Sunday, January 13, 2013

The Universal Language of Justin Bieber

Today (yesterday?) was the beginning of my semester abroad in Denmark. My flight departed Philadelphia on time at 5:35 on its way to Frankfurt, Germany. On the flight I sat next to a perfectly nice young German woman. I don't know what her name was but she liked reggae music and didn't like sports. Unfortunately she also apologetically coughed and sniffled the entire flight so minus 1 point to Germany. Thank God for Bose headphones. In Frankfurt I ran into a bunch of students studying at DIS this semester. My DIS carry-on tags actually did help people identify me just like they said they would-- go figure.

I slept pretty much the entire flight to Copenhagen but every time I did wake up the girl passed out next to me seemed to always be inches closer to lying her head on my face. Aside from a few leg cramps, it was a pretty painless travel day.

Despite a lack of sleep upon arriving in Copenhagen at 11:15 local time, 5:15 my body's time zone, today turned out to be a very informative and great experience. I met my host family for the first time and hit it off immediately. They toured me through some basic places I'll need to know how to get to for class and showed me some of the popular landmarks of the city. When I arrived at my home for the next 5 months I couldn't be happier. My room is bigger than my one at St. Mike's and I even got two bonus fish tanks to keep me company.

My host family is great. One thing that stood out today was my interaction with my two twin 10-year old temporary sisters. They haven't learned much English in school yet so I'm pretty sure they were terrified at first by the gibberish coming from my mouth. But two words they knew immediately were Justin and Bieber and within minutes they were excitedly showing off their collection of Justin Bieber memorabilia. Best Bieber collection I've seen to date.

Other than that I met with a few other DIS students living in the same town as me and enjoyed my first home cooked meal in Denmark; much better than the food at Alliot. I got a lesson in handball 101 as the Danish national team took on Russia. I also learned that the word pronounced slut in Danish means "castle" so I plan on seeing plenty of "sluts" here. Tomorrow begins orientation and my first attempt at navigating public transportation to Copenhagen.


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