New Perspectives

Part 16—Tivoli

So, I was slowed down for the first couple days of last week (incidentally, also the first couple days of my new class) by the cold virus that had been circulating through the DIS population. However, the realization that my actual time in Copenhagen is dwindling, made me realize that I still had some sights to see. So, Wednesday afternoon and evening, after returning from my field study, I headed to Tivoli, a famous amusement park in downtown Copenhagen, with a group of people. In many respects Tivoli is your basic amusement park: crowds of people, overpriced food and candy, and a selection of rides for all ages. However, there were a few differences. For instance, there was the obvious difference that it was in the middle of a rather sizable city, rather than out on the edges of an otherwise small town, and it was consequently rather compact. I don’t mean to say it was small, exactly, because, while it certainly wasn’t huge, it also was far from tiny. Many of the rides just seemed to overlap each other and be kept in rather close proximity. Another interesting feature was the pantomime show that was going on at one of the stages near the entrance to the park. I mean it seems like it was pretty much what you would expect from a pantomime show—exaggerated makeup and slapstick comedy, I just wasn’t really expecting to run across a pantomime show at all.

Despite its quirks, or perhaps because of them, however, I found Tivoli to be quite enjoyable. The rides, while still rather moderately sized by American standards (as most things are over here, I’ve found), were pretty fun and definitely won out over those of Lego Land. As an added bonus, the park lights up at night, and all of the buildings and rides have fun, colorful lights creating a nice ambiance that still feels summery and fun, despite its slightly Christmas-like light show. All in all, I would definitely say to check it out if you’re ever in the area!

Part 17—Canal Tour

Thursday started off rather rainy and chilly, as many days do here, but by a happy decision by the weather gods, the afternoon turned out to be sunny and a little warmer—perfect weather for a canal tour. The tour led us through the canals and harbors of Copenhagen, allowing for a nice view of the city and a new perspective of a lot of the sites I’d previously explored on foot. I kind of wish that I had taken the tour a little earlier in my stay here, as I think it would have been a little more beneficial at that juncture, but it was fairly entertaining nonetheless. For instance, I got to see the official flag of Denmark, whose lead all other Danish flags must follow, and I learned that the Little Mermaid statue has had a rather rough life, having been graffitied and decapitated on multiple occasions (her head has now been fortified with concrete). Perhaps the most impressive part of the tour though, was that I got to hear all of these lovely Copenhagen facts not only in English and Danish, but also in Spanish, all of which were spoken fluently by our tour guide. I was quite impressed, and rather jealous. It really made me miss Spanish and foreign language in general. I’m now seriously thinking about picking up a new language class in the near future… It could be fun.

Part 18—Like Pears and Bananas: Journey to Bornholm

This weekend I signed up for the biking trip in Bornholm, a Danish island in the Baltic, known primarily for its bike paths, glass work, round churches, and quaint little towns. So, Friday night, the DIS group took an overnight ferry to the island, which departed at 11:30 and arrived bright and early at 6 am. Of course, we did not do the smart thing and sleep the whole way, no, we had to run around the decks and do Titanic impressions along the railing. Unfortunately, there was nothing to slow the ferry’s arrival and we had to disembark right at 6am, after which we were bussed to our hostel in Gudhejm . Right after getting our room assignments and some breakfast, we were allowed to check out our bikes and hit the road. Let me tell you, they don’t mess around with biking or bike paths. As I somehow did not find the concept of the 65 km “Killer Tour” all that appealing after a week of being sick and 4 hours sleep the night before, I opted for the shorter “Cultural Tour” which still allowed me to bike a good 30 km or so and have time to explore the cool little Bornholm art museum, do some hiking along the Sacred Cliffs, and visit the island’s tallest Round Church before we had to reconvene for dinner that evening. Although I did not get to the beach whose sand is coveted for use in hourglasses, I still felt like I got a good taste of the island. What’s more, the cliffs and the rest of the island in general were quite beautiful and conveyed an undeniable sense of peace and calm.

On Sunday I decided to devote my day to exploring Gudhejm, which I had noticed had lots of cool little glass shops and a beautiful coast line all its own. I enjoyed the day of relaxation and the chance to actually have some time to enjoy the serenity of the island. To sum up the three major highlights of day: 1. The glass shops were amazing. All of the glass work was quite beautiful and unique. I wanted to buy so much of it, but it was way too expensive and would have been impossible to get home. 2. You could climb out onto the outcroppings of rocks along the shore all along the town, and I quite enjoyed just sitting on them, enjoying the view and pleasant conversations. You could just kind of fade in and out of conversation at your leisure and it was perfectly acceptable, the environment almost insisted upon it. 3. Bornholm does a good job at staying fairly self-sufficient and produces a lot of its own dairy products, including some delicious ice cream. The pistachio was delicious.

Anyway, we concluded our trip with a viewing of the sunset over the Baltic Sea on the longest day of the year, before heading to our overnight ferry and ultimately home in Copenhagen this morning. Overall I was left with an impression that while Bornholm was still very much Danish, it was still quite distinct from the cities I’d visited previously. However, where we would compare apples and oranges, both fruit, but clearly distinct, Danes apparently compare pears and bananas. With that little tidbit, I leave you for now.

Halfway Marker

Part 13—Ice Bar

So, on Tuesday, in celebration of the completion of exam 1 of 2 this week, the ice bar seemed in order. Therefore, a small group of my classmates and I hit the town and ventured to the Ice Bar CPH. As you arrive, you first enter a little lobby in which you pay the rather pricey cover and then help you into your parka (which was really more of a very well insulated poncho with a fur-rimmed hood). You are then escorted into the actual ice bar. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Tuesday is not the biggest night for bars, so we were the only patrons for the first few minutes we were there and we had plenty of space and time to fully explore the entirety of the bar. It was smaller than I was expecting, but when everything—walls, bar, benches, tables, even the glasses—is made of ice it’s fairly easy to overlook the small size. So, after fully exploring, other people (presumably other tourists, as I don’t think the ice bar is really geared toward the local) showed up and we decided it was time to try out the ice glasses. I tried a primarily raspberry concoction, which was pretty good, but I think infinitely improved by the fact that it was served in a glass made of ice. All in all it was a fun adventure for a Tuesday night, and I recommend visiting an ice bar should you ever get a chance.

Part 14—Further Adventures

For the most part this week has been fairly quiet because all of the programs had their final exam at the end of the week, wrapping up the first session. I did manage to make it to the National Museum on Wednesday, however, which gave me my first opportunity to use my knowledge gained from Paleolithic Technology last year. I felt like I could actually identify the various types on display, and have a general sense of what was required to make them. It was am admittedly nerdy experience, but it made me happy. Hooray for stone tools! I also enjoyed the part of the museum that was dedicated to “18^th Century Interiors”, as it was rather more engaging than your typical museum display. Overall, though, I think my favorite part of the National museum were the English labels and captions that they had on the displays alongside the Danish ones. There were so many times when it was clear that the author of these captions was not fully in tune with the ins and outs of academic English, as they frequently used terms and phrases I would not have expected to see in a histoy museum. For instance, in a display about ancient domesticated dogs, they had canine coprolites, which they had labeled “dog turds” in English. They also consistently used the term “Grown-ups” rather than “adults” in their captions, which wasn’t quite as funny, but still struck me as a term that you wouldn’t see outside of an exhibit targeted at the 5-6 year-old age group.

Anyway, after my class’s final on Friday afternoon, we all met for dinner at a Moroccan tea room, which was an interesting meal. I don’t think I have before tried Moroccan food, and it was pretty good for the most part, although I found that a lot of the dishes were served cold, which I found rather off-putting. We then went to a pub where we could all enjoy the beverage of our choice (My choice was pear cider, a beverage for which I believe I have previously relayed my affection.) and the company of those of our classmates who were only staying for the first session.

Part 15—HIV

So, by popular demand I’ve decided that I will include some tidbits about HIV/AIDS that I have so far learned, so feel free to skip this section if you don’t care. So, here goes!

I’m sure you all have varying levels of background knowledge about the HIV virus, so I’m just going to list a few things that I found of particular interest or rather surprising from my first class. Feel free to ask or additional info if you want it.

1. I had never really before had a very good sense of where the threshold was between simply being HIV+ and actually having AIDS, but I always kind of assumed that it was based on reaching a certain level o immunosupression. Turns out this is only sort of the case. In order to have AIDS, you have to have acquired a specific “AIDS-defining disease” (of which there is a specific list compiled by various public health organizations). Of course, you have to have to be somehow immunosupressed to develop or acquire these diseases, and each disease has a typical threshold, but you can still potentially get it before your there. So, in short, getting AIDS isn’t determined by reaching a specific set-point of immunosupression, you have to actually get an AIDS-defining disease.

2. The treatments we have for combating HIV are a lot more effective than I thought, but they have really crappy side effects. However, if you stick to your prescribed regiment and regularly visit a doctor, someone who is diagnosed at 25 lives, on average, to age 65.

3. As hard as we try, we are really ineffective at finding ways to prevent HIV transmission. All of our traditional vaccine methods fail, and condoms are still the only real effective prevention we know, as preaching abstinence has failed time and time again.

4. There are six different drug classes that are used to suppress the viral load once an HIV patient starts treatment and prophylaxis. These drug classes target the various stages in the viral replication process, blocking its successful completion. The most used and seemingly most effective of these drug classes are the NRTIs (Nucleotide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors), the NNRTIs (Non-Nucleotide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors), and the PIs (Protease Inhibitors).

There you go, some fun AIDS facts. If you want further explanation, or you found these wholly unsurprising, let me know, and I will try again.

Making a Splash...

Part 10—Real Danes: Art and Family

Tuesday was my only technical class day this week because my class ventured deeper into Denmark on our study tour on Wednesday through Friday. So, after class on Tuesday, I headed to the Statens Museum for Kunst, the national art gallery, to take a look around. It wasn’t bad as art museums go, at least in my opinion. I didn’t really have much in the way of preconceptions about Danish art going into it, so I feel like I got a taste of something new. Throughout my entire tour of the museum, however, I felt like I was being watched and/or followed by the museum attendants (guards? I’m not really sure what the proper term for them is, but you know the people who wander around the exhibits and yell at unruly patrons) way more than was necessary and way more than the other people there. It was really kind of disconcerting and rather uncomfortable. It was almost as if they expected me to try to grab a painting and run, or maybe they thought I looked like the type that would try to sneak a flash photo or something, Heaven forbid. I’m slightly concerned that my run-in with the American Embassy has put me on some kind of world-wide watch list—especially if I have my camera out, as that is clearly my weapon of choice. I guess I’ll have to watch out…

Anyway, after a lovely afternoon of art (and paranoia), I ventured by Metro to the suburbs of Copenhagen, where I met the mother of my Danish Visiting Family. She walked me from the station to her family’s home for dinner. We chatted and she showed my around their home, which is one of five apartments in what was once a very large home in the historic suburb/section of Copenhagen. As Danish houses go, I am told that theirs is rather on the large side, particularly for its location in the city, although by American standards it was far from huge. It was a very nice home and still had a lot of the original architectural details, which were really cool. I really like the family. The parents, Hanne and Bjark, have three girls aged 9, 12, and 15. I only got to meet the younger two, but that was still fun. They are both learning English in school, although the 9 year old only started this year. The Twelve year old was really shy about using English, but she could understand our English conversation for the most part (far better than I could understand their Danish ones, I’m absolutely sure) and I got her to talk to me a little bit. She showed me her English text book, and that was kind of cool to see. But anyway, we ate dinner and I quite enjoyed getting a taste both of good cooking and real Danish life.

Part 11—Odense and Århus

Wednesday morning, bright and early at 6:15, my class met and loaded onto our chartered bus for our study tour to Odense and Århus. Overall, I thought the trip was a lot of fun. I enjoyed getting the chance to actually get to know the people in my class, since there were a lot of people I hadn’t gotten to know just sitting in class. Our First stop was in Odense, which is on the island of Funen and was the birthplace and childhood home of Hans Christian Andersen. We started off with a lecture at an Immigrant clinic and then took a walking tour of Odense. Even though it’s Denmark’s 3^rd largest city, apparently, it really isn’t that big and it has a much more homey feeling to it with quaint little streets and an H. C. Andersen Museum. I’ll post pictures.

After the tour, lunch and a trip to the museum, we then hopped back on the bus and continued on to Århus, which is in Jutland. We checked into our hotel, which was creatively called Cab-Inn as a tribute to its rooms’ resemblance to ship or train sleeping cabins. (At least that’s what I’m guessing given the oh-so-spacious nature of our rooms, which had two smaller-than-twin beds and a fold down bunk bed as well as an unbelievably tiny bathroom that I think pictures will describe better than I can. Really though, when the hotel’s slogan is “Sleep in cheap luxury,” how much can you really expect? Anyway, after checking in we had some down time during which time I’m pretty sure every single person on the trip watched the episode of friends that was on television, as we were all excited to find an American program on Danish TV. We then ate dinner at a café behind the hotel, which was pretty good. They fancy desert that everyone got was also fun, particularly because we had to guess at what exactly everything was. We then rounded out the first day with a trip to the ARoS modern art museum, which I think was one of the most fun art museums I’ve been too, and you all know my thoughts on modern art. The entire bottom floor was a series of 9 rather creepy rooms connected by dark hallways and each containing some weirdly-lit, optical illusion-y display, one of which was the coolest mirror room ever. It was fun, if only because it was kind of creepy and cool.

Alrighty, moving on to day two! We began the day with a series of lectures and tours at the Århus Infectious Disease Clinic and research facility. It was interesting for the most part, but you probably don’t care, so I’ll conclude by reiterating my previous request for all of you to please not get AIDS. We then had a scavenger hunt in the city, which was not very well planned out for the one hour timeframe, but still gave me the opportunity to see some interesting sites like the Viking “museum” that was in the basement of a large bank and the two guys in a kennel in the middle of the shopping street. (They were protesting something but I was too distracted by the fact that they were in a kennel to figure out exactly what they were protesting.) Once that was over, we had the rest of the evening free to explore the city and the Australia festival that was happening that night. (I don’t know what it is about Danish festivals, but they all seem to be about other countries…) I didn’t find this festival nearly as eventful as the Carnival, but I did have a rather awkward encounter with an African man, who was clearly drunk, and approached me as he left the concert area, talking to me and the two girls with me, repeatedly shaking my hand. That was interesting and only slightly intimidating…

The third and final day was completely free of academic visits, leaving us time of other educational/fun activities. Like the Steno Science and Medical History Museum, which had interesting exhibits like a giant fuzzy uterus that you could climb inside and take a nap in. We also enjoyed the Sculpture by the Sea exhibit, which was, believe it or not, by the sea. It was a nice day, so , in addition to the lovely sculpture (One of which was a whale-icoptor! It was cool.), there was a great view of the coastline. I highly recommend it. We then rounded out our trip with a lovely canoeing expedition, which, as some of you may know, concluded with me falling into the lovely Danish lake. Whoops. My canoeing partner and I (neither of us had any real idea of what we were doing…she is afraid of water and my only canoeing experiences have been in rivers which have distinct currents to push you in roughly the right direction.) finally made it back to the docking area and were climbing out. As I got up however, the boat started moving backwards, depositing me in the lake, camera and all, left clinging onto the edge until I was pulled out. It was ridiculous. Seriously, who falls into the lake when they are canoeing in Denmark? Apparently I do.

Part 12—Sweden

Saturday, I ventured to Malmö, Sweden. That was a fun time, despite the fact that most of the shops were closed. We still found the Turning Torso Building, which is definitely one of the coolest buildings I’ve ever seen, especially up close. (I will have pictures of that too.) We also found this Walmart-like store called Maxi on our way to the Torso, which was the first of its kind that I had encountered on my journey. It was fun to explore as they had lots of junk and everything was cheaper in Sweden than in Denmark. They also had a book section, in which I found a Swedish copy of the 7^th Harry Potter book for 30 Swedish Krona (which are more than 7 to the dollar). This seem suspicious as all of the other Swedish HP books were about 100 or 150 Krona, but I figured that would make a cool Swedish souvenir for like $4. So, Now I can officially say that I have been to Sweden outside of the Stockholm airport. Other than that, there really weren’t any major mishaps or exciting encounters to relay to you. So I think I will conclude here.

Comment Away!

Smorgasbord

Part 6—Carnival!

Sadly, Friday night’s activities did not involve the ice bar (unsurprising, as there was little actual planning involved in the ice bar discussions…). However, I have not given up hope. It is something I will see before I leave. Not a question.

Despite the lack of ice bar, Friday night still proved to be interesting. Friday and Saturday, Copenhagen played host to the Carnival, held in one of Copenhagen’s larger parks. From my assessments, this was essentially what you would expect from a carnival: lots of people, lots of food that's largely bad for you, music, dancing, etc. The main exceptions to this stereotypical image, however, were the increased and undeniable presence of alcohol and the rather bizarre selection of music. There were a number of music/performance tents (five, that I saw, to be more specific). There was a reggae stage, a more modern/rap stage, a techno stage (which seemed to be fueling nothing short of a rave, complete with a wide variety of recreational drugs), and then a couple stages that appeared to have a variety of music performers, all of which that I saw were a little on the odd side (see the pictures of my favorite band that I will post on Facebook). Now, to fully convey to you the prevalence of alcohol at the event, each performance tent had not one, but two, bars in addition to the numerous other alcohol vendors. Now, it would seem pretty standard for there to be lots of places to buy beer and fruity mixed drinks at an event like this, but I thought the offer of shots and straight up hard liquor was a little surprising. I had some rather delicious pear cider, which I highly recommend should you ever get the chance to try it, and I sampled someone’s margarita (I’m pretty sure that’s what it was supposed to be anyway, the signs had not been very clear…), which tasted mainly like tequila and which would receive a much more reserved recommendation than the cider.

Anyway, as I said, the Carnival continued through Saturday. From what I gather, it’s a pretty big deal here in Copenhagen, and the festivities extend outside the park. Take for instance the parade I encountered on Saturday, moving along Strøgate, the main pedestrian shopping street, one over from Skindergade (my street, if I never mentioned that). This parade, consisted mainly of group after group of drummers, each paired with a group of bejeweled thong-and-bra-clad dancing women. (Again, I’ll post pictures.)It wasn’t really what I would have ever expected from your run of the mill parade. I mean, the drummers yes, but the thong-clad dancers, not so much. Interestingly, I saw a large number of references to Brazil and Colombia in the banners and flags both in the parade and at in the tents of the main Carnival. I have no idea what the connection is, but I would really like to find out. So, once I do, I’ll pass it along to you.

Part 7—Flowers

As some of you may know from my conversations with you, the plan to go to Malmö, Sweden on Saturday fell through. Apparently most of the stores and shops are closed on Saturday, and as cheaper shopping is one of the main attractions of the neighboring Swedish city, it proved to be an inopportune time for the trip. So, I took that time to explore the Botanical Gardens. They were very pretty and had a large series of greenhouses for your exploratory pleasure. They had some very interesting plants, some very pretty plants, and some rather ugly and/or toxic plants. This wasn’t a terribly exciting venture, but I felt edified by the experience, and it was quite a pleasant place just to wander around or sit on a bench. Also, I saw a coffee plant, whose beans looked nothing like I expected. I’m not really sure what I had envisioned, but it certainly wasn’t the red/green berries that I found. So yeah, that pretty much wraps up my journey to the Botanical Gardens, and you’ve already heard about my parade experience from the day.

Part 8—Legoland(!) and Danish Cuisine

Sunday morning at 8am sharp, I found myself on a rather large, double-decker tour bus on my way to Legoland in Billund (which is on Jutland, the biggest portion of Denmark), about 3 hours from Copenhagen. Overall, my venture to Legoland was a fairly interesting day trip. The park itself is pretty much what you would expect from a Lego amusement park: lots of people, most of which are children, some rides, some over-priced restaurants, some gift shops that all have the same kitsch (Lego related, of course), and lots of Legos. The miniature models of various Danish and global landmarks and cities were really quite impressive. I was surprised by the accuracy and intricacy of them. All of the Lego structures that I ever built always required far more imagination to recognize as anything other than a conglomeration of colored plastic bricks. As impressive as I found the Lego models, however, I have to say I was a little disappointed by the ride selection. I’ve been spoiled by amusement parks like King’s Island and Cedar Point that have tons of roller coasters and the various thrill rides that we all know and love (well I love them, at least). The rides in the park were definitely not targeted at the thrill-seeking crowd, or at the very least, not at the thrill-seeking crowd over the age of about 8. It was still a good time, though, overall.

On our journey home, we stopped for dinner at a traditional Danish buffet, so we all got the opportunity to try some actual Danish food. And, I have to say, I was impressed. It was all really good, even the fish (which I tend to have rather questionable feelings about in general). The smoked herring, probably one of the most remarkably Danish dishes, was actually pretty good. I doubt that I will ever have a craving for it, but it was definitely edible and borderline rather enjoyable. I really enjoyed the potato and pork dish, although I don’t know how to better classify it, and it was admittedly not very adventurous. The vegetable quiche-like dish was also quite good. One of the more interesting dishes was the rather sweet cream cheese-ish spread eaten on dark, grainy bread. The spread was served in large bowls, and garnished (at least I think that was the main role) with little blue and yellow flowers. It was actually really good, although I have absolutely no idea what it really consisted of. The only dish I can’t say I approved of was the liver paste, topped with rather mysterious and slightly intimidating clear jell-o-like cubes. That was…interesting. But overall, I really enjoyed the dinner. It was fun to just try a bunch of new and unique foods with only minimal thought to what exactly I was eating until I’d already tried it.

Part 9—Round Tower

Today, Monday, was a national holiday (Pentacost, I am told), so no one had class. However, that also meant that nothing was open, making entertainment a little bit of a challenge. But, persistence won out, and we discovered that the Round Tower was open. So, we ascended the seven stories of spiraling slope (that’s right, it’s a ramp, not a staircase) to reach the observatory on the top. About halfway up, we discovered that there was a little art gallery in one of the upper floors of the attached church that you could peruse mid climb. So, we did. Despite it’s seeming randomness, I thought it added a nice touch to the otherwise pretty straight forward tourist attraction. The gallery contained mostly modern art and lithography, and while I did like some piece quite a bit, I was reminded of the fact that I have very mixed feelings about modern art in general. Some of it is cool and clearly indicative of great skill and artistic insight, but then there’s that part of modern art (and don’t deny it, you know it’s there) where you wonder what the point it. I mean sure, those slashes and splotches of color are kind of interesting and might be a nice design accent to a room, but where’s the deeper meaning? It’s almost like the artists had so much creative insight, that it just kind of became a mash on canvas. But, anyway, enough about modern art and my completely uninformed opinions on it, back to the Round Tower. We made it to the top and were afforded a lovely view of the city. It was cool to get that kind of perspective. It really allowed you to put all of sights and tourist attractions that you’d visited into geographical perspective. It also made you realize how short the buildings are, at least in the city center. I mean this tower was only about 8 stories tall, and it was the tallest structure in the vicinity, leaving you with a very lovely view of the rooftops of Copenhagen.

Anyway, that pretty much wraps up the most recent happenings here in Denmark. Sorry, this was pretty long. Whoops, I think I lied when I promised shorter posts. :D

OH! I forgot! As a special bonus, you guys get a fun vocabulary lesson that I have compiled from my lovely living companions. Disclaimer! This is not an exhaustive list, so I’m sure I will have later additions.

Rando=random

Hella=hella (but why “hella” is a necessity, I don’t know.)

Bish=Bitch, but in a good way

Cas=casual

gay-ass= stupid or ugly

Part 5--Classes and. Castles

So, as I mentioned before, classes started on Tuesday. For any of you who don’t know, or don’t remember, I’m taking two classes about HIV and AIDS, one from a biomedical perspective and one from public health. They way the courses are organized, we take one class at a time, so I am currently in the biomedical class. This one is team taught by three Danish MDs with what I have gathered are varying degrees of teaching finesse, albeit seemingly equivalent knowledge and experience with AIDS patients. Overall, this class is turning out to be a lot more med-schooly than I was anticipating—the main focus is on treatment and patient care—but it is still pretty interesting. In summary of my education, though, I would like to pass along this message to all of you: Please, don’t get infected with HIV, and especially don’t go without treatment if you are. In short, use a condom! End of AIDS talk.

In other news, in my non-classroom time, I have been doing additional exploring (as well as reading for class…mostly). On Wednesday I ventured to the King’s Garden and Rosenborg Castle, which are actually only about a 15 minute walk from my apartment. The King’s Garden is basically just a large grassy park. There are flowers and rows of the rectangular-cut trees that Copenhagen seems so fond of. There are also pigeons and people, many of whom have dogs or small children, but you get the idea. This park area, however also incorporates/surrounds not only Rosenborg Castle but also the Queen’s Guard training facility. So, after a brief stroll through the park, we followed a group of Danish school children (all of whom had tiny backpacks. It was quite adorable, but it also made me wonder if I had a tiny child-sized back pack when I was their size. I always thought my backpack was normal sized, but now I question that assumption.) across the bridge over the moat and into the Castle grounds. We toured the castle, which is maintained as a museum to display many Royal odds and ends, including the crown jewels. You had to pay extra to take pictures inside the castle, so decided to just rely on postcards and such. I kind of regretted that decision once I was inside as there were some really cool rooms and trinkets hidden within. I still can decide which I liked best: the mirror room, which had completely mirrored walls and a large oval mirror in the floor and ceiling, or the glass chamber, which housed all of the Royal glassware on impressive floor to ceiling (and I’m not exaggerating, the walls were all entirely covered) gold shelves full of glass. They were both quite impressive, as were the three life-size silver lions that guarded the King’s throne. The crown jewels were nice, too, but they were crown jewels, they have to be nice. But, overall, it was a pretty successful and entertaining tourist venture, complete with the opportunity to watch the Queen’s Guard depart on their march to her Palace for the changing of the guard.

My free time has also afforded me the opportunity to explore the Southern, more modern part of Copenhagen. It was unfortunately rather windy and chilly with patchy rain, but it was still an interesting experience. I thought it was a rather unique combination, seeing these large black steel and glass buildings right next to the rather traditional quaint and colorful older buildings. Even the fun traditional buildings were a lot newer than those in the part of the city where I’m staying. You can tell because they are built in straight, vehicle-conscious rows rather than the curvy, crooked pattern of the older parts of the city. This part of the city also contains the gold and black tower with the spiral stairs you can climb that I posted a couple of pictures of. We decided not to climb it that day because it was really windy and cold and there were some rather shady looking people just hanging around in the doorway… But, I’m still determined to make it back over there and climb it before I leave, perhaps just on a less blustery day. Or when there are fewer shady people hanging about.

That pretty much sums up my happenings since my first post. I’m not sure of my plans tonight. I hear talk of an ice bar (from the people that run the ice hotel) a couple streets over, but I’m not sure what the deal is with that. Guess we’ll see… Anyway, Malmo, Sweden on Saturday and Legoland Sunday, so I’ll keep you posted.

Oh! And thanks for the comments. I enjoyed knowing that people were actually reading this. And, Josh, you won the prize for length. I'll look for Hamlet's Castle for you...

In the Beginning...

Part 1—the Trip

So, my actual travel on Saturday was not extremely eventful. I flew from Indy to Chicago (This ended up being a rather stupid decision as I then had a five hour layover in Chicago. Avoid this. O’Hare is not somewhere you want to spend five hours of your life.) and then from Chicago to Stockholm, Sweden. My brief time in Sweden was probably the most interesting portion of my journey to Copenhagen. Getting off the plane, I met three other students who were with DIS, so we explored the Swedish airport together, journeying through the fashion mall-esque terminal to find our gate. The layover wasn’t too long, and soon it was time for boarding. It wasn’t until the woman scanned my boarding pass at the gate to illicit a red flashing light and beeping, that we realized something wasn’t right. After about a minute of the gate-keeper frantically typing and trying to figure out what was wrong, another woman in reflective gear with a walkie talkie came bustling over, jabbering in Swedish and then promptly telling us that she had been looking for us. She then led us two gates over, where the OTHER flight to Copenhagen was boarding at the same time. We then scrambled through the gate, to find our seats, the last open seats on the plane. Whoops. But, about 30 seconds after we boarded, they announced that they were ready for departure, so fasten your safety belt, etc. etc. So, anyway, that flight was short and sweet and promptly deposited us in Copenhagen.

Part 2—Arrival

So, once we arrived in the Copenhagen airport and had collected our bags, we met the lovely DIS representatives and were, after some waiting around, bussed over to the DIS headquarters for registration and such. DIS is located in the heart of the city center and is housed in two authentic (for lack of a better word, I guess) Copenhagen buildings. The main classroom building is pretty much unnoticeable from the street, as it is completely overshadowed by the two bars on either side of it. So, we registered and then a group of four of us went on a lovely walking tour of Copenhagen. In the rain. While I was quite impressed by my initial impression of Copenhagen, I’m pretty sure that this tour didn’t really mean as much as it could have, had I not been so sleep deprived. The rest of the day, wasn’t all that eventful because everyone was quite jet lagged, but we got our housing assignments. My building by far has the best location. It’s right in the heart of the city, right down the street from DIS, (unlike most of the housing which is about a 30 min bus/train ride out of the city) making it super convenient and actually pretty nice overall. I share a bedroom and bathroom with two other girls, and we share our lovely kitchen with two more girls in an adjoining room. I’ll post pictures. My favorite part is the courtyard outside our kitchen window. But, anyway, I went to bed at 9 and slept for about 11 hours before I had to get up for further orientation.

Part 3—Jeg vil garne have et stykke wienerbrøl. Tak!

Ok, so now I’m actually in Copenhagen. I love the buildings. They are so colorful and just kind of quaint. I really do love them. All buildings should be more colorful, it would make life way more fun. I firmly believe this.

We had a crash course in “Survival Danish” as part of our orientation. Dear god, this language is bizarre and I’m pretty sure it is virtually impossible that I could even attempt to really pick up any of it really. The pronunciation of things is the weirdest thing. But! I did learn how to order a Danish in Danish. I can mostly pronounce it correctly, or at least better than when I started so that’s something right?

After our Danish class, it was time for a scavenger hunt throughout Copenhagen. They divided us into groups of six and sent us out to explore some of the biggest sites of the main city. Pictures are worth a thousand words, so I’m just going to post my pictures (with some narration, because since when has 1000 words been enough?) on Facebook. But, I liked my scavenger hunt group (with one exception, but I’m going to leave all of my derogatory comments about people for not so public communication) and they are all in my class, so it was nice to get to know some of them before class started.

Part 4—No Photographs, please.

So, today, Tuesday, was the first day of class, which ran from 9-12, leaving the rest of the day for us to do whatever we wanted. So, my friend Yvonne and I set off to find the Little Mermaid out in the Harbor. We ended up walking along the canals which surround the parliament buildings and the Queen’s Palace, which consists of 4 large manners arranged in a circle aroundan open courtyard. Also, by the way, you can walk right through this courtyard and practically right up to the door, no security. There are only two guards, one in for the Queen’s mansion and one for the Crowned Prince’s. We then proceeded through the courtyard, up the adjoining street, and along a street with many national Embassies, all of which were in beautiful old buildings along the streets of Copenhagen and all of which you could walk right into, no problem. All of these embassies distracted us, however, and we decided to track down the American Embassy. Big mistake. We found it, and it, unlike every other country’s embassy including Canada’s right next door, was housed in a 70’s style gigantic buiding with huge black bars and two security guards. It made me embarrassed for America. Really? That’s what we have to show for ourselves? Ugly architecture and unwelcoming bars and guards? I mean, it’s Danmark for God’s sake, who the Hell wants to bomb the American Embassy in Denmark. No one. That’s right. Unfortunately, you don’t get a picture of this lovely American symbol because when I tried to take a picture from down the street to fully capture the flag and building’s aura, one of the guards spotted me and literally came running after me, whistling to get my attention as Yvonne and I walked away. He stopped us and interrogated us about our pictures, making us turn on our cameras back on, delete the pictures and show him to prove it. So, you can’t photograph the American Embassy, whoops. God help America and it’s unbelievable paranoia. Today, I was embarrassed to be associated with the US.

But, anyway, we did eventually make it to the Little Mermaid, and climbed over the rocks and past the pack of Japanese tourists (ubiquitous to all tourist attractions, worldwide) and took photographs with her in the water. Yay, Copenhagen.

Anyway, that pretty much wraps my time here so far. This was long and ramble-y, so read what you want. This is kind of just for me, so I remember things better. But, I promise, future posts won’t be nearly this long.