Progress

No Wednesday classes is going to be a bittersweet treat this semester (but mostly sweet).  My school only has Monday/Thursday and Tuesday/Friday classes, and has no classes on Wednesdays to allow for field study days.  Each course has two field study days where we meet outside of the classroom and around town to look at local places relevant to our course.  In other words, we get to have almost a dozen field trips this semester.  Of course, this also adds Tuesday nights to the list of potential going out nights.  Today being Wednesday, and after having a field study downtown from 9 am to noon, I can say that the bitter aspect of free Wednesdays is making itself aparent.  I need more sleep!  My friends here and I have been having a great time exploring the night life of Copenhagen and Helsingør.  Finding the cheapest place to grab a beer has been important, as they range from 50 Kronor (~ 9 bucks = insanity) to our new favorite spot that offers them for 19 Kronor (~3.50 dollars = cheers). It's a great chance to sit down and get to know other students, but even better, it's the only time we can really get to know some Danes! As some teachers here have told us, the Danes incorporate drinking into their culture (there are no open container laws for alcohol, you can even bring open drinks on the trains), and it's understood that the real way to get to know somebody is to have a beer with them.  I have been told it's considered very rude to not drink if the person you're talking to is.  In other words, we're just trying to get into the Danish culture!

At the Dubliner, more touristy than others, but a good time. Prefer some much cheaper hole in the wall local places we recently found.

I feel that I have become very close with a lot of the other people I live with, and we already have many good times to talk about.  It's a lot easier to feel at home and less foreign when you know that you're with good friends, and luckily this is becoming more the case each day.  That being said, I still love some time to myself when I can simply explore and think.  It's amazing that such a big and busy city like Copenhagen is still very conducive to solo excursions.  My favorite part of the afternoon each day is wandering through cobbled streets before heading to the train station. I think I may be ready for some time 'outside', though, as I haven't had a chance to get beyond an urban setting yet.  Luckily the rest of this week is the short study tour portion of our core prgrams (mine's sustainability in Europe). We leave tomorrow at 7 am to the town of Aalborg and Thy in the north.  We're going to be looking at renewable energy plants, then put to work in an eco-village, and returning on Saturday evening. I'm hoping this will be a good break from city life, and introduction to the country side.