Making it in Dane-world.
Just as a fore-note, this post is a compilation of emails that I sent when I arrived. So, please excuse the late dates.
8/27/08
I left PDX at about 7:30 am Friday morning, after forcing myself to stay awake all night. I expected to land in New Jersey sometime around 3:40pm and catch a flight to Copenhagen at 5:25pm. If any of you know the stakes of traveling you know things can go wrong. Well things went wrong, terribly wrong. My flight to New Jersey ended up having to circle around above Ohio for an hour or so in hopes of avoiding a storm over Jersey. We ended up circling for so long we had to land in Philadelphia to refuel. Every few minutes the captain would say something like "we will be receiving an update in about 45 minutes" over the intercom. Forty-five minutes eventually became about 5 hours. Yes, almost 200 people sat on a hot, stuffy and STATIONARY airplane for 5 hours. However, I was impressed by how patient everyone was with the crew. Eventually we took off again and braved the lightning and turbulence, which there was a lot of. When we landed in Newark I discovered my flight had left a long time before...without me on it. Well, most of the airport was chaotic due to all the delays and since I've never really traveled alone before I was pretty worked up myself. A very nice lady from Camas, WA helped me re-orient myself and find the long line I had to stand in to figure out the next step to take. I ended up standing in that line for about 3 hours and I was near the beginning. It turned out the next flight to Copenhagen didn't leave until 5:25pm the next day. So, they put me up in a fairly nice hotel room and I spent the night in New Jersey. My flight to Copenhagen ended up being delayed a couple of hours, but after everything else that wait seemed like nothing. After 8 or so hours on the plane I took a 4 and a half hour train ride to Aalborg. Considering it's Sunday, I can't check in with the school until tomorrow. So, I used good old couchsurfing.com and found a couple of people to take me in for one night. One of them actually picked me up from the station and is now fussing over me (cleaning his house and feeding me and what not). It was quite a ridiculous journey, but if it weren't for aeroplanes and their ports, I wouldn't be here! Aalborg is a very cool city; quaint might be a better word.
Anyway, I made it!
8/21/08
So, my one night of couchsurfing actually turned into about 5 nights. On Monday, after lugging my ridiculously heavy baggage up 7 flights of stairs (second floor here really means 3rd), I checked into my apartment only to find it void of roommates and without electricity or a working wireless connection. Fortunately, as I was wandering the streets of Aalborg later that day I ran into Martin (one of my couchsurfing hosts) who invited me to stay as long as I needed until things started to settle for me. Since then I have only spent one night in my apartment. Martin and Rahul have been lifesavers thus far. I haven't been able to navigate very well, considering nothing here is in English. So, the two of them have taken me in, fed me, given me tours of the city and the university and as much information about living here as they can muster AND they have helped me with my apartment troubles. Without them I would be severely overwhelmed. As stoked as I am to be living in a foreign country, stepping completely out of my comfort zone has been more trying than I expected. I've come to realize how much I value the company of familiar faces and environments, what homesickness truly feels like and that I've been a bit naive about the fact that I really haven't ever been on my own before. However, I think doing this alone is going to be very good for me. It has forced me to ask for and accept help even if I feel stupid about it and to be extra-outgoing. I met someone the other day who was shocked when I told them I came to Denmark alone and don't know a soul. He told me I am very brave, which in itself was surprisingly encouraging. Yesterday was a better day. Martin showed me around some more and then I met with my "buddy," Kathrine, who was assigned by the university. She was very nice, closer to my age than Martin and Rahul, and not to mention a girl! It's nice to have some female company. She took me to a few places in Aalborg I haven't seen yet like the street of bars and the Aalborg Castle. The castle looks more like the Danish form of a plantation home than a place of royalty, but it was still beautiful. Kathrine also helped me shop for groceries by translating when I couldn't figure out what an item was. I was a little disappointed when I discovered peanut butter is a rarity in Denmark (Kathrine has only tried it once and didn't like it). Later in the evening I made dinner with Rahul, who gave me a cell phone, and then met Kathrine and her friends at an International Students Night event. I still have no electricity or roommates and don't really want to spend much time at my apartment yet, but tonight Martin is hosting a couchsurfer dinner at which I will have the opportunity to meet more people.