Quick recap of the last several days

I was planning to do a full post (with pictures!) but I'm pretty tired so here's a short post. Hopefully I'll do the full post tomorrow.

Things that have happened since last posting:
-classes started. I'll write in depth on those later
-attended a party at a Dane's apartment
-Luux club for dancing
-Toured Copenhagen by bike.
-Visited the hippie squatter town called Christiania that reminded me of the Oregon Country Fair (think dreadlocks, and high barefoot dancing people)
-Ate 20 dollar pizza.
-Went to Kronborg castle and Helsingør
-killed two spiders. (one just right now. My heart is still beating about 3 times faster than normal.) Killing these spiders involved a paper towel wrapped boot, a broom inside the boot and a vacuum. I shrieked both times, making a sound I wasn't even aware that I was capable of making.
-developed a cold. I'm not a fan of stuffy noses and sore throats. Hopefully it will pass quickly.

My host family has peaced out for the next 3 weeks (they are going to France). I already miss their company and delicious dinners. However they left me with a fully stocked fridge and having an entire Danish house all to myself is pretty nice. They also gave me permission to have friends spend the night. My host mom also bought me a box of fancy chocolates.

So things are still going well! The weather was very warm this weekend, although I've heard that after this it will pretty much rain all the time. Luckily, I happen to like rain so I'm not worried.

"Guelerødder" means carrot in danish. It's pronunciation is something like this: goolerutha, with the middle part all blended together. When my danish teacher pronounced that today we all just stared at her. And then started laughing. The last two days as part of orientation everyone has to take a Surival Danish course. I think the most useful thing I learned was how to order a wienerbrød, which is a danish pastry, but it translates into bread from vienna (Jeg vil gerne have et stykke wienbrød. Pronounced: Yi vay garne hé et stuuké veenerbrod). After they had us practice saying the line we were all given giant danishes. mmmm

I last night I met one of my host parent's two daughters and her boyfriend when they came over for dinner. It was really nice to meet them and she told me stories of her year in the US while we ate roast lamb and potato stew. Then I headed off to downtown Copenahagen for my first night out in the city. I met up with some DIS friends, and we went to a bar called "The Happy Pig". It ended up being full of foreign students and a lot of other DIS students were there. I was all set to get back to Ejby on my own, but luckily Megan's host sister came with a car and she graciously offered to drive me back.














I was definitely not going to go to my 9 am Danish class today, so I skipped it and slept in and then went to a random one in the afternoon. It was a good choice, the other Danish class was a much funnier and livelier group and I made some new friends. Plus I slept in until 11 am instead of waking up at 7 am. In the class we went to a nearby Netto and translated the names of different foods into Danish. I have a dinner with the class on Tuesday, the catch is that you have to find the place on your own (although with the internet that should be easy) and then DIS will pay for the meal.

Tonight I met my other host sister, who came with her boyfriend and their 14 month old son, Alexander. He was soooo adorable and my host parents were absolutely obsessed with him. After hearing so much about him, I was glad I could finally meet him. We bonded when he drooled on my knee.

(sorry that it's not right side up! I can't seem to fix it)











And for anyone who doesn't have facebook, you can see more pictures here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2277175&l=638c8&id=3421298

alright, I have a little bit of pre-reading for my classes tomorrow then I'm off to bed.

Day 1 of Orientation

Quick post!

-Today: DIS welcome ceremony and a tour of Copenhagen by bus.
-food of the day/ what I think is a typical danish day of food:
breakfast: muesli (not sure exactly what was in there but it was good), and then toast with blue cheese
lunch: A sandwich of ham, tomato and lettuce. I was very happy to have my own lunch when I saw how expensive everything is in Copenhagen.
dinner: mashed potatoes (definitely mashed with lots of butter, and cheese, also onions and maybe carrots were in there) and bacon. Potatoes+meat= very Scandinavian. For dessert we had a dark chocolate dipped mound of marshmallow with coconut on top that is called something in Danish that I won't repeat here because it is terrible and racist. Yes, apparently marshmallows can have a racist name.
-things are still going well.
-Tonight I just hung around the house, but in the future I hope to go back into Copenhagen to see friends. My host family is leaving for three weeks starting on Friday, so that would probably be a good time to explore the city at night.

AND, my weekend schedule for the next month+:
-August 29: bike tour of Copenhagen, August 30: Elsinore (Hamlet's castle) and Kronborg Castle
-Sept 6-7: Sweden!
-Sept 12-13: short study tour with my Medical Practice and Policy program around denmark
-Sept 19-20: Bornholm to go biking
then one weekend off
-Oct 11- Nov. 2: Three week travel break: so far...Berlin, Poznan (Poland), France, Turkey.

So I'll be plenty busy. I'm excited!

My host family (Erik and Enni, both 60) is great, they are very welcoming and warm and I feel lucky to have them. I live in Ejby (good luck pronouncing it). Their house is hands down the cleanest and most organized house I have ever been in. Nothing is out of place, and clutter is completely non-existant. I obviously cannot be the slobby American who comes in and takes over so I will try to imitate them. So far everything unpacked well (I maybe should have brought less stuff...), and I will try to stay clean. Unfortunately, anyone who has ever lived with me is probably laughing right now. I know, I know, but I'm going to try
For dinner we ate roast chicken and linguine with a buttery onion sauce. Everything was so delicious and they had candles lit on the table and the light in the dining room was dimly lit. Very hygge. I had read in my DIS packet that the danes consider it childish to cut your food and then switch forks to eat it, so I tried my best not to do it. It was much more difficult than I would have thought, especially when eating the pasta. Their forks never left their left hands, and generally I eat with my fork on my right hand. I hope I didn't look too incompetent. Anyways I think they like me and I know I really like them so this is good.

Random observations:
-I had my first mini Danish healthcare system lesson. They know I'm a pre-med student and they asked if I hoped to learn more about Danish healthcare system. I said yes, and they shook their heads and said that their system has a lot of problems. And that the nurses just finished their two month strike for more pay and during that time no one could have any surgeries performed and now there is a huge backlog. And that the nurses didn't even end up getting their pay raise.
-I met a lot of people I really liked in my program today just at the airport.
-the Denmark is pretty! The sky had big white fluffy clouds, it looked straight out of one of those Denmark guide books.

Tomorrow I have the Welcome Ceremony followed by a tour of Copenhagen. My host dad is taking me in the morning to help me buy my train pass for the semester and then showing me how to get there.

hi,hi! (that's pretty much only Danish I know. I think it means goodbye)

Finally in Denmark

Traveling ended up going smoothly, even if I am completely exhausted. My Chicago to Copenhagen flight ended up being an almost even mix of DIS students and Danes. On the train to the international terminal I was approached by a girl my age who saw my DIS luggage tag. By the time I reached the terminal there were three of us and soon more students congregated around us. I felt like a college freshman all over ago- there was a lot of "name?, where are you from?, what school do you go to?," But it was fun to meet new people and I liked already having friends before even getting to Denmark.

Scandanavian airlines was very nice and the service was excellent. The flight left Chicago at 10:05 pm and arrived in Copenhagen at 1:20-ish (Danish time). So to my body I was traveling from 8 pm to 4 am and I unfortunately didn't manage to get more than an hours worth of sleep on the plane. I'm looking forward to a shower and my bed!

The Copenhagen airport was amazing and our luggage was already circulating by the time we arrived at the luggage check. Efficiency! I was prepared for a long line in customs and instead, all we had to do was walk through a door that said "I don't have anything to declare". So customs took about 3 minutes, the time it took to walk through the door.

Right now I am waiting at the University of Copenhagen for my host family to come pick me up. I'm a little bit nervous, even though I know I shouldn't be.

Airport

The Portland airport is by far my favorite airport. I love having my departing terminal next door to my arriving terminal and the free wi-fi is a definite bonus. My flight to Chicago should board within the next 10 minutes. This is a route I've taken a lot over the past two years to get to Northwestern, but this is the first time I won't be staying in Chicago. My flight for Copenhagen then leaves at 10 pm and (according to facebook at least) there is a sizeable group of DIS students that will be on that flight. It's hard to think that in less than 24 hours I will be in Denmark (a country I have never been to), living with a family that I've never met. Of course I'm nervous, but right now I am mostly excited. As I won't be coming back for 4 more months, I will try to enjoy the view of the pacific northwest when my plane takes off.