Museum heaven

I have gotten a bit behind in my blog posts, so I am going to cover several days at once. On Sunday we went to the Glyptotek. It was so big we couldn't even get all the way through it. We are going to go back another Sunday to see the paintings. Devotees of my blog will remember that this is where we had our opening ceremonies
Here is the Greek temple that our opening ceremony was in.

On Wednesday I had my first study tour with my Hans Christian Anderson class, which is by far is my favorite class. We went to the old Royal theater, which is where Hans Christian Anderson was a ballet dancer as a teenager. It is exactly the same as it was during his time.

These are some of the equipment they used to make thunder and rain noises. My teacher made people actually use them before suddenly reading the Do Not Touch signs that were prominently displayed
This is the view from the royal box.
We also went to the Thorvaldsen Museum. He was a famous sculpter during the Danish Golden Age (which is when H.C. Anderson lived). The museum had these long corridors with little rooms full of statues. It was really pretty and every room had a different beautiful ceiling.Here is a copy of the sculpture Thorvaldsen made for the Pope. He was the first Protestant to be commisioned by the Pope for his sculpture.


This picture is from Thursday. I was walking with a couple girls from my class during our break and we happened onto a parade. Every day the Royal Guard walk from the palace to the Parliament.

AP English revisited

This Saturday DIS offered a tour to Elsinore and Kronborg for 55 kr (about 10 bucks). The literary among my readers will recognize Elsinore and the castle where Hamlet is set. After about an hour bus ride, we arrived in Elsinore. We had some time to walk around the little town and eat lunch. We ate at a delicious schwarma place, who turned the tv immediately to Mtv once we walked in. I guess we are pretty obviously American! It was wierd to see the Hills playing in Denmark with Danish subtitles. The town was really cute, and if we ever decide to go to Molmo, Sweden, that is where we will be able to catch the ferry. They are proud of their Shakespearen connection and even had statues of Ophelia and Hamlet in front of the Town Hall.


We moved on to Kronborg, the actual castle. It was more like a fortress since the Swedish have stolen most of its valuables about 400 years ago. It was built by Frederik II in 1574 (fun fact: almost all the Danish kings have been named either Frederik or Christian). Therefore, there really was never a Hamlet. The castle was pretty cool, and had these pitch black dungeons that we got lost in for a little bit, even with a guide! Kronborg is also the setting for the legend of Holger the Dane, a mythological warrior sleeping under the castle who will wake up whenever Denmark is in trouble.

Obamamania

So, Obama has been our President for a few days now. I have to say the inauguration here was a huge deal. I was semi-prepared for how involved Europeans are in American politics from my friends who studied abroad last semester. However, it is still a little shocking to walk into the store and see a whole rack of magazines with Obama's face on it.

I actually ended up watching the inauguration with several other DIS kids after we picked up our bikes. We went by a few bars packed with Danes all watching the inauguration before happening in on one that had space. It was a tiny bar that set up a projector for the wall. It was a really interesting experience. All the Americans stood up for the national anthem. We were basically the only ones there except for about 20 Dominican immigrants. They were more excited and wild than we were! At mock con about this time last year I never expected my inauguration experience would be like this!

Lance Armstrong now has some competition

So, on Tuesday I rented a bike for my stay here. The rental company is a non-profit that sends bikes to Africa. The rental place was just around the corner, so a couple people from my kollegium and I decided we might as well pick up our bikes. After remembering how to ride a bike (it has been about 10 years), we met up with a few other people in a tiny bar to watch Obama's inauguration. They projected it up on the wall for the crowd that consisted of about 8 American students and about 20 Dominican immigrants. It was definitely my most unique experience this so far.

Back to my bike, I have realized I am not in the best biking shape. Luckily my bike ride is simple, we only have to turn once, but its about 25 minutes long. I don't know how the Danes stand those bike seats, because they are not too comfortable! They are also crazy good bikers. The other day a guy was biking, while wheeling another bike beside him! Oh, and he was passing me! You see all different types of people biking; old, young, women in fur coats, just about anyone you can imagine. I only hope that by the end of the four months I will be half as good as they are! It does explain why I haven't seen many fat people in Copenhagen.

Lesson Learned: The Danish don't eat past 8:30

So, Monday was full of more orientation things. We had our opening ceremony in the Glypotek, which is their art museum. It was beautiful, the room was a copy of a Roman temple. The museum nerd in me is definitely going back.

I also had my first survival Danish class. We invaded a Netto, the Danish cheap supermarket chain. I felt bad for any one shopping, because we took up so much space trying to figure out the names of various meats and fruits. I'm excited to learn more of the words for various foods, because I currently am pretty helpless.

That night a group of girls from my Kollegium and I decided to go out to eat and to a bar. We didn't get into the city until about 8:30 but we figured that was all right. False. After trying 4 bar/restaurants and walking by countless restaurants that were already closed we ended up in the Hard Rock Cafe. I guess I am allowed a few days of being horribly touristy.

Watch out Copenhagen, I have arrived

Well, I landed on last Sunday after about 14 hours of traveling. My plane was almost all DIS kids so I there were plenty of people to sit with during my 4 hour layover. However, I do have a grudge against the Newark airport now. 1. The airport was confusing and the employees were not helpful 2. It didn't have much to eat and the number 1 reason: they lost my bags. Luckily, my family made me pack an extra shirt, underwear, and toothbrush in my carry on. This made me much better off than some of the other lost baggage kids (there were at least 35 lost bags from my flight).

After we landed at 6:30 am (only 12:30, normal time) we had a lot of orientation and waiting around to do. I had immediately bonded with the other lost luggage people and we felt so smug, because we could skip all the luggage lines and didn't have to lug stuff around. We did not feel smug the next day, when instead of taking the provided bus right to our Kollegium, we instead had to drag our heavy bags around downtown until the train station, and then take the very crowded public bus.

Back to the first day, that night DIS provided our dinner. All the DIS (there are about 40) in my dorm gathered in our common kitchen and we had pizza and beer. It was very typical college. Dad will be proud, because I was one of the few that stayed up all the way to 10pm, to help with the jet lag. After Australia this was nothing.

I am going to post some pictures of my room, which happily now has stuff in it.