Exhaustion sets in

What a long week! While it is a great experience to be visiting a new place, it is absolutely exhausting. It’s very tiring to try to be a good student, a good traveller, a good family member, a good guest, a good athlete and a good Dane while also trying to be yourself. I guess this is my little moment of culture shock. I’m not homesick, not yet at least, I’m just tired. The biggest stress point for me, other than having to be completely independent, is my unfamiliarity with public transportation. I am constantly panicking about not being on the right bus, missing the train and having to wait 20 minutes for the next one, not having my pass ready, not knowing where I’m going, making a fool of myself…etc. Hopefully I’ll eventually get into a routine, but at this point the culture shock of city life is defeating me.


Regardless, this week did bring some new and funny experiences:

My family took me out for my first legal drink at a local brewery where my host sister works. We biked both ways and it was really fun, although they laughed hysterically at me because I could barely see over the bar. To this day they have not let me live it down.

We had our first week of classes and most of mine seem awesome. Tons of reading to do, but its all worth it when you look at the syllabus. Most of the classes have a few field-studies, which are basically related field trips to the area. My Creative Industries class, which sounds AWESOME, is going to a concert at one of Copenhagen’s biggest concert halls on this Friday and we will also visit the amusement park here! My other classes take trips to major companies, host cultural events, and visit major sites. All the trips sound great, although they certainly keep us busy!

I went on a bike and canal tour on Saturday, seeing the beautiful sights and learning the rules of city-biking. Trying to keep up with our maniac bike-tour leader definitely got me comfortable riding in the city. We also visited some really great sites that I was hoping to see while here, and they were even better by bike. One of my favorites was Christiania, a alternative hippie style commune or free town in the middle of the city that has been squatted on, and now basically owned, by this alternative group. The lifestyle and artwork here was impressive, not to mention how quiet and peaceful this place was when the city was just a few hundred yards away.

My host mom and I rode around our area on Sunday so I can start to get a little more familiar with my area. Today I biked into the city, about 15 kilometres and 50 minutes on the bike, a good ride! Biking to school and back will be my exercise for today.

This week I started an introduction week for my ski training by doing some exploring. As mentioned, I have found some great bike paths to use for rollerskiing and have also learned two different ways to run to and then around (7 kilometres) the lake. My host family lives about 100 yards from a forest which has an awesome trail system that I have been trying to get familiar with. I have already found a great spenst hill and a good ski-walking hill, although I think it is too short. I signed up for a ski-training group through a local athletic club that will meet once a week to go over some specific training and technique work with a coach! I’m hoping that I will learn some new drills, but also meet some Danes and maybe even someone to work out with one other day during the week. I’m desperate for a training partner and I really hope this will help. Next week will probably be a trial week for me, where I will actually try to complete a full week of training and then make changes as I go.