Wow!

Oh my gosh. I don't even know where to start! The last two days have been FANTASTIC! Lets see... Where did I leave off...

Friday I got up and went to class. I tried this danish breakfast thing... koldskal? which is some sort of thick milk thing but is served with little cookies? The milk is like sour though (not like sour milk... but like sour... candy?) the cookies are good in it though. Then I was off. I went to my migrants, minorities and multiculturalism class. It should be REALLY interesting. Kinda intimidating though... Lots of interviews... lots of work with refugees. I'm REALLY looking forward to the field studies to... the red cross and another place. I'm sure you'll hear about them. After that, I went with Gaby and this other girl I don't know... And we went to H&M and I got a shirt for the nightclub we were going to later (DIS opening party.)

The shirt.

then we went down and bought school supplies (they hadn't gotten them yet...) Not so exciting. Anyway, I went home and met host brother, Andreas, ate dinner (salmon... but it was good???) and headed out. The party was at the Luux... which is known as the 'snobby' club, but it was all DIS students, so it wasn't bad. On the way there, I was waiting with some other students and we met a nice Aussie who invited us on a bar crawl this thursday. He vowed to show us all the cheap/fun places around. So thats cool. Don't know if we'll go yet! Anyway, at the club, DIS bought us all 2 free drinks... so I tried a sea breeze (they made it with pineapple, cranberry and vodka) and a uhm... sand in your shorts (that of course is OJ, cranberry and vodka.) Then, we left. Everything was SUPER expensive there. (Mixed drinks were over 100 kr! Over 20$. No. not happening!) So, we went to the scottish pub. "We" being a bunch of people from gettysburg. Me, Megan Poms, Tommy Bruno, Katherine Hickey, Abby Downs and another very nice girl whos name I don't know how to spell who I had never met before even though she goes to my school.

So, we found a table (the only one left!!!) and sat down and listened to the American music being played by some guy up front. Then, these slightly middle-aged norwegians started talking to us. One was SUPER impressed that I studied minority issues since he is Sami (reindeer hearding indigionus people in the north). We ordered carlsburg (which, according to the sign in the square, is 'probably the best beer in town' and is the local brew) which wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be. Maybe its just good beer? I don't know. It was my first time trying it. Its kinda expensive here: 50 kr = 10$ for a pint! After a while, they showed up with a tray full of shots... They had bought us all drinks! I'd never done a shot before, but wasn't horrible. It tasted like black licorice. Not long after we had to run to catch busses. It was only midnight... but busses run until 12:30... then no transit until 2 AM when the night bus starts and we're not into staying out as late as the danes... So i took my normal bus back and made it home safe :)

This morning I got up and got ready to go to Amanda's school thing... but was ready late and then we couldn't find the bike lock key... so we could only take 1 bike so I just went to school for the cafe tour. Which was good since I was almost late anyway. The cafe tour wasn't too exciting... We went to a part of town that was being gentrified... so it used to be the meat-packing area and now its making the transition to being artsy and bohemian, with more students and upstanding citizens than before... Was interesting.

Fountain! This was the nice bit of town that had already been gentrified.

This was nice bit too. See that building with the arch? Yeah. That's a mural. It tricked us. Its pretty much awesome.

This was the not-so-nice bit... Former meat packing plant that they're selling to artists...


This is that same building as the last picture. Turned into an AWESOME trendy bar/cafe you can't really see the amazing decor here, but just trust me, its amazing.

This is the fountain right outside the bar. its a hexagon, but the sides go up and down so you can stand in the middle and things.


This was the fountain and the cafe right in front of it :)

Anyway, after that we headed toward Vesterbro and saw a very small coffee shop and some other cute cafes. And this building:


After that, the tour was over. We were hungry, so we headed across the street to the ice cream place, planning on getting 15 kr soft-ice. That didn't happen. We walked in and the very nice man excitedly welcomed us to his ice cream shop and asked us if we wanted ice cream the danish way. We, of course, said yes! So he put three scoops of different flavors in a cone, put a giant marshmellow coated in chocolate on top, covered it all with vanilla soft-ice and put a lollipop in it! We all got different flavors that he picked out for us. And, you know what the best part was? it came to 90 kr! thats 30 kr each. So all of that for $6! Thats a good deal! And it was gormet ice cream too. I had uhm... something banana and peach melba. The peach was AMAZING!!!

That's Jacob, Megan and I with our AMAZING ice creams!!!

By the way, it was HOT today, like over 70 F. It was crazy. Totally not prepared for that. Anyway, we walked down to the lakes where the international festival was being held. It wasn't too exciting- had some AMAZING mid-east singer/dancer troupes though! And, of course, the lakes were beautiful! The lakes are where the moat around old Copenhagen used to be... then the wall came down and they filled a lot of the moat in, but theres still some left.

Lots of pictures of the lakes... Not much to say.

Bridge on the lakes :)

Thats the tallest building- the SAS building, over the lake too! What a nice view!

There are swans EVERYWHERE!

The middle-eastern dancer-singers!!! They were amazing.

Beutiful little park by the lake...

Amazing houses by the lake too, as you might imagine...

Perfect no?

Anyway, after that we headed for Stroget to buy 2 kr post cards! Now I'm home, eating dinner, and doing some homework before heading out to BarBar Bar tonight with Megan and probably some others. Yup yup. Tomorrow Gabi and I are going adventuring around Nyhavn. She hasn't been there and its gorgous so I don't mind going again and I wouldn't mind walking around there a little bit, exploring more. :) Also will have to get home early... I haven't done any work since I got here. WHOOPS.

OH! Some other mini things. So, when I'm taking the bus, people keep talking to me in danish. One older woman started talking to me and she didn't know english and it became REALLY akward... Today the guy behind me started talking to me, but when I told him I only knew english, he understood and said it again in english... which was nice. Then, on the way home, there were two deaf girls talking in Danish Sign Language who sat next to me. I know its rude to stare, but I wanted to see if it was like American Sign Language. It really made me sad I couldn't talk to them about it, for obvious reasons. And it made me miss sign language a lot :( But, I was thinking about it, and being here has given me a better understanding of what its like to be deaf. Like, I can hear people talk, and have NO IDEA what they're saying. They don't either. But they don't know whats being said all the time. I can atleast find people who know english. They can't find people that they can hear. I tried to tell them, in ASL that I knew a little bit of ASL, but i don't know if they understood, and then they were at their stop and had to leave, since I waited until they had stopped talking to tell them/try to talk to them. It was a good expirience though.

By the way! Mike made it to Japan! Yay Mike! His blog is linked over on the left hand navigation panel on the bottom, if you're interested :)

<3<3<3>

The Long Walk

So... yesterday nothing exciting happened. I got to sleep in... then almost over slept. had another 3 hours of survival danish (don't really remember much...) then sat around for an hour until I had my meeting with my program (Migration and Identity). The meeting was interesting- my professor works for PriceWaterhouseCoopers as a diversity consultant, which is cool. We're going to the Danish/German border region in a couple weeks for our short study tour (since after WW2 the boarder moved around a lot and trapped Danes on the German side and Germans on the Danish side so they have dual identities (my program focuses on identity formation and minorities and things). Later, we're going to Vilinius, the capital of Lituania for 5 days, which should be QUITE interesting. We're going there since it is such a new nation (only since 1991) and as soon as the EU opened up the boarders and allowed immigration between EU countries without papers, the entire younger generation left, so now its all old people or children. We're going to look at how all that effects identity. Theres also a couple minority groups there- the russian minority, a roma minority, and another one too... Our program coordinator is from Lithuania, so she's getting us all sorts of great connections. After the meeting we went out to dinner at a moroccan place, The a la methe- (tea with mint). I don't really like tea... But this tea was FANTASTIC. And the food wasn't bad either. Then, I came back here and went to bed early. No pictures.

Now, today I took LOTS of pictures! It was my first day of class, so I had to get up at 6 (class started at 8:30) So I went to class, sounded very interesting, learned a lot, found out the crazy smoking girl from the tour was in my program/class... and is from my school. Lame. Anyway- most other people seem very nice :) After class I found out my other class today doesn't start until Monday! So I went for a walk down Strøget, to my bank :) Jyske bank! (Jizka Bahnk) Its at the OTHER end of Strøget, right next to Nyhvn! So I got to see Nyhvn too! Basically, I went exploring on my own a little bit. I think I like exploring like this alone a little better. You can go at your own pace and see what you want to see... And the Danes don't think you're as loud and annoying- which is nice :P Anyway: It was all very beautiful, but all very touristy... In fact, i heard MANY languages, couldn't get away from tour busses, and everywhere I went were tourists with rolly suitcases. Never the less, i took tons of pictures (looking like a dumb tourist myself) I did get everything organized for my bank account too (I went in, they scanned my passport and took a page of paperwork and said they'd mail me my card and that I was done, bye! very simple.)

The next order of business was to go find school supplies. THIS was much more difficult (and expensive) than it should be. LAME. So, to do this, I walked all the way back to the OTHER end of Strøget, past Rådhuspladsen (Town Hall Square), where my bus stop is :). I stopped at the Tiger, cheap but few options. So I went to Fakta, which, at this location, only had food. So I made the 10-15 minute walk to the Fotex... Only I found a store on the way and my feet were getting sore, so I went there. They were EXPENSIVE. 5 kr = 1$. A 3 subject notebook was 45 kr. A little folder thing, also 45 kr. I ended up spending 200 kr. (So... thats like 40$.) Thats fine and all, I knew things would be more expensive here. But I only had 900 kr to last until bank account has money and I have danish credit card! And I wanted to sign up for Danish cooking classes... and there are less than 3 spots left and they cost 600 kr... Basically, I can't sign up for them until my bank account opens. So I probably can't do them, which is sad. But I guess I'll deal with it. :) After that, I made it back to my bus and now I'm back at Pia's. All in all, my adventures took... 2 hours? Not too bad! In a couple hours we're going to the Gladsaxe Kommune (our town's city hall) in order to get me my CPR (danish social security number). I love that they call them Kommunes. :P

Now, the fun part for you! Pictures! I know, they're your favorite :) remember: I only put favorites up on here. I put even fewer on facebook. They're ALL on photobucket, even boring ones that I just think tell lots about everyday life :) (theres a link on the left side of this page!)

Hans Christian Anderson!

In this picture, please not the Burger King and the KFC down in the bottom left, as well as the McDonalds in the top left.

Tivoli!!! Someone told me Disney Land was inspired by Tivoli.

So... This is just the Palads theater because I love it, and I love the contrast between the Palads and the old brick building.



This is the NY Theater, its currently showing Chicago!


NYHAVN!!! This picture actually looks EXACTLY like my desktop, but I SWEAR I took it!


SEE! It even says Nyhavn! Havn means harbor, by the way.


This is in Rådhuspladsen (same with HC Anderson's Statue). Rådhuspladsen is actually (sort of...) compared to Times Square because of all the neon advertising. But anyway, I like how the fountain is so old and beautiful, but its right there next to the modern building covered in ads...


Just a nifty building. There are LOTS! Love them.


This is the other entrance to Tivoli... with HC Anderson on the left side looking at it!

This is, as described to me by the lady in Jyske Bank, the "Large Round Square." Anyway. There are lots of awesome buildings with a statue in the middle... And then this! That little building has probably been there FOREVER, but now it is a little sidewalk cafe thing :)

This is actually the statue in the middle of the "Large Round Square." The square has a name. I'm just too lazy to look it up. Sorry!

More Nyhavn... I love all the sidewalk cafes. But the prices were REDICULOUS. As in, Egg and Bacon was 89 kr. Thats just under 20$. For a simple breakfast. Its because all the tourists go there.

The Opera House... I think I've shown you pictures of it before though...

Don't know who the statue is of. But I love how this park is so beautiful and in the middle of the road- theres a one-way street on either side.

Strøget. Main walking/shopping street. Longest of its kind in Europe. RIGHT by school. Its pretty cool.


This is an awesome looking Church right off of Strøget!


Nice fountain on Strøget. There are fountains and statues EVERYWHERE. I'll never get pictures of HALF of them. Its crazy.

Note the nice ground and the lovely ad right behind the nice fountain.

Last picture for now. So. Isn't that building in the middle awesome? Know what makes it more awesome? Its old! And the buildings next to it? Not so much. Why? Copenhagen has this history where it gets bombed sometimes. The old building survived. Yay, history :D

Have a lovely day everyone! I'm going to go read or nap or something until its time to go to the Kommune.

Edit: I just got back from the Kommune. Woo! I'm all registered. I'll have my number in a couple days. It was quite simple. I handed over my papers and was on my way. But... I felt stupid most of the way there and home. Pia and I biked there and I borrowed one of her bikes (family of 2... has5 bikes. 1 is a kids bike thoug...) Problem being: its TALL. So I couldn't get on it. Or stop. Because I couldn't put my foot down. So I basically looked like I couldn't ride a bike. When all danes ride bike ALL THE TIME. I didn't fall though. Once I was on, I was good. But yeah. Being on a busy road and not being able to get on the bike = EMBARRASSING.

Hej!

Hej, pronounced "hi!" is the danish word for Hello. Tak means thank you. Hej Hej means bye. Weinerbrød is danish for Danishes (the W is pronounced with a 'v' sound... it translates to Vienna bread. Why? Because people from Vienna introduced these tasty pastries to the Danes. Then the Danes got famous for them.)

Anyway. I would like to start with some lovely signs that I see quite frequently, so they don't really fit into my day:

I see this sign on my way to the bus when heading home.

After seeing the word "slut" and "slutspurt" on many windows I finally looked it up. It simply means closing or end. Udgalg means sale. So this would be a closing sale!

Now. Onto my day. I woke up BRIGHT and early at 6:15. I checked computer... then it was 6:30 and I freaked out a little bit because I only had 45 minutes to get showered and out the door. So I quickly did that, went up stairs... Pia was running late so I ate some toast with cheese and chocolate (two slices... no worries, the chocolate and the cheese were kept very separate.) She ended up tossing together a quick lunch for me and I was out the door. Except... repeat of yesterday: totally had no idea where to turn to get to the bus stop. So I wandered in circles around the lake thing (i'll get pictures tomorrow) twice, checking my phone as the time the notoriously efficeint and on-time buss was supposed to come approached quickly. I eventually stopped a danish woman on her day to work and asked her where the store was... and she said (in english) that she did not understand what I was saying. I attempted to clarify... and eventually she got it and pointed me in the right direction... where the bus had just approached. I waited for cars (and more importantly, bikes!) to clear and ran across the road, and, in a VERY undanish fashion, ran up to the bus... just as it started to pull away. I knocked on the door of the moving bus, as this old danish guy laughed at me :( But, the bus stopped, and let me on. All good. No seats though. Bus is busy!

Eventually I got to sit down. Soon after a lady with a baby carriage (read, carriage, not stroller) got on... With her bulldog? puppy! SO CUTE. the dog was leashed and no one thought it out the the ordinary, so whatever. The lady grabbed her baby, and put the dog in the stroller while she held the baby... then got off a few stops later. The puppy was SOOOO CUTE. :) Made me feel better after almost missing my bus...

Okay. So. Least favorite thing about busses: announcements. This morning the driver rattled on for a couple minutes. No clue what he said. Oh well. Apperently it wasn't important.

Got off the bus... Realized I didn't know where I was going since orientation was in a different place today. So I wandered around here:

Palads, Movie theatre!!! Its pretty.

Eventually, I found some people from my program and we found the place together. And then we sat for 3 hours and listened to orientation stuff. Found out about travel options that were still open, historical things, how we got matched, into to the library... You know, basic orientation stuff. I did sit next to two people from my school... Both with host families. Both unhappy. One person I was kind of thinking that her situation wasn't ideal (she had to be home with her host mom's boyfriend while the host mom slept. This creeped her out. Also, Danes are cool with nudity (Denmark was the first country to leagalize porn. so being naked is no big thing. As shown by the fact my bathroom windows don't have any blinds...?) but I feel like this is just a cultural thing she should deal with. She said they were both nice to her so i don't see whats wrong. The other guy though... He has a couch for a bed and his room is the size of a closet and he doesn't have a desk... AND he doesn't even live in Copenhagen- he lives in Roskilde. The train alone takes an hour. THAT sucks. Ouch, man.

Following orientation, i went across the street to the University bookstore thing and bought a notebook and some sticky notes. Nothing really significant about this... except checking out. The cashier said "Hej!" so i said "Hi!" (they sound the same...) and, thus, she thought I spoke danish and then I carried out the rest of the transaction with her speaking only danish. I was quite proud!

So... after that I found the people I hung out with yesterday and we went to find them lunch. We found a nice, cheap pizza place right on the Strøget (main walking/shopping street.) where you can get a 'slice' (which is half of a pizza) for 25 kr (5$!) And they said it was good :) By the time we got back, it was time for survival danish. In this class, we all said our name, where we lived and where we are living... In danish. As well as what we're studying. I don't remember any of it. After that, we spent a good bit of time learning how to order a danish (see above) even though the people in bakeries generally know english... And, while it is cool we 'learned' this, I feel that 'survival danish' doesn't really include ordering pastries...

As part of the class, we went on a mini walking tour where our teacher showed us where some good grocery-type shopping was as well as where we could buy office supplies. We walked quite a ways and ended up at a mini model of old Copenhagen (~1500)

There are more pictures of this on my photobucket :)

It was really cool seeing where the old city walls were (and it had a moat!!!) And seeing where I was at. For some perspective, I can take two busses, One to Vesterport Station one to Norreport Sation. 'Port' is gate. So thats just North Gate and West Gate of the old city. and DIS is right in the middle of historic Copenhagen! Its also a historical monument... Meaning it doesn't have elevators, ventilation, or AC because historic building codes forbid this.

Anyway. I took lots of pictures of the streets while we walked. But they're just streets, so you can go look at your pleasure. Here are some other things I saw though!!!

Those balls, by the entrance to the City Museum (with the model of Copenhagen), were once used to clean the sewers so the uhh... pipes would flow. I would'nt reccomend touching them...

Planetarium! By a man-made lake. Its where the moat used to be... Now its one of 5? manmade lakes that are great picnicking and running locations that surround old-city.

THIS was the old circus building. Its a cafe now.

After that I went to the bank to see if it was open... but it closed at 4 and it was 4:15... so still no bank account. Then I went to get my books. LONG line. No vetilation... LOTS of people. Not good. Very warm. But I got my books!!! Well... all my books except for those for language, society and ideology...

Lots of books! They gave us all ikea bags to carry them in... But they fit in my backpack.

After getting books, I went and chilled with laptop and waited till 5:30 when I had a meeting for volunteering. Then a girl who had told be she was volunteering earlier came in, I asked if she was going and she told me she had just come from that meeting. Whoops. I guess I got my times confused and it started at 4:30... Not 5:30...

So I ran over to the meeting- the guy was VERY understanding. I sat through some info there and then was told that it was fairly certain that I'd work with a integration project teaching kids how to swim. Sounds fun AND right up my alley, no? So... I'm excited. 40 hour required this semester... plus lots of readings and I have to journal about my service learning atleast twice a week. I'm super excited for the class though. The group of people seems really awesome and I think that program will be good. One of the placements they have is with Cafe K, which is a place for underpriviledged (minority...) youth to hang out. They were kinda the ones responsible for some rioting some years ago... or lots of Danes blamed them or something. At this time, a DIS student was working at Cafe K and totally described all these kids as very sweet! It was because she had gotten to know them.

After that I headed home. AND I didn't get lost. At all. It was amazing. I made it to dinner on time. Then, since Amanda was at her father's and Michael goes to bed at 7, I hung out with Pia until 10. We talked politics and TV and habits and boyfriends. As well as why she chose to host a student and what sort of expectations she had for me. She said she took a student because her son moved out and it made her sad to go in the basement and because she and Amanda wanted to improve their english. Was good time.

The view from my bus stop in downtown DK. (AKA: the bus home.)

So, now I'm just in my room listening to music and things before doing some reading. I get to sleep in a bit tomorrow! Its very exciting. I don't have to be to Survival Danish until 1 PM. So, I'm just going to go in whenever I wake up and go to the Fotex to buy office supplies and then go to the Jyske Bank to open an account :) <3>

Hectic Day

This might be short. Its midnight and I have to get up at 6:30 to take classes on 'how to cope in copenhagen"

SO! Day started with me waking up at 5 AM. I guess I'm still getting used to that whole new time zone thing. So i got all ready and Pia and I headed out for the Royal Library Black Diamond.


You can see why its called the black diamond, yes? Anyway. We got off a stop or two late... So we had to hunt down the bus stop. It was right next to the cinema Palads (google image search it!) Anyway, I found Megan Poms there! With her host brother. So we made our way to the Black Diamond and then sat through the opening ceremonies. Speeches and things about things to expect and a wind quintet. It was good :)

After ward, everyone (all ~600 of us...) made their way to the DIS building. It was CRAZY. The buildings are tiny but nice. I'll be there lots. Anyway, it was crowded and hard to get anywhere and I -hope- I don't have classes on the 4th floor because thats really the 5th and thats a LOT of stairs. I got my cell phone fixed! So now I have the number! its : 011 45 309 74068. Beware calling from the US though. I also got my transportation stipend. By the time we did all this (I was with Rachel, Megan and Jacob :) ) it was time for Megan and Jacob to catch their tour bus (our planned activity for the day.) So they stuffed down some bagels and headed for the busses. Rachel and I took our time. Pia had made me a 'danish' lunch. Carrot, Cucumber, biscut with chocolate (yum!) and 3 open faced sandwiches. 1 with chicken (good :) ) 1 with liver pate (not horrible.) and 1 with something resembling maybe bologna? All on danish rye bread. I don't like rye bread... but danish rye is good :) Its just like multigrain. An open faced sandwich is just a sandwich without the top bread and its the typical lunch, from what I understand.

After lunch, we headed to the tour bus, where we found another person from our flight (Rachel and i were on the same flight- so was she. And I'm horrible and don't remember her name even though she's in my program...) She was hanging out with Chris. So we all got on the tour bus and attempted to listen to our awesome tour guide Anders! His jeans were a little bit on the tight side, but he was awesome, giving us historical info as well as the best place to buy skinny jeans or where his favorite clubs are. It would have been a lot better if the entire second deck of the bus hadn't been inhabitited by frat boys talking only about how they were going to drink and pre-game and go party. And then they talked about flip-cup. And which weekend travel destinations were best for drinking. But yeah. Here are some of my favorite things from the tour! (there are more on my photobucket: <-- click)

The (new) Opera House!

The Royal residences! Complete with guards in fuzzy hats. The queen wasn't there (her flag wasn't there) but her brother was home!

The Little Mermaid. Donated by Carlsbad breweries in honor of Hans Christian Anderson. Fun fact: She's now filled with concrete because people have chopped off her head 2 or 3 times (a journalist needed a story and an artist was jealous) as well as her arm stolen. She's also been painted pink and had clothes put on her.

This is the story of how Denmark was made... According to folk tail the woman there drove her bulls to plow the land and whipped them? And a part of the earth from Sweden came down and formed Denmark. Or something like that.

Really old fountain with red water. Only a block away from the DIS building!

I LOVE the yellow row houses! They're just about everywhere!

Okay... This is a bad picture of an awesome church spire that spirals!

So. After the tour, Rachel and I ran back to DIS and used the restrooms (which are all, bluntly, called toilets.) And then we went down to Norreport Station to get out metro passes. Sounds easy? Its not. Apparently we needed passport sized pictures for our metro pass. Problem being: you need exact change in coins. We only have bills. So we run over to 7-11 and buy GIGANTIC juice boxes!


They have .5 liters of OJ in them. AND they were only 12 Kroner! Meaning: Only 3 dollars. Everything else was 18-21 Kroner (general rule of thumb: divide by 5 to get dollars) After our purchase, we realized we still didn't have enough change. So we went around and asked at at least 5 different stores for change... And finally we got some. Not as much as we needed though. At first we thought they cost 80 kr... and had an hour long line. But after talking to some other people in the program we found another place to get pictures a block away for 60 kr... and no line! So we 'borrowed' some money from our transportation stipend and got pictures... After taking our pictures, the two girls behind us had an ingenious idea: the camera flashed twice... each person only needs one picture. They could time it so each of them got a picture! So they split the cost and got all the picture they needed. And then we took the pictures went and stood in line (well... not so much a line. its the danish equivalent: you take a number and wait for your turn.) When we got there they were helping #290. Our numbers were 340 & 341. It took a half our or more. But, we eventually got them.

Here, I bid farewell to Rachel for the night, as she headed home on the train leaving Norreport Station. I headed to DIS (remember, I don't have my cell phone) to find out where to catch my train (#69!) I get there and realize I have NO IDEA how to open the main gate. I stand there and look confuse just as luck strikes and some people I know from school who happen to be with the DIS program walk by! They show my how to unlock the door... (Its a crazy 4 step process involving secret codes and cards and things...) They walk away as I realize... No ones there! So i chase them down and beg for use of cell phone to call host mom. I call her and she tells me what bus to take from Norreport Station.

Bikes at Norreport Station. 1/3 of all Danes commute by bike! This wasn't even a fifth of the bikes here. It was crazy. AND bikes are everywhere, not just here. You should seel the schools!

I catch the bus and ride and ride and ride and think we've gotten to my stop. So I get off... The bus leaves... its not my stop. So I walk in the bus' direction- it was going where I needed to be. I walk for a very long time (probably more than 10 minutes?) before I get to where I was REALLY supposted to get off (at the Trafikplads = transit center) I turn and walk some more and see where I had caught the bus so many hours before. I find the netto, and my trail across the street. Theres this cute little pond there with a mini house in the middle that I recognize, so I keep walking. I get to the end of the street... Never seen it before. Crap. So i'm lost. In the land of Danish. Without a phone. I retrace my steps... But I don't know what I did wrong. I see two girls (10 or 11 probably) and ask them if they speak english. They say a little... So I ask them if they know where my street it. I must have horribly butchered the name because they have no idea until I show them Pia's (herbalife!) business card that she'd given me for this reason. The offer to "follow me there" by which they mean take me there. They laugh and giggle the whole time, probably at me, but I don't mind- they're showing me how to get home. I thank them, and they head off.

Pia and Amanda had already eaten, but Pia sent me to my room to relax and brings dinner down to me. I'm already talking to Mike and calling my Mom... and making sure I know where to catch my bus tomorrow! Turns out, it was only a couple blocks in the OTHER direction! Oh well. In the end, I'm kinda glad I didn't have my cell phone. I wasn't worried at all, and I got to see some of the city. I wasn't really in a hurry, and I knew that I'd get back fine eventually. I see it more as a thing that happened, that wasn't unenjoyable. I still had a great day, saw a lot of things, learned a lot. I think others would have freaked out, but I was okay. I even enjoyed walking from the earlier stop! I probably won't get off there again, but it was a very nice day (cloudy, but warm.) And I think it was just a good experience, if for no other reason that I showed me that I can do things and get around in the country alone :)

Anyway, now it is one AM and I am getting up at six fifteen. So, good night! <3<3<3>