I survived orientation!!

Just a quick update: I'm in Denmark!!!

I got in on Saturday morning, after only one missed layover and over 12 hours of traveling. My host mom, Merete (like Mehr-AI-tuh) (I think) (help), picked me up and we were off to the lovely lovely town I'll be staying in this semester, Hillerød. The house is BEAUTIFUL and no big but I live a few minutes from a castle so that's cool. 

A 400-year-late thank you to King Christian the IV for building Frederiksborg!!

In case you were disappointed there's also baroque gardens. We took a stroll through these within the first three hours of me being back. My life is a dream. 

 In other silly news, Merete took me to a grocery store because I was basically begging. Grocery stores are so interesting!!! I went to bed soon after dinner (aka 8pm) and slept reallllly well (aka 12 hours). 

On Sunday Merete was so sweet and cancelled her weekly 8am walk around the castle with friends just to take me to Liseleje!!! She owns a summer home on the northern shore of Denmark, and it is so yellow and so airy and the sea is RIGHT THERE in the back yard #goals. 

Ok these are all from Google because I didn't want to be touristy, but I swear the yellow house is hers. 

As if our long stroll on the beach wasn't enough, Merete took me to see the sand dunes!!! That was my first time seeing sand dunes I believe!!! And they were magical!!! We walked all over those, back through the forest, and then went to ANOTHER grocery store #blessed. Then Merete did one of the cutest things ever and bought her veggies directly from the farmer. I think I'm in love. 

Other reasons to be in love with Merete:

• She's very easy going
• Communicates well
• Laughs a lot
• Good listener
• Generous
• Adventurous
• Compassionate
• Critical thinker
• Great cook
• Patient with my million-and-one questions
• Bought me flowers for my room!!! (Which, by the way, is the nicest room I have ever stayed in and I have two glass doors out to the garden...)
• Eats a boiled egg every morning in one of her little egg stands (something I now love doing too)
• Is curious about my life/the U.S.
• Knits like a boss
• Has four (maybe five?) neighborhood/community based clubs (eg. eating club, cinema club)
• Makes her own salad dressings
• Buys good knives
• There's definitely more but I am pass the point of embarrassing myself so lets move on.

Once we left the veggie store, Merete showed me another grossly cute thing about Denmark. There are roads marked by a daisy sign that means they are "especially beautiful roads." So we went on one. I can attest it was especially beautiful.

We drove on the daisy road past the largest lake in Denmark just as the sun was setting so yeah my life is still a dream it was magical. 

That night I had the great honor of trying my real first traditional Danish dinner: leverpostej.

Behold pate and rye bread!

I also got to try the kind that had cranberries in it and I liked that one a lot!!!! This is probably pretty uncultured of me to say but it more or less tastes like a creamed version of ham salad to my unrefined palette. 

On Monday, orientation began for the thing I am actually here for, ya know school. I met the rest of the people living nearby (9ish in total) and they all seem super sweet! It was the very first time I saw downtown Copenhagen, and it is a bit little but still old and historic and European and all those things. We started in this cirkus building that was very purple and extra amazing. CHINAH, one of the hippest bands in Denmark, played a few songs for us. AGAIN NO BIG WHATEVER.

Anyways what a good orientation! For dinner Monday I had traditional meal #2, Frikadeller and cabbage and beets and cute lil potatoes (kartofle in Danish!).

This is also from Google but somehow nearly identical!!

On Tuesday, orientation continued with a small walking tour of Copenhagen! The group and I were icicles three hours later. It would have been a blast if it were 20 degrees warmer!

Stop 1: Copenhagen's City Hall, aka Rådhus

Stop 2: Queen's Winter Palace, aka Amalienborg
This isn't a great picture but how else can I show you that it's a circle!

Danes have this thing where they don't like big fusses so you can walk up to the Queen's front door.
The Crown Prince and his wife also live in one of the buildings! The three are pretty popular with Danes right now.

Stop 3: The Parliament Building, aka Christiansborg

Stop 3: The Royal Library, aka The Black Diamond, aka Den Sorte Diamant

The inside is SOOO COOL and has a sound installation!!
Mette, Merete's daughter, works for DIS. She welcomed us at this stop!

After the tour, I got my books and went back to Hillerød. Merete picked me up and showed me the mall and the library, which are both over-the-top stunning for a town of just over 30,000. After a bit of resting at home, we met up with Merete's friends and had a 4 hours dinner party with my third traditional meal, fried pork belly and potatoes with parsley sauce, aka Stegt Flæsk med persillesovs. This was apparently voted the Danish national meal a few years back, but no one seemed to know why or how. 

Hungry yet? The parsley sauce was a trip (in a good way).

That brings us to today, Wednesday!! Today was the last day of orientation, and after a tour of the facilities, a talk on Copenhagen fashion (which was amazing), and meeting the people in my core class, I headed home to write this blog! 

Obviously everything is exceptionally rosy right now but I think I was dealt a really good hand here. Living with Merete is easy and fun; we have two hours dinner conversations every night. I feel exceptionally comfortable and curious. Learning Danish is proving to be rewarding and even more intriguing. I'm excited for classes to start tomorrow morning, after seeing how kind everyone at DIS is. The program is unbelievably organized and well-run. And the weather hasn't been too too horrible. :)

With love and red meat,

Abby