We call ourselves - The Group

Classes are officially under way. I'm taking 12 hours so I will have plenty of time for travel and fun. I really like my Holocaust & Genocide class and I also think that my International Finance class is really interesting. The teacher is really cool and totally wacky.

We had out first real weekend out last weekend. On Friday, DIS hosted a Welcome party at a club called LUUX. It was fun to see everyone out together and get a taste of Danish nightlife. One interesting thing they do here is that you have to check your coat everywhere you go. When you go to a club, they make you check your coat before you can go in and it't not FREE! Nightlife gets pretty expensive here. Saturday, our contact people at Tasingegade took us on a pub crawl. It turned out to be more of a "walk all over the city and get lost" crawl. But it was fun to get out and meet some Danes at the different places we went.

Sunday was a big recovery day. Jim and I decided to go on an exploration walk around the city. We found this HUGE park that goes on for miles and cirlces around the soccer stadium. We walked around for hours and had a really fun time.

However, when it was time to go home, we saw the street we needed to be on but we decided to try to take a different route. We ended up walking 2 hours south of where we actually lived. In the end, it was a LONG day and we were exausted when we got home but it was fun to get out and see the city.

"The Group" consists of me, Jillian, Jim, Drew, Alex and Jordan. We all live in the same building and we've all naturally bonded. On wednesday, we went to this amazing AMERICAN breakfast place. It was just what we needed after a long night out.

AND! exciting!! we booked our first trip! We are going to Amsterdam the weekend after my birthday. We are going to go for 3 nights so we will get back Monday morning. I'm so excited to check out the city!

Next weekend, we have a short study tour with our program. Mine is going to Western Denmark and visiting some Danish companies that we have to do a written report on. We take a bus to all the places and then stay over night in hostels. DIS provides some of the meals and then we have the nights free. I think the trip will be fun, but I don't know anyone in my class so I'm a little nervous.

I'm also very excited to report that....Tyler is coming! For his spring break! While the trip has no been confirmed, he's waiting to hear back from a friend in London, but nonetheless...he's coming!!!

Tonight we're making tacos for the boys. I'm craving Mexican so it should be a good night.

Honeymoon Phase

We had our first beautiful, sunny day on Wednesday!! It was warm (relatively) and the sunny was shining through the buildings. Jillian and I let ourselves sleep in Wednesday morning, until about 1:30pm. We really needed to catch up on sleep and we felt SO much better. When we woke up, we ate some cereal that we had managed to buy at the grocery store on tuesday. We thought we'd be able to tell what everything was just by looking at it, but that was NOT the case. Just buying milk was a tricky task. Finally we got some items and we've even tried some new things like Danish yogurt and Danish chips. Of course we had to buy Nutella as well.

My room is finally feeling cozy. We bought some candles for the ledge by our window, a rug for our floor and bathroom, and some posters to bring some color. I really need a new pillow because the one they gave us is flat and lumpy. The room isn't so bad anymore. I actually really like our location. We get a chance to see more of the city and we know how to use the bus and train like pros now.

Wednesday night we decided to venture to a place near us called Cafe Paris for dinner. It was our last horrah before classes started the next day. We all had pizza (mainly because that's all we could understand). We're still getting used to the money here and we're trying not to convert it in our heads.

Jillian and I both had 8:30 am class this morning and when we left to walk to the bus it was still really dark. I had European Business Strategy. It is the core class for the IBE program and it is the class that we go on our study tour to Berlin/Prague with. I don't know anyone in my class and I'm not sure if I'm going to have any best friends in my class, but we'll see. After class, I had about 3 hours to kill before my next class. We needed to get some school supplies so we headed to Tiger and then got some lunch at our favorite bagel/sandwich shop. We're becoming regulars there. We also went for a walk on Stroget, the main (tourist) shopping street in Copenhagen.
My next class was Holocaust and Genocide. Thankfully, Drew is in my class so that was comforting. The teacher has a strong accent but the class seems like it will be very interesting. My economics teacher is holding another class tonight since he's going to be missing a week, so I have class from 6-9 tonight and then my regular class tomorrow.

We've all decided that we want to try this bike thing. EVERYONE rides bikes here and they have their own lane! There is a place that we can rent bikes for 180kr a month, which is only about $30. It's a great way to get around. Drew got one today and he has already biked home on it. I took the bus leaving at the same time and I got home at the same time as him! Jillian and I are going to go on Saturday to the bike place and check it out. I'm going to try it for a month.

I have finally started to fill in my calendar. Turns out we have a lot going on. Drew, Jim, Jillian and I are going to sit down on sunday and try and plan out our spring break. We want to go to Italy and somewhere else. Then we're also thinking of going to Amsterdam for my birthday!

Everyone says we're still in the "honeymoon phase" of culture shock, Everything is new and exciting and we're not bothered by the climate yet. But they say it's coming...

Everyone says you have to get lost at least once...mission (already) accomplished

My roommate Jillian got in around 5:30pm last night. It was so good to finally unite with her. We unpacked a little and then headed to this hole in the wall "bar" that had 3 sixty year old men and a pool table. The boys learned how to play billiards from the locals and so we all joined in. It was fun to get out a little. Then our "contact people" took us out for dinner...to chinese! It was definitely not what I wanted to eat on my first night in Copenhagen. Jillian and I were wiped by 9pm so we headed home to settle a little more and hit the sheet. We both had a pretty restless night despite our exhaustion. The pillow is too flat and the area picks up lots of noise.

Today was the Opening Ceremonies. We all got up and met in the lobby of our building before heading across the street to a bakery for some breakfast. I swear their croissants were better than in Paris. I also had the best chocolate milk ever! Then as a group of about 30 we all headed to the train station for our first experience on public transportation.  I tried to watch very closely to where we were going so that I could get my bearings. The trains and busses are SO nice anc clean and new! It was actually a very pleasant experience on the train. Then we walked a couple blocks to the Glyptotek for the ceremony. This building was SO cool. Apparently, the inside is designed to look like a Greek/Roman temple. There are TONS of greek statues and they also have some french impressionism.  It's a really cool place and it's free on Sundays so we're definitely going back.

After the ceremony, we were released into the city for lunch. We met up with some of our friends who live downtown by DIS and they have a BEAUTIFUL, brand spankin new place. It has a huge kitchen and gorgeous bathroom. Jillian and I were definitely jealous. But we'll make our room homey soon enough. First priority is a hair dryer, hangers, more pillows and some candles.

We had 2 more sessions today about DIS and living in Denmark. They were sorta boring...
THEN! I had my first experience getting lost. We had to get back home from downtown BUT we had really no idea how to do that...so we just tried! And an hour later...WE MADE IT!

We adventured out tonight but it didn't go well. Restaurants close at 9:30pm and it was raining and really cold and then i slipped and fell and RUINED my knee.

I miss tyler TONS!

First Impressions

I live about 20 min north of where the DIS center is. I need to take the train or the bus to get to my classes. Tomorrow, I'll need to go get my train/bus/metro pass with the money they have given me.

My "dorm/apartment" is TINY! When they said kitchenette, they really meant kitchenette. We have a tiny mini fridge, 2 twin beds (that look smaller than a twin bed), 2 nice desks, a microwave and a burner. We hardly have any other amenities. There may be an oven and a coffee maker in the common area where there is a TV but I have yet to investigate that. This is basically an old dorm room! I must say, the SMU rooms are nicer.

We have these little "closets" with one shelf and a bar. No place for folded clothing. I will need to be investing in some amentities for the room. There is a group IKEA trip in a few weeks that I will definitely be taking advantage of. Now, the bathroom is a sink and a toilet and a cabinet. It's all tile and then there is the shower with a curtain. But there is no ledge or wall protecting the shower water from the rest of the bathroom...that should be interesting. We will probably need some sort of bath mat and a shower cady to keep things neat. I also really feel like this whole place needs to be Cloroxed. I am going to buy a big container of Clorox wipes ASAP. We will also need some dishes, most likely we'll just get paper stuff since washing dishes is a bit of a task. I need to find out what we do with food trash and how/where we do laundry. I have a HUGE list of things that I think I need such as a laundry basket, paper towels, a new pillow, hair dryer, FOOD, some sort of closet organizer, and we even need light bulbs because these lamps don't have bulbs!! I think we need a rug too since we just have an icky fake wood floor.

The bedding seemed to be all brand new. There was a bottom sheet that came in a sealed plastic packaging as well as a duvet cover and a pillow sham for the most awkward shaped pillow. It's also very lumpy. I'm very glad I brought my own towel wrap, shower shoes, and cozy blanket. It makes the room a little more homey especially since I won't get to a store anytime soon.

My whole building is filled with kids. I already took a 10 minute walking tour with one of our "RAs". He showed us some grocery stores, an ATM, and some good places to get take out. Tonight we're all having dinner as a group at some chinese restaurant around the corner.

It's chilly here, but not really unbearable.

We have a busy few days with some more orientation stuff, a crash course in Danish, picking up our textbooks, and getting acclimated with DIS.

I'm wiped because I'm having serious jet lag but we're supposed to stay up as late as we can so that we can get on a good schedule.

I'm still waiting for Jillian to arrive. I hope she gets here soon because I'm lonely!

No Lost Bags!

I have officially arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark. I had a direct flight from Newark Airport right into Copenhagen. I'm currently hanging out at the Copenhagen University with Emily Gerdts (fellow SMU student). We were on the same flight and it has been so nice to have a friend to travel with. It's already 11am and it's not even light out yet. Compared to home where the temperatures were around 10 degrees, the 35 degree weather in Copenhagen feels warm! We're waiting for our housing orientation. I'm living in the DIS Shared Housing. It's like apartments exclusively for DIS students. I'm rooming with Jillian Sarles (also fellow SMU student). Again, while I'm so excited to meet new people, it is so nice to have a friendly face to look forward to when I walk into my room. We have a kitchen and bathroom in our apartment so we will be expected to make all our own meals. I'm really excited to be able to cook for myself finally! Much better than a sorority house!

We have a whole bunch of programs this week, including a crash course in Danish. Classes start on thursday and I have an 8:30am class everyday. Nobody in the program has class on Wednesdays because there are group study tours on Wednesdays with our classes.

Getting used to the Danish language should be interesting. Everything is typically in Danish and English...as least in the airport.

Overall, today has consisted of lots of waiting around. There were 50 other DIS students on my flight to Copenhagen last night. (I had a 5:30pm flight and arrived in Denmark at 6:30am this morning). I am THRILLED that I didn't loose my bags or have any problems like several other students did.

4 days left in AMERICA!

As my departure date nears, the nerves are rising. I only have a few more things left to do. Packing is the most annoying part of going on a long trip. I have to decide what I really need and what I can live without. Also, Cophenhagen is cold, however, if I travel, I might go somewhere warm. So I need to think about what I should bring for multiple weather climates.

There are lots of things we're very used to having in the US. But abroad, you need to consider not having all the same immediate luxuries. I need to bring adapters for my appliances. I need to buy a new hair dryer and flat iron in Denmark since the higher voltage will blow my other ones up.

I ordered some Danish Kroner today from my bank. CHASE does it for free for their customers so I can avoid paying a conversion fee. This is going to be an expensive few months so I need to make sure that I budget wisely.

More to come after takeoff!