Cloudy with a chance of...well, more clouds really

[photo: Frederiksbørg Castle.  What started as a humble hunting lodge grew to become a spectacular 400 year old monument to the Danish monarchy]

All the DIS students have survived their first full week in Copenhagen.  Besides the occasional housing mix up (someone was assigned a janitor's closet at the international dorm), everyone seems to be pretty settled in.  The city is remarkably easy to explore.  Between the S-train, metro, and bus system, public transportation is easy to find and usually easy to navigate.  Still, the most fun way to get around the city is simply by walking.  The area is compact enough that there are plenty of stores, cafes, and libraries all within a few minutes of each other.     

[photo: The church inside the castle.  A choir of Danish kids were rehearsing below]

My most interesting class so far has been the Environment History of Europe.  I've studied Europe before, but somehow this aspect of history always gets sort of glanced over or bundled with agricultural studies.  The professor is particularly entertaining, too.  For those of you who went to Valley, his style is very similar to that of Mr. Thornton (complete with bad puns).  

The food so far has been surprising tasty.  Danes don't eat a lot of spicy food, but nevertheless a number of Tai places can be found all over the city and in the suburbs.  Vibeke grabbed some carry out for dinner from a Tai place down the street the other night an nearly drank the entire pitcher of tea to relieve the heat.  For the first time EVER I was the one in the room saying "Oh, it's not that hot".  Then again the score is even for every time a Dane has said "Oh, its not that cold outside".    

Tonight my Danish survival group is going to grab some dinner at the Barbar Bar, a local favorite.  The only catch is that we have to order our food in Danish.  I'm hoping pointing at the menu and smiling at the waiter will suffice.

[photos: I really don't know what's going on here, actually]

Velkommen til København!

(photo: Marianne did some post graduate studies in New York and received this book as a gift from an American friend.  She set it out for me and was excited when I knew about Garrison Keillor)

I know this post comes a day late, but it took a day or so to get my head back on after all the travel.  All the DIS students were super jet-lagged when we all arrived at the headquarters on Sunday afternoon.  By the time we were picked up by our host families most of us had been up for around 30 hours with another few hours to go before dinner and bed.  The tiredness did, however, make stressful events seem quite humorous ("Score! SAS lost my bags! Now I don't have to carry them, haha!" ~red-haired guy).  

Copenhagen is, from what I've seen so far, a beautiful city.  We had opening ceremonies today in the Ny Carlsbuerg Glyptotek, a museum located in the heart of the city.  They held the ceremony in a room designed to look like a Greek temple where we were surrounded by Greek statues, marble floors, and ionic columns.  A winds quintet played a few pieces by Beethoven and Carl Nielsen, a very famous Danish composer (he's on the 100 DKK bill).  

Vibeke and Marianne have been very welcoming.  The first night we had tea by the fire while watching "lifgardt" (that's not how it's spelled, but I can't seem to find anything close on google).  Anyway, the show doesn't have any subtitles, but it's formatted a bit like CSI.  Between the language barrier, cultural differences, and the fact that they were already half-way through the season meant that occasionally Marianne would say something like "They just talked about the Muslims immigrating to Denmark, which is the source of some racial tension here, but Mohammed is still in love with Ulja, who is the sister of Tarben".  It all makes sense now.

I know the first few days will be a bit awkward, but it's refreshing to be out of my element.  I think I could have written an entire post on just the shower and the alarm clock (I did battle with both.  The shower won, but the alarm clock I managed to beat into submission). 

This week is filled with orientations sessions until Thursday, when we'll start our normal classes.  I should be able to update regularly from here on out.  If the first two days were this interesting I can't wait to see what the rest of the week has in store.  

In case you were wondering

[photo: All I really need for the trip]

Hey there, everyone!  Although I don't leave until the 17th of January, I wanted to post some basic information about what I'll be up to next semester.  

"Where in Africa are you going?" ~Rob

Actually, I'll be heading to Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark.  Denmark shares a southern border with Germany and consists of a peninsula (Jutland) and several smaller islands (Copenhagen is on Zealand).  The language is Danish, the population is around five and a half million (around one and a half million live in Copenhagen), and they have a parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy.  The Kingdom of Denmark encompasses Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

"Why on earth are you going to Copenhagen?"

I've always wanted to study abroad.  My mom studied for several months in Turkey back in the day, and hearing her stories (along with working at Active Endeavors), gave me the travel bug.  I told the very nice ladies at the study abroad office at Bradley University that I wanted to travel, I'm a mechanical engineering major, and I don't speak German.  That narrowed my options fairly quickly and lead me to DIS, the Danish institute for Study Abroad.  This particular program has a great reputation, allows me to knock off a few gen eds, and all my classes will be taught in English (danke, Dr. Blouch).  I'll be taking my classes though the University of Copenhagen and the theme of my studies is "Migration and Identity"    (fitting, eh?)

"Will you stay with a host family?"

You betcha.  I will be staying with Vibeke and Marianne, a same-sex couple living about half and hour north of the city.  These women are in their 50's, both are doctors, and sound like lovely people.  

So that's the gist of my spring semester.  I'll try to keep this blog updated on a weekly basis.

I hope everyone had a lovely New Year's!