Day 2 - A Very Long Day Indeed

Couldn't sleep too well, but that was probably due to the jetlag in addition to hunger, noisy party-goers, and having to go to the bathroom. I finally did get up at 6:30am to go to the bathroom and then decided to make good use of time afterwards to do some reading I had meant to do on the flight. It was refreshing. The hostel had a breakfast buffet for a small fee so Maggie and I both had that to start the day. I had cornflakes, coffee, pineapple, honeydew melon, a roll, brie cheese and orange juice. We had the hostel call a cab for us and he took us to Norreport, one of the main bus, metro and train stations. Unfortunately it was under construction which made finding our bus stop difficult. We finally found the right one and realized the buses we had seen pass us for the route we needed were the last buses for the next 4 hours. We needed to get to DTU's campus before 2pm so decided to take a taxi there which we knew would be expensive. However, we enjoyed the company of our taxi driver for quite some time as he gave us a little tour and told us about the Danes. Finally on campus we shortly found our way to the accommodation office to pick up our keys and linen sets. Then we stopped by the international affairs office to ask some questions regarding our residence permit applications which we need to apply for because we'll be living in Denmark for more than 90 days. I realized I didn't have all the documents with me that I needed, but I was able to go to the library nearby and print everything from digital copies I had saved. That was a relief. There are several bus routes that pass through DTU and we purchased what are called clip cards which is like buying bus tickets in bulk so it's cheaper. Copenhagen and the surrounding suburbs are broken into zones and the more zones travelled the more it costs. We happened to live 3 zones from DTU and Copenhagen so we got clip cards that had ten 3 zone clips. So we went on our way towards the bus stop we needed and headed towards Herlev where our apartment was located. We didn't realize that our cards needed to be clipped right when we got on the bus, but the driver didn't seem to mind us clipping it right before we got off. Now we know though to look for a little slot just inside the door to the bus. We got dropped off by the Herlev Hospital which later proved to be an important landmark for us because it stood well above the surrounding buildings. The directions we had from DTU weren't too specific and some of what we thought were roads didn't have names on our map. After coming to the end of one of the roads we knew we needed to be on we were offered help from a lady outside her home who must have noticed how confused and lost we were. After all, we were dragging all our luggage with us at this point. Good news though. We were actually pretty close to our apartments. What we thought were unmarked roads on the map turned out to be sidewalks! It didn't take too long before we found our apartment complex and our corresponding buildings. I guess it wasn't quite what I expected but that was because there were 2 floors with 9 rooms each that all shared a kitchen and living area. The room was  a decent size and mine came with a bed, desk and dresser. I put a few things away, but then dusted and swept so I wouldn't have to move much out of my way when I was cleaning. I met one of the guys on my floor named Dang (not sure how he spells it yet) who is Danish, but has Vietnamese parents. He speaks Danish and English fluently. I couldn't even detect any accent in his English! He was putting together a new bed frame from IKEA so I gave him a hand. At the time he said he was moving out in 10 days and going to be gone for 5 months so he wouldn't be back before I left. The main reason for getting the bed and weeding out a lot of his stuff was for the girl who will be subleasing from him during the 5 months. Half of his things were in the hall that he needed to sort through and rearrange. I later met Alex, Andrew, and Samolna (also not sure how she spells her name) when I was in the kitchen/living area. Maggie and I went to the grocery store nearby and bought some essentials and for this first trip we mostly stuck to what we could identify by how it looked because we couldn't read most of the labels. I thought I got milk, but little did I know it was sour milk :) Good thing I asked some of the other guys in my apartment because I would have been quite surprised when I opened it or poured it on my cereal. I decided I would not be having cereal the next morning, but also decided I would make buttermilk pancakes since sour milk can be used in place of buttermilk. While Maggie and I were waiting for Matt to return from his traveling to other countries, we tried to setup our internet, but couldn't translate the directions because of course Google Chrome needed to be connected to the internet. Dang was more than willing to help and we found out all we needed to do was restart our computer after going through the steps we had already stumbled through. After that getting Maggie's wireless router wasn't too difficult (or at least it wasn't in Danish). Once connected to the internet we looked at one of Matt's previous Facebook messages and realized his room was actually in the building next to Maggie's. We had originally thought he was just down the hall from Maggie and had knocked a few times on that door with no answer. So at that point in the evening he had made it back, but only recently. He apparently had a terrible time getting back to our apartment because of the unfamiliar country and language. Needless to say he was glad to be at his apartment and see us. The next day we planned to go into Copenhagen to meet another Matt who is from Purdue, but is studying abroad in Ireland for the fall semester. I sorted and unpacked a few more things in my room, took a much needed shower, and then went to bed after a long day.

Day 1 - Leaving Home

Well I've arrived in Copenhagen this afternoon which to my body seemed like morning. It's 6 hours ahead of the eastern time zone. Where to start? There's so much that happened. Preparations to travel from Fort Wayne to Chicago with my parents went well and we left early to avoid traffic. We actually were so early that when we got to the baggage check-in we had to wait nearly an hour an a half, but we didn't mind. Especially considering security was the next thing to go through and my parents could go past that point. I met up with Maggie, my travel buddy and fellow exchange student in Purdue's biomedical engineering program, before I checked my luggage in (by the way I am proud to say that I only needed 1 suitcase and kept it just barely under the weight limit). So baggage check-in, then security. It's not like I wasn't expecting to get through, but everything went smoothly. I didn't remember that I had liquids in my carry on even though I said no when they asked. Either they let me off easy or didn't notice :/ I may never know although there's a slight chance they might not let me back in to the U.S... More waiting after I got everything packed back into my carry-on and put my shoes back on. By more waiting I mean about 4 hours so I wasn't kidding when I said we got there early. Better safe than sorry though. I had time to explore the international terminal, but really there wasn't anything of great interest from gates 1-5 or 16-22 apart from the moving sidewalks. Maggie and I had two restaurants to choose from and neither of us had a strong preference so we went with the one closer to gate 12, our gate. It was a Mexican restaurant and the other was a Chinese one. I didn't order much and it was a good thing because we got fed quite a bit on the plane, but I didn't think about that ahead of time. After dinner we still had to wait a little while but the time passed quickly as Maggie and I talked. I felt like I was telling stories a lot, but that was what was coming to my mind I suppose. Since we had the cheap tickets we boarded with the very last group (which reminds me of Brian Regan's joke about crazy anxious people crowding the gate like it's that last helicopter out of Vietnam). I had a pretty good idea where my seat was located so I didn't say anything when the flight attendant mistook me for a Dane and directed me in Danish :) However, Maggie pointed out the seat numbers which were nearly out of my sight because my eye level was slightly above the level of the overhead racks. So I found my seat and after some introduction found out that I had sat down next to a fellow cheese head and his wife who was Swedish (not a cheese head). My other seat buddy was from Illinois and heading to Copenhagen to meet his wife who had gone ahead of him because she worked for a Danish company. He let me borrow his book called "Know Your Danes" for the flight. It included a bit of subtle humor which of course made it more entertaining to read. Shortly after we had reached cruising altitude and we were allowed to unfasten our seatbelts we were served dinner. I ate everything they offered apart from the coffee which would have hampered my efforts to sleep. Since we were flying overnight I was determined to at least try to sleep, but naturally with my long torso and preferred erect posture my head was almost entirely above the top of the seat. I used the blanket Scandinavian Airlines provided as a neck pillow though and slept for a while. There was some turbulence, but I felt at ease most of the time and when I didn't I just prayed. God always provides me with peace when I need it. Near the end of the flight breakfast was served which I appreciated despite the fact it was noon in Denmark. After landing and leaving the plane we went through a line to check our passports (just to make sure no one jumped on or off the plane during our flight). Then I received my very first stamp in my passport booklet. Baggage claim was next and fortunately not too busy. I almost missed my bag because I thought it looked too small. Maggie and I went to the ATM's and withdrew some Danish kroner and we had to remember that 1 dollar is about 6 kroner. We had planned to take a bus, but the attendant at the ticket counter suggested we take the train. Maggie and I didn't want to wait in the huge line for the train ticket counter so took on the challenge of using the automated ticket machine. We only had to cancel the transaction once and restart so I would say that was pretty successful. However, we almost missed our train though because the time on the ticket is actually the latest time you can board any train and we were going to wait until that time came if we hadn't asked another person waiting. The central station was a couple blocks from the hostel we had booked a room at so we rolled our luggage there. Once checked in we couldn't figure out the elevator so we carried our luggage, but only up one flight of stairs. It was pretty small, but that was expected. We met some people in the lounge area mostly from other countries and traveling through Denmark. Then Maggie and I went for a walk around the canals until dinner time. We had heard the hostel was serving free dinner around 6:30 for the first 50 people so we made it back well before then. The dinner consisted of bread and chicken/potato/carrot stew. After dinner I read and wrote for a while and then we went out to see the town after dark. We especially liked the pedestrian only roads where there were many shops. After that though we were both exhausted and we decided to go to bed around 10pm.