We woke up relatively early (6:50) this morning and I took a shower and got ready for the day. Something I really have to get used to is the fact that the Danes sit down and take time for every meal- including breakfast. I am so accustomed to grabbing a breakfast shake or granola bar on the way out the door, that seeing my host mother sitting down with her coffee, waiting for me to sit down and join her for some cereal was very different for me, but relaxing and it actually helped to get me ready for the day. An interesting thing we had for breakfast was oatmeal, but they have it as you would have cereal- cold with a little milk and sugar on top- definitely different from how I usually do it, but definitely still very good.
After breakfast we dropped Tonje off at school and made our way (by car-although this is a special day and won't be my typical commute) to the Opening Ceremony. It was a cute program, pretty much your typical orientation Opening Ceremony, except it had the DIS strings playing great music in between each speaker. It was a nice way to get excited and truly ready for the semester, and not the typical orientation in which I fully expected to want to sleep at the end- quite a nice surprise.
After the orientation came the (in my non-city girl opinion) the absolutely chaotic part of the day. Somehow I was supposed to make it from one end of the city to the middle of the city, and figure out where I was supposed to go all on my own. I honestly did not think I was going to ever find my way. Luckily, the large pack of hundreds of students wasn't hard to miss, and I easily found people who would be in my group, and we struggled through the metro and the cobblestone streets together.
Obviously, we made it okay, and surprisingly were some of the first people to arrive. At this workshop, called "How to Make Copenhagen Your Home" we learned how to live on a budget, and we were given a list of things to find and a map, and set loose on the poor, unsuspecting city of Copenhagen. This was a crazy, confusing, fun exercise, and I must say, I'm getting pretty good at using the nice old-fashioned map instead of the quick Google Maps App on my iPhone (which doesn't work without Wifi). The people in my group were awesome, and we had a great time exploring Copenhagen, getting a little lost, almost hit by bikers every now and then, and learning that you most definitely ONLY walk when the light telling you to walk is green.
You can definitely say it was quite a learning experience and was a great way to discover Copenhagen on our own, while meeting other people at DIS, and learning just how friendly and helpful Danes can actually be (as long as they're not on their bikes). We got back and had the classic open-faced sandwiches, and then learned a little time-management.
I then picked up my intimidating stack of books- 13 total for four classes- the most I've ever had per class, and somehow managed to make it home on the S-train without getting lost. We then visited Sigrun's other daughter, Sascha's house so that I could meet her, and finally got home for a later dinner past 9. I helped clean up with dinner and then finally got around to unpacking and checking out my homework for the first day of class. This includes more than 150 pages of reading, so I probably should get started on that!
Tomorrow I will be commuting on my own, so I'm saying a little prayed that everything will work out okay! Sorry, no Danish lesson for today, my lesson for the day was more of everything not to do when trying to find your way through Copenhagen!
Til imorgen!
PS, sorry for the lack of pictures- there will be more soon!
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