Summing up a whole month....?
Hej everybody! I promise I haven't fallen off the face of the earth; I've been travelling and studying quite a bit over the past few weeks! Since my last post, I've:
- gone on some beautiful walks with my host family as the weather begins to warm up
- traveled to the island of Rømø, off the coast of Jutland, where Isabel owns a cute thatch-roofed summer house (if anybody wants a Danish summer house, it's on the market!) -- we marveled at the workshops and galleries of some amazing Danish artists, whose media ranged from glass, to ceramics, to paint, to wood, and visited some old German bunkers left over on a Jutland beach from World War II
- visited Sara and Phillip's apartment, and saw the beautiful painting Isabel crafted to hang on the wall in their sitting area
- flown to Rome -- where I filled myself with amazing food (including an alarming amount of gelato), visited all the must-see tourist sites, took a cooking class (now I know how to make gnocchi and bruschetta!), learned a lot about how migration and the refugee crisis impact Italy, and finally felt like spring had sprung
- explored Tivoli - one of the oldest amusement parks in the world - with Isabel, Sara, Phillip, and Rose...
... and I just finished up a weekend in Bornholm, a Danish island just south of Sweden. On Saturday, we biked 30 (yes, 30!) miles; we saw one of the island's unique round churches, climbed around the ancient ruins of a castle, and saw a beautiful waterfall in the woods. The hills were steep and my legs are verrrrry sore, but the views were worth it! Today, my roommates and I decided to recover from the previous day's adventure by biking to the beach, plopping our butts on the sand, and enjoying the scenery for a while. We did plenty of exploring of the village of Gudhjem, as well - we just needed our legs to stop feeling like jello before doing so!
On top of all these adventures, I have begun to learn Japanese. Some of you may already know that have been selected as a summer intern at Second Harvest on Tokyo; I will be helping distribute food items to the city's homeless and food-insecure populations from June 18th to July 30th! When I am finished with my semester in Copenhagen, this blog will become the space in which I share my summer internship experience. If you already receive emails each time I write a new blog post, this will continue to happen throughout the summer :) This year is becoming one of constant travel (and I'm loving it)!
So as you can tell, life has been quite full lately. My classes are coming to a close this week, and I will be back in Normal in less than two weeks. There are still so many places I want to visit, so much more time I want to spend with my host family, and a few more final papers to write... At the same time, I'm excited to see my parents, grandparents, sister, and friends back home! What bittersweet and conflicting feelings!
Anyway, because I've skipped a few weeks of blogging, and have accumulated quite the stash of photos and videos, I think it's appropriate to elaborate on the past month's experiences by sharing a few video compilations, courtesy of Windows Movie Maker :) You can also view my Google photos album here.
Jutland & Rømø with Isabel (4/7-4/8, 2018)
Rome (4/15-4/20, 2018)
Bornholm Bike Trip (4/26-4/28, 2018)
More reflections to come after I finish another final paper or two. Mange tak (many thanks) for your patience with my sporadic posting, and for following me on this journey!
