Adjusting to Daily Life

Dear friends, thanks for reading this and leaving those lovely comments on my last entry. It really makes my day when I hear from people back home. I know I haven't been gone for too long yet, but I miss home a lot and I love that I can share my mini adventures with you all : )

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I find that one of the hardest tasks associated with not being able to fluently read or understand Danish is grocery shopping. At first, it was hard to tell which milk to buy (Do I get sødmælk, letmælk, minimælk, or skummetmælk???!), or what the mystery meat in the package is (kylling, skinke, kalkun??), or where the deals are... since I didn't know how to read the danish signs. Luckily, I seemed to have bought all the right things that I wanted, unlike a few of my classmates who bought sour milk and really stinky cheese by accident. Thus, our danish language teacher has taken it upon herself to help us out. This was the first meal I cooked in Copenhagen:

The mushrooms reminded me of Beth, my room mate back in Canada :P

The Danes are super friendly people. I have had to ask for directions many a times - though I haven't always gotten the right ones. Last Saturday, the three Polish theoretical physicists invited our whole class to their kollegium for a traditional Polish meal. It was a 15 minute bus ride from my apartment and a 5 minute walk. However, I got soooo lost on the way there. I wandered in the dark and windy night for about an hour before I found the place. By that time, I was freaking out (and crying, just a little). Anyway, all's well that ends well. We had a DELICIOUS meal with GREAT company. I believe that we will be having a traditional AUSTRIAN meal this Saturday prepared by miss Claudia. The Canadians are waiting until the Vancouver Olympics come on, before we host our meal.

Things have gone smoothly (for the most part) so far. I have a network of people that I can ask for help, if need be. The International Office is in the City Campus, which is less than 10 minutes from my apartment. It is in a older part of the city and the building is beautiful:

the International office shares a building with this gorgeous library

Unfortunately, I have been feeling a little under the weather. So I've been spending more time at home these days. This is a sign from a protest from the Copenhagen climate conference that some one has left in our living room. It would have been cool to be here for the excitement: