*koo-ben-houn = how Copenhageners pronounce their home!
After a terrifyingly short layover in Atlanta (in which I sprinted the length of the airport in 15 minutes), and wandering somewhat aimlessly through the airport in Paris, I finally arrived to the dreariest weather I could have imagined. It's hard to care about the lack of sunlight when everything around you is so beautiful, though! The city of Copenhagen itself is extremely cool- last night I got to traverse through the streets without getting too lost, but I think that was mainly because I was with someone else who is actually capable of remembering silly things like street names.
Another awesome thing: three whole people assumed I was a Dane! My state of American-ness isn't too obvious! This all occurred when I was lugging approximately 100 lbs of luggage from the airport to the hostel over cobblestone streets. They all looked at me, made (what I assume) some joke in Danish, and I smiled. For all I know they may have been calling me a silly(censored?) American, but I just smiled and laughed each time.
The hostel I stayed at last night! It was super colorful and kind of impossible to miss.
There were times though, when my American-ness was all too obvious. The next day, I had to go back to the airport to take the shuttle to meet up with my host fam. While still dragging my 100 lbs. of luggage over cobblestone streets I stop several times, perplexed. Three different people stopped what they were doing (one even came back up an elevator after his explanation was cut off by a closing door!) to tell me that I "looked lost" and wanted to help me. I had heard stereotypes that unless you approach a Dane yourself, you won't realize how super friendly they are because they remain pretty aloof. That totally wasn't the case for me at all, which I'm super grateful for! I was pretty nervous to ask for directions, mainly because I didn't actually know how to pronounce the names of the streets I was searching for.
Finally, I met up with my new family of four months! To sum up, they're pretty fantastic. The family is comprised of a mom, dad (both absolutely hysterical), their 23 year old daughters Sandra (I think she was a little nervous to speak English, although she understands everything and sounds perfect when she speaks. she's really sweet, though!), and Betina (20, super awesome- she's training to be a police officer!), and Casper, Sandra's boyfriend (Sandra and Casper live in Copenhagen, while the house I'm staying in is half an hour away in the 'burbs).
They took the time to walk around with me and show me where I'm supposed to go tomorrow and how to get there. Here's hoping I'll actually remember this (I have to be at this place for orientation at 9 am.. getting up super early to account for 'getting lost' time).
First day of orientation tomorrow! Getting excited!
My room for the next four months. As you can see, I've yet to destroy it with my unkempt ways.
Have I really only been here 30 hours? Feels like a lifetime. 4 months to go.
hej hej
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