Frederiksborg Palace

On Saturday the 29th a few people from my floor and I went on an excursion trip offered by DIS. Our trip was to Frederiksborg Palace located in Hillerød, which was about a 45 minutes bus ride from downtown Copenhagen. When we got there we got a guided tour through the castle, which is now known as The Museum of National History. The castle was amazing!!

One of my favorite rooms was the Great Hall (Riddersalen). It was absolutely amazing with all the detail. During the tour, our guide told us people would sleep in this room sometimes because of how cool the marble floors were.

 

Another one of my favorite rooms was The Palace Church also known as the Chapel of Orders. The words amazing, grand, and stunning don’t do the church justice. Displayed on the wall of the church are coats-of arms, The order of the Elephant, and the Order of the Dannerborg.

An interesting fact we learned was people back then slept sleeping up because they felt if they lay down while sleeping death would overcome them. Because of this, beds were made shorter.

Other interesting facts we learned included the following: 

• The oldest parts of the castle were built by Frederick II in 1560. The castle is named after him.

• Most of the current palace was built as a royal residence for King Christian IV

• Frederiksborg Palace is the largest Renaissance palace in Scandinavia

• When children were young, such as the age of 2, they were depicted in pictures as being much older. This was done because during olden times mortality rates were high so they wanted their children seen as older

• Diapers didn’t exist back then so diaper pillows were used. Young children would sit on a pillow. Inside this pillow would be pepper and other spices to mask the smell.

Cultural Immersion

After living in Copenhagen for a week and a half I can say I am enjoying the Danish culture. While some may be experiencing culture shock, I haven’t really experienced much. Some of the main things I have experienced that may have caused me a little culture shock is having to squeegee my bathroom floor after showering, the clouds of cigarette smoke in all bars, getting used to limited light in my room, rarely seeing the sun, and the big one…everything being in Danish and everyone speaking Danish. As time continues here, I’m sure people speaking Danish will just become background noise. Sadly, my ability to learn Danish will be limited since the language is so difficult to understand. Of course there are the ridiculously beautiful Danes. A group of us were on the bus this morning and just couldn’t believe how good looking this couple was with their blonde hair and perfectly sculpted faces. All we could think was how it wasn’t fair.  Aside from these few things, I am loving my time here.

One of my really interesting Danish immersions was going to a bar full of Danes instead of American DIS (Danish Institute for Study Abroad) students. When my floor and I go to bars we tend to go to the bars where there is nothing but DIS students. Similar to other nights, we decided to go to a Scottish bar filled with American students. A small group of us decided this isn’t what we wanted so our SRA decided to take us to a really cool and typical Danish bar. On our adventure to the bar we got a little lost and went in a large circle, but when we got to the bar it was worth is. The front doors were covered in stickers. When we walked in the walls were covered with graffiti. We went to the lower level where all the couches, foosball table and pool tables were. Two of the boys we were with got approached by 2 Danish girls to play foosball…needless to say they were a little hustled for beer since these girls were awesome at foosball. Two of the other boys went to play pool with Danish guys. It was so nice to be around Danish people rather than all Americans. Although at the bar it was different seeing things I wouldn’t see in an American bar, such as people rolling joints in the open and couples on top of each other hardcore making out in the wide open. Although our group made our way home reeking like cigarette smoke, got lost, and had to walk for 25 minutes in the freezing rain, I had an awesome time.

Another major immersion was my chance to go to one of my professor’s house for dinner. My International Marketing and Branding professor invited our whole class (about 25 students) to his house last night for dinner. After class ended at 5:45pm on Thursday, 16 of us met with our student director and headed to our professor’s house. After a short train ride and walk through cute Danish neighborhoods (ones that would remind you of something you would see in Harry Potter…and yes I just made a Harry Potter reference…oh well) we made it to our professor’s house. His house was so nice and cute. We walked in and there was a nice mud room and off to the right was the main part of his house. The inside was so modern. All the floors were a light wood, the walls were white but decorated with colorful fixtures and painting, and so open. We met his daughter, 2 sons and wife. The family was so nice. For a while the class stood around, drank, and talked. After a while him and his wife served us a Danish meal made my them. We had frikadeller, potato salad and homemade pizza. The food was DELICIOUS!! A little after dinner we all left so grateful for a home-cooked meal and the fact our professor invited us to his house. I wish more of my professors would do something like this since it was such a great way to experience Danish culture and for the class to bond. 

                                  frikadellar

With only being a week and a half through, I look forward to the many more chances to immerse myself in the Danish culture. While I am mistaken every once and a while for being a Dane, I hope I can have as much knowledge about the city as some of the Danes do.

First Week

I’ve survived the first week of classes, well more like the first two days since classes didn’t start until Thursday. On Monday and Thursdays I have European Business Strategy at 8:30am. With such an early class I have to wake up at 6:40am to make sure I leave my housing at 7:30am. Not a huge fan of waking up early, but hopefully I will get use to it. After my early class I have a long break so I find this time to be perfect for doing homework or exploring the city. At 1:25pm I have my next class, Gender and Sexuality in Scandinavia. One interesting note about my professor is she is originally from the Indianapolis area and went to Indiana University. When she studied abroad she met her Danish husband and now she has been living in Denmark for a while. When she said she went to IU, I couldn’t believe it. I came all the way to Copenhagen to learn and one of my professors is from IU. All I could think was how awesome and what a small world. The class seems like it will interesting learning about the differences in Denmark and other countries, such as prostitution being legal here, page 9 girls (girls with little clothing telling about themselves), and nudity being allowed on the front of daily newspapers. After that class I have another break until my International Marketing and Branding class at 4:25pm. My professor is really nice. He even invited the whole class to his house to eat a home cooked Danish meal and to meet his family. Sadly, I leave for school when the sun is down and return back home with the sun being down. I can’t wait until the days start getting longer so I can see the daylight. I guess I should find those heating lamps in the DIS building.

My Tuesdays and Fridays consist of two classes. I start the morning off at 10:05 with my Copenhagen: History and Contemporary Issues. The class will discuss the architecture of buildings around Copenhagen and how Copenhagen’s history shaped the architecture. Once that class is over I have another huge break. My final class of the day is Leadership across Cultures, which starts at 2:50pm and ends at 4:10pm. I’m not a huge fan of the time because it will affect my traveling over weekends, but I have to take the class since the class is easier than the one we have to take at IU. Since the class is easier here, half of the students in the class are from IU.

Now you may be wondering about Wednesdays, but here we have them off so we can have field studies. Field studies are the chance for our classes to go to businesses and observe firsthand how something is run.

With this being our first weekend here, DIS threw all students a Welcome Party on Friday at dance club downtown. It was so much fun and a great way for our floor to really hang out together. The next night, our SRAs took our entire floor on a pub crawl. We started the evening out in the red light district of Copenhagen and then went to nicer parts of town. At one of the bars we were told to leave because the bar wanted it to be quiet, but with 40 some American students quiet is not an option. It was really nice to see the different bars Copenhagen has to offer and I look forward to going back to some of them to experience more hygge – the Danish term for cozy feeling.

With my first week in Denmark almost over, I can say I am loving the city and still in shock that I will be living here for 4 months.

So It Begins!

After 2 full days of orientations, unpacking my suitcases and 30 some ziplock bags I can finally say I am all settled into my new home in Copenhagen. I still can’t get over the fact I will be living and studying in Copenhagen for the next 4 months!!!

I arrived into Copenhagen around 1:30pm. From the airport I was taken to my housing. I am living in Tåsingegade. My housing is DIS shared housing so I will be living with a large group of other American DIS students and one roommate. My housing is located in the town of Østerbro, which is a 15-20 minute bus ride to downtown Copenhagen. 

For the past 2 days I have had orientation all day. Our orientations consist of a few people talking and us splitting up into groups to go on scavenger hunts and explore the city for hours.  The first day of orientation consisted of the Opening Ceremony and exploring the area around the Danish Institute for Study Abroad. The second day of orientation was a scavenger hunt for the main sites of Copenhagen, such as the Christianborg Castle Square, Church of Our Lady and the Royal Palace. Later on we met with our core class to get a little background on the program and get to know the professor and other students. My core course is the International Business program. Once my day was over it was back to the housing to relax and socialize with the people I live with. All of this exploring has shown me one of the cutest things ever…groups of little Danish kindergarten children walking around the city in their winter onesies.

Adjusting to the Danish culture hasn’t too difficult. For the most part people speak English, which makes asking for help a little easier. Navigating around the city hasn’t been too bad, but I am looking forward to my day where I get myself lost in the city so I can learn the streets and how to get everywhere. At the same time, some things have been a challenge. Shopping for groceries was an experience. All of the food is in Danish and is in complete different packaging than American food so trying to figure out what everything is turned a simple group shopping trip into an hour long experience. The Danish language. What is there to say about the Danish language other than how the heck is that word pronounced and can you repeat that for me. Our SRAs (similar to US dorm RA’s) have had to tell us how to say the same words multiple times and when we get it wrong each time they laugh and say we will eventually get it. Hopefully we get the Danish language.

While I have been lost, confused, exhausted, and walked more than I have ever walked in a month at IU I have been loving my time here and can’t wait to experience more of the city and of course more wienerbrød aka the Danish pastry. 

Can't believe it...

The day before my flight is finally here! I can't believe it! My friends ask me "are you freaking out?!" Truth be told, I'm not really freaking out. Well, at least not yet. I'm sure it will hit me tonight and for sure tomorrow morning. Randomly, I get overfilled with excitement/nerves about studying abroad and the places I will get to travel! With my packing almost done (still can't believe 4 months of stuff fit in 2 suitcases, but my mom does have pretty good packing skills), I finish up the last few things I need to do and enjoy my last night at home.
 

                                          Just enough room to walk to my bed...

                                 Only the beginning...