Planes and bikes and spiders...Oh Yeah

So I have finally arrived in Copenhagen! And though I haven't seen much of the actual city yet, I love it so far. It all started with a delayed flight which was not a very promising beginning to all the travels and flight connections I had ahead of me. But the good news was that it meant another DIS student had to change her flights so we ended up flying from Minneapolis to Chicago to London to Copenhagen together. It started out with just us two and by the time we were leaving London about half the plane was full of students studying with our program (DIS). There was a lot of bonding going on. And the other people on the planes were just as interesting. On my way to London I sat next to a British woman wearing an Elvis shirt and watch and who had Elvis purse, Elvis luggage, and an Elvis nail file. Somehow I got the feeling that she really likes Elvis.

My host mom picked me and another DIS student up from the airport, took us to her house using her GPS because, even after years of exchange students, she still can't figure out how to get out of the airport area. It was really cute. And every time her GPS would give her directions (in Danish of course) she would say "Oh yeah!". It was super amusing. I really hope it's a thing of hers.

When we got to the house she wasted absolutely no time telling us all about the workings of the house. She made sure to point out many times that we are a family now and we should treat the house like a family which means dividing up chores, always letting others know where you are, and never asking if it's okay to eat any of the food. It's really sweet. I think she's really excited to have us here because her kids are all grown up and don't live with her anymore. She seems like a really outgoing and kind woman. She loves to joke around and tease and she LOVES to talk.

After getting a tour of the house we got to ride around the area on bikes. Britta (our host mom) took us to the train station that we'll be using bright and early every morning. I discovered two important things on this trip. One: bikes in Denmark don't have handle breaks. It's is very strange peddling backwards to break especially when the seat was so high that I could barely peddle. I'll need to figure out how to lower the seat. Two: they have HUGE spiders here. It's awful!! I saw one that was at least half the size of my palm. I gave my host mom a warning that I am terrified of spiders and will not go near one of any size at any cost. She just hugged me when I told her that. :) I have finally found someone who will not make fun of me for my irrational fears.

 The other DIS student I'm living with is great. We seem to be rather similar so I think we'll get along really well. Her name is Izabel and she'd from Vermont and goes to Smith College. Here are a few pictures of our lovely house.

 

 Me and Izabel

 

The front of our lovely house

 

 

These are the swings in front of our house. We plan to use them a lot in the future.

 

 

Britta's car. She calls it  "small but". Only she says it in Danish and I can't for the life of me remember how you say that. Britta calls her car old. Izabel and I think it's cute.

 

Our bedroom! My bed is the one on the left. :)

Tomorrow we start orientation. There's this large welcome assembly at 9:00 at the Royal Danish Music Academy. We're waking up at 6:00 to get ready and then attempt to navigate the S-train and the metro into the city. This should be interesting.