"It's a small world after all"

It's been a few days since I've blogged, I guess I'm borderline slacking, but I've just been really busy. It's lazy Sunday in Copenhagen so I have time to respond to emails, do my laundry, start my homework, and of course blog! I'll give you a recap of this weekend's past events starting with Friday:

That morning, I attended the second day of the Danish culture class, and let's just say it's not getting any easier for me. I learned (but I can't really remember) how to tell time. The way the Danes do it is different than what I'm used to. For instance, instead of just saying 12:21, they say "et minut i halv et" which translates to "one minute to the half of one". We also practiced having quick conversations with other students, incorporating questions and responses we learned the day before. I repeated the questions "what is your name?", "where are you from?", "what is your nationality?", and "what languages do you speak?" over 14 times. I'm still puzzled as to why we haven't learned how to say "how are you?" yet. This weekend's homework is to do complete the exercises in the book and write a short "essay", which I have yet to start (I know what you're thinking, Mom, but it will get done before I go to bed).

After three hours of class, I headed to the International Office at the City Campus for a meeting with the other UC students who are studying at the University of Copenhagen. I was really surprised at how many of us California kids are here, I'd say over 20 (5 of us are from Cal)! We are all part of UCEAP (University of California Education Abroad Program). During the meeting, our coordinator talked to us about how to get our free health care, transferring units to our home university, and housing.

Afterwards, a couple of the girls from UC Santa Barbara and I headed to the Civil Registration Office not far from the University's City Campus, to get our CPR numbers (social security cards). After starting to fill out my paperwork, I learned that I couldn't register for my CPR number in that specific location because the neighborhood where I live (Frederiksberg) has it's own commune. I'll have to get that done tomorrow.

By the time we left, it was nearly 4pm. It started raining so I took the metro and headed back to my kollegiet (dormitory) where I finally met another student living on my floor. She is from Germany and also taking classes in the LIFE faculty. She was really sweet and helpful. We talked about taking classes at LIFE, our hometowns, and she told me where she bought her bike and the laundry facilities in the building (which I couldn't find until that day).

A huge group of international students planned to go out and experience Copenhagen's nightlife. At 8:30pm, we met at the Norreport metro station (in the city center area). We were a very diverse group coming from many different countries, including the United States, Austria, Brazil, Germany, Czech Republic, and Australia. As you can imagine, we didn't all end up staying together. We left the station and started walking at 9pm, then we split up into smaller groups. Some people went to Stroget (the huge shopping area and the longest pedestrian street in Europe) where Fashion Week activities were taking place. I went with a big group to the bars. It was 9:30 by the time we got to the first bar, and it wasn't too crowded. I learned that night from a Danish girl that most people don't go out until way past midnight and that some bars don't close until people decide to leave (about 7am). That was daunting, since I'm used to the bars at home closing at 2am...at that time in Copenhagen, the night is still young.

We went to two different bars that night, one was called The Happy Pig. We drank Tuborg and Carlsberg, the staple beers here in Copenhagen, played foosball, and listened to a live band that played songs including "YMCA" and "I shot the sheriff". I don't recall them playing a single song from this decade. They had an interesting set list, in my opinion. Mostly though, we socialized with one another. It was nice to get to know everyone better. Being in a classroom doesn't allow us to just hang out and talk to each other, unless you consider asking basic questions in Danish using not-so-authentic accents a real conversation.

After the bars, a few of the other students and I walked to the metro station. On the way there, they stopped at one of the food trucks to buy a famous Danish hot dog. As you could've guess, I didn't buy one. They're a pretty popular snack here, especially as late-night drunchies. The menu was extensive, the girl I was with (who is from Switzerland) was crazy about them and even took a picture on her phone to send to her friend as proof that she actually bought one. Hers was topped with pickles, fried onions, raw onions, and herb mayo. One thing I will say is that the ratio of sausage to bun was extremely disproportionate. The sausage was way too long for the bun, it stuck out at least 3 inches on both ends, which I thought was amusing. You'd think that they would make the buns an appropriate size for the sausages, or at least make the sausages smaller so they'd fit into the bun...sorry, now I'm just rambling about food that I don't even eat. Haha.

Anyways, I got back to my place pretty late that night (at least what I consider late) and immediately fell asleep once my head hit the pillow. I'd say it was a long, yet very eventful and fun day/night.