Hi. Here’s a fun fact for you: that’s actually how you’re
supposed to greet people in Danish (ok, the actual spelling is ‘hej’ but it
sounds exactly like its English counterpart). It has been one week since I
touched down in Copenhagen, and while I cannot yet say that I’m a seasoned
veteran ready to write the beginner’s guide to Denmark, I will say that in
small ways I am slowly beginning to adjust (it should only take another, oh, 5
months and 24 days to really get
acclimated)
(And no, unfortunately I do not have many pretty pictures:
I will use the bleak, grey weather as my scapegoat until a time arrives where
my photo taking becomes more frequently and hopefully more impressive)
Home
Quick correction: my address here is
Tranehavegard 27, 3, TV
2450 Kobenhavn
Denmark
(‘TV’ signifies that mine is the left unit on the 3rd floor)
Tranehavegard 27, 3, TV
2450 Kobenhavn
Denmark
(‘TV’ signifies that mine is the left unit on the 3rd floor)
I am living in a shared apartment located in the southern
district of Vesterbro. If you refer to this handy map (compliments of Google
Images), Copenhagen like most other large cities is separated into several
districts that possess their own unique character and flair.
Within each district are also specific neighborhoods –
Vesterbro for example is home to the Meat Packing District where old meat
packing/processing plants (who would have thought) and warehouses have been
converted to small bars, restaurants, and whatnot. My particular neighborhood
is located immediately adjacent to that green patch in Vesterbro’s bottom left
corner – the green patch is actually a cemetery.
For lack of a better word, my neighborhood is a city suburb:
the blocks are dominated by large housing projects (some of which really convey
a really depressing ex-Soviet Block vibe where it’s a plain concrete building
with small, jail-like windows). My particular building fortunately features
balconies and a few other details that at least make it somewhat more
aesthetically pleasing:
Taken during the year’s first snow: don’t be fooled, it melted a few hours later and now everything is back to damp, grey and drab
Although the university system here does possess what we would
call dorms, these are not plentiful nor are they common. Rather, the
universities have contracts with different apartments or housing complexes
across the city that set aside a certain number of units specifically for
students. The rooms are located all over the city and come in varying shapes
and sizes: my particular unit is a 1-bedroom + kitchen + bathroom where the
living room has been converted to a living unit.
Floor Plan (this was done with generic software
so all you architects - ignore the fallacies)
Yes, the angle of this is odd, but believe me
it’s hard to take a picture in this room, of the room
Put simply, it’s a cozy apartment. The multiple radiators
in the apartment work wonders, and I can comfortably wear a t-shirt and shorts while
indoors. There are hardwood floors throughout, and it came furnished which was
great. Some of the kitchen utensils leave a lot to be desired, but it’s enough
to survive and then some.
School
The University of Copenhagen is composed of 38,000
students and 6 faculties (think College of Letters and Sciences, College of
Engineering, etc.) that are located on different campuses throughout the city. Each
faculty has its own separate facilities, enrollment system, tech support, and
there next to no cross-faculty communication or consistency. Applying as an
anthropology and city planning major, I was accepted (somehow) into 3 of the
faculties: Humanities, Science, and Social Sciences
For the month of January, the Department of Scandinavian
Languages hosts an intensive language program where they attempt to teach 150
international students the Danish language in a matter of 3 weeks. We have been
split up into smaller classes of 12-15, and most of us have class on the Faculty
of Humanities located in Amager:
They have canals running through their campus.
American universities should take note
Danish, I find, is a rather difficult language. Fortunately,
it is an alphabet-based language so there aren’t any inherent difficulties with
writing, but it’s the type of language where there are silent letters, odd
vowels, and sounds/tones that do not come natural to an English speaker.
Interestingly enough, knowing Chinese comes in handy for pronouncing certain
words, but there the advantage ends. I’ve been told that German speakers and
other Scandinavian language speakers (ie. Norwegian, Swedish) have the easiest time
picking it up, but for the rest of us we’re struggling to learn the basic “Hello,
my name is ___ and I come from America (where we are uncultured and do not learn
other languages starting from youth)” (I’m paraphrasing here, don’t ask me to
actually say that in Danish). Class runs 9a – 12:30a every day, with a combined
30 minutes of break scattered throughout
City
Copenhagen is a big city, and one that I shall attempt to
catalogue in coming posts. Besides, you’re probably tired of reading at this
point anyways.
---
Oh, and it would be quite nice to hear from you all. Call
me traditional, but I still very much receiving letters in the mail: there’s
something extremely satisfying and nostalgic about it (but 1 line emails or
messages are fine too...)
Do let me know if you’d like me to send you a postcard or
something. No promises on how soon I’ll write them or how soon they’d actually
get delivered (or frankly that they even will
arrive I’ve lost mail before…but regardless, an effort will be made on my
part)
