Copenhagen! -- the first few days.

So it feels like i've been gone FOR.E.VER. And it's only been like 3.5 days. Yesterday (WAS THAT ONLY YESTERDAY?!?) when we got off the plane, we were all super duper exhausted, and we had to do all this check-in orientation stuff when we got off the bus (DIS loves bringing us places by bus, it's great). Cody met us there when we got off the bus, and after we got our schedules and stuff like that we had the extremely arduous task of bringing our luggage back to the apartment. We also happened to arrive the week Denmark was having unusually hot weather, like in the 80's rather than in the 70's like it's supposed to be. And our apartment is like a 1/2 hr. away, walking at not a slow pace. But we had been dragging these bags around for like 3 days nonstop, with no food or sleep in days, and let me just say these Danes LOVE their cobblestone streets and sidewalks. Yeah, fun. It took us about 45 minutes to get back to the hotel, and then we had to bring our stuff up 3 flights of stairs (because, here we are in europe, where the 2nd floor is 3 floors up). We then had to walk alll the way back to school, for the info session, and then back to the apartment. Natalie met her friend from home who was getting in to visit for a few days, and I walked around the area with Cody, who was here since sunday night (monday morning denmark time). Then when we got home I was really hungry, and REALLY tired, and it made me really homesick, and I skyped with mom (I miss you guys!). I fell asleep while Natalie & Maria (her friend) cooked pasta for dinner, and cody woke me up when it was ready to see if I was ok. I felt better after sleeping only 1/2 and hour and some food, and then we watched danish discovery channel, on which they take american shows and either re-dub them in british with danish subtitles, or in danish depending on the show, and then the futurama dvds I have.

We had to get up early today to take a bus to our studio ( which is a little farther than city center from here, but I really need a bike because it's easier and cheaper than taking a bus. They showed us around, including the mini scandinavian (and famous originals) chair museum at the Royal College, where the studios are, and then made us sit in a very hot auditorium and watch an hour and a half lecture about the history of copenhagen & it's growth from medival times through present day. It might have been interesting if they hadn't shown it at the absolute worst time for us, and hadn't we all been dozing off because of our exhaustion & heat & hunger. They gave us lunch (we furniture people didn't get to go to the "canteen", we worked through lunch... on the first day) which were FANTASTICALLY DELICIOUS deli sandwiches. We got assigned to sections for hte materials we'll be using to make our chairs: Steel rod (the one I got), steel tube (would have liked), wood veneer laminate (the one i traded brekke for) and solid wood (the one i really wanted). Brekke and I traded, and we're both very happy with that decision. We also got assigned to group A or B, which alternates the times we have studio shop use, so when we're working on our chairs later on for a week we get to use it in the morning, and the next week we have to use it in the afternoon. It also decides our study tour schedule, because group A goes around scandinavia (western denmark, stockholm, helsinki and oslo) one way, and group B goes the other way. Brekke, Doby and I all got group A, and Cody got group B. Natalie is in textiles, so her tour is different anyway. We all also have different materials for the chairs we're making, they really did a good job of splitting us up.

After all that studio stuff we took a boat tour of the city by canal, with an architect/teacher as our guide, and it was FAN. TASTIC. I loved it. It woke us all up, and we met a bunch of U of Cincinati kids (apparently they have like twice the 16 kids pratt sent to copenhagen... who knew?) who are in the arch program, and very nice and funny. We walked around that area once we got off the boats, it's the main downtown area with really old buildings and shops you'd find in soho. The first real danish food I got here was the Belgiske Vaffel with Soft Ice (belgian waffle with soft serve) and it was sooo good but I couldn't eat the whole thing! Cody and Doby both got what I like to call tube hot dogs, which heather actually told me about in amsterdam. Basically the bun is solid but has a hole in it, the condiments are squirted in and the hot dog slides in and sticks out hte ends. It's really really bizarre looking, and hilarious!

We managed to purchase train tickets which they didn't check (there's a stop between the mall and our apartment, very close!) and spend about 20 minutes trying to read the maps with numbers and letters and color codes and danish words which were all very confusing, even though all the trains stop at our stop, but there were no labels for which way the trains were going! But we worked it out and guessed right. The trains are very modern looking with glass doors blocking the exit areas and cushy seats with ugly upholstery, but a very smooth ride.

All in all, I am much happier with the city today, even though our apartment is kinda far from where we'll need to be most of the time. But it would be like that if we were in the dorms too, just not as far. I do wish I got to meet more people though from living in the dorms, but we've got all the other dis people in our classes, and I'm sure we'll explore the city and meet Danes. I'm definitely glad to be living with my friends, htough. I like this city much better now that I had a great time today, and I can't wait to see all the sights and go shopping and do lots of danish stuff! (And natalie and I promised we'd never leave each other behind when in the city because we don't want to get lost (cody is our guide, we're so lost and confused right now. all the streets look the same!!) or pick pocketed at night by people targeting tourists. So I'm happy about that, too!

Oh, and I posted pictures from iceland on my facebook tonight!!

COdy is bugging me to watch pushing daisies (he actually fell asleep while i was writing this, haha!) so i'm gonna leave it at that for now. I miss all of you, and keep in touch!! (and comment on my blog!!)