OK, the second post of many in my ridiculously long queue! This post is going to be about the choir I sang in for about a month and a half. I’m a big time choir person. I first sang in a choir in 5th grade (got assigned to it at random) and from then on I was hooked. Sang in the choir every single year until I graduated from high school. Then in college I sang for four years in the Women’s Glee Club, and after college I joined the community choirs in my town back at home.

I didn’t sing in any choir last fall. I missed it, but I was so in love with Copenhagen and being abroad that it didn’t bother me much. But after I decided to return for the spring, I thought it’d be cool to find a choir to sing in. But I got lazy and didn’t put too much effort into the search. I did look on some websites, but most choirs were already going by the time I came back, and of course most would be in Danish (not that that I’d mind too much…I like the Danish language).

Well I was randomly hanging out in the kitchens in the dorm and, through a classmate of mine, met this really nice girl who sang in this international church choir. To make a long story short, I joined the choir in early March. It turned out to be an Easter choir, we rehearsed songs from a composition called Redemption. Very religious, and I’m not a religious person at all. But I just wanted to sing and I’ll sing religious songs as long as they don’t advocate harming anyone or anything.

Rehearsals were every Saturday morning at 9:30. Wide range of ages in the choir. Much more informal than what I was used to, but the people were nice. They wanted me to join their youth groups and come to their worship services and everything. They were so nice that I didn’t want to say no, I’m not a Christian right to their face, so I just smiled and didn’t really say yes or no as to whether or not I’d come. I mean, I was just there to sing. But they wouldn’t know that. Maybe I should have been more straightforward and clear that I was only there to sing, but I didn’t want to start any conflicts with these people. It would be pointless. I mean, one of my fellow singers was this gentle old, slightly bent German man who kept coming up to me saying he wanted to find where Chapel Hill and North Carolina were on a map, and he’d say that he thought of me whenever he saw a story on the news about North Carolina. So I thought it best to just play along and go with the flow because they weren’t harming anyone.

Anywhoo, the concert on April 5th was a lot of fun. We sang at both Palm Sunday services. Very passionate worship going on. We wore white tops and black bottoms with yellow scarves around our necks. Thankfully I already had black pants but had to buy a white top (got one extremely cheap for 10 DKK at Føtex, it was on clearance).

Well, pictured is the church, located on the edge of Nørrebro. Believe it or not it’s a Baptist church. A Baptist church in Copenhagen. Interesting.

Well, I’ve got a LOT of posts to write, so I’m going to be spamming this blog today. :-) I’ve got to start at the beginning. The first post in the queue is my visit to the public library in Nørrebro. Now, Nørrebro is known as the “rough” part of town. This is where a lot of immigrants settle and so it’s more international than other parts of Copenhagen. Many students and people who are just starting out live here too because housing is much cheaper. The stores are also cheaper here…so for example the Irma gourmet grocery store is cheaper in Nørrebro than the Irma in København K (the city center).

Nørrebro (especially along its main street, Nørrebrogade) has the most interesting restaurants, shops and nightlife. It was also the site of the famous youth riots back in 2007 over the underground “Ungdomhuset” (the house was eventually demolished by the government), and the Assistens Cemetery (the final resting place of famous Danes such as H.C. Andersen). Back in the Fall I walked through Nørrebro with Barbara.

There’s been a spate of gang-related shootings here over the past few months. Since gun violence is relatively rare in Copenhagen, people go wild over each shooting. If the Danish government would do a better job taking care of immigrants and making them feel more welcome into the society, the youth wouldn’t resort to gangs and drugs. But that’s a different story entirely and I’m digressing!

I found this library to be the most interesting of all of them. It’s probably my favorite so far of the public libraries. It looks like a video arcade or music store. Attractions include plastic see-through chairs, nifty black shelves, a computer lab, graffiti art and a giant tree in the children’s section. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. Also, the patrons (at least when I was there) were of many different nationalities, reflecting the international character of Nørrebro.

Oh and while I was doing some work, a random guy came up to me and said I look like Michael Jackson did when he was young. Hmm. ;-) He also wanted to use the Internet on my computer. I let him check one site but then sent him off to the computer lab. I think he just wanted an excuse to talk to me!

I’ve put tons more pictures on Flickr.

Tree in Children’s Section

More of the Children’s section

Graffiti Art & Magazine Shelf

Stacks

The table where I studied

MORE PICTURES HERE!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted last. This post will be a general update. There are new pictures up on Flickr as well.

Discovering Copenhagen #2 – A walk around Nørrebro
Last Wednesday Barbara and I went on a walk around Nørrebro, which is a multi-ethnic area of the city; a lot of immigrants have settled here. This is also the “rougher” part of Copenhagen. Riots have occured here in the past, and we walked by the site where famous riots have occured in the past (including a site where a youth hangout spot had been torn down due to clashes over its ownership). We also visited the historic cemetery where many famous Danes have been buried. Nørrebro is very interesting to say the least and has a lot of multi-ethnic restaurants and shops. Plus, Barbara was a great tour guide!! I took lots of pictures, and they are up on Flickr.

Discovering Copenhagen #3 – Central Station, the Bus System and Rådhuspladsen
Another discovery from the past week included a visit to the Central Station (which is near or part of Nørreport Station) and riding on the S-Train and having my first Danish hot dog at the Central Station (delicious!). I went with Kathrine, one of my classmates who is also from the US!

On Saturday we’d originally planned to go to the zoo, but it was rainy and yucky in the morning, so I decided not to go and to do some shopping instead. I decided to try out the bus system in the process. The bright yellow busses are very well organized and they run on the dot. I also like how you can buy a 10-ride ticket and it works on all of the public transportation options — the Metro, the bus and the S-Train. I ended up at the central city square, Rådhuspladsen, while waiting to catch another bus, so I did some quick exploring of the shops around that area. I will return on a later date to see more! Riding the bus is also a good way to see how the different areas of the city are all connected, because to me Copenhagen still feels like several separate cities rather than one large one.

On Saturday afternoon I visited my friend Hana, a fellow classmate, in her dorm room for tea (she lives in the same dorm as I do, but in a different building)! I had a really nice time, and stayed for dinner as well. Then, Saturday night I went to a kitchen party; I had been invited by my friend Iveta, a fellow international student who also lives in this dorm. The party was fun and I met some nice people!

Discovering Copenhagen #4 -A walk around the park
On Sunday I went with Hana, on a walk around this gorgeous park near our dorm. It looks very much like the countryside! So Copenhagen has it all — big city, quiet, green pathways and of course the beach (which I have yet to visit). It was a very pleasant walk and I took pictures of course; they are on Flickr.

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That is pretty much it for this entry. My week to clean the kitchen is coming up starting on the 28th. That should be interesting. I bought rubber gloves so it’ll be easier for me to do a good job without worrying about touching something icky. Ha!

On Monday (yesterday) our school hosted this interesting lecture about persuasive design. B.J. Fogg, a professor from Stanford University, gave a talk in the morning and a workshop in the afternoon. I attended both and found it quite neat. He talked about how websites, especially Facebook, uses certain techniques to persuade users to do certain things. Then in the workshops we looked at profile pictures and discussed how the lighting, angles, facial expressions and degree of cropping can affect the viewers’ perception. At the end of the workshop we broke into groups and put together a survey using our own profile pictures and apply some of the principles we’d discussed all day.

That’s it for now, more entries later!