I was one of only about 10 or 15 students (out of 41) in my program that took the flight back to CPH. Pretty uneventful, but we didn't get into CPH until like 9:30pm. We were all exhausted because we had been in Oxford in the morning having a lecture and tours, had a three hour bus ride to the airport and then had to wait at the airport and have the flight. Luckily I had arranged with my host family before that I wouldn't go all the way back to Borup. If I hit the trains perfectly (which probably wouldn't have happened) I would have had a 25 minute Metro ride to the Central Station and then the hour long train out to Borup. I have two host sisters that live at home, and then two that live by themselves in the city. So I stayed with Stine, who's 21, for the night. It was only about 15 minutes away from the airport, which helped the night I came in, but also in the morning when I had to get back for my flight to Munich.
Most of my friends are going to several countries or cities during the break. A couple friends took trips organized through DIS (the study abroad program): one to Rome and one to the Czech Republic. Two of my friends, Claire and Kaitlin (shout outs!!) are taking the backpacking route. They actually went three weeks (one week in London, two on break) in just a backpack and a small duffel bag. And I know a kid who went to 12 cities in 15 days. That's just crazy! But I took the route of visiting my relatives in Austria and Germany. It's been something like 10 or 11 years since I've seen them....but I was SOO glad to be back here! Frank, Annette, Theresa and Phillip picked me up at the airport and I spent the first night with them in Wasserburg, Germany and then spent 4 days with Barbara, Harold and Simon in Vandans, Austria. It's been very nice to just relax and the weather has been terrific! The first couple days it rained, and Barbara said I brought it from CPH and that I needed to go back so that they could have nice weather!
Everyday I was at Barbara's house we would take a little trek to a new place: Schruns, Bludenz, and one day I went to the top of Golm mountain for the day by myself. It's WAYYYY high up to get to the top--but an amazing view. Barbara practically lives at the foot of the mountain so it was quick and easy to get there. I just sat at the little restaurant and read my book and had some coffee. There was an outdoor cafe part that I was sitting at...it was about 60 or 65 degrees and sunny AKA Perfect! Beautiful weather, beautiful snowy mountains surrounding me! And tons of skiiers!
Then Theresa (she's 16 these days) and I went on a little road trip while everyone else went skiing. We went to Nuremburg for three days and Munich for two. I think we saw every church in both cities. Okay, maybe not alllll of them....but a lot. Mostly we just spent the days walking around and wandering and bumping into all sorts of things like lots and lots of markets and more churches and other fun places. We also went to a modern art museum: Neues Museum. There was typical modern art happening there, which is more what both Theresa and I liked. It's interesting especially looking at all of the pieces called "Ohne Titel" translation: "Without a title". Love those pieces. Another hilarious encounter occured with the guards at the art museum. There were three floors altogether: 2 of the regular museum, and 1 of a special exhibit. The one now is of artist Marcello Morandini's work. It was basically like those strange geometric shapes in black and white that when you look at them make you dizzy and give you a headache. You know what I'm talking about. Like weird diamonds and stuff...anyway it was a whole large room filled with this stuff. I was popping Aleve's left and right!!
But so Theresa and I were walking through and kind of separated at one point. We were pretty much the only ones in the museum so the guards, needing to feel important, felt the urgent need to follow about 12 paces behind us as we walked around. Always a terrific feeling knowing there's some dude I could probably beat the crap out of lurking behind me. So I was at the end of this corridor of art...and Theresa was walking towards me. We were making the eye contact as if to say "okay, I'm ready let's peace out." So she starts walking and there is a carpet on the floor. This carpet (with those bizarre geometric designs) is taking up approximately 80% of the floor. So she starts to walk and she stepped on it. It's a carpet. In the middle of the damn floor. Of course she would. So the following interaction ensued:
Guard: EHHH Eh eh eh eh!!!!!
Theresa: (look of confusion)
Guard: (pointing to the carpet) Es...ist....Kunst. (translation: it...is...art. there were dramatic pauses in between each word of course)
We decided he just waits around all day giddy at the possibility of someone walking on that carpet.
We also saw every movie that is out. Again, not completely true. We saw Slumdog Millionaire, which I thoroughly enjoyed....and then we saw Gran Torino....at Germany's largest movie theatre! How cool is that?! It had like 25 screens or something....and the strangest thing was that all of the theatres were underground. Both were very good and I would suggest them....Gran Torino is very sad though FYI.
In Munich we did most of the same...walk around and go shopping and go into the tourist sites as we came upon them. But since Munich was a bigger city and there was no way we would just stumble upon allllll of the touristy places, we decided to take one of those sightseeing buses. Double decker, open-air top...it was a lot of fun. They had headphones with 8 different languages. So basically I now know a little bit about Munich in English, German, Chinese, Russian, French, Spanish, Norwigian, and some other language that I can't think of at the moment. It was pretty funny especially because the English one was pretty much just a direct translation from German, so at times it didn't really make sense. But it was fun!
We got back on Thursday night, so then I just had a few last days in Germany. We spent them very relaxed. Pretty much we'd wake up around 9:30 or 10, get showered and ready for the day, have a delicious breakfast around 10:30, hang out on the patio drinking lots and lots of coffee and napping on lawn chairs in the sun. It was sooooo good just to relax!
Now we're heading into the homestretch here! Less than five weeks left....but in those five weeks I'll be very busy with school (first and foremost, of course!) with all sorts of presentations, papers, portfolios and exams. I also want to make sure I get to see everything and really take advantage of the great weather. I want to head back to Nyhavn (the pretty canals), Tivoli (which is this crazy huge giant amusement park in the center of Copenhagen...literally a stones throw from City Hall!), and hopefully a day trip to the Cliffs of Moen (these really picturesque white cliffs about 1.5 hours south of Borup).
Some pictures are below, and of course, Webshots has also been updated. Hope all is well and I'll talk to you soon!
Love,
Olivia
This is right behind Frank and Annette's house...above is zoomed in. 
In the foreground of the picture are strawberry fields, and up towards the top and on the right side are the apple trees. There are apple trees EVERYWHERE out there!
The view of Nurnburg from the top of the Imperial Castle
Spent a few hours in Lindau, Germany. It's a pretty town right on the water!
A view from Golm!
Same. I think this was near the 2nd stopping point. There are 4 different spots on the mountain you can get off at (well including the bottom), and you can park at the bottom and one up...so this is just one stop up on the ski lift thing
This is Hotel Taube, where Ernest Hemingway once partied at. In Schruns, Austria
The town of Schruns
This is right out front of Barbara and Harold's house in Vandans, Austria
