Velkommen til København

Heyo. I know it's been a long while but I promise my lack of posts is not because I don't love you guys; I've just been running around non stop all week and have just caught myself a bit of spare time - aka watching the ManU and Fulham game in the living room of my abode and beating my host dad in a soccer-match prediction bracket thing- to make a post.

I don't want for this to get too long and boring so I will try to condense things a bit and jump right into things.

I met my host family at the orientation and they brought me to my new home away from home. I currently live about 30 minutes by car outside of Copenhagen, or København in Danish (fun fact, it sounds nothing like how it's spelled). I take the train to get to my classes every morning except for Wednesday but then I plan to work at home or go to the city and work at one of the school buildings. My classes are in what is the old part of Copenhagen near city hall and Europe's longest pedestrian shopping street - the Strøget. It's pretty awesome when your classrooms are actually amidst all the action. I haven't seen all of my professors yet, but I have met most of them and they all seem really cool and casual - we refer to all of them on a first-name basis. My classes honestly all seem pretty easy so far too - they know all the students are here to have a good time and study some on the side, so I don't think the bar has been set too high.

The town I live in is near a Fjord and is almost the Danish equivalent to where I live in the US - except 20 times prettier, like most things in Denmark - the people, the landscape, the people, the school, the people, the cities, and did I mention the people? Yeah, all of them are effing hot. I wish I were exaggerating, but no, think as if all the H&M and Abercrombie models suddenly decided to only procreate with each other for about 200 years and put that population in a little Scandinavian country and you'll have Denmark. Trust me, you will be hearing plenty of stories of how beautiful the Danes are throughout my stay here.

Anyways, my first few days here were spent doing orientation programs like an amazing race to see various attractions in Copenhagen, and where to shop for decently priced food in the city (which is really difficult as everything is quite expensive). I met quite a lot of really cool people during this period who I became friends with so I'm thankfully won't be one of those people who only stick with people from their home school. There are about 30 of us by the way - by far the biggest group I've come across so far. Nevertheless, yesterday we did have a gathering last night in Copenhagen for a reunion type thing at a local bar. I ran into my almost-roommate from freshman year of college which is hilarious but everyone here is really pumped for the next semester. We did some bar hopping too last night and ended up bumping into a few of our professors at local bars which just goes to show how casual things will probably be here. It was a fun night though and I might go out again tonight if things pan out. It's so nice to just be able to buy drinks without being carded or anything. I'm going to miss that when I go back to the US for sure.

Well, if I'm going to be in a foreign land, I'd better be posting some pictures so here's a little of what I've seen so far:

Canal where me and some friend's had dinner one evening - rainbow!

 

Yeah, the harbour isn't just a postcard thing, it actually exists



Part of the Royal Palace complex. One of the Prince's houses

One of many squares in the city

The Strøget or main pedestrian shopping street. Touristy, but many bars

I have a few pictures of my house and the town where I will be living for the next few months which I will upload in due time.

I hope things are going well where you are and I'll be back with another post soonish I hope.

Hej Hej,

JP