Into Copenhagen!

It was four am, then it was five, and then six. The sun rolled across the horizon and began to climb into the sky. By seven, the bus rolled into the station, and a few minutes later, after a torrent of hot, exhausted bodies purged themselves from the tube of metal, rubber, and plastic, it was time to board.

Seven thirty, the bus starts up, but there are still empty seats. Seven thirty five, the bus starts to move, and I’ve lucked out. Not only do I have the seat to myself, but I also have working air conditioning, and since we’re now in Germany, the WiFi works too. A few minutes later as we clear the bus station’s gates, the electrical system kicks on, and boom my kindle and phone are charging. Seven hours and a ferry ahead, I’m feeling pretty comfortable.

I hadn’t slept much on the bus from Wroclaw, it’d been warm, then freezing as the aircon stayed on through the early hours of the morning. The bus had also been full. Now, I’d get a chance to read, and try and nap, despite the rising sun.

It wasn’t too bad, and my mind had quieted as I’d started to think about Copenhagen and plan what would come next. The following 48 hours were a whirlwind. I completed my biometric registration for immigration, got a metro card, visited the international house, managed to work on some research, and had started the housing search. Alex had helped me get a sim card in the mail, and I was waiting on that. Besides all of the fun administrative things, I’d also gotten myself over to some dancing events.

As the next two weeks passed, things started to settle back in to normal. I couldn’t make any headway on immigration or registration, as they wouldn’t be handled until August, and when it came to Roskilde University, they were of the same mindset. “We’ll deal with that sometime in the end of august, don’t worry.” No class listings, or schedule and a minimum two month wait for anything to move, I instead resigned myself to reading, podcasts, dancing, and research.

Of course, there was more excitement in store, a trip to Berlin to catch up with an old friend, and explore the city in more depth, and then a week in Gdansk, and Puck, Poland for the EMGS Summer School. The theme was Solidarity, and there couldn’t have been a better place to be. Gdansk hosts the European Solidarity center, and it is heralded as the place where “Europe began.”

I did the readings for our sessions, and then focused on walking around and enjoying Copenhagen. I knew once I headed to Berlin it’d be a quick whirlwind before Alex and I were off to Myanmar and Thailand, only a few days after I get back, we’ll leave!