First week in Denmark!

I've been in Denmark one week as of today. It's been a very busy week, which is why this is the first entry.

I love the housing I chose. I live in the Grundtvigs Folkhøjskole in Hillerød, Denmark. By bus and train, it's an hour away from Copenhagen. It's annoying to have such a long commute since I'm used to rolling out of bed and walking to classes, but I'm learning to appreciate the time to think and relax that the train ride gives me.

The højskole is an interesting place. It's more or less a place for students ages 18-24 who speak Danish to pass the time while they figure out what to do with their lives. This particular one is actually oriented toward journalism and art. They take classes, but not for grades or a degree. Some of them have already gotten a degree, some of them are taking breaks before or during university. They live here for different amounts of time. Most of the Danes have been here for a few weeks, but some have been here for a year. There's a meal plan and everyone has kitchen duty at some point. We were all warned that Danes are really reserved, but the Danes here really want to get to know us. There are 64 Danish students and 14 Americans. The Danes are also kind enough to forgive us when we can't pronounce their names.

They include us in a lot of their activities. We can't take any of their classes because they're all in Danish, but we eat dinner with them every night and brunch on the weekends. Yesterday, they had a Viking Day. They did workshops all day in Danish, but they invited us to their dinner and party afterwards. It was pretty fantastic. They moved the tables to the outer edges of the room and put buckets in the middle of the floor for us to throw all the bones into. We even drank mead.

Today I went to Helsingør, where Hamlet's castle is, with Lincoln, Amanda and Carrie. Because we live so far away, we had to buy transportation passes for all zones, which pretty much means we have an unlimited pass to travel anywhere. So we took the bus and train up and toured the castle and maritime museum. It was windy and cold, but we walked all the way around the castle. It was absolutely beautiful; the sun was shining, the waves were crashing against the shore and the Danish flag was waving. You can even see Sweden from there, it's amazing how close it actually is.

I am so happy here.