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.