Bagpipes, Harry Potter and Happiness

Hello beautiful people!

Ten lashes with a wet noodle for me. I have been the worst updater of all time these past few weeks. After a week and a half of crazy travel, I had a lot of homework (and by homework, I mean sleep) to catch up on! I have so much to share with you all, so I am going to break it down into highlights/lowlights and pretty pictures. Alright, here we go: 

Sunday, March 4th (otherwise known as built-in-pun day, or Marley James Mandelaro's day of birth), I flew to Edinburgh, Scotland for my "long study tour" with DIS. 

Highlight: The Copenhagen Airport does not give a single shit what you do. Because Denmark has essentially no crime rate (have I mentioned the fact that they leave babies outside alone in strollers for hours at a time?), Danes aren't too concerned with security. They pretty much always forget to check my passport in that airport, and I am even allowed to wear my SHOES through security. Simple pleasures. 

Lowlight: We had a short layover in London. The Brits, as it turns out, take their security *real* seriously. Fortunately, my father (who always "forgets" to take his enormous tube of toothpaste out of his carry-on) was not with me. I forgot I was carrying my laptop, and the security folks were *not* amused. I lost my awkward pat-down virginity. 

We spent our first two days in Glasgow. The city was not nearly as charming as Edinburgh, but it was still pretty great. My second night, I went to a vegan tapas restaurant that was UNREAL levels of delicious.

Highlights: My first night, we were wandering around the center of the city. It was a Sunday, so Glasgow was not exactly hopping. We were about to head home when we turned a corner and saw this: 

A beautiful, lit up ferris wheel right in the middle of the city. The view was absolutely incredible. 

Look, Mah, I am not having a panic attack! (One Lizzy-small-child-Huberlie was a bit notorious for crocodile tears until they let her off the ride.) Horray for no more fear of heights! 

We also went to some incredible academic visits (lots of cool meditations and alternative schools and such), and got fed an outrageous amount of delicious food. It would seem that DIS uses my obscene UofR tuition to feed me four course meals. I'm not too upset about it. 

Lowlights: Obviously, (true to lizzy form) I forgot my camera on the evening of the ferris wheel adventure. I stole this picture from a friend. Our next two days in Glasgow were spent making academic visits around the Scottish countryside. The visits were great, but as many of you know first-hand, the wrong-side-of-the-road driving + whindy Scottish country roads + long bus ride combination = barfing Lizards. Gross. Finally, there was the bagpiping. Oh, the bagpiping. On our last day in Glasgow we took bagpiping lessons. Because I am obviously super musically talented (note the sarcasm), I was able to create some of the most annoying sounds known to man. I was seriously considering blowing one straight in my ear and praying for a resulting deafness. Unfortunately, I managed to retain my hearing... and walk away with constant annoying bagpipe tune stuck in my head. 

This is the only picture snapped where I was not plugging my ears. You can't tell, but I am nearly in tears from the horrible, horrible sound that man is making. 

After our stay in Glasgow, we headed back to Edinburgh for a few days. After about two hours there, I was totally in love. Edinburgh is almost annoyingly beautiful and charming. It immediately made it to the top of my must-re-visit list. Here are some of the bazillion pretty pictures to prove it: 

I was so in love with Edinburgh that it is PRETTY hard to pick just a few highlights. Over the course of our two days there, I hiked Arthurs Seat (an awesome little mountain right in the middle of the city), ate at an absurdly perfect Indian restaurant, went to the Elephant House (aka: the birthplace of Harry Potter), saw Edinburgh castle, drank my second best cup of hot chocolate in Europe (Europa is still the reigning champ), and had an absolutely incredible lecture from a psychiatrist who uses positive psych with his patients. Pictures? If you insist... 

Hiking Arthur's Seat in weirdly beautiful weather. 

Casual cliff pose. 

" Birthplace of Harry Potter"

Perfect hot chocolate... annd... maybe I found an Anthropologie in Scotland. Jaime Westbrook, you understand why it was necessary that I visit. 

Big ol' cannons at Edinburgh Castle :)

Overall, the trip was absolutely incredible. My group was super fun, and I totally fell in love with Edinburgh. I flew back Friday afternoon and went straight to Berlin, Germany. I have literally like 400 pictures from there that I need to upload still. I promise I will update again tonight. (Someone should *probably* hold me to that.) Lunch time. 

Miss you all, and can't wait to see you again soon (my parents and sister come in less than 3 weeks!) 

Love, 

Lizard 

Spring? Is that you?

Hello wonderful people,

Remember that time I gave you permission to shout at me until I updated my blog frequently? Come on, you slackers! Okay... so I *might* be the one who is a slacker. I promise I have a semi-legitimate excuse for my lack of updates. I know you are going to find this VERY hard to believe, but it is actually SPRING(ish) in Copenhagen. Now, compared to the freeze-your-eyeballs (and, I am told, other balls) off weather of my first few weeks, just about anything feels warm. Really though, it has been absolutely beautiful here for the last two weeks. The other day I walked around without a coat! That's right, sans parka. I even enjoyed it! Today, I was able to whip-out the SPRING jacket. It's only about 50 or so, but it is so much lighter than when I first arrived. The sun is usually up when I am getting up now, and it didn't set until almost 6:30 today! Big progress. I absolutely can't wait until it is even warmer and brighter. By the time la familia arrives, I am determined to bust out the sandals!

Because the weather has been so great, I have spent a lot of time exploring around the city doing touristy things. I am pretty sure I told myself I would do all of these things my very week here, but they were quickly tossed into the "do this shit when it is not so jeffin' cold" pile. The time has come. Last Saturday,  I walked up to the top of the Round Tower. It was totally stunning.. but *very* windy. I managed to conquer my childhood fear of heights atop CSM's pamper pole, but I was still prreeeeetty darn terrified that I was going to be blown off of the top of this thing. Pictures? Your wish is my command!

 This one is not of the Round Tower, trees with sweaters are just the cutest. 

Saturday was wonderful, but Sunday was the real gem. Why? Well, after reaching the very end of my 35-pair supply of underwear, I am happy to report that I, Elizabeth Jane Huberlie (yup, that's my middle name... don't question it) successfully did my laundry. I can almost hear the sound of my parents applauding from across the ocean. For those of you who aren't aware, I probably hate laundry more than I hate jello, mayonnaise, and dentists COMBINED. So, this was no small accomplishment. Still not impressed? Allow me to explain the laundry process here at the ever-luxurious Tasingegade (my apartment complex). First off, the laundry is located in a basement that is only accessible by elevator (probably safe, right?) This wouldn't be *that* annoying, if all of the elevators in my building went to said basement. They do not. Nope, only ONE of the elevators has the button to bring you to the basement. So, when you press the button to call an elevator, you simply have to cross your fingers that the magic-basement-button elevator comes. There is only a 1/4 chance, there. Anyhow, after getting down to the secret basement, I discovered that the washing machines were made for elves. Because I chose to wait 35 days to do laundry, I obviously had four normal size human loads to do. In troll land, that turned into about twelve loads. You're right, Tasingegade, I *do* want to spend my entire day changing laundry. In stark contrast, the dryers are made for GIANTS. I could literally have a (really dangerous) slumber party with me and six of my closest friends inside it. I could have put ALL of my loads in it to dry at once. Y yer washers and dryers no match, Denmark?! All well. Next, I discovered  were all in Danish. Obviously I went with the "click randomly until this shit works" method. Fortunately, about 10 hours later, I ended up with un-shunken, not-totally good smelling but not totally bad smelling reasonably clean laundry. Mission accomplished. 

I realize that these last few posts have been a bit dull. I think at this point, Ali and my mom are probably the only two bothering to read about my riveting laundry adventures. I promise, in the next week, I will have some real adventures to share. Sunday, I leave on my long study tour (with my school) in Edinburgh, Scotland! The next weekend, I will be in Berlin, Germany! :) A few weeks later, I go to Prague to see Miss Jennifer Taylor (my childhood best friend). Then, just a few days later, the family comes! Time is FLYING! 

Love you all and miss you (and Chipotle, and Panera, and my puppies and my bubble bath, and the UofR Libraries) SOOO much. 

143, 

Lizard