Grand Teatret, ChiliMili & some casual shopping

Saturday was my day off from studying - I went shopping with my little sister in the day and went to see a movie at Grand Teatret with a friend at night, finishing off with late dinner at Chilimili :)

I love going shopping for other people; just as I spend ages picking out the perfect gifts for friends and family, I like to help in finding clothes which both look good on that specific person, fit their style and are fashionable at the same time - especially when it is a challenge. I think no one appreciates that more than my sister; saturday she exclaimed that she would have to limit her aquiring of new clothes the next years to when I'll be home on Christmas and summer break (but - I'm not sure she'll keep that promise until she's 15). 

Deena & Ozzy oxfords, copper and silver nail varnish from Urban Outfitters
and a bow hairclip from Monki

As it often is, when shopping with other people you happen upon things which you feel are must-haves - or at least would be really really nice to have (must-have is such an overused term). And so did I this saturday - in Urban outfitters I found two kinds of metallic nail varnish at 70 dkkr each (been wearing the silver one, it's really pretty) plus a pair of oxford shoes which were just too cool not to buy. They're in black suede, clear pvc and silverish-gold on the tips, by a brand I'm unfamiliar with, Deena & Ozzy; they're practically customizable since you can change their appearance so much based on which socks you wear ^^ The brand seems quite cool too - I googled it, and I liked many of the shoes which popped up. Lastly, I bought a dark pink/purple triple bow hairclip from Monki - put it in my hair as soon as I'd paid for it :)

After having dropped off the shopping bags (mine and my sisters's) at home, I met up with a friend to go watch "The King's Speech" at Grand Teatret (yes, it has taken me long enough). Grand is without doubt my favourite cinema in Copenhagen; they stick to grown-up movies, and often ones which appeal to a narrower audience (they have 'French movie monday' for example) - in other words, don't go if you want to see "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Tangled" or "Meet the Fockers". But I watched "The Black Swan" there not too long ago with some of the actors from our play, and I can't wait to see "Mao's Last Dancer" there. It seems much less commercial than most of the other cinemas, and especially the main theatre is a beautiful old room (Sal 1), just as a movie theatre ought to be. They sell coffee, small bags of candy and cake, soda is available only in the old-fashioned glass bottles - no super-size me as most other places, where a medium soda is 3/4(!) litres. Sorry, this isn't to nag about the moral delapidation of modern cinemas - Grand Teatret is just something special :) 

(The King's Speech is a great movie by the way - but you don't need me to tell you that.)

After the movie, we went to Chilimili by Rådhuspladsen for a late dinner. They have really yummy, healthy food, and between 9 and 10 p.m. they have half price on all food and beverages (not sure if that's a permanent thing; anyway, otherwise there's the 20% discount for students). Their concept is that you take your pick of a couple different dishes between all the stuff they have lined up such as pasta salads, humus etc (lots of vegetarian food too), have it in a wrap or sandwich, or you buy either their 'soup of the day' or 'hot dish of the day'. Very good value for money (although the space is very attempted-hip cafeteria-ish; but never mind that) especially with the half price offer; otherwise, you can eat a small portion for 35 dkkr (without student discount), and e.g. the hot dish is 69 dkkr. In Denmark, it doesn't get much cheaper if you want to avoid junk food :)

Grand Teatret

Mikkel Bryggers Gade 8 (a side street to Strøget at the City Hall Square-end)

1460 København K

Chili Mili Rådhuspladsen

H. C. Andersens Boulevard 12

1553 København

Open: mon-sun 10-22

Grass & Cherry blossoms, Glass & Steel

I have decided that I would like to write about some of my favourite places in Copenhagen - as inspiration to natives and visitors alike :) I had the idea yesterday when I was spending the afternoon with my family, going around to different places in the city as the thoughts occured to us.

Kongens Have yesterday

The cherry trees are blossoming now

The first place we went was Kongens Have, 'The King's Garden', which is a big park in central Copenhagen situated around Rosenborg Castle. When the weather's nice there are always lots of people relaxing on the grass, going for walk, playing football or petanque or taking their kids to the playground. Denmark might not have the nicest weather in the world, but that just means that whenever the sun comes out, Copenhageners flock to parks and plazas to drink cold beer and get some sun - even if it after most people's standards is still freakin cold. 

One thing which makes Kongens Have particularly nice right now is that the cherry trees are blossoming -- and since the weather ought to hold for the duration of the easter break, everybody who can should take a trip to the park. If you're studying for exams, you can always take your books with you :)

After we'd been in the park and had gotten a bit to eat, we went to Amager to see one of my favourite buildings in the Copenhagen area (one of the few new buildings I really like), 8-tallet (≈ "The number 8"). As you can see to the right, they aren't quite done yet, but already it is an astonishing building. Seen from above, it is constructed as an 8 - a far more interesting shape than the usual glass-and-steel boxes. They have done a lot to create life in and around the building, with shops and a (quite good) café in one corner; I read in an interview with the architect that he'd wanted to make the building resemble a mountain village - this has resulted in multi-level apartments, small 'gardens' for many of them, and an invitation for people to hike to the top, up the many stairs. I did so already last summer, and the view is beautiful on both 'sides' of the building, both the one looking out over 'Fælleden' and the one looking into the inner side of the 8. 

8-tallet as it will end up looking. At the bottom here is Café 8-tallet; I've walked to the top on the 'hill' to the right.

You really don't have to be an architecture-enthusiast to appreciate the beauty of this building. And it makes for a good afternoon trip; just take the metro to Vestamager station, take a walk up and and around 8-tallet, and finish up with a nice cup of coffee or brunch/lunch/dinner in Café 8-tallet. 

EDIT: The left staircase is closed for non-residents; I am not certain whether the right staircase will be closed when all the apartments adjacent to it are sold. So if you want to go, it might be a good idea to do so rather soon. Otherwise, there are details on how to arrange a guided tour on the 8-tallet homepage.


Extra: Bjarke Ingels, founder of BIG showing some of the group's other buildings on CNN:

Kongens Have

Øster Voldgade 4B (not too far from Nørreport station)

1350 København K

Open: January 07-17; February 07-18; March 07-19; April 07-21; May-August 07-22; September 07-21; October 07-19; November 07-18; December 07-17.

8-tallet

Richard Mortensens Vej (by Vestamager metro station)

2300 København S

Open: Always, but Café: mon-fri 11-21; sat-sun 10-21 (these are kitchen opening hours; the actual café is open a few hours longer for you to finish your food or just have a beer or coffee. Kitchen is closed every day 16.30-17.30) 

Shopping for Japan

When disaster strikes, we all want to help - and the earthquake, tsunami and still developing nuclear issue in Japan made quite an impact on me. In general, I feel like we're seeing more and more natural disasters, but this one was somehow different; perhaps it is because it struck in what we consider a highly developed society, which has available to it all precautionary measures so far invented by human kind. Of course, the fact that at least the tsunami made for such good TV, unlike an earthquake (as in Haiti) where you can only show the impact it has had on buildings etc., probably made a difference too; and there is always the Biblical references to The Flood to people in Western societies.

Aid poster from des!gn think!ng*

As always, all kinds of relief efforts are going on around the world - you can either give money directly, or buy products which 'donate all profits to aid Japan' (now, as I am planning to study economics I am tempted to ask: Including normal profits?, but that is besides the point). I know it is (aside from actually helping the Japanese) a PR stunt by the companies, and that it is meant to make me want to buy their products more because I can rationalise my way into it ("Well, the money's for a good cause!") - still... Win-Win situation?

AMBUSH Koppel pendant watch in red 
limited edition (500) from Georg Jensen

Today I got a newsletter from Danish silverware- and jewellery brand Georg Jensen, saying they had made a limited edition of one of their watch pendants. And I want it soooo bad!! Isn't it pretty? I hate being on a student budget at times like this - it costs €630.

"For Them" by Technique Indiscréte

One thing which is perhaps slightly more affordable is a limited edition perfume from Parisian 'Technique Indiscréte', made with notes of lavender. It is also a limited edition, but with 1000 available bottles - and is sold at €35 plus shipping (=€45 to Denmark). Another thing I wouldn't mind owning.

It occurs to me that a lot of the aid-products I've seen in relation to Japan have been these quite expensive, exclusive kinds of products. Perhaps it is a result of Japan being a more developed country - we have other connotations to it? Or perhaps the Japanese flag simply invites to those kinds of products.. the red circle is very easy to incorporate in a simplistic way, without it screaming "I HAVE DONATED FOR JAPAN!" - the Georg Jensen watch for example would be beautiful also without one knowing the money went to a good cause. Finally, the companies which can make these kinds of products as believable PR-stunts are probably the ones which have some kind of affiliation with Japan, if only through aesthetic principles - and simplisticness is often a high-end thing.

So... I know I'm being manipulated, and that I ought to just donate without there having to be something in it for me. Still, as I wrote above - win-win situation?

Post-IB plans (now with macarons)

My friend Em has a post-IB reading list on her blog; it is probably a good idea to have some idea of what to.. otherwise the shock of free time might become too much ;) Anyway, I've been thinking more generally of what I'll do when exams are over and done with; I'm thinking it's a good way to stay sane with exam-nerves and what not (the best I've found so far aside from driving through sunny Copenhagen in my driving instructor's convertible ^^ ).

Some of the stuff I'll do is of the practical kind; I'll hopefully get the job at SOS (I'm going for an interview sometime within the next couple of weeks btw), so I'll be working. I'll also be preparing to leave Copenhagen for University of St. Andrews, Scotland, with all the practicalities that entails - stressing over exam results in the process, as I won't have those (and so not be 100% sure that I'm going) before 6th July. Already, though, I'm crazy excited to be going (and crazy scared) -- it even looks like a friend will be going there with me, so I won't be a complete loner ^^

Hopefully, Denmark will stay as nice and sunny as it is now - then beaches and reading in the garden is a tempting option. If not, I have a long standing plan to have a Harry Potter movie marathon with some good friends - and when summer holiday is upon us, those friends who live abroad will (hopefully) also be able to participate <3

Today, I remembered one more thing I plan to spend time on. I visited Jessica January's blog (thanks for the comment btw), and there found a video full of delicious french cakes (below) - which reminded me of my ambition to learn how to make macarons. I've tried once, and they tasted fine, but were not quite as sturdy as I'd liked them to have been. Hence, when I was in Oxford in the fall and found a recipe book on macarons it didn't take me long to buy it. I will probably have to work quite a bit to perfect the craft - people are welcome to visit and help get rid of failed attempts ;)

Poetry and then some thoughts on Religion

Today, I've stayed home from school with a headache and throat pain. That shall not keep me from studying for exams, however - which are coming up in around two weeks. I might lay off the chemistry until sunday, though, and keep to English; getting on with the task of learning 12 poems of by heart so I can quote them in my paper. 

          I used to not be very fond of poetry; I'd grown sick of the 70's poems we read in Danish in my previous schools, and although I had seen a few I liked by the 1980's Danish poet Michael Strunge, flipping through his collected poems I wasn't convinced that the genre was for me. But, if you're lucky, that is one of the things school might help you overcome - and as with drama and prose, poetry in English seemed a whole new world for me. We read Sylvia Plath, Carol Ann Duffy, Pablo Neruda (translated, of course) and William Blake; I like the first two the best, I like Neruda's political poems, and a few of Blake's such as "The Garden of Love". The task I have set myself for today is to learn Carol Ann Duffy's "Confession" by heart:

Confession
          Come away into this dark cell and tell 

          your sins to a hidden man your guardian angel

       .          works your conscience like a glove puppet It

          smells in here doesn't it does it smell 

          like a coffin how would you know C'mon

          out with them sins those little maggoty things

          that wriggle in the soul... Bless me Father...

          Just how bad have you been there's no water

          in hell merely to think of a wrong's as evil

          as doing it... For I have sinned... Penance

          will cleanse you like a bar of good soap so

          say the words into the musty gloom aye 

          on your knees let's hear that wee voice 

          recite transgression in the manner approved... Forgive me...

          You do well to stammer A proper respect

          for eternal damnation see the flicker 

          of your white hands clasping each other like

          Hansel and Gretel in the big black wood 

          cross yourself Remember the vinegar and sponge

          there's light on the other side of the door... Mother

          of God... if you can only reach it Jesus loves you.

I like the feel of this poem, how the lack of punctuation gives the poem a very overwhelming, oppressive feeling, as if multiple voices are speaking at once.
  
I am atheist myself, so I don't have any experience of my own with the Catholic confession - but aside from being atheist because I don't believe in a God, I also dislike the set rules of many religions. My parents are Christian to some extent, pretty relaxed about it as most Danes are; but they have a picture in their room stating "God is Love" - and if you do believe in some sort of God, I think it makes sense to find him/her in the beautiful things in our lives, rather than in rules and rites. Otherwise, you might end up in a "thou shalt not"-religion, with the threatening feel portrayed in the poem. Without being a theologist, I have read parts of the Bible, and oppressiveness does not strike me to be the purpose of at least the New Testament. For really, shouldn't it be whether you actually repent your wrongdoings, rather than whether you can "recite transgression in the manner approved", that counts?