These are some of the things that I see everyday.  The kitchen in the ceramics/glass building, where we all gather and toast our bread, drink our coffee, and where I get my Danish lessons from my friend Mille.  And these apartment buildings that are in the blocks between the train station and my school.  My commute takes about 20 minutes from the front door of my apartment to the basement of building F at DKDS.  I take the Metro from Kongens Nytorv, transfer at Nørreport station and take the train the rest of the way.  I haven't gotten too tired of it yet, even though I do it twice a day.  However I'm on the lookout for a bike because "it's the only way to really see Copenhagen.  Like really, really see it" or so I am told.  And I believe it.  

One Month

I can't really believe that I've been here for a month.  All of a sudden I'm getting the feeling that I'll be really surprised when July comes and I have to leave, or when my visa expires and they force me out of the country.  Whichever comes first.    

I feel like I've gotten pretty comfortable with daily life here.  I know which grocery stores I like (Irma for fancy things like pineapples, Netto for everything else and good cheap mozzarella), I am comfortable taking the train, the bus, and the Metro.  If I get plopped down somewhere in the middle of the city I can usually figure out where I am after I walk a couple blocks.  I'm the only one who plops myslef places though, and it's usually because I got off the wrong bus stop or something.   

I'm even getting used to the pace at school, which is much slower than I'm used to.  I'm only taking one class right now, a ceramics "projekt".   It meets 5 days a week, but those days get chopped up by so many coffee breaks and long lunches that I hardly feel like I'm working.  At first it really bothered me because it felt unproductive, but now I am starting to better understand the culture that has produced this logic.  Meals are almost forcably relaxing and ritual, not rushed and punctuated with work talk like they are in the states.  I think these breaks and meals result in more thoughful design.  

I would still like to learn more Danish.  These are the words I can remember off the top of my head:

lille--small

store--large

og--and

havn--harbor

navn--name

ost--cheese

skinke--ham

fiske--fish

hej--hello

hej hej--bye

tak--thank you

gips--plaster

maelk--milk

mandag--monday

onsdag--wednesday

yej comma fra USA--I come from the USA

godt--good

peber--pepper

precise--exactly 

kaffe--coffee

brod--bread

tog--train

yej hille Barrett--my name is Barrett

til--to

fra--from

svenske--swedish

kort--card

en--one

tre--three

biblitek--library

nej--no

Obviously there's room for improvement.  Unless I need three small pepper hams at the library on wednesday, thank you I come from the USA.

COLOR

It just seems so grey sometimes that it's nice to see these little spots of color.

they love him

I haven't really been asked much about politics or current events, which is strange since I was expecting Europeans to be curious about that stuff.  What I heard from a German friend is that they've already talked it to death, so everyone's a bit tired of it.  But I still see Obama everywhere.  I'm trying to keep up a little bit through the new york times website, but maybe I'd be better off to just ask a Dane what's going on.  Obama was featured in a "what's hot in 2009" article in Dansk (Danish) magazine and on this girl's bag.

Springing

It's been a long winter, so it's nice to see that there's a little hope.

Louisiana Museum

This weekend I went to the Louisana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, about a 30 minute train ride from Copenhagen.  It's in a beautiful location on a huge peice of property overlooking the Øresund harbor.  The collection was good and it was the opening weekend of a massive Max Ernst show, so it was pretty crowded.  The gift shop was really good too, and I found a cool laptop sleeve by the Danish design company Hay. I think the walk along the beach and the view of the 

water might have been my favorite part!

Icebar

Ridiculous, touristy, and really fun.  This was in Copenhagen, but maybe someday I'll make it to the real IceHotel in the artic circle in Sweden...