E-MAILS FROM DAN – American student in Copenhagen: Part 1 of 3

Holla Back

Hey everybody--

Well, I head off to Copenhagen, Denmark in a couple of days and I'm getting pretty nervous. My living situation is pretty much set. I am living with 4 random Americans that are on the same program me in an apartment somewhere in the city. The only problem is the lease does not start until a week after we arrive. Therefore, I'm going to have to find a hostel or some hotel to stay in when we get there.

I'm getting pretty excited about meeting entirely new people. I don't know a single person that is going to Copenhagen--this is pretty much the first time in my life that is the case. I have usually known at least one person. I'm not really looking foward to my classes, but oh well, it's part of the experience I guess.

Alright, I gotta get back to packing, but I hope you guys keep me updated with what's going on in the states. I'll hopefully be sending you emails to keep you updated with my adventures.

PEACE

-Dan

Finding my way

Hey All--

Well, I'm here in Copenhagen and so far it is amazing!!

The flight here wasn't too bad. It took about 8 hours, but I met a few students on the same program. They all seem like pretty nice people. After arriving in the city we had a short little orientation meeting. I met 3 of my 4 roommates, and early on it seems like we will really get along well.

I was extremely jet lagged once during the orientation meetings. However, I tried as hard as I could to stay awake. Even though, I kept dozing off and getting yelled at.

That afternoon we decided to look for a place to stay since we arent able to move into our apartment for a week. We found a little hostel to stay in, but today we found a hotel room to stay in for the rest of the week.

That night we walked around the city and also tried to find our apartment. We are not positive if we found the right building, but if we did, it is in the most amazing neighborhood. It is no more than a 15 minute walk to the center of the city and it is about 2 blocks away from a huge park with a very ancient castle in it. Also, there are a bunch of neat cafes and bars no more than a couple blocks away.

For the rest of this week we have a bunch of orientation meetings and we also start taking some intro to Danish classes. Although Danish is the main language here, it seems like they use a ton of english. Also, everyone I have run into here speaks English as well.

Today I also had my first schwarma. Basically, it is very similiar to a gyro. Apparently, they are extremely popular in this area---because they are both tasty and cheap. I can see myself eating a lot of schwarmas over the next few months.

I'm really excited about moving into our apartment because I am very sick of living out of my suitcases. We are in a very cramped room, so we pretyt much have to spend the entire day outside of our hotel room. This has been a good thing, however, because we are able to walk around the city alot.

Everyone in Copenhagen rides a bike--they even have bike lanes set up all over the place. In fact, they have these bikes called, "city bikes." For a 20 kroner deposit (about 2-3 bucks) you get to ride one of these bikes around. Then you hook up the bike back to a rack (which are located all over the city) and you get your deposit back. It's pretty cool, I see myself using that quite often. My roommates and I have also started looking for bikes to buy for when we have our apartment.

Well, that's pretty much all that's new with me, however, I'll keep you updated and let you know about the apartment when we move in.

TAKE IT EASY

-Dan