Folded pizza and a singing birthday mug (January 18, 2011)

My morning began with a knock on my door and Mathias' voice telling me that it was 8 o'clock and wondering if I had to be up. Yes, in fact, I did. Apparently either I slept through my cell phone alarm or it did not work. Ooops. However, I SOMEHOW made it to my 9 am orientation on time! Today's orientation was organized by our living situation and was basically just informative about basic things and situations that may come about. It was rather boring, but our session tomorrow is supposed to be more fun- another scavenger hunt thing around the city, but we get to visit more places and have speakers at each one, or so I've heard.

After the orientation, I went to lunch with a few of the people I met in my group yesterday and a few other boys. We ended up at a cheap but very good pizza/sandwich place nearby DIS. I had seen people walking around the city with pizza folded in half and was extremely curious to try this. On the menu, they had some of the most bizarre pizza options. Some even involving shrimp! I, however, was not that brave and was too hungry to risk something that might not be good, so I stuck to a basic chicken, mozzarella, and tomato pizza. Brilliant concept, delicious, and perfect for an on-the-go lunch.

After lunch, I headed to a variety store called Tiger that we had to find yesterday in order to find a birthday present for my host brother who turned 23 today! I ended up buying him a hideous Happy Birthday mug and a personal massager because I noticed he had been rubbing his shoulder the other day. Anyway, when I gave him the gifts after dinner he laughed and said that he really liked them but it was not until he took the mug OUT of its case that we all realized together that it actually PLAYED the happy birthday tune! I had no idea! It was hilarious and we all laughed and thought it was the funniest gift ever. Whewww, I was nervous about the gift giving but I think I successfully completed this round.

Later in the afternoon, I had my first meeting with my academic program- Communication and Mass Media. All of the other students- about 25- and I gathered together and met the head of the department, the program assistant, and the teacher who is in charge of the main class. The cool thing about DIS is that all of the teachers are professionals in the field that they teach. Everything is much more career and real life based than Smith which will be good for me to apply what I have learned into a more "practical" education, at least for the semester. The program seems amazing. I'm very excited- although not so excited to actually start classes on Thursday. Oh well!

After this, Sam and I went for a long walk around the city (aka around in a circle) before heading to the train station.

Another fun part of my day and then I will shut up: when we had the birthday dinner, I eyed the way my family used their knife and fork and I managed to copy them so well that Steen announced that it was impressive that I knew how to use them! Ha! fooled him. Maybe. Lisbeth quickly remarked about how another student they hosted had been watching them and followed, so maybe she caught on. Maybe not. Either way, I am determined to become extremely skilled at eating with my fork in my left hand while holding my knife the entire time in my right.

So now, I'm sitting at my little desk in my little room up later than I have been since I got here! I suppose the sleeping in was good for me.