An introduction to my friends...

From Caroline in Copenhagen

LK, Grace, Laura

LK is from Atlanta, Georgia, but goes to Wake! I didn't even know other students from Wake were studying with DIS until a few days before I left for Copenhagen. She lives with a Danish roommate very close to the center of the city in an adorable apartment. She can ride her bike to school everyday in about 20 minutes. She was the first of us to find peanut butter. She has a "rough guide" to Copenhagen that she frequently refers to for fun restaurants, clubs, attractions, etc, and it has been great! LK has got it together. The rest of us, however, are a mess.

Grace is from Minnesota and attends St. Olaf's College in St. Paul. She comes from a very Scandinavian, Lutheran family... her mother made matching dresses for her and her sister every Easter. She lives with a Danish family in Farum, but because of construction on her rail, she has to take the train to Birkerød (where I live), then a 30-min bus to her town, then bike for 10 minutes to her house. Her commute has of course made for some good stories. The chain of her bike fell off one morning on her way to school and she came to class covered in black grease. On one of our "bus-capades," she dumped the contents of her purse all over the floor. As she was scrounging the pick up all the change, the bus turned and she fell on top of an old woman who yelled at her. She managed to gather most of it and then dropped it all again. Change went everywhere! Several minutes later, a woman came to the back of the bus to hand Grace some more change she'd missed.

Laura is from Wrightsville Beach and goes to Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She also lives with a Danish family in Holte, which is on the same train line that Grace and I take. We try to all meet on the train, but that rarely works out as planned. After our fabulous day at Tivoli, we had a little trouble figuring out which platform to get on in the Central Copenhagen Station. It's pretty big. We were following Laura because she was in a hurry and we got on the wrong platform. After accidently missing our train, we told Laura to go on without us on her train (she has two options), instead of waiting to ride with us. After all the stress of finding the right train, she left her wallet on it, and was left without her transportation pass, her money, her credit cards, etc!

I cannot exclude myself from this of course. My disastrous accidents probably win the prize! I've taken the wrong bus numerous times. I forgot to put on deoderant the second day of class. I've missed a class because I wrote it in my planner wrong. I hurt my foot. I fell asleep at the bus stop and had to sleep in the student lounge at DIS. I can't understand my family. I missed my stop twice in the same night (refer to Saturday's Adventures). The list goes on!

Our first attempt at going out in the city probably paints a pretty accurate picture of our experiences here in Copenhagen. On our first Friday night, DIS sponsored a party at a nearby club called LUX, and Grace, Laura, and I decided to meet on the train and go together. I was running late, and since I can never figure out the bus schedule, I decided to walk to the train station. About 5 minutes in to the walk, I realized I had forgotten the night bus schedule. The trains stop running at midnight, and the night busses are the only way to get home. I decided to wing it for the sake of time and kept walking. Another 5 minutes into the walk, I realized I didn't have my admission ticket. I walked all the way home, turned my room upside down, and still couldn't find the ticket. I called Grace and Laura to tell them I was going to be really late, and decided this time to wait for the bus. My feet were already killing me-- the left one because of my mysterious injury, the right one because of a blister caused by my heels. We all finally made it to the club and stayed for awhile, but when we left, Grace couldn't find the claim ticket to get her purse. We looked everywhere, but had to describe every minute detail of her purse and all its contents, fill out a detailed form, and 20 minutes later, she finally got her purse back. We got separated from Laura and could never get in touch with her. We found out later that she dropped her phone and didn't have the code to turn it back on. She couldn't figure out the bus schedule either, and had to sleep on her friend's couch. And after all that, I still forgot the night bus schedule.

We should have realized after this night that we were doomed...