The Danes

Well one week down! I am thoroughly amazed at how much this trip has already opened my eyes! Its amazing how many unconscious habits not only differ in other cultures but are misinterpreted. The Danes intrigue me greatly and honestly have made me begin to examine my own culture much more thoroughly (which I suspect is what these sort of trips are taken for) During orientation we attended an intro to danish culture seminar and were graciously warned about how different the culture is here and though skeptical at first, the astonishing report has proven to be correct thus far. One bit of caution that seems to really express a lot about their culture: Danish people may seem very stark and cold at times. They will never say hello to you first, or strike up conversation on the subway but don't take offense. They see our brief "hi, how are you..." conversations as superficial since we rarely care what the answer actually is: soooo true! Don't think for a minute that this makes them cruel or unpersonable. They simply enjoy more intellectual discussions. One dane even made the annalogy: Danes are like a glass ketchup bottle you bang and bang with no avail, and then once it comes out you get more than you ever wanted! lol I've only met a few the past week but so far they are a very nice group who enjoy learning about us as much as I enjoy learning about them. With education open to everyone, they are a very well educated bunch.
I didn't opt to live with a host family because I was worried about the extra hours necessary for studio and most of them live much further away from the school. However the school has given me the opportunity to sign up for a Danish Visiting Family. This program puts me in contact with a Danish family who I can go and have dinner with occasionally and they might show me around the city a bit; the amount of contact is really up to the individual and their family. Last night I finally had the opportunity to meet my visiting family, I went and had dinner at their home. There is a couple Tove(F) and Anders(M) who have twin girls Mette and Kirsten(27) and another daughter Laura(23). The girls don't live with them anymore but Laura and Kirsten were there last night. They're very bubbly and vivacious I can see them becoming good friends. I had a nice time talking with Tove and Anders as well, they showed me pictures of their family, talked a lot about food and other traditions, told me about many interesting places throughout Denmark, and even offered to lend me one of the girls old bikes while I'm here! They were a very sweet family. I didn't get a pic of them yet, cause my cameras still on the fritz. It deleted some more pics the other day but I'm workin on it and I thought I could at least show you all a few views of my room.

My tiny bathroom, don't be fooled yes this is all there is. The shower is behind the door, I just pull the curtain across a vou'la!

Here's my room, kinda messy I know...

View from the door. It's a good size room with new floor, very nice. Can't say the same for the rest of the building but it'll do.

Arrival: København

What a whirlwind the past week has been! The final preparation for København was insane, an over abundance of last minute loose ends to tie up. Very little sleep those last couple nights was definitely a bad idea; because of coarse I didn't get much sleep during the 24 some odd hours I spent either in an airport or on a plane. Jet-lag is not something to mess with; I will never underestimate its powers again. But I believe I'm finally adjusted to the time change, can't say I'm not still pretty exhausted but that's purely because of the intense orientation that began as soon as I landed.
DIS (Danish Institute for Study Abroad) picked us up from the airport, which was great but we were then taken to be shuffled through registration and several intro meetings. While barely managing to keep my eyelids open I managed to have dinner with the other DIS students living in the same building and then crashed. I arrived on Sunday and since then we have had orientation activities everyday which consists of Survival Danish language classes, and mostly informational meeting on everything including Danish culture, intro to our core curriculum, and our field trips we'll be taking all over Scandinavia. We were also sent on a scavenger hunt around the city to help us learn our way around a little better and educate us about some of the significant buildings around town. It was absolutely wonderful! This city is such a great fusion of the old and the new. I am truly glad I chose Denmark; I feel like nowhere else could I get exposure to such a variety of quality design. I took lots of beautiful pictures, but then of course my camera decided to reformat the memory card for some odd reason and they were all lost, but no worries I plan on returning to each of the destinations again for more thorough exploration. New pictures coming soon, I promise.
I don't know if the hunt helped or not but I'm finally starting to figure my way around some. After many loooong scenic routes over the past few days, today for the first time I got to my school without the aid of a map. Very proud, but the feeling didn't last long as I went into another Danish Language class. I can't even pronounce the words let alone remember what they mean. It's amazing the challenges just adding a few extra vowels creates. I haven't been able to get my mouth to even make some of their noises, and let me tell ya hawking up your R's like you've got a throat full of crud is not as easy as it sounds. I was warned that Danish was an extremely difficult language, but definitely underestimated the complexity of it. There pronunciation sounds like they skip half the letters in each word and the rest all just get slurred together.
I'm living in what the Danes call a Kollegium, similar to American dorms but also quite different. The building isn't owned by any individual institution but rather students from different schools throughout København live here. I have my own bedroom but share a bathroom with one other gal and then a kitchen and common space with the rest of my block (floor). I have to cook for myself but there’s a pizzeria and a bar downstairs, so I’ll never really be at a loss. I have to take the metro to school which I think is great. It's very clean, much nicer than NYC and Chicago. Just about everyone here either takes advantage of public transportation or rides a bike. For those of you that are unaware, København is known for all its bicycles, they're everywhere! Everyone rides them too; I can’t tell you how many women in heels and skirts I’ve seen or even business men in suits riding. It's amazing the difference it makes just walking through the city you notice how much quieter and cleaner it really is. No honking, sirens, or exhaust blowing in your face. Although you do have to watch out for the cyclists, they'll turn you into roadkill if you don't watch out.

Preparation

Less than two weeks to go and I have to admit I'm getting a little nervous, but also ridiculously excited! Been taking care of all the last minute details, thought a blog would be the prefect outlet to keep everyone updated on my travels. I am an awful writer and absolutely despise writing, but I will try my best to keep you all informed without lulling everyone to sleep. I'll try to post regularly but cannot promise how often that will be just yet. I definitely have no idea how crazy my schedule in Denmark will be! :)