T-10 Days!

I can't believe it. Somehow, I leave for Copenhagen in 10 days. I just got my housing assignment this morning, and it's getting very real.

I'll be living in a Kollegium, which is a Danish dorm. Unlike in the US, universities in Denmark do not have their own dorms. Instead, students can choose to live in Kollegiums with students from other schools, as well as exchange students (holla!). I will be living in the Socialt Kollegium, which is what it sounds like - the Social College. I know, I know, it's difficult to picture me in a place with "social" in the name, but study abroad is all about new experiences. I think this will be good for me. I'll get to meet Danes and hopefully learn some Danish, and I will be pushed to interact with the people I live with. I will have my own room and bathroom, but will share a kitchen and lounge space with the 15 other people on my floor. There are 6 other DIS (Danish Institute for Study Abroad, the program I'm participating in) students in Socialt, one on each floor. With the exception of one, we all go to school in New England. I don't know if that's by design or coincidence.

Socialt is a 20 minute bike ride from downtown Copenhagen, or about a half hour bus ride. There are 112 residents, 16 per floor on 7 floors, each with its own kitchen and common area. There's also a laundry facility that I can use for FREE(!), a cinema, a fitness room, a music room, a SAUNA(!!), and plenty of bike storage. You can read more about Socialt here.

I registered for classes a couple months ago, and I could not be more excited for them. I'll be taking five courses, each for three credits. They are Renewable Energy Systems, Waste Management Systems, Sustainable Development in Northern Europe, Sustainable by Design, and 20th and 21st Century Danish Architecture. Sustainable Development is my core course, which means there are two weeks of travel associated with the course - a short study trip for I believe four days, location TBA, and a long study tour for six days, where I will be going to Norway. Sustainable by Design is a green architecture course, so I'm particularly looking forward to that one. :)

Now I need to figure out how to bring a semester's worth of clothes and things in two suitcases... Wish me luck!