A cold and the cold

So it is Saturday night, and I am home. I have a cold. I woke up on Wednesday and couldn't swallow. Yesterday I made a batch of chicken and barley soup. Today I slept in, lay in bed pretty much all day--with the exception of the 40 minutes I spent running outside, couldn't help myself. I'm about to get back into bed and do readings until I fall asleep.

Despite the cold, I had a pretty good week back. Copenhagen is currently experiencing its coldest January in 23 years. The harbor froze for the first time in 14 years. When we arrived here people told us that it didn't get too cold or snow, just rained. To which I replied that this year would be the exception. I was, as it turns out right. It snowed roughly 7 inches on Wednesday. I was on a field trip at the time. It took us over two hours to get to the site; 30 to get back. We went to the Sandholm(spelling?) where asylum seekers are sent when they get to Copenhagen. It is a small, make shift town. It has a dinning hall, a school, preschool. It is well kept, but it was quite evident how the peoples living there could get stir crazy. I visited it as part of my Migration and Identity course; we study immigration. As part of that course I will be going on my short study tour to southern Denmark starting Thursday. I'm not quite sure what is planned for the trip, but the people in the class seem nice so it should be an enjoyable trip.

Between battling the cold and getting back into the swing of things I managed to do a few new things this week. I went ice skating down by the harbor with the full-year students. It was beautiful. We went out night and looked out onto the sea which had a very Titanic-esq vibe with the chucks of ice floating strewn across the surface of the entire harbor. My classes went well, although I think I changed my schedule four, maybe five times. Now it is settled, which is such a relief. The trouble, as I previously mentioned, is that I was signed up for transition economics. It wis taught at the copenhagen business school, as doesn't start until Feb. 2. Well DIS's add/drop period ended Friday, thus I wouldn't be able to switch into another course if I didn't like it. Additionally there was only one graded work for the class, meaning one assignment that would be 100% of my grade. One paper worth 100%, an unknown professor, and only 12 classes , not for me. I switched, even though the subject seemed interesting. I am now taking International Financial Management, so econ/business.


Well I am fading fast; I shall update on the short study tour.

First Week Back

Sorry for the delay in writing, but I figure now is as good a time as any to recount the activities of my first week back in Copenhagen.

I flew out of Portland on Monday--three hours earlier than scheduled. That's correct earlier, not later. On Monday I had a plan: wake up, run, shower, finish packing up the odds and ends scattered around the house. Mother nature had a different plan, one that was at odds with mine. At 8 am I woke up to a world of white, a mini-blizzard. lovely. continental called and told us that if I wanted to get to Newark in time to make the one and only plane continental plane flying to copenhagen on monday that I woudl have to get out of portland earlier. as in get to the airport within the next two hours for a flight out a few minutes before 11. so much fun. no run, my dad was working in the morning so he wasn't home to drive down with my mom and i. and oh yes, driving down to portland. in a mini-blizzard. as in 30/40 miles on the high way. thank goodness my mother is a patient driver. we got there on time, around 50 minutes before the plane ended up taking off. the plus side was the guy at check-in didn't weigh my bags(it would have been pretty close). so I was good to go.

I slept on that flight, arrived in Newark with roughly 6 hours to kill. finish a book, bought a couple of american magazine. the flight over to copenhagen went well, no major problems. my luggage arrived, so that was good.

I got to the kollegium at 9, picked up my key. the kollegium is really nice, but i was not thrilled to the arrival scene. my floor was smokey, had to use my inhaler. my room was dirty, towels, sheets left over from the person who lived there last semester, dusty. at that point all i wanted to do was sleep and then run/shower, but i trekked into the city( short trek-20 minutes door-to-door) and talked to housing. they were very nice about the situation. they give me new towels, sheets, bedding and sent a cleaner over. i ran while the people cleaned my room. they did a nice job. i checked for dust afterwards because apparently i am my father's daughter. the room is quite nice. one wall is all windows. it's large. probably as big as my room freshman year and my closet of room from sophomore year combined. the people on the floor are very friendly.

wednesday i went into the city, got books, ect. i'm babysitting this semester for an adorable boy so i met with him and his mom and went over their routine. he is such a happy baby; it will be fun.

thursday and friday i had my first classes. this semester should be good. i am taking transition econ, health econ, migration and identity(cross-cultural encounters), war crimes and human rights, and environmental history of europe. i just switched into environ history because danish politics ended up conflicting with transition econ and i want to take that for my econ major. the teachers seem nice. it's odd being back in a history class, haven't taken a strictly history course since high school, and history teachers are an interesting breed. it should be fun though.

last night DIS had a welcome party at a club downtown. my friend elisabeth came over before and we made dinner then went into the city. it was nice. it's an odd feeling being a full year. i'm enjoying not feeling overwhelmed all the time. i'm still learning new things, and living in a new area is nice because i am discovering things i didn't know before. yet, i don't feel disoriented. the other day I was at school and I gave someone directions. me. so odd.

today I just relaxed, ran, grocery shopped, after i planned my menu for the week. there is a non-chain grocery store around the corner. very rare over here, it's great. low price by copenhagen standards, and great quality. i didn't most of my shopping there.

tomorrow i will read, run, and relax. i love the beginning of the semester. the reading are exciting and the work has begun to drive you insane yet. there's plenty of time for that...

Round 2

So since I dropped off the face of the earth, well at least cyberspace, for the past few weeks, I have been quite busy.

I spent my last few weeks in Copenhagen studying for finals and writing papers. When I wasn't glued to my computer or in class, I was able to experience the COP15. If you are interested on my thoughts/what I saw, I wrote an article for the regional paper in Maine about it: http://www.timesrecord.com/articles/2009/12/24/features/doc4b33ab4840030492335321.txt

I have been home for a little less than a month and have been enjoying the time with friends and family. I was able to squeeze a lot into this break; friends came up to visit from CT and VT, I stayed with a friend outside of Boston, went to the Daily Show in NY, saw my sister, skiied a couple of days, and went to the pancake place featured on Throw-down with Bobby Flay(sooo good). Having been subjected to Danish grocery stores, I have loved being able to drive to stores where the produce is organized and where milk always seems to be in stock. I have also experience a major snowstorm, got to love New England winters, losing power, not so much fun.

Tomorrow I will once again fly to Copenhagen. This time around I am a bit less anxious. Going into the experience i had no idea what to expect. Studying abroad was a different experience then going to college for the first time. At the start of my freshman year I was clueless about many things, but I could imagine myself on campus. I had taken a tour of the school, I knew what the town looked like, I could mentally imagine myself there. Going to Copenhagen, I was heading into the big unknown. I had no idea what the classes would look like, where the school was located, and how I was going to get to my classes. This time around I know what to expect. I know where what my walk to classes will look like, I know where to pick up my books, where I can get food. Yet, this is not to say that it will be business as usual when I get to Copenhagen.

I will be living in a different Kollegium this semester. My new building is still of the metro, simply a different line. It is still close to the city, 3 stops outside. I chose to live in a different building because not only was my old room no longer available, but also I wanted to switch it up a bit. Also this semester I plan on running a half marathon in Denmark, so I will get to see more of the city when I train.

Tomorrow I fly out of Portland early in the afternoon to Newark and then straight on through the night to Copenhagen. I arrive Tuesday morning. I will update from the road(air).