I just wanted to write about how great an experience I had yesterday when I returned home (after a good weekend with A&A) to the gloom of thesis plans and unpacking. It had been a crummy weekend weather wise and we started the morning off canceling our plans to go to the palace in Fredensborg and enjoyed, instead, our third cup of coffee for the day inside a warm and dry cafe in Hillerod. It was pouring out. So when I returned home from the fun of the weekend, I was in a sour mood having to do the thing I hate the least.. write my mess of a thesis. (Worst of all I was full of coffee and couldn't have even used that as my distraction or comfort drink) I instead decided to finish my unpacking but I needed a trip to IKEA before I could put away the pile on my floor that desperately needed shelving. Hmm. Simple enough request except I live in Denmark and nothing, read: no grocery story within walking distance, convenience store like CVS (because that doesn't even exist) or huge department stores or warehouses like IKEA open up at all during the day on Sunday. So I had to forget that distraction. I'm not unhappy about my predicaments because, honestly, its me trying to make a comfy room for myself in Europe!.. but when it comes to thesis writing and the reality that my work is never done, my plans can easily make me grumpy. I finally turned to my desk to settle and there was the sun! I literally blinked and it was beautiful out, and the sun and blue skies were pouring into my room. I didn't know what had happened. The weather seemed perfect for a late afternoon jog so I quickly got dressed for a run (a distraction I will do gladly in fair weather) and went off to explore the neighborhood.
There was just something about this outing. The sun was low and cast these amazing shadows on these old, ramshackle buildings of Christiana. The puddles were huge but that made a seamless reflection across the canal and bank that I was on.
It was quiet with a few other runners and dog-walkers as if we had been the only ones let in on this secret. It made me run faster. A couple of times I thought of b-lining home, just to get my camera, but knew I had a real odd chance of the sun actually staying.In the end I made it to the far side of the island I now live on, Christianshavn, and I was weaving through these cool new apartment buildings.. a mix of old restored army barracks and clean-lined new green ones, and I stumbled upon the Copenhagen Opera house. Just as the sun was disappearing, too soon for me to get home and grab my camera or share this experience with anybody, I ran up a side lawn of this huge building and sat stunned for a minute at how awesome it was. I couldn't move and I don't know if it was the view, its often times photographed from the harbor or across it from the Copenhagen side, the sun setting behind it, the empty grounds, the skyline view of Copenhagen I hadn't yet seen or just my amazement that minutes before I was inside grumbling about the gray. I sat for minute, watched the sun leave, watched a harbor boat-bus unload a few passengers, noticed the tour bus drivers blankly smoking cigarettes, and saw a jogger pass, not coincidentally on the same aptly chosen harbor route I had decided upon. I returned to my run, passed the closed grocery store I had put some money into my pocket for hopes of catching open, and returned home. I can't say I worked on my thesis later that night but when I got home I did gladly sit at my desk again and try. Its amazing what a little sunshine can do..
(All pictures in this post are credited to someone else.. I didn't have my camera. The pictures of the opera house were really hard to find because, as I mentioned, no one seems to appreciate it from the side. This picture is almost right. I'll go back and take mine another day or perhaps start jogging with my camera..)
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