Long Post About Recent Stuff! Includes Circus and Denmark!

*WARNING: Long blog post. Beware.*

Wow! Has it been more than a month already?? Just realized that as I was starting this post. Crazy!!

We've been up to a lot of fun stuff lately, and doing a blog every couple of weeks makes it hard to recap all that stuff. Really thankful for pictures and little notes in my notebook to jog my memory, so here goes!

I got an amazing surprise from my parents this week- who knew getting a package in the mail could be so exciting?! In the box, there was Starburst jellybeans, mint tea, some much needed extra shirts (wearing the same few shirts gets really boring after a while!), and a sweet card. Shout out to Mom and Dad for being awesome.

Things are going pretty well in classes, and we just recently started Swedish lessons! Luke and I have been working on learning Swedish for a few months, so we have some beginner's knowledge (though I will be the first to tell you that Luke knows a lot more than I do), and our first lesson consisted of learning basic phrases and small-talk type stuff. Luke and I were previously using DuoLingo, which is a language learning app, so it was really nice to listen and interact with the teacher and other students. So now when people ask if I speak Swedish, I can say "Ja, lite grann (Yes, a little bit)!" It is definitely an ongoing process though. Can't wait to learn more in the coming weeks!

Like I said, classes have been going great. Last Monday, as an assignment, we were told to take photos at the circus! Every year the Cirkus Olympia comes into Mullsjö with camels, horses, acrobats, breakdancers, and . . . one weird clown. I hadn't been to the circus in forever; it was fun to experience it again in a different setting, in a different language, and as a (beginning/amateur) photographer with a project to do instead of just as a viewer. Getting a good angle with good lighting was a lot harder than I expected! In the end, we took away some cool photos and had a great time doing an assignment.

This past week was spent traveling through Denmark to Copenhagen! Hard to describe how cool it was. But here goes!

So Day 1. We leave the school around 8:30 and head to Denmark by bus. It's only about a 3.5 hour trip- not bad at all. Since Sweden and Denmark aren't connected by land, we had to ride a ferry across (from what I've researched is called) the Øresund, the body of water that separates the two countries. We went across at its narrowest point, and it only took maybe 15-20 minutes. You could literally see Denmark from Sweden! It was a beautiful ride, but so windy. We landed in Helsingør and were free to roam around for about an hour to get lunch. All of the photography students (including myself) were mainly interested in taking photos, so the quicker we got lunch, the more time we had to photograph the city. Unfortunately, the cafe we stopped at took a little too long with our food, so we only had a few minutes to take pictures on our walk back to the bus. Our next stop was the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, which is right along the shore of the Øresund. Though their art collection is amazing, I had a hard time tearing myself away from the beach. There were trails that went right along the coast, complete with a cool breeze, the sounds of the waves, and an amazing view. But back to the museum . . . We got a guided tour of their newest exhibit, which was about architecture, art, and culture in different regions of Africa. The tour was in Swedish, but thankfully some friends helped to translate most of it. Their next exhibit of Yayoi Kusama's work (look it up!!) seemed really cool but it opened the following day. The museum did however have an exhibition open of Lucian Freud's etchings- awesome! His etchings and paintings of people are fleshy and haunting, in a raw, real sort of way. You can't look away, you have to look at them.

Head of a Naked Girl
Lucian Freud 

After the museum, we finally were on the way to Copenhagen. It had been cloudy and misty all day, but it was POURING on our way into the city. Even though we couldn't see a lot through the bus windows with the heavy rain, all the lights reflecting on the wet streets and the dark grey sky in contrast to the colorful, brick buildings made for a really pretty drive. At around dinner time, we made it to our hostel, the Copenhagen Downtown Hostel. It's an old brick building among many brick buildings on the street, with an outside sitting area on the sidewalk. You can lounge on bean bags and bask in the heating lamps while looking out into the street. Can't say I've ever seen anything like it in the states. Really relaxed atmosphere, and super clean and well kept compared to what I though a hostel was going to be like. We were four to a room, and everyone in the room was someone from school, so we weren't sharing rooms with strangers like I assumed. After we got our stuff settled, we went out to look for food and explore the town! First impressions, I was amazed. Copenhagen is so full of life and character. Tons of people and fun things to see. The city is compact, and most of the buildings and streets are smushed together in a comfortably snug sort of way. The area we were in had lots of cafes and shops, but there were also many colorful, old townhouses and apartments inbetween. It was like being in a big city but in a cozy town at the same time. Everything was so bright and active, but parts were also old timey. The new and the old blend together in such an interesting, beautiful way. We found our way to a local vegetarian restaurant called Riz Raz, which was sooooo good. Definitely hit the spot after a long day of traveling. It was in the restaurant that I realzied just how diverse Copenhagen is. I was hearing so many accents and so many different languages all in one spot, and not gonna lie, it was cool to see some fellow Americans! All throughout the trip, we came across people from different backgrounds; it made the energy of the city feel so open and global.

After dinner, we walked around and explored some more until we were so exhausted that we had to sleep. And even then, it was hard to leave the street! I wanted to walk around and experience everything for as long as I could, but my body needed a rest.

Day 2, we were up bright and early for a quick breakfast at the hostel and then to Christiana, an infamous "freetown" that isn't a part of the European Union. I'm not exactly sure how it got to be that way, but from what I understand, it was a military base that became abandoned and then filled with squatters. The squatters somehow rebelled against the Danish government and announced their freedom to create a new society there. A professor from the school showed us around because he lived there for a year back in the 70s. He said there aren't many laws in Christiana, but the most important law is to take care of one another. I think people there have to rely on each other because the Danish government is constantly trying to regulate or control Christiana in one way or another (for obvious reasons). The town has a huge canabis trade, and they are extremely open about it. So open that they literally have a whole street dedicated to selling weed, called Pusher Street. The block is lined with booths that are half covered in camoflauge army mesh to hide the sellers inside the booth. But outside, there are big, bright ads showing prices for different types of weed. The dealers wear dark clothes with ski masks and sunglasses so as not to be identified. For some reason, people can still get arrested in Chrisiana, maybe for being involved with illegal things outside the town? I'm not sure. But there are a ton of large signs demanding that no photographs be taken on Pusher Street because the police sometimes raid the town.

 In comparison to its surroundings, Christiana looks dirty and run down. There's quite a bit of litter and randon junk everywhere, just piled into different corners of streets and near buildings. Lots of abandoned buildings, decaying and falling apart with so much grafiti on them that it just blends in to the landscape. We walked through parts of the residential neighborhoods, which were more like hosues scattered through trees and trails. Though not the best houses, they still had their charm, with funky knick-knacks cluttered around and a comfy (sometimes creepy) lived-in vibe.

After leaving Christiana, a few of us decided to walk back through town so we could work on some street photograhy (one of our assignments for photo class). One of the students actually got stopped by a cyclist she took a quick shot of and he firmly demanded her to delete the photos- he was from Christiana! They are seriously tough. Besides that, sreet photographing went okay. Surprisingly hard! But while we were walking back, it really hit me just how many people ride their bikes in Copenhagen. Herds and herds of people on bikes riding every which way. One herd would pass down a street, and then the next herd would come up right after it. This was the same wherever we were. People love to ride their bikes and it's a main form of transportation there. The city is really well built for it too. There are bike lanes everywhere and it seems like the cars really respect cyclists, instead of treating bikers like they don't have rights to the road (looking at you, Springfield/Joplin). Really wish I lived somewhere more like that!

In the afternoon, we went to the Ny Carlsberg Glypotek, our second art museum of the trip. This one had a vast range of art, from Greek and Roman sculptures to a special exhibit on Man Ray. The Man Ray exhibit was called "Human Equations," and it focused on his work relating to mathematics, which was something I hadn't even heard of. A lot of his paintings and sculptures symbolized Shakespearean characters and stories, or directly depicted complex mathematical figures. Definitely not the typical stuff you think of when you think Man Ray. Other galleries of the museum had quite a few paintings by Van Gogh, Cézanne, Gauguin, and Degas (the most notable names I could remember), which were really cool to see.

Landscape from Saint Rémy
Vincent Van Gogh

After a little bit of rest at the hostel, Lina, a fellow photography student, and I went to Tivoli, the local amusement park! The only bad thing was that we chose to go on a day where it basically never stopped raining. However, it did make for some nice pictures with the lights reflecting on the pavement (plus, we were mainly there to take photos anyway). The sign outside is so huge and bright, very reminiscent of an old 1920s carnival, but the inside is a mesh of classic styles from different cultures (think fancier, simpler Epcot). The path inside is lit with lanterns, and it leads you to this huge, white, Arabian-looking building. Nearby was a beautiful oriental outdoor theatre, and beyond that was a Chinese area of the park, all set up with classic Chinese architecture and decorations. There, we got to ride The Demon. This was the only ride we rode because you had to pay for each individual ride (so weird!). It was definitely worth the money though- SO FUN! And all the rain made it sort of like an awesome water ride.

After that, we walked around more of the park and took photos, trying not to get our cameras wet. As it got darker, more lights came on and it looked similar to Silver Dollar City at Christmas, all magical and beautiful. We found an awesome playground, ate AMAZING crepes, and left completely drenched with rain, but we got nice postcards and some pretty good pictures. End of Day 2!

Day 3 started at 5 AM. One of our assignments was to take photos of the city before 6 in the morning, so like good students, we walked around and tried to photograph while half asleep. We actually got some cool shots of the city even with it being so dark. And even though we had to get up early, it was nice to see Copenhagen so still and quiet, compared to the lively place we had been seeing. Hardly anyone was around and we barely saw any bikes (really, really strange).

In the afternoon, we went to Statens Museum for Kunst (the National Gallery of Denmark). It has a massive range of artwork, from 1300s Europeon art to international contemporary pieces. We all thought the glypotek was huge, but this one was even bigger. Endless rooms upon rooms. Straight from Wikipedia: "The museum's collections constitute almost 9,000 paintings and sculptures, approximately 240,000 works of art on paper as well as more than 2,600 plaster casts of figures from ancient times, the middle-ages and the Renaissance." I'm not sure about the amount of work that was actually on display, but a few hours wasn't enough to go through even half the place. With one hour left, I was rushing through galleries, and had to quickly scan their entire contemporary collection- such a shame, it's my favorite part!

The rest of the day was spent sightseeing through the city and visiting a more touristy location, Nyhavn. It's one of those places you see on a post card of Copenhagen, but in real life . . . it's just as beautiful as the post card. It's main area is centered around a canal between two streets, and the block is lined with tightly packed pastel colored buildings and outdoor cafes on cobblestone roads. The canal is low and filled with sailboats, as well as the tour boats, which we had the opportunity to ride! Thankfully, Lina and our other photography friend, Sandra, were cool with doing touristy things (after we got ice cream from one of the local shops, of course!). The tour went around the canals that connect the city, and it was interesting to see how close the city is. When you're walking, everything seems so big, but seeing it from the canals, everything was actually pretty close together. We sat in the back of the boat so we could take photos without a canopy over our heads, but we weren't able to hear the tour guide, so unfortunately,  I don't know anything about the history of Copenhagen or it's landmarks. My bad.

By this time, everyone was absolutely exhausted. Three days of walking doesn't sound like a lot but it sure felt like it. We were all complaining about how bad our feet hurt, and just to sit down at any point during the day was a relief. It's a tough feeling to deal with, being tired and not wanting to do anything, but then you're in the coolest city ever and you want to keep exploring.

Day 4, we left Denmark and crossed the Østrund again to see Malmö, Sweden, where we visited the Malmö Art Museum. It's on a hillside in a Scandanavian renaissance castle- not really the look of your typical art museum. They had an interesting exhibition about the museum in the 1940s, when it was used as a refugee site for concentration camp victims. Sadly, we didn't have much time to look around. We quickly got lunch and after a short walk around the town, we met up with our photo group to see some small photo exhibitions. It was an unexpectedly long walk to each exhibition (everyone was completely done with walking by this point), so we took a city bus back to our school bus. Then we were on the way home!

In short, Copenhagen was awesome.

Thanks for reading!

Start of the Semester

Well, it's already been two weeks into the semester! Time has really started to fly by in the past week as routines are being put into place and we're getting into the swing of things.

School is going great so far! Different, but still good. Compared to MSSU, where you take a few different classes over one semester, students here are only enrolled in one major class that they attend almost every day of the week for the whole schoolyear. Luke and I are both in the photography class so that will be our main focus! I'm not an experienced photographer whatsoever so I'm excited to learn more photography skills with the camera and all the equipment. On Tuesdays, we have no photo class, which means we can sit in with other classes; in my case- ceramics! So far, it's been learning the basics and starting on the wheel making cyllinders. Deja vu from last semester in MSSU ceramics, where it seemed like we spent half the semester making cyllinders! I'm glad this gives me some time to practice throwing since I haven't done it all summer. Plus, I would love to get a solid foundation on it so that I can start making things I'm really proud of. The only bad thing about ceramics is that transporting things back home may not be easy . . . or possible. But just getting the practice in will be good enough for me.

We've done so many fun, new things in the past couple weeks, it's hard to keep track of it all! A few things that stand out . . .

-Swimming in the lake. Luke and I were invited by some awesome students to come swim. This seemed ridiculous because to us, the weather is a little cold and the lake is freezing. To Swedes, the summer is the warmest part of their year and they take advantage of it. We were apprehensive but with a little peer pressure, we were in the water. It actually wasn't so bad once you got your whole body in. Sort of cold but refreshing. There's also a tall platform you can jump off of which I felt the need to attempt. Though not necessarily a thrill seeker, I couldn't just not try it. There are three heights from which you can jump, and I felt content at trying the lowest one at about 20 ft. Seeing the water from up on the platform is so much worse than seeing the platform from the water! After some hesitation (maybe a lot), I jumped into the lake. Though it took some convincing, I'm really glad we got to swim. I felt like it would've been a wasted opportunity not to, and I also knew that if it got any colder, I wouldn't be going in the water at all.

(Photo credit: not mine)

-Getting snacks at the nearby grocery store, ICA. Luke and I have been having fun trying different foods to satisfy our American junk food cravings (being away from all the delicious sugary food is surprisingly hard!). So far, we've tried lots of Swedish snacks, like chips, cakes, cookies, and candy (Swedish people LOVE candy- it's awesome). I've learned that dill potato chips and mini coconut cakes are amazing. Everything else is just as delicious but I definitely have my favorites. And just in case I need some special treat to feel like I'm back home, they sell Ben & Jerry's here too. :)

-Enjoying company . . . with food! It's been really nice to spend time with people and bake together. As fun as it is to try Swedish food, it's really fun sharing American food and seeing what people here think of it. We've made cookies, brownies, and pancakes (twice already!), and I'm sure that many more baking parties are to come.

-Enjoying the weather. It's similar to Missouri in that it can be pouring down rain one moment, and then the next moment, the sun will be out. But it usually goes back to raining. Or it rains when it's sunny. It rains. A LOT. But I love it. Rainy, dreary, cloudy days are one of my favorite things. Even if it's not pouring here, it's usually still misting, or the clouds look like they're about to unleash something. Though it's peaceful and beautiful now, I'm not sure how I'll feel about the constant rain once it turns to sleet and snow . . .

-Walking around in nature. So many trails and such beautiful scenery! It makes me feel bad if I don't take a walk around the lake or through the forest at least once every day. Walking through the forest is such a magical, relaxing experience. Especially right after it rains. All the greenery is so bright and everything smells like pure, fresh nature. 

(Photo from a walk on the trails during/after it rained)

-Exploring the nearby town. Jönköping is a big city with lots of cute streets and shops. Lots of pizza places too. It's a lovely 20 minute train ride away, and though we've mainly just walked around, it seems like there are a bunch of fun things to do and yummy places to eat, including this place that looked sort of familiar . . .

   

But the rest of the town is beautiful as well!

Well, that's what we've been up to! Hope that's enough of an update to last for the next couple weeks. Thanks for reading. :)