being sick in a foreign country

I haven't updated in a few days and I can't say that much has happened. But definitely quite enough that I can get a decent size post out of. On the second day of orientation, we did the paperwork of our residence permits, and once I get that all set, I will have my healthcare taken care of just like other citizens. (That's why their taxes are like 60%) During the break, I grabbed lunch with Sarah. We opted for McDonald's. Go figure, I came all the way to Denmark to eat American food. This can't really go on much longer though as the food is very expensive and I am on a limited budget!

I found the main shopping street here in Copenhagen, it's called Stroget (hopefully I'm spelling that correctly) It's a walking street much like Fanuel Hall in Boston, but much much longer. I have a feeling I might be spending many hours there.

Next was my academic orientation where the Architecture Design core program met up as a whole and sat through a lecture and were given details about what we were about to go through. The faculty all seem very friendly and very enthusiastic about what they are doing which gives me a bit of excitement and anticipation. They called us architects. It was quite surreal, I had never thought myself as one, but here I am in good company. It finally hit me, "oh yeah, I'm here to study!" a bittersweet thought. I finally made it back to Trekoner, the station where my Kollegium (dorm) is and stopped by Fakta (our grocery store) to buy some groceries and a six pack of Heineken, which unfortunately is still a six pack. And by the way, if you are someone who happens to come in contact with my mother, please don't tell her, she will worry ;)

Sarah and I cooked dinner together for the first time. It was simple pasta and meatballs, which in my opinion, turned out perfectly!

Here's my plate with meatballs, mushrooms, and seasoned with pepper 

And here's Sarah's with just meatballs and a little bit of sauce. If you don't know Sarah, you might just get to know a little bit too much about her eating habits from this blog. Apologies to Sarah.

By this point, I'm feeling a bit under the weather and really don't want to leave my room but did for the next days schedule, "The Amazing Race" and for any of you Running Man fans out there, it was just like that. We were given five different locations in Copenhagen to find, and once we got there, there weren't so much tasks but a meet and greet between us and some tour guides of some sort giving us historical background of the area. One thing for sure is that everything is a lot closer than anticipated. I can get lost without ever really getting lost. It's much like walking through Boston or Philadelphia where things are not as far apart as one would imagine. I knew this would be the day where I would see most of the city, so I grabbed my Cannon and went for the tourist look. Here is a link to my photos from the day if you want to take a look. Please pardon me as I am still practicing with exposure and ISO's and what not.

There was a guy in my group that happened to be from Hamilton College. When I mentioned I was from Posse, he got very excited, threw out some names I had no clue about but sounded familiar, and actually introduced me to another scholar from my year. Apparently, there are more Posse scholars studying here this semester too! It's really a small world. My group made it through two locations and decided to head to the Student Lounge where we had free Danish danishes waiting for us. Or so we thought. By the time we made it there, the danishes magically disappeared and we could not partake in their delight. But there was quite a funny sign hanging.

 I called it a day quite early. I find that when I'm sick, I become a big baby just like my older brother, but here, there is no one to coddle or take care of me, so I'll just have to stick it through. Another thing is that they don't have any cold medicine here. Danes just don't believe in cold medicine. They think that the body will do what it has to in order to get better. I believe it, but not so much appreciate the longer span of having to be sick. I've been surviving off of Sarah's cold medicine and A LOT of cough drops. Before heading back to the dorm though, I decided to look for the local Asian market or as close to a Chinatown I could find, so I could get my Asian fix of food when I needed it. It happens to be right next to the Central Station it was so perfect I can't even explain how excited I was to find what seemed like a hole in the wall small little store with not much but just enough. They even sold mangosteen, jom jom, and gai si go. (Three different languages for names of fruits that I can't explain otherwise) On my journey to find this store, I passed by what looked like the official entrance to Tivoli Park. I can't wait until I can actually go in.

and for my cousin Hillary

yep, they have Build a Bear's here too!

Classes start the next day, but I woke up the next morning and knew I was not going to be able to make it into the city, and missed class. =[ Hopefully I didn't miss too much. I got some really good sleep in though, so that was awesome. I probably slept for 24 hours straight. Very much needed.

I went back into the city the next day to start my core class, and didn't know that I had missed yet another class. Yes, I am a hot mess. But hopefully this peters out, I am not normally like this. (So I think) We sat through another lecture on plan, section, and elevation. I am really glad that I went through the Cities 226 course, because I would have been completely lost. And I feel like our first assignment here is a perfect continuation of where I left off in that course. I am really excited for the project. We are to plan an art gallery to be placed in between to Potato Row houses. This time, I'll even get to build a model and work with my hands. Just what I've been waiting for! My studio is comprised of 8 students, 5 female, and 3 male. A ratio that I haven't been exposed to in 3 years. It's a bit refreshing. We took a 30 minute walk to the location to take measurements and get a feel of the area. I had the best hot chocolate of my life there, and now that I think about it, didn't take a picture of. On my way back to the station, not knowing if there was any closer station than Central Station, I took about an hour walk back towards the city center. I turned onto a busy street, not really knowing where it would lead, but it lead me right to Stroget and the street just really comes to life at night with all the lights and people. It was really fun to just be in the midst of all that. And just allowing myself to get lost without so much as a single worry.

I am still feeling really out of the weather, but we have a bike trip planned for the next morning. I haven't ridden  a bike in quite some time, and it seems quite intense here in Copenhagen. Apparently you can bike everywhere! and it's probably expected. There are about 33% or a bit more bikers in this city, and that is more than the amount of drivers, which is also to be expected because of the high tax rate. We biked as a group to the shopping complex about 20 minutes out, and then to the city center where there is another shopping street. We parked our bikes and got on foot.

DIS gave us all bikes because we live so far out from the city. Mine is the first one on the right =]

Sunny (one of our SRA's) brought a few of us to the bike shop where we could get problems with our bikes worked out. And the rest of us were lead on a tour by Simi (our other SRA). She brought us to where she went to school and her favorite hangout spot. It's much like a cosplay group and I have never seen so many people huddled together to play Magic Cards. I didn't even know people were still into it. There were Harry Potter brooms and wands, fake swords from various games I'm assuming. I was transported into a whole different world. But still interesting nonetheless. At this point we were freezing, so we went into a coffee shop to warm up a bit. I ordered a cafe latte, which came out beautifully. My first first-person experience with latte art. 

accompanied by a scrumptious blueberry muffin . 

We made our way to the viking museum, and then back to the dorm. I am a bit out of shape so I brought up the rear of the pack, but got to have a good conversation with Simi. She really opened up to me, and I felt bad that I didn't reciprocate, I'm not really one with words. But she said to me towards the end, that to us they may just be SRA's who we go to when we have problems, but she finds that when you open up to someone, they will open up to you. And that's really true. I really appreciated that she saw us more than just residents that she had to take care of, but as people that are worth getting to know and become fond of. That's the Danish hospitality for you. After riding for three hours, I had to walk my bike back to the dorm to park it, my body just couldn't do it anymore. My legs turned to mush as I attempted to climb the two flights to get to my room. But it was all worth it! I definitely hope to do some more riding and hopefully one day in Copenhagen itself.

Finally, I make it to today! IKEA trip. Man I just love that place. The inner geek in me really comes out when I go there. But really, I have been there so much, I pretty much know the ins and outs of the place, so not much surprises me anymore, and the furniture is all the same here too! The Swedish meatball meal comes with whole potatoes though, not mashed. I managed to make it out of there spending less than 300 kroner ($50 USD) I'm proud of myself. I didn't get to meet up with my visiting family today, but I did make contact and they seem very friendly and have invited me to a dinner with a group that they have dinners with. I'm excited to see how that goes. That's about it for now, classes start up again tomorrow, and I made sure to double check my schedule so that I don't miss anymore classes. If you made it through this entire post, thank you for caring enough to finish reading!Hopefully I'm getting a bit better at this by breaking it up with pictures. Until the next time!




Here is a picture of the view from my room. It's a lot prettier when it's covered with snow, which it is now.