Effective use of daylight

Because it get's dark so quickly (we frequently have the sun lamp on 90% of the day), I've started judging days by how affectively I utilize my daylight. I think this weekend I succeeded, see the following:

Copenhagen has a harbor bath which I'm told in the summer is packed full of people enjoying the beautifully clean water and looooonnggg summer days. Saturday, however, it was open for winter and some psycho people were jumping in. Arielle and I went to watch them be crazy and then....

  

If this isn't carpe diem, I don't know what is. We got talked into it (and by "we" I mean "I") by a Danish girl who convinced us it was the best thing ever. She wasn't wrong. It so incredibly cold (I may be having a heart attack in the picture on the right). Then we ran into a sauna on wheels and joined a bunch of other crazy Danes and tried to warm up. Of course we didn't have towels so we quickly put on our dry clothes, got some warm Glogg and aebleskiver (like a pancake ball thing with jam...yum) and biked our way home. It was one of the first days in a while where there were actually clear skies, it was a beautiful day to jump into freezing water. Ultimate test: Was the daylight effectively used? Most definitely.

The next morning, I woke up to a beautiful snow covered Copenhagen! The night before I had biked back from a concert in the snow...not a fun experience but I was definitely rewarded by a perfect morning walk! (I should note that I didn't intend on going out last night, my warm bed has become increasingly welcoming, but after a jump-in-the-freezing-harbor high on life kind of feeling, I had to do something). But the walk was beautiful and I had been told I probably wouldn't see snow while here so I was extra excited and it's so darn cute. 

Here is, according to me guidebook, "arguably the most beautiful square in Copenhagen," (something I say every time I walk through it, it's become a little inside joke in the house.) But look how especially true that statement is with snow!

At 4:00 we got to City Hall Square in time to see the lighting of the Christmas tree! There were a ton of people there to watch the show. We watched santa climb the ladder and surprised us all when he took out a huge sparkling wand and lit the giant tree. It was kind of hilarious and weird but definitely awesome. Effective use of daylight? Oh 100%.

And I met a Danish Santa! God Jul! (Merry Christmas!)