Velkommen hen til København

Goddag!

I arrived in Denmark this morning and have moved into my room at my host family's house.  I am living in a suburb or subdivision of Copenhagen called Nærum.  It is still connected by the public transportation system but my host family has an awesome backyard and a sick 3-story house in a nice neighborhood.  It is the middle of the woods in a place called Deer Park, so I feel right at home.  My host parents are really really really nice and seem like they would do anything to make me feel comfortable and at ease.  They are very neat and proper people and are very put together.  As my host mother is an IT consultant, all the technology in the house is new.  Also, they just completed a renovation to the layout of the downstairs making it more open and more "Scandinavian" by keeping a black white and silver color scheme.  The whole house very modern looking and well put together.  My room is probably about the same size of the one in the apartment I will live in at Tufts when I come back home.  It is all neutral colors, so I am glad I brought some picture frames to warm it up a little.  Both my host parents speak good English so it has been very easy to talk to them.  If we hit any difficulties, it's like playing taboo where you say all the words related to what you want to say.  It was especially fun to hear about their recent trip to New York City and what is like from foreigners' eyes.   One of my host sisters, Rikki, lives in the city close to where she is taking class at the University of Copenhagen.  My host parents keep calling her the "largest" sister instead of the oldest and then laugh when they realize they sound like they are calling her fat. I have not met her.  My other host sister, Ida, is, of course, tall, blonde and very pretty.  She is going into what seems like the equivalent of our senior year of high school.  I have hardly gotten a chance to meet her because she is feeling under the weather, so she just came down to say hello.  

Copenhagen itself is a very cool city.  It is small like Boston and very rarely are buildings taller than 5 stories.  It is also like Boston in the way that there are a lot of sailboats and rowing around because Copenhagen in towards the tip of an island called Zealand and a section of the city is actually a separate island cut off by canals.  There are cute squares with outdoor cafes and community markets that I am excited to explore!  Also, there are tons of people on bike everywhere.  While taking me on a driving tour of the city, my host parents pointed out good places to eat, shop and go out and taught me important words like "beer" and "sale".  I guess both of their girls and big shoppers and big bar and club goers.  

So far, so good! Farvel!