Family
As previously mentioned, I am living with a family of 4: Andy and Marie are my "Danish parents" Andy works in a small architecture firm very close to DIS (my school) and Marie works in the city planning office for the city/community we live in. They have two kids Sophie (14) and Vitus (10). Sophie spends most of her time at school and riding her horse. Vitus is involved in many things in addition to school such as reading books, handball, learning to play cello, and Lego.
They have made me feel very welcome and I am enjoying getting to know my family. I have really enjoyed the dinner time conversations in addition to the good food :) It is great to share my culture and experiences with them and to be exposed to Danish family culture. On Saturday, I got to spend the day with the family by visiting a museum (The Ordrupgård Museum) with an extension designed by Zaha Hadid. She is an Iraqi architect who's firm is based in London. The museum was featuring the work by Danish furniture designer Finn Juhl. Another interesting aspect is the house that Finn Juhl lived in is adjacent to the museum and was open for touring.
DIS (Danish Institute for Study Abroad)
Well this program is certainly an adventure. Sometimes it feels like they try to make everything as confusing as possible. We were given many booklets of info for orientation and the semester, and it seems each one had different information, making it very hard to know when I was supposed to be somewhere (and where that somewhere was.) However, things have gone just fine, and I am excited about what I will learn from DIS. I am taking 4 classes: 20th Century Danish Architecture, Danish Language & Culture, Architecture Design, and Visual Journal. I am also enrolled in Italian Renaissance which is a 1 unit course to prepare us for an optional weeklong tour of Rome and Florence.
So far DIS has showed us around Copenhagen, begun to teach us Danish, thrown us a welcome party at a club near the school on Friday night, and made us sit through many orientation meetings. I volunteered to be a mentor to a "pre-architecture" student. My "pre-arch" is named Riley and he goes to St. Olaf University in Minnesota. Its been good to get to know him and to answer his questions about architecture. We are in a group with two other students for the first studio project which is to study and present a housing project north of Copenhagen.
Today I went with DIS to the "Frilandmuseet" or "Open Air Museum" which is a park where they have transplanted original farmhouses and settlements from hundreds of years ago from throughout Denmark. It was interesting to see how people lived that long ago in this cold climate.
Danish Culture
Copenhagen is a very unique city. It is very old and the part of the city where my school is located is in one of the oldest parts of city. As a result, the streets are winding and very narrow. Copenhagen has lots of very old architecture as well as many new buildings which has the interesting effect of having new architecture mixed in with the old. Copenhagen is also a very safe city, there is very little crime compared to other big cities, and I don't feel in danger walking around Copenhagen alone. Well okay... I lied... Copenhagen has one dangerous aspect.... the bicycles. People are on bikes everywhere and pretty aggressive. You have to keep your eyes out when crossing streets for oncoming bikes (and cars) .
Many streets are paved with cobblestones... which can be difficult to walk on, as it is easy to trip. Everything is also very expensive here. After the exchange rate, a "cheap" meal is about $10. Many consumer goods are a lot more expensive here than in the US. For example, I when I was wandering around Copenhagen, I found a guitar shop. I went in and played a couple of nice guitars, which was great. I then bought some acoustic guitar strings to put on the guitar I am borrowing from my family. In the US, the strings would cost me about $7, however... in Denmark it cost me $19! Ouch! One nice aspect is that taxes (and tip for restaurants) are included in the price, so you only pay what you see. Another cool thing is you can return beverage bottles to be recycled to stores and get back 1 kroner (about $0.20) .
Public transportation is typically very good. DIS gives me money to buy a train/bus pass which is very helpful. I will go into more depth in a later post, but my current commute is quite involved. The train from Copenhagen to the town I live in is under repair and so I have to bike to the bus stop, take the bus to another train line, take the train to Copenhagen, then walk to class. This takes about an hour, but so far its worked out.
There's so much more I could say, but I have to get to some homework for my Danish class. If you have any questions about my first week in Denmark please comment/email me. Hope you are doing well and enjoying all the cheap food, cheap guitar strings and asphalt/concrete paved roads.
Ordrupgård Museum
Vitus & Me at the Museum
Traditional Danish Farmhouse
Copenhagen
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