can a city hall really be that ugly?

Keeping up with my blog is slowly becoming more challenging! I guess writing has never been my favorite thing and filling y'all in on everything that's happening involves more writing than I thought. But, after the very exciting weekend in Western Denmark, I felt like I needed to update. Most of this will be pictures, since they're worth 1,000 words, and I saw SO much in 3 days. We traveled to 4 different cities: Soro, Kolding, Aalborg, and Aarhus (2nd largest city in Denmark). The whole study tour was about seeing different types of architecture, typical Danish art, and sketching (a lot!). One of the coolest places we visited is called KOMPAN, and it's the largest playground manufacturer in the world. The guy that gave us a tour and spoke on his experience was once a student at DIS and moved to Denmark later in life to run this company. He was extremely energetic and really interesting to listen to, and the place was a creative environment with so many cool designs. My other favorite spot was the Aarhus Art Museum. You'll see a picture of a large boy sculpture, which is simply called 'Boy' and stands about 5 m tall. The museum was built in 2004, so it's really modern and has a clean design. At the top of the museum is a rainbow ring, which is referred to as Heaven, since the museum is 9 floors, with hell in the basement, and moving through the levels. The rainbow room was added on a few years ago, and can be seen throughout the whole city. 

The title of this post is referring to Aarhus City Hall. It's a long story, but we ended up being late to our lunch on Saturday, so in order to attempt to make our time slot for touring City Hall, we had to skip dessert after lunch, which was waffles and ice cream (we ended up going back the next day to get our own waffles because they sounded so good). Anyway, when we got to City Hall, we realized it is one of the ugliest buildings ever. I didn't even take pictures of it because both the outside and inside are bland and not interesting. Plus, since we were late, our tour guide was really bitter and made the tour not so pleasant... 

Here are some pictures, sorry they are a little out of order!

ARoS Museum, Aarhus (pretend that one of the silhouettes in the Rainbow is me!)

'Boy' 

Roommates in our hostel the first night! - the place was really nice, and breakfast in the morning was delicious :) 

out for dinner in Aarhus! 

Koldinghus - old fortress

inside of Koldinghus

view from the top of City Hall

 

walking around the campus of Aarhus Universitet Arhus

'Boy' closer up - he looked SO real!

in the Rainbow Room! such a cool place!

Rainbow Room

the best waffle I've ever had - & delicious European Chai Latte

The time since the trip hasn't been too interesting. I have my first design critique this coming Tuesday, so I'm working on things for that. Compared to design at home, this semester is nothing. I'm actually struggling because I feel guilty for not working enough! It's a very laid back style here, and I haven't had much homework at all, other than required sketching and painting exercises for my other classes. 

Right now, I'm sitting in the studio with a beautiful view over the top of Copenhagen (the studio is on the 5th floor - so great view but getting there is always a journey). Today is Gustav's 11th birthday! So this morning, Peter and Karin surprised him with a small cake, fresh pastries, and fresh bread (very different than his usual pasta for breakfast). Karin is taking him to a cake shop this afternoon to eat more cake, and his birthday celebration will be on Saturday. Peter's mom is coming tomorrow and staying til Sunday. So other than his birthday party, this weekend will be mostly spent in the studio. It's bittersweet, because this weekend some of my PhilaU friends from home are headed to Jubilee - a conference in Pittsburgh for Christian college students that I went to last year. Hoping they all have a great time, and will definitely be taking some time this weekend to reflect on what I learned there last year, and what I've been learning since I've arrived here. Almost to the one month mark! Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!

it's been a real slice

I can't believe it's been over a week since I've written! Time is flying by here, and I feel like not a lot of super exciting adventures have happened, but I know they'll come! It's still very very cold here; right now it's 28 degrees, but it's been in the low 20's and high teens this past week. This past weekend was my first weekend of really being out and about, since the weekend before I was still suffering from jet lag. Friday night, Laurel, Nicole, Maria and I tried to go to a comedy show we had heard about, but we got there 20 minutes late and couldn't quite find the entrance... so we ended up heading back into the city to find somewhere to hang out. We found this great cafe that's in an old library. It was so cute! There was a local band playing so it was a lot of fun :) After that we checked out a club near school to experience a bit of Danish nightlife!
Saturday was a chill day at home. Ida had a friend over and Gustav was at a friends all afternoon, so I did a little homework and had my first laundry experience here! The washer takes 3 hours to wash, and the family only uses the dryer if they need to, so there's a lot of drying racks around the house. Before dinner, I went with the family to a modern cafe called Cafe 8 Tallet. It's a newer place that is part of a contemporary apartment complex located a bit further away from the city than where I live. It's located in an area that has one of the only open field areas in Copenhagen (as close to nature as it gets!). There's an artificial lake outside, and two walls of the cafe are entirely glass so you're able to see the gorgeous open space. I definitely want to go back in the spring and eat and drink a latte and sketch. That night, I got together with some friends at one of the DIS dorms and watched some Disney movies and ate a ton of food :)

Sunday the family had brunch to celebrate Peter's birthday, which was about a month ago. I've noticed that, my family at least, doesn't celebrate birthday's on the actual day. Next weekend they are having a party celebrating the kids birthdays, and Ida's birthday was in early December. The brunch was nice, we had scrambled eggs, bacon (which is really popular in this family, not complaining!!), fruit, and pancakes (which are expensive in Denmark so I probably won't have them many more times while I'm here..). In the afternoon I went to a church called Vineyard. It's a Danish speaking church, and is really contemporary. It reminds me a lot of a church called Liberti that I've gone to at school. There were about 8 of us that went, so we sat in the back and had someone translate the service for us. It was incredible. The first song they sang was in Danish, but the rest were in English, and we even sang Mighty to Save. There is something so incredible about worshipping at a church in a different country, in an entirely different language, with complete strangers, yet feeling so at home, because we are all bowing down to the same beautiful God. 

My invitation to the kid's birthday party!

The Little Mermaid statue!

This week has been pretty simple. It snowed Monday morning, so it's been wonderful to have snow on the ground the past few days (the only good thing about the freezing cold weather). Tonight I'm going to my first choir practice, with a student choir that's based out of the Copenhagen Business School. Friday morning I leave with the rest of the Architectural Design deparement for our short study tour. We're going to Western Denmark and visiting 4 cities. I'm really excited to see a part of Denmark I haven't seen yet! It'll be cold, but what else is new?! 

first week complete!

Can't believe it's been almost a week and a half since I've arrived in København. It's beautiful, quiet, and FREEZING! It's supposed to go up to 30 degrees today, and the high's for this weekend are in the low 20's... yikes! I've heard it's going to be the coldest weather Denmark has seen in over 25 years (and spring is coming when?!)
Classes started on Thursday, and it doesn't even feel like it! On Mondays and Thursdays, I have one 3 hour class, Tuesday and Fridays, class from 10 to 5, and Wednesdays are free! Although most times, classes schedule field trips. So now that it's Tuesday, I have had one day of each class, and they are starting off really easy, which I expected. The most challenging one for me will, of course, be Design, but I'm starting to see that my Watercolor class is going to be difficult too. I took the class but watercolor painting is the one thing that I have never been able to understand or do well, partly because I don't have nearly enough patience for it. So I decided to take the class to stretch myself a bit and try to learn something new. But, the first day proved to be a challenge and I know I'll have to push myself more to keep up with everyone else.
This past weekend was my first trip out of the city of København. We took a tour of Fredericksborg Castle which is located about 45 minutes outside of the capital city. It is the largest Renaissance castle in Scandinavia, and the Danish royalty used to live there. A lot of the PhilaU girls signed up for the trip, so it was fun to spend some time together! It is a very large and very beautiful castle! We spent some time in the gardens, but it was really cold, so we'll have to back in the Spring when it's warmer :)

                                               

                                                                         PhilaU girls :)

WOO!

This past Sunday was my first time going to church for the semester. I've been in contact with some girls, including my roommate from home Laurel, from DIS over the past few weeks, and we all decided to go to the International Church of Copenhagen. It's a Lutheran church, with a service entirely in English. They have about 60 people on a Sunday but it seems to be a strong community there. Afterwards, they have coffee and snacks so we joined them for that and were introduced to some of the members. Then, a group of us joined with a few members of the church who are in charge of their young people's bible study group, and we ate lunch at a local cafe. It was a great time of making new friends and enjoying more of this delicious Danish food :) 

feeling really oriented

Orientation is over! It's been a lot of information to take in, a lot of sites to see, and a lot of new faces. All in all, I've enjoyed getting to know this beautiful city I get to live in. The first day we had the opening ceremony, where the director of DIS spoke about the importance of the program and some of the new things we'll experience throughout the semester. I got to talk to some other people who are living with host families like I am. Although none of us live near each other, it was nice to figure out how other families are and talk about my family and some of the great and not so great things I'm going through. Tuesday, we had an 'Amazing Race' where we were given different locations around Copenhagen, and once we visited each place, someone would be there to give a brief history about the location. Here are some pictures of places I got to see!

                                          House of Parliament

                                          New Harbor (Nyhavn)

                                          Royal Palace - Got to see the Royal Guard Procession!

After, we met with our whole program, which includes Architecture, Urban Design, and Interior Architecture. They gave a brief history of Copenhagen, then showed some examples of work from each program and some expectations. Then today I had a session on Cultural Diversity, something that has had a great impact on me even on day 4 of this crazy time. This evening there was an activity fair where all the clubs and organizations gave information about their groups. I'm looking into the choir, but that won't start for a few weeks, so I'll see how much time I have.
Later, a bunch of the PhilaU girls went out to a local cafe, where we drank tea and coffee and caught up with each other! One thing I didn't expect is that since I live on the outskirts of the city, I'm not near most of my friends who live on the other side of Copenhagen. It'll make visiting them a little difficult, but we should be able to meet up in the city.
Tomorrow is my first class, and after is a social with the rest of the Architecture Department. I'll update again soon!

not in Kansas anymore!

Goddag! I'm finally here! Hard to believe, and still trying to really get my head around what's happened in the last 24 hours. I arrived in Copenhagen (or Kobenhavn as I should start calling it) at 6:30 AM this morning. For future reference, Denmark is 6 hours ahead of the U.S. The plane was an hour delayed because it was snowing and the winds were bad. However, the flight was 2 hours shorter than expected, so we ended up arriving an hour early anyway! After baggage, the couple of us who are staying with host families took a shuttle to a nearby hotel, where we checked in and our host families picked us up. My host mom, brother, and sister were there right away to greet me which was wonderful! We packed my large suitcases into their tiny car and headed off. On the way to their house, we stopped at a local supermarket and picked up fresh bread and pastries. Yes, that's right, my first food in Denmark was a Danish :) After the market, we arrived at their house. The biggest house on the block, and one of the prettiest too! There are 3 supermarkets and 2 gas stations within walking distance, and the 2 buses into the city stop right around the corner. Being told I have to be at school at 8:45 tomorrow morning was a little nerve wracking, but Karin (my host mom) walked me through the schedule, the stops, the names of those stops (which I might never be able to pronounce), and using my bus pass.
I've clicked with host family very well. I have to admit, there has been a lot of information thrown my way, along with a lot of Danish, but it's beginning to sink in. My host mom is named Karin, and she speaks English VERY well, which is such a great blessing. Her son Gustav is 11, and daughter Ida is 8. They speak English as well, but talk in Danish 95% of the time. But Karin translates for me, and has made me feel very at home. Peter, my host dad, was on a business trip this past week so he was not here to greet me this morning, but is supposed to arrive in the next hour or so.
As soon as I walked in the door, Gustav played me a song on the piano (he's REALLY good by the way). Both the kids are taking lessons, and both are brilliant. Ida showed me some of her toys, and her dance skills :) After we had breakfast, I got a tour of the house, which is 3 floors and very old, but lovely. I then took a 3 hour nap, because I didn't sleep at all on the plane. When I woke up, Karin had made lunch. Ida had one of her friends over, so I met her. Karin and I then went back to the supermarket to pick up some bread and lunch meat for me to make a sandwich tomorrow. In Denmark, it is expected that you pack a lunch. The peanut butter was too expensive, so we have to wait til that goes on sale. Peanut butter is rare and expensive in Denmark, but I told Karin how important it is to me, so we're figuring it out :) We then went to Karin's favorite cafe and had cappucino's (delicious!) and then came back to the house. I walked through my schedule for the week and she talked to me about all the transportation things. Dinner was chicken sandwiches. Surprisingly enough, the Kristensen's have chicken for almost every meal, so I feel RIGHT at home!!!
Tomorrow begins 3 days of orientation. It will be a TON of info, as it should be, so hopefully I won't get too overwhelmed. My class schedule is really nice, so I'm anxious to start on Thursday. Getting used the house today has been good, but I'm excited to be with my friends again tomorrow. It was great flying with people I know, and I'm glad we're all here to keep each other company :)
Farvel (Bye) for now!

night before life goes on

The time is finally here! Tomorrow afternoon I head to New York, where I'll fly straight to Copenhagen. The plan is to get there at around 7 AM Sunday morning, which will be about 1:30 AM U.S. time. Hearing about the snow that is coming tomorrow makes me a little nervous, especially for the drive to the airport, but I know that God's in control of everything, and that if I'm meant to board the plane, I will! I'm so grateful for everyone who has wished me well, and I know this will be the best experience of my life.
I have been in touch with my host family, and they seem wonderful! They live 5 minutes from the airport, so transitioning to my new home Sunday afternoon should be fairly easy. I'm hoping that as the semester goes on, our schedules will mix well and I'll find a new home with the Kristensen's :)
Looking at the suitcases that are currently scattered around the first floor of my house, it is becoming more and more real that this will definitely be an adventure. Trying to not overpack has been a challenge (and I'm not sure if I've succeeded...) but I'm hoping to leave some things in Denmark and bring some European treasures back in exchange!
Now it's time to get some rest (at least try to!) in preparation for what tomorrow will bring. But, as I keep telling myself, I can't plan for tomorrow, but only for the present day God has given me. Thank you for the prayers and please keep them coming, as the next few days will be full of radical change (and a nervous stomach). Luckily, I'm traveling with 9 other girls from PhilaU, most of whom are some of my closest friends. Can I ask for anything more?!
Next time I write on here, I'll be in Denmark. CAN'T WAIT!!!

so this is a blog?!

My name is Ashley, and I created this blog to keep my family and friends up to date on my semester in Copenhagen, Denmark! At this moment, I'm a Junior at Philadelphia University, studying Interior Design, but soon, I'll be a Junior at DIS (Danish Institute for Study Abroad) located in the center of Copenhagen. I don't leave for another 16 days, but I know the 21st is going to get here before I know it. I'm very excited and I appreciate the support and prayers that I know have already been headed my way. Can't wait to keep you updated on life with the Danes! :)