Second Star to the Right and Straight on til Copenhagen: Everyday life...

"Normal is nothing more than a cycle on a washing machine"

- Whoopi Goldberg

I thought that once classes started that I would return to "normal" life, you know a life with a schedule. Unfortunately, that really didn't happen, but I am ok with it. Also it is quite strange to only have two classes per week so if I did follow a normal question it would only have 4 hours of class a week in it. Anyways here is a breakdown of the random exciting events in the past 3 weeks.

First up we went to the beach one night which was awesome, even though it was incredibly cold. When you live in a place where it costs and arm and a leg to go out you get creative on where to go on Friday nights.

Niklas and I were the only ones brave enough to test the water.

Then last week Chris, Kate, and I finally went to Sweden!

And what is cooler than going to Ikea in Sweden?

I am pretty sure Chris tried out every chair in Ikea.

And this is my future closet.

And this could quite possibly be the most attractive photo ever taken of Chris and Kate.

Malmo, Sweden

We also have been improving our culinary skills and decided to eat cake for dinner one night. Niklas cannot bake/cook to save his life, so we made an ice cream cake, which requires no baking skills what so ever.

And it was beautiful if I do say so myself.

And yes I did write that correctly, we did eat three different types of cake for dinner that night.

Then last Friday night we braved the rain and went to a party on a boat.

Where Josh Hutcherson was a DJ.

Just kidding it wasn't actually him, but it definitely looked exactly like him.

And like all good Americans Diana and I got hungry so we went and got, of course, sour cream and onion chips.

And Niklas had fun taking crazy photos of us.

You would think that a party on a giant boat would be a really cool venue, except when you have a really bad DJ. So our boat party experience only lasted about 40 minutes.

On Sunday I had my first field trip for my Danish Culture course, we went to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.

This was my favorite painting, entitled "Drunk Dead Danes"

While the art at the museum is not exactly my favorite the museum itself is beautiful. It's right on the Oresund and is in a park-like setting.

This was probably the coolest exhibit at the museum. It was a room full of floating lights that changed colors. The walls were covered with mirrors so the lights looked endless.

The museum was built on the site of an old villa, which still houses some of the exhibits.

This week my friend Sabrina came to visit from Germany. We had a 7 hour marathon tour of Copenhagen.

Our Marathon started with seeing the changing of the guard at Amalienborg Palace, which involved half an hour of marching and guys with cool hats staring at each other.

And I finally saw the Little Mermaid!

There is no direct path of rocks leading to the Little Mermaid so I had to jump to get there. The first picture is of me standing there trying to work up the courage to jump. I am pretty sure that I am in about 500 of the Asian tourists photos of the Little Mermaid.

But I did it, and it was worth it.

See I totally could have been a long jumper.

After the Little Mermaid we went and saw the Marble Church.

Then we went and toured Rosenborg Castle. Right next to Rosenborg Castle is the Danish Army Barracks. And what is more normal than seeing a bunch of Danish soldiers playing ultimate frisbee?

I do not have any photos of Rosenborg Castle because you not only have to pay an entry fee you also have to pay an additional fee to take photos. However there is one thing that I have to share from what I saw. Rosenborg Castle not only houses the Crown Jewels, it also the king and queens thrones. After seeing the King's Throne my respect for the Danish Monarchy has grown exponentially.

Yes the throne is made of Narwhal Tusks, how awesome is that!

Yesterday Kate, Sabrina, and I went to visit Helsingor, or Hamlet's Castle. Shakespeare never went to Denmark, and Hamlet wasn't even a real person. Sorry to burst any bubbles.

This is the Helsingor Train station, which happens to be more beautiful than most American houses much less American train stations.

Just in case you couldn't find your way to the giant castle.

So the castle is surrounded by a moat and then there are dirt embankments on top of the dirt embankments are these cannons. And then the Danish government thought it would be cool to have speakers places throughout this area to play sounds of cannons being shot, and horses whinnying, and people shouting.

And the best part of the whole castle? The children's area! Kate and I found a dollhouse-like replica of the castle and we were amazed.

It had horses and a dragon in the dungeon, it was awesome!

These photos were taken inside the castles chapel.

Then we toured the casements of the castle. At first we didn't know what the casements were and were even more confused when there was a vending machine selling flashlights by the door. Thankfully Kate brought a flashlight otherwise walking through the creepy dark underbelly of the castle would have been terrifying.

This guy is Holger the Dane. According to legend when the Danish Kingdom is threatened by a foreign enemy he will become flesh and blood and rise up to defend the country.

See creepy, dark, and dank. The soldiers lived in these casements during sieges.

The castle was built in the 1420's to collect the sound dues. Kronborg Castle is situated at the thinnest point of Oresund.

Then we visited the Carmelite Monastery. Basically it was a beautiful courtyard surrounded by hallways, but the guidebook told us to go see it so we did.

And then we got ice cream!!!! Why isn't pistachio ice cream popular in the U.S.? It is the best invention ever.

The guidebook also told us to visit this place: Marienlyst Castle. Apparently this place was once the pleasure palace for the royal family. According to the guidebook it was supposed to have a museum in it, unfortunately when we got there the entire thing was closed for restoration.

But it was pretty.

Again an attractive photo of Kate.

Denmark has crazy huge snails and slugs, and they are disgusting. Also when you walk at night you sometimes crunch on the gigantic snail shells, gross.