freeeeee!

i officially finished my exams today! yay so that means i can enjoy the rest of my few days here doing whatever and not worrying =)

but quick note about the exams - they're really strict - during the first 30 min and last 30 min you can't turn in your papers/print out your papers or leave

and for the paper exams you write on carbon paper so you produce 4 copies of your exams o_o and they envelopes for turning in the exams and you use your CPR number (just an identification number) so your prof doesn't know your identity

the exams are also 4 hours long - and when they say 4 hours, they mean 4 hours - i used up all 4 hours for both of my exams @_@ i thought i would be able to finish early, but nope, these exams are suuper long

anyways, i went to Fotex after my managerial finance exam, ate lunch, then set off to go visit some chocolate boutiques

first i took the bus to Frederiksberg Chocolade on Frederiksberg Allé - they call this street the Champs Elysee of Copenhagen, but i honestly don't know why cause i've never been to the Champs Elysee haha

it's a really nice street though - lots of boutiques, cafes and trees

and here's Frederiksberg Chocolade!

i bought this nice box of chocolates - i figure this place is pretty legit since the ladies working there don't really speak English haha

i got to eat some samples too =) they were pretty good - nice and smooth and sweet but not tooo sweet - yumm~ the perfect therapy after insanely long exams
then walked to Summerbird Chokolaterieand i got to try a white chocolate flødeboller ("Theirs is perhaps the ultimate incarnation of this Danish confectionary favourite, being made with crisp, dark 'grand cru' chocolate domes, the traditional sweet, white filling as light as air, and a marzipan base") with passion fruit? filling - it was really good but would have been better if it was cold
i ended up buying mini chocolate ones
and also these almonds - one's covered in raspberry and the other covered in liquorice powder - i tried both and they're pretty good =)

after that, i rode the bus to Forum station and took the metro to Norreport to go to Sct. Peder's Bageri - it's really close to Sct. Peders Kirke, hence the name

too bad it was closed when i got there =(

i actually wandered around Norreport for a while cause i couldn't find the Norregade street and ended up making a huge circle back to the metro station, so i looked at the map and it turns out that my instincts were right at first cause i headed in the right direction but i decided to turn onto some other street (if i continued about 20 more meters i would have been on that street haha)

like the graffiti? haha

they don't really have name tags/plates up for their pastries so i ended up getting this huge thing haha

close up!

not as good as Lakagehuset, but still good - i'm really tempted to go back to Lakagehuset to eat another kartoffelkage

then i went Kongens Nytorv/downtown just to window shop and i also tried on some clothes at H&M just for the heck of it - i really like this one shirt so i'm gonna go back and get it!...if i have enough money left lol

random note: flowers are really cheap here - there's a lot of floral shops and at the one in front of Magasin department store you can buy 3 bouquets for 100 kr (around $16) - cheap right? it's so nice that you can buy a nice bouquet of flowers anytime you want cause they're so cheap - and a lot of people do buy flowers here

so after window shopping i went back to my dorm, ate, and then headed to Valby to get pictures/return a calculator/say bye to Gloria (since she's leaving Friday morning)

i did have some difficulties getting there though lol since i haven't been there in a really long time - i got off one bus stop too early and walked over there
and then nick told me the wrong combination to get into the first floor (it's 7351? but he told me 7531 -_-) so i stood outside the door for like 10 min trying to open it and gave up and knocked
luckily Fey came back at that time and pressed the right combination - Jericah also heard my knocking and opened the door though
but yea, frustration! haha

i really can't believe my time in Copenhagen is coming to an end - trying to soak it all in

tomorrow i'm going to Bon Bon Land though =) it should be interesting haha

brilliant scenery and beer

they go well together right? haha

anyways, i'm going to make this quick since i have to sleep...maybe this will just be a brief overview of my day

went to class, ate lunch, met up with Dora and Mario, went to H&M at Frederiksberg Centret

where i bought this skirt for 50 kr (by now you should know how much usd that is)

after that, went to Vor Frelsers Kirke aka Church of Our Saviour (near Christianshavn metro stop) and went up the spiral tower to see the wonderful views of Copenhagen =)

the wonderful thing about Copenhagen is how colorful the buildings are so it's always so pretty!

just one of the awesome views of Copenhagen

then we rode the S-tog to Enghave - we saw a building with Carlsberg on it...but it wasn't the museum lol
so we end up walking into that area around the building and then saw signs stating "visit Carlsberg" so we followed that and kept walking and walking and walking until FINALLY we reach the museum

nothing much to see at the museum - it was the room of many beer bottles from all over the world first, then various exhibits on the history of Carlsberg, how they make beer (which wasn't that interesting since it was just a video), barrel making, and other such stuff

oh yea but one interesting thing is that the big barrels they use(d?) needed to be maintained, so men used to climb in to clean them o_o

then after walking through the museum we got our complimentary beers - i drank mine with an empty stomach...which was not smart lol i got kinda dizzy and then turned red later =|

so instead of getting one of those flavored beers i got a sprite =( i wanted to try some but oh well

we walked to Valby since it was really close (around 15-20 min away?) and Mario cooked fried rice for us for dinner haha it was pretty good except he put the wrong kind of meet or too much pepper in it cause it was really spicy - but i've never tasted spicy fried rice before, so it was interesting lol

then hung around there for a while and went home to prepare my lunch for tomorrow (chicken sandwich w/tomatoes and lettuce and pesto) and pack and upload photos and stuff

so now, i must sleep....i only have 3 hours! ahhh leaving for my weekend trip to Bornholm at 6 am o_o

see ya sunday! cheers!

random note: Mario said that the origin of knocking glasses and saying "cheers" was to prevent poisoning, since when you knock glasses/mugs together, some of your beer sloshes into others, so you can't poison someone's beer cause you'll poison other people or yourself as well - very interesting, i didn't know that

Christiania!....that place is so creepy

ok so i thought today was going to be a resting day but nope, that's not what was in store for me

woke up at 11:30 though - slept in

watched pretty little liars (it's actually pretty good show - i really like it lol)

went to class at 2:25 pm and then the professor bored me for the next 2.5 hours (omg he's so boring and it's even worse since you have to listen to him drone on and on for 2.5 hrs)

went to Frederiksberg Centret again with Gloria after class

then while i was walking back, i bumped into Dora, who was going with people from her floor to Christiania - i wasn't planning on going anywhere but what the heck right? there's a group of people going so i dropped off my stuff and then went

as you walk further away from the metro station, it gets more and more ghetto lol with posters on the wall and graffiti and stuff - yea this place is pretty shady



OK here's the interesting stuff

took this picture and then another tourist guy tells me that they don't let you take pictures, so you should put your camera away - i say thank you for telling me

but you know, he really didn't need to tell me since there were basically ten million huge signs saying NO PHOTOS and no camera signs were painted on the walls of buildings

so you wanna know why you can't take pictures?

well, they sell marijuana there and you can sit there and smoke it and stuff - one girl told me that it used to be legal to smoke there (and only there) but then like last year they made marijuana illegal and then the police started patrolling the area, but since people still did it, they just don't patrol there anymore
i don't know if it's right, but there's lots of weed stands there

so i guess that's why you can't take pictures

yea so while students bought marijuana and sat there and smoked it (notice -students- not me - some of them really knew what they were doing....some girl even knew if one bag smelled fresher than the other....hmm yea i wouldn't know) me and some other girls just kinda stood there and talked and soaked in the atmosphere and tried to imprint it into our minds since we really won't be going back (well i might go with other people who haven't been - not sure)

so i learned more about drugs today than i did in two years of college - i saw how you roll up the weed and wrap it up and how smelly it is (to me, it's like a flat stinky smell)

there's lots of interesting signs there...

if i remember correctly, there's a "sunshine cafe" but it really didn't look all that sunshine-y to me - one girl commented that if you're high, everything will look sunshine-y! haha (there's also a sign there that says "if you show your tits get a joint?pint? (i forget this part but it's not important) free!"

and then there's "say no to hard drugs!" cause you know, hard drugs are the only drugs you should say no to

and then there's this little shopping square place with shop stands and there's so rather interesting things - there was a homer simpson shirt with him holding all these cigarettes and we found marijuana socks! lol they're socks that say Christiania on it and they have marijuana leaves on it

and there's like a lot of stands that seem to have like Jamaican-like stuff - there was some cute dolls (they look like those voodoo dolls that were really popular in asia but kinda different)

the people who hang out there are basically like those hippies/homeless people on the drag and some young people who basically look like they're up to no good and then some tourists mixed in there haha i saw a couple kids too - seems like it's not that bad - but it's still safer to go with a group

except one girl said she saw a woman who's eye was bleeding o_o and then this other girl saw a dude with no teeth

yea - once in a lifetime! i probably? won't go again haha

but it's still definitely worth a visit cause it's an interesting place (and for those who do smoke weed, you can try some Danish weed) and a different part of copenhagen - but try to at least go with a group or else it'll be kinda scary haha

ok so then after that, i ate a danish hot dog!

the sauce inside seems to be like mayonnaise or something

but anyways they stick the sausage inside a bun - and there's also regular hot dogs (the buns are so small compared to those in the US haha)

then rode the metro back to Porcelainshavn (where i live...dunno if i mentioned that)

and then Dora and I went to Valby (pronounced "val-boo" apparently - not "val-bee"), where our other friends are staying and watched Valentine's Day

and since it's Claire's birthday, we drank some wine (i think it was some italian red wine)

and then came home around 11 pm -kinda late but it's ok!

time to sleep! nighty night - today was definitely an unexpectedly interesting day

random note: apparently Norwegian sounds basically the same as Danish