Internet Again!!!

I finally got the internet at my host family's house. They couldn't remember the password for the router, so I was without a reliable source of internet at my casa.

DAY 2-

Well, I made it through an entire day in Copenhagen! We all had breakfast together this morning. And then my host father took me on the train to DIS downtown so I wouldn’t get lost. And we had an entire day of orientation-type things. Made some new friends. I actually met someone from Texas! Her name is Margret and she goes to Southwestern. Which is pretty cool—we have a common friend! And some others, all from the northeast. I got my train pass. It was over 1300 kroner, which is about $260. But I didn’t have to pay for it. It came out of my program fees. I made it all the way back from DIS to my apartment without any troubles. Yay! I’m not going to lie- I was really worried about figuring it out. But when I was waiting to cross the street on my commute home (I’m so urban!! Haha) this man walked up to me with a map and totally asked me for directions. Well, he did it in Danish. And I proceeded to tell him that I don’t speak Danish. So he left. But still, it was pretty cool to be asked. I guess I am just that awesome.

We had fish and this sausage-type thing for dinner tonight. It was pretty good, actually. The Danes eat a lot of potatoes. I guess they burn up all the calories with all the damn walking they have to do! It’s crazy. We never walk this much. Well, maybe if you lived in a big city and didn’t drive to work every morning. I was thinking earlier, it’s going to be really weird coming back to Texas and having to drive everywhere. And they recycle everything here! Even the plastic bottles have a deposit. And they can actually turn off the electricity in their house. There are switches by a lot of the outlets that let you turn it off. My host family turns off their wireless router at night. I mean, it makes sense. No need to waste the electricity broadcasting wireless internet if everyone is asleep!

My host dad is really cool. He’s the one I’ve had the most interaction with so far. The son is 21, so I think he feels weird around me. Plus I’m pretty sure he’s moving out soon. I really would have liked to be with a younger family, with kids and a family dog and the such. But I think I’m going to like living here. My host mom doesn’t speak English. Well, she speaks English like I speak Spanish if that gives you any clue. A couple words here and there, but not much. She is Serbian and is at least 10 years younger than my host dad (second marriage). But she’s nice. My host dad though…IS EXACTLY LIKE MY DAD. I’m not going to lie. It’s really creepy. They have the same mannerisms, sayings, political views (from what I can tell), etc. Even down to that they both like Tom Clancy. Goodness. It’s just really funny. He’ll say something and I just think to myself, gee- dad said that to me about a week ago.

After dinner we played WiSports. Which was actually really fun! I’d never played on a Wi before. I wasn’t terrible. Although then we did this skiing one on the WiFit and apparently I am inexperienced in balancing. Funny, I thought I did that every day! It was hard though. I think that WiFit just guesses everything. I’m not really sure how it knows so much…

I made my lunch for tomorrow. The Danes don’t eat sandwiches like we do in America. They only put stuff on one side and wrap a piece of butcher paper around it. I put all sorts of weird things on mine. This fish paste thing in mayo, liver paste, some sort of pork and salami with mustard (I had to have a safe option in there). I figured I should try it at least once, right?

Well it’s late and I’m exhausted. And I have to catch the 8:15 train outta here to make it to DIS on time. Copenhagen is wonderful. You should all come!

DAY 3

Well, my host family can’t remember the password to their wireless router, and the other internet sources around me aren’t working anymore. So I’ll keep writing and upload the posts when available.

Today we had survival Danish and we went on a scavenger hunt through the city of Copenhagen. We saw a lot of really cool buildings. I took a bunch of pictures and I’ll upload some when the internet reappears, or when I bring my computer to DIS. Tomorrow is our last day of orientation and then Thursday classes begin. I have A TON of reading already for some classes. Oh dear…

I got my books today. No lie, I think I have 35. There are so many!!!!! I’m just glad that I’m taking a lit class here, where books are considered a part of the program fee, so I don’t have to pay for all 10 of them. That’s right, 10 books for 1 class. And I’m glad that I didn’t have to bring these over from home. It was a pain just taking them back to my room from DIS. People were giving me weird looks, but I guess I would as well if I saw someone with a huge blue IKEA bag filled with books. I’m taking a random assortment of classes. People look at me like I’m crazy when I tell them what classes I’m taking. I mean, it’s kind of hard to figure out my major if all you know is that I’m taking French Culture and Identity, History of Ballet, Russian Literature, Danish 1, International Marketing and Branding, and International Politics from a European Perspective. But I think my classes should be interesting.

At dinner tonight I learned that it is rude in Denmark to take a second helping of meat, and not potatoes. Weird, huh? I think they might eat potatoes with every meal. And it’s rude to not eat them. I think I might get tired of potatoes. For lunch I tried all sorts of new things. Well, 2. I had liver pâté. Yep. That’s right. And this red fish blended in with mayo. It wasn’t horrible; they both just looked a bit….post digestion…if you catch my drift. I don’t think I’ll be eating either again soon. The liver pâté just tasted like meat that had been puréed, which is probably what it is. And the fish had too strong of a fish taste for a sandwich, for me at least. But no worries. I made a more normal sandwich for tomorrow to take in.

OH! And I noticed something today. After dinner we were carrying in the plates and leftovers and my host mom threw the sauce into the trash. Which I thought was weird, but I thought, you know- maybe it doesn’t keep well. And then I saw her throw the potatoes away too. The potatoes that I was told were so important at dinner. I don’t know if she threw away the pork too, but probably. I mean, isn’t that weird? I think it is… That’s why they have stoves, microwaves and refrigerators! To heat up and store leftovers, yeah? I wonder if they’ve thrown away all of the extra food since I’ve been here. They have at least 2 servings left at the end of a meal. It’s probably like $5 worth of food a night considering prices here. That’s $15 (75 kroner) thrown away in the trash! I am going to investigate this further…

Well I have to be at DIS again tomorrow at 9. And I don’t want to miss my train again tomorrow (I missed it this morning. But it’s ok, there’s a train every 10 minutes.) and have to rush to class. I hope everyone is enjoying the nice Texas weather, I saw that it was in the 60s—it’s like 30 here. Thanks Copenhagen!