Intro Week

Sorry for such an extreme delay in blog writing. Who knew there was so much to keep you busy in little Copenhagen. Since I last posted, I have done… a lot. Before starting school, all of the exchange students arrived early for an “Intro Week” where we were able to meet the other students and learn more about CBS and life in Copenhagen.

As I wrote in my last blog, architecture here is very modern and uses lots of glass! CBS students took us on a campus tour to all four CBS buildings. This is slightly different than the near 50 buildings on the NCSU campus, but these are more beautiful (although I like all the brick at State). The main building on campus is Solbjerg Plads which contains the library and even the school bar, Nexus. Kilen is my favorite building and literally means “wedge”, which is it’s shape. Porcelaenshaven has dorms and an open space for study groups and eating lunch, with only some classrooms. Dalgas Have is the most horrible building I have ever been in and I’m not sure how it fits with the others. Overall the campus is beautiful and not too spread out around the city.

Inside Kilen

A main part of the Intro Week was to allow the exchange students to experience some typical Danish culture. Viking Bingo was quite entertaining with Viking trivia throughout. Did you know there are more pigs in Denmark than people? Where does their skål (their word for cheers) come from you may ask? The Vikings literally drank from skulls and clanked them together in celebration. Although it was hard to beat the prizes in Viking Bingo (I won the first season of Mad Men), learning to Danish folk dance ended up taking the cake. Professional folk dancers came in to teach us several variations including partner dancing and groups spinning in circles. It was SO much fun. I think the pros had a great time teaching us and it was such a fun and unique experience for us.

Folk Dancing Pros

Each exchange student is assigned a CBS buddy to help you and show you around. Mine is Sandra Damgaard and she is great! Her and the rest of my buddy team came to Tietgens for our Buddy Dinner in the middle of Intro Week. Everyone made a dish from their own country and we all sat and chatted together before going out to a party just for exchange students and their buddies! We had food from Italy, Iceland, Denmark, Austria, Germany, US and China.

Too much food!

A City Tour was also arranged. We actually ended up going to most of the tourist attractions in one day. We saw the Opera House, the most famous church - The Marble Church, the changing of the guards, Nyhavn - the famous harbor, the King's Gardens and the Round Tower. It was nice to walk around such a large part of the city and try to learn my way around. Of course all of the buildings were beautiful, a mix of old and new and just another excuse to explore!

Top of the Round Tower

To finish off the week, CBS hosted an extravagant Welcome Dinner with a Casino Royale theme, complete with buffet, bar, live band and DJ. There are 750 exchange students so everyone had a wonderful time meeting new people and dancing to music of the Danish swing band. It was a great week to meet people and get ready for school, although nothing could prepare me for the reading assignments that were about to start!

Debbie and I with Margaux and Florence