Last Week in CPH

Last Sunday, Laura was still here but I had to work on my final presentation a little bit and then had plans to go to Virum, a suburb farther away from the inner city than Hvidovre. My friend Nathalie, who lives in Copenhagen, lives there with her family and she had invited me over for dinner. The dinner was lovely and was made cholesterol free for me (YAY!!!) and Nathalie showed me around her neighborhood. There are some beautiful trails and lakes near her house and is the perfect distance from the inner city with the amazing view of the country. We talked about her trip to Israel and her future plans for making Aliya (moving to Israel) as well as finding more mutual friends in common (not hard with Scandinavian Jews). Finally it was time for me to leave and meet up with Laura. I called her and she didn't answer her phone. I called her again...no answer. I began to get super worried when I arrived at central station 45 minutes later and still had no response to my calls. The biggest problem (not that losing Laura was a small problem) was that Laura had my key. I began to panic so I biked back to Hvidovre hoping that something happened to her phone, she realized and then came back to Hvidovre and was waiting for me. As I biked I received a call and stopped my bike to check my phone. I love getting calls from Sid but I was so angry and worried and was just so upset that it wasn't Laura, that I ignored the call and continued biking. As I parked my bike, a guy came in my direction with the key to open the Kollegium. I was thrilled and hopped right into the building. Then I realized he was going in my hall, so I took that  opportunity as well. As I walked down my hall I prayed that Laura was in there and the door was open and guess what? IT WAS! Laura's first words were "Did you get Sid's call?" and thats when I realized she was speaking to him online and he has called to let me know Laura was in my room. If only I wasn't so dramatic I would have been calm, but instead it made a great story. Laura apparently fell in love with the book I lent her to read that day ("The Red Tent" by Anita Diamond...sooo good!) that she spent the day reading a chapter, walking to find a new spot, read another chapter, walking and finding a new spot...until she realized her phone had died.

 The next morning Laura packed her things and we headed to DIS for me to deal with my finishing touches to my project and for her to finish reading the book. When all that was done, we went out to eat an Indian meal and then I brought Laura to central station. We found her train to Utrecht and then I left. As I was walking back to DIS to meet up with Natalie and Sarah, Laura called me in a panic and said that as she was getting on the train she fell and scraped both of her legs and was bleeding everywhere. She was in such a state of shock (and so was I) that she didn't know what to do. I told her to find someone who worked on the train and ask for a first aid kit and then she told me she was ok and hung up. And thats how Laura left Copenhagen. A few hours later she sent me an SMS saying she was fine, the conductor helped her clean her wounds and he checks up on her every hour. And that was her 15 hour train ride to the Netherlands.

 Tuesday was our final presentations and they were pretty easy. Honestly, we just needed to make sure we had all our prints together in a book form, then have a process book and  our final print. Some people went above and beyond to make their books really beautiful...I chose the simple route since I had Laura to entertain. Still, out presentations lasted till 2pm and then we were free! ACTUALLY FREE!

 Sarah, Natalie and I decided it was time to celebrate with a beer, so we went down to the old harbor and sat at a cafe and sipped on our Carlsbergs as we enjoyed not having to deal with ANYTHING! 

Wednesday was our opening exhibition, so we had to get to the Royal Architecture School at 9am. I biked to St.Peter's bakery to meet up with Natalie and Katie but Katie over slept, so Natalie and I biked through Christiania over to the school. We biked into Brittany on our way and spent the morning setting up our portion of the exhibition. After that, I biked back to Hvidovre, napped, showered and got all dolled up for the exhibition opening. I met Katie and Ari at the bus stop and we picked up Natalie (in her Marimekko dress!) on the way. We finally arrived at the exhibition and it was BEAUTIFUL! To be honest, I think our colorful prints made everything even more amazing because we added a PUNCH of color! 

Everyone's furniture pieces looked amazing, I wasn't so impressed with the architecture and of course textiles were fantastic. They had beer and wine, so obviously I indulged myself and met a guy named Taylor who goes to school at University of Michigan Art & Design... who knew? To be honest I have been meaning to meet him all summer but have only been able to do so that night. He is a senior and seems cool. Nice to have met him and maybe I will see him on campus. Anyways, everyone seemed really impressed with our textiles and we tried out all the cool chairs around the room. It was really fun! Natalie was able to be an amazing chair model in her Marimekko outfit. After the show they served us dinner and most of the textiles ladies sat as a family for dinner. It was adorable, delicious and hilarious! Emma won an award for being everyone's best friend and for the moose/reindeer dance she created and we spent the rest of the night drinking and laughing as a group with our professors. Later that night we headed to Temple Bar but Natalie, Sarah and I decided to leave early because we had a HUGE day planned of tourist things. 

The next day I woke up and got to Natalie's apartment at 10am. The plan was to see Fredriksborg, a neighborhood that has a feel of the Upper East Side of NYC but in Copenhagen, on our bikes. So the first stop was to the Royal Copenhagen factory. Royal Copenhagen is a porcelain manufacturer that has been producing beautiful and expensive dinnerware for years. They have also been working with Georg Jensen as well. The only issue is that they don't give tours of the factory anymore, so we went to the outlet store (still crazy expensive) and looked at all the designs and patterns. 

After that we left for the Fredriksborg park where we walked our bikes around and saw a small castle and a famous soccer player (no idea who he is or his name) jogging. After that we walked down Fredriksborg Alle where we stopped for a lunch sandwich. Next, we biked to the Carlsberg Brewery for a tour. I know I have already been there but last time I rushed through the exhibit so Laura and I could get to last call. This time I took my sweet time and read the entire exhibit and learned how beer is made and the history or Carl Jensen as well. After 2 beers each, we biked back to DIS, returned our keys and headed to the crafts fair. It was really beautiful and equally as expensive. Then we biked to Porn Sak and ate a delicious Thai meal before I biked back to Hvidovre. In all I biked around 20 miles Thursday! 

Friday was a sad day. I biked to the Royal Architecture School to pick up my work and then realized it was only 10am. I was returning my bike that day so I decided to make the best of it and biked all the way back to Hvidovre. Thats 14 miles in 2 hours! Anyways, after I dropped my stuff off and took a 30 minute nap, I biked back to the inner city to return my bike. I passed through all my favorite spots in the city and then finally made it up to the Danish Design School and returned my bike across the street. As I handed the man my bike key a rush of depression hit me. I was really leaving but in pieces. Little my little my Copenhagen life was coming to an end and it all started with returning my beautiful, kinda crappy, oily and trusty yellow bicycle. I had grown attached to the biking lifestyle and had to give it up 3 days before I actually left. I left the store and headed to the train. I was so sad but I had things to do, one of which was to go to the Danish Jewish Museum.The interior/architecture of the museum was designed by Daniel Libeskind and is really cool but the museum itself focuses a lot on Jewish artifacts and what they mean, which I think is great for non-Jews but kinda sucks for those of us who think of that as obvious. The little part about Jewish life in Denmark and especially the situation during WWII was fascinating and I really enjoyed learning about that. After the museum, I was on a mission to find a music store so I can buy CDs of Danish/Scandinavian folk music for presents. It was a lot harder than I thought. Finally I found 2 CDs and headed back to Hvidovre by bus to start packing. Later that night Natalie called and the three of us went out for pizza and then to Mice, our favorite bar. It was a great night and then we left to continue packing and getting ready for the next/last day of tourist adventures.

Yesterday the three of us met up and went to Amalienborg Slot museum  where we saw a bunch of the Queen's Jewelry and the Royal dishware and other stuff. After that we went to the Statens Museum where we looked at a bajillion paintings and even got to dance in a children's exhibit. It was super fun. After that I walked with Natalie to Nørreport station and I saw an orthodox Jewish man and said "Gut Shabbos" to him and we got into a little chat about what I am doing here. It was nice to interact with another member of the tribe while I was here. I went with Sarah and Natalie to return their bikes and then we headed up to Hillrød (which is in Northeast Zealand) to go to Fredriksborg Slot. We were able to see all the rooms in the Castle and a modern art exhibit upstairs and then the gardens which were a little too perfect for my liking. When we finally made our way back down to Copenhagen we each went back to our places to continue packing and then met up again for drinks at Mice. Katie and Ari had gone to  London for the weekend and Katie met up with us at mice. Sarah and Katie had flights in the morning and we drank to them! It was so nice and sad at the same time but we all had a great time. 

A week of Laura

The day my mother left (monday) was the same day Laura arrived. Laura, for those of you who don't know, is a friend/soon to be housemate from school. She has spent the summer traveling through Europe and I am her last stop before she goes to the Netherlands to spend the semester in Denhag. Anyways, earlier that day I was glued to the computer to finish up any last minute problems with my files for my digital print. We are required to print a few sample color ways and one large scale print in one color way. At 5pm on the dot I got a call from Laura and quickly headed to central station to meet her. It was so weird seeing someone from school in Copenhagen with me. She seemed exhausted! So we went back to my kollegium, made some pasta and sauce, opened up the bottle of red wine she had gotten me for my birthday, drank a glass and fell asleep. The next morning we woke up together and she came to class with me. I finished working on my digital files and then the two of us headed up to the Danish Design school to print out my project! It was so exciting, seeing my masterpiece come to life. First it was printed, then it had to dry, then steamed, washed, boiled, spun and lastly ironed!!! It took around 4 hours but we had many a fruit breaks to keep us sane. It was finally done!!! Since we were already in the northern part of Copenhagen, we went to see the little mermaid because when in Copenhagen, it is a sin not to. The tourists there are so funny. Anyways, we headed back to the Kolligium, made a delicious pasta and vegetable dish, ate it, watched some weird British version of CSI and fell asleep. 

The next morning I decided not to go to class because I was finished and it was just going to be printing madness for the other half of the class, so Laura and I went on an expedition to Louisiana. "What? Louisiana?!" you might be thinking. Yes, there is an amazing modern museum called the Louisiana in Hummelbaek, which is a 35 minute train ride north of Copenhagen. It houses some of the most amazing sculptures in their garden and they have a whole exhibit on future green architecture. It was pretty fantastic. After the museum, Laura and I headed back to Copenhagen and I showed her around Christiania. She loved all the houses and it's history so we decided to get lost there and found a group of hippies, jamming by a river. So we sat and listened to them play for an hour or so, then we headed back to the city center and headed  back to Hvidovre ate a massive dinner and fell asleep. 

Thursday morning, I woke up and Laura slept in. I biked to class and Helle Vibke was there explaining our portfolio process to us and I scanned my work in ALL DAY! Brittany's friend was going to be a model in a free fashion show that night so Laura and I tried to work into our schedule. After class, I met up with Laura and we headed back to Hvidovre to shower, change and get ready to go to the Carlsberg brewery. 

We finally got there and took our self guided tour which includes the largest unopened bottle collection, creepy wooden statues that show the process of making beer and at the end we got 2 free beers (one Carlsberg or Tuborg and one specialty beer). The place closed at 7:30pm and the guy at the front desk told us last call was at 7:30pm...we got there at 7pm and thats when Last Call was called. So we had 30 minutes to finish 2 delicious beers and we basically had empty stomachs. What a great idea! After the brewery we drunkenly walked over to this fashion show but quickly realized we needed food in our system. Across the street from the show there was the street of four Thai places including Porn-Sak...thats right, we ate at a place called Porn-Sak, which is conveniently quite close to the red light district. It was surprisingly very cheap and delicious! After dinner we headed to the fashion show but obviously missed the show. We met up with the majority of the "Textile Ten"  (that what we call ourselves), enjoyed a bit of the after party and then decided to go to a bar. We went to the Wall Street Pub closed to Norreport station (which is not close AT ALL!) I got a beer and ended up leaving around 11:30pm. It was really great to hang out with the rest of the group in a bar setting. Emma was saying the funniest things, less because of the alcohol and more because of her comfort level with us. It was great! 

Friday, Laura slept in again and I headed to DIS and we were all groggy but that was ok because we went to another fashion show. This one was from the design school in Kolding and the 6 graduates from the fashion program had their graduation show. It was very good. Some of the clothing was HILARIOUS and some were plain odd but it was way better than the photos we saw of the fashion show the night before by Design Crackers (no link cause they are so strange and have no site).

 After the show I spent the day making the books for my portfolio and then Natalie, Sarah and I met up with Laura at Riz Raz and ate a delicious vegetarian buffet dinner before going to Tivoli. There is a deal at Tivoli which it to get a cheaper ticket you need to buy it before 8pm and it gets more expensive after 8pm. Friday night was insane because AQUA was playing at Tivoli. Thats right, you read correctly, AQUA from the 90's, the Barbie Girl song group, was playing at Tivoli and that was amazing! The lines were CRAZY! A woman ended up handing out tickets for those of us who were on line before 8pm but couldn't pay to let the ticket man sell us the cheaper price. Tivoli is beautiful... It is actually a magical place. Rumor has it Walt Disney came here to get inspiration for Disney World/Land and in my opinion, he didn't do a great job. The most amazing part of Tivoli is the lighting. They have beautiful lights in amazing designs. I took a bunch of pictures that are on my facebook if you want to look at them. We headed in and split up into 2, Natalie and I went on the less terrifying rides and Laura went with Sarah and did the crazy rides. It was perfect!  But we did one ride together.

 The Flying Star, a "swings" type of ride that goes so high that you can see all of Copenhagen, and whats better is that it was just turning dark so everything was lit up. It was beautiful! Natalie and I rode a few roller coasters, a kiddy pirate ship ride, the carousel, a scary ride called the "Monsoon" AND got to catch the last bit of the AQUA show! The place was packed to capacity and it felt it. As soon as the concert ended, Natalie and I got a sorbet in a cone and walked to meet Sarah and Laura, headed for the bus and we all passed out in our own homes. 

Since Laura has been sleeping in I decided I deserves some sleep time as well. I slept in Saturday morning in true Shabbos fashion, then did my laundry, cleaned my room (around Laura) and then went jogging for the first time in a week. I started jogging in the beginning of the summer and have been really good about jogging almost twice a week. Here its harder when I have people staying with me, but I didn't care, I jogged for 30 minutes and came back sweating my life out, showering and then Laura and I made some food and watched awful TV (it was our lazy day). Last night was a whole other story. It was Emma's birthday and she wanted her party to be on an old German boat that was transformed into a bar/club. Laura, Katie, Chris and I left Hvidovre, met up with Natalie and Sarah and headed to a park with some beers and cider from a kiosk and pregammed in the park. It was beautiful outside. We finally headed to the boat and the rest of the night was filled with laughing and a bit of drinking. The band downstairs wasn't bad either...Junior Boys, from Canada...who knew? Anyways, I am now awake on a Sunday morning and need to head to DIS and finish up some last minute stuff!

My print!

So I know I haven't written in around a week, but I am making an emergency post from the DIS building! I have finished my print and with the help of adobe photoshop, I can put it into context!!!

Wouldn't you want this in your living room?

Wall paper in the bathroom seems very nice don't you think?


A nice curtain perhaps?

Oh Mother!

This week has been a really tough one. I feel like my mom decided to visit at the busiest part of the program. Everyday we had to stay after class at print more and more samples and every day I felt guilty not meeting up with her as soon as class ended. Thursday the 30th, we spent the entire morning working on our digital print designs. Malena and Gundhil didn't mention how far behind we were until the very last minute when we were all freaking out because Friday they were not going to be in class because we were working with Helle Vibke on our portfolios. Suddenly everyone got into "stress work" mode and of course, they scheduled a field trip for the afternoon. We went by metro to Tietgens Kollegiet, a Kollegium (like the one I am living in) where students studying for their masters degrees may live in and the design is beautiful. It was built in 2005 but people have been living there for 2 1/2 years now. It was donated by Nordea Bank and I already forgot the name of the architect but it was designed so that nobody would feel like they were on "the better or the crappy side of the building" and the concept of community is what the kollegium's message is all about. The building is round so that everyone is equal, private rooms face the outside of the circle and communal areas face inside. There are 2 reasons why we came. The textile designers designed the pattern on the wood paneling that goes around and fades as you go up the floors. They also designed the curtains, which are very bright and striped. It is illegal to take down the curtains, let alone put new ones up, because it shows a unity for people who look inside. 

Some students really hate this because they feel stifled by not expressing themselves through their decor but I think they should get over it...ITS A DORM NOT YOUR HOUSE OR APARTMENT FOR LIFE!!!...gosh...besides they have a woodshop, movie room with a projector, architecture studio, sewing studio and study rooms among other facilities, with almost no extra charge available to them. After the field trip, we headed back, I worked and my mom met with us for dinner. "Us" refers to both Katies, Emma, Tiffany, Natalie, Sarah and I. We all were working so hard on our projects that I even had to cut the plans I made with my mom and just met up with her for dinner. No worries, because we all had a great time at this pricey Italian place. We laughed and joked about all sorts of things, from how our teachers react to us, to Katie's Croatian uncle who says baggy dog instead of doggy bag. In the end I headed back to Hvidovre and went to bed. 

My mom wanted to go to the Great Synagogue for Friday night services, so I dressed up that morning. It was weird wearing a skirt and the wind did not help. I totally had at least 2 Marilyn Monroe moments. Helle Vibke was there and we each had a turn to present our work for the class in preparation for our final presentation. She explained that we all need a portfolio by the end of this program and that we are putting on an exhibition, so we needed to think about how we want to present it. After class I stayed and worked until 5:20pm when my mom and I headed over to the Great Synagogue. Funny thing about Europe, they go by military time, so services that start at 7:30pm were misread my someone as 17:30pm otherwise known as 5:30pm. We already made dinner plans for 7pm so we headed back to the studio and I worked until we went out to dinner with Hari and Rujia (my mothers travel buddies and friend from Poland). 

Yesterday (Saturday), I woke up early and jogged for 30 minutes, showered and went to the DIS computer lab to work on my digital prints. All I have to say is that I hate photoshop! Finally, I left and met up with my mom at her hotel. We went on a boat/canal tour of the city, since she hadn't done it, and then took a walk to Christianhavn and Christiania. It was so nice walking in these parts of Copenhagen with my mom because it wasn't like I knew a whole lot about them either. I had gone with my class but I bare knew where I was going, so it was an adventure for the both of us. We met a very nice man from Nepal in Christiania and I bought a beautiful sweater from him (if I remember to wear it soon, you will see it in a photo later on). After that we headed back to the hotel and walked to get some dinner. We went on an adventure to find a restaurant that I couldn't eat much at anyways so we went across the street only to find 4 Thai restaurants (one of them was named Porn-Sak ...funny cause it was close to the red light district!) and ate a fabulous meal! Then I headed home on my bike and crashed!

This morning I edited my paper (which is due tomorrow) and biked to my mom's hotel, met up with her and we headed up to the Danish Design School. I had to finish up some prints and then we would go do something touristy for her last day here. Funny thing though, she wanted to learn how to silk screen so we made something together. After we made 2 prints, she wanted to make a Challah cover, so we designed something, mixed the colors and made a beautiful challah cover that I will bring back to the states after it is steamed and washed. It was great to see her so excited about art and more specifically screen printing! She got so inspired and had all these ideas and with a little help from me they came true! After our 4 hour screen printing session, we headed to the Italian sandwich shop and got delicious chicken sandwiches. I introduced Rocco, the owner, to my mother and she realized how authentic he really is. After the sandwich we headed back into the center of the city via train and went to a coffee shop called "The living room" and drank a pot of tea and headed back to her hotel, hung out for a bit then she walked me to my bike and I rode home. It was so nice to have her here this week, even if it was really hectic. I'm glad she was able to see what I do, appreciate the work, see the beautiful city and spend time with me. It was great. Unfortunately, all the pictures we took were on her camera and she is leaving tomorrow morning at 4am (lucky her...NOT) so maybe I will post them in a later blog post. Tomorrow my friend and soon to be housemate, Laura, is coming into town and I am so excited to have her stay with me for a few days!