On Saturday afternoon, Dave drove me to the airport. Along the way we made a stop at Wawa for one last sub. In the car we wondered what quick stops would be like in Denmark.
Getting through the airport didn’t take long. But, I had a brush with death in the security line. A family walked up behind me and I instantly noted a strong smell, somewhat like mildew, somewhat like all of the elephant crap in Africa combined. Of course, we all had to remove our shoes, which is when I nearly fainted because the smell only intensified to the choking point. That kid needs a chat with Baba.
Kristina and Alex (from F&M) were at the end of the security shoot, seemingly waiting for me, so we skipped arm in arm toward the gate. Then we got on the plane to Brussels.
Just kidding! But, Alex sat next to me and Kristina behind me, so we got to talk a bit. We’re doing several activities together. One is the bike and canoe trip to Sweden, another is a castle tour (Hamlet’s!!!), a beer tasting and a bike tour of Copenhagen.
The flight wasn’t bad. They took a while to serve dinner, so I took the complimentary wine instead of a Tylenol PM to help me sleep. I watched Definitely, Maybe while I ate and turned it off when I was done, and by then we’d been on the plane for almost two hours.
The people in front of me did not get the hint that dim lights and an overseas flight means go to sleep. They chatted during most of the flight, which I could hear even through my trusty earplugs. I probably wouldn’t mention this, except not only was that irritating, but then the women spilled a massive amount of liquid (who knows where she got it, they give you a shot glass size cup at a time) in her seat and onto my bag beneath her seat. Of course she let everyone on the plane know what had happened and then asked the flight attendant if they could switch her seat. Clearly she didn’t mean she expected to get a whole new seat—she meant she wanted them to take up the cushion and give her a new one. WHAT??
If dinner was late, of course breakfast was early. We had around two hours left of the flight when they started the service. In the end, I could have managed three hours of sleep had the spilling fiasco not happened. Plus, I’m a little scared of open water, especially at night. Whenever we hit a little turbulence, I had to hold back from running to an emergency exit (reminiscent of the night Dave and I went on that cruise and I couldn’t sleep for thinking about the rescue boats all night).
Getting through customs and baggage was a breeze. Waiting for DIS to check us in took a little while, but we were off to our first stop in Copenhagen by 9. In the airport, I was reminded of my last American meal at Wawa when before us stood a Burger King, 7-11 and surprisingly a Starbucks. Here are some fun pictures from the Copenhagen Airport:
At our first stop we picked up welcome packages, got money for transportation and signed up for cell phones. Everyone was on their computers skyping home, so I logged onto gmail only to find no one signed on before realizing that it was 4 am at home.
All the host family kids went to one room. We listened to a speech before the families starting coming. They would walk up to the front all blonde haired and blue eyed and call someone’s name. Some families brought all the kids, others brought dogs, and we all felt like orphans hoping the cool looking family would call our names.
My host dad (Stig) came at around 12:30. We got my bags and hopped in his Land Crusher (which costs $200,000 because of 180% taxes on cars) to head home. During the drive we took several detours around Copenhagen so that I could see where train stations are and a few highlights around town. He told me a lot of interesting things about the city and gave me practical advice about getting around. Things like, all the addresses start from the city hall and increase the farther away you get. And odds and evens are on both sides of the street. And the street signs are on buildings not on posts.
The house is a straight shot west of Copenhagen, and the train station is half a mile from the house. Inside is really nice and very colorful. A lot of Ikea blue! See the picture of my room below. I have a sofa to sleep on, a desk, a tv and radio, a nice sized closet and a big window that looks out onto the patio. They have apple trees in the yard and grapes growing in the patio.
My host mom (Jane) left me some candies. See the picture below. I’m pretty sure the white stuff covering the one is salt and it tastes like black licorice.
We ate dinner with family friends. It was very interesting to talk to the Danes about US politics and systems. I attempted to eat like a Dane, using fork and knife at all times, but no one seemed impressed by my efforts.
After dinner, Simone, the host daughter, came home. She was extremely nice, and we talked for a little bit about her life. She is going to school now and also works. Even through she’s 18, she’s on more or less on the same level as me because she is in Denmark’s form of college.
Of course I have been feeling very sad and lonely because everything is so far away. I know that once I get involved and start to know things here, I won’t feel this way so much. Also, the first day is very tired and they send you home quickly, so you aren’t able to meet many people.
I slept well and woke up early to get ready to go back to Orientation. The second day was much better. In the morning, I saw DIS people getting off the train at my station (the trains are clean, quiet and smooth- very much unlike New York). I walked to the Royal Library/Black Diamond with them and they’re crazy Kollegium leader (a Dane who lived in their dorm). We were late to our opening ceremony because she wanted to show everyone where things were, although we had plenty of time for that later. As it turned out, one of the girls I was walking with is from F&M. There are four of us total. The opening ceremony was a series of speeches and some music.
Afterward, I met up with the Alex and Kristina and we went to DIS to sign up for tours. It was a good thing we did, because they were full by the next time we were at school. I went toward the pickup spot for the tour of Copenhagen. I started talking to one girl, who goes to Cornell, and we sat on the bus with several other girls from her school. This is the point where I started to feel like I could make some really good friends while I’m here.
We saw the parliament building, the royal castle, the Little Mermaid and a few other stops along the way.
After the tour, we went back to the school so I could finish up some other business. And a few of us headed over to Tiger, which is a store that sells a little of everything, to get notebooks for class.
Now I’m home!
