Classes Tomorrow...First Lesson? Procrastination!

Danish word of the day: "Undskynd" (Sounds sort of like "Oondskoond")-Literally means sorry, but can also be used as a type of "excuse me" after the fact. This was the subject of my first interaction conducted solely in Danish which occured the day that I learned how to say this particular word. It probably wasn't all that remarkable of an interaction, but I was excited. A woman bumped into me in the train station as I was making my way to the train on my way home, we both looked at each other and simultaneously muttered (quite quietly) "Undskynd." That was all, and we were both on our way. Now this is noteworthy for a couple of reasons. First off, I spoke and understood an entire conversation in Danish! (Not a long conversation, granted, but I was pleased with the accomplishment.) Second, when we finished conversing with each other (conversing is probably hyperbolic, but you get the drift), I did not recieve the "oh that's cute that an American is trying to learn our language" look. On the whole, I was pleased.

Quote of the day: "This teacher is trying to torture me!"-Uttered by my host brother Jakob after discovering that his IB English teacher had assigned an entire chapter of (drum roll please) Harry Potter. Needless to say, I had to convince him that this was not an issue that would be considered torture by the Geneva conventions and that most Americans (Grades 3 through Graduate Students) would kill to have that as a homework assignement.

As for my previous post about how I wasn't going to post today, my options consisted of starting my reading that's due on friday, organizing my calendar, gathering all of the things I need for the next couple of days into my bookbag, surfing the net, or posting on hovsatak. Luckily for all of you, posting won out.

I hope you all had a chance to look at the pictures that I linked to. I think if anybody wants to become a better photographer, at least of things like buildings, by far the easiest solution is to go to a location that has some of the most magnificent examples of architecture (from all sorts of different periods). Unfortunately, the high quality (and therefore large file size) of the pictures I'm taking prohibits me from putting them up on blogspot, so it's up to you to click through (or copy-paste) the link below to access the pictures that I put up.

Anways, I've been very busy since my last post. Yesterday, we had a couple of meetings in the morning and then the afternoon was spent learning cool Danish words like "Undskynd" and "Jeg hedder Nat." Don't bother trying to pronounce either of them--Danish could never pass itself off as a phonetic language. That afternoon, I rode the train home, and saw my first example of a rainy Denmarkian afternoon. It started to sprinkle just as I got off the train in the town that I live in (Gørløse) and packing my umbrella to the city with me every day finally paid off as I was able to get it out just before the heavens opened.

The rain slowed to a drizzle in time for me to take a bike ride through the forest with Jakob (good thing he was there or I would still be trying to navigate my way back). It was a great time, and really made me appreciate the fact that I was lucky enough to be placed up in the country where doing things like that is possible.

After that, I had a delicious dinner of Durum, made my standard calls to the states, thought about doing some reading for class on friday (didn't actually end up opening a book--denial and all), and headed to bed.

This morning I woke up at 6:40 (the latest I will be able to sleep on a weekday now for quite a while I do believe), and made my way to town via the 7:38 train from the Gørløse station, getting to Copenhagen in with enough time to get lost trying to find Sopheya (a student from Brown who happens to be in my Danish class and live in the next town over) a cup of coffee while still arriving at the meeting place for our morning activity just barely after the designated time.

That activity was a scavenger hunt through Copenhagen! It was so much fun! We started by going to a very large department store, went from there to parliament, then to the harbor bus (pretty much the coolest thing ever in my opinion), then to the Royal Theater, then to the Royal Gardens, and finally to Trinity Church. There is so much to see in Copenhagen that I feel like it will take most of the semester just to give half of the destinations the time that they deserve. I will put in a good effort to see (and photograph) most of them though!

This afternoon we had our first meeting with our core course professors. Jørn will spend the next four months attempting to teach me the economic theories of globalization. I am really excited for that class. Although it appears that a few of the students are simply in it to get some credit toward their major (read: will not be putting in a ton of effort), hopefully discussion and all will still be somewhat lively in class. Looking over the syllabus, the class is better than I could have possibly imagined. When I signed up for it (and you have to promise to not tell Dean McKeon this), I had done almost no research on what the class would be like, but looking through the syllabus and the readings, it appears that the class will be covering almost entirely things that I have never learned before and that should for the most part be very interesting. Plus we get to go to Brussels, Belgium and Frankfurt, Germany in October to examine the Economics and Business of Climate Change.

After class, I made it home in time to have a lively discussion with Ingrid about the differences between and intricacies of the Danish and American political systems before she and the boys left for a road race in Hillerød. While they were gone I ventured back into the woods alone to attempt and find a decent route over which I could do some 4x8 intervals. Succeeding in not getting lost, I returned in time to get a quick shower before a late dinner. Now it's getting dark and I'm getting sleepy, and I believe I will call this it for this particular update.

I hope everything is going as well for you in the states as it is going for me here!

Good Night!

Notable Upcoming Events:

Tomorrow: Classes Start

Friday: IBE_E (My program) Dinner and the DIS Welcome Party in Copenhagen

Saturday: Moving to the new house

Sunday: Football (Soccer) game in Copenhagen--FC København vs. Brømby--The Red Sox-Yankees Rivalry of Danish Football!