Tiny Humans

LOVE. 

Hello again wonderful friends, 

These past two days have been nothing short of absolutely exhausting. Classes begin Thursday, so these three days are supposed to be an "orientation" of sorts. However, when you combine the super jetlag (I am still waking up like a crackhead at all hours) with the number of times I have gotten lost in the city of Copenhagen in the past 24 hours, it is beginning to feel like more of a DISorientation week.

Monday morning, we left my building at 7:30am and took the metro to Copenhagen city centre. Our SRA's shepherded us over to our official welcoming ceremony via the mother duck method. It felt like being back in the first grade (I am PISSED I was not elected line-leader.) But, I would later realize how grateful I should have been for the free directions.The event took place in an absolutely beautiful museum. As most big speaking event type things tend to be, the event was pretty painfully boring. I stayed awake by focusing really, really, really hard on not laughing every time one of the program leaders, Anders, got up to speak. His voice is something of a cross between Hannibal Lector and Dora the explorer. a+b= Pedophile. Terrifying. The rest of Monday is largely a blur. I applied for my Danish Residence Permit so I won't be an illegal anymore (note: my passport was never stamped entering Denmark, so I am 99 percent sure I am currently here on pretty sketchy terms.) The real highlight of Monday was trying to navigate my way home. Fortunately, every DIS student currently sticks out like a sore thumb. We all walk around with ugly DIS backpacks, and have the same "holy-shit-where-on-earth-am-I" look on our faces. So I managed to meet up with a group of friends so we could be lost together. For those of you who know my wonderful sense of direction, I am sure you realize how awful being lost alone would be. It took our group of twenty able bodied, college-educated adults almost two hours to navigate home (I only live about 15 minutes from classes.) Public transportation here is overwhelming, to say the least. 

Today was a definite improvement on yesterday. We spent the entire morning participating in an "amazing race" style competition. We were split into groups of six, and given a map, some money, some transit passes, and a list of locations. The goal was to navigate our way to each location on the map, obtain a stamp from the DIS professor at each post, and make it back to our school first. Although this felt a lot like a night program at CSM, it ended up being an awesome chance to get my bearings and see a ton of the major city landmarks in one fell swoop. All said and done, we ended up walking about 20 miles. It was exhausting, but the weather was beautiful (okay, so "beautiful" in Copenhagen is any sunny day. It is totally freezing, and it feels like the sun is only out for about seven hours. You appreciate it when it makes a shiny little appearance!) I finally got some pretty pictures to share with you nice humans. 

Amalienborg Palace. Located in an absolutely stunning city park. 

The Royal Palace. I saw the queen! 

Informal changing of the guard. Danes, as a whole, are much less formal than the British. Pretty sure I saw one of these guys scratch his butt. Probably more like a light butt pat. I am still 80% sure these ones are robots. 

Copenhagen Opera House. Absolutely stunning.

I essentially ran through all of these places (and more!), so I didn't have time for great pictures. More to come when I finally get some time to sightsee (err... time to breathe for that matter.) The real jewel of today's pictures appears at the top of the page. The picture was taken in the park surrounding the Amalienborg Palace. As we were running through, we ran into a group of Danish preschoolers. (Okay, so not JUST preschoolers. There were a few teachers in there.) However, you would hardly notice them. Over the course of the day, we saw SO many young kids all over the city. I am half convinced I got so lost in Copenhagen that I just ended up on my way to Oz, instead. Lollypop guild anyone? But really, it seems like 1/2 of the population of Copenhagen is under the age of five. Lots of Danes getting their "hygge" on. (This loosely translates to "cosy".) But, unlike your average group of American preschoolers, these kids are IMPECCABLY well behaved. Swarms of them, (like, 40 kids to with no more than 2 teachers) were riding the metro, hoping on and off of the bus, and parading around super fancy museums. Above, I managed to capture a candid moment of adorable Danish nugget-ness. I will be spending every Thursday working in a Danish preschool or daycare. I am SO excited! 

Finally, my day ended on a hilarious note. As I may have mentioned, I knew exactly ONE word of Danish before arriving in Copenhagen. (That word was Hej!, or Hi!) As of today, I know exactly one more word of Danish (Tak = Thank you!). I feel as though someone was supremely exaggerating when they told me I could navigate well enough without much Danish. This person CLEARLY never tried to go grocery shopping in Copenhagen. Woof. Before today, I had been eating out for meals. I probably have less of an idea of what Danish food is now than I did before I left. I have eaten Indian food, Thai food, and Italian food. Oh, and several Danishes! NOM NOM NOM. However, I soon realized that eating out in Copenhagen is ungodly expensive. Remember all of those gazillions of Kroner I had? Zoinks. In order to save money, a few brave friends and I decided to pick up the essentials at the grocery store. Long story short, it took me nearly an hour just to find eggs, milk, cheese, pasta, cherrios, apples, and peanut butter. Two of these things were to be found in the mysterious unlabeled "America" section. Here, I will share with you what Danish people think Americans eat:

1) Peanut butter labeled (loosely translated) "Processed America Peanut Spread" 

2) Star wars themed Jelly labeled "America Fake Jam"

3) Fruitloopish things called "Candy sugar cereal for dessert." 

Sense a theme?... 

Overall,  I am a bit overwhelmed but very excited for the amazing adventures to come. Write again soon! 

Love and miss you all, 

Lizard