When lost, just ask.

What a day. I woke up at 6:45, ate cornflakes and bread with nutella for breakfast around 7, left for the train around 8:10. This was my first time going alone. I made it to the station fine, I didn't get lost with my map in hand. But I got there at 8:33 and my train left at 8:30. So I waited in the covered sitting area for the next train. I saw a huge fat brown rat! Ewwww. I moved to waiting outside in the cold. The train came at 8:50. I got to Copenhagen at 9:20 and still had to walk to DIS which took more than ten minutes so I was a little late. Oh well. It wasn't the best start to my day but it will get better.
I was in the housing meeting where a very quiet, tall Danish woman explained to us what we should expect from our host families. It then became this weird sharing of what everyones host families were like and what problems they were having.
One kid was mad because the dog didn't know English.
Another girl was freaked out at the black cat in the bathroom that watched her shower.
A girl was mad that her mom wouldn't let her have a trash can in her room.
A girl wasn't sure if sarcasm or cursing was alright.
Another girl's mom was never home and so she wasn't sure how to ask for more food.
A guy said he always eats breakfast on the go and wasn't sure how to tell his family that.
It was kind weird to hear all these little things people are struggling with. None of them (except the wanting more food) is an actual problem, in my opinion. Just issues that could be solved with good communication.
She divided us into nine groups and we went on a journey through the city to compare food prices. Our group did coffee and snacks so we learned 7/11 is expensive, Baressso doesn't offer student discounts, and Studerhuset has cheap food and drinks. I actually loved my group. It was the polar opposite of my group from yesterday. I tried a lot harder to be friendly and they were friendly back.
We ate lunch in the classroom. This was the first time we were given time for lunch. Then we learned a little about how to use the public transportation (a little late, now.) and how to budget our time. They gave us a time tracker paper that was helpful in budgeting our time. They told us not to travel every single weekend. Roger that.
When that ended, I didn't want to just sit by myself for three hours so I asked a nice girl from my group if she wanted to go to Tiger with me. She said sure. Another kid overheard us and asked if he could come. That's pretty much how it works. ("Oh are you going to __? Can I come with you?") It's great. So a group of us went over to buy notebooks and folders. It's an amazing shop. I can't wait to go back and buy more. Hahaha. I restrained myself and just bought two folders, two notebooks and a mini notebook.
Then me and Shannon (the girl I met) went to the DIS main building. While she made some copies, I went over to a group of girls who I recognized and asked if I could sit with them. They looked a bit startled but said yes. I introduced myself and asked the usual. "Where you from? What College? What program? Stance on abortion? Pepsi or Coke?" (Guess which two were a joke.)
They were really nice. One girl had to leave for her program session and Shannon took her seat. We chilled for two hours there.
At 5, all of us met to go to the buses to take us to the Immersion activity fair. We took a double decker bus and rode on top! I sat next to Blake who I met at the table. We had a lot in common and both admitted we liked each other (as friends, you pervert.) We went around the fair as a group, signing up fro 4 activities so we could get a free hot dog. Yum!
When we were done we slowly and coldly made our way to Norreport station. My friend went on her train and I almost did too but I didn't recognize anything so I decided best not to get on. I went back up and found the entrance I recognized. I went down there and wasn't sure which train to take. I asked two different women who helped me make sure I got on the right train. If you ask, the Danes will help you. I think it also doesn't hurt that I'm a sweet innocent lost American girl.
I got off at the Espergadle stop and walked home. I used my map again. I made a wrong turn, walked back, walked the wrong direction, walked back, walked the right way, wasn't sure which way to go and asked a man on a bike which way to go. I told him I was lost and he said, "No you can't be lost." haha. He pointed me the right way. So I wasn't lost, just turned around.
I ate leftover pasta for dinner. I asked my host dad if I could take it for lunch tomorrow. He said no. I thought he was kidding. He said they only reheat things twice because of bacteria. They are very afraid of it. Good to know.
My host sister showed me her horsejumping competition videos that were set to One Direction songs. I loved them.
Man, that was a lot of typing.

Exploring in the snow

I moved into the family room to type this. My host sister Signe is on her laptop too during homework and the TV is on the news. I have no clue what the TV is saying so I can't really watch it or pretend to watch it easily.

On the TV, they are showing a woman who is a hoarder. I guess that's not just an American problem. My host mom is helping me figure out what they are saying on the TV. 

I saw a commercial for Disney on Ice. My host mom said she saw it when she was little. I said me too. 

She's playing on her phone and she turns to me and says, "What's the capital of Indiana?" Having lived there, I answer, "Indianapolis." pause. "Ah, thank you." then "What's Mt. Rushmore?" I saw "South Dakota" and again she pauses and says thank you. She's playing a quiz game with her mom. It's cool that both my moms play games on their phones. 

They like to light candles in their home in the evenings. Many Danes do too because it helps with the long cold winters and short days. 

Today was another busy day. If you want the picture version of my day, see the post before this one where I posted pictures I took on my phone because I didn't bring my camera.
We did the DIS Amazing Race (their name, not mine. Our professor even told us, it's not a race, you don't have to go to all the locations, so it's kind of a silly name.) and the Communication program meeting. The scavenger hunt lasted 9:30 to 2:30. At 3:15 to 5 was my meeting. We ate dinner around 6:30, and now it's like 7:40.
In the morning, I woke up at 6:45. I ate corn flakes and half some bread with nutella like chocolate. I made tea too. Julie and I took the 8:30 train and met up with Cheng. I tried to pay attention to learn my way around.
We made it to the classroom our group was assigned and then were put into smaller groups by where we were sitting.
To be honest, I didn't love the girls in my group. They weren't awful but they just weren't people I would choose to hang out with and we didn't have a lot in common. I made the best of it and kept to myself for the first half. I got tired of that so I started participating in their conversations and asking questions. They looked a little surprised that I was asking questions. When we took the water ferry back I continued to talk to them. I tried my best to be friendly and social.
It was a stressful situation to be thrown out into the cold snowy streets of Copenhagen and asked to find four or five famous Copenhagen spots. Luckily the other girls seemed to have a good sense of direction so we rarely got lost or confused for very long. One time we asked a nice man to help us find our way and he was he helpful. We stopped at the University of Copenhagen student hangout coffee shop place and got a free Danish. Yum! It was very cold outside and snow on the ground so it was nice to get out of the cold and take our backpacks off. On the ferry I found out I wasn't the only one whose shoulders were hurting. That made me feel better because my bag wasn't that heavy or anything.
When we made it back to the classroom, we had to present on our favorite location and two things we observed. Our group liked the charming square (I forget the name) and talked about the architecture and children in snowsuits. Kids waddle around wrapped up in these huge snowsuit. It's pretty cute. The architecture is modern and historic. Some buildings burned down in history and were rebuilt close to the orginal. There aren't a lot of tall buildings or buildings outside the official Copenhagen color scheme. Our guide says urban design dictates their should be a stimulus every 4 seconds. Hmm.
I had an hour to kill before my next meeting so I chilled in the student building in the quiet study area. I needed some peace and quiet and me time. I thought my meeting was in the building I was in but it wasn't. It was across the street. I wasn't late and it wouldn't have mattered because the meeting didn't start on time. We were emailed that it was pushed back an hour but everyone forgot that so the woman was very frazzled. She was like an intern or program assistant. She passed out individual water bottles to us and apples. Instead of pizza and soda, they gave us water and apples. Haha. She showed us two videos and told us about what to expect of our Communication classes and study tour trips. It was informative.

I met a girl named Alex who wants to be a veternarian and interned over the summer at a vet clinic for dogs and cats. So we had things to talk about with how to give vaccines, heartworm blood tests, vet schools, euthanaisa, etc. She wants to go to the University of Wiscosinc vet school but still needs more shadow hours. I didn't know you needed so many shadow hours with a variety of animals. 

I'm meeting a lot of neat people. 

After that I met my host mom and with Cheng we took the train home.  It's a ten minute walk to the station. I'm trying to learn and memorize it. Same with how to get to the train and how to get to DIS. I'm trying very hard to orient myself and memorize key landmarks. (like go past The Drunken Flamingo and turn at 7/11. Turn at sign that looks like Esmerelda, go past weird statue, go past gentlemens club. etc. I'm just using the most memorable landmarks to help me recognize things.). 

My host father went hunting this morning and brought back a deer. It's in the garage, hanging upside down right now. My host mom showed me. Ewww. We are going to eat it this weekend.

So overwhelmed

Oh man. I don’t know where to begin when trying to answer, “How was your day?” I suppose I would say overwhelming, stressful, cool, neat, exciting, new, crowded, busy, confusing, and unique.

I woke up at 1am (thinking it was time to get up, not being use to the time) and I facetimed with my parents. They told me to go back to bed. Haha. So I did, and I kept my door open so I would be sure to hear when to get up. I woke up around 6:30am. To be honest I felt nauseas this morning. I think it was my nerves. I’m glad I didn’t throw up because that sometimes happens if I’m nauseas. I had bread (that they made the night before) with butter and jam. I thought I could eat 4 slices but barely ate 2, so I saved the others for later. My host parents helped me make a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch. Too bad I didn’t get to eat it until 2pm. Around 7:30 or so, my host mom and host sister drove to the train station. My host mom took the train to Copenhagen with me. I hope I can get the hang of it soon so as not to inconvenience her and make her help me with the metro and trains.

We met up with a girl who also lives near me and the three of us travelled together. Cheng and I were the only ones talking on the train. We weren’t loud or obnoxious, it’s just that Danes don’t talk on the trains.

We took the train to Norreport and then took the Metro to Forum I think. It was a short ride. We made our way to the Royal Danish Academy of Music. We had our Opening Ceremony at 9. It was a combination of speakers and orchestral music.

After that we had to make our way to where our group was meeting. So like I was in group B and we were doing the Student Affairs Session today at the Grand Theatre. Luckily Cheng and her friend Johnny were also in Group B. We went to a coffee shop and I got a 30kk or $6 cappuccino. While we were getting ready to leave, Miaja came in so we stayed after Cheng left and I walked with Miaja and her friend. I couldn’t find Cheng when I went to go sit down at once I found the Grand Theatre. So I sat down in the back and luckily she was sitting in the row in front of me. I talked to the two kids next to me. I was very good with small talk. “Where are you from? Where do you live? What program are you doing?” etc. The Student Affairs session kind of frightened me. It made me scared to lose anything and have something stolen. I asked a question about dollar to price conversion and learned to just drop the last number of kroner and double it. So 100k becomes 10, which becomes $20. You can also just divide by 5. After the session we had to go up to a person with a clipboard and tell them our name for attendance because the sessions were mandatory. After that we were free, but almost everyone went on a tour. I think that’s when my day took a turn for the worse. The tour was so uncoordinated and chaotic. It became a group of 30-40 students and one unprepared DIS girl leading us around the city and barely stopping to tell us where we were. She never oriented us as to where anything else was or told us where we were going next. The buildings have such narrow stairs and hallways that it was hard to fit us all. The tour stressed me out more because it was like, “Okay let’s walk past this really important building that you need to know about. Do we have everyone? Great. Let’s move on to the next life-saving must-know building.”  The tour was made worse by my heavy backpack and aching shoulders. I didn’t think my bag was that heavy but it felt heavy, so I need to take some things out.

 When the tour finally ended, we went to the Piccell cellphone people. We had to wait in line for like 20 minutes because it was so crowded. I asked the woman to help me put in my SIM card and she told me she didn’t have the tool and couldn’t help me. So that was very frustrating to me. When I got home, I tried a paperclip but that wasn’t working. I told my host family and they all have iphones too and they actually had the correct tool from the iphone box to open the sim card slot. Once it was open and the card inserted, my phone asked me for a pin number. I was like Excuse me? I had no clue. I read the manual and it said it was emailed to you or on your piccell account online. I called my dad from my family’s home phone (they gave me permission) and asked him to skype me. I went on to the piccell website and found the pin code, typed it in and it worked. I was worried my phone wasn’t unlocked and it wouldn’t work.  I don’t have service in my room so when I tried to end a call in my room, it just froze. When we took it to the kitchen, it worked. That was a very stressful and nerve-racking twenty minutes, fighting with my phone. But now it works and I have a new phone number for now. I’m glad both my families have a way to contact me.

Julie agreed to meet us outside vestergarde 23 and help me get home. Cheng tagged along too. I’m so glad we had her. It was a miserable walk to the train because I had my heavy backpack and was carrying an awkward IKEA type bag of my textbooks. My shoe came on tied on the escalator and I made sure it didn’t get caught in the stairs. At the train station, the platform was so narrow I was scared someone would push me onto the track. These are both sort of irrational fears, but still crossed my mind. When we finally made it to our home train station we rode bikes home. I thought I was okay at bike riding but was pretty lousy. I struggled with the hills, swerved a lot, and braked wrong (using only the front brake). I hope I have a better bike ride tomorrow. I rode Julie’s bike because it was shorter. My host father helped me lower my bike so it should be a bit better.

To be honest, when I got home, I went to the bathroom and cried. Not because I was homesick or really sad, but just because I cry really easily and was overwhelmed by the stressful day I had. The language barrier is much more noticeable that I thought it would be, like for signs and things. I keep telling myself it will get better and that things can only get easier. It’s 11pm already so I need to shower and get ready for bed.

Oh yeah, my host mom took me shopping at the grocery store. Its a lot smaller that America's. I got shampoo, conditoner, detangler, shaving gel and a razor. She bought fruit, salad, meat, apple juice, milk, bread, etc. Their carts are baskets with wheels and a handle. I recognized a few brands. When we got home I helped a little with dinner and we talked about politics and cheese. haha. 

I didn't take any pictures today. Be patient.