Layover and Arrival

Who'd have believed that so much could happen in just a day's time? After departing yesterday evening from the Cincinnati airport, I arrived in Paris for a brief layover. Little did I know that only a handful of workers at Charles de Gaulle Airport speak serviceable English (or even more likely, they refuse to speak to Americans) - so as I fumbled around exchanging dollars for Euros and purchasing airport wi-fi service, I'm sure I butchered the few French phrases that I knew. However, the bathrooms at Charles de Gaulle were absolutely SICK, which sort of made up for the difficulties. After about four hours in Paris, I finally departed for Copenhagen and arrived without too much hassle.

In the brief time I spent in the airports, I was astounded by the variety of people I encountered. Ranging from the Xavier University alum traveling to Budapest to work at a study abroad program there, to the seasoned European traveler embarking on a cruise, to the kindly Icelandic couple also en route to Copenhagen, each new person I met added a bit of perspective to my own travels.

Once I arrived in Copenhagen's airport, I quickly met a few fellow DIS students from the States (DIS is the Danish Institute for Study Abroad). However, after we all shared stories of our universities back home, we realized that the DIS staff who were supposed to meet us were nowhere to be found. After a lot of deliberation and many failed calls to the DIS offices, we finally hailed a cab and found our way to the program's buses by a roundabout route. Exhausted after the past couple hours' ordeal, we each went our separate ways and settled into our respective Kollegiums (a Danish cross between dorms and apartments). When I arrived at mine I met my roommate - a guy named Kyle Canuette hailing from UNC Chapel Hill - and an intern studying architecture in Denmark gave us the lowdown on our living situation over pizza from a local Italian restaurant. Despite missing a shower head and some other room necessities, my roommate and I made do and explored the Kollegium with a few other DIS students. Then, after hanging with a few girls from down the hall (one of whom, Jill, also goes to Denison) we finally settled down for the night.