"i told you to be patient, i told you to be fine"

[^^^^new favorite song ^^^^^]

So, I officially suck at updating my blog.

With the Thanksgiving holiday here, I was researching how to make pumpkin pie from scratch (eeeek), using the google keyword "canned pumpkin copenhagen," and up popped up a blog from a fellow program student relaying to his audience, ever so eloquently, how he had prepared a pumpkin pie from scratch for his Danish friends. Not only was the entry really long and lovely, but it captured one of those everyday cultural moments that are so wonderful to have, and that I fail to document to the world wide web. Never met this guy, but witnessing the drastic contrast from my style of blogging really inspired me to update mine. I mean, if we are in the same program, and he has time to update his once, even twice a week, I have no excuse. Also, if my cousin from Sweden who is in high school can keep a (nearly) daily blog, I should keep up with my bimonthly one ...YEAH

So during the past week, I have been listening to Christmas music almost non-stop. Country artists are so amazing at x-mas songs (Read: Taylor Swift, George Strait & Martina McBride) and I just downloaded a new album off of iTunes, a compilation by the Hotel Cafe , which is HELT FANTASTISK. There is something about the cool weather and the sun setting at 3:30 pm that makes you want to sit inside by the fire and drink hot chocolate. We've also been having many more rainy days than usual, and I think the Danes like to compensate with candles, decorations, and lights.

So basically, what I'm trying to say is that Christmas season has arrived! Not only does Copenhagen have a fantastic fall season, but they also really love Christmastime. My cousin and her friend are in town from Stockholm, and while walking around the main streets of Copenhagen with them on Thursday, you could certainly see the transformation into Christmas season taking place. In front of Rådhuspladsen (the city hall), there is now an enormous Christmas tree, and of course, Tivoli is all glammed up for the holiday season. Around Nyhavn and by the water, there are also many lights... I love it. Today was also the first day of Advent, which is more celebrated in this part of the world, and much more within the home than at church. Much to my surprise, my host family gave me a wrapped present with some candy and a lotto scratch-off advent calendar! More on the advent stuff as it progresses.

Now for the promised travel break update. Take yourself back to around the time of Halloween...
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Certainly, the month of October here in Denmark included more than just the first week in Scotland with my psychology class, visiting Malmo to see Alexander, and jetting off for a two week adventure right before Halloween… but those are probably the most interesting to read about. Much of the rest of it was a blur, and simply involved enjoying the city that I now live in – I went to Halloween-themed Tivoli, experienced a few days of the coldest weather yet (30s and 40s), ate and drank with friends and family, and of course was sucked into the final rush of midterms and papers right before break, and the subsequent rush the week after.

But it is November now!

In two weeks, I traveled to four cities, spoke four different languages (or attempted to), and spent time with seven different friends both from Rice and from my program. Abundant amounts of delicious food were had (you know I will come back to this), and I may or may not have gained two kilos… but it was so worth it. A lot of planning went into the process, and I learned a whole lot about discount airlines, local cuisine, and how I like to travel. These are all good things.

Først, rejste jeg til...
1) LONDON

It was really refreshing to come to London, because it was surprisingly American, and a bit warmer than in Copenhagen when I had left. I realized when I was in London how homogeneous Denmark really is, and what diversity I've been missing out on by being away from the U.S. It's really interesting to see the varying spectrums of diversity though, and there are certainly pros and cons to either side.

Super diverse, yeah
Am I back in the U.S.?
We can take the tube

Favorite experience in London:
This is hard to pinpoint, because I had a lot of cool experiences in London, but I think I'll go ahead and make it a three-way tie. Intellectually, I most enjoyed the Tate Modern, culturally, seeing the musical "Billy Elliot," and for shopping and Christmas decorations, walking around Harrod's!

Favorite food in London:
A big part of going to London was visiting some friends from Rice who live in Bethnal Green, a neighborhood outside the city center that is very religiously and ethnically diverse. We Copenhagen-ers were so excited about the low prices and living in an apartment that we did a lot of cooking and saving money on food! Thus, I'd have to say some of the best food we had was what we prepared for ourselves - pasta with creamy tomato sauce and rolls was delish, as was Stephanie's family pancake recipe as a part of brinner one night. Peter and I also went out to try some modern British food before going to see the musical, one fish and one beef dish, which was also wonderful and atmospherically pleasing.

Fall in London!!

The girls at Trafalgar Square

A phone booth picture... of course


Så, tog jeg til...
2) GRANADA

Granada was a delightful second destination that felt relaxing and less overwhelming than the other two. Not only were there fewer sites to see, but also the city was very manageable and I was focused on spending time with my friend and future roomie, Meera, who is studying there for the semester. It was interesting, too, to see how other study abroad programs compare to mine.

Everything, so cheap
History, clubs 'n tapas
Let's take a nap first

Favorite experience in Granada:
Also difficult to pinpoint, but I would have to say that my best moments were those that revolved around the two highest points in the city of Granada. On our first full day there, we climbed the streets to reach one of the highest points, in a neighborhood called Sacromonte, where many gypsies (yes, real live gypsies!) live in caves. We arrived at around sunset, which made the fantastic view even more beautiful. From Sacromonte, you could see the Alhambra, an enormous fortress/palace built by the Muslims in the 1500's, which is what Granada is most famous for. On another day (you guessed it!) we were at the Alhambra for several hours. It was so great exploring the gardens, and walking through the palace, seeing the influence of the Muslim culture on this part of Spain. Lastly, we went to a night club called El Camborio, situated in Sacromonte, with a fantastic view of the Alhambra! The bottom part of the club was a cave, and the part above ground had enormous windows where you could see out. On the night we went, there was no cover fee because it was ladies' night, there was free champagne until 2am, one free cocktail with entry, and free CD's featuring their DJ mixing popular songs. Quite literally, we paid nothing to go out that night! The only thing was that we Americans were feeling tired at around 2am, and according to Spain standards, that is still very early, so there weren't a ton of people there. ¡Still, no problemo!

Favorite food in Granada:
We had tapas pretty much every night, which was delicious and amazing, because when you buy a drink, you get free tapas! There was an insane amount of ham and cheese sandwiches sold (even at tapas), which I found rather surprising, but nearly every place I went to, I was tempted to get one because they were so good. The hot chocolate in Spain (and in France) is literally melted chocolate, which I had to indulge in, of course. Something ridiculous that we tried while in Spain was churros and chocolate! Imagine - endless amounts of deep fried dough to dip in a cup of really thick chocolate. It was really delicious... until your stomach started to hurt.

At the top of Sacromonte!

Meera and I at El Camborio

My artsy photo at the Alhambra!


Megan, Ellen, and I at the Alhambra!

Sidste, var jeg i...
3) PARIS

Like the rest of the world, I came to Paris for the first time and fell in love. Everywhere you turn, there is either something beautiful to see, or something delicious and fresh baked to eat. (Although I have to say, Danish bakeries are still the shit, and arguably better.) It's such a walking city, and even though you've seen many of the places in magazines or learned about them in 7th grade French, it's completely different to experience them yourself. We indulged in coffee, wine, museums, history, croissants, baguette, cathedrals, walking, and public transportation. The only downside to Paris though, in my opinion, is that in some places it is too commercialized, and there are so many obnoxious people walking around trying to sell you things or cheat you of your money somehow. That, along with a couple of run-ins with creepy guys made me appreciate the distance that Danes tend to keep from strangers.

Rich, delicious food
Romance, art and trying french
There is much to do

Favorite experience in Paris:
My friend Ellen and I took the train from Barcelona to Paris on Sunday morning, which was really beautiful and relaxing, and we arrived in the city by early evening. We were SO excited and high energy at that point, and wanted to get started right away. Our first stop was to grab a dinner crepe, which was huge and oozing with cheese, and then to the Eiffel Tower. We stayed in a sort of off-campus international dorm in the Latin Quarter across from the Luxembourg gardens, and walked from there to the iron maiden! On our way, we passed a ton of historic sites, and at one point, we were following what we thought was the Eiffel Tower, but really it was an Eiffel Tower-esque replica on top of some train station. Lol. When we finally arrived at it's foot, there was lots of techno music playing, and it was glittering like crazy, almost to the point where you couldn't stand to look at it.

From the second level, the view was beautiful, and everything was big enough to where you could recognize what it was. Tourists galore, people were taking tons of pictures, and within minutes of stepping off the elevator, Ellen (a ginger) was asked to take a picture of a Japanese guy. We then asked if he could take a picture of the two of us, and then, instead of parting our separate ways, he asked me to take a picture of him and Ellen! We found this to be an odd request, and afterwards, hysterically funny. It got even better, because this scenario played out an additional TWO TIMES, and Ellen, the exotic redhead, is now on the cameras of three rando vacationers. Haha! We then had to ask ourselves, should we be taking pictures with people who take pictures of us too?

Also - my favorite sites were the Musée D'Orsay and the Sacre Coeur!

Favorite food in Paris:
This is a hard one to say, but we went to a café outside of Sacre Coeur in Montmartre, called L'eté en Pente Douce. Ellen had the most delicious quiche lorraine, I took a classic steak with grilled potatoes and carrots, and for the first time in days, we got some veggies in our system. Of course, we each had a glass of wine to accompany the super-French food. The atmosphere was quaint and warm, and the prices were pretty reasonable... WIN.

A close second would have to be the falafel at L'as de Falafel in the Marais, which is apparently the best in town.

The view of the city from our place of residence!

Christmas is in the department stores!

Hot chocolate aka chocolate, yumm

The delicious crepes we had on the first night!

...

¡Voila! That was my travel break in a nutshell. Coming up are updates about Thanksgiving and my reflections on winding down! Three weeks from today, most people from my program are leaving, and then I will head to Stockholm for Christmas.

Loves,
kristina