Convenient Acquaintances...

"Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense respected."

-Charles Lamb

One of my biggest fears when coming to Copenhagen was not being able to make friends.  I was terrified at the thought of being alone for an entire year. Well, that fear was definitely not needed.  Over the past couple of weeks I have made some really good friends, unfortunately most of them are leaving in 6 months, but for those 6 months I think we will have a lot of fun. 

Every Wednesday night the Studenterhuset has an international night for all the international students.  So here we have from left to right; Niklas from Germany, Triin from Estonia, Seonaid from New Zealand, Marcos from Brazil, Krys from Germany, Diana from the U.S., one guy who I only met once and can't remember his name, Keven from Australia, Kate from the U.S., Francesco from Italy, Sophie from the U.S., and another girl I don't know. 

 After the Studenterhuset we tried to take the metro home unfortunately the metro was closed for repairs so we had to take the train, which took forever! At least I now remember the word for delay in Danish.

 The scary thing about trains in Denmark is that if you fall asleep and don't wake up at your stop you end up in Sweden.

On Friday we went on a canal boat tour. 

 One note never trust an Australian when they say it is only a short walk from uni to the boat.  Because you will end up walking for 40 minutes.  But on the other side the Australians that I have met here are pretty much the nicest people I have ever met.  This is Alex from Tasmania, and Mitch from Brisbane, and these guys were nice enough to indulge me and say, "crikey mate" in their beautiful Australian accents.  These two actually made us dinner last night and did a very nice job, even though pizza was mentioned at one point.  In fact their other roommate's exact words were, "It's acceptable"

On the canal boat tour we learned that this ship became famous when a torpedo was accidentally  released into the land, no one was hurt but over 100 buildings were destroyed.

 And this is the royal yacht.  Which again is just hanging out in open water, my American mind went automatically to, "oh my god anyone could just swim up to it and put something on it that is a complete security risk!" but they don't seem to worried about such things here.

And prepare to be extremely dissapointed... here is the little mermaid.  I knew she was small, and I knew people told me that I shouldn't really think much of it but when people think of Denmark this is pretty much what you think of and there really isn't any fanfare around her.  She isn't even marked on the city map that you get at the tourist office.  She is just kind of there.  

 This photo is for you dad, see you can come here and feel like you are at home, there is yellow construction equipment   Just don't look too closely because they really aren't Caterpillar.

 This is the spire of Church of our Saviour.

And here was our Hans Christen Andersen moment, don't you feel like writing a fairy tale about an ugly duckling?

 This is the spire on top of the old stock exchange.  When the building was orignally commisioned the spire was supposed to have four crocodiles intertwined.  Unfortunately the artist had never seen a crocodile so the ended up looking like dragons.  My question is why does a building in Denmark need a spire of dragons or crocodiles? Those are not exactly Danish animals.

 These three are probably my best friends here and that is probably because Seonaid and Krys know how to  cook and invite me and Niklas over for dinner a couple times a week.

 This building is home to Noma, which has been voted the top restaurant in the world multiple times.

Well this week has been absolutely beautiful.  Most days it has been sunny and in the upper 70's which is crazy warm for here.  This has also been the week that Seonaid decided that we should be running partners and I have now gone running twice with her.  All I can say about running is that the whole thing about having a running high is complete lies.  After running all you feel is hot, sweaty, and tired.  Also next week is the final week of my Danish class which means I also have the written exam and oral exam. So today we are going to the beach to "study."   

Random Danish facts:

-Danish does not have a word for please

- Denmark actually uses traffic lights, there are very few roundabouts

- Danish university students actually get paid a monthly stipend to go to school and they can get this stipend until they are 25

- Danish people actually consume the most alcohol per person than any other country in the world