Let's Start at the Very Beginning...

...A very good place to start.

As I look out at the gargantuan plane that I am about to board, I quickly snap a picture for instagram, and then turn to walk towards the beginning of what will hopefully be one of the best experiences of my life.

 The flight was pleasant, no problems at all, and a bit of sleep was found on my part. As I sat down on the plane I wondered whether my mom thought I was heartless for not joining her in tears as I said goodbye, but I knew that if I cried leaving her, then I'd be crying the whole flight. Luckily I have evaded the waterworks and on the contrary I am really enjoying my first days here.

Kirsten, my host mother, picked myself and my travel buddy, Kylie, up at the airport, at 8:30 in the morning, which felt like 1 am. Kirsten is wonderful and is taking such good care of us, she made it our first stop to pick up pastries for breakfast, and from there we headed to our new home. She lives in a beautiful home in a more rural suburb of Denmark in the town of Ballerup, about 40 minutes from the city of Copenhagen. We get the whole tour of the house, including the immaculate kitchen with floor to ceiling windows that give the room such vibrant lighting and also a great vantage point to be able to wave hello to all your neighbors from the kitchen table.

Kylie and I moved our things into our rooms, I took Camilla's (Kirsten's daughter) old room. It is small but perfectly comfortable. Kirsten then took us for a walk around the area so we would know how to get to the nearest grocery and to the bus stop which we will be taking to get to the train station every morning. After that we stopped by Kirsten's mother's house, and let me tell you she is the most adorable women. It was so sweet how she was embarrassed of her English, which she spoke perfectly well. We sat and talked with her for a time and then headed back home. Kylie didn't make it to dinner, she succumbed to a nap, where as I denied myself sleep and ate lunch with Kirsten and sat talking to her for a while about this and that, asking questions about her.
Everything she has made so far looks and tastes like a gourmet meal!

Eventually her son, Morten, came home from school and I met him. He is very nice and seems genuinely happy to have us which I was worried about, more sisters may have been the last thing he wanted haha. It was then about dinner time so we woke Kylie up and had our first meal together. among the dinner conversation, I was telling them about how my brother brews his own beer and they thought that was pretty cool and they proceeded to tell me there is a microbrewery within the forest that is right near out home, so I must go there for Tim's sake! I quickly went to bed after that because I couldn't keep my eyes open a moment longer.



The next morning we were expected at the Hilton hotel by the airport for a quick orientation of all of about 15 min. We also purchased our stone age-esque cell phones and plans for calling within Denmark. After that Kirsten dropped us in the center of Copenhagen and Kylie and I wandered around with our confused tourist faces on. We walked down a  lovely street which has many shops and is for pedestrians only. Never have I seen so much bike traffic in my life!

 We walked past the street where DIS buildings are and we also walked through a park - which later Kirsten told us we shouldn't go to at night but we were okay during the day. It was a lovely morning and we ended it at the train station where we fumbled with getting our tickets back to Ballerup. We eventually figured it out and got back home. But in the process we musn't have looked too out of sorts because a tourist family asked us to help them with buying their train tickets, as if we were regular Danes who knew what to do!

And now here I sit writing my first entry on the blog that I decided to take up. Hopefully I will keep up with the blog and not forget to make other entries if not for my few readers out there, but for my future self looking to reminisce about the past.