sweden? check.

I love going out to eat. Unfortunately, in Copenhagen that happens very rarely due to exorbitant prices. BUT WAIT. The Keops family dinner crew decided that we would treat ourselves once a month while we are here to a nice dinner out. So we ventured out in the blizzard on Friday night for our January dinner. It was so nice to be able to go out and have someone else make my food and just be able to simply enjoy each other's company. We played my favorite "question game" to get to know each other a little better with my usual questions that I have taken from other people over the years.."if you could do one thing and not fail, what would it be?" and "if you could walk into a room full of people, what is one thing you could do better than everyone else?" (Thanks, Nico!). It is so fun getting to know a whole new group of people, and the more I find out about everyone, the more I love them! I am so blessed to be surrounded by such an awesome group of people here.


On Saturday, the girls and our new Aussie friend Tom decided to take the plunge and go to another country! We decided to go to Malmo, Sweden, which is actually only a 30 minute train ride from Copenhagen. It was a nice test-drive for future travel endeavors. We didn't really have a clue what we were going to do when we got there, so we basically winged it. Once we got off the train we just walked around and found the city square. I honestly thought Sweden would look really different than Denmark, but it actually didn't. Maybe that is just Malmo, though. We found a great spot for lunch in this tiny little cafe and enjoyed a healthy, hot lunch. After lunch we ventured out to find the spiral tower (not without stopping to make snow angels, of course), a really neat building in Malmo.







After getting on the wrong bus and just riding for a while, who knows why, we got off and found a cute little walkway. We ended up stumbling upon a boot shop, where 4 of us found boots we were looking for!! Mine were actually 70% off, so they were only 179 Swedish Kroner, equivalent to about $27 USD. BARGAIN!!

By this time we were all pretty cold/exhausted so we headed back to CPH to get ready for our kollegium's party. There ended up being TONS of people in our really small common room, but it was tons of fun. It was so nice to not have to wear 10 layers, get all bundled up, pay for coat check, pay for entrance, and then buy super expensive drinks. You really find out what to appreciate over here, haha! It was cool to meet some more people that live in Keops!

Today, I am off to complete yet ANOTHER scavenger hunt. This is my third of the program so far. At least I will know Copenhagen like the back of my hand. Pictures will be up soon :) xoxo kelli

biking in a blizzard.

Picture hundreds of people biking in an insane blizzard. Yes, BIKING. That's Copenhagen for you.

Wednesday morning I woke up to heavy snow falling from the sky. (The snowflakes here are HUGE) I fought my excitement as a South Carolinian who rarely sees snow as I thought about the bus ride and walking tour we were about to take to Ødense, the hometown of the most famous Dane, Hans Christian Andersen. It was to be an adventure, to say the least.

DIS is an awesome program in the sense that they want to keep students engaged in their learning, much like Elon. Therefore, we never have class on Wednesday's and it is a designated time for professors to take their students on "study tours" to various locations that hold meaning to what they are studying in the classroom. So this Wednesday, I went with my Hans Christian Andersen Literature class to see the birthplace of the writer himself.

We finally made it to Ødense after 2 hours on the bus, ideal napping opportunity might I say. First, we went to the Hans Christian Andersen Museum, commemorating the fairy teller's life and stories. It was neat to see the time that he lived in, all the cities that he traveled to, and how many of his tales are translated all over the world. He really made a huge impact during his lifetime. For those of you who may not be ringing a bell, he wrote stories like The Little Mermaid, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Princess and the Pea, The Ugly Duckling...and many many more.


After walking around the museum, we got a chance to walk around Ødense for about an hour, then it was back to the bus! We left at 2 p.m. (remember this time, it will be important later). I was anticipating another 2 hour bus ride, yet little did I know. When I woke up from what seemed like a quick moment of shut-eye, I realized that we were going verrrry slow. The snow that was falling earlier had now turned into an intense blizzard. The thoughts going through my head were, "I am in a DOUBLE decker bus right now, in a blizzard, in the middle of Denmark." I know, right, WHAT IS MY LIFE?! After making many twists and turns to get around accidents, as our busdriver Carsten announced over the loudspeaker, we made it make to DIS at 5:15. Yes, 5:15. Yet this was not the end of the journey! We still had to catch the 6A back to Keops. After waiting about 15 minutes, we saw the beautiful yellow bus in sight. The bus pulled up and it was absolutely PACKED. Supposedly Denmark does not get snow like this often, therefore many of the people who had biked to work this morning were now opting to catch the bus. WHO KNEW? I thought it snowed a lot in Denmark, guess I was wrong! Yet even though many were on the bus, there were still many brave souls biking home. The Danes are dedicated bikers, to say the least. So after feeling intense claustrophobia on the bus home, we were finally graced with the presence of beautiful KEOPS. It felt good to be home.


After we thawed out, we joined together for dinner at our usual 7:30 and met a couple more new residents of Keops, from Germany, Australia and Ireland. How cool is that?

Today has been less eventful. I had three classes this morning and then just came home. I finally decided to brave the laundry room, with the guidance of my friend Maren. I actually think I figured it out!! It will be nice to have clean towels :)

That's all for now. Hej Hej!

peace.

PEACE. No, not like peace out. Not like peace signs at Woodstock. And not like peace tie-die shirts. More like, peace, defined by Webster as the freedom of the mind from annoyance, distraction, anxiety, obsession---tranquility, serenity.

I feel so at peace here. It is honestly amazing to me. Maybe I had to come half way across the world to truly find peace in myself and my independence. I am the kind of person that loves to be around people 24/7. I just hate being alone. When I'm at Elon I struggle daily with the fear of being alone, even for a simple grocery run or quick lunch. It just scares me and I can't really figure out why. The first day I was in Copenhagen, I felt more alone than I ever have in my entire life. I stepped off the plane and saw one familiar face, Emily, and thank goodness for that or I might have caught a plane back to the States without even leaving the airport.

When the bus brought us back to our dorm, I walked into a lonely room with a desk and a bed. The bare white walls seemed to be caving in on me as I realized how many miles I was from home. With sadness and confusion, I cried myself to sleep.

Yet honestly, within a few days, I have had a complete turn around. Maybe it is our Keops family dinners at 7:30 every night, or the new friendly faces that I meet in my classes everyday, or the sweet messages that I get on the daily from friends at home. I really do feel at peace. I am okay walking taking the 6A by myself and enjoying a nice quiet ride to school in the morning. I feel empowered going to my room and simply writing in my journal and debriefing from the days activities by myself. I thought having a single room would be my biggest challenge, but it has become one of my biggest blessings. It is teaching me that I am okay by myself. I can be happy without being around people every second of every day. I find my happiness from God and the power that he gives me. I am so glad that I can finally say this.

Yet I think my peace about being physically alone comes from the fact that I know I am not mentally alone. I have an AWESOME group of new friends here in Copenhagen that I am so blessed to have. They astound me every day with their encouragement, support and constant laughter. I also have amazing friends back at Elon and at home that have continued to keep in touch with me and love on me even though I am miles and miles away. I have a great family who supports me through everything I do. And last, but definitely not least, I have a God who watches over me and loves me more than I can ever fathom.


I could not ask for anything more. Peace. What a blessing it is! :)

i feel like someone with no game.

This weekend was full of adventures! Friday night DIS hosted a welcome party for everyone in the program at Discotek "In." There were soo many people there, but it was a lot of fun!

On Saturday, we went on one of the optional DIS trips to Kronborg Castle in Elsinore, which is famous for being the castle in Shakespeare's Hamlet. We got a chance to walk around Elsinore and eat some lunch before we toured the castle. I had my first hamburger and fries since I left the States. It was heavenly.




The Castle was amazing! It is so crazy to realize that you are actually standing somewhere that you have heard so much about! The Castle is also located on the point of Denmark that is closest to Sweden, so we actually see the coast of Sweden!


Last night, some of the girls and I went to the nightclub Rust, in Nørrebro. It is so expensive to go out. We paid 80 kroner for entrance and coat check, so about $16. It was crazy packed! Drinks are extremely expensive here too, like $10 and above. The music is hilarious, either techno or rap jams from like 6 years ago. The dancing is out of this world, NOTHING like in the States. It's so funny because since you don't know what the culture is here, you feel so helpless. The only way I can describe it is I feel like someone in the States who has no game at all, if you know what I mean. You are dancing and you're like "I wonder if when I do this I look like a total dork or I actually look cool?" It's a hilarious concept. Yet its cool in a way, cause it forces you to just be yourself and not do what you know is socially acceptable, because who in the world knows what is socially acceptable in this country! Your guess is as good as mine!

Today we decided to be tourists and check out the Little Mermaid statue and walk through Nyhavn (pronounced "New-hawn'), which means New Harbor. It is the part of Copenhagen that is always on postcards and tourist pictures. It was absolutely beautiful! Freezing, but beautiful.



Now, time for some reading and then trying to go to sleep early tonight to prepare for the first full week of classes! Love and miss you all, xoxox Kelli.

the list.

What I Have Learned About Living in Copenhagen and the Danes thus far:

1. it is REALLY freaking cold.
2. never talk on the 6A bus. no one does that here.
3. a dane will never come up to you.
4. if you go up to a dane, they will be super nice to you.
5. they think america is HUGE.
6. they think if you're an american, you are from hollywood.
7. they dance really, really weird.
8. anything cheap does not exist in denmark.
9. the whole country is closed on sundays.
10. they don't understand why you would come to denmark.
11. the sun never comes out. maybe 5 minutes a week, if you're lucky.
12. fotex (kind of like their walmart) rocks.
13. hamburgers DO exist here.
14. you can pretty much wear whatever combination of any color/style of clothing and still look fashionable.
15. take a water bottle wherever you go. never pay for drinks.

I'm sure this list will continue to grow more every day.

we did a scavenger hunt and then i hit a wall.

WEDNESDAY
On Wednesday we got the opportunity to explore the city, which was so much fun! DIS set up a scavenger hunt for us with different points throughout the city. It was snowing heavily in the morning, but we made it through! The hunt took us to different locations such as the Royal Garden, the Royal Palace, the Royal Theatre, the Trinity Church and Christiansborg Castle Square (the Danish Parliament). The sights were amazing and it was nice to walk around Copenhagen a little more and get my bearings. Luckily, one of my group members was basically a human GPS, so we only got slightly lost one time. We actually took the wrong ferry in the harbor, so we ended up just going in one giant circle, but hey, it was warm on the boat.


The square in front of my school


While we were at the Royal Palace, my professor casually said, "oh there comes the queen now." I was like WHAT?! And then the queen drove by. NO BIG DEAL. I was so excited!! DIS also provided us with free coffee/hot chocolate at that stop. The hot chocolate was literally the best thing I have ever tasted. It was magnificent.



So many colorful houses!



In the Royal Garden...so beautiful!



The Queen is in the first car!

Once we got done with our Scavenger Hunt (which ended up being about an hour late), my group stopped by this cute sandwich stop on a side street and grabbed a quick bite. I got the best sandwich, with carrots and fresh mozzarella, tomato and arugula. Definitely not something I would ever think to eat in the states, but delicious at that. We then went to our program orientations. I am in the Communications & Mass Media program and there are about 38 of us, one of the smaller programs. It definitely sounds like it will be an informative and out-of-the-box learning experience. Not to mention my program director is a hottie!

The Keops crew did our normal 7:30 dinner in the common kitchen, which has been awesome! It is nice to have one place to come all together since our rooms can get pretty lonely. We have started meeting some of the other international students in our kollegium, coming from Australia, France, Germany, Holland and America. They are literally some of the most friendly people I have ever met. Still no Danes though......



Some of the Keops girls!

Some of the girls from Keops were bartending at this bar downtown called Student House, so they invited us to check it out. About 15 of us went and it was the best time ever! Literally, nothing like it in the States. A bar filled with 200+ students from ALL over the world. Dancing, drinking, and socializing. It was awesome. We met some guys from Spain and talked to them for a while and then danced to the sweet techno jams, haha. We decided to go home around 12:30 since most of us had class at 8:30 the next morning.

THURSDAY
Class begins. Whew. Not only was this a shocker to my system for lack of sleep, but it was also a shock since I haven't been in class since early December. My first class was Current Trends in News Media, my core Comm class. It seems like it will be interesting, definitely not anything like any of my comm classes at Elon. My second class is Virtual Worlds and the Digital Consumer. I think this will be my favorite class. It is all about social networking and how the Internet is a revolution in Generation Y. We watched this awesome video clip. Check it out...it will shock you. My third class on Monday/Thursday is Hans Christian Andersen Literature. My teacher sounds like a legitimate old English story teller and she is precious. We will be learning all about the most famous Dane of all time, HCA, and all about his life and his tales. So glad I decided to wait to go abroad to take my literature.

After class I met up with Emily and Skyler from Keops in a cute lounge upstairs for lunch. We all bring our lunch since Copenhagen is so expensive. I was nervous about doing this every day, but since everyone else does it too, it makes it a lot easier.

Emily and I decided we needed to go get our CPR cards, which grants us healthcare and banking rights under the Danish government. We ventured out to find the "kommune" and got slightly lost, but finally found it. It only took about 15 minutes once we got there, so we decided to indulge in our first experience of the Danish hot dog stand, which is common on street corners in Copenhagen. Delicious.

We traveled back to DIS at 6, for our visiting family meeting. A visiting family is a program that DIS to help students immerse in the Danish culture. They give students not living with host families the opportunity to get to know a Danish family. I am so excited to find out who mine is! They said they would let us know by next week.

THEN CAME THE WALL. No. I did not actually physically run into a wall, even though it may seem likely. I ran into a straight brick wall of exhaustion. I could barely keep my eyes open on the way home on the 6A bus. I'm pretty sure after 5 days of getting up at 7 am and before, waking up every hour at night, and my extensive jet lag had finally caught up with me. I convinced myself to eat dinner, and then I literally CRASHED.

With all of that said, each day is getting better and better. Everyone is SO nice here and we are all in the same boat. I was utterly terrified the first day and all I wanted to do was get back on the plane to the US. But now, I feel the complete opposite. I am loving the people I am meeting, becoming more familiar with Copenhagen every minute, and learning how to survive like the Danes do. I cannot wait to see what the next 4 months have in store!

PS. Sorry for the SUPER long posts. They won't be this long for much longer, promise! (For you, Aunt Fave)

looking up.

Today was a better day, and for that I am very thankful. This morning we attended a session with Anders Larsen, one of the DIS staff, about the Danish culture and everyday living in Copenhagen. It was a very informative session and I really learned a lot about how to adapt to life here. It helped calm my overwhelming fears of cooking every day and meeting the Danes, which is known to be somewhat difficult.

After that session we went to our second Survival Danish course. Man, I thought Spanish and Italian were hard, but they are NOTHING compared to the Danish language. It is beautiful when the Danes speak it, but it honestly just sounds like a lot of weird gagging noises when I try and speak it. I learned how to say my name is Kelli: Jeg hedder Kelli. and I come from: Jeg kommer fra South Carolina. NOTE: It is not pronounced ANYTHING like it looks.

After that class, a group of girls from Keops and I went to the Immerse Yourself Fair, where DIS offers many different extracurriculars, from a Danish Cooking Class to Yoga to a Christian Fellowship Organization. Even though a lot of them sounded really interesting, I am selfishly not signing up for much because this is my semester away from all the extracurriculars. I get so bogged down at Elon that I begin to not enjoy any of them, so I am enjoying having the semester to do what I want to do without so many commitments.

Finally, tonight we decided to be BRAVE and go eat in the common kitchen!! I know it sounds simple, but this was a huge hurdle. The kitchen in a kollegium is the "social spot" and the Danes and students that have been here for a while all know each other and hang out in here. It is definitely intimidating to walk into a situation where everyone else knows one another AND in another country. Yet we did it, and I am so glad we did. We ended up meeting a couple Australians and another American girl and a girl from Holland. They were all very nice and welcoming, so that made me feel a lot better about Keops. One Aussie girl, Lauren, actually lives on my floor so she came by my room and we chatted for a while. It was cool to talk to someone not from DIS!

So tomorrow we have our Scavenger Hunt, so I will be posting pictures with that! I hope you all are doing well. I miss everyone from home A LOT. But know that I am thinking of you often. From København---Hej Hej!