where did the time go?

As my time is dwindling here, and again, I’m sorry for the large gap between posts, things are starting to end, which makes me much more sad than I expected to be. This past week was my last week of classes , crit week, last week of Bible Study, and really the end of my official semester. My watercolor and visual journal class ended last week, and I just needed to turn in all of my work from the semester as my “final” and I found out today that I received B’s in both classes! My classes count as pass/fail here so I’m a happy girl :)

This week has been very crazy mainly because it is crit week. Now crit week here is nowhere near what it is like at home, and I’m so grateful for that, but it still is a bit hectic and stressful. My project was officially due last night, and I presented this morning. It went pretty well, but I could have done a lot better. The project was a veteran’s support center, and for some reason I didn’t have such a great connection to the project, and my professor could tell. But in the end, I liked the final product and enjoyed getting to know my teacher Johan this semester. A great Danish designer who taught me to be more relaxed and love what I do! Now that the crit is over, I have one more Danish class tomorrow and then I’m finished!

As I mentioned, this past Tuesday was the last Bible Study for my group here. To say these girls mean a lot to me is an understatement. Never have I met so many people that have challenged the way I see my faith and have taught me what it means to be in love with Jesus. I still can’t believe we met just 4 months ago; I feel like I’ve known these people for so much longer. At our last study, we talked about what we have learned about this semester and spent a long time in prayer: prayer for each other and thanking God for the many blessings He has given to us this semester. I couldn’t be more appreciative to Kirsten, who decided to start this group, and to God who of course is always in control and continually provides a Christian community for me wherever I go. We decided to each write messages to each other, to help us remember our time here once we return home. Laurel and I have already decided to frame our messages and hang them in our apartment. These girls have been such a crucial part of my experience abroad, and even though we are spread all across the country, we’ll always be sisters in Christ and I know they will always have my back.

Now the countdown is down to 7 days. My emotions are all over the place: stress, excitement, anxiety, and a bunch of other things. I’m ready to come home to what’s familiar and the people that I’ve missed these past 4 months, but I’m also scared that all of the things I’ve experience here will be lost once I get home. Not that I will forget, but that settling back into what I’ve been used to for so long will make me change back into who I was before I came to Denmark. This week I’ve been recognizing how I’ve changed, and I’m a bit scared for how that will affect my transition back home. But, God is awesome, and He is constantly working in me to help me with all the craziness that is going on.

the beautiful lakes of Copenhagen

my Danish class took us to the Kobenhavn soccer game -- we won! 

Bible study girls <3 

messages from the girls!

to wander like Picasso in the Barcelona heat

HOLA BARCELONA! Such a different place than we’ve been so far, and not one of my favorites. After landing, we took a bus from the airport, but then got very lost on the way to our hostel. After wandering for a very long time, we found it, and were really surprised at the type of place it was. No locks on the doors of the rooms – only small lockers within each room. There was only a small spotlight/creepy light that was supposed to light out room. The ceiling was covered with “grass” and fake flowers suspending from the ceiling… I’m scared.

We woke up the next morning ready to explore the city (as long as it meant getting out of our creepy hostel). We walked down Las Ramblas, a really pretty walking street with a lot of shops and places to eat. After a lot of walking, we made it to the water and spent a lot of time in the sun. It was the warmest day of our whole trip, so we decided to embrace it! Too bad we forgot out swim suits :( And yes, I did get quite a bit of sunburn… what else is new?

The next day wasn’t nearly as sunny, so we walked through more of the city area and saw some famous buildings by the designer Antoni Gaudí, a well known man in this city. We saw Casa Mila, a funky looking place with a lot of curved elements, but very interesting! Then we saw la Sagrada Familia (also Gaudí), but only a part of it. Too bad most of it is under construction, so it’s not as pretty as I hoped it would be. Barcelona is a beautiful city; I just wish there weren’t so many men trying to sell us souvenirs. After some much needed Starbucks, we shopped a bit and then went back to the hostel to make NACHOS! We spent the night just walking around more and chatting and enjoying the last few days of the ultimate spring break!

Finally, the last day of the trip. We found out about a flea market through our hostel, and walked a very long time to get there, only to see that it wasn’t quite the shopping we expected. Barcelona was the city where we did a LOT of shopping. We found a very cool shop outside of the Sagrada Familia (we went back to see the rest of the church) where the three of us bought a lot of gifts for people at home. I also bought myself a beautiful bag at a cool shop in the city! That day we had gelato on two different occasions and did more walking around the city, enjoying our last day!
The next day was the flight home. It truly was an awesome break, and I’m glad I got to spend it with two pretty great ladies. I visited the places in Europe that I’ve always wanted to go to and I’m feeling so blessed that I have this opportunity. Now, only a month back in Copenhagen before heading to the US!

land of my people!

Oh the luck o’ the Irish! Ready to hear about our wonderful week in the beautiful country of Ireland?! Good, can’t wait to tell you all about it!

On April 3^rd we had an early flight from Stanstead to Dublin, followed by a 4 hour bus ride to Cork. Cork is an adorable city, and we liked it because it’s sort of an unknown place in Ireland. Our hostel was above a bar, so we enjoyed some ciders and relaxed after our long travel day.

The next day we went to the Blarney Castle, with the famous Blarney Stone. The coolest part about going there was that my mom went there when she was a little older than me. It was great to be in the same place she had been, experiencing the same country, but still have it be my adventure. I have to say, facing my fears of closed in spaces and extreme heights was well worth kissing the famous Blarney Stone. The whole trick is that you have lie down on your back and bend you head back nearly 90 degrees in order to kiss this stone that SO many people have kissed. Really gross, but cool. We took a TON of pictures and enjoyed the beautiful scenery around the castle. Before we left, we stopped in the Woolen Mills, which is biggest Irish shop in the world! Since I’m half Irish, seeing so many authentic Irish items was like heaven! I felt right at home :)

Now it was on to Galway. Before another long bus ride, we got breakfast where I had an absolutely delicious waffle, with fruit and yogurt. YUM! After we arrived in Galway, we went to the local “mall” and ran into Laurel and I’s friend from bible study, Stephanie! She was traveling on her own for the break, so it was great to buddy up with her for a bit. Before calling it a night, we visited some of the local pubs and began to experience the real life of the Irish!

The next day we went on an all day tour to the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher (my favorite place by far!), and Stephanie was able to join us. The Burren is a very pretty area full of hills that are covered by a certain limestone. We visited a family owned farm at the Burren, where we got a tour of the farm and the beautiful mountain behind it. We saw little lambs and cows! It was neat to do a small amount of hiking, because I hadn’t been in the wilderness in so long, and Copenhagen is extremely flat. After going into Granny’s Cottage and eating some homemade desserts, we drove to the Cliffs. By God’s grace we had the perfect weather to view this magnificent place, and being there made me so grateful of this journey God has allowed me to experience. I don’t know how anyone could look at those cliffs and not know that it was created by the ultimate creator.  After that, we stopped at a few more picturesque sites, then made it home. Since it was Good Friday, a lot of things were closed, so we hung out at Stephanie’s hostel and watched a movie.

Now it’s April 7^th, the day before Easter! We took another day tour, but visited the Connemara Valley. A beautiful drive, seeing a lot of the Irish scenery I expected to see. Then, we stopped at the Kylemore Abbey where we also saw a Gothic church and a Victorian garden. The gardens were beautiful, and we were able to stop for a bit and grab some delectable scones with jam :) That evening, we went out to a pub called The King’s Head, which was the best pub I’ve been to yet in Europe. A band played around 11 o’clock, and covered a ton of songs that we knew, which made it fun to sing and dance and enjoy ourselves.

It’s Easter Sunday! It’s been hard to be away from home the past 3 months, but today has been one of the hardest days. This was the first Easter where I did not take up at 5 in order to make it to the Aldan Union Sunrise service, and I missed it. But, we made the most of the day but attending a service in Galway. It was a Catholic service, so needless to say, it wasn’t quite the same, but I’m glad we got to recognize the great celebration that is Easter, even if it wasn’t the way I was used to. After the 30 minute service (no, that’s not a typo) we walked past a soccer game, where we stood and watched for a bit. Man, do I miss watching sports! Because of the holiday, we decided to be fancy and make ourselves a lovely Easter dinner – stuffing-filled turkey, potatoes, broccoli, and garlic bread.

Back to Dublin we go – which means another bus ride. We hadn’t heard great things about Dublin, despite its well-known name, so we decided to only spend 1 day there. We found a cute (and cheap!) little café, where we had sandwiches and I had my first Bailey’s coffee. SO TASTY!!! Then, we visited the bar, Whelan’s, which is in the movie P.S. I Love You (which of course, I have not seen… yet). It was kind of a letdown, so we hit the Temple Bar area – a few streets full of different pubs. We found a cool place with live music and enjoyed our last night in the beautiful country of Ireland.

oh hey London :)

FINALLY! I’m so sorry it has taken me an incredibly long time to update. I want to fill y’all in on my amazing two weeks hopping all around Europe at the beginning of April. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep track of what we did during this break by journaling about it, but my lovely roommate Laurel did. So, I’m going to steal a bit of her journal to fill you in on all the crazy happenings that went on during my travel break :) I’m doing individual posts for each place I visited, so first is LONDON!

On March 30^th, we took a train and bus to get us to Stockholm, Sweden, where we flew to London. After getting a bit lost and confused by the intense metro system of London, we finally got to our hostel!

We decided to do a 2-day pass for the Hop On/Hop Off bus, which worked out really well because we got transportation to all the famous sites of London! The first day we took the bus to Camden, where there was a really cool market-place with clothes, scarves, a ton of jewelry, and a huge selection of food. I decided to get the traditional British meal of Fish & Chips, which was super tasty! On the way back we walked through the Regency Park, one of many beautiful parks we came across during the trip. Then, we got back on the bus and went to see a lot of the well-known sites: Big Ben, London Bridge, Tower Bridge (much nicer than London Bridge), Parliament, and the Tower of London. Although we didn’t go into any of these landmarks, we did our fair share of picture taking from the outside. For dinner, we ate at an English pub where I ate a delicious Steak Pot Pie :)

Our second day in London, we walked through Hyde Park and then it was time for the Harry Potter tour. Now as most of you know, up until a few months ago, I had never picked up a Harry Potter book. So before then, going on this tour would have been quite useless. However, since coming to Europe and opening my eyes to new things, I have started reading them and am currently in the middle of the 3^rd in the series. So now I could actually look for forward to this tour and know just a bit of what was going on. The tour was great; we saw a lot of scenes from the movies, inspirations for the books, and our tour guide (a true Potter fan) even told us a ton of historical facts about the city. After the tour, we peaked inside St. Paul’s Cathedral, a beautiful place to see, especially so close to Easter. After dinner we visited Buckingham Palace. Of course, since it was night, the guards weren’t out, but it was great to see the building at night, very different than the traditional picture of it.

Our third day we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum: a very interesting museum which was free and right down the block from our hostel! Then, we spent quite a few hours in Kensington Gardens – the home of the lovely William & Kate. We told them we were waiting for them, but for some reason, they never showed up… Then we went to King’s Cross Station (again, now I know the importance of this place!). Of course, we got our pictures next to Platform 9 3/4. Then, we walked to Camden Passage, but unfortunately a lot of the stores were closed; it was still a neat area to walk through though! Lastly, we had dinner at CHIPOTLE! For those who have never been, please go. This Mexican restaurant has become a staple for me at college, so seeing one while traveling was a glimpse of home :)

ready for the best spring break EVER!

Since I leave for my two week spring break on Friday, I thought I would update everyone on where I'll be traveling to! Friday afternoon, we fly into London out of Malmo, Sweden. We'll be spending 3 days there, while taking a day trip to Oxford. I can't wait to visit my friend Elyse Garner who is studying at Oxford right now! Tuesday morning, we fly to Dublin. I'm not exactly sure of the order of the cities, but we will be spending a week in Ireland, traveling between Dublin, Cork, and Galway. The following Tuesday night, we fly from Dublin to Barcelona. We'll be spending 4 days there, and traveling back to Copenhagen Saturday morning. It's going to be a hectic two weeks, but I think we've planned it so that we see as many cities as we can without getting burnt out. Please be praying for Laurel, Nicole and I as we take this adventure. All our flights are booked, and we have hostels planned out, so right now, pray for safe travels and a really fun time of exploring just a tiny bit of Europe! Can't wait to update everyone when I come back!!!

halfway there!

Just wanted to write a quick post, marking the half way point in this crazy adventure I'm having! Tomorrow marks two months here, and two months until I'm home. I'm having a lot of mixed feelings in saying that. It's true that I'm having a once-in-a-lifetime experience here, and for that I'm extremely thankful. I'm also anxious to get home, because I miss familiar faces, a familiar language, and just the comforts that home brings.
Yesterday, the AUC middle school and high school group went to the Vision Conference in Lancaster, as they do every year. Since it's Amy's senior year, this was her last year going to the conference, and it caused me to think back to the 7 years that I went to that conference. Every year a similar message was spread: Break out of your comfort zone and be willing to go where God wants you to go. I feel like every year I would say I was willing to do that, but never knew how I'd live that out. I never felt God calling me to be a missionary in Africa or go to a country I'd never heard of for any length of time.
Now I find myself in Denmark, a country I didn't know existed until a few years ago, living for 4 months with a family I'd never met before, surrounded by a language I'd never heard before, and will most likely never hear again. It's funny how God works isn't it?! No, I'm not translating the bible or running a camp for children, or doing the typical 'missions' work, but I'm here. I'm living in a country where less than 10% of Evangelical Lutherans (the official state church) attend church on a Sunday. I'm living with a family that does not believe in God, and going to school with students who don't either.
Looking back to the many Vision Conferences I've been to, I've realized that God does work in us at a young age. I always thought that I'd say yes to following God's call, but he wouldn't call me until I was older, out of college, married, 2 kids and a dog. Instead, I still have another year of college in front of me, and He's placed me in Copenhagen. I'm so grateful to be in His hands, and that I can trust in a God that knows me inside and out and knows what lies ahead of me. And I'm pretty excited that He does, because that means I don't have to worry about it! So let that be a lesson to all the students who were at Vision yesterday... if you tell God to stretch you and do what He wants with your life, He won't forget it! When you least expected, He's going to change you, and you're going to be amazed!
Keep praying for me, as I embrace these next two months. Time will fly, and the homesickness will probably get worse at points, but God is the God of comfort, peace, and joy, and I'm so blessed to be His kid :)

 

longest blog post ever?!

wow, I'm really sorry it's almost been a month since I've updated! I can't believe how much I am growing here and how my view of life has changed, and been challenged. School has been very easy; I actually just had the last week off for my long study tour, but I'll get to that in a bit. I had my final critique for my first design project, which went okay. There was good feedback, but I think they expected me to do a lot more than I could fit in a 2 week project. But, all in all, the project turned out well! Here's an image of the final: 

 

My other classes have been easy. I had my first exam in Danish, which was really difficult, but a lot of the class had trouble with it, so hopefully he'll be easy on it!                  

This is from a field trip my visual journal class took to Bagsværd church. That is my teacher Courtney. She's an amazing teacher, full of passion about architecture.

We also spent the day in Sweden a few Saturdays ago. It's a half hour train ride from Copenhagen to Malmo, so we decided to be adventurous and take a trip there!

Two weeks ago, DIS held a party for the Danish holiday Fastelavn, which is similar to Halloween in that you get dressed up, but it isn't based on death at all. I won't go into explaining it, but it takes place at the beginning of Lent, and involves something called 'Hit the Cat Out of the Barrel', which is like a pinata, but in the old days, you would hit a barrel that had a real cat in it. Now, it's just filled with lots of candy. Karin made the costumes for the kids, and I wore one of her costumes from a few years back. It was a lot of fun; I got to make crafts with Ida and there was yummy food!

This past week, I went on a long study tour with 29 other students from the Architecture Deparment to Germany and the Netherlands (also called Holland). Early Sunday morning, we flew to Amsterdam, only a 1 hour flight, and then stopped by our hotel in Amsterdam to drop our stuff off. Right after that, we had lunch at the Lloyd Hotel, and toured around the Borneo Housing Complex. The rest of the night was on our own, and we got the chance to explore old Amsterdam a bit. It is the most beautiful city I've seen since coming to Europe. A very old city, but new buildings are starting to take over, and the mix of them is very beautiful. Monday, we visited a Dutch architecture firm, and got the day on our own in Amsterdam. My friends and I decided to see the Vincent Van Gough Museum and go on a canal tour of the city! That night, we got to go to the large concert hall in Amsterdam and watch an orchestra perform, with a Spanish guitarist. It was so beautiful; I just wish I had been a little more awake for it.

a really neat walking bridge in the Borneo Housing development

Borneo Housing development

walking around in Amsterdam

Tiffany and I on the canal tour

view on the tour... SO pretty!!!

Tuesday was an interesting day. We took the train from Amsterdam to Utrecht, but Laurel, Nicole, Tiffany, and I missed the Utrecht stop, and we didn’t realize it until 2 stops after… So after finding change to purchase a train ticket, getting on the International (aka more expensive) train, and finding the bus to meet the rest of our group, we made it. However, I missed the tour of the one building I wanted to see. Before we had left for the study tour, we were put into small groups and assigned one building we would see on our tour. I was assigned the Educatorium, which is the student union of Utrecht University. My group researched it, did some analytical drawings, and built a 1:100 scale section model of it. Of course, getting lost made me miss my presentation of the building, and the time to see it. We got the university with a half hour to spare, so I was able to look really quickly, but it was a bit disappointing. After this, we visited the Schroder House, which was really interesting because we studied that last semester in my Architecture History class. After that, we got to walk through Old Utrecht and went out to a nice dinner!

the concert hall

Utrecht Library

Educatorium

inside the Educatorium there is this funky curving wall

The next morning, we had a 3 hour bus ride to Essen, Germany, where we saw the largest coal mine in Europe, called Zollverein. It has since been kept as museum, so we went through that, and also saw the Red Dot Museum, which has a lot of technology from the past century, and just cool things to see. Then, we left and drove to Cologne, Germany, where we saw an interesting museum called Kolumba. It holds the ruins of an old church that once stood on the site. Then, we saw the Cologne Cathedral, which was the most impressive and breath-taking building I’ve ever seen. It’s a Gothic cathedral, first constructed in 1248. That night we stayed in a very fancy Holiday Inn, and enjoyed a yummy pizza from Pizza Hut for dinner :) hey, a little taste of home never hurt, right?

The next day, we left for Hamburg, and had a guided tour of the city. We were taken out to dinner at a very fancy restaurant, then had the night to explore the city. But, we were about a 45 minute walk from the exciting area (aka where all the people were), so that was a little annoying, but luckily, it wasn’t too cold. The last day we got to tour Hamburg a bit, so we decided to do some shopping. We ended up in the more high-end area of the city, so I didn’t buy anything, but it was a fun time of being in a different area. After another great meal provided by DIS, we hopped on the bus, which then hopped onto a ferry, and then back on the bus, and then we were home.

Zollverein

the longest escalator ever!

Zollverein School of Management & Design

the Cologne Cathedral (my favorite place I've been so far)

no words to describe how beautiful it was

incredibly delicious! 

Hamburg

Hamburg

So needless to say, it was an exhausting week. But I can now say that I’ve been to Germany and Holland! There was a lot of getting lost, being late, good food, and time with good friends.

Tomorrow school starts up again. The time is counting down until I leave for my spring break! We’ve made definite plans for where we are going and I’m getting excited! Of course, traveling on my own makes me nervous, but hopefully Laurel, Nicole, and I can keep each other sane and patient. We’ll be flying to London on March 30^th, and over the next 13 days, visit England, Ireland, and Spain!

Thanks for the prayers; it’s nice to hear from my parents that people from AUC are thinking about me. This weekend and this coming week will be tough, because the missions conference is going on at home, and that has been a part of my life every year since I can remember. So even though I’m feeling a little homesick, I’m almost half way done my adventure here, and I’m trying to make the most out of the time that’s left! Bye for now everybody :)