MONDAY //
Monday I was exhausted, of course, after a week of travel, but still enjoyed my classes. I was disappointed but not surprised that no one else really did the art history reading, but with no one else participating in the discussion, my professor and I had a really engaging dialogue on the essay.
In the afternoon, my design thinking class was cancelled so that we would have time to film our design prototype video for our entire presentation. We had a lot of fun filming, and it felt low-stress since we had an entire week until the due date– appropriate for a project where the focus is finding a solution to reducing college student stress!
TUESDAY//
Normal day, but LLC event in the evening! We went to the Nørrebro Bibliotek to hear an artist talk about her experience as an immigrant to Copenhagen, and what living here has taught her about Danish design. She was appreciative of it's role in helping her understand assimilate to Denmark, but critical of the homogeneity throughout Danish design. It was really cool to hear someone explain the connection between design, and other aspects of Danish culture.
WEDNESDAY //
Mads and I had a slow morning, but eventually we got ourselves to brunch before I had to leave for my field study. It started raining, but he walked to my bus stop for my Danish class field study anyway. The weather was pretty cold and dreary, and the bus ride took up half of the 4 hours, but we learned about how the people of Denmark saved 7000 jews from concentration camps by risking their lives to send them by boat to Sweden in the dead of night. It was a really moving story, and the history professor who led the tour was clearly very passionate about the subject.
SATURDAY //
Saturday night we had an LLC event– a performance at Klub Avantgarde, an underground music and art bar thats run by volunteers. The Klub is currently hosting a series of alternative performances inspired by pop music– and this one in particular was inspired by Rihanna, who I consider one of the coolest and most fashion-forward pop icons– so I was very excited. Mara, Helen and I prepared by watching A LOT of Rihanna music videos and googling her for outfit inspiration.
Public transportation proved to be challenging as always, but we finally made it to the venue. We had to wait a bit for the performance to start, but soon they give an intro in Danish signaling the start. Or not, as I had thought. I actually sat through almost 4 minutes of the performance before realizing they had started, and weren’t just tuning their equipment. Which I suppose, speaks to the type of music, which I would actually characterize instead as noise. I really searched for Rihanna’s influence, and found none. I can’t really describe the experience except to say what I said then. It was sort of like sitting at sauna: almost too intense, but not quite, and still enjoyable.
We talked to the artist afterwards and he was pretty vague about Rihanna’s influence, but he really liked my sauna comment. Does that make me cool?
SUNDAY //
My mother is in Morelia right now, I’ve been missing her and Mexico, so I decided to make empanadas for myself and my flatmates for dinner. They were super yummy!! I wish I had tomatillos but I think I did well with the ingredients I had. If anyone wants to send me salsa verde I will be a willing recipient.
Mommy wasn’t home, but I FaceTimed my brother, Michael, instead. He played some of his music for me, and we talked about a collaboration he did that didn’t turn out as expected, but he’s still working hard and not letting disappointments set him back. He also told me he’s become a lot more interested in fashion, both global trends and for his own personal style, and asked me about the street style in Copenhagen. We spent a pretty long time on the topic, and I’m really excited to see that he’s exploring new ways to express himself outside of the mainstream. I wish I was this cool when I was 15. He also expressed an interest in learning graphic design. I’m so proud of him and excited for him!