Wednesday 5.7

Apologies for being MIA for the past few days. I’ve been too busy at work to do much homing from work recently and the weather has been really nice, so I haven’t really been interested in sitting inside blogging from home after work either. I’m still pretty busy at work right now, so this will just be a super quick update.

So, what have I been up to?

Well, I spent this past weekend biking on Denmark’s easternmost island, Bornholm. I was technically ‘chaperoning’ a trip for work, but this is a great trip to chaperone because you basically get to the island, hand all the students bikes, wish them luck, and go off biking with your friends for the day. This was my third time on Bornholm (I’ve been for one weekend a year for the past three years, since 2006!) and, as usual, I had a great time. The first day, some friends and I decided to bike all the way south to the white beaches of Dueodde. The beaches were beautiful and the weather was warm on the island, but not quite beach-laying weather, yet! On the way back, we stopped for some famous Bornholm ‘sild’ (which is Danish for smoked herring). Delicious! All in all, the first day we biked over 68 kilometers (over 42 miles), and Bornholm is hilly (unlike the rest of Denmark).

The second day, Libby, Summer, and I biked up to the Hammershus castle ruins at the northernmost tip of the island. On the way up, we stopped for lunch in Allinge, which is one of the biggest towns on Bornholm. All three of us ordered and conversed with the restaurant people completely in Danish. It was a great feeling because they could understand us all with our super American accents so well (much better than the snobby Copenhageners). Again, the weather was great and we all got pretty nice tans sunbathing among the ruins for an hour! The second day we biked about 42 kilometers (over 26 miles). The best part was that none of us were sore on Monday because we are all super-avid cyclists now. Hahaha.

Monday and Tuesday this week were pretty uneventful, but the weather was great. I can’t get enough of this great weather. I can hardly even remember the Danish Mist of winter! Knock on wood that it doesn't sneak back on all of us poor unsuspectors this summer...!

In other news, today I had an experience that made me realize what a snobby Copenhagener I’ve become. I did laundry last night (at my sweet laundromat with the trippy, drugged out, elven merpeople on the walls!) and hung my grey cardigan up to dry on the hook above where I hang my keys in my bedroom (I imagine it’s supposed to dry flat, but whatever. I’d go ahead and make a comment here about how washing instructions are for overly domestic losers, but I’m still quite sad about messing up the tulle on my white skirt by haplessly throwing it in the dryer…). Anyway, because of my distractingly hung grey cardigan, I ran out of my apartment this morning only to slam the door and realize, instantly, that I had forgotten to grab my keys. Damn. This meant I couldn’t bike to work (my bike lock key is on my keyring) and would be late. I called the office to let them know and started off on what would be a thirty minute walk. Passing the lakes on my way, I noticed a Copenhagen City Bike (bycykel) rack. I seized the opportunity, deposited 20kr in the one remaining bike, and took off down the road. Now, I know I may be overly privileged with my relatively nice, privately owned bike, but honestly, this city bike was the crappiest bike I have ever ridden. The seat was all wobbly back and forth, there were no gears, and only back pedal brakes. SUCH a crappy ride. What was worse was that I looked like a complete tourist riding my city bike with the plastic city map built into the handlebars and gaudy ‘rims’. Ugh. I guess that’s what I get for locking myself out. Luckily, Rachel was heading home for a few minutes after a meeting this morning so I joined her, was let into our apartment, retrieved my keys and my bike, and was happy again. Thank Odin.

Tonight I'm going out for my second Danish Mexican food experience. The last one was disappointing, to say the least. The Danes know nothing about Mexican food. Probably because there are, literally, no Mexicans here. (Shwarma, on the other hand, they've got down to a T!) We'll see. The dinner is on the corporate bill because it's for a extracurricular club I co-run with Rachel, so I've got nothing to lose. (And we're going all out!) :)

Two other things:

01. "Oh, shit! Our planes about to hit Mickey Mouse and I'm pretty sure we just flew through Saul Bass' Minolta logo...!" click! I'm not sure if I think this is cool or just really, really gaudy commercialism.

02. The absolute ugliest, most heinous dress Ralph Lauren has ever made. click!

Is this a joke? No? He should be ashamed. If you're going to keep rolling out stuff like this, change your name back to Lifshitz and stop your fratquerade.