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>