MONDAY JANUARY 22

Anders the nephew of my host parents was here yesterday. He was very interested in US politics. He is going to Medical school at the university of Copenhagen. He understands English very well because he lived in Alabama when he was little but has more trouble speaking it. They have a one-week retreat trip.
Karen works at a bakery and brings home lots of interesting home made breads and desserts. She has to give a speech in front of a thousand people on Wednesday. She already has to decide on a concentration and she’s only in HS.
My host family is not religious. They all speak English very well and only search occasionally for some fairly obscure words. Karen did go to a catholic school but only because there was lots of bullying at the public one.
Ida went off biking to work despite the cold. She has real fur mittens but claims they kill the animal humanely. She was back by a little before 4 when I got home.
Jens went off in the car to a meeting.
I woke up around 8AM this morning after going to bed around 9:30 last night. Very strange to have it still really dark getting up at 8! Think I was tired? It was cold windy and snowing for the first part of the day. I had muesli cereal with milk, orange juice (freshly squeezed) and tea for breakfast. Read the Danish paper and pretended I could understand what it meant. I got ready for the day. Took the big yellow 2A bus down this long highway to near Tivoli gardens. Got off and made my way eventually to DIS after a tiny bit of confusion and thinking I was lost. Met up with Elizabeth, Nancy (another Smithie Ada). Walked to the Glypotek with other DIS students to a super cool museum with a renaissance/greek feel to it for the opening ceremony. 3 different people spoke in general about the program (the registrar, the director of the program and Catherine Miller-Little (alum of DIS program, runner, and Smith alum)). Sounds like it will be academically challenging in a much different way from the US. We’ll see. A quintet played two classical songs. Went back to DIS building for lunch I had packed at home. Foccacia roll, cheese and a banana. Signed up for a tour of Elsinore Castle and another castle on Saturday. Went on a bus tour of Copenhagen. Saw Christianborg Castle (notice the PACE, FRIRE and other political message rainbow flags. Statue of Henry 7th? I think on the horse. Pic. of the old and new National Library the new one is called the Black Diamond.
We went to Amalienborg Castle where there was a guard with a super huge bear fur hat. The queen was home as shown by the triangle flag. Looking the opposite direction you could sort of see the Opera house.
3rd we went to see the little mermaid. The statue really is quite small. People have painted her and tried to cut head off, tired to cut her arm off, and dynamited the stand below her. The canal is pretty or would have been if it hadn’t been all snowy and cloudy at that point.
4th we went to Rosenborg Castle and drove around Copenhagen. It is a very old looking city with lots of really neat buildings, TONS of bikes and bike racks everywhere you look, and strange random statues. There are some squares, parks and gardens but mainly it is closely packed together buildings.
I made my way back to the right bus stop and back to Egernvej. I went for a run which really helped me get a better sense of the area.
The roads are super wide with sidewalks twice the size of US ones for walking and a lane on both sides for bikes. I need to learn to watch out for bikes. They go speeding along in their lane but you don’t realize because the cars are farther out.
Danish words: Tak (thank you) Jeg hedder Becca. (I am called Becca) Jeg er traet. I am tired.