First Days in Copenhagen

On Friday, my parents drove me to San Francisco where I said goodbye to them and hopped on my flight to Copenhagen! Lucky for me, I have a lot of family in Denmark, so I knew that I had my uncle, my cousins, my Farmor (which is Danish for “dad’s mom”) and my sister, who coincidentally doubles as my best friend, waiting for me at the other end of the eleven-hour flight.

Here’s an idea of what the flight looked like for me:

• Read The Handmaid’s Tale, which is a good book, but it is heartbreaking
• Ate dinner, which consisted of one slice of cheese, because my food allergies make it difficult to eat the unlabeled plane food
• Read more of my book until they turned the lights down
• Slept for six hours
• Woke up and read even more of the book
• Landed in Copenhagen!

After getting through customs and baggage claim, I walked out into the arrivals area where the white and red Danish flag was waving everywhere and tons of expectant and excited people were waiting. I was reunited with my family (finally!) and my Farmor drove my sister, Elinor, and I home to the apartment where I’ll be living for this upcoming semester! Meet Elinor:

I’m living in the middle of Copenhagen with El and her friend, Lina, in a corner apartment that is VERY different from the dorm I lived in just a couple of months ago at Seattle University. I get to have this as my view!

It’s in a beautiful neighborhood full of unique apartments, trendy shops and plenty of bicycles. Here is a picture of a place called Islands Brygge, which is only a fifteen minute walk away from my apartment!

For the past couple of days, I have been getting to know the area more, which involves cool restaurants and a LOT of getting lost.

Yesterday, I left the apartment on my own to go get some groceries, as Elinor and I had some friends over for dinner. Everything was fine getting there, walking the streets of Copenhagen with huge churches towering above me and rain drizzling down, but on my way back, it was an entirely different story. Carrying my three bags of groceries through the rain, it was already quite an adventure, but my phone didn’t have service, so I had no way of finding my way home. After wandering around for half an hour, I took my groceries into a little cafe, connected to the WiFi and eventually found my way home.

It’ll get easier, I’m sure, but for now, I’m still going to get lost doing the simplest of tasks. It’s all a part of studying abroad, I guess!

Orientation for DIS starts on Monday and I will get to meet students from across the U.S. with whom I will be sharing this semester with! I am so excited to see where this journey takes me and will keep you posted along the way.