Hello again!


Today's WednesdayThursday/Friday/Saturday (I'm rather bad at finishing these in a single day, it seems), and it seems I haven't posted about anything since Sunday (Thanks, mother, for continuing to remind me).  So I suppose I'll rectify that now (and toss in a few more parentheticals, just for funsies).

I guess I'll start w/ noon on Sunday.  Anyways, Rachel and I got hungry and decided to grab us some food.  Burger King made the most sense, of course...  I mean, until we saw the prices.  But at that point, it was a tad late, and the idea of fried food and an ice cold Coke sounded simply too great to ignore -- so we stomached the 55 Kroner ($11), and bought food.  But wait, there's more!  They charge for ketchup.  And you don't get free refills.  Kinda helps explain the whole non-obesity thing, it does.

Finally, the whole waiting around thing finished up, and we hopped in a bus to head down to Frue Plads.

This is the first picture I thought to take while actually in Copenhagen -- The guy in the picture is Scotty, who serendipitously happens to live in the same housing as I. 

That's a cobblestoned plaza where DIS and a bunch of other organizations like to stage their bus operations.  We waited around there for a while, then took another chartered bus out to Krogerup Folkehøjskole, where I'll be spending the next 4 months.

 TRAIN TRACKS WHAT! (Bus ride to Frue Plads)

And then, we were there!  It's a beautiful place, it is -- an organic farm field on one hand, and a lush forest on the other.  Though really, the forest is just about everywhere. The first two pictures here are along the path on the way from the station to Krogerup, and the last is the main building.  The building was completed in 1776 (and isn't even considered all that old), providing an excellent reference point for the US students, though the Danes don't seem to grasp how cool its particular age is.

A pretty typical example of an alley in Copenhagen.  They're one-way, and often have space for parking on one side.  You'll notice it's incredibly thin, and feels rather... squeezed?  The buildings seem to tall to be divided by such a small alley, so it'll take some getting used to.  

This one's a street.  2-way, and parking on either side in spots.  The blue and red sign, I think, means no parking.  I don't really know for sure yet, but we'll get there.  The streets are paved, and the sidewalks are largely cobbled -- they're very old cobbles, though, so it's a rather bumpy walk.  I thank my lucky stars I chose a large (80 litre) pack for my luggage, rather than a rolly-pack.  Those didn't work well at all.

Strangely, there are no bikes in either of these two photos.  I can't figure just why that is, but I can promise you that they're quite literally everywhere else.  They're very bold, as well -- squeeze between small spaces, and the (relatively rare) cars respect their space.  If anything, they've got more obstacles in pedestrians.  Oddly though, their boldness is matched by a very calm, pedestrian demeanor.  99% of them wear normal clothes the whole time, and they're often on more upright bikes, rather than the drop-bar racing bikes you'll see American riders on.  I've not taken many photos featuring cyclists just yet, but you can rest assured they're coming.

Anyways, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were orientation days.  Though much less exciting than I had wished, they were still more exciting and engaging than I had hoped.  We had some sessions with academics, culture, residence permit services, and one where we wandered the city for 3 hours on a simplified scavenger hunt of sorts.  Following are many of the results from that tour.

 Not sure what the story of this building is, but I imagine it's a church.  Paying particular attention to the base of the spire, you can offer suggestions for just what in the hell they were going for -- I'm unsure of whether they're mermaids, or serpents.  At any rate, suggestions are welcome!

 The riverfront! More accurately, it's one of the many canals near the heart of the city.  To the left is the tall black building, leaning forward into the harbor.  That's what they call Black Diamond, and it's the very recent addition to the Royal Library -- similar to the Library of Congress in mission.  To the right is, I think, a rather recent addition of (probably) luxury flats.  This is rather reminiscent of the Twin Cities and Green Bay (and probably a whole host of other cities), in that the riverfront is undergoing a revival, as the cities transition away from an industrial orientation.

 Dunno what this is supposed to be, but it's awesome.  Unfortunately, all the plaques here are in Danish.  This is in a part of town called Christianhavn, which was constructed in the harbor as new land by King Kristian IV.
As we learned from a professor -- who is, it turns out, a professor for one of my classes -- the entire development was essentially a political ploy, meant to sort of solidify IV's power.  It was a new era of absolutist monarchy, after all, and the legitimacy of the monarch hadn't yet fully taken hold. 

 This church, Vor Frelser Kirke (Church of our Savior), is part of Christianhavn, and very much a part of the political ploy enacted by Kristian IV. 

 The altar -- I know it's filled with fascinating Baroque elements, though most of the explanation soared directly over my head.
 

Unfortunately blurry, this is an image from directly behind the altar.   It's chock-full of a sort of propaganda.  Near the top (the shiny part that looks a bit like an 8) is Christian IV's symbol.  It's a C and a 4, and the same symbol has been followed by all monarchs since.  Almost every monarch has been either Christian or Frederick, with the exception of the current queen -- apparently she got to have a different name.

Danes love beer.  You can tell because of the Carlsberg ads everywhere, and the fact that it's basically their national beer.  It's pretty cool, I guess.  Also they've got this house boat/bar on the canal.





So that's all the 'official', or orientation, things we did from Monday-Thursday.  I think I'll try and write next about some of the Krogerup stuff from that same time period.