Today marks my two week anniversary with Copenhagen/Borup. It seems like only yesterday I was in Newark Airport being told that my luggage was much too heavy and that it would be $80.00 since it was overweight or $50.00 to check a second bag. So there I was, being “that person” with their suitcase open in the middle of the airport trying to figure out the heaviest things I had packed in order to make my suitcase 11 kg lighter. Since then, I have had plenty of time to settle in and get acquainted with my new hometown of Borup, as well as Copenhagen. My host mother, Helle, graciously offered to pick me up from the airport on Saturday and welcome me into her home a day early. This was a huge relief since I no longer needed to worry about finding a source of transportation to get me to my hotel. The first thing I learned in arriving to Borup was that Helle was a wonderful cook. She has yet to make a dish that I don't like. Sunday I met Tina and Zoe, the two other girls from DIS that will be living with my host family. The following three days we had multiple orientation activities to help us learn to navigate the area around DIS as well as see some sights in Copenhagen. These three days were a whirlwind of “learning” unknown streets, and with my terrible sense of direction, not much of it stuck. Therefore, when it came time to start school on Thursday I still had no idea how to get from the train station to any of my classes and I was lacking a hand drawn map from either my dad or Ryan which I would normally have back home. This fact held up until about two days ago. I can proudly say that now I can navigate by myself to my classes from two different train stations, but if it weren't for Tina and Zoe for the first few days I might still be wondering the streets. I am still trying to adjust to the commute as well as being an “early riser.” My 8:30 am class requires me to get up at 6 am in order to leave my house by 6:50. I then ride a bike about 2 kilometers, braving all kinds of weather mind you, to the train station, where the 7:04 train will bring me into Copenhagen around 7:45. Then I have about a ten minute walk to class. Yes, this means that I get to class about half an hour early. This concept of being early to anything is quite new to me, but taking the next train would make me late for class so I have no other choice. Since arriving here I have learned the following things:
- Danish microwaves work differently. Our microwave at home has a metal rack in it-and it never sparks when you turn it on. Also, one doesn't punch in what time they want but rather turns a dial. I usually put it on A1 (not the steak sauce)-which equates to a minute in a half. However, it is still amusing when Tina asks me, “How long did you heat yours up for-A1?”
- Danes are the nicest people in the world, or at least the nicest people I have met out of all the places I have been in the world. They don't speak much in public so at first they seem rude when they just nudge you to indicate they need to get off the train. However, if you ask anyone a question they are more than willing to help you. For example, today there was a problem with one of the train tracks so my train was canceled. Stranded in the train station with no way of reading the television I finally stopped making up my own translation for what I though it said and asked the man next to me. He explained what was going on and tried to help me figure out which train to take instead. He then left to make a phone call and I continued to stare at the TV. Five minutes later, he came running back and asked me if I had figured out what to do yet. Of course I had not, so he continued to try and help me. I finally thanked him for his time, but told him I would figure it out because it became apparent to me that if I didn't tell him I would figure it out, he would've missed his train in order to help me.
- Danes are the most trusting people in the world. It is not uncommon to see a baby carriage, containing a baby, parked outside a store while the mother is inside shopping. My Danish teacher told me that babies sleep best in the cold weather and that Danes have so much trust in their fellow citizens that it is not an issue to abandon your child like this. If you did this in America your baby would probably be gone when you came out of the store and the police would be waiting for you. Along the lines of trust, Denmark has an “open prison system” in which there are no gates around the prison, and yet the inmates don't try to leave. In these prisons the inmates often do their own cooking, in a kitchen, with large knives. And yes, some of the people are in prison for murder. However, my criminology teacher, the daughter of an open prison warden and who grew up in the prison grounds riding her bike past the prisoners on her way to school everyday, said that she never felt unsafe. The prisoners know they have done something wrong and so for the most part (some do “escape” aka walk out) they will fulfill their required time in prison. I'm glad Lincoln Burrows was not put into a Danish open prison because the whole basis for my favorite show Prison Break would be gone.
- Along the lines of #2 and #3, the city is very safe. The biggest threat to me, Tina, and Zoe right now is safely riding our bikes on roads covered with black ice at 7 am when the moon is still out. These journeys to the train station don't always turn out like we would wish, yes this involves falling off the bikes, but they are a work in progress. Similarly, the past few days I have felt like I was partaking in the Tour de France on my way to the train. I finally figured out that my front tire is almost completely flat. These bike rides never fail to crack me up. I feel like I'm in ET with the basket on the front and the headlight and taillight on.
- Everything is very expensive. For example: Cosmo magazine: $5.99 in the US. In Denmark, 75 kroner (about $15.00).
- The cobblestone sidewalks are doing major damage to my favorite boots :(
- Danish is hard to learn and I can assume with much accuracy that anything I try to say I am absolutely butchering. For example the word stroget is not pronounced stro-get like one might think but rather stru-ul. Also, as a born shopper the word udsalg (sale) is my favorite.
- Denmark's handball teams are really good (the men are currently heading the the finals)
And that is just the beginning. As far as my classes go, I love them all, just not the 8:30am one, which is based solely on its time, not the class itself. The other day in Human Health and Disease we were able to go into the operating room and see a patient be treated for macular degeneration. This involved the doctor numbing the eyeball, dripping in iodine, putting a metal clamp in the eye socket to keep the patient from blinking, and then sticking a need into the retina in order to inject the medicine. The patient I observed was quite calm for having a needle put into her eye. This could be because many patients have to have this done about once a month as they get older in order to help prevent blindness. This was very exciting to see for only my second day of having that class, and I can't wait to be able to see more! I apologize for the length of this-I have a lot to say about the last two weeks.
