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:
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$!) And they said it was good :) By the time we got back, it was time for survival danish. In this class, we all said our name, where we lived and where we are living... In danish. As well as what we're studying. I don't remember any of it. After that, we spent a good bit of time learning how to order a danish (see above) even though the people in bakeries generally know english... And, while it is cool we 'learned' this, I feel that 'survival danish' doesn't really include ordering pastries...
As part of the class, we went on a mini walking tour where our teacher showed us where some good grocery-type shopping was as well as where we could buy office supplies. We walked quite a ways and ended up at a mini model of old Copenhagen (~1500)
Following orientation, i went across the street to the University bookstore thing and bought a notebook and some sticky notes. Nothing really significant about this... except checking out. The cashier said "Hej!" so i said "Hi!" (they sound the same...) and, thus, she thought I spoke danish and then I carried out the rest of the transaction with her speaking only danish. I was quite proud!
So... after that I found the people I hung out with yesterday and we went to find them lunch. We found a nice, cheap pizza place right on the Strøget (main walking/shopping street.) where you can get a 'slice' (which is half of a pizza) for 25 kr (5$!) 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!!!
THIS was the old circus building. Its a cafe now.
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>
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>
1 comment:
Your blog is wonderful! Keep it up ... I love to read how you are doing!
Ardys
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