Well friends, it has been seven weeks since I left Portland. Feels like a lifetime has passed. Spring is starting here in Denmark - couldn't have come soon enough.
"Oh, well good morning little flowers". That is what I said out loud while on a jog. It must be noted that I have made it seven weeks without really putting my foot in my mouth, or been caught talking to myself by strangers. In the past 36 hours I have managed to make up for lost time.
I have spent the last four days sitting around the house. Something I haven't been able to do since at least December when my dad was in town. I have been cleaning though, in an effort to make up for being in my pajamas for two full days. Having a cold hasn't helped matters much.
This past week I went on a long study tour with school. I am creating a separate post for that as it was five days in four cities. Not much sleep was involved. So here are some pictures, non-study tour related.
The day before I found this on the ground, I was walking past a guy trying to start his car with no success. Nothing says "my car won't start but I will be back" quite like this sign.
This building is by a Danish architect- name unknown at this time. It is called the Champagne building. Obvious reasons.
I recently learned that as a blog reader you can click on the photo to enlarge it. What a world we live in! This photo is worth the click. This is the outside of the Citadel. Constructed between 1661-66 it is one of the best examples of Bastions and Ramparts still in existence. This area used to protect the king and his army, but now it houses the Danish CIA, officers, and a military church. I am taking the picture from the Envelope (outer walkway). The large mound in front is Face and Flank side of the Bastion. This became the best method for protecting a city (or at least the king). Is my nerd showing yet? Good.
New reading glasses. Don't I look smarter? Oh yeah, and that's the Citadel Church behind me.
Me standing on the Curtain of a Bastion. (I have a test on these terms this week.)
As someone who likes to garden, I can appreciate a good hedge. But really? Who trims this? How do they do it? It's flawless!
Genius.
This is the kid seat on my professor's bike. Notice there is no safety belt, or any safety features for that matter.
Their playgrounds are super cool.
Here is the model my group built the week before we left for our long study tour. This is of Hafencity in Hamburg, Germany.
This a great art experiment going on around the city. These people set up cones and rope themselves off in a public space. They just sit and read, file their nails, do something mundane. The question being, what is truly public space and how do we define it? Who can occupy it? I excitedly approached this lady as I had seen film of this going on at one of the galleries around town. She was really nice and accommodating. I asked her if I could come into her space and have my photo taken with her. She thought for a moment and said, "Yeah, cause you're a student". Can I just say how often the student thing works! Why do I want to be done with school again? Oh yeah, money.
This is an Arne Jacobsen building.
This bike rocks my socks. I think I could have just as many bikes as I do shoes.
I kinda want a wall like this in my house, strangely enough.
Well thank heavens they weren't zombies.
Enough of the fluff. On to more serious stuff- I was talking to a professor about diagramming things after listening to a RadioLab where a guy diagrams his life. This is interesting to me for two reasons. First, I have five years worth of data . . . my weight, diet, exercise, sex, sleep, body temp, general mood, periods. It has been fascinating to me to look over this data set and realize patterns. So the guy on RadioLab did this for himself and his father who had recently passed away. It becomes a disconnected, objective, and at the same time identifiable way to view the actions that make up who we are. The second reason, I have to diagram everything for urban planning.
This is my first attempt. More R & D still needs to be done.
Loneliness is one of my categories. Charting that seems to be challenging. I, for the most part, have made a couple of friends and I am reasonably close to my host family. But still . . . there is nothing that compares to the friendship of your spouse, close/old friends, and family. In my moments of reflection I can ask, how often am I truly alone? The Dali Lama once said (this a loose quotation) that everyone he meets is an old friend; because as he has stood before them, he meets another human being that needs compassion, love, and tenderness just as he does. Just as any friend does.
Cue Garrison Keillor for the Writers Almanac.
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