The Good, the Fun, and the Weird
Monday, September 2, 2019
Copenhagen, Denmark
So in my fits of manic creativity in the last two weeks, I've created some rather unorthodox and entertaining blog posts, but I also did not necessarily give you the most information. Yes, I crashed my bike. My wound is healing slowly. It looks disgusting. My classes are indeed all going well, once I dropped photography. And now that I've cleared up my fairytales, I'm going to go back and share some of my favorite moments and visits.
Frands
My housemates and I popped over to the Copenhagen Contemporary Gallery (CC) and WHY DO THE DANES HAVE THE BEST MUSEUMS?! This place was so cool. It's all based on experiencing art through an active play mindset, instead of observing it passively. They had different activity cards for each exhibit and we got to climb on trees and weave and smell things and it was so cool. Here's a video of me going through my favorite exhibit, Claudia Comte's I Have Grown Taller for Standing with Trees, which runs through September 1st.
The exhibit
Copenhagen Contemporary
At CC, we all went into the Weaving Lab, which is up right now in the CC Studio." The idea behind CC Studio is to present contemporary art in innovative ways where learning and reflection on the world happen through a physical and dialogue-based encounter with art." Basically, we got to go and participate in a collective weaving project by Marianne Fairbanks, that "explores the utilitarian, conceptual and social potentials of cloth made in a public space of production". Now we have been saying for the past week that our room is so big and empty in the center, that we need a rug. But rugs are expensive. So my roommate Carter, so kindly, wove our room a rug. We love our rug and now our room feels complete. (Note: Rug is about 1in x 2in in scale)
Our Beautiful Rug
We've also done a little bit of clubbing and bar hopping, which is something I don't do too often at home since well, school is a million miles away from most bars and clubs. But it's been really fun to explore some of the top places to dance and catch some nightlife, like Bakken and Jolene, and even some more unusual venues, like the puck bar Floss and the Ping Pong bar Dupong. That was an experience... Everyone got in a circle around ONE pingpong table and played elimination style until it was down to two people, which then became first to three. It was all very overwhelming and confusing. Turns out I'm less intimidated by a punk bar, which you know, is not something I anticipated.
Inside Jolene
Scary ping pong bar!
I've also been swimming twice, and can I just say, I love swimming! We went to Havnebadet Islands Brygge, which had a cool platform to jump off of, and a few different pools, all filled with canal water from the ocean. They are man-made pools built into the side of the canal, but they're not the lined and cleaned version of a public pool we'd be used to in the US. They're more like natural pools, even if they are built. The other place we went to was just across the water, in front of a Marriott, called Kalvebod Brygge. Here we weren't in pools, but there is a designated swimming area. It was a lot less crowded. And the past two weeks, it's actually been warm enough to swim! Although this week it's in the 60s.
Havnebadet Islands Brygge
Swimming buddies!
Kalvebod Brygge (you might remember this from a few posts ago)
More swimming buddies!
We ventured into a flea market one afternoon, where I bought a cute new Danish jacket, that is grey felt with green trim. I'm absolutely in love. And then I walked over and bought a gelato, and I fell in love for a second time that day! Ahhhh romance.
I took a trip to the National Museum. I was actually quite crabby last Saturday and rode past on my bike. And I saw the signs for a Viking exhibit they had going up and I just couldn't resist. I thought, "You know what will cheer me up? A museum day!" So I wandered around for a while. The exhibit was quite cool. None of the artifacts in it are new, they all belong to the museum, so I'd actually seen them before when I visited in 2017. Which turned out well, because it meant I could focus my attention on the new part of it: the curation (much improved, although it was already good!) and the art. They invited artist Jim Lyngvild to come in a create gorgeous portraits of his interpretation of what the Vikings might have looked like. It was a cool combination of history, science, and art. He designed them, and then the museum wrote a little piece about each one, and which parts were historically accurate and which parts were educated guesswork. Ugh, I love this museum. The Field Museum in Chicago is my favorite, but this might be a close second.
I also took another trip to Christiania with a group from my Danish class. Our homework was to go explore the neighborhood Christianshavn, of which Christiania is a part. Part of our assignment was to go eat at a cafe, and the girl in my group chose the more pretentious, expensive, VEGAN cafe she could find. She wasn't EVEN VEGAN. I wanted to slap her. But I didn't. The food was quite good, but a vegetarian wrap is NOT worth $27!!!!
We then wandered around Christiania, where the same girl pretended she was an absolute expert on the area, and I was like, "Woman, you have been in this country for 2 weeks! You don't know Christiania just because you study urban planning and smoke weed!" I was truly so done with her. Wait this is also what put me in such a crabby mood and drove me to museum therapy at the National Museum. But we did stop by the Women's Blacksmith Shop, which is a blacksmith in Christiania that is entirely woman-owned, and was started by an artist who was a single mom back when single moms didn't have very many options. And then she opened this shop and started training other single moms to blacksmith too, and their work is incredible! We also stumbled upon one of Thomas Dambo's Forgotten Giants, Green George. Which was an awesome surprise.
Speaking of art, my house and I toured an art studio in the Amagerbro neighborhood. And our artist guide was, well, interesting. She talked a lot about meditating to the land before she traveled there to learn their cultural practices and then how she just came by from Ghana and felt a little like she was appropriating their culture but she'd meditated on it, and was okay and making progress, but then she meditated too hard and now has to take a break from the work. She had some cool work and idea, but she was a lot and seemed to live very, very much in her own spiritual world. And I don't know about the appropriation thing. I think her work was actually okay, but the fact that she felt like she was appropriating was a little weird to me. She did go spend a summer in Iceland and learn traditional healing there, which seemed cool. She said that translated into her art but I wasn't really picking up on it. Odd woman, but definitely an experience! I didn't take any pictures of her art, because I didn't really want to poke the bear (she had weird thoughts about the commercialization of art too, and I don't know if she wanted us taking pictures) but I did take some of the studio space, and some of the other artist's work!
I've started cooking a little bit. Out of necessity, but like, still. An accomplishment. I've made pan-roasted vegetables and chicken, peanut noodles, beef and broccoli, and a lot of peanut butter and jelly! Also here's a funny video of me boiling oatmeal. Looking at the plopping boiling bubbles! I look like I'm making some kind of potion! If you have any easy recipes that you recommend, send them my way! Next on my list is pan-roasted salmon with asparagus and potatoes.
In other news, I met my visiting host family this week! Their names are Mette (the mom), Christian (son, age 15), and Viggo (son, age 12). They invited me to their home in the suburbs of Copenhagen, and Mette made us an amazing meal of danish meatballs, and some sort of meat spread, and sandwiches, and quesadillas, and just all their favorite foods for me to try. I felt so welcomed! The boys toured me around their home and Viggo showed me his flips on the trampoline. Mette bought us tickets to go hear an Irish musician at the Danish Opera House since she knew I liked Irish music, and Viggo bought me a bunch of different licorice candies to try. Turns out, some of them are worse than others! I did learn that I liked these little gummy licorice bats. Christian tried some peanut butter, to get a taste of American cuisine. I can't wait to spend more time with them, they have been so so welcoming!
Speaking of Danes, I also spent an afternoon with my cousin, Frida!!! I was sooooo crazy good to see her and catch up. We haven't seen each other since I visited in 2017, and before that, since she came and spent a semester living with us in Minnesota. It was so great. We biked to Absolon, which is a cafe/communal workspace/communal dining area that could really only exist in Denmark, and I drank way too much Hyldeblomst juice. We then cycled over to the botanical gardens and wandered around for a while before collapsing of heat in a shady spot. It's so good to have good people!
And speaking of good people, my housemates are really great as well. I'm getting to know them better every day! It's definitely challenging having only one small bathroom for 7 young women, but we make do pretty well if I do say so myself. A bunch of us went over to the neighborhood Reffen, where they have a big street food market. I bought a Ramble cocktail, made with gin, blueberry, raspberry, lemon and sours, and a bowl of homemade parmesan fries. I would HIGHLY recommend both. Then we sat down on the edge of the water and watched the sunset.
Not every moment has been great and amazing and I've been a little homesick/also just regular sick, but for the most part, life here the past two weeks has been pretty darn great. That's all I have for you folks! To friends and family back home, I miss you all and send my love!
xo,
Cristiana
P.S. Check out this hilarious sign I found in a book store!
Flea market
I took a trip to the National Museum. I was actually quite crabby last Saturday and rode past on my bike. And I saw the signs for a Viking exhibit they had going up and I just couldn't resist. I thought, "You know what will cheer me up? A museum day!" So I wandered around for a while. The exhibit was quite cool. None of the artifacts in it are new, they all belong to the museum, so I'd actually seen them before when I visited in 2017. Which turned out well, because it meant I could focus my attention on the new part of it: the curation (much improved, although it was already good!) and the art. They invited artist Jim Lyngvild to come in a create gorgeous portraits of his interpretation of what the Vikings might have looked like. It was a cool combination of history, science, and art. He designed them, and then the museum wrote a little piece about each one, and which parts were historically accurate and which parts were educated guesswork. Ugh, I love this museum. The Field Museum in Chicago is my favorite, but this might be a close second.
A volva, who were highly revered mystical Viking women
Queen Tove
King Harald Bluetooth
I also took another trip to Christiania with a group from my Danish class. Our homework was to go explore the neighborhood Christianshavn, of which Christiania is a part. Part of our assignment was to go eat at a cafe, and the girl in my group chose the more pretentious, expensive, VEGAN cafe she could find. She wasn't EVEN VEGAN. I wanted to slap her. But I didn't. The food was quite good, but a vegetarian wrap is NOT worth $27!!!!
My DUMB $27 wrap (it was good though)
We then wandered around Christiania, where the same girl pretended she was an absolute expert on the area, and I was like, "Woman, you have been in this country for 2 weeks! You don't know Christiania just because you study urban planning and smoke weed!" I was truly so done with her. Wait this is also what put me in such a crabby mood and drove me to museum therapy at the National Museum. But we did stop by the Women's Blacksmith Shop, which is a blacksmith in Christiania that is entirely woman-owned, and was started by an artist who was a single mom back when single moms didn't have very many options. And then she opened this shop and started training other single moms to blacksmith too, and their work is incredible! We also stumbled upon one of Thomas Dambo's Forgotten Giants, Green George. Which was an awesome surprise.
Green George (who you were allowed to take pictures of, even though you can't take pictures in too many places in Christiania)
Speaking of art, my house and I toured an art studio in the Amagerbro neighborhood. And our artist guide was, well, interesting. She talked a lot about meditating to the land before she traveled there to learn their cultural practices and then how she just came by from Ghana and felt a little like she was appropriating their culture but she'd meditated on it, and was okay and making progress, but then she meditated too hard and now has to take a break from the work. She had some cool work and idea, but she was a lot and seemed to live very, very much in her own spiritual world. And I don't know about the appropriation thing. I think her work was actually okay, but the fact that she felt like she was appropriating was a little weird to me. She did go spend a summer in Iceland and learn traditional healing there, which seemed cool. She said that translated into her art but I wasn't really picking up on it. Odd woman, but definitely an experience! I didn't take any pictures of her art, because I didn't really want to poke the bear (she had weird thoughts about the commercialization of art too, and I don't know if she wanted us taking pictures) but I did take some of the studio space, and some of the other artist's work!
The studio
OATMEAL
Peanut noodles!
Beef and broccoli and pea pods :)
In other news, I met my visiting host family this week! Their names are Mette (the mom), Christian (son, age 15), and Viggo (son, age 12). They invited me to their home in the suburbs of Copenhagen, and Mette made us an amazing meal of danish meatballs, and some sort of meat spread, and sandwiches, and quesadillas, and just all their favorite foods for me to try. I felt so welcomed! The boys toured me around their home and Viggo showed me his flips on the trampoline. Mette bought us tickets to go hear an Irish musician at the Danish Opera House since she knew I liked Irish music, and Viggo bought me a bunch of different licorice candies to try. Turns out, some of them are worse than others! I did learn that I liked these little gummy licorice bats. Christian tried some peanut butter, to get a taste of American cuisine. I can't wait to spend more time with them, they have been so so welcoming!
Viggo, me, and Christian (I brought them Vikings hats)
Speaking of Danes, I also spent an afternoon with my cousin, Frida!!! I was sooooo crazy good to see her and catch up. We haven't seen each other since I visited in 2017, and before that, since she came and spent a semester living with us in Minnesota. It was so great. We biked to Absolon, which is a cafe/communal workspace/communal dining area that could really only exist in Denmark, and I drank way too much Hyldeblomst juice. We then cycled over to the botanical gardens and wandered around for a while before collapsing of heat in a shady spot. It's so good to have good people!
Me and Frida
And speaking of good people, my housemates are really great as well. I'm getting to know them better every day! It's definitely challenging having only one small bathroom for 7 young women, but we make do pretty well if I do say so myself. A bunch of us went over to the neighborhood Reffen, where they have a big street food market. I bought a Ramble cocktail, made with gin, blueberry, raspberry, lemon and sours, and a bowl of homemade parmesan fries. I would HIGHLY recommend both. Then we sat down on the edge of the water and watched the sunset.
Carter, Ava, Anna, and I at Reffen
Reffen sunset
Not every moment has been great and amazing and I've been a little homesick/also just regular sick, but for the most part, life here the past two weeks has been pretty darn great. That's all I have for you folks! To friends and family back home, I miss you all and send my love!
xo,
Cristiana
P.S. Check out this hilarious sign I found in a book store!
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