The Bailey Planet – Page 3 – nothing adventured. nothing attained. -Peter McWilliams

April 5, 2016

hår skære (hair cut)

One thing I didn’t expect to need while abroad was a hair cut (hår skære). Since my travel break with my Urban Studies class is coming up, I figured this was the week to figure it out and get my hair chopped.

I went to the place advised by my school, a School for Hairstylists, where its a bit cheaper than a fancy salon. The woman who I got to cut my hair didn’t speak any English, but surprisingly we understood each other very well and she cut my hair the perfect length!

(sorry, no pictures of the hair, but here’s a pretty mural)

The experience was similar to a beauty school in the United States, where you: get your hair washed, then cut, then dried. It was actually much more relaxing not being able to “chit-chat” as my eardrums were able to enjoy the quiet atmosphere(except for the hairdryer of course).

April 3, 2016

checking off the “Must See” List

This weekend, being home in Copenhagen meant going to see some things I still hadn’t stumbled upon yet or just wanted to do.

One of those things was going on a “free” walking tour around Copenhagen City center. Crazy as that sounds (for living here for three months) I still wanted a little refresher for some historical knowledge, maybe some insights from the tour guide and another refresher on how to move about the city and how everything connects.

Emma and me at the most touristy place; Nyhavn

Next, my friends Emma, Valerie and I climbed the Church of Our Savior spire. It is by far the best overview of Copenhagen. If you’re not afraid of heights, or small spaces, definitely a must do.

“everything the clouds cover is our kingdom” -Mufasa

Then I finished off the evening with a dinner with a group of Smithies (Smith College students) who are also studying abroad in Copenhagen this semester. We have been meaning to get together all semester and so we finally did! (Thanks to the reservation making at Paper Island by Emily!)

Denmark Smithies Get Together

March 30, 2016

I Understand

“I understand.” Tonight, this was what I responded at least 30 times from listening to my host dad, Hans-Erik give me all sorts of life advice.

The list of advice varied considerably from:

How to pan fry the back and butt parts of pork (it’s a tasty science)

adding salt to make sure the pieces get crispy

Wine
Beer
Young Peoples’ Drinking Tastes
Group Dinners, the togetherness of specific types of company
Increasing immunity to diseases and well being overall

I cannot even begin to explain what I’ve learned these past few months from both of my host parents. I picked a homestay while abroad because I was expecting to build a nice “friend-family” type relationship with them. I wasn’t expecting the self and life evaluating effect their discussions would have in my thinking about the bigger picture of life in general.

This sounds very theological but its not even their opinions on subjects that I’m referring to. It’s their general sense of living, cooking, style and sense of being happy.

I might have also been influenced by the quote in this article (http://thelala.com/too-comfortable-in-routine/)

There are two options in life: you can either grow or stay the same. Which will you choose?

I am realizing how much my ideas, opinions, and thoughts have really grown this semester just from my surroundings and interactions.

frying up din din: thanks H-E for trying to teach me life skills

March 28, 2016

It’s the Climb

Prague was the next destination on SB2016 (Spring Break 2016).

We climbed every mountain, ate all the Trdelniks (one of each variety including; plain, ice cream filled and nutella covered), and laughed more than enough to make me excited for senior year.

first of the tower cakes (trdelniks)

Tien and I met my two good Smith friends Preeti and Sadaf in Prague and wandered around the city for two days with them. By wander, I mean literally walked to the other side of town, climbed a mountain, and wandered back. It was actually my favorite day, as I hadn’t seen either of them in almost a year (they both did full year programs in Geneva and Paris, respectively).

Catching up with old friends and exploring a new city is seriously the best thing, no plans, just talking about life.

candid laughter (thanks random stranger dude for not running away with my camera)

one of the gothic style churches in Prague

We also ran into another DIS student from my Human Trafficking class, Avantika and her friend Rachel on the street. We were all on the way to the John Lennon Wall so we ended up hanging out with them for the day. We climbed another mountain, ate brunch, and had a nice Easter Sunday of a bit more relaxed wandering about.

love is all you need (Rachel, Preeti, Sadaf, Tien, Avantika, Bailey [me])

We were also fortunate to catch some cherry blossoms in bloom on the lower half of one of the mountains. So of course, in preparation for senior year, we took some pictures (don’t worry dad, college senior pictures all taken care of !).

modeling with the cherry blossoms (reward for climbing a really tall hill)

modeling with the cherry blossoms (thanks to Rachel being a great photographer! )

The last full day Tien and I were there (Preeti and Sadaf left early in the morning for Budapest!) we did another free walking tour and tried to cross off the last things on our list. We finally climbed to the Prague Castle, found the best view of the city from the Monastery next to the castle and felt really accomplished for finally finding “the view”.

TN&B travel buddies (the view was difficult to capture, more of an experience than a capture-able image)

Later that night I finally got to see my friend Christina (from High School) who is studying in Prague this semester. I was so happy I got to see her in “her city” and catch up on life. Once again, so interesting how a different place can change your perspective for the better and just so nice to see a familiar face I knew, in a place I didn’t know.

Seeing the local, Christina!!

thanks prahaha for the laughs, the catching up with friends and the mountains for helping me work off all the chocolate I’ve been eating!

March 25, 2016

off to Berlin!

This week is technically DIS Spring Break (I reiterate, we have many nice breaks for getting out to experience culture). Due to the unfortunate events in Brussels, my plans to go there were thrown into complete disarray. So, my friend Tien and I went to Berlin instead.

You may say, why Berlin?

Well, our only “real” reservations were for Prague starting Saturday, so busing to Berlin, and train hopping from there to Prague seemed to be the easiest route to keep those plans. Tien’s friend also happens to be studying in Berlin, and thus we had a floor to sleep on (thank you Kat!). Berlin wasn’t exclusively on either of our “must-see” lists, but it was definitely a good idea to go.

We were able to take a free walking tour and then also an alternative tour of the city’s historical area and more modern, hippie-ish areas. It ended up being quite a lot of walking, but then again when doesn’t Europe include lots of walking.

Bradenburg Gate

where international artists can legally post whatever they want

Another place we loved was Fassbender & Rausch aka. a huge chocolate shop with phenomenal chocolate sculptures of Berlin landmarks. Also, specialty hot chocolate in their upstairs café.

hot chocolate trio of mugs

Lastly, my favorite part of Berlin was a “food-truck community” type place inside a huge warehouse. It was interesting because people can try their food stand idea out for a couple of months and then determine if people like it (buy it) to keep their stand or abandon their idea for something else. It’s similar to Paper Island back in Copenhagen. It reminded me very much of Copenhagen, the hygge feeling and maybe it was also just the sweetness of all the delicious, freshly made food and drink aromas.

as a cheese addict, I had to try their version of mac-n-cheese

the owner caught in the "making" stage of spatzle

the owner caught in the “making” stage of spatula (german noodles)

So, mainly we walked and ate a lot, but it was a very fun and unexpected couple of days, which are the best kind of days in the end!

March 21, 2016

Urban Exploring

One thing that I have taken for granted many times this semester is the amount of travel and questioning of differently constructed spaces I have been exposed to in my core course of Urban Studies.

Sluseholmen, Denmark

We have focused on different aspects that go into creating a livable space including (but not limited to) transportation, community, environment, general aesthetics, location, and the underlying politics.

Field Study to the Municipality Office (“heart of Copenhagen Planning”)

As an anthropology major I have found myself very interested in the reasons people choose to live where they live. This course has made me think even more about the underlying and more abstract components to planning out a space and the things that do matter in people’s individual, everyday lives.

As a person who lives in a suburb in Minnesota and/or Massachusetts, I rely normally on an automobile as transportation. This course, and living in Denmark in general, has really made me think about the underlying infrastructure that needs to be in place in order to have a fully functioning public transportation system.

“8Tallet” Building by BIG in Amager (part of Ørestaden)

Copenhagen is truly catered towards such a system through designated bike lanes, regional and suburb trains, the metro system, and bus lines. From seeing how relied on and reliable each sub-sect of the system is has changed my perspective of what makes a city “great”. So while good food, interesting buildings/museums, street art and cute shops are nice, transportation can make or break a city in the grand scheme of life.

Urban Studies "Field Study" in Sluseholmen, DK

Urban Studies Last (General) Field Study in Sluseholmen, DK

So while I sometimes dread the crazy adventures and various coordination I have to do early in the morning to get to some of these less centrally located areas, I end up being thankful for the sessions and inspired by the new ideas and questions they present. They make me think about life from a different footing literally each time.

I am also very thankful when there is a local coffee shop nearby to wake up my brain cells and introduce me to delicious tasting coffee and cute atmospheres (talking about Riccos Kaffebar from this morning!).

*all group/class photos courtesy of my professor Silvia Dragomir

March 20, 2016

Aarhus Art

Yesterday, my friend Kristen and I made plans to check off something on both of our Denmark to-do lists. Go to the ARoS Museum in Aarhus, Denmark.

Many core courses went there for part of their core course weeks, but neither of ours did. So, this Saturday seemed as good of time as any to go!

I could write about all of the interesting things we saw, were made to feel, or things we were forced to question while wandering through the various exhibits, but instead below are just some pictures of my favorite and interesting parts of this museum.

Jani Leinonen; The Most Terrible Things

rainbow panorama “purple-pink-orange”

Jani Leinonen; “Signs bought from homeless people in a variety of places across the world”

Leonard Rickhard

new head-shot

Mao Tongqiang; Death for Whom “textile scraps, buttons and detonated missiles”

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

our favorite section of the rainbow panorama

Please note: that I highly recommend visiting the entire town of Aarhus, and making a whole weekend out of their quaint, but large city. It is a “bucket-list” type town of Denmark, but then again, every part of Denmark is worth seeing and experiencing. I wish I had realized this prior to adventuring out there, but I guess this just means I have even more of a reason to go back!

March 17, 2016

Green Beer

Today was a very packed St. Patrick’s Day, not nearly as packed as my days filled with dancing from venue to bar, but quite filled nonetheless.

My friends Tien, Sammy and I went to the outdoors celebration near the town hall in Copenhagen to hear some Irish music and see some irish dancing. Due to this being our first legal St. Patrick’s Day, Sammy and I decided to try some Guinness.

first reactions

Unfortunately, we were unable to sweet talk our way onto the stage to dance with a Swedish (Irish) band, but it was still fun to see some dancers dance the Traditional Set Dance, St. Patrick’s Day on stage before us.

Then, Tien and I had a DIS sponsored free Canal Tour that we ran to catch. It was a special event that allowed a whole slew of students to see Copenhagen from a different perspective, on the water. We also had some wonderful entertainment/tour guides of eloquently dressed Drag Queens.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

We had a blast just hearing their wonderful commentary on the city and waving to the people on land.

adventuring to the coldest seats in the front of the boat

The last part of my day involved meeting back up with Sammy. Her mom had requested us to make sure we did a treble reel together, film it and send the video to her. I can happily say, we were successful, but I am not posting the vid here. Instead here’s a lovely pic of Sammy with the obligatory green beer we (both) had in celebration of the holiday of good ol’ green-luck.

could food coloring actually make beer taste better?

March 16, 2016

all the birthday celebrations

So yesterday on the 15th of March was my host dad Hans-Erik’s birthday. To celebrate his fødselsdag we hosted a huge dinner for his family consisting of his sister, her husband, his mom Helga and our neighbors Mette and Peter.

the crew around the table

It’s interesting how different yet similar birthdays are celebrated. Lots of Danish flags are placed outside, inside and a special one in front of the birthday person.

I really enjoyed seeing how it was the birthday person giving back to those they love most, or care about most in their life. I would compare it to kids bringing cupcakes in for their birthday in grade school. I suppose, birthdays are celebrated in a mainly similar way in the US. One main difference is (at least in my family)its typical to go out to one’s favorite restaurant on their birthday, rather then cooking up a special three or four course meal.

ice man

It was so special and exciting to see such a festive birthday celebration and truly feel the hygge of love all around.

March 13, 2016

learning to cook

So today there was a special event in Copenhagen which could be comparable to a food expo. My host parents are very foodie, and very good cooks, so it was a whole adventure to go to the Irma Food Festival!

(left to right) Peter, Hans-Erik, Jette, Me and Hans-Erik’s mother Helga

I had a blast trying a variety of Danish foods, as well as just eating a variety of cheeses, meats, ice creams, and snacks. Hans-Erik was extremely excited for this event as he used to work for Irma, which is a Danish grocery store chain, when he was in Law school and during the summer.

My favorite part of this experience was getting to know Hans-Erik’s mother, who only speaks Danish and only understands Danish. It was lots of gesturing and thumbs up signals, but despite the language barrier I had a wonderful day getting close with her. There are no real words to describe or explain the overall atmosphere of such an event, but I am so happy to have been invited to go with my (host) family.

striking a pose with Peter

making Jette, Hans-Erik and Annabel do it for the red noses

making Jette, Hans-Erik and Helga do it for the red noses

The other wonderful treat I was able to enjoy was seeing flodebollers being made. They are a chocolate with cream inside, bell shaped concoction.

So, if I come back to the states with a fuller figure, it really won’t be that surprising! Also, I know my host parents (and probably real parents, too) are hoping that I will pick up a few tricks and be able to cook more than grilled cheese by the time this semester is over.

Newer Posts Older Posts