"Home isn't a place, it's a feeling."

Here are a couple pictures of our apartment in Copenhagen, and then one of my wonderful pink bike :)
I've been biking a total of at least an hour every single day, if not more, and it's always windy (hard) and bridge-y (also hard) especially when you've got a basket with a heavy bag in it!

My bike!! It's called the Belleview, and it's fancy and pink and european and has a basket and a bell and 2 lights (one shaped like a flower!) and i LOVE it!! and it was 1000 DKK (danish kroner) which is about 185 USD. Woo hoo! I'm going to want to ship this thing home, even if i only ride it infrequently, simply because of how adorable it is and how attached to it I have become already.

our balcony:

view from the living room: you can see the mall in the distance, we ride this way to the studios every morning.
living room; there's a daybed to the right where you can't see
hallway: bathroom, kitchen, my room on the left, cody on hte end, livingroom on the right which leads to natalie's room
this is literally the entire bathroom. it could in its entirety fit in a phonebooth. Let me tell you, it's no fun taking a shower in a shower where you bump your elbows washing your hair, and where the water nozzle doesn't even point down enough; it points at the back wall, over my head....

View from my window (onto the courtyard/garden)

This is how the windows stay open; i love it!!
courtyard seen from the kitchen
my bedroom (smallest, but not street-facing!)
the kitchen!

Departure in T- 5.... 4....

FOUR DAYS till I leave, folks!! It still doesn't feel like it's really happening, mostly because I know the images I have in my head will be nothing like what it actually looks like. Details like being on the plane, the taxi ride to the hotel in Reykjavik, things like that make it unreal in my mind. I do have waves of realization where i remember that I'm going to EUROPE for the summer. In four days!! Seven weeks is not really that long, it's only half a Pratt semester, time-wise, but it is pretty much all of summer vacation. Especially since it's rained every day here, non-stop, for ohhh about 3.9 years now. I haven't seen the sun in weeks.

In other news, I went to Ikea today with the parentals, came back with very cute (and nice looking!) furnitures for my apartment back in new york. I'm very excited to move in, with Heather, and it'll make going back to school less depressing. So will the notion that come second semester, I'll only have class once, maybe twice a week. That means getting a REAL job, so I don't actually know that that's less depressing, but having fewer classes is definitely exciting!

So, in wrapping up the last few odds and ends here (and waiting for the DVDs I order to hopefully arrive in time for me to have them on the plane ride!!) I'm starting to actually believe that I'm going. To EUROPE. I believe it, I just don't feel it.

P.S. I'm actually forcing myself to work on getting my website up & running enough so that people can actually see a working layout, even if it does need a LOT of additions (like gallerys of my work, for example) but at least it's not a blank page. It'll be functional enough by the end of you tonight that I can direct all of your attention to http://allegra-design.us! Hooray!

Apartment in Copenhagen!

We've got our apartment in Vesterbro all lined up, all that's left is for me, natalie and cody to go over the paperwork and pay for it. Not really sure how that works overseas, but Astrid, the owner, is really nice and really helpful. Vesterbro is supposed to be one of the nicest neighborhoods of copenhagen (which is already a really nice city!) and it's only about 15 minutes from DIS by bike. Super excited!!

Here is what she told me about it:

"The apartment is on third floor, has three separate bedrooms and a livingroom, free wi-fi, tv (CNN and a few other American channels), washing machine, dishwasher, balcony and a great gardens place. The apartment is approx. 1,000 square feet. The building is from 1907 with stucco ceilings and wooden floors, typical Scandinavian style.

It's located on Vesterbro, the most hip and cosy neighborhood in Copenhagen, with lots of local food stores, designer clothes, coffee bars, restuarants etc. The night life is great too - with lots of bars, clubs and concerts.

Within 10 minutes walk is a supermarket (with lots of organic food if you're into that) and a shopping mall with everything you'll possibly need. In the summer time you can swim in the harbour right by the shopping mall - Copenhagen has some of the cleanest water in the world.

Five minutes walk to the local train station (and 15 minutes to Copenhagen main train station) and 25 minute walk to DIS, 15 minutes if you rent bikes or take the bus.

It's a safe neighborhood 24/7. My spouse and I have lived here for two years and we really love it. "



Here are some pictures, for your viewing pleasure:

Garden view:


living room:


kitchen (with dishwasher & washing machine! they air-dry their clothes!):


bedroom:


livingroom with other bedroom: