Copenhagen, Denmark: or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Europe: 01.22.2006

I am now all settled into my nice cozy apartment in Copenhagen, Denmark, and it is amazing! There is so much history and character behind every corner of the town. After the first arrival we had to go through all the orientation, and getting to know some 530 other students. Well, I have managed to meet quite a few new friends, and ran into some weird situations in less than a week already.
We spent the whole week getting used to the city, and all other aspects of Danish culture and daily life. I learned some basic Danish conversation: Jeg ska ha en ol. I want a beer. Jeg kommer fra U.S.A. I come from the US. and a host of other generic phrases that I learned later on are hardly ever used. They are equivelent to saying in English, I would like a beer(very proper sounding), and other things like I call myself... or Oh, what a magnificent day we're having!... things like that. So basically I sounded like an idiot introducing myself to everyone on my kollegium(dorm) floor.
Most people in my kollegium are Danes. They go to school here as well, but not all go to the same place. Its like a hostel for students who want to stay somewhere for a long time, with your own room and bathroom.+

Its not bad, but its not the best I've ever stayed in either. I did get that really nice japanese lantern and drawer system, no one else has those. But, yeah, the town is amazing. Beautiful 1450-1500, neo classical and roccoco styling adds to the grandeur of everything. Everyone is different. People are not naturally polite. You don't look at other people, you don't smile or nod at other people on the streets, unless you know them and want to talk to them. Tips are not expected from guests at bars, restaurants, etc... its considered rude to tip if it was not exceptionally good, more than the waitress needed to do for you. Which is in itself rare since they aren't working for a tip anyway. The streets zig zag in and out, this way and that. Nothing is perpendicular. In fact, one street is not even the same width at the begining as it is at the end, so the buildings are even parrallel to each other. It makes for a very dynamic, and exciting picture. Unfortuentely, I don't have those yet, but they will be right here after I take some.
After the week was over, and we all had a chance to introduce ourselves, and forget everyone else's names so that we had to introduce yourself just to find out their name again, DIS (my school) threw us a party with all the food, beer, and wine we could digest in 3 hours. It was

quite the experience packing nearly 500 student into a building no bigger than 3000 square feet. As the picture suggests, it was definetly a, "Oh, hi, nice to meet you!" kind of atmoshere. Friday was a blast. We went out on a blind pub crawl, winding our way through the heart of the city, finding all the best bars and pubs that Copenhagen has to offer. We ended up at nearly five different bars or clubs. More stories are found getting to and from all these bars that we can't even pronounce than the actual bars themselves. As I had mentioned, I've run into

quite a few people in just a few days of being here. Being in Architecture has is good and its bad, but for now meeting the friends I did seems to only be a good thing. In fact, the first person I met going to school at DIS
is a guy named Alex, which I find very ironic as that is my roommates name too. We met at the airport in Newark, if you remember reading about that whole ordeal. It was there that I also met the other two good friends here, Chrissy and Cory. I sat next to Chrissy on the plane and got to know her very well, we talked nearly the entire 7 hour flight, save only 2 hours of trying to sleep. Her and Cory both are in Architecture, too. Alex is in Marine Biology. Which brings me to Joe. Joe is also a Marine Biologist. He is a Fiji at Texas Tech, and we just happen to get along very well. Usually me and the whole frat boy seen dont mix, but he seems to be the few and far between of frat guys. All three of them are in the picture. Chrissy is the one lagging behind in the green scarf, Cory is the one with a red scarf, and obviously joe is the one making the amazing, "Wow, that girl was damn fine!" look at some random Danish girl.

Notice how he should have been looking at the camera, like Cory is? hehe... Anyway. That's about all the news I have from Lake Wobeg...I mean Copenhagen. I have a few more pictures here for more enjoyment.