i'm alive

Wow!
SO much has gone on in the past week.. and it's not over.
I'm currently in Helsinki Finland for my classes study tour. We were just in Stockholm for 3 days and we'll be in helsinki until Thursday.

So far, Copenhagen kicks every other city's butt.
I see it like this: Copenhagen is Manhattan (condensed, busy but comfortable), Stockholm is San Francisco (huge, spread out and kind of lonely) and Helsinki is a mix between New Jersey, Portland and Sacramento (aka REALLY FREAKING WEIRD, but interesting nonetheless)

Everyday is packed with 8 hours full of visiting museums, design stores, and inspirational sites like gardens and castles. We are keeping a sketchbook and i've already finished half! My head is crammed with ideas, its almost overwhelming.

It's really late and I've got to get to bed but per usual, I'll stick to the list:

Things that have happened in the last week:
1. Stockholm H&M and TOPSHOP, yikes.
2. Class booze-cruise from Stockholm to Helskini, that's a blogpost in itself... think 1974 Las Vegas all rolled into one 500 passenger boat.
3. I've eaten things i've never even seen (i really have no choice, in europe it's just kindof like you eat what they put in front of you)... but for those of you who have been waiting to give me a big fat I-TOLD-YOU-SO, i haven't liked any of the things i've tried... so I guess this constititutes for a I told YOU so
4. Ive been traveling with my classmates, all 25-30something design grad students or professionals and it is SO refreshing to be surrounded by older and wiser but also still really fun people
5. Today in Helsinki it was the hottest day in 61 years, 95 degrees. LOVE IT, everyone else hates it...
6. SO MANY other things, I feel like I need to start writing things down as I do them, because my mind is literally a huge ball of mush

I'll post more detailed acadmenic... details about where i've been going and what i've been learning at a later time. Although Ive always wanted to pull my eyeballs out at the thought of museums, this trip I've been gaining a lot of meaningful information and experiences.

oh and PS, I'm on a scandinavian keyboard (with Finnish spellcheck) and I'm trying my hardest to make sense while still avoiding things like ¤ and Ö and Ä and Å ... so thanks for baring with me.

That's all for now,
i get back to Copenhagen on Thursday night, so check this weekend for another post.