In the morning, we woke up and went on a scavenger hunt/tour of the city. They split us into groups of about 6 and gave us a map and 50 kroner each (about $9) for lunch. The map had 4 checkpoints on it where we had to go, and we would be met by professors who knew about the site we were at. Some of the sights included the King's Garden (a pretty park with Danes picnicing all around the lawn) and the royal castles that the Danish royals actually live in. Denmark is a monarchy, but the government is very immersed in the "common" culture which is really cool. For example, as we were standing outside of a hotdog stand (known as a pølsevogn, which was great!), a group of 30 or so soldiers marched by us for the changing of the guards. And as we were outside the Parliament building and learning from our professor-tour guide, another professor ran and interrupted us to tell us that the man walking right by us was the Minister of Finance (apparently a big dude around here). Below is a very very sketchy picture of him walking - he's the guy mid-stride in the blue blazer:
The Danes bike EVERYWHERE and are really big on public transportation, so it takes some getting used to to figure out which areas are sidewalks, which are bike lanes and which are actually roads (a lot of roads are totally made out of cobblestone and you can't tell which area is which). We were pretty lost all of the time and had to stay together, so instead of biking (you can rent bikes for free in the city, if you can find them) we walked around! Here is a picture of a random street that hopefully I will learn the name of one day -
There is one fantastic street called Stroege (pronounced stroll) which is like miles of really, really nice shopping. Unfortunately the exchange rate here is ridiculous and buying anything is extremely expensive, so we could only window shop. All the streets here are pretty beautiful though, and the central (very, very old) part of town isn't a grid which makes for some very nice pictures (see below!).
I also had my first class which was fun - I'm taking Human Health and Disease with a group of 20 students. We are based in a hospital and it seems like it's going to be very hands on, which is nice! My professors (all doctors from the hospital) are very sweet and insist we call them by their first names. We got totally, totally lost on our way home from class but it was fun and eventually we found a map and made our way home. My roommate is really nice and we are getting along well (big shoes to fill after hbizz, jac and rachel though) and I don't know too many other people on my floor yet. That's all for now!
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