Here we go!

Orientation and integration are complete. Classes began today (tomorrow for me). I'm ready to start because this is why I'm here. My classes--political and economic in nature--are going to be great I am sure. Tuesdays and Fridays will be long, with class from 8:30-1, then 2:50-4:10.

This past Tuesday's city tour was fun and I saw some good parts of the city I want to explore later, like Nyhavn along the harbor. We visited the Folketinget (Danish Parliament) which I am visiting later this semester. Danish politics is fascinating, coming from the US. They have 7-8 political parties and the current Prime Minister is from one of them. It's still early in the year and I don't know much of anything about the makeup of Parliament. I guess it's the European model itself that is much different. The US directly elects its President, whereas in Denmark and Europe the ruling majority party chooses the Prime Minister. Members of Parliament can vote "no confidence" in the PM and he must resign or call election (elections can be called whenever). I will learn a lot looking at this model, and it will interesting to compare the two (US v. Danish model).

On Wednesday, I was walking along myself, getting lost in Copenhagen and I met a peace protester in front of the Folketinget. His name is Thorlief and he is with Peace Watch. He comes everyday from 10-6PM and hands out flyers to interested passerbys like me. Protesting the Afghanistan and Iraq War, he has come for more than 2100 days since October 2001! That's a lot of protesting for sure. He was nice and I took some pictures of his display. I will put them up soon. At night, Chad's host family invited me to a football match with FC Kobenhavn v. a team from Portugal. It was awesome and the stadium was nearly packed. The devoted fans in one section were loud the entire game. It was a great time, but unfortunately we lost 1-0. But it was a great experience, nonetheless.

I learned some more about the city today, where some roads, buses, trains go, etc. I'm getting pretty good at this navigation thing. Haha. I did some reading for tomorrow when the fun begins! Tomorrow night is a party for DIS students at this club Luux. Hope it's good.

- TAD