Sleeping was a little difficult for me on the first night, and since I didn't have a suitcase, I didn't have anything to help me sleep off my jetlag. I fell asleep really easily, but could only sleep for about five hours -- when I woke up again, it was 3a.m. Denmark time...and couldn't fall asleep until 5:30a.m. We got up around 9, and got ready for our first train ride, our first trip to Copenhagen, and our first day at DIS.
The train is actually really easy to follow, and while we've gotten lost all over the place in the city, we're doing just fine with the train-travel. I thought I would get completely lost (I think you're all fairly familiar with my inability to navigate...), but definitely not hard. We've got around a 13-minute walk to the train station, a 15 minute train ride, and then the walk to DIS when we get off at Copenhagen is negotiable - we haven't found our way there quite yet, because our meetings have been all over the place...but I think it's 10 - 15 minutes.
Our host mom took us the first day, though, which was really nice because we were insured to be on time (The Danes hate tardiness). The opening ceremony was nice; there were musicians for us, a few speeches, and it was all in this really lovely room of a museum that was meant to look like ancient Rome. Unfortunately, Tali and I were so jetlagged that we both fell asleep for some of it - and LUCKILY for us, we were sitting RIGHT next to all of our new professors -- hopefully we won't have any of the ones that saw us sleeping. Honestly though, I think it's a little rough for kids with 48 hours of travel behind them and six or seven hours of sleep to stay awake through a ceremony that lasts for an hour and a half. One of the DIS interns gave a speech about being attacked by a buzzard -- and waving a couple giant sticks around while running through the woods in Denmark. I'm not quite sure what the moral was, but it was funny...wish you all could have seen how awkward he was.
After this ridiculously long ceremony (and a nice nap), Tali, Alex, and I went out to lunch with Alex's roommate Eric, a couple girls from....a couple schools that I don't remember, and a kid from Watertown (which is really close to SLU) named Sven, who was actually at SLU with me all summer working with one of the soccer camps - we just didn't know it. It's been really nice getting to know all of the other students, but unfortunately I can hardly remember anyone.
We then had to listen to a ridicu
lously long presentation about living in host families and traveling around Europe that lasted from 1:30 - 4:30. When we got out, we hopped over to our DIS "student center" to check for my luggage - which I joyously recovered in a small shed in the courtyard. After a happy reunion with my two GIANT suitcases, Tali and I made our way to the train station - with 75+ pounds of my luggage. Luckily my roommate was nice enough to roll one of them, and I wore the other like a backpack. Unfortunately, it being our first day in Copenhagen, we made our way back to the central train station -- which is about 15 minutes farther than the train station we COULD have gotten on. Exercise for the day? Guess so.We got home and Lene had made lasagna - Tali and my favorite. It was really good (not as good as Mom's), and a (kinda) reminder of Vermont. We were finally allowed to help with the dishes and putting everything away, which we hadn't been able to do before, because Lene said we were guests for the first day. After, we watched the American Ambassador to Denmark give an interview because he's leaving after staying with the job for 3.5 years. It was pretty interesting to hear about his thoughts and views about Americans and Danes after interacting with both for so long...
But after was a lot more fun, because Lene showed us her Facebook, where we sat around and stalked her friends for a while...then we showed Lene some of our favorite youtube videos and had a good laugh (Go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJlPEHL85Ig)...great bonding experience. Then we hung out and watched some more handball (they're SO into it here), and Denmark won... somehow, though, we managed to be kept up until 11p.m., even though we were entirely exhausted. I don't think I fell asleep until midnight, but luckily I had my nyquil again, and was able to sleep really well until this morning at 7:15.
Today was SO much fun...Tali and I left around 8:15, but were two minutes too late for the train that we were supposed to catch to make it to DIS by 9:00. We ended up arriving into Copenhagen at 8:52, at a completely different train station with a completely different route to DIS. Not only that, we were in a totally separate building, so we had to find our way to our "Survival Danish: 1" course. I wasn't in Tali's section (but Trevor, Alex, and another kid from SLU, James were), but we were in the same place, so we walked there together. She was able to find her spot, but I couldn't find mine...and we were already about 15 minutes late...oops. I asked a Dane (because they're always willing to help with our directional issues), but even he said he had no idea where I was going - so I figured if he didn't know, how was I supposed to figure it out? Luckily, Alex found me wandering around the street, and told me that we'd all be learning the same thing, so I should just go to class with him. We got there (20 minutes late now), and ended up stuck in a group together, where we had to search out items in a grocery store to learn the Danish foods. After three hours of Danish shenanigans, we were split up AGAIN into our scavenger hunt groups.
My groupmates: Tali. Alex. Trevor. James.
Five SLU kids, and one girl, Kelly, from University of Virginia. She was really nice, and
luckily wasn't annoyed that she was stuck with all of us. The scavenger hunt was SO much fun - they had arranged for people to stay at each stop to teach us some Danish history We were sent to Magasin (the biggest department store in Copenhagen, filled with designer stuff all over................................................heaven), then to Skuespillhuset (the Royal Theater), Christiansborg Slotsplads (Danish Parliament), Rosenborg Slot (palace of King Christian the fourth, as well as his royal garden), Trinitatis Kirke (The Trinity Church), and Amalienborg (the royal palace). We walked all over the city (so this was probably 5 - 6 miles), and took one ferry - which is awesome, becuase you pay for it with your bus pass. It's just public transportation to them...by boat! The sights were beautiful!
Easily haled as one of our WORST pictures!
Tali and me in front of the harbor where the Ferry came for us...
Kelly and I standing in the courtyard of the royal family...
The King's Garden....the trees are all cut to the same level, some say because they want to show control over nature -- pretty different than the Akwesasne Semester!
After all of this, which took around three hours, we went to get our books (I never have that many....11 for the semester, and five are readers for each class), tried to hop on the bus quickly to get home in time for Obama's inauguration, failed, and only made it in time for his speech. It's great to be an American right now in Europe - or I guess at least it's the best time possible. The support for Obama over here is wonderful, and the people seem happy for Americans. All the Danish stations were showing it too, so it wasn't at all difficult to catch.
I'm sorry that this entry was SO boring and SO lame, but I'm really tired and it's taken me forever to upload these pictures - you should all be grateful!
Love,
Your favorite American girl in Denmark
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