Zo Does Europe: I survived one week in Copenhagen.

Greetings from Vonderful, Vonderful Copenhagen! It has been a crazy first week, but apparently nothing compared to the earthquake and hurricane that I am missing out on back at home. I arrived last Sunday with 4 enormous bags in tow, which seemed to be more than anyone else in my entire program. Trying to navigate my luggage cart through Newark airport was not an easy feat, and was comparable to Snooki upon her arrival in Florence. People were staring -- typical. After a 12 hour trip and a brief layover in the Oslo airport (which, by the way, is beautiful), I made it to my new home. I live in a single room on a floor with 6 American girls and 2 Danish men. We share a bathroom and a kitchen, which is more than a little bit awkward.

The first night was very casual-- we had pizza with an RA (who was completely unhelpful) and tried to go out to some of the bars around town but we were all just too tired. The next day we had the "Opening Ceremony" for DIS students which took place at the Copenhagen Performing Arts Center. It was a lovely ceremony, but between the dim lights, warm room and classical music performed by students from one of the city’s top conservatories, I struggled to stay awake. At that point, the jetlag was truly unbearable. From there, I met with my orientation group and we embarked on a sort of scavenger hunt throughout the city. We saw Trinity Church, the Parliament Building, Rosenbourg Slot and the Royal Palace. I forgot my camera, so I will certainly be visiting all of these places again before it gets too cold.

So far, we have gone out to a few different bars and clubs. I have tried to stay away from places that are primarily American students because I want to interact with as many Danes as possible, but it has proven to be difficult because most of the DIS students flock together. The most popular spots are A bar (very confusing when you ask people where they are and their response is “A bar” – could you be any more specific?), LA bar and Kulor bar. Kulor bar is the big spot on Thursday nights, and it is exactly what I would expect from a European Discothèque. They offer unlimited beer for $12, which we definitely took advantage of last week. We also danced in a cage until 4am, so we really got the full Euro experience.