The end of my first week has come and gone! I cannot believe it has been eight whole days in this beautiful city. I am dangerously full of emotion on this beautiful rainy Copenhagen afternoon.
Quick hits:
- I went to a zumba class in the park and felt like my life changed (dance brings the world together)
- Weather can change on a dime in Copenhagen
- I have conned my way into having a world class dinner every night for 25dkk ($3.50 ish)
- My job gives me the incredible ability to listen to lots of music (so if you want to recommend me some or make me a playlist I wouldn’t be opposed)
- I have met like 20 Jakob’s (pronounced Yakob)
- I am living in the worlds cutest apartment for the next two months I am here (thanks DONG Energy)
- Danish keyboards seriously impede my typing ability
- I realized I brought 10 scrunchies on this trip
- I am on official Yelp boycott (live in the moment ya know?)
Details:
I am beginning to feel like a young (semi) professional on my commute to and from work. I have my morning routine dialed in and I know how to reach two of the offices where I work. After getting the swing of things this week I had a meeting with my bosses on Friday and we outlined the rest of my work this summer. Clear eyes, full heart, long thoughtful list of internship objectives, cant loose!!
Just to give you an idea of the work I am involved in (to a tiny tiny degree) I look some pictures of the databases I get to look at. I didn’t realize that I was the last person at work Friday until someone asked me while I was still there. The maps are just so cool I could look at them for days (and I will so that’s a very good thing) I’ll be detailing all of my work as the weeks go on so I’ll spare the details right now.
Yesterday was midsummer, which I thought would be a big deal here but was kind of subdued as far as I could tell. The tradition is to get a barge, pile up a bunch of wood, get a fake witch and put her on top, and just let that puppy BURN. I saw the end of a burning and it didn’t look that cool but the bar that was on the canal in front of the barge was happening. I will have to go back soon.
Today I slept in till 8am!! (If you are at all close to me you would be incredibly proud) After my standard workout, shower, breakfast routine that is the same no matter what country I am in, I walked across the city to go to Zumba in the park. I showed up like 5 min late,.
Little aside – One of the most beautiful things about this summer is that I have (to a certain extent) lost track of time. I walk around the city trying to soak it all in, theres never a sense of urgency, unlike school where I am constantly holding coffee and my phone, frantically skating from class to class. I had no idea the walk to this park, which I have done before, takes 50 min. Back to the story
The Zumba class was awesome. I have considered getting Zumba certified for a while and this class reminded why. Dance brings people together in the greatest, sweatiest way. During the last routine of the class it almost on perfect queue started raining. We were all too sweaty for it to even make a difference. I definitely will be back for the rest of these classes.
Now that it was raining pretty hard, I decided to take my kindle to a cutie pie little coffee shop and just savor the afternoon. I am starting to learn what it too expensive and what is reasonable for food. I got totally shafted on my cup of coffee, 35dkk, but the location was nice and I didn’t really realize what I had done till she was pouring the cup. On my walk home I found a cool thrift shop, which apparently is not very hard to do in this city. There are cool thrift shops everywhere and their prices are what thrift shop prices should be. If my brother could potentially take home some of my unnecessary work clothes I might go and do some professional grade thrifting.
I listened to a really great podcast on success while I was walking around today. It reminded me a couple things that I like to keep present in my life:
- smiling is seriously powerful. Its not just good for you, but for all those around you. I try to smile as much as possible but walking around the city I’m going to try to make a more conscious effort to really look people in the eye and give them a genuine smile. Not a smirk, not a glance, a full on sun shiney smile.
- Gratitude is more than telling someone you love you are thankful. Gratitude should include the world around you, the people around you, and youself. I am going to kick my gratitude journal back into gear this July so if anyone wants to join you are more than welcome! In fact I would love it if you would J (I’ll be making a printable to help so stay tuned)
Food:
Nothing very exiting to report on this front. The food at work is always great and I eat the same breakfast every day. My snack of choice in my hotel room is rice cakes and fruit. (trying to get back into that #fitfam lifestyle ya feel)
I hope everyone has an incredible weekend! If theres something you would like to know about my adventures here that I’m not covering please let me know!
Tak!
Paige
Paige Hoel 