A few days in Denmark

The first few days here have been filled with orientation activities. Monday was jet-lagged. We walked through snow with a Danish "leader" to the opening ceremony. About a 30 minute walk. It was held at the Klytotek, which is owned by the Carlsberg Foundation. A big museum I think. After, a group of us from Øresundskollegiet (where I'm living) ate at a pub. We had no clue what we were ordering. Ended up getting a two-course meal, with fish-type appetizers and then a steak-type main course, covered in onions and with rye bread. The steak was good, although I didn't have much of an appetite from jetlag. Probably won't be going back there, because I think it ended up being $20 when all was said and done. Wandered around Copenhagen trying to find where our tour bus was leaving and we ended up missing the first set of busses. Caught the second though. The DIS director led our bus... he said it was so we could get our "Japanese tourist" sightseeing over and done with. There was a reporter from Politiken riding with us, writing a story on DIS. That is the newspaper that published those muslim cartoons last year that caused the uproar. She left early because there was a 60-car pileup south of town from the slippery roads.

On Tuesday we had "Survival Danish" from 9am-noon. Vowels are a big part of the language, and they have three extra ones. These seem like mostly variations on the "o" sounds, but much more from the gut and cut off quickly. Spoken Danish seems to vary significantly from written words. It is hard to tell (at least at this point) what a word should sound like from how it is spelled. I think if you just skip half the letters and smash everything else together...

In the afternoon yesterday we had a variety of other orientation sessions that focused on the DIS library, DIS security, the study tours, etc. These were probably longer than they needed to be. This afternoon we had an orientation to the business program (after Danish again in the morning).

I paid 18 kroner for a slice of pizza today for lunch...and I thought this was relatively inexpensive. 18 kroner is about $3. At home, I could get a whole pizza for about twice that...

Downtown Copenhagen is very pretty. Many walking-only streets, and the rest don't have much car traffic (nor room for car traffic). Bikes are very prevalent, and most roads have dedicated bike paths running alongside them. The bikes seems to have the right-of-way over everyone else, and they would certainly run you over if you don't get out of their way. Cars will wait for pedestrians and bikes. Everyone waits at the stoplights for the walk signal, even if no cars are coming. I haven't seen any Dane jaywalk yet. I stood at an intersection today waiting to cross a tiny little road with no traffic. Everyone was waiting for the light, even though the street probably took 4 steps to cross.

School is very easy to get to from Øresundskollegiet. I have been taking the metro thus far, because it is easy to understand and hard to get lost riding on. :) The metro station is only a few blocks away. I guess the bus stop is a little closer and a little faster (since we only have to go a short way), but haven't tried it out yet. Someday. Only need to ride 3 stops on the metro, and then a nice short walk to DIS.

Haven't yet met the Danes on my floor. Actually I think most of them aren't around. I think most classes for them don't start until Feb8 or so. Eventually...

I talked with the Danish "visiting family", Birte & Mogens Been, on the phone the other day and am going to go see them Saturday afternoon. They're going to pick me up at Øresunds.

The two supermarkets I've walked into have little barriers (like at Menards) when you walk in, so you can't walk back out through that entrance, but have to walk past the cashiers. I haven't quite figured out how you are supposed to do that if you aren't buying anything. The closed cashiers have barriers down as well. The only way I can figure is to wait in line until it is possible to sneak through without completely shoving someone out of the way. One time I did walk back out through the walk-in barrier. It is a wierd feeling to be in a store and not sure how to get out. :)

Pictures coming someday.