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| 9:30pm!!!! |
On Saturday Klaus and I took a trip in to Copenhagen just to refresh my memory on how to get to my school. Boy am I glad we did!!! When we got off at Nørreport I realized that the station was under construction and lost all sense of direction... the plan had been for us to get off the train and I would lead the way to the school and Klaus would just be there in case I needed help... Well after about 2 seconds he stepped in and told me (in a very nice way) that I was going the wrong direction. Not only was it the wrong right or left that I could eventually recover from, but I was going northeast and the school is southwest!!!! AHHH! I was totally freaked out at this point and I think we were both really worried about what was going to happen Monday when I had to find it on my own. Once I could rationally think again we walked back to the station and I took in as many landmarks as I could (i.e. come up from the station and look for the yellow sign above that store, turn right at the big blue flags, look for the store called "the big apple", turn left at the 7-11, etc) forget about street names, not only can I not pronounce them which makes it hard to memorize them, but I have a hard time finding them in any case. They don't have the street names on sign posts or by the street lights like in the states, they are written on the buildings which seems easy enough to figure out, but when your brain isn't used to it, it is very confusing. Or maybe its just me? lol!
Once we got back to the train station we decided not to wander around that area just in case things in the wrong direction would look familiar so we got back on the train and headed to a different stop and walked around for a little bit before heading to his sister's apartment for dinner and a birthday celebration with their parents. Klaus, his sister and his mom were all celebrating their birthdays at the same time :) His dad's birthday is close too, but they had a big party for him earlier. :)
When we got there Helle and Ruth had also turned it into a welcome to Denmark party! :) They had hung up a string of Danish flags across the ceiling and made a poster for me too! :) It was really sweet and very fun :)
We enjoyed a really good dinner (it was sort of like a hamburger rolled into a ball with sauteed onions on top, wrapped in tin foil and baked in the oven... I don't know what its called, but it was Meget God- very good!) After we were all full from dinner we decided to take a walk down to the harbor near Helle's apartment. It was a little windy and cloudy that evening but still a lot of fun.
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The next morning Klaus decided we needed to go to the electronics store (think danish best buy) and get a phone for me that wasn't 10 years old (I had been using an old one of his). So now I have a phone that actually has maps and a gps in it so that hopefully I can find my way in Copenhagen easier! YAY!!!! :) He really is Mr. Wonderful! ;-)
That afternoon his parents and sister came by for lunch since his parents were heading back home and wanted to see him again before they left. It was a very nice relaxing afternoon: we had lunch and then went to a park area near the apartment and sat out in the sun and just chatted and rested.
After they left we decided it would be a good idea to try to go to Copenhagen again and see if I could find the school now that I had found my landmarks and studied the map and had the awesome phone. So off we went... this time it was sooooo much smoother and I didn't get turned around once! YAY!!!! I think this made us both feel better about me going by myself the next morning :)
Monday morning- this is it! My first day of danish school!!! YIKES!
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| Ready to go! |
Everything went really well getting to class (I actually got to the city about 45 mins early because Klaus dropped me off at the train station on his way to work) So I had plenty of time to sit in Kongens Have (King's garden) and just relax a little bit. I found the school with no problem and was able to chat with a few of my classmates before we went in. There is only one other American in the class, she's from New Jersey and was a flight attendant who had lived in Qatar for a while before coming to Denmark. The other 15 people in the class are from all over the world! It was really cool because the first things we learned in class were how to ask someones name, where they are from, and what languages they speak. So as we went around and (in danish) answered the questions we got to know the other people in the class :) We also learned to count to 20 and the alphabet :) I sort of felt like a kindergartner, but its all things that we have to know before we can move on. The written alphabet is the same except they have 3 extra letters æ ø å, but the pronunciation is WAY different than how we say it in English.
Overall its been an amazing few days and I am loving it! :) I'm looking forward to this weekend and having Klaus around a little more, but its been nice to have some alone time too and have a chance to explore the area a little bit (with my handy-dandy phone that can get me un-lost if I need it!) I do miss everyone back home though, but hopefully everyone is doing well! If you want to chat on skype just find me using my full name and I will leave it on whenever I am in the apartment. :)
XOXO,
Joy
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