A Travel Blog: This Unexpected Detour

Walking from Island Brygge to the City Center

Before leaving to study abroad, I was expecting that I would be meeting wonderful Aussies in the University of New South Wales, Australia.  I had plans to meet up with my best friend from UCSB and we were going to journey around the land down under together. After researching and putting on, what I thought was, a great impression on the EAP interviewers to be accepted into the Immersion Program, I received heartbreaking news via email that I could not go to Australia. Unfortunately, 2009 had brought about the most students who applied to study in Australia as well and there was simply not enough room. I spent a good day crying over my shattered plans; EAP had no idea how much it meant to me. Yet, instead of mourning for my lost for a longer period, I found myself in front of the EAP office the following day. The application for Denmark was due that day, but I convinced Jane, the awesome advisor for the Scandinavian regions, to let me send in my application. It took only one day for me to get everything together, whereas, the Australia application took me a week. I called my mother the second after my application was handed in. “Mom, so remember how I said I’m going to Australia? I’m going to Denmark now.” She, of course, freaked out cause I give her such short notices about my plans, but she got over it after finding out that Denmark is actually a pretty safe place.

I arrived at Copenhagen with a rough start. Two hours after my plane landed, I had to drop off my luggage at my new home and take the metro to my first class.  I had to pay $300 to change my flight so that I arrived on the day of orientation, otherwise, risked being “kicked out of the program.” However, the orientations that day did not seem mandatory nor was it anymore informative that the brochures. Anyways, hundreds of international students were randomly chosen to be in the Intensive Danish Language Course. Luckily, I was chosen to be in one of the funnest classes I have taken in the history of my education. The teacher, Mikael Koneke, was an energetic, upbeat and enthusiastic Dane who managed to bring our small class together. Everybody participated and some of my classmates have now become my best of friends here in Copenhagen.

At first, I thought that finding a place on my own would be easy; I was trying to price shop so I rejected the housing the international office offered. Turned out, there are MANY scammers when it comes to renting overseas. I know, I am naive for almost sending $1000 through Western Union to pay for a wonderful flat that did not exist! So, I was stuck to sharing a large bedroom at a cheap place that was offered to me by a friendly, but weird, 25 year old Indian I.T. manager I found on craigslist. I’ll start off with my list of cons:

1. The toilet is located IN the shower.
2. The kitchen is about 5ft by 5ft.
3. I started off with no bed or mattress.
4. There is another shower/bathroom next to our room that is meant for hang-drying clothes from the washer and is equipped with a sauna. I can live in there but the owner says I can’t.
5. The “closet” for the refrigerator is bigger than the kitchen and I am jealous that the refrigerator has its own room.
6. My roommate is a fan of Bollywood and Skype; he sits at home after work every night chatting loudly to his girlfriends, making weird noises, and singing the same Bollywood songs.

I can definitely move out if I wanted (and move-in with a friend), but here are the upsides:

1. Rent is $445 U.S. dollars; cheaper than what I’ll ever pay to live in UCSB and also one of the cheapest places I’ll find in Copenhagen.
2. I have my own mattress now; I reorganized the room so that we have our own privacy.
3. Nayak, my roommate, is a very sweet guy despite his annoying habits. He makes the best curry ever; Naan Stop is at my house.
4. This place is close to the airport and beach.
5. We spend minimal $$ on food which is good news for my wallet.

Overall, my living situation is not perfect but it is an experience. Besides, Nayak may be going back to India in November so I will have the room to myself for awhile.

For my first month here, I did a lot of sight-seeing in Copenhagen. There was a free canal tour that gave me an abundance of information about places to go around the city including the famous “Little Mermaid” or the Black Diamond Royal Library. The tour lasted about an hour or more and is a must-do. On the tour, I also discovered “The Harbor” and had some historical background on the architectures. I also went on a tour of the National Museum, but the tour was not as interesting as wandering around the museum on my own.

Orsteds Parken

Strolls in the parks here are one of my favorite things to do especially on a sunny, warm days and Amager Strand, the beach next to where I live, is also a fantastic place. I watched the sunrise, twice, over the body of water between Sweden and Malmo, with windmills and cruise ships in the background. One thing to be aware of is how a windy, but warm-sunny day can be deceiving; sand that gets picked up by the harsh wind is tough on the beach-body.

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Sunrise at Amager Strand [Amager Beach

Ready for Clubbing (L to R): Mary (me), Benoit (Marseille, France), Anita (Ulm, Germany), Liz (Berkeley, California), & Fiona (Melbourne, Australia)

Next, the nightlife during the weekends are ridiculous. Party people fill the streets of the city center take have risky bike races with each other between the crowd. Many clubs and bars are packed with people of all ages (over 17, I suppose) and I have to comment that about 70% of the people I see here are gorgeous. In addition, most people here are dressed fairly well if not fabulously. These parties and clubs usually go on until 3:00-7:00 AM; I thought I would not be able to stay awake for so long but it turned out to be easy.

S-Train Station at Norreport (City Center)

Conveniently, when I do go home in the middle of the night or early morning, the metro runs for 24 hours. A station is just 10 minutes away from my place. One of the best and easiest-to-learn transportation systems here are the metro and s-train. It can take you almost anywhere you need to go. A $26 “2-zoner klippekort” gives you 10 clips to get onto a metro, s-train or bus within 2 zones; each clip is valid for 1 hour. A regular ticket costs you about $4 and is the most expensive option. As for me, I buy a 2-zoner monthly pass that takes me anywhere between the two zones anytime within the 30-days of my pass for about $65, which is the cheapest option if you travel as much as I do within a week. Oddly enough, most of the time that I have been on the metros and trains, nobody checks my ticket or pass. Yet, if somebody forgot their ticket or travelled outside his/her valid zone the day that a “checker” is in the metro, he/she will be given a $120 fine that is extremely difficult to talk out of.  It is all based on a system of trust and if you break that trust, you pay the fine.

Botanisk Havn

Finally, just a general summary about how I spend my weeks here. I take the metro to class 3 times a week. After classes on Mondays and Tuesdays, I go straight to Studenterhuset, the popular student bar that I volunteer as a bartender for (anybody can do it!), grab myself a cup of free coffee (because I have a house card ["huskort"]), and attempt to read but end up chatting with anybody familiar. I am usually free on Wednesdays to do what I want. Last time, I went to visit the Botanic Garden (Botanisk Havn) next to my department. Wednesday nights are International Cafe nights which means that a lot of international and Danish students meet in front of Studenterhuset to mingle (because they don’t want to pay the $2 entrance fee) or go inside to drink and dance to good music from various DJ’s. I usually work as a bartender on these nights if nobody had signed up to work before me on that shift. If I work the late shift (11PM-3AM), we get free pizza, beer, and an afterparty that lasts until 5-7AM; this is the reason I would come home so late. I have one class on Thursdays and would spend the afternoon in Christiania or having dinner with some friends. Finally, Fridays through Sundays are always packed with things to do and it is like picking candy from a candy store; every weekend is full of excitement. From now, though, many of my weekends include traveling to different countries (for example, I just came back from Oktoberfest in Munich!).
Bottom line is: study abroad. My high school philosophy teacher (Thanks, Mr.Burnett!) once told us that everybody has a map of life and routes that they want to pursue, but rerouting your map and the detours you take are what make you more adaptable and more successful for survival. I’m having a damn good time on these detours.