May 6, 2018

Contemporary Copenhagen (Copenhagen Pt II)


As I write this, I sit in a garden, in beautiful 80*F weather, surrounded by the chirps of birds and the smell of blooming flowers on a highly coveted campus in upstate NY. Days like this, I'm reminded especially of how fortunate I am to be where I am, to have had the experiences I've had. As someone who likes to compare, I find it easy to be jealous. There's countless ways to become discontent. It's easy to wish for someone else's circumstances and to become hardened by where your situation falls short. There's a lot to wish for, but oh-my-word has God provided above and beyond, and I'm really lucky to have gone on this trip with my family last summer.

I'm closing off this series with our final photos from a two-day stay in Copenhagen, Denmark. I hope you've enjoyed these stories and photos over the course of the year. It's been exciting to look back and have memories triggered as I edit photos. These blogposts have given me excuses to flip back through journals and remember the funny things my friends and family said.


We live in a culture where vacation has no longer become a blessing but more like a leverage point or expectation in your twenties. I do think that travel is necessary for everyone, regardless of socioeconomic status, but travel doesn't mean jetting halfway across the world. It is definitely possible to go far for a low cost if you're strategic, but I'd like to emphasize that travel is not a chase after an experience that is marketed towards you. I think travel is about the connections that you don't expect, can't make up, nor reproduce. It's more about the spontaneity and personal narratives, less about achieving the photo at Nyhavn that everyone posts ;-) Just because something doesn't look the same way doesn't make it any less valuable.

I knew heading into my junior year that I'd find myself battling with jealousy of others who study abroad. Assuming that my collegiate experience would be incomplete without going abroad wasn't smart, but I couldn't help it. Under that light, traveling became an entitlement and no longer a privilege. It's helped to remind myself that it wouldn't be ideal to cut my already shortened time at Cornell after struggling to get in, but what's solidified my contentment with where I am is redefining travel for myself.

Once we overcome current cultural definitions, it's so much easier to be humbled by the interactions and experiences we've had. Meeting international students in your class or visiting an ethnic neighborhood in a nearby city is one dimension of become a "cultured, global citizen." Don't take any moment for granted, big or small. It's great that traveling has become so accessible, but don't devalue it to commonplace.

tl;dr: so long as you leave each moment feeling a little smaller, reminded that the world is incredibly big and full of countless similarities and differences, I think you've traveled.

Nyboder
Torvehallerne Market
Smørrebrød 
Nyhavn (classic Copenhagen)
  
Christian warned us that The Little Mermaid statue wouldn't be worth a visit. He was so right and we were more than happy to have only seen it at a distance. 
Captain Lars
Papiroen was like a Danish, super trendy version of Chelsea Market. Unfortunately, it's no longer open, but there are plenty of food markets in CPH.
I became slightly infatuated with Brazil after getting to know Eduardo and Renata. We spoke more Spanish than Portuguese, but I distinctly remember getting a little too excited upon seeing that flag.
You wouldn't believe the line of cyclists waiting for the bridge.
Freetown Christiania
Looking at this photo will forever remind me of Marc Auge's "non-place," a topic of discussion in my Spanish class (somehow it was related to the underdevelopment of Cuba during the post-revolution era). Figuring out what place, space, and non-place all meant in relation to one another was the ultimate brainteaser (so much so that I couldn't even stop thinking about it during biochemistry and microbiology). To me, the graffiti ("palimpsestos") and the odd tension between residential with touristy-ness in Christiania made it a "non-place."
Church of Our Savior
Lakagehuset, a Danish staple
The Square Hotel. How my mom found a way to book a night here I have no idea. They had iPad controlled coffee machines. And wheatgrass shots. And they knew how to properly scramble eggs. YOU GUYS.

The hardest part of leaving wasn't that school would be starting in a few days. The difficulties lied in the goodbyes to the new friends we had made and the sweet routines we had picked up over the 13 days. I like that what draws me back and what drives me to go isn't the places themselves but the people. 

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