. I'm pretty sure it would feel different if we had been together for 3 years already, but we haven't. So it just sucks. I don't even know WHAT I'm going to do in the spring when I'm in Rome for 5 months. I just need to start saving now for flights back to NY for spring break or something. =/

We will see.

But anywaysss I am all out of exciting gossip for now. Back to SYTYCD then I'm off to bed.

Alright. So I have been in studio since about 8:45 this morning, and it is now 9:31 pm. I don't feel like I have accomplished enough to qualify going back to my room, but I really don't want to be here anymore!

We have to write this dumb 2 page paper on the building we researched for the first assignment. This is because we actually got to go see the building in real life on our study tour. And we are supposed to have all these thoughts and reflections on the building, which I do, I just don't have 2 pages worth. =/

Not to mention on top of that, I have work to do for design. Which I'm not finished with.

Ugh. Why did I decided to take classes this summer again?? ANDDDD I'm not even positive I'm going to get my 400 level design credit for it.













At this point, I kinda want to come home.

Alright.So I know it has been quite a while since I have written about my experiences here, and there is NO POSSIBLE WAY I can write about everything, so I will try to write just about the most interesting parts.

First of all, I just got back from my one week study tour through Sweden and Norway. Which was AWESOME. But I want to start with the week before that, which was my first week here in Copenhagen and the one week research project.
Copenhagen is soo beautiful. I love it. The weather is sunny and in the 70's every day, so it is warm enough to not need a jacket until it gets dark: WHICH IS AT 11 PM. It stays light out here for soooooo long!!That is a picture of my Kollegium (dorm) somewhere between 10:30 and 11 pm. I'm not even sure if it ever gets COMPLETELY dark out...I think it just gets a dark blue color.

But anyways, the room is fine. Not exactly 5 star, but it is perfect for just me and my things.

I have made some pretty good friends while I'm here: most of which live in my Kollegium, so we travel to and from school together and we have had a couple family style dinners. It is really nice to meet people my age from across the country who are all going about studying architecture in TOTALLY different ways.

Speaking of studying..the one week project. It really wasn't that bad, it was just tough to work in a group because not all of us could work on our model at one time. So that of course got frustrating at the end, but I am still friends with my 2 other partners. =)
So after the presentation of our project, I got to go with 32 other students on a study tour through Sweden and Norway, which was super cool. We were on and off a bus with THE BEST BUS DRIVER EVER: Sven. lol Dustin was our intern-leader and our two professors on board were Johann and Peter. Johann is this cute little Swedish guy who is really fun to be around. Peter on the other hand, was super boring and was glued to his iphone the entire time.

Anyways, it was a lot of fun getting to travel. Sweden wasn't really all that exciting, because we only spent two days there. The first day we went to a water color museum right on the water and it was SOOO PRETTY. Perhaps the setting inspired me, but I have managed to rekindle my love for water color painting, and I am loving the set I bought here. It's pretty nice, and I got a little collapsible cup for my water. =)

Sooo.....after Sweden, we went to Norway and we stayed mostly in Oslo. We did manage to travel outside of Oslo a few days to see some other buildings, but most of the time we were there touring the local architecture. The Oslo Opera House by Snohetta IS GORGEOUS. The whole thing is covered in white Italian Marble so it is super smooth and it is all ramped and it is just sooo inviting. We all spent quite a bit of time there. We had a tour through the whole thing, and it made me miss ballet so much.... =( I even bought a used pointe shoe in the little souvenier shop. Anyways, here it is for all the non-architecture people:
We got a lovely cruise on the way back from Norway, and now I am comfortably back in Copenhagen. I must say I did miss being here when we were off traveling. Moving from hotel to hotel (although we did get to stay in a yacht club one night..) gets extremely tiring very quickly, so it is nice to be back in my own room.



And todayyyyyy......we met with our new studio professors and went on a lovely bike tour of outer Copenhagen. My professor's name is Mark and he is a local Dane. He is really really nice, and I think I am going to like him a lot.

Biking here, is HUGE. Over 30% of the population bikes on a daily basis and by 2015, they are predicting over 50%. Because of this, Copenhagen is trying to become THE BEST biking city in the world by 20....25 I think. I don't think they are too far off, though, its pretty darn nice.

So naturally, our studio project is a biking pit-stop for the locals. The site is right next to a metro stop, so there is plenty of pedestrian traffic and public transportation in the area. We only have, like, 3 1/2 weeks to do the entire project though, so I am predicting some long nights. ESPECIALLY if I want my 400 level design credit when I return to Pratt. Ugh.

Ok, so I think that is enough for now. I finally threw some pictures in there for some visual references, and now I am tired and I plan on just relaxing for the rest of the evening.

How Danish.

So early tomorrow morning I am leaving for Sweden and Norway for a full week of exploration, sketching, and research. I know that I have not been updating the few of you who read this very often, but it is only because I have been working on a project that was due today. So needless to say, I am EXHAUSTED, and will be keeping this post short. Not to worry, when I return from my journey to the rest of Scandinavia, I will be sure to write about that as well as my first week here in Copenhagen.