Hello and hola,

 

As you may or may not know, I’m spending the next four months studying graphic design in Denmark with DIS Copenhagen. I drove up to Chicago last Thursday, flew out of O’Hare on Friday, and arrived here Saturday afternoon. It’s been nonstop so far.

 

Saturday was full of travel from plane to multiple lines in the airport to bus to kollegium. There almost wasn’t time to be tired. We had a group dinner of Dominos; then I wandered around my neighborhood with a few people I met that day, went to 7-Eleven for the first time, and somehow managed to stay up until midnight. 

 

Sunday involved a croissant for breakfast, a trip to the grocery store and then two more later: one for a scavenger hunt and one for a group dinner. The store of choice, i.e. cheapest, is Netto which is very much like Aldi and the multiple grocery runs reminded me of all the times I’ve gone to Hy-Vee just for something to do. The scavenger hunt had less of us checking off the items on the list and more wandering around wherever seemed interesting, leading to us watching part of an Iron Man and going through a market where people sold their old belongings. Dinner was probably the most effort a group of six people have put in to make pasta, broccoli, potatoes, and mushrooms. After visiting three apartments trying to figure out how the stove tops worked, using two types of microwaves, and a couple of hours we finally had food ready.

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So far I've been two days in Copenhagen. I’m still not sure if I feel like I’m in a different country yet. It might be that there’s still so much English, both written and spoken, and there haven’t been any language barriers so far. Maybe it’s because getting here has been almost a two-year process and it hasn’t sunk in that I finally made it. There’s also a part of me that still feels like I’ll be back in Ames walking around campus, sitting in my usual classes, and going to Jack Trice and Hilton on the weekends. 

 

As a final note, here are of some of my goals for the semester:

1. Learn about graphic design in a different context and find new ways of solving design problems and communicating ideas

2. Visit museums

3. Do more sketching from life

4. Go to a soccer game

5. Find out if alphabet soup is a thing in Denmark, and if so does it have all the extra letters

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