Sunday

Sunday was a busy day. It started with a architecture field trip to an open-air museum which is a collection of 16th-18th century homes from different areas in Denmark. My favorite one is the house in the third picture. The thatch is made of seaweed because the home was in an area that relied heavily on fishing. Then after five hours of looking at Danish vernacular architecture, we went to a football game. This was one of the most intense football games of the year because the home team represented the city of Copenhagen and the other team was the suburbs of Copenhagen (basically Copenhagen against Copenhagen). The suburbs team was quite entertaining. They had a line of police standing guard above them. They had smoke bombs and fireworks that they would set off at different times. Then near the end of the game their goalie was injured so they threw all of their trash onto the field . . . it was a site to see. The game ended in a tie but that didn't stop numerous fights and riots to breakout after the game on our way home.

Køge

Today was finally a little more relaxed. I went to visit our case study which is located at the very edge of the suburbs of Copenhagen, the city of Køge near the bottom of the bay. (you can click on the map to see it enlarged to see how far we traveled today) It only took about a 30min. train ride, my first train ride in Copenhagen and I think I understand the ticket system for the public transportation. We were shown the interior of one of the apartments by an cute old man. He did his best to explain the architecture and construction of the building to us in English. He did quite well with only a few wrong words :) Tomorrow we have another field study with one of our architecture classes to a museum.

Canal Tour

My classes started today. I had Danish at 8:30 this morning and then had my first studio at 1. We were giving a lecture on the background of danish view on housing. Of course with architecture, we were rushed right into things. My group of four will take the train to a housing complex that is our case study for the semester. I was going to sign up for some DIS activities this weekend but I guess I won't have time.
After class we had a canal tour of Copenhagen planned. The tour started at one of the most iconic areas of the city. I have included some pictures of touristy things, old building, and current architecture. I included on picture of a cute dog I saw while waiting for the boat, no dad i didn't pet it.

I bought a bike

Classes started today but I don't have any classes on Thurdays so I had a free day to explore. I needed to go buy an adapter for my laptop so I set off and wander through the streets until I got to the electronics store. I saw the lakes in the city that I think used to be a canal that has since been closed off. Then I stopped by the local bakery and got the most delicious danish I have ever had. It was a sweet coffeecake that was covered in a toffee-coconut frosting. Later I bought my bike from a bike shop near the train station. The picture below is the steel framing inside the train station. The bike won't be ready for me to pick up until Monday afternoon so I will be bike-less for the next few days.

Transportation

Today was my first experience with the array of transportation options of my new city. On our group scavenger hunt around the city, we were given the opportunity to ride the Harbor Bus. This is a boat accommodates the main river/canal.


I also tried to ride a bike in a city of aggressive bikers. Of course I tried this during rush hour in a very touristy area. A few of us went to go look at a some bike shops to get a feel for the price of bikes in Copenhagen. We ended up near the central train station where you can get a city bike. These bikes are blue with a metal tourist map bolted to the handlebars. They are no the greatest bikes to ride and are only their for tourists (and stick out like a sore thumb amongst the daily commuters). It only costs 20DKK (about $4) to rent the bike and you get your money back when you return it to bike rack. As I took off leaving Luis behind since there was only one city bike, I embarked on my first bike ride. I was met with hoards of bicyclist speeding by in the bike lane. I was trying to remember the basic cycling rules of Copenhagen and the hand signals. Bikes have the right away when it comes to pedestrians. They have their own lane that is raised up from the street and lower than the sidewalk. You also must stay to the right of the lane so other may pass you. Well I made it home which was only a few busy blocks away. I was yelled at a few times in danish and some thought I didn't know the rules because I was riding a tourist bike. I think I will buy a used bike tomorrow so that I won't stick out as much.

Where I live

Here are some pictures of where I will be staying at least until the end of this semester. The first picture is of the outside of my building. It is the one in the middle. I live in a five-floor walk up and I am on the fifth floor. The second picture is of the courtyard followed by a picture of the kitchen. There are two pictures of my room that I share with Kellene. The next is a view from our window. Then there is a street view from fifth floor.

Once Upon a Time . . .

After arriving at the Copenhagen airport and collecting all my earthly possessions that could fit in my luggage, I was taken to a local university, designed by a famous architect, where I waited for too long to get taken to my apartment. After a night of waking up randomly because of jet lag, I set off to start my first day in Copenhagen. My first day of orientation started with an opening ceremony at the equivalent of our Library of Congress. The auditorium had a phase written on the front wall. It is a copy of Hans Christian Andersen's handwriting translating to 'Once Upon a Time'. This was then related to how we will tell our grandchildren stories starting with 'Once upon a time in Copenhagen . . . '

After the ceremony we wandered throughout the city coming to the area near school. I have learned a little Danish . . . even though it wont get me too far. Pronunciation is so important in the Danish language that if it is slightly off they will have no idea what you are saying (this is going to be frustrating in the future). We went to a grocery store and learned some words for food. After class some people from my building an I went on our first grocery shopping excursion. The money difference will take awhile getting used to. I bought bread, tea, yogurt, cereal, apples, pasta, jelly, pretzels, and shower gel and my total was 115.35DKK. It only is $23 but it boggles my mind a bit to see such a large number.

The Start

So the adventure is off and it started with a string of three flights. This is my breakfast on the longest flight. The small green triangle is a little thing of creamer. I also learned that Breyers makes more than ice cream, they make yogurt. It was basically the coolest plane ever. We could choose which movie we wanted to watch or view a live video feed from either the front of the plane or the bottom of the plane. Of course none of us could sleep during the flights, but it might help us adjust to the time difference.