Making friends.... aawwww

FIRST OFF!!! I have almost certainly gotten some work!!!! I am thrilled. If all goes well I will be cleaning 6 hours a week - two hours each for three different families in Fredricksberg and Nordvest - which is near to where I live as well! Actually between where I live and my school. When I mentioned to one of my classmates that I am looking for work she said she could put me in touch with these families because she just stopped working for them and they're looking for someone new. I'm just hoping all goes to plan and she gets in contact with them in time so that I'll be able to secure it! The levels of my enthusiasm for this work were perhaps somewhat startling to her... I'd like to work more than 6 hours a week of course, but it's a start. Getting work here is extremely difficult. There are SO many students in Denmark and most of them are in Copenhagen. So part time jobs go luke hot cakes. And let's face it, most Danish students have the edge of Danish fluency. Still, I'm lucky in that I have plenty of friends here to keep their ears out. I'm hoping to line up some English tutoring eventually because that sounds quite fun and I love kids. Wish me luck!

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International Student Orientation Day (I SOD as no one called it) was surprisingly fun. Often those types of things can hedge on fake or artificial with everyone trying to be impressive and/or being too nervous to really engage in any meaningful conversation. But I seem to have made at least one good friend out of the deal!

After an extremely chummy opening talk about how important we are as international students to fulfilling the vision of Aalborg University as a globally relevant University, we heard a bunch of official information and a bunch of more casual information about what it's like to live in Copenhagen as a non-Dane. And of course there was some meet and greet time. But frankly, not NEARLY as forced as this type of thing usually is in the US. They just had us turn our chairs and talk to people then rotate every few minutes for about half an hour. That was the only structured thing. This is the first time they've done an international student day - because the Copenhagen campus is still pretty young - only been around for 9 years and this is the first year at this location. I feel extremely fortunate - This location isn't right in the city or anything but it's next to Vesterbro, a very cool neighborhood, and quite close to everything else - especially compared to where the campus used to be. In all there are 140 new international students from 42 different countries. There is about 2 or 3 times that number of international students in the whole school together and roughly 2,500 students in all.

One of the people in my masters program, Lotta, and I really hit it off - I just felt immediately comfortable being a goof or serious with her. After the orientation day we went off to wander in Vesterbro together and grabbed a bite to eat. She is originally from Finland, the Swedish part of it. I have learned all about Finnish culture and history from her already - it's just 7 percent of Finland that are native Swedish speakers and it's quite a distinctive identity. Lotta says that Swedish speaking Finns have a major affinity for Sweden while Finnish speaking Finns look to Estonia fondly, but still she feel s 100 percent Finnish and proud of it.

Here we are in my room this afternoon after classes. We attempted to go to the phone store but got pretty tired along the way when we decided to buy monthly travel cards.... so we detoured on home to my place instead for dinner. It really is a wonderful feeling to be able to cook for people. It makes me feel so much more settled and secure.

We went pretty wild for the Danish digestive biscuits when we got home.... huuunnnngrrry.

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Alright that's it... what is UP with the shop on the corner of my building???? SERIOUSLY. Look at these photos:

Im just sayin.... CREEEEPY.

My roommate says it's a new shop... and BARF doesn't mean anything in Danish.... and apparently the picture has to do with some sort of dog weight loss experiment for fat dogs. What.

Accidental Bird Watching

Yesterday was international student orientation - an exhausting a fabulous time! But I don't feel like talking about it right now. Afterwards I went to a friend's house for pizza wine, chillaxing, and a movie. Except we watched The Constant Gardener which is anything but relaxing. Happily my friend lives just a fifteen-ish minute walk away, which will be a very quick bike.... once I get it together and buy my bike.

What I wanted to talk about though! I was fixing to go for a run today... when I finally got ready though I immediately ran by a brilliant little outdoor festival taking place half a block away. Soooo change of plans. It is part of this "Out Copenhagen" string of events where different neighborhoods have little gatherings.

There was a stage with a Raffi-esque band playing and a hundred kids essentially moshing in time to the kazoo. All around the square people had set up booths to make a flea market.... awesome! I got two lamps (Scandinavian winter darkness terrifies me), three cheap old post cards, and four cheap children's books in Danish for practice - including Alice in Wonderland! Buying things also afforded me the chance to practice simple Danish. YESSS.

Unfortunately I blanked and didn't take any pictures when it was in full swing, but here it is on the cleaning-up end of things..... you can see the stage in the background. 

Next I headed off to the big park that is just north of where I live... it includes three actually huge lakes. I have to admit, I was a little skeptical at first that it was going to be that big because the scale in Denmark usually ends up being quite small compared to the Pacific Northwest... but I wasn't disappointed! In fact I was in for a real treat.

I made my way to a little wooden shelter /  lookout tower on the bank of one of the lakes. Luckily I had brought my nice camera. There were two Danish guys with REALLY impressive looking cameras gazing out at the lake very seriously. Frankly I was a touch bemused. It is very nice! But not like.... 8 thousand dollar camera stake-out nice. It turns out that the Caspian Tern is in town for three each year - including now. And I happened to go to the best lookout spot in the city to see said tern. There were also some rare Osprey hanging about but I didn't quite catch the 411 on their comings and goings. One of the two men was pretty concentrated on his camera and couldn't really be bothered to chat with me. The other, however, asked all about my program and offered off random tidbits of camera advice and tips of photographing around Copenhagen. Yep, he's a professional photographer - he takes stock photos for a couple American companies and also photographs models. Like many Danes he was super curious as to why I care about Denmark. When I told him I just really like being here I looked at me incredulously and said, "Well. I guess it's nice for your country to be liked. But you know Denmark is very small, right?"

Birds! These ones aren't rare.... but I thought they were nice anyway.

The Caspian Tern!! Get excited. He just popped in from Sweden and is headed south again in about a week.

The lookout tower railing in the foreground...

Friendly Danish photographer in front.

Soon a pack of bird watchers showed up. I felt like a real ornithological outsider but they were so eager to be there that they wanted me to have a really good time.

Walking home from birding. The little tot on the back of the bike is about the most Danish image I can think of. Especially with her leggings, flats, swishy dress.

See the hidden message???

The sign says, "park your bikes here!"  I don't know if it's a government thing or a friendly home letting people use their fence.