In retrospect, volume I

I was starting to forget what I've done, so figured I should update.


Wednesday, the 26th

-Last day of survival danish. We learned how to ask for a danish pastry (The "Danish", as we know it, is actually from Vienna. They are instead called Wienerbrod.) and walked around a bit.

Some Danish Pastries

1)I forget the name 1) The "Chocoalte bowl" 3) The "snail"

-Went on a scavenger hunt of major sites within the city and got free coffee! It was from the back of a portable cart Tried my first Espresso. It was horrible.

-Played UNO with Waterproof cards. It was genius.

Thusday, the 27th

-FIRST CLASSES!!!! SO excited about Biotech. I can't even explain it. This is an area of bio and chem that we don't really get exposure to at Carleton. Because I haven't worked in a lab, its completely foreign to me. We get to visit some huge pharmeceuticals (Topo Target and Leo) and my teacher works in the industry (something with business and market analysis of pharamceuticals). Biomedical HIV and AIDs was great as well. I went to Complexity of Cancer (which is really far away...a bus ride actually) to try and decide between that and HIV and AIDS. I got lost getting out of the building and it took me 15 mins to find the exit.

-In between my classes (5 hour break) had a coffee and explored and got my CPR number (kind of like an SS number, I only get one and its good for a lifetime.) Best part? It entitles me to free health care and meds.

-Went on a run with Adrian and explored the area. Great thing about Denmark are the bike paths...they make for easy running.

Friday, the 28th

-Had my first day of Art History, Nordic Mythology and Classical and Renaissance Rome. I am so exicted about all of these. Especially art history. I've never taken a course in art history before and we're studying one of my favorite periods (Classicism to Symbolism so 19th centuryish). Nordic mythology was HUGE (Bigger than orgo or intro bio) but they're splitting us up. The teachers were hilarious and just fed off each other. And Rome? Well, its rome. And we're going there for a week.

-my friend Jen came over to my Kollegium and we got ready for our DIS welcome party. On the way we got off at Kobenhavn H (Central Station) to find her host dad's office. Not gonna lie, it too us awhile....we circled the entir station looking for the "apotek"... but I found some great restaurants I want to try, as well as a Thai market!

-Got ready. I am super intimidated about going out in denmark, amidst the fashionable and fantastic danes. It went all right. We went on a canal tour (so cool, will try and post pictures soon) and then to a club which was ALLLLL DIS beacuse it was a welcome party. It was okay the music was not that great (think songs from five years but none of the really good ones) and it was too american.

-Going back home we stopped at the ever popular 7-11 and discovered why there are so many of them (one on each corner). There were lines OUT THE DOOR at all of them, and slow moving lines as well.

Saturday, the 29th

-Woke up late and tried to do some grocery shopping. I didn't finish. Have I mentioned that yogurt here? It comes in milk cartons and the texture is almost like...Danimals.

-Took the train into Copenhagen and met at DIS for a tour of the "other" Copenhagen. We went into Vesterbro, a part of the city outside central copenhagen. The former red-light district of C., it is now the place to be, according to my tour guide. There were some great shops and cafes that I want to find again.

-On above tour I tried "Super Fliers". These are traditional danish candies that danes will have sent to them when they are gone for awhile. No they are not minature paper airplanes as I thought. They are Licorie straws filled with pure salt and sugar.

-Had lunch at Cafe Citroen with some people from my tour. Beautiful sun and good company. It was really nice.

-Realized I had half an hour to do grocery shopping (danish stores close at 4 and aren't open Sundays) so I quickly finished my grocery shopping at Netto (almost like a bargain basement/dollar store with piles of food haphazardly crammed into shelves. Kinda sketchy)

-Bought chicken for the first time. I'm going to try and cook it sunday.

-Went and cooked dinner with Adrian and Jessi and Tim. Gradually more people from my Kollegium showed up. It ended with about 20 of us (including 7 rom poland and 2 from denmark and then the four of us) around the table with these ity bitty disposable shot glasses. So we tried polish vodka. One was just like Smirnoff but the other was definitely not. It was called Pitu and it had a picture of a lobster on the label...why would someone do that? I was just envisioning lobsters the whole time. It kind of smelled like seafood, but that could have just been the mental connection I was making. Needless to say I will not be having that again.

Sunday, the 30th

That's today!!!! I made breakfast and I'm about to try and run (its so windy so maybe not!). Plans for the day? Go into Copenhagen and wander and find someplace to do my HW.

Past Two Days (forgot to post this...written awhile ago)

the 24th, day 1 of orientation

Man, it was only yesterday? Well on this first day of orientation I got off to a great start by getting up late and getting lost and missing my first orientation meeting. I did succesfully find the train station and buy my rail pass and get on the correct train, however. So wandered around Copenhagen with some people from my Kollegium for awhile. Had lunch at an outdoor fair (Here till Sunday, it has greek, spanish and other ethnic foods...dutch pancake anyone?....as well as numerous nut/fruit/cheese/bakery stands) and sat on the steps of a fountain. During the afternoon I attended "Living and traveling in Denmark". See Below. That night we went grocery shopping (definitely needed more time, we closed down the shop and I had only found toilet paper, yogurt, broccoili, and bread). I also discovered I need to learn to cook. Despite some perfectly toasted bread, my eggs was well...the equivalent of a smooshed bouncy ball and the broccoli was the consistency of mashed potatos.

What I learned from Living and traveling Denmark

1. During my tour to Rome, we will get to cut lines (aka no waiting at the Vatican)

2. Europe is entirely too big and I have entirely too little time.

3. The danish, when on the inside of a train seat,will expect you move when they persistently rustle their bags. They will not speak to you.

4. The danish expect "more than third base", as my speaker put it, when they offer you a bed to sleep on for the night.

5. When americans come into a club, they say "Oh my god, we're at a bar". The danish say, "Oh fuck, there goes my night".

6. Danish humor: they find offensive jokes funny. Genocide? Supposedly hilarious here, though offensive to many americans. You should have seen our faces when he said that.

7. St peter's has coffee for 10 kroner ($2) instead of the customary 40 ($8)

8. They DO have peanut butter here.

the 25th, day 2 of Orientation

And so began my first day. Met a lot more people. I wonder how many will actually remain good friends? Oh how reminiscent of freshman year. Also learned some danish, and went to a Danish grocery story. Got my books (in an Ikea blue bag!) and went on a scavenger hung of Denmark which was actually fascinating. I want to do it again, but with a camera this time. I don't like Espresso, I discovered. Then went to a fair ( I did much better than the Carleton acitvities fair, I only signed up for a few things including the Climate Change committe and the Chicago 2016 olympics committee--they are deciding where to have it here in Copenhagen, a supposedly neutral city). That's it.

First post, pre-DIS

I'M HERE!!! Literally here, sitting in my Kollegium room (even without furniture it feels like I'm in an IKEA ad...not a bad thing at all) Here's a quick rundown of the past 48 hours (+/- who knows how many hours, too difficult to think of, with the time difference and lack of sleep)

Flight:

Stuck on the Runway (not even the runway, they drove us outside a hangar so we wouldn't be in the way) for 3.5 hours, no AC, too talkative neighbor. Snatched the 1 hr of rest I was going to get for the rest of the flight time). Alleged reason: Thunderstorms. Real reason: Obama was flying to cape cod, they needed clear airspace.

Got to the international terminal at ORD (sucks by the way, there is NOTHING there). Tons of cool danish people to look at. My inclination that I was about to be very out of place began: the danish are indeed, tall, tan, blond bordering on platinum, and beautiful with very good style. Yes, even the guys. Flew SAS (highly recommend!) who offered me a beer with my meals and had games (Tetris for an hour, anyone?) as well as movies (Batman Begins, the International and He's not that into you were my digital entertainments of choice)

Hotel/etc:

Met Adrian at baggage claim and we found the hotel together. BEAUTIFUL. Dropped stuff off. Found our way downtown and roamed the streets of Copenhagen for awhile. I don't even KNOW where to begin. So I won't, you'll hear about it later.

Things that happened
1. Ran into Ben Sommer on a random street in the middle of the city
2. Had a beer with Adrian while looking out to the canal and at all the people
3. During said break, saw a man drop his pants (and everything else) in the street and dive into the canal. He had to climb out the ladder on the other side and walk around the whole street to get back to where we were.
4. Had smoked salmon
5. Tried dried pears, strawberries, kiwis and this little red fruit from a vendor
6. Found a danish used book sale in the bottom of a church

Ange

So I started a blog....

Warning: I am no witty blog writer, so don't have any high expectations. Actually, its rather intimidating, starting a blog. The plethora of finely designed, expertly written and quite captivating blogs is really daunting.

So I want this to be a documentary of what I'm doing in Denmark. I don't know how frequently I will post, or how much detail it will have. This is for me, so I can remember what I've done, its also for you guys, since we know how terrible I am at keeping in touch. My address will be in the sidebar, as well my skype (Skype me!!). If you email me, I'll email back (well hopefully!) I've never done this before but if journal writing is any gauge, expect many updates from at first and then, well....

Enjoy the last days of summer, all!
Angela