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.