Week 1 in Cope

This week was my first week in Denmark and so far it's been pretty fun. Here is a rundown of the week:

Saturday

We landed in Copenhagen and settled into our apartments. My flat consists of me, my roommate, two Danish students and another American student. After unpacking, I went grocery shopping. The two main stores that we go to here are called Netto and Fotex. They're in walking distance of our house which is nice. So far, I've enjoyed cooking for myself, but I know once the semester gets going it will probably be more difficult to keep up with it. That night, our flat ate dinner with the people that live across the hall. Even though I was really tired from all the traveling, I ended up going out that night with my flatmates. We went to some bar/club called the Happy Pig. It goes by the Danish name but I can't remember what it is.

Apparently, Danes stay out really late when they party. Bars and clubs here are open til 5am and people start heading to them around 2 in the morning. It doesn't seem like it would be a sustainable way of living, but the Danes seem to be thriving so.

Sunday

The next morning the Danish students on our floor cooked us brunch. They made pancakes, rye bread (which is different from our rye bread), this yogurt drink, and a bunch of other things. Afterwards, we went over rules for our apartment and cleaning schedules.

Monday

On Monday, we had our opening ceremony for our program. They held it at a building that's typically used for circus performances. Then, some of us had housing meetings with our buildings. After, that meeting me and my hall mates went to the mall in the city. It has so many fun stores! My favorite two are Flying Tiger and this homeware store that I forget the name of. Flying Tiger is a stationary store that has colorful knick knacks and children's toys. I think Rachel would like it a lot. They also have one in New York.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, Naoni and I had breakfast at a cafe called Emmery's. We had coffee and kanlsnegls (chocolate cinnamon buns). Afterwards, I went to pick up my books and attended a facilities tour. Our school is spread over a couple of blocks in Copenhagen, so nothing is too far. It's sort of like NYU in the sense that DIS doesn't have their own campus. Instead, they own buildings in the city and that's where we all go for class.

That afternoon, I went to a couple of optional sessions that DIS had for orientation. One was about fashion in Denmark. According to the guy leading the session, Copenhagen Fashion Week is coming up, so people will be walking around in all types of stuff in a few weeks.

Tuesday nights are the big party nights here, mostly because everyone in our program has off on Wednesdays. That night we went to a place called the Old Irish Pub (which is right next to the Old English Pub) and danced the night away. Something that I've noticed is that they play a lot of American music here. Partly, because people know that there are a lot of American students in the area, but also because I think that's what a lot of people enjoy listening to. Even my Danish flatmates listen to American music.

Wednesday

The next morning, we had orientation for our core class. Mine is about child development in Scandinavia. It went well but it ended up being four hours! I also discovered that a girl from my middle school is also here in Denmark. She's actually in my core course and when we saw each other we were both shocked.

That night a couple of us went to what they call a "bodega" here. They're low-key sit down bars as opposed to loud clubs. I think it's interesting that bodegas are a thing here, but they don't mean the same thing as they do at home. In New York, bodegas are convenient stores that are sort of similar to delis. But here they're kind of like small sports bars. Overall, it was okay. The only thing I didn't like is that they allow smoking inside the place (this is true of a lot of places here), so when I came home all my clothes smelled like cigarettes 🤢.

Thursday

Yesterday, was our first day of school. Usually, on Thursdays I have practicum, so I'll be at a børnehave for the day. Børnehaves are kind of like schools or daycares for children ages 3-6, I think. They're not pre-schools though. But this Thursday, we just went over the syllabus and talked about our site placements.

After school, Naoni and I went to the beach. It was cold but so beautiful. I'm glad she convinced me to go.

Friday

Today, I had three classes. I had Danish, my European storytelling class, and my Learning in Scandinavia class. Danish seems like it's going to be tough because it's not intuitive. It uses English letters but they don't usually pronounce each letter in a word or the letters make a different sound than they do in English. For example, børnehave sounds like Berna-hill.

Tonight, me, Naoni, and a couple of other people went to this place called Bastard's Cafe. It's a spot that serves beer and coffee and food like fries. The big appeal of the place though is that they have board games. It was super packed when we went so we ended up sitting in the outside section and it was chilly. But we learned how to play Catan! I still don't fully get it but my team won.

Here are some other things I did this week:

I bought postcards from this children's bookstore that also gives me Rachel vibes. They had a bunch of Moomin postcards cause he's a pretty big deal here. I'm happy cause he deserves the attention.

The wind is so strong here that it causes stuff like this to happen. It's scary.

A colorful movie theater.

More pastries. This is a rhubarb cream puffesque thing.

These trees reminded me of Womping Willows from Harry Potter. They looked even more like them before someone cut their other branches off.

There's a lot more that I wanted to explain, but I think I'm tired from the week because when I got home for the day I felt sort of sick. Anyways, I guess I'll just leave it at that. The architecture here is so cool. I can't wait to explore more. Talk to y'all soon. This is probably my longest blogpost ever.