Some Photos and First Day Thoughts

This is a photo of Rosenburg Castle built by King Christian IV. One of our first tours of Copenhagen included this castle, the Little Mermaid and the area around it and the royal houses/palaces in the city. All of the buildings were really interesting to look at but need to be returned to when I am in a less jet-lagged state and can fully appreciate what I'm looking at. Also, if you've noticed, I've changed the original Little Mermaid picture I'd had posted to one I took myself. How thrilling. Haha.




On another note, classes started today at DIS and I had three of the seven I'm taking. Yes, I know that sounds like a lot but two of them are only 1-credit courses and are tied to study tours so they actually end the first week of November while my other five 3-credit classes continue until the middle of December. In this photo is a fountain square right near the DIS school. It was actually my main landmark to orientate myself for the first few days as well. The water has been dyed red supposedly to mimic wine because in the "olden days" the fountain would be the main source of water for the area and if it was a special occasion like a royal marriage the water was replaced with wine in celebration. However, I'm not sure what was being mock-celebrated at this point. Maybe our arrival? Some Danish holiday I am not familiar with?

Anyway....classes were really good so far. My Memory and Identity class is my 1-credit core class for the European Culture and History program and we will be going to Budapest and Vienna in October so that's exciting. Of course (if you know me at all) I'm already in love with my Gender, Body and Sexuality in Scandinavia class. I'm really interested to see how these topics are treated here versus in the US. My third class of the day was Lost in Translation. Originally I had been leery about this class because it seemed intense and is taught by a KU (Copenhagen University) professor. But! The professor is SO fun and it seems like it will be a really great class because it's rather small and he has made it clear he is looking for thoughtful opinions and a lot of discussion. We already have a field study trip this coming Wednesday to the TV station to learn about subtitling. It will be my first experience on the actual metro (not just commuter train) so let's see how that goes....

Oh and if you didn't know, the Danes are into biking.

I'm talking A LOT of biking. This is just one of many streets filled with bikes. You probably have a better chance of getting hit by a bike than by a car most of the time. Hope these photos gave you a small taste of Copenhagen!