God Morgen,
This past week has been sunny and fantastic. Last weekend, there were so many events going on! KU (my university) hosted a spring festival with music, beer, delicious food, and overall a relaxing atmosphere. I volunteered in the morning from around 9 AM – 1 PM helping set up the stage for concerts later in the day. I then went home to take a nap and biked back to the festival to enjoy the concert and to redeem my food vouchers ;-) The festival was big, consisting of two stages and many long tables in the middle—all of this is surrounded by beer and food booths. I met up with a few friends and we stayed for a couple hours until I called it a night and enjoyed my bike ride home in the breezy spring weather. I didn’t have to wear my gloves at all during my bike ride home! This is such a new concept considering how cold it has been for the past few weeks. When we were leaving, my friend’s bike chain came off. We spent a few minutes trying to fix it…then a few Danes approached us offering to help. It was very considerate and sweet of them. One of the guys told us how much they enjoy seeing exchange students riding bikes in the city. He thought it was awesome that we are immersing ourselves into the culture and doing as the Danes do. On top of that, they lectured us on how we should get the chain fixed (after we told them this happened more than once already). Overall, very sweet people!
The next day was equally eventful for me. In the morning, I attended a market called FindersKeepers—it’s a place where startup (+more) Scandinavian brands are present and sell goods ranging from watches and ceramic bowls, to handmade posters. The fair was very creative and had a minimalistic style—it summed up Copenhagen perfectly. It was a relaxing and inspiring, seeing all these startups with cool ideas sparked a thought in my mind – maybe one day I could become an entrepreneur? When I have a good enough idea that I want to bring to life, that is. Being there made me feel motivated and oddly confident. Also, I would like to think of myself as a creative person who enjoys hand crafted products, cool drawings, and all things creative—maybe that was why I especially enjoyed the fair. I attended because I received tickets from my internship and thought it would be a nice way to support my internship’s company while enjoying my Saturday browsing through cool Scandinavian designs.
After spending roughly 2 – 3 hours at FindersKeepers, I hopped on my bike and rode 20 minutes to my friend’s dormitory to hang out in the sun. By the way, the weather was amazing (probably the warmest Copenhagen has been since September, no exaggeration). There was a festival at Tietgen (a dormitory), so a few friends and I got together—we sat outside, had some drinks, and enjoyed the sun. This is what I will miss most about Copenhagen…it’s how excited people get when the sun comes out and how cozy it is to enjoy a cold drink and ice cream with some friends out in an open grass area. As a Californian, I definitely took the sun for granted and will try to bring this cozy vibe back home.
My bike ride :-)
A photo of my ice cream with Tietgen dormitory as the background.
So, that’s how my week has been going :) Wonderful and sunny!