Wednesday was the last day of orientation and I didn't have class on Thursday, so I spent the day exploring Copenhagen. I woke up relatively early and walked a bit around my apartment to kind of figure out where things were. A couple of blocks away there is a bunch of stores, although nothing I haven't seen in the center of Copenhagen. I am also only a 10 minute walk or so away from the Copenhagen soccer stadium which I glimpsed the outside of. Sometime this semester my Danish Language and Culture class is going to a game, which will be a lot of fun.
Later that morning I met two friends who also didn't have class. We went down to the Kommune, which I think is a place where Danes can go for health insurance and other social welfare stuff, but I'm not really sure all that it does. At the Kommune we got our CPR cards, which are basically like social security cards and are what give us health insurance while we are here. I think that it is pretty cool that you can get health insurance in a country you don't even live in as long as you have a visa.
After getting our CPR cards, we walked over to the Black Diamond which we had briefly seen a couple of days prior. The Black Diamond is an extension of the Royal Library, which is kind of like Denmark's Library of Congress in that it contains copies of all of the books published in Denmark. It is also used as a study space for students from universities in Copenhagen. The building is a very modern, sleek addition to the much older, gothic portion of the Royal Library. I'll post some pictures of this building when I figure out how to.
After exploring the Black Diamond, we walked over a Bridge to Christianhaven, a part of Copenhagen that King Christian IV built and named after himself sometime in the 1600s. We walked around a bit and then walked over to the Free Town of Christiania. Christiania is a small part of Copenhagen that has existed as a squatter settlement since the 1970s and offers the opportunity to live in an alternative lifestyle. I think the original settles lived in abandoned army barracks and people have since built thier own buildings out of various material. Everything is painted in psychedelic colors and it looks like you took a time machine back to the 70s. Although Christiania began as a commune for people who wanted an alternative lifestyle, it is also the center of the drug trade in Scandinavia and thus is subject to many police raids. Unfortunatly I don't have any pictures of it because there are many signs asking people not to take pictures. Christiania was really nice and it is kind of amazing that something like it has been able to exist for so long in any city.
After Christiania we walked to the end/beginning of the Strøget, a walking pedestrian street with lots of shops along it and went into some shops just to scope out the prices. things were definitly more expensive than in America but were not too outrageous. We also went into an H&M store and it was very different from those you see in America. The store was broken into smaller departments and had a kind of maze feeling whereas those in America tend to be in a large, expansive and unbroken space.
Friday was my first day of class and I had class straight from 8:30 to 5 with 15 minutes between each class. Fortunately i live only a 5 minute bus ride from school so I didn't have to get up too early but it is quite a change of pace from walking around all day to sitting inside for 8 hours. So far my classes seem interesting and I think I will get a pretty good sense of multiple aspects of Denmark between Danish Language and Culture, Danish Design and Danish Politics and Society.
One thing that really amazes me here is the fact that such a small country of 5 million people can have such a unique culture. Also, it seems strange that the many Danish brands and stores can be adequately supported by such a small population, especially when I think that Denmark has as many people as the Bay Area!
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