Carbs, Buses and Blonds

DIS is still keeping us SUPER busy with lots of Orientations, etc. Yesterday (Monday), Tasingegade (my apartment complex) served us breakfast at 7:30... super early, especially when jet lag won't go away. Breakfast consisted of bread with an assortment of toppings, including cheese, sandwich meat, butter or jam. We took the train into København (How they spell

Copenhagen here) and walked to the Town Hall, where our SRAs (similar to RAs, but totally different than Miami. They hang out with us/go out and are awesome!) left us to head off to their real jobs. We had the option of doing a scavenger hunt, but we wandered around the city instead. The weather is so unpredictable here right now. The Danes say more than normal. It's super windy in spurts, so the clouds move really fast... aka, it could be raining for five minutes and then be sunny like this five minutes later. And we walked through this huge building that is supposedly a goverment building, but it was HUGE and really pretty! And we were told that

40% of all travel is done on bike... And bike riding is as serious as driving a car. NEVER walk in a bike path without looking... it's just about as bad as walking into a street without looking. Danes take their bike riding seriously. And unlike Oxford, no one jay walks. And I feel like I've seen a million babies around Denmark. Everyone has one of those old fashioned strollers with this funky saran-wrap cover for rain. And they all have carts attached to the front of their bike for their kids to sit in. It's insane... Well, then we wandered around through a park and down Strøget, which is a long street for pedestrians packed with stores. And it's the longest pedestrian walkway in all of Europe! We had an Opening Ceremony for DIS in the town hall, and the Lord Mayor of København talked to us! (Plus it's too fun that he gets the title of Lord Mayor!) Then they gave us these pancakes with cheese... the Danes seriously love carbs. We tried taking the bus back, and Danes kept sitting next to me and one tried talking to me, so I just said I'm sorry, and she struck up a conversation in English! My first real interaction with a Dane haha... Stepping into the culture slowly. Well, we realized we went the wrong way on the bus and took it for about an hour all the way up the route and then had to take it all the way back down... an hour and a half on the bus is MORE than enough. Bought groceries at the Netto for the first time! Have to start making some good food, because Danes pretty much just eat bread. We went back into the city on the RIGHT bus this time, to go to a fair and once we were done, it started down pouting on the way back to the bus stop. We were wandering around aimlessly looking for the bus stop and by the time we got on the bus... we were dripping wet. Today we were split into random groups and had to go on a scavenger hunt around København, which ended up being so much fun! We went to this beautiful church first and then the Roseberg castle. Then we went over to the Royal family lives and got to watch the changing of the guard! Anne, who was our workshop leader, said that the Danish girls always go there and try to distract the guards during this! We then went to Royal Theatre, which is right on the canal, which is so pretty! We were going to eat outside, but opted to eat in because it was so windy! And I picked up my phone! Trying to get it to work now...