Denmark: The Sequel

So I am here in sunny Aalborg finally! It is so beautiful here now, like it was in September, the first month I arrived. Hardly any clouds, sky stretching out before me for days, and the green spreading across the whole country. There is the ever-present breeze and the sun baring down harshly on you to remind you how much closer you are to it compared to somewhere longitudinally lower.When I left, the whole country was covered in ice, and the sun "light" would grace us with its presence for 5 hours total per day. Now, there's too much light! At midnight, the sun still cast a multicolored hue on the sky, and it was alive and alert at 4am. When I go to Stockholm, it will be worse. I never feel like I'm missing the day this way, however, which is nice.
Once I got to Copenhagen, I took the 5 hour travel cross-country, and I got to see how Denmark thrives in the summertime. It's magnificent! There are fields of yellow blossoms on top of the brightest green I can imagine. What a difference from winter!
I arrived at midnight on Thursday, safe, sound, tired. I slept 14 hours and haven't faced any jet lag since then. Friday I went to the city center and had dinner with friends, but we went back home early to prepare ourselves for karneval early
the next day. I woke up Saturday morning around 8am to the sound of the squawking Danish girls across the common area from me.
I suppose I should talk a little bit about karneval, seeing as that's the main reason for me coming back to Aalborg. There are family activities happening all week in Kildeparken, like music and art and far-too-expensive beer. Friday night there is a battle of costumes in the street and the beginning of the big festival in Kildeparken. The main events happen on Saturday, where everyone wakes up early and starts drinking with breakfast. The masses congregate around 11am, already drunk, and start the parade around noon. Basically, the parade is just a mass of drunk, wildly costumed college-age people walking through the city center of Aalborg until they reach Kildeparken.
It sounds ridiculous... and it is, but so much fun with all of the colors and the music and masses of people, and of course the shenanigans. Bastien and I lost everyone we'd congregated with, but we took a lot of good pictures and left the parade around 3. After a very sobering nap, we had dinner and met with other international students to prepare to venture back to the city center. Somehow, Bastien and I lost our group again, but we danced our hearts out until 4am. I have such a fondness for dancing in Europe in the smoke-free discos with poppy Euro-trash music until the late hours of the morning. I missed the last bus home, so I walked by myself about 3 miles to the AIK. As miserable as that seems, it has refreshed my enjoyment of walking. It was also light outside by the time I started walking. So far, I'd say my trip has been a success!
Other than that, I have nothing interesting to report. I've been alone most of the time since karneval, of my own volition, reading and writing and making food. I have a bit of a sore throat from the long walk on Saturday and going to the grocery store in the rain the next morning, so I find it really nice not to talk much. I anxiously await Séverin's return to Aalborg, and I have seen almost everyone I have wanted to see. On Thursday, I am walking to the Lindholm Høje viking graveyard with the girls before making dinner that evening.
http://www.vikingdenmark.com/lindholm-hoeje-viking-burial-site-jutland-denmark.html
One week until Stockholm!
And for you viewing pleasures....