August 17, 2015

It is Day 3 in Denmark, by Danish time. Now, if you consult my personal internal clock, you may be told otherwise, as the jet lag combined with the overall sleeplessness of the past couple of weeks is finally catching up with me. I got about three hours of sleep the night before my flight, and then I stayed up for about 26 hours before the words coming out of my host family’s mouths started sounding like Danish even while they were speaking English. That was when I decided to take a nap. After dinner, I went to bed around 10:30pm and proceeded to sleep until nearly FOUR IN THE AFTERNOON. I only woke up because my host dad yelled “GOOD MOOOORNING,” and he has the lungs of an opera singer.

Alright. Let’s back up.

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First, there was my practically non-existent layover in Toronto. I then arrived in Copenhagen on Saturday morning covered in sweat with an extremely sore backside, despite the best efforts of Air Canada’s adorable tiny travel pillow. I received a short welcome presentation from DIS before my host family came to pick me up.

They. Are. Adorable. All smiles and blonde hair, and my hope that I would be taller than any of them was quickly put to rest.

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Excuse me if this post sounds at all choppy. I keep having to stop and run out to the hallway or hide under my covers. There is a wasp or bee of some sort in my room because I left my lamp on with the window open, and I don’t know what to do about it because it is four in the morning and everyone else is asleep– again, the jet lag. Oh gosh it is just so loud and terrifying… I wonder how strange my family will feel if they find me on the couch in the morning.
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Anyway. My family consists of Jesper (dad, tall, loud and welcoming, tries to teach me Danish– so far with little success), Sara (no “h” at the end and the same age as my sister Sara back home (18), so that’s adorable, who is extremely helpful and corrects the others’ English sometimes– she’s the big traveler and has already been to the States and loves the Jif peanut butter I brought her), and Maria (16, super sweet, really into music, and I may have to ship her a UW long sleeve athletic top because she wants one so badly).

After they met me at the airport, we drove around Copenhagen for a while and they showed me all of the tourist sites, government buildings, and the homes of the Queen and Crowned Prince. We also stopped to see the Little Mermaid statue, which was covered in tourists and cruise ship passengers out on their excursions. We grabbed some ice cream cones, and Sara made me get whipped cream and jam on top. It was delicious. And very messy.

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We soon drove home to the town of Birkerød, which is not pronounced “birk- uh- rod,” as I had been saying it. (Instead, you have to say the first couple of letters followed by this impossible-to-mimick throat sound thing that I may be getting the hang of, though I am worried someone will try to do the Heimlich on me whenever I tell them where I live.) The landscape transformed from beaches and buildings to greens and adorable homes. The streets were winding and traffic habits are very different from driving around the perfectly angular and yellow-painted roads of the Seattle area that I am used to.

We were supposed to take the train back down to Copenhagen on Sunday, but seeing as how I slept through most of the day, that wasn’t really an option. Sara took me on the bus to the train station, and we rode the train for one stop before reversing our steps, just so I could see how it works. The system was super nice, and the buses and train were very new looking and the ride was unbelievably smooth. I think the train may be semi-magnetic, but I can’t find anything online that confirms this suspicion.

BEHOLD the second Sara in my life– I don’t think I will get them mixed up.

I started off today with my very own trip to Copenhagen, or København, via foot/ bus/ train/ metro. It was easy peasy, and I spent most of my time reading and practicing Danish city names under my breath after the automated train lady read them at each stop.

Then we had a welcome session and mini concert performance by Sys Bjerre, a Danish singer. Here’s the Danish Royal Academy of Music, where the event was held, along with my new Danish jam (the music kind, not the put-on-top-of-ice-cream kind):