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.
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