A lesson in Danish royalty & my first day of classes

I should probably start with yesterday, since I didn't get a chance to write about it last evening.

Yesterday was the final day of orientation. It began with a "scavenger hunt" which sounds pretty lame, but was actually really nice. It took us around the area of Copenhagen that DIS is in, from site to site. Although it was incredibly cold and my group decided to skip the last three stops because we were freezing, the sites we did make it to were awesome! We saw the Round Tower/Trinity church, a church and royal observatory built by Christian IV. I thought it was really neat that he built a place that so clearly demonstrates an interest in both science and religion. Next, we saw the King's Gardens and Rosenborg Castle. After that was the Royal Palace, which actually used to be four mansions of lesser nobles, but when the palace where the royal family lived burned down, the mansions were connected and became the home of the royal family. The place where the family used to live now houses parliament. That was one of the stops which we skipped. At the Royal Palace, we had a really interesting professor explain some things about Danish royalty and politics. I wish it had been warmer, because he lectured for a good 10 minutes before we were allowed to go and get free hot beverages. He told us some really interesting stuff, though, my version of which follows.

Feel free to ignore this paragraph if the Danish royal family doesn't interest you. In Denmark, all the kings are named either Frederik or Christian - it alternates, so that the first born son of the king is named after the previous king. Queen Margrethe II, the current monarch, messed up the system royally by being a woman, but she is apparently taking the place of a Christian - her father was Frederik IX and her son (Crown Prince Frederik) will be Frederik X when he becomes king. She also should either be called Queen Margrethe I or Queen Margrethe III, depending on your definition of Queen. She's the first to inherit the title from her father and be ruler (they had to have an amendment made to the Constitution in 1953 stating that in the absence of a son, the first born daughter of the King would reign, which I think is kind of funny: the Danish people voted on whether or not the Queen's power would be legitimate). However, there were two other queens before her who ruled because they had very young sons when their husbands died, and they were in charge until their sons reached majority. They apparently asked the wrong historian right before Margrethe's coronation, though, and he forgot one of the dowager Queens, so she's Queen Margrethe II. Then, in the 90s sometime, the Danish people voted again, and now the first born child, male or female, of the monarch becomes the new monarch, although it looks like that won't come into effect for a while, since Crown Prince Frederik and his wife have two small sons. The Danish monarch also actually has some real power and is more than a figurehead: nothing can become law without the Queen's signature. Anyway, that's some of the cool stuff I learned about the Danish royalty yesterday.

Yesterday I also got an email from the rugby club - the first practice is on Saturday! I'm super glad that there's a rugby team here to play with - hopefully this will become a source of Danish friends!

Today was the first day of classes! Thursdays are my earliest and busiest days, but today was fine, so hopefully that continues throughout the semester. My day started at 6:15 so that I could shower and eat breakfast before catching a 7:19 bus to the train station. My first class was at 8:30: Memory & Identity: Czech Republic. This is my "core course" which will include two study tours, one 4-day one to southern Jutland (the Danish peninsula, on the border with Germany) and one week-long trip to Prague, Budejovice, and Cesky Krumlov. The course will also only meet 7 times, so it will be over in March, which is quite nice. My next class was European Storytelling from Homer to Harry Potter. The professor for this one is adorable: she started the class by saying, "I'm Bettina, and I'm a certified geek. I'm sure many of you are also geeks." She's also really smart - I learned a lot about the theory surrounding the study of oral traditions, even in the first class. She said the first few classes will be theory-heavy so that we can apply these theories more thoroughly once we actually begin reading the myths, legends, and fairy tales with which we will be working. My third class of the day was Danish. It's basically the third time we've met, so I just learned some new things to say and a few new words.

Then, I came back to Holte. It was the first time I've seen the sun since coming here, and the first time I've seen Holte in the daylight - it's lovely, and was really exciting to see blue skies. Even though it's only been four days since the last time I saw blue skies, it was great to be reassured that the weather won't always be grey. Sabina and I spent some time talking about world events and where we'd like to go in the world, and she showed me pictures from her confirmation - it's a really big deal here! I also explained rugby to Sabina and talked about what things are like back home. We made burgers for dinner, which was really fun - the Ipsens have a super-intense, high-tech kitchen, but it's really fun to cook in.

Tomorrow I register with the Kommune. I think a Kommune is like a village office or county seat - basically I'm telling them that I live here, and then I'll get a card that will serve as my ID, my library card, and my health insurance card. Very exciting. Tomorrow also will be the "welcome party" for DIS - they've apparently rented a club from 8-11, so that will be really fun. Hopefully I'll get to meet a few more fellow students. That's been the hardest thing about living with a host family - I haven't met that many Americans. I guess that's kind of the point of study abroad, but it would be nice to have a few compatriots to socialize with.

Also, it should be possible to leave comments now! The settings were strangely set, but now I think anyone who desires may post!