Copenhagen Day 1: More French, Less Danish Please

Nine hours in the air and a hour long layover later, I'm finally in Denmark. On the way, I ran into about a dozen other early arrivers at Reykjavik and here in Copenhagen and we had a little early meet n' greet. One girl I ran into goes to my school and I knew beforehand and another guy I actually went to middle school with but hadn't seen since, so it was really cool seeing him again.

I'm currently at my Euro-style hotel room (read: TINY) and realizing I made the mistake of sleeping all day and now that it's past 11 at night here, I'm not sleepy at all. Whoops. Funny story: during check-in there was an Asian family ahead of me, and when they asked what's going on in Copenhagen, the clerk told them about Copenhagen Pride which is in full swing right now and they just stood there wide-eyed and speechless - I was crying with laughter on the inside.

Anyway, here's my room for the night, as I mentioned, it's freaking TINY.

It has everything I need for the night though. The bed is comfy enough too. The bathroom is weird though, there isn't a separate shower - just a random cutain separating a part of the floor with a drain. Something I'm not so happy about is that Netflix, Pandora, and IHeartRadio all don't work in Denmark because of silly licensing reasons. Skype, thankfully works just fine, and I talked to my mom for a bit soon after I got to my room.

Earlier tonight I went exploring at a mall that is near my hotel for some toiletries and for dinner; there I found what looked like the Danish version of a Target Superstore. What started innocently enough ended up being one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. Everything, and I mean everything was in Danish. The only English words I picked out were "Bacon" and "Shampoo", and I only needed the latter. I was trying to find some other things but ended up getting lost somewhere in the home goods section (fun fact - straight, neat isles don't exist, at least not where I was). I found my way out eventually, bought my toiletries, and ended up getting Shwarma for dinner (surprisingly fitting since Denmark looks to have a largish Muslim population). Annoyingly, even mall food costs a fortune compared to the US - 80 kroner or about $14 for merely passable food. Speaking of - everything is pretty expensive here except for beer, which is cheaper than soda haha.

I had some spare time after dinner and fired up good 'ol Grindr to see what's going on nearby. It's definitely less dense than back in DC but something I found really funny was that one guy that popped up actually goes to my school back home and had a thing for me during freshman year. I found out he's been backpacking across Europe for the past few weeks and just happened to be in Copenhagen the same time I arrived. We talked for a bit and I convinced him to go out tonight since he's staying at a Hostel near the city center. It's definitely one of the funnier coincidences in my life.

Tomorrow I'm getting all my orientation materials, signing up for a cell phone, and finally meeting my host family. I might run into my friend Kate at the Airport since she's arriving a little before I'm set to be picked up so I'm looking forward to that. Expect more (and better) photos soonish of my actual room and where I'll be calling home for the next four months.

Alright guys, I'm going to attempt to get some sleep, whether I'm successful is another story.

Wish me luck.

JP