Amazing Race

I feel a lot better since the time I wrote the last post. I will explain why: yesterday was awesome. The day started off early - I woke up at 7:30 and at 8:15 Mads, one of our SRAs, (student resident advisor) took a big group of DIS kids from Hoff (abbreviation of Hoffmans Minde Kollegium) to the opening ceremony at Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (I believe it is a museum) and we experienced monday morning traffic! It took a little longer than expected to get into the city so we were a little late and missed the first speaker but we enjoyed some nice classical tunes and other welcoming speakers and then navigated our ways to DIS and split up into groups to start the Amazing Race. I admit I thought it would be lame at first, but it was incredible and I became an instant tourist, snapping pictures here, reading maps there.. in short it was obvious I was American but I was too happy to care. I am giving myself this week to be touristy and then I will try to blend in better. Another thing I am letting myself off the hook for: posting pictures of scenery. I usually hate it but there is no way to describe my day or my semester without pictures! So now that's decided, here are some pictures of yesterday's excursions:

adorable square

view from a church

the royal library and the black diamond - my new study spot

NYHAVN (pronounced new-houn)

church next to Amalienborg castle where royalty resides

artsy picture of Danish Guard at Amalienborg

After trekking around the city, we also had to go to a grocery store and pick up some foods for a classic Danish lunch of Smørrebrød which means "butter bread". It usually consists of rye bread, butter, and a lot of different toppings in the open-face sandwich style so that will be my lunch for the next 4 months.  


After that, I picked up my textbooks for my classes and it was a very different process than I'm used to. There were at least 2 books for each class - so at the minimum I had 10 books - but then others had extra binders and extra readings and I wound up lugging around this big blue Ikea bag trying to find the bus. Luckily I am really good at maps so I navigated a couple people and myself to our bus home and in exchange, one boy carried my books. He used my navigation skills to get home, and I used him to carry my heavy books - it was truly a win win situation.  


After meeting my roommate, we took a trip to the Netto to get some more essentials and while she continued to unpack I went into the city with a big group of 15 or more Americans (exactly what everyone tells you not to do) and went to a couple bars near DIS. Luckily we came back early enough that we didn't have to worry about figuring out a night bus schedule.. I'm sure that time will come soon enough.


Today I have a couple workshops but I'll probably explore the city a little more as well. Anyway I need to get ready for the day but will update later!