Marseille and Nice: 12.26-12.29

Winter break=4 weeks of play time.

I spent my winter break with family in France and Ireland.

Marseille:






Traveling with the family is definitely different than traveling with friends. The plus to traveling with family: can splurge more on food and shopping. Foie gras, tar tar, and duck. MMMmm.






Nortre Dame De La Garde
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The highlight of Marseille for me: Unite d’ Habitation by Le Corbusier(shown below).

I REALLY like.

I liked the park area with its friendly little trees. I liked the massive piloti’s. I liked the primary colors. I liked the wood plank imprints. I liked the view of the city from the top. Andddd I LIKED the awesome rooftop with running track, pool, funky shaped ventilation shafts, playground, etc. So quirky. So weird. So cool. :D










Macaroons are kind of delicious...

Nice and the French Riviera:

Statens Museum of Kunst 12.23

Art museum and my favorite art installation as of right now:

Glædelig jul!

Merry Christmas! Danes usually celebrate and have the Christmas dinner on the 24th.

But I'm going to celebrate it on the 25th...Because I'm American and that's just how we do.

I also just wanted an extra day to prepare-ish.

Øster Farimagsgade Farewell

There were five choices of housing in Denmark and DIS arranges you according to your preference: Host family, Danish Roommate, Folkehøjskole (super far away, super awesome Danish school), Kollegium(Danish dorm), or DIS shared housing.

It's funny. When we were choosing housing for Denmark, I didn't want anything to do with DIS shared housing. It meant living with all Americans and I wanted a more cultural experience. So I made it dead last on my list of housing preferences.

So imagine how bummed out I was when DIS assigned me to shared housing this semester. PRETTY BUMMED...But over the course of semester, I have come to love my dorm at Øster Farimagsgade. It's in the most beautiful(between botanical gardens and the lakes) and convenient(so close to DIS and Nørreport) location and I met some absolutely wonderful people here.

I'm actually changing my housing next semester and I'm going to live with a Danish roommate. Variety is the spice of life, you know? But I'm REALLY going to miss Øster Farimagsgade, despite all the glitches.

On one of my final days here, Julia and I had the entire dorm complex to ourselves. We had the most ridiculous/FUN photoshoot where we took pictures with every aspect of the dorm possible as a farewell/goodbye.

"Oh I want a picture with the SQUEEGEE BROOM"

"OOO, one next to the refrigerator!!" "Cupboard!" "Door!"

etc...etc... that literally went on for hours...

Good bye shared housing. It's been a blast.

Danish Christmas Dinner 12.18.10

Marcella's lived with a host family this past semester. She invited me, Michael and Brian over for a traditional Danish Christmas dinner: Roast duck, apples with jelly, Danish sausage, caramelized brown potatoes, and potatoes with gravy. It was all so delicious.

And for dessert we had ris a la mande (rice pudding with almonds). There is a danish Christmas tradition where amongst all the almond chunks, a whole almond is hidden in the rice pudding. The family members will keep eating the rice pudding in hopes of getting the whole almond. And whoever gets the almond in the end gets a prize. Brian got it on his first scoop and got a box of chocolate.

After dinner, there was more Danishness as we walked around the Christmas tree holding hands and singing both Danish and English Christmas songs. This was followed by present opening/exchanges between Marcella's family and a few hours of conversation. Hyggeligt.

Saying Goodbye

The semester is over! It's been busy but it's been fun. Nej, it's been AMAZING actually. I've had the best semester with some of the best people and I couldn't be happier.

But yesterday was full of goodbyes. Only about 50 of 800 DIS students are full year students. Ergo, all the non-Cal Poly/CSU (they stay the full year) friends that I have made these past four months are leaving...and a new batch of DIS students will come next semester to take their place...

And even though I only have known them for four months, and even though I wouldn't consider them my "besties", they still had a huge impact on me. I don't know if I will see them again but I am so glad that I met them in the first place.

Danish Mommies

Through the DIS program, I have signed up for something called a "Visiting Family." It's an opportunity to talk, and spend time with a Danish family. I've only met up with the mother a few times but I really appreciate our conversations and the meals we talk over.

Today, I literally spent 4-5 hours talking with her at her house as she cooked up a traditional Danish Christmas dinner for us: Roast pork and gravy, baked root vegetables, and red cabbage.

What's even cuter is she made me Danish Christmas treats to bring home: coconut chocolate oat balls, marzipan with nougat(a very Danish thing), and cookies.

And apparently that wasn't enough because she also gave me a bag of her homemade bread and a sleeping bag (to keep) as well. Why are Danish moms so nice????

Hyggeligt

After an all-nighter Thursday night, I was about to pass out and sleep at my dorm when a friend of mine invited me and some other friends over to her place to cook dinner and watch some movies.

In the Danish culture, there's something called "hygge." Translated, it means "coziness." But it means so much more. It's about being with your closest friends or family members, having/cooking a warm meal with candle light, and enjoying good conversation/company. In a way Hygge is the Dane's solution for Denmark's bone-chilling weather. It is during the cold winter months that hygge is taken advantage of.

Well that night at my friend's house was a perfect example of hygge for me. We went grocery shopping, cooked some delicious stir-fried asian noodles and sat around a table lit up with candles. We talked for hours and ate a butt-load of desserts. There was so much love that night as we followed up cuddled on the couch watching "Love Actually" and "Mean girls."

Lots of hugging, lots of talking, lots of love. HYGGE.

London for Thanksgiving

Went to London last Thursday (Thanksgiving) and Friday. It was pretty awesome. Aside from Copenhagen, I would seriously consider studying abroad in London. It was touristy, sure, but there was a friendliness about the place that made me feel so comfortable. Some other perks include:
-Food: TEA, fish and chips, meat pies, desserts, food markets (Borough market is a must), etc etc.
-ALL THE MUSEUMS ARE FREE
-Easy to Navigate
-They speak English.
-And they speak English with that English accent <3
-Fantastic easy to understand "tube" transportation system




Changing of the guards.








Katie and I ran into two of my DIS friends in London!




Me and Katie hating on the Lloyd's of London.


Gherkin


London City Hall


London City hall plaza. I loved.

And since it was Thanksgiving, it is only right that I talk about what I'm thankful for.

I'm thankful for my family who puts up with me and my temper tantrums. They are the rock I fall back on when everything in the world is not going right and they somehow love me no matter what. We are an unusual bunch of people but I wouldn't have it any other way.

I'm thankful for my friends at Cal Poly. I enjoy our studio rendezvous and no one except my fellow architecture friends can understand the shit that we go through. All the late nights in studio slaving over our projects bring us closer together. Weird but true.

I'm thankful for my high school friends back at home. Some of us have been together since elementary school and junior high, and I'm so proud that we still keep in touch even though we are all SO noticeably different from one another. So much <3

And I cannot even express how thankful I am to be in Copenhagen. It could very well be any other person in my place right now, but somehow I was accepted. It's been only about 3 months but I have learned more about myself and the world that I could've ever expected.

Italy: 10.30-11.11

We had a two week travel break. Decided to explore Italy. Hoorah.

An Afternoon in Pisa:





Cinque Terre:
Five towns situated on cliffs next to the ocean=absolutely beautiful. What sucked is that we couldn't hike up the trails due to landslides and rain. Not to mention our hostel was terrible. Power went out, the power outlets exploded, and weird stuff from the ceiling fell down on our beds. We got into a full blown argument with the owner to get our money back! I believe his final words to us were "Fuck you."


One day I hope to visit Cinque Terre (translated "five towns") again when the weather is better.


My travel buddy, Pablo, for the majority of the trip.


One of MANY pizzas I had in Italy. I had this one in Cinque and it was one of my favorites. White truffle cream sauce...to die for...

Milan:


Duomo








New Fair Trade Center in Milan. I really enjoyed this place. Conceptually it was the same as a studio project I had designed a long time ago (Arch students, please don't judge me...):



....but as you can see the building in Milan was executed like 10000000000000000000x better. I guess I wasn't as creative as I thought. HA.

Also in Milan, Castello Sforzesco:




There were also some GORGEOUS gardens behind the castle but my camera died at that point. But it was like New York Central park's squeaky clean and more relaxed alter-ego. And that to me is kind of perfect.

But I just want to say that even though I enjoyed Milan (most people didn't),I wouldn't visit there again. Don't be fooled, there is almost nothing to do there except some really expensive shopping and like one or two architectural walk-throughs.

Next stop, Verona:


Giardino Giusti aka Giusti Gardens. Uhm... we sort of nonchalantly snuck in. Very beautiful and very worth the 0 euro we paid.


All over Italy are bundles of locks locked onto public fixtures like railings or fences. Couples usually sign them and affix them somewhere in Italy to symbolize their everlasting love. Aw. How precious.






Castelvecchio: a medieval castle with a restoration by architect Carlo Scarpa. It's kind of huge and kind of a big deal. Plus we learned about it at Cal Poly. What. Up.

Venice:


That weekend in Venice, we ended up meeting up with SO many Cal Poly kids. Half the students from the Florence program were there, all of the Cal Poly Rome students were there, and almost all the Denmark (aka me) students were there. It was like a big Cal Poly reunion and it was kind of nice/surreal to see all the familiar faces. We all came to see the Venice Biennale, an architecture exhibition held in Venice every other year.




Canals, canals, canals everywhere. Very beautiful but also very smelly at times. Also, it was very confusing to navigate the streets of Venice. The paths were very convoluted and so easy to get lost in. Some say it adds to the charm of Venice and makes it feel like a exploratory maze. But some can also just say it's just confusing/annoying as fuck. Personally, I am split between the two views.

As for the Venice Biennale itself:







It was pretty cool. There were some of interesting pavilions with some inspiring work. Some of the creativity was very admirable.


And here's some of us sitting on Carlo Scarpa's work.

Rome:

I visited/stayed with one of my friends, Katie Lomax, who was studying in Rome for Cal Poly's Rome program.


Piazza Navona





Pantheon. It was getting restored/fixed, hence all the scaffolding. But makes for a semi-cool picture, yea?


Roman Colosseum


Sunset


Spanish Steps


Trevi Fountain


San Carlo Quattro Fontaine


St. Peters Square


Inside St. Peters Basilica. Pictured is Bernini's Baldacchino.


Maxi Museum by Zaha Hadid

Florence:
My final stop in Italy was in Florence to visit Hannah who studies in Florence.


I went up the Duomo. Here are the fresco paintings on the inside of the Dome


View from the top of the Duomo


Palazzo Vechio. Also went into the Uffizi museum which held a lot of Renaissance art and the original "Birth of Venus" painting. I ran into some of my friends in Florence who happened to be Art history majors and they toured/educated me about Renaissance art as we walked through the galleries.

Italy was a pretty lovely experience. The Rustic feel of the area was unreal and I really appreciated all the art, sculptures and cultural history. Oh and yes, the food was indeed super delicious.