Hej fra København!

Well it has been a couple weeks now since I have been in Copenhagen and I already feel like I am at home. I live with a host family in town south of København called Ishøj. About 20% of the population is immigrant so I constantly see people of different origins traveling on the train in the morning.

Speaking of the train, the transportation system is excellent in København. Trains usually run more often in the early morning hours and also what we might consider rush hour in the states around 3-6pm. The trains stop running around midnight – 1pm in the morning so if you are out for a drink or two and you cannot make it back in time there is a decent bus system that will take to your town and runs all night.

The first week was quite overwhelming from the belching noises of the dutch language (which I have to admit was scary at first) on the KLM flight from Amsterdam to Copenhagen to learning to live with a family you have never met before and of course meeting other students in the program. DIS has accommodated the students well in terms of providing several orientation events to learn about Denmark, the local culture and language and providing situations for students to meet each other.

Some of my favorite events include:

1) Having the DIS opening ceremony in an amazing museum.

2) Visiting the Carlsberg Factory and drinking at the expense of DIS.

3) Going on a whirl wind tour of the city.

4) Going to a local Danish pub called Penden and having practicing Danish with people from Jutland and Greenland (the funny thing is I recently learned that people who speak Danish is København can barely understand people from Jutland, so it didn’t really too much, haha.)

5) Visiting Copenhagen Business School and then having a few drinks at the Nexus bar on Thursday nights inside the school (bar inside a school… yeah that’s pretty amazing).

6) Going to Malmö, Sweden with some DIS student I have met and meeting up with my cousin Daniel (this was the highlight of my experience so far because I have been infatuated with that country for a long time). Malmö is a smaller city than København but somewhat similar in architecture considering that it was once owned by Denmark.

7) Visiting Fredriksborg Palace north of København which was absolutely beautiful. It is truly hard to describe in words but it must have been the most detailed palace I have ever seen. I will post pictures soon.The real reason I am going here of course is to STUDY abroad, so I will catch you up on my thoughts concerning that reality. The classes are definitely different here. In Denmark classes are not structured like they are in the United States where you have a lot of written homework and quizzes and tests all the time. In my opinion they are more lectured based and great for people who are self motivated and have slightly more individualism. The reason I say this is because a lot of the weight of the grades that you receive is based on the midterm and final and possibly a paper or two. So keeping on top of your work is extremely important and there is no one to hold your hand along the way.There is also more group work from what I have noticed which is in my opinion a reflection of their society in Denmark where people are more concerned about the well being of team and not as much advancing the individual.-----------------------------------------------------------------------

There are a few random characteristics to this society which I have grown to understand already.

1) Everyone generally looks very similar, at least from my point of view. This is probably one of the most homogenous societies I have ever witnessed and it definitely shows. There is definitely a presence of people from outside the country especially Muslims.

2) Almost everyone speaks a little English and many speak it very well, which has been kind of nice for someone who never learned a drop of Danish before he came, but believe me I am trying. Danish is VERY difficult. It is not so much memorizing the words that make it difficult, but the pronunciation is extremely hard and it constantly changes depending on the way in which a word is written. I have taken Japanese for a semester and consider Danish even harder!

3) People are reserved but definitely friendly once you break the ice.

4) No one talks on the train, metro and barely on the streets as well. It is kind of strange to me, but I am getting used to it.

5) Denmark is one of the highest taxed countries in the world and to give you a figure I will say that some individuals in certain tax brackets are expected to pay up to 70% of their income!!! Wow! And to buy a new car in Denmark it costs you the original price + (up to) 200% tax + mandatory 25% VAT!!!! WOW! So if you buy a car that is worth $15,000 in the states, you would have to buy the same car here for roughly $50,000!!! And I am NOT kidding. Hence their wide use of public transportation and bikes. My host brother said to me in a discussion about taxes "how else do you think we pay for all the services" (i.e. free healthcare, etc).

6) People are very environment conscious here and use some very interesting techniques to conserve, recycle and create electricity (up to 20% of the electricity is provided by windmills)

7) Not many people are married even if they have kids, cohabitation is quite popular.

8) Everything is EXPENSIVE! Thank god I live with a host family that helps me out with GREAT Danish food because I would be starving otherwise.

9) Danes have a great sense of humor, really dry and sarcastic, in ways somewhat like me. This definitely helped me break the ice with my host family.

10) Handball is a very popular professional sport. Denmark got third placement just yesterday. They beat France, thank God.There were a few things that seemed foreign to me since I have arrived such as:- The clothing (to some degree, like girls wearing dead fox’s around their necks. But apparently they protect nature and the environment here, right…)

- The impact of American culture such as music and even language. I talked a kid yesterday to ask for directions and I thought he was from the U.S. by the way he spoke but he was from Denmark. He told me it is because he watches a lot of American T.V. that he was able to pick up the accent. Interesting and kind of unfortunate. Another thing that I notice is American type thuggish ness among some youth; wearing heavy gold chains, dressed like a thug, walking like a thug, intimidating like a thug…perhaps the popularity and “coolness” of MTV is to blame. That’s my opinion of course.

- The Clintons are really popular in Denmark and more recently I have seen a few articles on Hillary and even a magazine cover with her face on it. I guess it is easy to take the heart of a country you have no political future in.

- Lately there have been some punk youth gatherings to fight for the survival of this house that kids go to and hang out. The house was sold to a Christian group and now the youth is protesting. I saw a few gathering the other day and I swear some of them were about 11 or 12 years old and smoking cigarettes, really strange and kind of sad.

Well that is all for now. I promise that the rest of my entries will not be this long, but I needed to catch you up on my experience thus far. If you have any comments please post them I would be interested in hearing your thoughts.