I was expecting this summer to just fly by. But now, as my fifth day in Copenhagen comes to a close and the sun has finally set, it dawned on me: I feel like I've been here at least 2 weeks! Between studio, lectures, studio, seeing the city, and studio, it really feels like I have been in this mesmerizing city for longer. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining... Just stating my feelings, since that's what blogs are about, people's feelings. Because I have been a terrible blog host, allow me to apologize and relive my first (almost) week in Copenhagen for all you lovely people.
Travel Day (June 15-16):
So you all read about my adventures in packing, right? RIGHT?!?! Well they pale in comparison to my adventures in traveling! It began with checking in at the airport. I don't usually drive to the airport, so I gave my dad wrong directions on several occasions. While in line to check my luggage, I met my first travel buddy. Carly, who goes to St. Thomas, was on both of my flights, as was my friend Betsy from the U. So here's what happened before I even got on the plane:
- Almost left my boarding pass on a bench that my parents were sitting on. I went to look for it to get in line and panicked because I had already lost it. But then I found it. Crisis averted.
- My carry-on (which took 20 minutes to pack) got pulled after the security scanner. The TSA agent asked me if I had any sharp or serrated objects in there. "No, just my bazooka and pipe bomb." Okay... I didn't really say that but come on... Anyway, he proceeded to dig through my bag, removing half the contents before realizing there was nothing in there. So he handed me all of my stuff and told me I had to move past the table. Thanks, dude. I'll just repack my entire carry on in the middle of the airport mall.
Other than that, the flight to Toronto was easy like Sunday morning. No one sat next to me, and Betsy and Carly were jealous. Once in Toronto, the worst type of torture was forced upon us: no bathrooms until we passed customs. Once we got our passports checked and emptied our bladders, we were off in search of food. After procuring some very coveted Canadian dollars, we settles for food at a burger place. It's amazing how as soon as you leave your home country, simple questions like, "Would you like fries with that?" become so much harder to answer. Once we snarfed down our food, we got to our gate, boarded the plane, and were Copenhagen bound.
On the plane, I sat next to another DIS bound student. She was from Canada, but goes to school in NY. We had a good time joking about the differences between the US and Canada and talking about stereotypes. Once we were settled in, the flight became magic. The movies were free! You know what that means: MEAN GIRLS!! "Does she even go here?!" After that we had a dinner of adequate pasta and White Wine. That's right, starting vacation early! After several hours of non-existant sleep, the sun was up, landing gear was down, and we landed on Danish soil. On the horizon rose the church towers of Copenhagen!
Day 1 (Sunday June, 16)
Day one was our day to unpack, meet fellow DISers and have a bbq at the kollegiet. I live in Keops Kollegeit in
Nørrebro, a northern neighborhood on Copenhagen. I have my own room with a bathroom and a kitchenette. The bathroom is tiny and the shower is just a head in the corner with a drain in the floor. There is a small curtain, but essentially, the bathroom is the shower. After getting some time to settle in, we finally headed into Copenhagen. Our SRA (Social & Residential Adviser) took us on the bus so we would know how to get to school the next morning. We got off the bus in the square by City Hall. A most beautiful first impression of Copenhagen. Our school is located in several buildings in downtown, but the main building is located on a street called Vestergade (pronounced like Vaysthoogal). After picking up our books (of which I had none) we were loose in Copenhagen, for all the Danes to see. First things first, we walked down
Strøget (pronounced Strooyul) which is the main pedestrian shopping street of Copenhagen. What an amazingly charming city she is. One block of walking and I was in love. I fell for her hard, like a kindergartner falls for glue after just one taste. The rest of the details are not super important, because I didn't even know what I was doing. But here are the important ones:
- A Frenchman confused me for a Dane. He came up to me asking where a certain cafe was and seemed completely shocked when I told him in my American accent, "I am just as lost as you are, bud."
- In Copenhagen, H&M is like Starbucks, there's one on every corner. One block even had two, one on each side!
- Danes speak very good English, but make sure you say hello when they greet you, because hey sounds like hej and they will start speaking to you in Danish.
After all this, our SRA's hosted a bbq for the DIS students and we had our first attempt at a grocery store run. It is so difficult to buy groceries when you cannot read the labels! Bread should be bread, right? Wrong. Milk should be milk, right? Wrong! After about 45 minutes fumbling around this small store, I finally had enough food to last me a few days.
Day 2 (Monday June, 17)
First day of classes. It began with one of our SRA's leading us to the Tivoli Hotel on the train. There, we were welcomed by the leaders of DIS and had a very interesting lecture on the history of Copenhagen. After some serenading by the DIS strings, we were sent off into the streets of Copenhagen in teams for the Amazing Race. It was fun to navigate the streets of a foreign city to see the sights as well as to meet DIS professors to give us the history about each site. The only problem with this was that the map of the bus routes they gave us was outdated, so our 9A bus never came... After realizing what happened, we found our first site, Amalienborg.
This is the royal palace and the one place I really wanted to go, because we studied it in my Urban Form and Theory Class. It is a striking public space surrounded by 4 palaces, one for the Queen, one for each of her sons and families, and one for special occasions. At one axis lies the massive and beautiful Marble Church and at the other end, across the bay, lies the new Opera House. Before the axis was blocked by the opera house, it used to represent all you needed to rule: God (marble church), power (statue of a kind in the center), and eternity. The professor seemed to think the opera house diminishes this effect, but we all agreed that if you don't like the opera, sitting through one can feel like eternity.
Next stop was Nyhavn (pronounced Newhavn). This is what everyone thinks of when you mention Copenhagen. The canal lined with pastel colored houses and a street lined with cafes. What a beautiful area this is. However, we couldn't find the DIS representative, so we moved on to the next site.
The Parliament Building (Chritianborg Palace) was the former home of the royal family. But after it burned down for the second time in a decade, the royals felt it was best to move into Amalienborg. Now this castle houses all three branches of the Danish government.
After all that fun, it was off to our first class: studio. I'm going to skip the details and say this: we were assigned a building, a group of 4, and given a week to construct a model and have a presentation rehearsed on the building. We will visit these buildings on our study tour, and when there, each group that constructed the model will be the tour guide. Fun concept, not fun timeline. I have already spent every night in studio. Yay summer in Copenhagen! After that, we had our first lecture. It is in a very old building belonging to the University of Copenhagen (abbreviations KU) and let me say I will never say the seats in Rapson 100 are uncomfortable again... After that, I don't really remember what happened. So I will skip ahead to the next day.
Wait, I went to a bike shop and rented a bike! (Paid for it) Bikes are EVERYWHERE and I want to bike like a Dane!
Day 3 (Tuesday June, 18)
So this is getting kind of long winded, so I'm just going to talk about some of the highlights of my day.
Began the day with 2 lectures from 8:30-11:15. Loved it (not).
Found a really cute sandwich shop for lunch, but they had to read the menu for us in English.
Climbed to the top of the Rundetårn (Round Tower), a church tower with a spiral ramp affording some of the best views of the city from above. We got to sketch the skyline and see Copenhagen like never before. The spires in the city towered toward the sun, glistening as if they had brushed it and still had some sun dust on them (It's getting pretty poetic in here)
Picked up my bike. So excited to ride it!
Studio, studio, studio
Went to bike home. Made it 3 blocks from school, hit a bump and oops!, my bike seat came loose and I almost faceplanted. Defeated, I walked my bike back to DIS and parked it out front.
Day 4 (Wendesday June, 19)
Studio in the morning, and a short drawing class in the afternoon.
For lunch, I walked with my friend Rosana to Kogens Have (King's Park) to eat lunch. It is a beautiful park in Copenhagen complete with its own castle. It was amazing to bask in the sunlight, take in the beautiful Danes, and enjoy a sandwich with a new friend.
Studio, studio, studio
Took my bike to the bike shop and they fixed it up like a pro. But by the time I left studio, it was raining (again) so I wimped out.
When I got home, I turned on my light in my kitchenette and suddenly my life became the movie Ants!. They were everywhere: on the counter, in the cupboards, in the sink, on my hot pads... Needless to say I was a little freaked out. It turns out I had to throw away all my food in the cupboards because the ants had made a meal of it. Luckily, I was armed. Under my sink I found the Danish Windex (called Amex) and went to town. Once their little bodies succombed to the chemicals, I cleaned like I've never cleaned before. I wiped and I sponged and I squeezed and squeezed and squeezed (no flab on this arm) until my kitchenette was spotless. Would they return? Only time will tell.
Next I bused back downtown to meet some friend to explore the Danish nightlife. We began at a bar called Bar (how original). Next, we went to a place my friend told me I had to go to, Dansebar. It was way to early, and the fact that our group doubled the size of the dance floor wasn't a promising sign. Next, we walked up the Strøget looking for locals to ask for advice. We finally found some and they led us to a place called Billy Booze. Can I just say that Danish cider is 100 times better than it is in America? Somersbury is where it's at! After some foosball and dancing, I started talking to some Danes at the bar. They are super friendly and don't hate Americans! She was teaching me to say phrases when she suddenly freaked out. Apparently, the guy standing behind me at the bar was on the last season of the Danish Big Brother TV show. He is basically a celebrity in Denmark. After some hushed talking, I turned to him and told him "I love you" in Danish (Jeg elsker dig, pronounced Yai Ilshka Die). Then, told him it was nice to meet him in Danish. This one was much more complicated and basically consisted of her saying a couple syllables in my ear, and me repeating them to Dennis. Repeat this and you have a Danish phrase. He was very nice and said it was nice meeting me too. I felt like such a Danish fan! Finally, we ended at the same place we began and had a quick bit at BK (yes, the business on the corner of Strøget and Copenhagen's version of Times Square is Burger King.
It is amazing how beautiful the sunrise is when watching from a bus on a ride home from a great night. (Did I mention the sun rises at 3:30am here? And it doesn't set until after 11pm. Crazy!)
Day 5 (Thursday, June 20)
Today began with three lectures, but following that was a field trip to the Danish Open Air Museum. Every Scandinavian country has one and it is basically a museum of old buildings from that country. This museum contained over 80 buildings built in Denmark ranging back to the mid 1600s. It is a fascinating view into the lives of Danes over 400 years ago as well as the differences in building construction not only across time, but across the regions of the country. The most striking feature of these buildings was the low ceilings. The first houe we looked at I couldn't even stand up straight inside. The door fram only came up to my shoulders. People were so short back then! And don't worry, picture will come ;)
After that, my friend Andrew and I searched the streets around DIS for something to drink. It had been a hot 4 hours at the Open Air Museum. We stumbled upon a bakery my friend had told me about from her semester here. We couldn't even handle the deliciousness of the smell tickling our noses and begging us to reach for our wallets. So we said no. (DARE would be proud). We went back to a place we passed earlier called the Living Room. It was an adorable juice bar that sold all kinds of delicious stuff. We both got smoothies, and after, filled ourselves with the free mint water available. Mint water is SO REFRESHING!!! After that... you guessed it. Studio
This is it. The moment I FINALLY gain my independence and unleash my inner Dane. I unlocked my bike, set it on the street and guess what I did?! ...walked it back to the bike shop because it had a flat back tire... Even though the shop was closed, they have an air hose. Easy enough, right? Just air the tire up. WRONG. I couldn't figure out how to attach the hose, then once I did, I couldn't figure out how to make the air come out, and once I did, I couldn't get any of the air to go into the tire... Uberdefeated, I walked my bike back to DIS and parked it out front. Maybe I'm just not destined to be a Dane.
I managed to make it home by 10, and am now blogging about this amazing experience. So much has happened and I know I have forgotten some of it, but I will do my best to continue to update as frequently as possible. Knowing me, that will be once every other week or so... Let's hope not. And not, time for bed. Even though it is only 6:10pm in America. 1:10am is awefully late for me! Tak for reading (that means thanks for reading in Danish).
