I am almost officially a resident of Denmark! We went to the consulate yesterday and processed our papers to become temporary citizens of Denmark, entitled to the basic benefits such as free healthcare and public library access. I’ll be getting my CPR card in the mail, a card that I can show to any doctor to take advantage of the country’s socialized medicine. Awesome!

I had a really fun weekend socializing with new friends. I met some other international students in my kollegium and went out with them on Friday night. I joked that we were the most diverse group of native English speakers! A girl from London, a girl from New Zealand, a girl from Denmark (who had always gone to American schools, so we’ll count her), a guy from Canada and myself. We danced and listened to an apparently famous DJ at a venue called Culture Box. It was a really fun night!

Saturday I spent the day exploring Nyhavn and shopping with Nicki. I was so excited to finally get to visit the place I had seen in so many pictures!! It was even more beautiful in person, and made me really happy about being in Copenhagen. Our snacked turned out to be the most delicious dessert I had ever tasted in my life – a box of churros covered in delicious warm chocolate! We then went into a few clothing stores, and then went back to the Kollegium where I made us a delicious dinner. At night, we went to a few bars with our American kollegium friends, which ended up being a fun (but late) night.

Sunday morning, I woke up and went for a little bike ride around Amager. I saw some new beautiful places that are in need of exploring! After that, it was into the downtown for the visa process. It was fairly easy, which was a relief because I’ve heard about students who don’t do it through DIS having a really hard time getting into the consulate office. In the evening, my friends and I went into Christiania, the “free town” in Copenhagen that is home to a hippie community. Although it is still technically illegal to smoke pot in Denmark, the culture of Christiania is centered around “Pusher Street,” the city’s self-proclaimed “Green light district.” There was a free concert there last night, so the streets were packed with people both purely witnessing and also enjoying the local culture. I ate a “Danish Hamburger,” which is slightly different from the ones in the US. Besides the typical burger-bun-cheese combination, they put pickled cucumbers (much more strong than the typical pickles) and remoulade, a condiment that is almost like mayo but also has ketchup and mustard in it. It was really good and sweet, almost like honey mustard. It was delicious. After the concert, we went back home and I slept a very long and much needed night.

This morning I woke up and went across the street to the gym and became a member. After not having worked out in a week, it was so great to be back in the gym. It was hard getting used to the machines though, which measure everything in km/hour! After running 2km (and learning that meant 1.25 miles) I was proud of myself to say the least J

I had a class this morning (Communicating Science) and am now sitting at Studenterhuset (my favorite coffee shop) waiting for my next class to start just after 4pm. I absolutely love Denmark so far and can’t wait for more adventures to come. Oh, one last thing! I booked my first trip to Amsterdam and will be visiting Lily the weekend of Sept 22! I am taking an overnight train (luckily I got a sleeping cabin!) on the way there, and flying back. I can’t wait!! On a parting note, I am obsessed with schwarma and not a day goes by where I don’t frequent one of their stands on the street. This is a problem (but it is tooo damnnn good!!! I hate to say it, but better than in Israel!) but luckily, not on my wallet because the average schwarma runs around 40 kroner (6 dollars)