The Last of Session 1

Last week flew by! On Tuesday, class was cancelled YET AGAIN. Without much to do or any way to contact people, I chilled on the roof of Hoffmans for a while, started working on a paper for class, and finished an application for an on-campus entrepreneurship program. I also discovered that the order for my phone hadn't gone through, so I re-sent it in the hope that it would arrive in the next few days. Later on, I met up with a girl named Sara who I had befriended a few weeks earlier; we hung out at a local coffee shop for a while and worked on our papers, then headed back to her place. There, her roommate cooked us dinner and I chatted with a few people from their Kollegium before Sara and I grabbed ice cream. Sadly, Ben and Jerry's was the closest and cheapest option; for the umpteenth time, I felt a bit guilty for getting the most American food while abroad. Afterward I headed back to Hoffmans, worked on my paper some more, and crashed for the night.

A Man Enjoying One of Copenhagen's Public Gardens

Wednesday was pretty uneventful; I went to class, came back to Hoffmans, grabbed a quick nap, talked to Jill and Karina for a while, and ran a few laps around the park's track before heading back for the night. On Thursday, I went to class as usual, and a guest lecturer came to speak for most of the time (he was essentially a motivational speaker who gave us pointers about staying positive). After checking my e-mail I found out that my phone had arrived at the main DIS office - so after class, I went to pick it up only to discover that the phone they had sent wasn't compatible with the SIM card I needed. After an hour or so of dealing with some inept customer service guy working for the phone company, I learned that I could exchange the phone in the city without having to order a new one. I made the mistake of asking directions to the phone company's drop-off point from the first Danish guy I saw; he insisted on walking with me to the address and giving me a quick run-through of his life story on the way. It was a very interesting exchange - he told me that he had just returned to Copenhagen from Germany and had been working on creating an interactive theater installation of Kafka's "The Trial" - but I was quickly sketched out by his disheveled appearance and managed to hastily make an excuse for ditching him as soon as we got to the location. Unfortunately, the building didn't seem right; the door was barred by a heavy iron gate and it seemed to be home only to a few private residences and a publishing company. Not sure what to do, I headed back to the DIS library and finished up my paper with Ravy. We decided to meet up in the city later to head over to a Kollegium where a few other guys from our class (David and Dustin) lived. Once I returned to the city, though, I couldn't find Ravy anywhere and decided he'd left already, so I went to grab food and money. Thankfully, just as I was about to head back to Hoffmans I found Ravy, and we met David and Dustin at their place before meeting with some other people downtown. I got to meet a few other people studying in Copenhagen and had a blast.

Some of the Sickest Graffiti I've Ever Seen

On Friday (the last day of class for our first session), we had yet another guest lecturer speak to our class about preconceived judgments and do a few workshops with us. Most of the workshops were very meditative and seemed a bit far-out to most of the people in the class, but what the lecturer had to say was fairly interesting. Afterward, I went to check with DIS and ask what possibly could have happened to my phone. They called the phone company and asked about the drop-off point but didn't get any definitive answer, so I headed back to the location see if there wasn't some sort of mistake. I entered apprehensively, and somehow ended up in the publishing company's office asking if it was the right place. As it turned out, there was ANOTHER street with a name that was only one letter off from the name of the street I was on. Sheepishly I went to the new location and found it to be even sketchier than the first one - it was in a basement that had been completely torn apart, and the haggard-looking man who gave me the new phone told me there had been a break-in recently. For as sketchy and haphazard as the situation seemed to be, at least the phone I got worked perfectly - so I went back to DIS, talked to Sara and found out where she was going to be later in the night, then headed back to Hoffmans. I later met up with Sara at a local cafe where some company party was being held, but ended up meeting an ex-con and was hit on by a drunk Danish dude - so we beat a hasty retreat back to Sara's place where I chilled with her and her roommate (Eszter) and ate Nutella until I was ready to pass out and headed back to my place.