COrAl's COpeNhAgeN AdVEnTUReS

Coral is spending the Spring ('11) of her Junior year studying abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Week One (or Three)!

So it's now been a week since I said farewell to my parents at Logan! So much has happened. It's incredible how slowly a week can go when all is new.

The week started with three days of orientation. My host dad came on the train with me the first morning to help me find my way to the opening ceremony. I met two girls on the platform who are now good friends. They live with host families in Lyngby as well. The Opening Ceremony consisted of lots of speeches. The head of academics tried to reorient us by listing the upcoming NFL playoff games. He said Tom Brady could go back to fawning himself or something of the like. I booed - I'm representing you Daddy! There was also a band that played a variety of tunes. I was surprised they didn't play "Wonderful Copenhagen". They did play the Tivoli theme song which had a similar child-like feel. Tivoli is the big amusement park in the center of Copenhagen that will open sometime this spring. Apparently it's very over-priced but I'm still excited!

We were sent off on a scavenger hunt around the city. We acquainted ourselves with the Danish Institute of Study Abroad buildings, a Danish grocery store, and lots more. Everyone in my group of six was very tired and we ended up splitting up. Three of us continued to explore the city.

One of the beautiful paintings on the walls of
the room where we had the Opening Ceremony.
 A kollegium in Copenhagen where
some of my classmates are living (there
were many different housing options).

Dr. Bronner's in Danske (Danish) :)
Still not sure where we were... but this was cool!

We discovered Tiger! It's this great discount
store with some hilarious merchandise. This
toilet paper roll had famous quotes on it. Lol.
On day two I had some meetings about my core program (Positive Psychology) and about living with a host family. We began to learn some Danish. I really love the language! It requires a lot more mouth movement than English. It's fun! My Lyngby friends and I found this great little restaurant recommended by two people. One of them made a great card castle...

Great Tower!
The next day we had another scavenger hunt to some of the famous places in Copenhagen. My group started at the Church of Our Saviour (Vor Frelsers Kirke). It has a gorgeous spiral on top that I'll definitely be climbing in the springtime when it opens. The sanctuary was exquisite. There was a huge organ in the back. None of my attempts at a picture do it justice so I'm borrowing from wikipedia...
  The front mantle was gorgeous as well...
Apparently mantles in Denmark aren't usually a cross. This mantle is portraying Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane when the angels tell him he must keep going. 80.9% of danes are members of the National Lutheran Church. However, it seems very few are actually "religious" or at least in the lutheran sense. Most danes attend christmas eve services but this is due to the hygge nature of this tradition. :)

We saw the royal palace and some other sights that day. What was truly exciting though was running into the city's marching band that walks through Copenhagen's streets once a week at the changing of the guards. It was really awesome!
I loved that they were playing "Consider Yourself" from Oliver. It felt like they were welcoming me to the city by telling me to "consider myself at home." It was quite sweet.

That evening I made it to a much needed yoga class. The next two days, Thursday and Friday, were the first days of classes. I really liked my professors. They all want us to call them by their first names. I'm really enthusiastic about all my classes which feels nice.

Yesterday, I walked around Lyngby with my host parents. It was fun to see the mall. All the sales have been going on for the past week because their sales come after christmas. I have exercised shopping restraint this week. With the sales I could afford things but after the sales are done I won't be able to so I just have to hold out a little longer because I really don't want to be spending any more money than I need to be. My host mom and I went over to her daughters apartment to help put up shelves and assemble stools. It was fun to be handi-women and to interact with my host-sister and her roommate who are my age.

A water mill by my house.
A mindfulness kit you can take out at the local library :)

The symbol of Lyngby. It's a crown because
the King's brother used to live here.
My host sister and mom!

I've had wonderful chats with my host parents all week. I've been learning new tidbits about danish food and culture at every meal! This morning I went with my host mom and friend to the church across the street for the morning service.
The church across the street!
It was fun to hear some familiar hymns and prayers in a different language such as En rose så jeg skyde or Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming and The Lord's Prayer.

Danish Hymnal!
Pretty Ceiling!

And Pulpit!
Not having programs saves so much paper!

Erin and I
Berit and I

Berit told me the preacher shared a story about some immigrants who asked to work at the church a while back. They wanted to learn from her but she said she ended up learning from them as much as they learned from her. Berit felt the same way about my coming to live with them. We've learned a lot about one another and ourselves this week. It's been quite a gift! And there's so much more to come! :)

One of my host parent's habits is to organize their year by the week number of the year rather than the week number of the month. This past week was week 3 of the year hence the title of this post!

Vi ses (See you later)!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

And She Arrives...

It is the first evening after a fantastic day! I'm exhausted but energized! I could not have imagined having a more incredible host family!

My parents drove me down to Boston for my flight on what was Saturday evening. It's been less than 24 hours since I left and so much has happened - craziness! Both my flights were packed with DIS students. On the first flight there was a girl from Colby across the aisle from me and three Bates students sitting behind me. There were a ton of crazy connections in those first few hours. As I sat on the floor of the Reykjavik airport I just so happened to start talking to a guy from Portland who went to Waynflete annnnd Fish Camp (my parent's camp). That was too funny. I learned a lot of names in the airports and on the planes... hopefully, I remember a few of them tomorrow. :)

When I arrived in Copenhagen I was greeted by my host parents. They drove me through the city, we walked the dog (Cozmo), ate lunch, dinner, and dessert (greek yogurt with fruit and honey - yum!). Everything was delicious! I learned that smoked salmon is called lox here as well.

It's going to be a lot of fun to learn danish. There are many really difficult words but some phrases are strikingly similar. I was learning how to communicate with the dog and "come here" is "kom her" pronounced exactly the same. That was an exciting discovery.

I met my host sister who lives near by. She is also 20 and extremely sweet. It's a complete delight to be here. I couldn't have asked for a better situation!

I have much more to say but I think I should call it a night. I'm waking up in eight hours for orientation. Godnat! <3

Monday, January 10, 2011

Contact me!

How to reach me this semester!

To send snail mail:

Coral Sandler
c/o DIS, Danish Institute for Study Abroad
Vestergade 7
DK- 1456 Copenhagen K
Denmark

gmail/ gchat: coral.sandler@gmail.com

email: csandler@bowdoin.edu

skype: coralsandler

Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen...

Aha! Blog created! I have gone back and forth on whether or not I should do this. Today I made an impulsive decision to go for it (rather than continuing the ongoing packing process). We shall see if I keep it up throughout the the semester. I'm assuming my posts will be somewhat sporadic. Nevertheless, it will be fun to have an "official" place to share my experiences and send mass hugs back home to those I love! :)

I'm obsessed with this danish idea of "hygge". Sharmi Albrechtsen gives a wonderful description (click here) of this danish word or way of life...

"Hygge, loosely translated it can be considered “coziness” and includes the presence of and pleasure from comforting, gentle, and soothing things. Hygge is described as a deep sense of place & well-being; a feeling of friendship, warmth, contentment and peace with your immediate surroundings."

According to Sharmi, Danes recognize, label, and appreciate these moments of hygge! I feel like this is a very good sign that I'm going to feel right at home in Denmark. I definitely consider myself a lover of cozy things: hot drinks, candles, down comforters, dark chocolate, fires, quality chats, synchronicity, annnd hugs!

This week has consisted of much jumping up and down in anticipation of my departure. I got my housing assignment... meaning I received a incredibly sweet email from my host family and then preceded to communicate back and forth multiple times before I discovered them on facebook and we all became "friends".

I had an epic drive across the state of Maine earlier this week during which my father serenaded me with the song "Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen". A song dear to his heart due to his associating it with his childhood (and pub nights in Portland in the 70s). After his personal rendition, he found a youtube video of the original. Both my parents began singing along to Danny Kaye. It was quite amusing background music for my long drive east on route 2.

If you're unfamiliar with the song. Here's the original(?) with Danny Kaye:


I'm beyond excited. I've known I've wanted to go to this study abroad program in Copenhagen for two years now. I first found the program when I researching Bowdoin's off campus study programs over winter break after my first semester. It looked incredibly well put together and I couldn't help but get excited when I started reading articles claiming that Denmark is the happiest country in the world. :)

So close! Just got to finish packing...