Settling In

   I'm pretty sure that I'm no longer jet-lagged, though the sun does set earlier and rise later here than at home, so that's messing with me a bit. I moved into my room yesterday. I am staying in one of the program's residential communities in the city. I had originally wanted to live with a host family, but that would have meant taking the train on my own and I didn't think I could manage that. The residential community is nice because it is right in the middle of the city and very close to where my classes will be. I ended up with a single, which I hadn't been expecting.

 This is the outside of the apartment.

...And this is my room. It's... cozy.














   Since my last post my entourage and I have done a bit more wandering around the city, trying to figure out how to get from one place to another. It turns out that I have a terrible memory for directions, because I'm still not entirely sure how to get from my apartment to a lot of the places we visited. But it's okay because that's what maps are for.
   Here are some pictures I have taken during the past few days. It was extremely foggy on Saturday, so you'll be able to tell which ones I took then.

 


A huge anchor by one of the canals.

  

This is an old boat that originally was used as a floating lighthouse. Now they just keep it around because it looks cool. By the way, the street in the background with the different colored buildings seems to be the most popular street in the city among people who design guide books. Every single guide book about Copenhagen that I have seen has had a picture of this street on the cover.

  




Copenhagen has water taxis, just like Venice. This is one of them. Unlike in Venice, the Danish water taxis are bright yellow.

  



I don't know the name of this church, but I thought the inside was interesting.

  



 Lego is a Danish company, and so there are some very cool Lego stores in Copenhagen. See if you can spot the one part of this picture that isn't made of Legos.

  

Some interesting local architecture.

  A statue of Hermes on top of a building.

Danish is one of the coolest and most intimidating languages that I have ever encountered. This is a street sign, by the way.

A statue in one of the squares. I'm pretty sure it's a fountain, but apparently they turn the water off during the winter.










    I spent most of the day today in orientation. There are nearly 700 kids in the program, including a few other people from MHC. Our assignment for today was to travel around the city in groups and find different landmarks. This succeeded in getting me thoroughly confused, but fortunately I have plenty of maps. Orientation will continue tomorrow and Wednesday, and classes are going to start on Thursday. I'll let you know how that goes.