Little Treasures

I've noticed that there are a few things that I've brought/bought that provide me so much comfort in this brand new place. I know you're not supposed to, well, worship material things, but I admit that I definitely do. For instance, I bought a candle at IKEA that I also had back in Santa Cruz - having a familiar smell completely transformed my room into something more like home. I also buy flowers every week for my desk. Below are other favorite happy-inducing items:

^ mug from Plint, the cutest little kitchen store here in Copenhagen (filled with my morning staple of not-so-special English Breakfast tea).
^ handful of paper hearts (with "M + G" written on each) are a little gift from Greg - he filled my christmas present with dozens of these :)
^ sweet little notebooks: red for miscellaneous info (half full already, of directions, friends addresses, names of cafes etc. to go to, translations, and to-do lists), green for keeping track of finances, and the beautiful untouched little blue one, all from Target.
^ Smith's Strawberry Lip Balm from my friend Sue, such a good little indulgence.
^ Bouquet Blanc Concrete Parfum makes me feel so luxurious and refined, even with four sweaters on.
^ Little Otsu Weekly Planner, the best planner I've ever had. Rivals moleskine. Thanks mom!
^ Book of Encouragement, an old purchase but one of my favorite possessions. Full of quotes of, well, encouragement.


Other little treasures and pleasures:

• My Danish language teacher lets me drink tea in class - i have a thermos with a cup-cap that I pour English Breakfast with milk and sugar into every day. It's like having teatime. So European. And the thermos is from Ikea, so that adds to the Europeanness. 
• Skype (which was created by a Dane and Swede?!) is a magnificent creature that lets me talk to Mommy and Greggy whenever they're awake, and whenever my internet permits a good signal.
• M&Ms taste better in Denmark! (I'm so serious - less processed, more chocolate-y). 
• Rugbrød (Danish rye bread, pronounced "ruuubroull" - but you gotta stick your tongue out for the "ouulll" part so that it's not touching your teeth - isn't speaking Danish fun?) is so, so, delicious. And nutritious. And cheap. It's magic.
• People think I'm a local sometimes and ask me all sorts of questions in Danish - now this isn't actually very meaningful, because there is a huge amount of immigrants in CPH so they're probably equally likely to ask my Italian or Hong-Kong-ese housemates - and I can tell them in DANISH that I don't really speak Danish ("Unskyld, men jeg kan kun tale Engelsk... ")!
• I can walk or bike anywhere - not that I do, because it's usually about 27 degrees fahrenheit out and icy and dark at the moment... but I will one day.
• All the young kids wear these awesome onesie-snowsuits that make them unable to put their arms all the way down at their sides (like this scene in A Christmas Story) which serves for perpetual visual entertainment while walking through the city and is a major perk of this cold weather.
• Hygge - the Danes' lifestyle philosophy that all things should be cozy ("hygge" means cozy) - infiltrates every restaurant, cafe and store. I love it. It's become a constant goal among my friends to declare one's day as super-hygge. These Danes have their priorities in order.

Not-so-awesome things about CPH:

• I have yet to discover a good, cheap cafe au lait or a good, cheap meal. It's either one or the other at this point. But I eat at home a lot and cook yummy feasts with friends and housemates, and I've permitted myself a bi-weekly indulgence in yummy restaurant meals. And there are pastries everywhere. And salmon is so good, and pretty cheap!
• Danish, especially a crash course in Danish, with a written exam on Friday and an oral exam next Tuesday, is still really hard to learn. 
• I kinda only have two fashion choices here: either feel/look like a marshmallow or be cold. But working on that... the Danish girls my age look so trendy and un-marshmallowy on a daily basis so therefore it must be possibly to break this routine of mine. 

But Danish class will be over eight days from now, and I've gotta give myself some slack on the whole expensive restaurant thing. I have five more months to find affordable yumminess, and I have a lot of leads. And by the time I do find the perfect restaurant, maybe it will average 35 or 36 degrees out and I could evade this whole marshmallow tendency of mine. Here's to hoping.

Also - just booked a flight to Vienna, Austria for a week! Leaving January 30th, and going with five other friends. I don't know much/anything about Vienna, except it's famous inhabitants (hi Freud, hi Mozart, hi Beethoven) and that The Sound of Music took place somewhere in that country (my #1 goal for this trip is to visit where it was filmed). So if anyone has a recommendation as to what I should see/where I should go/ a cheap yummy place to eat, I'm all ears please!

Thanks for reading.

♡ Maddie