First Few Days

So the first few days have been super busy and so I probably won't be able to write about everything or in great detail but I'll try to give a run down of what's been going on since I arrived! The airplane ride was pretty interesting, there were lots of other DIS students on my plane and I ended up sitting next to one! The plane was awesome (minus the tiny seats) because each seat had a tv on the back with free movies, games, and music. And the movies were like new movies not out on DVD yet! Airplane dinner wasn't as gross as I've heard, it was actually pretty good. I watched the Dark Knight Rises, and then unsuccessfully tried to sleep. Once it become clear sleep would never happen, I watched Dark Shadows. Then, we landed in Amsterdam at 5:15am our time. It was pretty confusing to get to our next gate as we had to go through passport control and security, but we met up with lots of other confused DIS students and made it through. The second plane ride had a great view of the Scandinavian sunrise (which happens at like, 8:30 am)... which I mostly slept through. After waiting for baggage, we met DIS helpers at baggage claim and made our way to the adjoining Hilton Hotel to meet our host families! Before they arrived I got my shitty Piccell phone to be able to text other Danish numbers, and had a short orientation meeting. Then Tove and Bjarne Eriksen were there to take me to my new home for the next four months!

On our way home they pointed out important places. Their home is only a short maybe 20 minutes from inner city Copenhagen. Once I got unpacked a bit, we had some sandwiches for lunch and then went to see Cecilie in her handball game! They won, and it was my first introduction to the very popular sport in Denmark. It's sort of similar to basketball, only without a net and instead with a soccer type net, and much faster and more physical. We biked there, which is how most Danes get to school, work, the train, or around their community, and naturally I fell off my bike for the first time in years. Lesson learned- don't try to go over curbs that are clearly too high. I'm blaming the jetlag. We did some grocery shopping on the way home and then I finished unpacking, took a shower (in an awesome bathroom with heated floors!) and had dinner with the whole family. Afterwards, we watched Denmark vs. Russia in handball in what I think is a world cup? It's a super popular sport. Sadly I could barely keep my eyes open the whole time because I'd been up for 30 some hours at that point but by not sleeping that whole day I avoided probably the worst of the jetlag.

So Monday was our first day of orientation. It also required that I take the train (S-tog) all by myself into Copenhagen. And by all by myself, I mean with the other 900 DIS students that I saw somewhere on the train or in the metro. You can easily spot us due to our confused looks and desperate searching for maps. We had an opening ceremony which consisted of talks from people working at DIS and the director, as well as two performances by the DIS strings. It was actually pretty cool and way less boring than I expected. The only bad part about it was that we had to check our coats before we went in- and checking 900 coats took foreverrr. Then, we made our way to a DIS classroom and were split up by housing types and areas. My group was all other students in host families who live in the surrounding train stops on my line. We were split into smaller groups and then given an 'amazing race' assignment; we had 5 specific places to visit, hear a DIS professor tell us about the landmark, and get a stamp. The activity was really cool, except it meant spending at least three hours walking around in 20 degree weather with wind making it feel like the low teens. We visited the Danish Parliament, the Black Diamond library, a church in Christiantown, the Kings New Square (right by the canal with the multi-colored houses that is on like every postcard of Copenhagen) and the royal palace. They were all really cool places, and we learned a lot about how politics is built into the architecture. It was really interesting; the built the church in the shape of a Greek cross which is more equal than a traditional Latin cross, and everything on the inside was symbolic of the monarchy. In my pictures, you can see the ceiling which has the crown on it. There's a massive organ about the door leading into the sanctuary area, which seems to be supported by two carved elephants on either side of the door. Those stood for reliance, intelligence, longevity, and other things associated with elephants that the King also wanted associated with the monarchy. The royal palace architecture was also really cool. Several of the old castles burnt down, and eventually the royalty bought out 4 mansions which face each other in a square. The mansions surround a statue of a past King whose name I can't remember. Anyway the palace is very open to the public in that they can stand in the square and around the statue, whereas most palaces are gated off. The DIS professor talked a lot about how Denmark's monarchy works with their constitution- while the Queen technically has the power to veto things, she never does because she knows the people would 'fire' her as Queen if she did. The royalty are still very important for like head of state activities but are more often celebrity figures, leaving the politicians somewhat out of the spotlight unlike in America. However, my host father Bjarne said politicians are still very often gossiped about. Anyway the whole tour was really neat because we learned a lot about Danish history, the social welfare state, the constitutional monarchy, and pros and cons to all of the above. Also it was very very cold.

Today, we started the day with a housing session led by two DIS employees with lots of people also in host families. We talked a lot about how to work the transportation (S-tog, metro, and regional trains). In general, it's super easy. To get into Copenhagen and to DIS all I do is walk down my street for about 10 minutes, cross the road and go to the train station. The trains run very often so I don't have to worry about catching a particular time, and they are so clean and organized! Danes can take their bikes on specific parts of the train, and its very quiet and doesn't smell horrible like trains in new york or philadelphia. We also talked about how to live and shop on a budget considering how expensive Copenhagen is. Most Danes pack a lunch because it's just impossible to buy one in the city many days during the week. And of course we talked about how to adjust to living with a Danish family and how it would differ from our American home. Then I went to get books (for free!) for my classes. And lastly I went to a quick orientation for the communication program which looks really cool. Tonight we watched another handball game, Denmark vs Chile. And now I'm super tired after writing this novel which probably no one will read haha. I'm really liking my time here and am actually excited for classes to start because they seem so cool.. definitely a new feeling. Its been lightly snowing since I've been here and it's so pretty! See Facebook for pictures. My host family is awesome! And so nice. They've made me a delicious dinner every night and gave me my own room and bathroom! They've also made figuring out aspects of living in Denmark much easier, like transportation and communication. It's also really cool to learn about the differences of Denmark, with their super high taxes but really well functioning and happy society, and then how things operate in America. 

But really I am exhausted haha, so check out Facebook for some pics!

Love

Colleen

p.s. I didn't read over and edit this sooo sorry