........
Getting to Copenhagen is simple and cheap. I hopped on the bus with Sarah just outside of my apartment in Östra Torn (didn't have to pay for that...every time I use the bus I scan the summer card I bought earlier which is unlimited), sat through a 10 min bus ride to the central station in Lund, bought a train ticket for Copenhagen (only about $15 one way), and sat on the train for an hour. That's all I had to do in order to arrive in the capital of Denmark, smack in the middle of of all the action--central station across from the famous Tivoli amusement park. God public transportation in Europe is just so great...I guess that's what happens when you pay some of the highest taxes in the world. Anyways, Sarah had a map to find the hostel we were to be staying at; it was only about a 15 min walk from the central station, and right off the Strøget (The largest pedestrian shopping street in the world). Perfection. But from what I've heard, hostels can really be a hit or miss, you never really know what to expect. But let me just say, it was literally one of the best experiences ever. We really hit the jackpot. It was so nicely decorated, there were like bean bags to sit on, booths, long tables, a bar, and lots of young people from just all walks of life. Literally amazing (link to their website if interested: http://copenhagendowntown.com). The young danish girls who worked there were so cool and told us about all the good places to eat, sites to see, and local clubs/bars to go to later. Just great.
So obviously here I am in my happy place, enjoying the cool vibe and atmosphere, reading the specials for happy hour....just lovin' life ya know? Like at this point, what could go wrong, right? Ohhhhhh just wait for it.
We get the keys to our room, purchase a locker (to lock up our passports, etc), and walk up to our room with our assigned bed numbers (remember, 10 person room here). We open the door (keep in mind the time is about 5pm on Saturday) and what is the first thing I see?? Buttcrack. Literally just buttcrack. And what bed is this snoring, bare-ass naked, extremely overweight, 20-year-old-looking young man in? MY BED. To quote Sarah later, "dude, I literally heard your heart drop". Ya, that's a bit of an understatement.
Well that was interesting. There was about a handful of guys our age staying in our room (yes, the naked man's friends), who I later learned (once they finally decided to wake up), were Swedish. But basically Sarah and I just quietly left and went downstairs to talk to the hostel staff about the confusion. The girls were so sweet. They apologized profusely and said they would go wake them up, tell them to move, and change our sheets for us. AND we got a free drinks on the house. Honestly I wasn't mad or anything. I just couldn't stop laughing.... just freaking hilarious. So basically I got a free beer out of a drunken man's mixup. I couldn't complain. I just sat there with my drink and met so many cool people who were staying there. People from Sweden, Germany, England, etc...really fun. We left our stuff, walked around the city, and later came back for happy hour and to get ready to go out. We had such a great time! Definitely going back soon.
Anyways it's Monday night now, and I had my first day of class today. Classes are held at Folksuniversitet (an extension of Lund University), and is located halfway between our apartment and the center of Lund (so I could prob get there in about 15 min if I walked, but why walk when I can take a 5 min bus ride right? haha). They split us up into 2 equal-sized groups with 2 different instructors and we jumped right into it. Today was basically a review for me...we went over simple phrases like how to say "Hi, my name is..." "where are you from?...." "When did you go here..." or "when did you do this..." etc. The instructor is a cool guy and knows that me (and one other girl in the class who is in the exact same situation as me--aka father born & raised in Skåne, mother is American) can speak some Swedish and understand it quite extensively. So he would speak quicker with us, and go a lot slower with the others which is nice that he can tackle different levels. I thought it went great, and I'm excited to keep learning. All the other students seemed very overwhelmed. None of them have any experience in the Swedish language. Well, I'm glad that I'm a step ahead (tack så mycket Pappa:] ). We have a little bit of homework a day, and class only goes from 9am-12:30pm weekdays so we've got lots of free time which is nice. I remember though that our UC EAP advisors warned us that it can be very easy to isolate yourself if you just stick with the group of americans and hang around the apartment area, because you really miss out on engaging with the locals...this is true. So (unlike almost everyone else), I'm really trying my best to avoid large English-speaking group settings. I'm really serious about improving my language skills and so I do little things to learn faster. Like right now, I knew I was going to be on my laptop a while (emails, this post, etc) so instead of sitting in my room alone, I took the bus into the center of town by myself, where I'm now sitting in a coffee shop enjoying 'fika' (term used by swedes for a coffee break) with a large latte and free wifi. Pretty sweet deal. This way, I'm multitasking by chilling on my computer all while listening to all the Swedish convos around me. My goal: to learn via osmosis.
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