o happy day!

=D

i haven't updated in a while, but that's because i didn't do much this week

Monday - just went to class and grocery shopping

Tuesday - did some exam prep and went to Norreport and walked down the shopping street
didn't buy anything, but discovered the store Tiger, which is kind of like a dollar store since most things there are 10 kr - you can even buy headphones for 10 kr! there's just lots of random stuff like dishes, books, calculators, notebooks, snacks, etc. some of it is more expensive (up to 50 kr) but still, everything is pretty cheap!

i also discovered that if you keep walking down this street, you hit Strøget (main shopping street in downtown)

and that means that there are basically three H&Ms within walking distance of each other lol

YESTERDAY however, was a fun day =)

first, i met up with Claire at 10 am - well, she was late so i waited for her for 25 min - which wasn't that fun but it's ok!

we went to the Thorvaldsen Museum, which displays all the works of art by Bertel Thorvaldsen, who was a Danish sculptor and donated all his works to the city

remember this yellow building from the canal tour? this is the museum!

inside the museum is pretty cool

Bertel Thorvaldsen

and his grave is in a courtyard in the middle of the museum

afterward, we wandered over to the Christiansborg Slot aka Christiansborg Palace


it's really pretty inside, but since we didn't have enough time and the entrance fee was 60 kr, we didn't go in

remember this? i saw them from the other side down in the canal

theeen, we went to the Black Diamond - part of the National Library - since it was really close by

we just kind of walked around and didn't go into the reading rooms since you can't take anything inside - that and we couldn't seem to figure out how to get into some of the rooms lol

next! we hunted for lunch in Kongens Nytorv and finally found some smørrebrød to try (which apparently just means "sandwiches" in Danish)

so, i guess it was my first time tasting

Claire's sandwich - it had herring in some curry sauce

mine which was smoked herring with capers and onions

i honestly don't know how i feel about it - truthfully, i didn't really like it cause it was super sour X| kinda tasted like those Chinese sour vegetables we sometimes have - add that with sour-ish bread and capers (which are sour) and it's kinda of a sour overdose

i think other types of meats would agree more with my taste buds but that's ok - and it doesn't look like much but i was actually full after eating it all - i swear they jammed a lot of slices of fish in that tiny bowl

then the highlight of my day!!

are you excited to hear about it? :D cause i'm excited to tell you about it!

so Claire and I went to La Glace! it's near the end of Strøget and they have all these nice cakes =)

sorry it's so blurry, but it was taken through the window, so yea

i forgot what cake Claire got, but here's a picture - it's seasonal and has rhubarb it

and i got the Sportskage - you can see it in the picture above and also here - it's the house special and has "crushed nougat, whipped cream, macaroon bottom and caramelized choux pastry"

so when i was waiting to buy the cake, i was kinda worried that they would run out cause so many slices were being bought, but when it was my turn there was still some left =)

but that's not the exciting part - so the lady goes and gets the cake to cut it (or so i thought) but she came back and told me, "the slices are normally not this big, but since it's the last piece, i'll just give it to you"

:D and so i ended up with a huge piece of cake C:
huge (and beautiful), no?

side view! on top is the whipped cream with some cream puffs and the middle tastes like mousse and then you have the crunchy macaroon bottom - it was really really good :D

and when i couldn't finish it, they wrapped it up for me so yes, i was very happy C:

and i have just finished my leftover cake with some tea ♥ and it was still good (although it melted a little) - perfect!

after that i went to class (starts at 2:25 pm) and was promptly bored to death

and after class, my day wasn't done yet - ate dinner (and watched pll and miobi) then it was off to Nørrebro to partake in Danish folk dancing

it was pretty fun - esp since they only showed us the dance once and kinda directed us, so during some of the harder dances we messed up a lot

but a lot of the dances were really cute! and mostly simple but of course, as always, the downside was the heat - they didn't have AC so it was so hot x_x

and sorry, no pictures, but i'm going to get some from my friend later

now, onto today! :D

i had a really good shopping day today :)

of course, it helps when all the sales are basically coming to an end, so stuff is even more on sale - for instance, ZARA had a "FINAL MARKDOWN" sign (does our ZARA even have one of those signs? i know the ones in HK definitely don't)

so here are my purchases

black shirt - doesn't look that great in the picture, but i like it
i think the other tags on the bigger sizes said 50 kr, so i was contemplating on whether to get it or not, but it turned out that there was no 50 kr sale tag on this, so the girl just marked it down to 30 kr =D (around $5.20)

then this jacket - i really like it and it cost 90 kr ($15.50)

so now for ZARA - oh how i love ZARA here cause it's soooooo much cheaper here than elsewhere and like i said, it was the final markdown so here's what i bought

i really couldn't resist buying both of these - they're both 2 in 1s - so the white one comes with a red shirt and the grey one comes with a purple one - and they were both only 29 kr ($5) so essentially, 4 shirts for $10 =)

then i saw these shoes and it were the only pair left - and in size 36 yay! and they actually look decent when i have them on - it doesn't look too loose at the top
i thought they were 99 kr, but when i saw the total, i was like wait what? how come it's not around 160 kr?
so they turned out to be only 59 kr XD so it's even cheaper - not sure what the original price was but i know another sale sticker said 269 kr ($46.30) and on the tag it says 39.95 euros (around $51) and i got it for 59 kr! ($10.20)
and they're just a tad snug, so they'll probably fit my sister even better (you happy?)

woo hoo! i certainly know why everyone is so happy here and if these things keep happening to me, i might not even want to leave (jk of course)

yay for happy days!

btw, i hear Darth Vader was hanging around Strøget today lol
this one's for you vanessa - dunno if the kid is cute enough for you lol

random note: Danish couples really are not afraid of PDA

around the canals of CPH

yesterday, we went on a canal tour and got to see the beautiful Copenhagen from a different view!

so first things first was lunch - tortellinis that looked like little baggies

then took the metro to Christianshavn to meet up with everyone and off we went on the canal tour! here was our boat and guide (he's the one demonstrating how to put on the life jacket)

rest of the pictures will be up on fb

anyways, after the tour we bought some pastries and ate it by the canal =)


it was such a nice day outside! and with perfect weather so i wanted to walk around downtown - the others went back to their dorms but i ended up looking around in the huge design outlet and Royal Copenhagen flagship store

here's just some interesting/cute things i saw



i thought this table was pretty cool
so cute =)

i don't think those chairs would be comfy
this was really cute too =)
i think i like their lamps the most haha

anyways, that was basically my day - then i went home and cooked dinner

pasta (again haha) with sausage

i thought i bought yogurt, but it turned out to be a kind of rice dessert (risdessert) that you mix with jam (jam again!) it was pretty good i guess

there ya go - just another beautiful day in CPH =)

Malmö!

so, yesterday i reached the halfway point! =(

3 weeks before, i landed in here in CPH absolutely miserable and 3 weeks from now i'll be leaving - noooo =(

but enough of that, there's still 3 weeks to go and lots of stuff to do!

yesterday i went to Malmö!

first, met up with Claire and Fey at central station where be bought train tickets (if you travel in pairs, it's cheaper apparently) to Malmö! i love saying Malmö haha it's such a cute name

so when we got there, we walked around for a bit and saw the HSB Turning Torso from a distance

we also saw a fish market =) and since we were there pretty early stalls were still open

then, we went to the Technical Museum, where there's lots of cool stuff - you can see how the ferries used to look like on the inside, old cars, planes, inside a control tower, a full length submarine, bicycles, etc. just lots of cool stuff =)







and next was the Malmö Museer which was in the Malmöhus Castle (which is apparently Scandinavia's oldest surviving Renaissance castle) and there's just basically stuff from waaay back in the past and onto settlements and stuff in the middle ages and things like that - then you can go see the king's bedchamber and antechamber - i'm not helping much with my description but it's just a loooot of stuff in there



then thing Claire and i went to Malmö for - shopping! i was kinda disappointed, kinda not

and whoever said it was cheaper to buy things in Sweden were wrong - it really depends on what you buy

for example, at H&M, buying things at regular price is a just little cheaper than buying it in Denmark - and their sale items are waaay cheaper too (but then again, it said "even more on sale" outside)
but there were barely an sizes left, so it was kinda hard to find things - i was lucky enough to buy two 10 sek belts (around $1.40) though cause i'm so skinny haha - there were only xs left

however, at ZARA (even though it was the "second markdown"), some stuff on sale was more expensive than in CPH (like the dress and jacket i bought), but i did find another jacket that i'd never seen before

the sign said 99 sek, but when the girl rang it up, it was 79 sek - around $11
it kinda looks funny with flash - i think it looks cooler in real life, but anyways who cares? it was an $11 jacket from ZARA - can't get that in the US

so it was a semi-nice shopping experience - lots of stuff was gone at H&M, there's definitely more stuff at the H&Ms in CPH

but we only went into one H&M (there were 3 on the same street lol) =\ i kinda wanted to go into the other ones cause i know there's different things in each one

anyways, we ate ice cream for lunch lol i got cinnamon and toblerone
Claire tried the cinnamon but she thought it was gross lol but i loved it =) it's the best i've tasted so far since they actually seem to use a decent amount of cinnamon

so we walked around some more trying to find the souvenir shop Fey saw the last time he was there, but it was closed =( so we just went paddle boating on the canal - it was pretty fun =)



then we walked around and looked for a place to eat dinner and some girls were handing out free chips! they kinda tasted like Ruffles...which makes me wonder if they are Ruffles in disguise haha

we ended up at Mando steakhouse and we figured it'd be good since there were a lot of people


it was nice to finally get the chance to sit down and have a nice dinner at a restaurant - haven't done that at all since i've arrived cause everyone mostly cooks

and it was so nice sitting outside in such nice weather ♥ oh yea, the forecast said it was gonna be rainy all day, but we were lucky cause it didn't rain at all while we were there =)

after dinner we walked to St. Peter's church, but we couldn't go in since it closed at 6 =( but at least we saw the outside

next, we walked all the way to this nice park and chased the flocks of ducks there haha - there were so many of these ducks everywhere!
random note: when we were walking there, we saw a bride-to-be? (she had a veil on) playing in a fountain in front of the opera house - i'm thinking it was her bachelorette party or something haha

i think i have to agree with Fey that these tall hedges were the coolest part of the park - there's three streets like this all next to each other and they're super tall!

and finally, we headed back to the Malmö central station, but not without spending the last of our Swedish kroner first

and what better to spend it on than a towering swirl of soft ice cream?
and i have to admit, the ice cream did make the long walk back to the train station more bearable haha

took the train back to Valby and rode the bus back to Porcelaen since the metro (subway) was closed and metro buses are so slow

and thus ended my fun but exhausting day in Malmö!

random note: i forgot to mention something that a Danish guy told me before - he said that Europeans always comment on how Americans don't know the countries in Europe, but at the same time, lots of Europeans don't know where a lot of the states are in the US (he didn't know where Wisconsin was) - which is totally true but Americans are still horrible at geography though since a lot of people don't know where all the states are either