Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Final Week, Finals Week

As cliché as the phrase is, time truly does fly when you're having fun.  Looking back on my time in Copenhagen thus far, that's exactly what I've been doing.

Studying, of course, has been involved, too, with preliminary assignments, midterms, and some reading.  Lectures were Monday-Thursday every week with a few Friday sessions as well.  Recently, I have been putting the study in study abroad more thanks to my two final exams taking place this week.

On Monday, I completed my four-hour, sixty-question Fundamentals of Finance exam.  Though I can't be sure how well I did, I'm pretty confident I at least passed the exam.  Some questions were more challenging than others, and several questions caused me to second-guess, but ultimately, the assessment did not seem too awful.

With one class done (yay!), I have one more to go.  My Introduction to Marketing final exam is tomorrow, but after that, I am free to enjoy my final days in this wonderful city.

These past few days alone, I have gone from Kronborg Castle to Christiania, from Baresso to Bakken, and to many other places in between.  Even though I've been in Copenhagen since June, there's still so much more to see and do.  To be honest, when choosing this study abroad program, I did not know there would be that many activities and attractions in Denmark.  My summer in Copenhagen and the experiences I've had truly reflect how great it is to live here.

On Saturday, three friends and I took a train to Helsingor to see Hamlet's [Kronborg] Castle.  There, we went on a thirty minute introduction tour of the castle before exploring the rest on our own.  Afterwards, we walked into the town a bit and had some Italian food for lunch before returning to Copenhagen.



Castle ahead!  I loved the pavement directions.

Ballroom inside the castle where royalty would impress guests.



The castle's chapel, a Lutheran church!
Our ticket let us enter the casemates of the castle.  It was a bit dark being underground!

Mini model and actual castle.

Cute, patriotic Danish flags wave across the streets in Helsingor.

On Sunday, I took the opportunity to go museum-hopping and tourist-shopping.  Since the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek museum is free to the public on Sundays, I wanted to check it out!  From there, I bought a few souvenirs downtown before finding Nationalmuseet (which always has free entry).

View from my walk past Islands Brygge towards city center/ the museums

Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

Turns out, it is an art museum.. and this piece was probably my favorite.  I find the expression to be pretty funny.

Am I studying abroad, or am I on a tropical vacation?  (Just kidding.)  The center of the museum had a garden with palm trees!

Ballet dancer sculpture by Degas

After some searching, I found museum #2.  At this point, I was already pretty satisfied with how many museum exhibits I had seen, so I didn't spend much time here.

From what I did see of the National Museum, there were several representations of Jesus' passion (plus plenty of artifacts from Denmark's history).  The museum is also set in what used to be the residence of some royalty.  Since the Nationalmuseet prides itself on being selfie-friendly, I took a selfie in this old-fashioned bedroom.
 

On the walk home, I passed the pretty Christiansborg Palace (from behind).

Hungry from my journey, I bought dessert (bottom left corner, second pastry from left) at a random bakery for part of my late lunch.

I took the long way home and walked past one of the Big Four accounting firms.  Nothing like a good reminder of why I'm here.  (Okay, classes towards my degree is only part of the reason!)

After Monday's finance exam, I finally was able to exerience Christiania.  Christiania is world-famous for being a free town or hippie commune.  No photography is allowed, which adds to the mystique (though I did sneak a few shots of the nature path we took inside and a pretty view of the water).  The area doesn't have the greatest reputation, which is why I hadn't checked it out earlier by myself, but I felt completely fine.  Walking around with Ronnie and Elyse during the day, nothing was unsafe about our being there.  I even made a purchase: nothing bad, just a 20 DKK braided-leather bracelet.

Our Savior's Church in Christianshavn on the way to Christiania

Approaching Christiania!

Leaving Christiania, going back home to the European Union.



Afterwards, we grabbed waffle cones and headed for Frederiksberg Have.  A friend was playing a mini-concert, so we sat in the grass, relaxed, and listened to some songs to cap off a long but successful day.

One of the best waffle cones I have ever had, and the ice cream was pretty good, too!

My view in the park.


How picturesque is Frederiksberg Have?!

Yesterday (Tuesday), I met my friend Lauren at the Danish coffee chain Baresso at Norreport.  After purchasing a muffin and Chaiz (frozen chai-cino), we were off to the train station.  For only a two-supplement ticket (24 DKK) to my monthly metro pass, I was able to ride to Klampenborg, where Bakken, the world's oldest amusement park is located.  Along the way, a friendly woman noticed the uncertainty Lauren and I had regarding which trains to take and said, "Follow me!"  Thanks to her kindness, we successfully made it to our destination with plenty of time to buy wristbands and ride "alllll the rides."

We ended up not quite going on every ride--as I wasn't feeling the best towards the end--but we hit all the big rides, nonetheless.  I had fun again being an amusement park guest, knowing that exactly one week later, I'll be back to work as an amusement park associate.

These moving/spinning platforms are a common way to hop on and off amusement park rides in Denmark, I've noticed.

Before getting soaked on the very first ride!


Looks harmless, right?  The ride turned out to be kind of scary, like a haunted house.


I enjoyed being at the world's oldest amusement park; going was definitely a necessity while living in Copenhagen.

I love the coasters in the sun. ;) The ride at the front, Tornado, was quite thrilling.  I didn't realize I chose the wrong side to sit on, so Lauren and I were backwards riding this roller coaster.  Across from us were two Danish children: one, a boy with a maniacal laugh.  Going on rides with random Danes did enhance the experience of Bakken, that's for sure.

Let's fly!

I beat Lauren on this shooting ride.  All the while, I hadn't realized I was hitting many targets or that it was even working!


Trying to decide where to eat, we found this 25-kroner place!  Not a bad deal.

Oh so Danish.. my two-scoop waffle cone topped with whipped cream and jam!

Finishing off my second ice cream cone in two days--yes, I have had a good number of waffle cones here, it's fine--is where some excitement happens.  I say excitement loosely, because I'm not entirely thrilled with the outcome, but the story does get interesting.  We sat down to eat our desserts, so when I was done, I was going through my bag (drawstring CMU backpack, fire up!).  Rummaging through everything, I knew something was missing, and patting my pockets, my phone was nowhere to be found.  The last time I recall using it was at the train station, checking the time; somewhere between Norreport and Bakken, 12:12 to roughly 4:30 pm, my phone either fell or was taken from my pocket or bag.  I went to both information sites for lost-and-found as well as several of the rides I went on, and nobody found a phone, though the ride operators were extremely nice about trying to help.  Feeling sure that further searching wouldn't yield advantageous results, I resolved to email the address given to me by the park, and we left Bakken.


Fun times at Bakken!  Lost my phone but gained some memories, right?



Before leaving Klampenborg, at the suggestion of our friend from earlier in the day, we went to the beach.  We wished we had swimsuits and other beach gear, because it turned out to be so nice!  The water wasn't cold, and the beach was sandy.  Pretty perfect.




This side of the beach appeared to have a pier.  Walking the pier in Grand Haven on Lake Michigan is one of my favorite pastimes, so I suggested we go walk the pier.  As we approached the area, however, there were several nude people; awkwardly, we turned around and walked away!  Not at all what we were expecting.  That moment was definitely one of the strangest and uncomfortable (culture shock, I guess) moments of studying abroad here! 

Once I got back to my dorm, I contacted my mom regarding my phone.  There had been no activity on my phone, which is good and bad I guess.  Since I don't have an international plan, I was primarily concerned about the fees if someone tries using my American phone.  Unfortunately, being abroad, there's no way to call my phone and find it (my phone has been on airplane mode this entire time), and I'm pretty sure it's gone forever.  Who knows what happened, and why I'm phone-less indefinitely, but I'm mostly sad about all of the pictures I'll never get back.  Before coming to Denmark, I literally never used my camera, so all of the other fun activities I've done in the past year or so (including my Alternative Breaks, mission trip, and second-year college life in general) were documented on that Droid Mini.  (In Copenhagen, I still took quite a bit of photos with my phone.)  I will never have those reminders back, so for that, I'm disappointed.

On the other hand, phones aren't everything.  They can be replaced.  I'm sure I'll get another cell phone to use once I return home.  Until then, I'm going to enjoy not having a phone to stare at.  Living in the moment is underrated.  As I keep saying, my peers and I only have so much time in Copenhagen.  For most of these people (hopefully not all), I know that goodbyes are fast approaching.  Until then, I want to make the most of my final time here.

Thus, it is time to study up for tomorrow's four-question essay exam in hopes of a successful ending to Introduction to Marketing and to the rest of the week.