natalietenaya

The last few days have be busy but so much fun. On Thursday Anna, Mackenzie, and I cooked another big Thanksgiving meal and this time it was for my kitchen mates. It was nice having a smaller group than our other Thanksgiving party (13 people rather than 22) and I really enjoyed sharing the evening with my kitchen mates who I am so thankful to be living with at this awesome kollegium. Most of them have had Thanksgiving with other exchange students in the past but for a few it was their first time and they really enjoyed it! My hall mate Mamdouh took the “father role” and carved the turkey (Sir Timothy Higgings III) and Tobias gave a very traditional and hilarious Thanksgiving speech before dinner. Everyone was quite involved and it was such a good night!

Saturday night my friends Henrik and I threw a birthday party for the two of us (mine just past and his is coming up). Together our ages add up to 45 so we threw a “midlife crisis party” at his kitchen. It was a nice night with lots and lots of cake and random party crashing at the different julefrokoster happening in other kitchens around Tietgen. At one point some julefrokost group crashed our party in a conga line singing Danish Christmas carols, so naturally we joined and crashed some the other parties!

Well, it is practically December so it is time for me to FREAK OUT. I am just not ready for my time here to be over. I am in love with this city/country/people, living in a great atmosphere with a bunch of really fantastic and interesting people, studying at a great school in the middle of the city, hanging out with an amazing group of people, and learning so much every single day from the all of these new people and new experiences. I am thrilled to be going home in time for the holidays to see my family and friends but that is at constant battle with my yearning to continue my life here. I am both grateful and resentful for the fact that I have adapted to life here so completely… it has made for a great experience but a difficult departure. The worst part right now is that I have two Danish exams coming up, an oral exam requiring I have 1200 pages of literature read by December 18, and a research paper that I still need to do the research for due Dec. 22 (the day I leave). Basically, I will be working my butt off for most of my last three weeks in Copenhagen… and somewhere in all that I need to figure out how I am going to pack up all my stuff and say goodbye to this country. Luckily I will be giving myself a break this coming weekend when my friend Diya comes for a visit (which I am SO excited about).

So, after all this lamenting about having to leave so soon (seriously… how did it come to be December so quickly???) it is clear that I need to find a way to return sometime in the near future. I would really like to try moving back to Europe, not just visiting. The Danes have really inspired me to take advantage of my time while I am young. Students here usually take a year or two off before begining univeristy or in between degrees to travel or work or just experience something. From what I notice, they all really benefit from it a lot. The Danes I study with are much more mature (usually older) and have a lot of interesting life experience. It really makes you take a step back and reevaluate the typical U.S. way of graduating high school, going straight to uni, and getting a job as fast as you possibly can. My plans have always been about going straigh from one step to the next, but I am really inspired by the Danes to take another look at how I really want to do it.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you back home in the good ‘ol U.S. of A.

Anna, Mackenzie, and I are cooking ANOTHER Thanksgiving feast today! This time it is for my kitchenmates, so I am quite excited. The cranberry sauce, pumpkin pies (from scratch), and stuffing we all did ahead of time. Today we have the corn bread finished, the turkey in the over, and will be making mashed potatoes with Tobias, the green bean casserole, and the cider soon. Oh, and an apple cake in case we don’t have enough pie.

We are trying to be as super Thanksgiving-y as possible.. we even have the Thanksgiving Day Parade streaming on my laptop right now, haha.

Well, I’ll update about the actual dinner later! I hope everyone is having a fantastic Thanksgiving at home - I wish I could be there! But, since I can’t, I am happy to say I have a really great substitute gathering here in Denmark.

(via themusingsof)

So I already “liked” this but I have to reblog for emphasis. Have you listened to Daisy?

Today was all about studying! I was working on my research all day (with quite a few internet breaks… that became movie breaks) and was pretty bored with myself when my roommate, Tobias, asked if I wanted to go to a Tegan and Sara concert… in 20 minutes. He had won tickets from Vega the day of and had a spare, who can say no to that? So, of course, I ditched the studies and hopped on my bike.

They were GREAT! I’ve always loved those two but I had not yet listened to their new album. I was quite surprised by the change in sound but I really enjoyed it. They played the entire new album along with some oldies (some of my favorites!). This was also my first time in the big Vega which was pretty cool, considering it’s a venue I had been hearing about for years. Oh, and T&S are HILARIOUS.

Gotta love spontaneity.

This morning I was woken up at 7:45am by my hallmates walking into my room (while I was in bed looking like a mess) banging on pots and pans and singing the Danish birthday song! It was quite a SHOCK to be woken up that way but it was really wonderful =].

Then we went out to the kitchen and they had made buns and covered the table in candy (a hall tradition, I learned). It was meget, meget hyggeligt! It was such a nice start the my 20th birthday and so sweet of them to do, I just love my kitchenmates!

Another big surprise: it is a GORGEOUS, sunny day here in Copenhagen!!! Seriously, it seems like we have been living in constant darkness for ages here. It is sunny and beautiful and there is a big group of kids playing by the canal below my window; it sounds like summer outside!

This looks a lot more like a pleasant day in June rather than the end of November! THANK YOU, COPENHAGEN!