*written on Friday at 1:30 pm

First of all, I would like to take a second to brag about my view:

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This is Ørstedsparken, a huge, gorgeous park I found yesterday during my three hour break between classes.

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There are statues

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Flowers

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And beautiful bridges

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There are also lots of benches and little chess-playing-sized tables perfect for reading/ writing/ eating. I think I will be frequenting this little find as much as possible while the weather permits. I also bet it would be breathtaking in the snow. (Unfortunately, I hear it doesn’t snow much here.)

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So yesterday was my first day of classes. I had Sustainable Development in Northern Europe at 8:30am, which required that I wake up at 6:30 in order to get ready and catch the train. I got to Copenhagen in plenty of time, but the park distracted me, and I ended up being late anyway. My instructor is adorable and she fed us cake as a metaphor for the money and resources that our current generation is eating up. (After we had split up the cake and started eating, she told us that we needed to figure out what she was going to do to provide her next class with some.) Whoops!

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Then I spent some time in Ostensparken before finding another bakery for lunch and heading to Creative Travel Writing. That one was lots of fun, and the instructor had to be corrected several times, because she couldn’t get my name straight. First Lilly, then Livvi, though her name is also Liz! Whatcha gonna do…?

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Lastly, I had Equality in Scandinavia. It was interesting, and we discussed everything from equality in education, gender, age, and nationality. Unfortunately, the class is three hours long, and the instructor really, Really, REALLY appreciates the value of literacy. We had to read eight articles before the first class, we have another sixty or so pages from some academic texts for next week, and over a hundred pages due the week after. So this should be interesting.

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I stopped by Charlie Scott’s again to listen to some more jazz on my way home, and we had The Weirdest Pizza Thing Ever for dinner. It was good, but it was topped with kabob (some sort of Turkish mystery meat), lettuce, and ranch. I should have taken a picture. All green with swirly rings of white dressing.

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TODAY:
I was late for my first class, yet again. This time, it was the bus’s fault. The information posts at the bus stop always display how long before the next bus arrives on an LCD screen. The post said twelve minutes, which would mean me missing my train. I wasn’t sure how long the walk was, so I debated for a while before making up my mind and stepping away from the post. Two steps later, my bus drives past. So yeah. That sucked.

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I was so sweaty and gross by the time I got to the station, and I still missed my train BY TWO MINUTES. Ugh. Luckily, they come every ten.

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My first class was Danish! Yay! I learned how to say “rødgrød med fløde,” which is a Danish rice pudding dessert, and sounds like…. Well, that’s unimportant. We also learned “røget ørred,” which is smoked trout, and it sounds kind of like Scooby saying “ruh-roh!” but with about ten other hidden sounds. Part of my homework consists of reading this small essay IN DANISH, and I’m supposed to be able to answer questions about it. So this should be exciting.

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My last class was European Art of the 19th Century. The instructor has been a lecturer, museum curator, and festival contributor for years. (Did I mention all of the DIS teachers are all still working in their fields somehow as some sort of experienced guru? For example, my Creative Travel Writing teacher has written eight novels and used to be a super intense journalist.)

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I was so inspired by my art class that I decided to drag some other DIS students to the grand opening showcase of Copenhagen Art Week 2015. Here’s a preview:

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The night life in Nyhavn!

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I’ll tell you more about it later. Ta-ta for now!

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Venlig hilsen/ best regards,

Lizzy-wa