Last Day of Orientation Things

So class starts tomorrow (Thursday 22 August). Actually that's today, because I am up at 1:45am writing this and I have some reading to do before the first day of class. Luckily, my Monday/Thursday classes start a little later than my Tuesday/Friday ones.

Anyway,

Today started out with me getting on the bus. I'm always happy waiting for the bus.

The first thing I had to do today was the DIS Amazing Race, which isn't really a race, but is like a self-guided tour with a group of DIS students to 5 places around the center of Copenhagen.

It started to rain as we headed to our first destination, Trinity Church. This is the landmark Round Tower on the side of the church. It was the university's astronomy observatory, the church was the university church, and the rafters/area above the church was the university library in the 17th/18th century before the inside burned down and 300,000 books were lost. The only surviving books were ones that students had taken out, without permission.

Round Tower

Inside Trinity Church

The DIS professor that gave us the aforementioned history lesson and then some.
It was actually really interesting, and he had some good maps/visuals of the church and its history with him.

My Amazing Race group in the pews that have two facing seats so that the congregation can turn around when the minister goes up behind them!

Somewhere along the way, I found a bakery, but sadly did not eat there.

Along the harbor there are really great sand sculptures, but why pay to go in when I can get this amazing picture from outside the fence!

And then we all took pictures of the classic Copenhagen harbor area where there are really expensive cafes and beautifully colored houses.

Our second stop was learning about the harbor and king Christian the 4th, but really all the stops talked about Christian the 4th. The Danes really love Christian the 4th. Apparently all the kings names are either Christian or Frederick, I guess until they started letting daughters inherit the throne.

The Royal Palace guards, guarding the residence of the crown prince. The crown prince just ran an Ironman triathlon with about 2500 Danes. He came in around 600.

The lack of security and feeling of safety in Denmark, especially in places like the Royal Palace would baffle Americans. The Danes haven't had anything like 9/11, but they literally let anyone drive their car around the palace and let everyone into the square and just wow.

So then we got free coffee.

Then we went to the Parliament.

And then we ate Flødebollers, which is a Danish candy: waffle/wafer underneath a whipped egg white and sugar filling all covered in chocolate and sometimes sprinkled with coconut. Delicious. And in my experience, the Danes don't eat a lot of sugar/dessert so I was very happy to finally have some.

Then I had my Medical Practice and Policy core course orientation. It got me excited about going on the study tours and AHHH so much stuff to do!
But then I met up with Taylor and we went to the Activities and Immersion fair.

I went to two different volleyball clubs and there is one competitive women's team (also expensive) and there are tryouts and things, or there was one less competitive tournament club that may or may not have been co-ed and sounded like the one I would rather do! So excited to meet people playing volleyball. Hopefully more Danes than Americans.

I also looked at the booth with DIS internships, and some are paid and some aren't so maybe I'll look into that. I'd love to make a little money.

I'm also doing the DIS buddy network, so sometime soon I'll be put into a group with 15 Danes and 10 Americans and we'll do fun things like go out or cook together.

Got a free Elderflower juice.

Waited in line FOREVER with Taylor and Becca, her DIS roommate who shares her host family, for a free hotdog.

Got a free hotdog.

The buns are like a breadstick with the center drilled out, perfect place for a hotdog, and they put the ketchup and mustard in there before they stick the hotdog in. It was an amazing hotdog design. And it was tasty.

Also at the Immersion fair, I picked up a flier for the Studenterhuset, which is like a bar/cafe/student center that has discounted stuff for Københavns Universitet (Copenhagen University) students and DIS students. 

Taylor and I had some time to kill so we went in and got some teas.

Then I used my flier and got a free beer.

Today was just jam-packed full of fun free stuff, but I shouldn't get used to it because nothing fun is free here.

When we were walking back to the train station, we found out that there are little lights in the streets! Cute.

Taylor's train had its last departure around 6pm or 7pm, and it was about 10pm, so she had to get off and walk a little ways from a different train. We both take the S-train (S-tog) but there are a bunch of different lines, and we use different ones. Mine is pretty good and easy, so I'm happy about that.

But then the but was only coming once every hour until midnight starting around 9, so I waited in the dark at the bus stop for 40min and read some Tale of Two Cities on my Kindle. I even felt pretty safe there. It's weird to feel so safe. Now I'm paranoid.

So I got back around 11 or midnight and my host mom was awake and she and I talked a little about bikes and my plans for tomorrow and that they'd be gone so I don't really know what I'm doing for dinner, yet, but at the end of the conversation she kind of gave me a pat on the back and said goodnight. I think she's warming up to me! YAY!

So now it's 2:48am and I'm going to read my assignments! Haha class starts at 11:40am tomorrow so I'll try to get there around 11-11:30, which means waking up at 9 or 10am. How fun :) Friday I have to be at class at 8:30am though, so... rough. I don't really want to think about that right now, haha.

Chloe and Linda are biking the 7 miles to Copenhagen tomorrow morning. Haha. No, thanks. I think I'd do that if there was no other way, but not by choice.