.orientation.orientation.orientation.

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Today I attended an orientation session that was a crash-intro to Danish life. Topics addressed included:

• sex
  
• drinking
  
• humor
  
• social interaction
  
• drugs
  
• punctuality
  
• environmentalism
  

According to the presenter, Danes:

• are more blunt/direct in their communication
  
• like to make fun of people they include (i.e. minorities)
  
• are more like an extended family than a nation
  
• are de facto alcoholics from the age of 13, and can therefore drink anyone under the table
  
• don't do small talk, but
  
• do sarcasm
  
• get chlamydia - at least 12% of them under the age of 25
  

So it will take a while to get used to the subtleties and nuances of Danish interaction, which is I guess the moral of the story.

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Amanda and I met up in the afternoon for a delicious picnic in the park. There are lots of different parks in and around Copenhagen. It's almost like you can escape from the city, at least temporarily, and seek refuge in a park. The trees are also comforting. Sometimes cities can be so cold and sterile and manufactured. But between the trees in the parks and the ocean on the coast, there's enough nature to keep this city pleasant.
After lunching in the park Amanda and I paraded across Copenhagen to the National Museum. The two exhibits we visited were Danish Pre-history and Danish Stories 1660-2000. Both were very interesting, and I definitely need to go back sometime later in my stay to finish up the 1900s and see the other exhibits. (For pictures, check out Amanda's blog at www.abroad09.blogspot.com.) We kind of had to rush through the end to go to an activities fair of sorts that my program put together. Different organizations represented included:

• an LGBT group
  
• two climate change action/awareness groups
  
• rugby teams for men and women
  
• volunteer organizations
  
• live action role playing
  
• gastronomy club
  

Needless to say I will have plenty to do this semester and next. I can already look forward to my first short study tour to northern Germany on September 10 - that's right around the corner. But in the meantime there is plenty to explore in my own neighborhood.

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Comments

[Aliyah]

WOWWW
Wow Elisabeth!! that's nasty about how high the chlamydia rate is...yuck. and..gastronomy club? that's definitely new to me. are you joining??