Exploring Copenhagen

So on Wednesday DIS created a scavenger hunt, which was a great way for us to explore the city. We saw the royal palace area, the new opera house, the famous street Nyuhen (?) which is the one with all the different color buildings along a canal docked with tons of boats (it's the cover picture of the DIS catalog, and is in almost every picture of Copenhagen), various churches around the city, and we went on the harbor bus (like a ferry taxi). It was a great way to become familiar with the streets of Copenhagen. I took tons of pictures, but right now I can't figure out how to add them to this blog. One way only allows me to post one at a time, which is a pain in the ass. Thursday was our first official day of class, but because I'm in the psych program here, we had our orientation. In DIS, there are two tracks/main courses in the PCD program (Psychology and Child Development): multicultural and special needs (I'm in multicultural). One course is the theory course, while the other is the practicum, which is one day a week where we work in a danish school setting for about 5-6 hours (I did this last semester at Skidmore where I worked in the ECC with the 3 year olds, so I'm really excited to compare and contrast Danish and American children, as well as the educational systems). So I'm working with 3-6 year olds in an integrated bornheave ( which is like an integrated kindergarten and preschool. Preschool is 0-3 year olds in Denmark, and kindergarten is 3-6, so the school I'm working at has kids 0-6 yrs old). However, the site is a good 45 mins from my house, which sucks, especially because there are tons of schools in Roskilde where I'm living. But apparently they match you up with what you wrote on your questionnaire about the practicum, and I guess this I closest school to my preferences (though I dont really remember what I wrote in the questionnaire). In addition, I'm working with 3-6 yr olds, which I put as my first choice, which I'm not regretting a bit because they dont learn English until they're 8, so I wont be able to verbally communicate with the children. Great. I should've worked with teenagers. So the hardest part will be learning how to use other forms of communication (pointing and miming), I'm sure that's going to be sooo much fun.


Thursday night I went out with my new friend Kylie (she lives in a suburb of Roskilde, called Om, literally in the middle of no where) and Daniel. We wanted to check out this place underneath DIS called Australian Bar because on Tuesday and Thursdays they have a 10DKK (DKK-Danish Kroner, the currency here) bar special, which is 2 dollars per beer or shot (actually a little less than that because the exchange rate is going up, yay!) sooo cheap so we had to try it! It was like any other bar. Yet we got there before Danial did (Christina dropped me off at the train station to pick up Kylie's bag, because Kylie was sleeping over my house since the bus to her town stops running at 9:30pm), and we had heard stories that if you accept a beer from a Dane that means you plan on going home with him at night. So Kylie and I were a little nervous about talking to the Danish guys at the bar because we weren't sure what the signs were (like did talking to a guy mean that you were interested in him?). So we're at the bar, and these two guys start talking to us. One guy comments on my dimples, but he didn't know the English word for them so he said "I like the grand canyons in your cheeks" haha. Then when he realized how short I was he was like 'oh you're so cute, like a smurf". Yeah, no. His friend started talking to us about basketball (because obviously its popular in America) and he told us about his dreams to come to America and play in the NBA and he was so close to doing that, but then he got arrested and went to prison. Okay... So I jokingly asked if he had killed someone, and he responded with a straight face and a serious tone, "no, but I almost did." Needless to say, we walked away. Later we played pool with some other Danish guys, who said that I looked like I was related to Obama. Note to Danes: NOT ALL BROWN PEOPLE ARE RELATED NOR DO WE ALL LOOK ALIKE! :-).

Friday I had my counseling psychology class, which will be broken up into 3 sections, each section taught by a different teacher. We are going to be learning about different counseling theories and therapies and then practicing them on each other, which is what I've been waiting to do foreverrr so I'm very excited. The teachers seem great. Friday night DIS threw a welcoming party for us at Club Luux, very nice inside and Kyllie slept over again, which we've decided is what she will do when we go out, so she know has pjs and a toothbrush here for her so she doesnt have to bring tons of stuff everytime. The club was nice and the party was pretty good, though they played mostly American music, which was good for dancing, but its still a little weird. Danes don't really listen to "Danish music". Most Danish singers since in English, which is kind of bizarre and they also listen to a lot of American music. I mean a lot. The radio stations that my host brother listens to play american music, Michael has a collection of American music: Van Morrison, Bob Marley, Lenny Kravitz, Joni Mitchell, etc. So so far when I've gone out at night, the places have played a majority of American music. It's good for me because I can dance to music that I know, but it's still a little strange that I'm halfway across the world and at times it doesn't feel like I've really left America.