Catching Up

So much has happened this past week I don't know where to start!

I guess at first I'll just say with the help of my Visiting Family, I found the cutest little Catholic Church for mass last Sunday, and of the 2 catholic churches with mass in English in the city, this one is literally across the lakes from my building! It was full of ethnicities from around the world; the most diverse mass I've ever been to, but everyone was so friendly and welcoming.

Sakramentskirken (The Sacrament Church)

Excited to have found a Church that I like here and is so convenient. I'm sure mom and dad are loving this post...but no this is not a ploy to get my parents to send me more money; I actually enjoyed it! :)

Since it was Super Bowl Sunday we had to find a bar to watch the game. Below find the one and only time you will see me drinking a Budweiser. No more Bud Heavy's for me.

Thursday I went to my Visiting Family's house in Værløse, a small town twenty minutes outside Copenhagen. They have dinner twice a month with a group of close friends and invited me to join them.

Not their house, but it looked similar to this. Most danish houses are very small and often attatched to each other.

 Danes have a thing called "hygge" which doesn't have a direct translation...but they say it's similar to "cozy" and its something all Danish households try to achieve. No one wore shoes, lit many candles, dimmed the lights, had bottles of wine and a traditional danish meal of beef&carrots, mashed potatoes, bread, and a cake for dessert. Everything was amazing, and we talked about politics, religion, sports, cultural stereotypes and I learned a lot about the Danish perspective on the world.

Christian, Susanne, and I

Iben and Annika showing me a family photo album

Neither  of the girls could speak English, but we had some fun trying to communicate. I was tought the Danish word for about 25 stuffed animals, learned to count to ten in Danish, and say "I come from USA." Therefore, a successful evening. Iben made me a picture with about 15 pictures of animals/icecream/things in everyday life and then wrote the Danish word next to it. She's precious

After dinner Christian and I sat on the couch and watched the Denmark-England soccer game and talked "football" for an hour...it was so much fun. Unfortunately, Denmark lost. Oh well, it was a wonderful evening!

http://www.totalsportsmadness.com/2011/02/06/denmark-vs-england-friendly-live-stream-highlights-9-february-2011/

Can't wait to share with you tomorrow the most amazing weekend of my life!! PARIS!

It was everything I hoped for and more.

Until then...xoxox

Kelly

Hors Commission Jusqu'à Dimanche

Long story short about my laptop, the first Mac store referred me to a second, both within the first arrondissement of Paris so my quest to fix my computer has a sequel... and a rather frustrating one at that.  The address I was searching for was 99 Rue de Rivoli, a boulevard running between the north side of the Louvre and an array of touristy shops and restaurants (also the location of Angelina's!).

Rue de Rivoli

The address is an odd number meaning it was on the same side of the street as the Louvre.  However, the numbers on this side stopped at 91.  I felt like Harry Potter searching for the platform 9 and 3/4 as I walked up and down this bouleavard for over an hour, 99 rue de Rivoli nowhere to be found.  But I really shouldn't complain because is there a better place to be lost than in Paris?

After a few phone calls to friends, I was positive that the Apple store needed to be right near the I.M. Pei pyramids of the Louvre...but who heard of a mac store inside the Louvre?  To my surprise, it exists!

And guess where?

The view from inside the Apple store....familiar?

Yes, it is directly below the biggest I.M. Pei pyrimad of the Louvre.  I was less hard on myself after this discovery.  I made it twenty minutes before the store closed for the evening which was just enough time to schedule an appointment to come back on Sunday evening to have my laptop repaired with any luck.  

Reunited oh so soon!

Countdown until the arrival Kelly & Shelby in Paris: 24 hours!!!!!!!!!


Bisous bisous,
Mary

Going West!

Hi again!

 As I said last post, I went on my "short study tour" to Western Denmark this past weekend with my European Business Strategy class. After visiting Saxo Bank and Nilfisk vacuum company, we started heading west and our bus arrived in Randers, Denmark 4 hours later. The drive was beautiful, through quaint towns and rolling countryside. Here are a few pictures of the drive.

lighthouse and cottage on the coast

 

Most of Denmark is powered by these wind turbines

Randers, Denmark, the first town we stayed in, was pretty much deserted. We were told it was where the "redneck Danes" live, so you can imagine that this was a very different place from Copenhagen. After checking into our hostel and havinig a quick dinner we went to "Randers Legeland," which looked to us like a hotspot for a ten year olds birthday party. If you can believe it I actually participated in Sumo Wrestling in huge sumo suits, mechanical bull-riding, human foosball, and gladiator. It was the randomest night of my life, but surprisingly fun!  



For the record, I went 3 for 3....new hidden talent!







biggest slice of pizza I'd ever seen! Split that baby 4 ways

 The next day we got up bright and early, said goodbye to Randers, and went to a business visit at a pump company...how thrilling. Three long hours later we went back to Randers , a place I swore I would never return to, and went to an open air zoo. There were three huge domes and the animals were not in cages! Monkeys, birds, otters etc were just running all around us!



Burmese Python!



If Britney can do it, I can do it!

After the zoo we headed to Odense, Denmark; the third largest city. I went to a cute cafe for dinner with two girls from UVA ; only problem was that the menu was completely in Danish. Thinking I was ordering a light meal of fresh Bruschetta that would look like this...

I ended up with this...

heart attack on a plate
Bruschetta is apparently a little different in Denmark..

Our professor actually lead the charge out to the bar that night and hung out with us the whole time! Its pretty cool we got to know our professor better over a few beers at a club...definitely different than UVA. Here is a picture of me with two girls from UVA who I met over here and am actually going to do some travelling with them.

The next morning we ate breakfast at the hotel and went to see the Hans Christian Anderson Museum located in the house he grew up in. The town was very quaint and beautiful. HCA is known for many childhood stories, The Little Mermaid, Ugly Duckling, and the Princess and the Pea among the most well known. The Danes LOVE this guy...I would say UVA's love for Thomas Jefferson times 2.

Next stop was a castle tour and micro-brewery visit in a small town in Jutland. The castle was beautiful, and we got to taste a variety of local beers and learned a lot about the industry. It was a great way to finish the trip! We all enjoyed the trip a lot, but were very anxious to get back to the bustle of Copenhagen. I was surprised at how much I missed the city even being away for only 3 days!

In a spur of the moment decision, Cally, Alex and I decided to go see Citizen Cope play in the city Saturday night after we got back. He was great but the concert was very, very bizarre. For the entire concert, the crowd was dead silent. When people tried to talk or sing along during the concert they were actually getting "shushed" to be quiet; a drastically different concert experience than in the states! And one that we were not ready for, since we were constantly getting yelled at for singing along..oops :)

front row!

Overall, it was a great weekend! Class this morning was a snap back to reality, especially since my alarm didn't go off for my 8:30 class. After my roomate woke me up at 8:45 I had to literally run to class.. and had a very near colision with 2 angry bicyclists...Danes are serious about jaywalking.

That's all for now! I'm having dinner at my Danish family's house on wednesday, so I'll let you know how that goes!

xoxoxxox

Kelly

p.s. Mary I am so jealous of your weather! Scandinavia is still chilly as ever.

Countdown:   Paris in 3 days!!!



55 Degrees and Sunny

Louvre

Yes it's true, Paris is fifty-five degrees and sunny today...and it's February?  This entire week should be beautiful with highs in the fifties.  I expected Paris to be colder than Pennsylvania but I was very wrong, I was hot walking around in just a jean jacket today.


My roommate Sydney has been nice enough to lend me her computer to write this post because mine is currently out of commission...I went to the Mac store today which is in the 1st arrondissement; it was a wonderful excuse to spend the afternoon in such a beautiful area of Paris.  I bought a 3 euro French beret which I am very excited about, discovered a courtyard in the Louvre today called Palais du Cour that I had never seen before, and was nearly the victim of the oh so famous gold ring scam.  "Lady, your ring, you dropped your ring!"  Nope, didn't fall for it...

for you Mother!

When I was 16, I did American Music Abroad and one of our stops on our European tour was in Paris.  Our program let us off the bus by the Opera House to spend the day wondering through the first.  I ran into this Zara today and actually still  have a shirt that I bought here at age 16.  It was quite the throwback!

Kelly and Shelby are visiting me in Paris this weekend which I am greatly looking forward to...I have so many things planned for them, there's just too much to show in two short days!  Angelina's hot chocolate, running to my favorite park, the ferris wheel on the Champs-Elysees, our hole-in-the-wall Sangria bar in Odean, and the Centre Pompidou are all on the list.


Wish me luck with my computer!


Au revoir mes amis!


Bisous bisous,
Mary

Here we go...

http://www.steelers.com/video-and-audio/videos/Here-We-Go-Steelers---Official-Music-Video/8eb20f13-d730-423a-8e36-f507484327a6



Good luck Pittsburgh.


Bisous bisous, Mary

"You can show a war without showing a gun" --Alexandra Boulat

Beautiful day in Paris!

Similar to yesterday, today's activities were based on seeing a museum exhibit in the Petit Palais, very near the Louvre and Arc de Triomphe.  We went to see an exhibit of two photojournalists: Alexandra and Pierre Boulat, father and daughter. The exhibit displayed 100 of their photos and has possibly been my favorite museum trip thus far.  Alexandra Boulat is an award-winning photographer, most reknown for the clairty of her photographs and her emotional images of people affected by war.  Her work has appeared in National Geographic, Time, Newsweek, and others.  Sadly, Alexandra died three years ago in Paris due to a brain aneurysm.  This exhibit was in large part a tribute to her. 

Alexandra's father, Pierre, was a photographer for Life magazine.  He encouraged his daughter to be a painter rather than photographer but Alexandra's passion for photography was undeniable and she followed in her father's footsteps.

Petit Palais

Inside the Petit Palais---not so petit

Father Daughter Photojournalists

--Pierre Boulat

--Pierre Boualt

--Alexandra Boulait

Yves Saint Laurent--Pierre Boulat

Yves Saint Laurent--Alexandra Boulat

--Alexandra Boulat

In reference to American girls --Pierre Boulat

--Monet

Hannah et moi

Life is hard over here, as you can see...

Bonsoiree tout le monde!

Bisous bisous, Mary

La Mode

 

Is there a better way to spend a Friday then at the Louvre?   I think non...

 

Before today, the last time I had been in the Louvre I was thirteen years old! 

Entrance to our exhibit

With my friends Hannah and Abby, I discovered "Les Annees 1990 & 2000"--an exhibit displaying twenty years of fashion.  Featured designers including Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Chanel, Christian Lacroix, Prada, Vivienne Westwood, and so many others!  The exhibit consisted of one hundred and fifty designs, selected from the most groundbreaking ensembles of the two decades.  

Mon amie Abby is a studio art major at UVA and is deciding whether or not she wants to go into design after college--she was a knowledgeable person to explore the exhibit with to say the least. 

 

The focus of the exhibit was not necessarily the body itself, but rather its identity.  In addition to the idea of individualism, a strong notion of professionalism of the "fashion industry" was widespread throughout these two decades.  Luxury goods were almost transforming into monopolies. 

For you Meg!

Jewelry Gallery

As I am sure some of you noticed, I signed my first few posts "bijoux bijoux" which at the time I thought meant "kiss kiss".  Little did I know "bijoux" means "jewelry"....whoops!  The true word for the expression I was looking for is "bisous, bisous".

I will leave you with that.

Jewlery Jewelry,
Mary