Timely public transportation, two-pronged outlets, and Danish danishes

I'm currently writing from the DIS computer lab, and trying to avoid hitting the Ø key when I intended to hit the ' key instead (what's with all these weird characters, anyway?). This entry is really just going to be a quick(ish) update of what's been going on. For those of you who look forward to my (maybe) humorous commentary, I apologize in advance because there may not be much of it in this entry.

I've been in Copenhagen since Sunday, and I may have finally gotten used to the time change, although I, like many other students here, seem to be waking up consistently at 3-5AM every morning. Convenient for talking to friends and family at home, inconvenient for walking around the city all day.

Busses and trains here are magically on time, and leave about every 10 minutes. The school paid for me to get a transportation pass, so my travels are hassel-free unless I decide to travel out of the 4 transportation zones that my pass covers. Almost no one here has a car, so if they don't take public transportation they use bikes. EVERYONE has a bike. There are special bike lanes next to the sidewalks, and the bikes even have their own set of traffic lights at intersections. It's completely normal to see women in dresses and stilletos hop on a bike and pedal off, and everyone who's anyone will own and travel by bike at some point (including all government officials). The city is very confusing, since the streets are not only curved (unlike the grid-style streets of NYC) but in a language I don't even speak. I've had to ask for directions on many occasions, but luckily the Danes are very friendly, more than willing to help, and all speak English. They're curious why an American student is in Denmark, and after I ask for help I often end up in a conversation about what I'm doing looking for the bus 69 Bagsværd stop anyway.

I've already immersed myself in Danish culture (or so I like to think) by riding busses and trains or walking everywhere, eating danish pastries, and paying 50 kroners for a Carlsberg (that's the famous beer of Denmark, which cost me 10 American dollars.) Everything here is extremely expensive, so I've really been limiting myself on what I buy. Luckily, with a host family they are responsible for providing you with 2 meals a day. My family decided that they can't very well make me choose between skipping a meal or overpaying for it, so they make sure I eat breakfast with them too. I couldn't be happier with my host family - it seems everyone has a complaint of some sort with their family, but I don't have any at all. There's a 12 year old daughter, a 14 year old son, a 22 year old daughter and a 23 year old son, along with the mom and dad. The oldest daughter and her boyfriend were the ones who picked me up on Sunday, and they were very friendly and talkative. They both live in the city, instead of in the suburbs, and the boyfriend has a car (as I said, that's rare in Denmark) so he gave me his cell phone number in case I get lost or need anything while I'm here. The daughter texted me all throughout my first day to make sure I was doing alright, and even called in the middle of dinner to make sure her family remembered to speak English instead of Danish. The younger daughter doesn't talk all that much, but I think she's just shy. She also hasn't been studying English as long as the rest of her family, so I don't think she's as comfortable speaking it. The younger son didn't talk much at first, but now I can't get him to be quiet. The Danes love sarcasm and making fun of one another, so I fit in perfectly. They started making fun of me as soon as I got there (which, believe it or not, is a good thing.) for things like getting lost, not recognizing the vegetables they were eating, and trying to speak Danish after my survival language class. As I was warned about the sarcasm and mockery ahead of time, I was able to take it in stride and throw it right back. Honestly, it reminds me a lot of home =) . The mom is very talkative, and makes funny English mistakes like telling me that her husband "bought beagles for my sandwich tomorrow." The dad is also very friendly, and likes joking around a lot. They tend to have a seemingly racist sence of humor (after all, everyone in Denmark is tall and blonde), but they're actually not really any more racist than other cultures. I think my favorite quote so far happened when my host dad spilled a cup of hot chocolate on a picture of Obama and said, "Oh no! Not Obama! Oh well, you're already brown."

The house I'm staying in has about a 30 minute commute by bus and train, or a 50 minute commute by just bus. It's in a town called Herlev, which in Danish is actually pronounced "Hair-leu" ... or something like that. It's only about a 2 minute walk to the bus station, which is nice. It turns out that I was lied to when I was told that there's only one hour of sunlight a day - there's really about 6 or 7, although it is dark when I leave in the morning and come home at night.

Well, I've got to get going to my last class for the day (Complexity of Cancer). It's not taught in a classroom - I think it's actually in a University/hospital library or something like that. My class tomorrow is held in a hospital, so I'm pretty excited about that.

I'll update more later, and maybe include some pictures from the scavengar hunt we had to do yesterday (and stories from that as well).