After about 8 hours of solid sleep, I woke up around 10 to begin my day. Once I got ready, I met my fellow Midwesterners (two guys from Wisconsin that live on the floor above me) to head out and run some errands.
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| Ready for my first day in this wonderful city. |
Our trip took us around the Amager district of Copenhagen. In search of monthly metro passes, we went from place to place trying to figure out where to go. This led us to several little convenience stores and even a mall, Amager Centret, until we finally got to a location that didn't just sell 10-clip cards. 360 DKK later, I have myself unlimited Metro rides in zones 1 and 2 through July 20. Although the little shop took us a while to locate, everything was worth it in the end. Biking is, of course, the preferred method of travel here in Copenhagen, but especially on day 1, it was nice to have transportation arranged for only about $75.
We also stopped for some groceries at Fatka, one of the discount stores, before returning to Tietgen (more on my dorm later, once I finish unpacking and take some pictures). Not knowing that we'd have our own bathrooms, we all needed to buy soap, and since I hadn't gone to the store yet, I also picked up some milk, fruit, and cereal. After making my selections, I proceeded to checkout. The card reader, though, kept asking for a pin number, and telling the girl working the register "credit" wasn't getting me anywhere, so after many swipes, I handed her some kroner before grabbing my groceries. The communication barrier was a bit confusing of not knowing why my card wouldn't work as I wanted, but everything turned out alright. Thank goodness, too, that I didn't buy anything else, because I hadn't realized that I wouldn't have a bag to carry my purchases. Walking in a dress, in the wind, and juggling my things, I was happy to set everything down in my room and kitchen when I got back. Lesson learned: bring a bag next time I shop and life will be easier.
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| Only about 50 DKK for these essentials.. so approximately $9-10. Not bad, I'd say! |
Later in the afternoon, we used our metro passes for the first time to head to campus for the welcome events. Here, we had an interesting presentation about ISUP, CBS, and Copenhagen. At one point, a speaker had us stand up to poll what ages we were. Safe to say, I am one of very few of the 600 international students here that are under 20. (The majority are 20-21, so not too far off from my age of 19, but there are many in their 20's and older as well.) However, being from the United States is not so uncommon, though I have yet to meet anyone else from a Michigan university.
After the speeches came the first event in the ISUP Social Package (a group of fun events throughout the program that I pre-booked), the Welcome Dinner/Dance. There, I ate a nice meal (including dessert) and ended up meeting a lot of people: mostly Americans, including one fellow Michigander, but also students from countries like Canada, Norway, Sweden, and Argentina.
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| Our chocolate welcome-international-students cake! |
Instead of joining the dancing taking place at CBS, we went with some new friends to Kongens Tværvej, their cute student residence house. This turned into meeting even more people (from China, Poland, England...) and having a great night hanging out. Chatting with everyone even on the first day and night, I returned home happy knowing just how many friends are to be made while in Copenhagen.
