Dramatic Events.

Whew! What a weekend! I don´t think I've ever experienced anything so dramatic in my (admittedly, drama-free) life.
I just saw the boyfriend off to the airport a couple of hours ago. Having him here was wonderful, of course, but I'm also glad to have my focus back. I have a ton of work to do before Mom arrives on Wednesday, Ph.D. applications to hand in (yikes, scary), thesis proposals to whip up by tomorrow, and of course, clean the apartment, because that's how Moms like things, right? Clean. Verrrry clean. So I'm looking at a fun-filled couple of days.
But onwards. The weekend. I got practically no knitting done at all. I've been working on a pair of socks that I started out really liking, but have grown to loathe over the past week or so. They're a toe-up pattern, so I got to try a short-row toe and heel for the first time. That part of the sock was super-fun, I kid you not. I said earlier that I'm not a big fan of sock knitting, even though I think that few things look nicer on a pair of feet than a pair of hand-knit socks. I've just wanted someone else to knit them for me, that's all. However, the short-row toe and heel method may change all that. I think that all this time I wasn't biased against knitting socks, but I simply didn't like the heel flap. Eliminate the flap, and you have pure knitting enjoyment! No more flaps in 2007!
Anyways, my inaugural short-row sock is annoying to me right now because it features a ridiculously complex lace pattern up the leg, you know, the kind of lace that you can't memorize and asks you to do stuff like k4tog. I've practically finished the first sock (one repeat of dreaded lace patt to go), and am not looking forward to the second one. Or rather, am looking forward to the toe and heel construction, but am not liking the lace. But they'll look really nice, and I'll be happy when I've completed them. My feet will look nicer than anyone else's.
So I just kind of spent the weekend avoiding those socks, doing a bit of reading, and riot-experiencing! Yep, that's right, Copenhagen has been war-torn since Thursday. Rioters have been smashing windows, building barricades and setting all kinds of things on fire (cars, dumpsters, etc.) mainly in two parts of the city: Norrebro and Christianshavn. And you know what, I live in Christianshavn! The trash dumpsters behind my building were dragged, by the rioters, out into the main thoroughfare through my neighbourhood, and used to block all traffic in a, well, flaming manner. My garbage is part of Danish history! An odd feeling. On thursday night huge, flaming barricades were erected in my very own street, and the police had to use teargas to disperse the rowdy crowds. The boyfriend and I went out and took some pictures of each other standing in front of burning cars. Mostly because of the sheer weirdness of it. I mean, we live in this ridiculously wealthy and civilized society, and therefore these events are very surprising to me. I never would have expected to experience riots, especially not here in Copenhagen. Riots in Iceland would surprise me less, somehow.
These riots are, thankfully, not very serious. There has been serious property damage, of course, but luckily no one has been seriously hurt. There has been alot of violence, however, and a general feeling of uneasiness in the city these past few days, so I'm really hoping that this situation is beginning to wear itself out (I'm listening to the sound of sirens as I write this).
The riots have a political cause, of course, which I'm not going to comment in any depth here. I'll just say that I don't think any cause justifies the use of violence, not even violence of the property-damage kind. It's just not right.
And then, to top off the drama, the house next door to me caught fire last night. It's roof was completely ruined. I don't think this had anything to do with the riots, however, it was just a badly-timed tragedy probably due to faulty electrical wiring, or something like that. Boyfriend and I went up to the roof of our building to see what was going on, and so we had an eye-level view of the fire devouring our neighbour's roof. It was kind of awesome, but we couldn't watch for more than a minute, because it felt morbid and wrong to view the destruction of other's homes as a spectacle.
So, basically, I am glad things are getting back to normal for a couple of days before Mom arrives. I really need the calm.