Velkommen til København!!

I have arrived!!


I have officially been in Copenhagen for a little over 24 hours, so technically I have survived my first day! Before I spill the details of my life here thus far, let's backtrack to Saturday.

The day I left for Copenhagen, my Aunt Mary Jo gave birth to little Vincent! I was lucky to see pictures before my flight, and it reminded me of how precious and incredible life is. Both he and I are beginning two amazing journeys (suuuuper cheesy)

I didn't sleep at all on the plane from Dallas to Frankfurt. Instead I filled my time with reruns of How I Met Your Mother and Modern Family, while splashing a few movies in there too (mostly cartoons). The flight was easy and I was lucky enough to have a good seat buddy! We were both going to Copenhagen, but she is actually spending three months at the Ikea "mothership" in Sweden because she is an Ikea designer...so cool. Hopefully we will meet up sometime soon! During the layover to Copenhagen I met a few DIS students. It was a nice reassurance knowing that I'm not the only one with so much luggage.

Here's a typical Instagram pic of my travel accessories and a very German Lufthansa snack

Flying into Copenhagen was really fun because we went around in circles. I couldn't figure out if the ground I was seeing below was Denmark or Sweden, but finally when we started going straight again I saw the city. I instantly knew it was Copenhagen because of the canals and the terra-cotta orange roofs. There were so many sailboats in the harbor too because it was completely sunny outside!! Seriously, it was like 80 degrees and beautiful. However, I was sweating like crazy because of my jeans and boots and no one in Denmark has air conditioning since there are so few days that it is needed. I shouldn't be complaining though because everyone in Dallas is dealing with 100+ degree weather for the next month.

The biggest news so far is that I met my host family! Winnie and Johnny picked me up at the hotel and we drove home to the suburb of Ballerup. I unpacked a little, but then we walked down the street to meet their daughter Anna and her husband and kids. Everyone in their family is either white blonde or redheaded, so I guess I fit in nicely :) For dinner we had a very traditional Danish meal called Frikadeller, which are fried pork meatballs.

This is an example of what it looks like...but Winnie's looked much better, and they are so delicious

And for dessert I had my first danish, or wienerbrød, called kæmpe flødeboller. It's basically a fluffy marshmallow covered in chocolate and coconut with a wafer cookie at the bottom...sooooo good. I think I'm going to like it here.

After passing out at 8pm, I woke up this morning at 6am and COMPLETELY unpacked. Then Winnie showed me my bike! I haven't been on a bike in years so it's going to take a little getting used to...right now I look like a fool. Another host mom and her student picked me up and we all biked to the train station together where we met tons of DIS students and found out we're all in the same orientation group! 

So far, I am completely in love with Copenhagen. I decided not to get too picture crazy the first day with all of the beautiful architecture in the city center because I am going to be here for four months. Nevertheless, I am awestruck. I feel like all day I was looking up and around at the sites more than I was watching where I was going, which in retrospect is probably a bad idea with all of these insane bikers. There around literally thousands of bikes. I did take some pictures of my new home though!

My home!!

The little park in front of our house (those are apple trees...yeah be jealous)

My room!

My very cluttered desk at the moment

Look at that perfectly organized closet! Let's see how long that lasts...

The dining room! So many windows

And of course the very important kitchen!

Well I'm going to go organize my books and calendar, but more updates to come soon!! Plus my host mom is making BBQ... I feel like I'm home already :)

Hej hej (Bye bye)

-Emily