An apartment all to myself

I found myself alone in my apartment on Wednesday of my first week in Copenhagen. The Frenchie moved out that day, and the Italian did as well. The Italian was supposed to move out at the end of the week, but he probably decided to do it earlier. He also carried a beef with the weather. Being from Italy, he probably hated it.
So I had the apartment all to myself for a week and a half. I had known prior to arriving that I was going to have the apartment to myself for a week, but now I found myself having 4 bonus days. I will have to say that it was actually quite nice having peace and quiet, and having "me" time outside of school. Call me an introvert if you want, but it felt great.

I actually made an elaborate meal on of those days. It was the only time during my course in Copenhagen that I bought meat (being on a budget means being an accidental vegetarian). I decided to try my hand at making Pelmeni- those Russian dumplings that I mentioned before while I was in Riga. I made everything out of scratch- from the dough to the filling. It was time consuming, but it was quite rewarding. Given, the pastry was coming apart a bit while I was boiling them, but all in all, I am proud of my work. It was a cheap recipe. It seems like a lot of typical Russian food is cheap to make. Thank you communism! I intend to try this again, and improve on it. Perhaps boyfriend's family can give me pointers.

you know you want some.

Another note on the Danish weather...

Mother Nature in Copenhagen has a knack of just raining out of nowhere.

And for some reason, karma, or luck, or what have you, every time I did not carry my umbrella, it would rain. When I carried it, it would not rain.

That being said, I forgot my umbrella a lot.

Figure that out on your own.

I also observed that the Danes, if they wake up to sunny weather, will wear their cool summer dresses, sheer tops, shorts, sandals, etc. But when it started to rain, they would whip out their parkas or jackets out of nowhere. They know how to be ready. I didn't. I swear that the ladies had a Hermione's bag that could store an infinite amount of stuff.

One moment you will see them in summer dress- only carrying their purse or bag, and the next moment in the rain you will see them with parkas and maybe a scarf.  

Copenhagen, for the most part, is wet and gloomy. Why people settled here in the first place definitely didn't do it for the weather.

And I think for the first time in my life, I missed the summer weather in California.

I obviously have a beef with the weather in Denmark.

Copenhagen Weather

Summer in Copenhagen is definitely not a summer at all. In terms of weather that is. When I arrived in Copenhagen, it was cloudy, and it began to drizzle when I was walking to my apartment. Later that day it rained like Niagra falls. It was a great welcoming from Mother Nature.

I think during my course in Copenhagen for 7 weeks, the sun was out probably only 3 days. When I mean "sun", I mean being out the whole day. Apparently the sun loves to play hide and seek behind the clouds, and usually doesn't come out that much.

As I am from California, the summer in CPH felt like a winter for me. Windy, cloudy, rainy, overcast, chilly,... it was perfect winter weather for me. And I really shouldn't complain (too) much only because I don't like Californian summers. I personally don't like the heat, so I actually did look forward to escaping to northern Europe for more "ideal" weather. But I didn't expect it to be cloudy most of the time. I had expected it to be cooler, with the sun still being out and about.

It was actually quite depressing. Now I know why Copenhagen has a high suicide rate during their wintertime. I might have been part of that demographic if I had stayed a whole year there. 

Doubting Myself and Everything

I was remembering that for a few hours on Tuesday of that first week in Copenhagen, there were thoughts running through my head of why I was doing what I was doing: my masters.

I was thrown into a summer semester abroad where ideally I would have loved to had started in Providence and establish myself there, but then again so many people would love to be in my shoes in Copenhagen. I couldn't take that for granted.

Additionally, strange enough, I think for the first time in my life, I felt old. Not like "I am a grandmother" old or "mid-life" old, but I felt a significant difference between the undergraduate students and the graduate students for the most part. That feeling of old also came with doubting my status as a graduate student. I thought I was making a huge mistake. All of a sudden I felt like running away. From the school, from myself. I think it was all just a small panic I had in a new environment, surrounded by people I didn't know, surrounded by a city speaking a different (and rather difficult) language. And I was throwing myself back in academia after 3 years of being out in the real world.

I just kept telling myself that it was just a matter of adjusting and making the most of this experience. There is a reason why I was accepted to RISD.

In a few hours, I felt great and that I was (slightly) invincible. Of course that is a lie.

First week in København

The first week in Copenhagen was exhausting enough. 

On Monday, we had an activity called the "Amazing Race" where we were assigned groups with other students in the 6 week program for Architecture and Design. We were given a map and a sheet letting us know what landmarks to visit in the center of town, where we were to meet up with a professor from DIS and they were to 'educate' us on the significance of that location. 

Leading the pack with my mad map skills...

I will modestly admit that I have great bearings in any given city. So I was the map holder. I had also been in Copenhagen some years back, so that helped out the group, too. 

After the activity, we went to our respective studios to meet our classmates and professor for the first assignment of the program: a case study. I love case studies, and if that were a profession, I would do that. We had already been assigned groups within our studio class, and I met my fellow teammates: Rhodes College pre-arch student (male), U. of Hawaii architecture student at Manoa (male), and a Carnegie Mellon architecture student (female). Our assignment: The Holy Cross Chapel in Turku Finland. Don't let that label of "chapel" fool you, it is actually a funeral chapel and crematorium. Just my cup of tea! (really)

trying to get the model started. did you notice how
warm i am dressed?

        I wasn't too surprised to learn that we had one week to do this case study which involved building a site model (1:200) and a section model (1:50). I find it funny how students who are unfamiliar with the metric system react to it for the first time. I had been lucky to deal with that during my year in Italy, and even at work when we had projects in China. The metric system really is simple, but its so simple that it can complicate things with newcomers. 

The first week basically consisted of just working on the case study day after day. Including Saturday and Sunday. But that is normal.

I also had the pleasure of meeting my fellow RISD classmates. All of them had already met either at the airport or at the DIS-provided housing. Two students had actually done their undergrad course together. Out of the 9 RISD students in Copenhagen, one is from Jordan, another from Lebanon, another from Thailand, another from Venezuela, 3 from India, and the remaining 3 from the United States. I will admit that I am questioning the application process at RISD. Just a thought. But at least its diverse, right?

Arriving in Copenhagen

17 June 2012

I will admit that when I arrived to Copenhagen, I already wanted to get out. My attitude was in the wrong place, and I just kept telling myself that it will change.

After getting off of the Swebus bus, I made my way to the bus ring outside of the Central Station to catch the 2A bus towards my stop in Brønshøj- where my apartment was waiting. But first I had to buy my kipperkort for 10 trips inside the station so that I at least was set up with short-term transportation during my first week there.

Arriving to the apartment building, I had no idea was button to ring. I wasn't told that detail, so I was taking my best guess. At least for the first two buttons I pressed no one answered, so third time was a charm- it was just my luck that it was the button for the apartment I was to stay in.

a view of the apartment complex's courtyard, so pretty!

I was shown around the apartment by my Italian flatmate, and to my disappointment I saw that I had no pillow nor bed sheets in my room. I just told myself that I would figure that out later- there were other priorities. So I finally showered, which felt so nice and got myself more or less situated in the apartment. I made my way out to DIS (the school where I was studying) because we had orientation/sign-in, surprisingly on a Sunday. It took all of half an hour to do everything at DIS: checking in and picking up my cell phone/SIM card. So I immediately went home because I just wanted to rest. But I made a quick pit stop at a produce store to buy some groceries. It was a Sunday, and surprisingly the majority of businesses are closed. I was lucky enough to spot one open from the bus.

Back at the apartment, I met my French flatmate (the Italian had left somewhere), and I asked him about an Ikea because of the bed linens. But he was nice enough to give me one of his comforters and an extra fitted sheet that was in the apartment; he thought it was rather silly for me to buy sheets for only a 6/7 week stay. The Frenchie said that since he was leaving Copenhagen in a week, I could take the other comforter from his room for my use.

For my entire stay in Copenhagen, I lived with a comforter, and a small pillow (about 20cm x 20cm) that I took from my home in California. 

The Swebus

I bought a bus ticket to Copenhagen from Oslo for about $30 with Swebus a few months before the actual trip. It was cheaper that way anyway buying it in anticipation- and it was an overnight bus. I had taken the Swebus before 4 years ago on the Stockholm-Copenhagen route, also an overnight bus.

It was nice having wi-fi on the bus; I Skyped with my mom and sister, but only typing with the video on. It never got completely dark during the night because it was in the middle of summer in Scandinavia- but it was still pretty dark. After a while I fell asleep, and at about 3am, the bus broke down. We were on the side of the highway for about 1.5 hours. I had no idea what was going on since I woke up when the bus was stopped. The driver was only explaining to the passengers what had happened only in Norwegian and Swedish. I had to guess by expressions and hand gestures. After those 1.5 hours, the bus moved again, but it only moved enough to get off the highway to the closest gas station. We were probably at the gas station for another 1.5 hours. Since I couldn't go to sleep since I was so alert- and there was a toddler who would not stop yelling/screaming/crying/wailing/everything- I decided to pull out my laptop and watch an episode of Portlandia. It helped to mute out that annoying toddler.

This toddler actually had been crying when I went to sleep on the bus hours ago. I am not lying when I say that that toddler cried for at least 5 hours straight.

So finally at about 5am, another Swebus bus came along to our rescue and we all transferred onto that bus to finally head on over to Copenhagen.

I got to Copenhagen about 2 hours after we were scheduled to arrive. But I finally arrived. I was looking forward to actually settling down for a bit after traveling across 3 countries for 2 weeks. 

Toms to Tomsk

I know it has been a while, but it's rather difficult catching up with my blog. Technically I left Oslo about 8 weeks ago, so I am now in Berlin, about to go home to California in a few days. So what happened in Copenhagen? A lot. And I promise I'll write on that soon!

In the meantime, look what I did to my Toms shoes shortly after arriving in Copenhagen! Tomsk is the city where my boyfriend's family is from in Siberia, Russia- look it up. I simply added a 'K' but how awesome is that?

My shoes look near new in that photo; now they are near their last days. I'm curious to know how many kilometers (or miles) I have walked in these shoes since I got them during my trip in New York City. 

Hei Oslo!: 2 Days

Norwegian National Opera and Ballet- be sure to wear sunglasses when it is sunny out here!

Oslo is not a destination for the "cheap" traveler. Sure, there are ways to get around things, especially if you have friends there.
But just be aware.
I came to Oslo because 4 years ago when I was in Scandinavia for my semester break, I really wanted to come to Oslo, but we realized that hostels were not budget-friendly (this was before discovering Couchsurfing). So we only hit up Stockholm and Copenhagen.

This time, I was intent on going to Oslo. And to Oslo I did go. But I was not prepared for the prices. I did know that their prices were higher than the other Scandinavian countries, but how high I did not know...

I ended up walking a lot avoid paying the bus fare ($6!). But I got to see a lot of Oslo that way, so I really cannot complain. Oslo is a nice city, but it does lack a little action.

For lunch each day, I gave up on searching for a good place to eat and gave into eating a "pølser" (or hot dog) for only 15 kroner, which is about $2.50. Anything else would have cost me $10 and above- for fast food. A cafe would have run me easily around $20. Out of curiosity, one day I decided to walk into a McDonald's and check out their menu prices. There was nothing less than $10. And it seemed to me that there was not a single burger that was less than $8. I didn't understand. I still do not.

It was fortunate enough that I found a couch to "surf" on via Couchsurfing for the 2 nights that I had in Oslo. I stayed with a young married couple- The Norwegian husband, and an American wife. Kjell and Tavonna. I got to watch some of the Eurocup games while staying with them. Both of them were busy with work, so the little time I did spend with them consisted of chatting up about everything and nothing. It was great. I got to cook my own dinners at their place, which I love doing. I found myself a little Vietnamese food store where I bought rice noodles, mushrooms, and tofu; I got cucumbers at a small grocery store near their place. Made some some really good soup out of it. Soup is exactly what I needed because it was pretty chilly the first day, and miserably wet the second day. My last day with them before departing I had the chance to meet 2 french girls that were going to stay with them. We all made a small hike to a lake north of the city, where Kjell and one of the frenchies decided to take a swim. A very cold swim. Even for Kjell- a Norwegian- it was pretty cold. I just watched like I always do.

My stay in Oslo also coincided with the arrival and Nobel Peace Prize presentation of Aung San Suu Kyi. While I was walking one day down the main pedestrian street in downtown Oslo (the only time the sun was out and warmed me up), I heard a lot of chanting from a crowd in front of the Grand Hotel. I was headed that direction, and I made myself part of that crowd. Little did I know that Aung San was arriving in Oslo, being greeting by hundreds of her supporters. I got a few glimpses of her, and all I can think of is how beautiful she is.

The next day while at the waterfront near the Nobel Peace Prize Center, it turned out that that day was the presentation of the Award for Aung San. So I made myself part of the crowd once more to get more glimpses of her while she entered the center, and later exited, making her way down to the stage where a public celebration was to be made in her honor.

My endless walking in Oslo paid off. I got to see a lot of little somethings, and a few big somethings- namely Aung San Suu Kyi. But it made me realize that Oslo is a place that I know I don't have to return to. But the rest of Norway is calling me. Especially Bergen.