From Rebæk Søpark Kollegium

Today started bright and early. It was our first day of lectures, along with a boat tour and tour of the studios and campus.

8:30 – Met with my RA and several others staying at our dorm, all Architecture students, so I have no idea why I was assigned here. Also, all guys, too. We then headed to the Rødovre St. S-Train, which took us to Nørreport St. I'm going to have to keep an eye on my exit because every announcement of a stop name sounds like someone coughing. Then we met with all the Architecture, Interior Design, Furniture Design, and Glass Blowing studios in an open square, got on touring buses, and headed to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.

10:30 – Eric Skoven, the program director, introduced himself and gave a wonderful speech on Danish design as well as design in general.

"A chair is not finished until it has been sat in."

11:00 – An AMAZING string quartet played for us. It is considered good luck and taste to begin a get-together with music.

11:15 – We receive a tour of the facilities (library, studios, lecture hall) from our professors, and figure out which studios we are in. I am in Tube Steel A. It should be very interesting, and I am glad to be learning such a specialized craft while I'm here. Ellen is in the Veneer 1 group. Elizabeth is in the Tube Steel B group.

12:00 – Lunch provided to us. Tuna sandwiches and Coke Light.

12:30 – I head back with Ellen and a few others to pick up the papers, food stipend, and bus pass that we were supposed to receive yesterday.

1:15 – End up missing a lecture entitled "The Human Dimension in City Planning," which sucks.

3:00 – 2-hour field study by boat of the Copenhagen Harbor.

After that, they dumped us off in the middle of the city and said, "Good luck!" I found a few people from my dorm and walked with them to the Nørreport St. station. On the way, we passed a Netto store, a low-budget grocery store. I kept it very safe and purchased sandwich ingredients, fruit, juice, and Honey Nut Cheerios. I want my adventuresome food endeavors to be for when I eat out.

I regret to inform you that I did not take my camera with me today. I wanted to pay absolute attention to directions and instructions so that I could find my way back tomorrow, and I knew having my camera with me would bring the temptation of not listening and going off on my own. I've still got something like 45 days left here, so there will be plenty of time for touristy things.

I do have some pictures, though:

My seat on the first flight from St. Louis to Chicago. I got to switch from 13C to 12C (an exit row) because the people sitting in front of me were unable to speak English and therefore unable to help in an emergency.

Flight Attendant: Can you perform the necessary exit procedures?
Me: Yeah, yeah, whatever. Woohoo! I can't even touch the seat in front of me!



This was taken at 6:30 this morning, the sun already high in the sky.



The rest of these were taken at 8:30 tonight, in my dorm room.







And this is my trying to find out where the heck I'm going tomorrow morning. I think I've got it though, and it only requires one S-Train ride and one bus ride.