Velkommen!

So it is officially my second full [third, if you count the day my flight actually arrived] and not only am I still insanely jetlagged, but I'm still learning the ins and outs of things. For example, who would've guessed that doors and windows work differently here in Denmark? Anyway, the city itself is absolutely gorgeous. Aside from not being able to pronounce a single thing, I haven't found a single bad thing about it.

When we first got into the airport, we spent our day dragging our luggage around, &waiting around until we could get on the buses to head to our respective housing. I'm living literally, a block away from my classes, just by the heart of Medieval Copenhagen. (Copenhagen is split into two parts: Medieval Copenhagen and Modern Copenhagen, though the whole city itself has a population of around 1.7 million, and is only around a third of the size of Florida.) My apartment style living is right in the heart of downtown, next to the main shopping street [which can be a good or bad thing, depending on what point of view you're taking.] I love that my apartment is so close to my classes, because everyone else has at least a 20 minute commute on public transportation. The only downside to that is that I still haven't had a chance to use the public transportation system, but I'm sure it's not that difficult. My room overlooks a little courtyard, and it's everything that you would imagine a little European apartment complex to look like, down to the super narrow, winding, spiral staircases. Of course, all the girls are placed on the higher floors, so we had to carry all of our suitcases up the 3 flights of stairs after not sleeping for about 24 hours. That was an experience in itself, let me tell you.

Then Monday, we started orientation. We learned about travel programs, cultural differences between Americans and Danes, and had our opening ceremony in the Royal Library. Denmark actually has a royal family that has been ruling for something like 1000 years, making it the oldest monarchy in the world. Monday afternoon we tried going to supermarket. They have multiple types of markets, but we went to the cheap one called Netto. Not only is everything ridiculously expensive [throughout all of Denmark], but it must have been beyond amusing to watch us all trying to figure things out. I had to ask a costumer standing next to me which container was butter, because the word for butter is smør. It was definitely an interesting experience, but due to today's class in Danish, I can at least tell the difference between the main things such as chicken, pork, beef, veal etc in the supermarket as well as learning that because Denmark is so environmentally friendly, [they even have tons of windmills!] you need to bring your own bags to the supermarket, &if you don't, you have to pay for bags. We also learned the obvious: bicycles are the main way to commute in Denmark. Absolutely do not get in their way, because they will not have an issue running you over! I think the most absurd thing of all though, is that the Danes will go into a store, &just leave their bikes parked outside, without even locking them up. It really is a bizarre thing to witness.

Then Monday night, the girls on my hall &I all went out to dinner, and finally tried Carlsberg, Denmark's famous beer. For someone who isn't necessarily the biggest fan of beer, it was surprisingly good. We also tried shots of caramel schnapps, which were delicious. We hung out in the restaurant for a bit because beers were half price, and then later that night, we went out to "The Australian Bar" [swigman, i thought of you!!] which wasn't as much fun, but it was ohkay.

On Tuesday, we took intro to Danish, which is INSANELY hard. there are a million different ways to pronounce every letter, and nothing is pronounced like it's spelled. Not to mention that they have 3 completely new vowels. Then in the afternoon, we had a "scavenger hunt" around Copenhagen, which was essentially just going to main tourist spots &listening to a few facts about it. Not only is Copenhagen beautiful, but I can absolutely see why the Danes are the happiest people in the world. They are so relaxed and chill, they live in a gorgeous city, and for the most part, pretty much everyone is equal, eliminating huge class issues. The director of the entire program told us that the Danes think that Americans do too much. The way he phrased it was "we [the Danes] don't have any aspirations &we love to drink." Which i found quite humorous. But I definitely think that there is truth to the fact that Americans try too hard to succeed, and instead of searching for personal success, achieve the success that society has created, which leaves them miserable. What kind of success story is that? The Danes don't think like that at all. They're laid back and have very different views on what success is, and how one can go about achieving it.

That being said, walking around Copenhagen today made me fall head over heels in love with the city. Just the atmosphere of the city can make you happy. Plus, the Danes are all extremely nice, and willing to help you if you get lost. The city is also filled with history. When in Medieval Copenhagen, you can't walk anywhere without seeing something of historical importance. We went to this gorgeous park, where people were just sitting about picnic-ing, and then slowly made our way down to where the Royal Family lives, where Parliament is housed and so many other important sites. A fun fact I learned in a church, is that the rich paid to be buried in the church, as close to the alter as possible, because it was believed that the closer one was to God, the faster they would reach heaven. So the rich paid to be buried in front of the alter and as they rotted, that's how the expression "stinking rich" came along. I thought that was really amusing. On the way home, we passed a park [similar to a playground] with two soccer teams playing one another. It was an intense game. Each team had their cheerleading squad, fan club and everything. The whole crowd was cheering them on &going crazy. It's so different from the US &I think it's going to be an amazing semester!

Below are some pictures from the past 2 or 3 days:


a] the view from my window


b] the girls on my hall out for dinner/drinks


c] some bikes parked outside of a store, without locks


d] a picturesque view taken by the canal in copenhagen


e] the winning soccer team