I'm on a boat

Hey! So it’s almost been a week since I’ve written on here.  I guess I will tell you about my little sailing excursion I went on this past weekend. DIS has trips that you can sign up for like sailing trips, a trip to Bornholm were you ride bikes, and day trips to castles. I am going to Elsinore Castle this coming weekend, where Hamlet supposedly took place. I’m sure my high school English teacher, Mr. Ferrarello would have jealous that I will be seeing it.

Anyway, back to the sailing trip. Those going on the sailing trip were to meet at Copenhagen Central Station at 7:15AM on Saturday. Ugh. Way too early. I also went out on Friday night, so I was running on only a little bit of sleep.  Oh well. So I packed a change of clothes, a blanket and a pillow thinking that would probably be all I needed. I wore my sneakers thinking I was smart. Well of course as soon as I left my house it starts to pour and I mean pour! The blanket and pillow I was carrying were completely soaked. As I walked to Bernstorffsvaj station some guy at the station laughed at me. I guess I looked like a sight carrying a blanket and pillow with me and walking up all soaked from the rain.  I finally arrived at the station, met my group, and we took another train, this time a regional train to Halbaek, Denmark. Still raining, we walked to where our sailboat awaited us.

The boat was really cool, and had an underground compartment where all our beds were and there were tables, too. I laid out my blanket since it was really wet. We played some card games while we were on the trip since it was raining and hanging out on top of the ship it was too cold and rainy. They stopped at an island called Oru, and we walked through some woods. It was alright, I guess, except that it was still raining really hard. On this island, the Danish military used to train there.  The two guys who work on the ship took us on a walk on the island. They always had a cigarette in their hands. I figure they probably smoke at least a pack a day. I noticed Danes smoke a lot more than Americans tend to. In the US, people that smoke are looked down upon by some and they are forced to smoke away from people. Not the case in Denmark. Anyway, the island still had some old places where the soldiers would train. There was an old zip line. Soren, one of the guys who works on the ships, decided to go down the rope zip line with one of the guy’s from out trip’s belt. Then the guy with the belt, Demitri, went down. When Katie, a girl from the group decided to go on she fell face first in the ground. Thankfully she was okay. If her face had hit a rock or something that might have been bad. Soon we came back to the ship completely soaked from the rain. Thankfully I had a change of pants.

It finally stopped raining so some of the people from the trip decided to jump off the ship into the water. I was not swimming in that water. It looked super cold. We also learned to put up the sails, which was really fun. Soon, we docked in Frederikssund, Denmark. We decided to walk around the town and see what there was to do, which was not much. Unlike the U.S, where most towns on a Saturday night have fun things to do with music playing and people walking around, Frederkssund was like a ghost town. Most of the shops were closed/ closing when we walked around and we passed maybe one bar. We walked past one house that was having a party; we could see a bunch of teenagers/ 20- somethings with beer through the windows. Bet the neighbors loved them. 

That night, everyone had to do a night watch. It is a law in Denmark that when there are guests on the boat, someone has to be watching the ship. I don’t understand why “the guests” aka- us had to do our own night watch, nor have no idea who would possible come and intrude on the boat, but hey it’s all a part of the experience. Me and another girl, Hanae, had to get up at 5:45 for our watch. It was, of course, raining.

All in all I had a great time. Other than the sea sickness I got trying to make lunch on Sunday with my group, everything, including the rain, was worth it. I think I like being on ships.

This week has been good. Yesterday, I went out with my Danish class to the Fransk Café. We had a good time. A coupe of the girls and I went out afterwards. Today I went to finally see all of the touristy things you are supposed to do in Copenhagen. However, there was something wrong with all the trains. When I got on my train to go to Copenhagen, my train didn’t move. Then they made an announcement in Danish, which of course I did not understand. I saw the passengers on the train all sigh. I asked a girl next to me what was going on. She said that we all had to get off at the next station Hellerup and get on a different train. It then took 45 min to get to Copenhagen, which normally is only a 15 minute ride.

Eventually, I met up with my friend Victoria and met her friend Melissa. I finally saw Nyhavn, the Little Mermaid, and Amaliaborg Castle, where the Queen lives. I don’t think she was home as her flag was not up. The Little Mermaid is like the Mona Lisa. Hyped up but not all that impressive in real life. Here are some pictures.

Until next time-

Jenna

First day of classes

So finally all the orientation stuff is over and I had my first day of classes today. I still have another class in an hour. I am just hanging out the the computer labs at DIS. I am glad to start classes bc it will be good to have a routine rather than just days where we have to go to meetings and walking all around the city all the time. i still need to go to all the touristy spots like the little mermaid, nyhavn, and tivoli gardens. all in due time. i still have four months here.


My host family is great. My host mother- Anne Marie is a nurse, but is currently unemployed. She just got a call for an interview in September so hopefully she gets it! My host father- Michael, is some sort of banker/business man. He apparently makes pretty good money lol. My host sisters Eva, 11 and Jane, 9 are sweet. Jane is pronounced like Yene, which is taking me some getting used to. When I first arrived Eva did not speak much English to me, but I think now that it has been a few days, she is speaking more and more in English. I think she understand English better than she can speak it. Kids in Denmark start learning Danish at the age of 8. I think they should start having Americans learn Spanish at the age of 8 rather than at 12. Then people from the US could all be bilingual. I start my Danish class tomorrow so hopefully I will be able to speak a little Danish soon, too.

Tonight I have a meeting for the DIS Ambassador's Program, which will give us the opportunity to go to Danish schools and talk about what it is like to be an American. Tomorrow I have Positive Psych and Danish and then my program's social. That should be fun. Saturday- Sunday I am going on a Sailing Trip and leave at 7:15 on Saturday Morning. Joy! I'm sure it will be fun.

That's all for now.
Hej Hej!
-Jenna

Finally!

            So I finally am in Copenhagen! After one long, boring flight from Newark, NJ to Copenhagen, I am finally here. Let me just say that Scandinavian Airlines is one of the nicest planes I have ever been on. There were 8 seats to each row and they served us dinner and breakfast! They also had a pretty good selection of movies on the plane.

            So I finally get to the airport and then we go to the Hilton Hotel where they had a little orientation to tell us what we should expect the next couple of days. Then we all waited in a room waiting for our Host Families to come pick us up.  Soon, my name was called and I finally got to meet my host mother! Her name is Anne Marie. She brought her little dog named Trille, which means rolling in English. We then took my heavy ass bags and walked to the metro. Man it was hard to pack up 4 months worth of stuff into just two suitcases. Soon we were going to get off and go on the train where my Host Father and host sisters would meet us in the car. Anne Marie and I were so busy talking that we ended up missing where she wanted to get off to transfer to the train, but we ended up getting off at another stop to get on the train.

After we got off the train, I was greeted by my host father Michael and Eva and Jane. They are so cute! They don’t speak English, but are learning it in school.

Later that day, my family had a Street Party, where all the neighbors on the street sat outside in the middle of the road with a bunch of tables and ate dinner together.  You definitely could not do that in the US as there would be so many cars trying to drive through, depending where you lived. You would have to ask permission from the township to close your road for a party. The kids had a little garage sale, where they were selling toys they no longer wanted. It was really cute. I was sooo tired trying to adjust to being 6 hours ahead of schedule. Anne Marie suggested I go take a nap, so I slept for an hour, which was nice.  I went to bed early and my host parents helped me to figure out where I was going the next day. Anne Marie was nice enough to show me where I should go.

Let me just say, there was no way that I would not have been able to figure out where to go for the Opening Ceremony on Monday as there was a giant mass of DIS students standing in the middle of the station after I got off the train. Thankfully, my train ride is really short- maybe 15 minutes.  I am really happy I am not too far outside the city. I know some people have almost an hour commute. However, my friend Jen and I got lost trying to get to an optional session called “I’ll tell you where to put that fork” about Danish social norms. The session was very interesting, the getting there part- no so much.

I definitely have more stories to tell, but I think I will save it for a later time.  Let me just say that I love Copenhagen! I am starting to figure out my way around better, which is good.

Vi ses! (See you!)

~Jenna

Almost here

Hi everyone! So in about 12 days I will be leaving for Copenhagen. I am soo excited! I just got an e-mail from my host family. They live in Gentofte, which is a northern suburb of Copenhagen. It looks like it is only about 5 miles or so from the city, which is really great. I was afraid I would be living really far away. I will have two host sisters named Eva and Jane. Funny that one of them has the same name as my mom.

In a few days I will be going down the shore to Wildwood, NJ. My friend Matt has a place down there so I am going to go down with my mom and sisters for a few days. It'll be really nice.

I just had my last day at Panera yesterday. It's crazy. I associate Panera with Denmark b/c the whole reason I was working there was so that I could go to Denmark. It's weird that I am finally finished there. I actually really liked working there. At times it was stressful trying to balance going to school full-time while working there part-time, but I got through it. I'll miss everyone there.

So yeah hopefully the next time I write I will be in Denmark. I haven't even started packing yet, but I guess it's a little too soon for that. I have to pack a lot of cold weather stuff, which is weird to do b/c it is so hot in Philadelphia right now. Soon enough it will be cold and I'll be longing for warmer weather. I can't believe I am finally going to Denmark. I have been planning this for over a year so it is great to finally see this happen.

<3 Jenna