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 30th, 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 :)
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