A Little More Comfortable

First of all, I've set up a flickr account and you can see the pictures I took before here, or at least you should be able to. If that doesn't work, my flickr username is jordan.goodnough and you should be able to find them that way.

Yesterday I went with a friend to the Free Town of Christiania. It's in Copenhagen, located on the island of Christianhavn. Until 1971, it was army barracks. After that, it got taken over by squatters. From what I can tell it's like a hippie commune. There are some shops and cafes and such. One of the cafes proudly calls itself the safest cafe in Denmark, what with over 6000 armed police inspections since 2004. It's certainly a very unusual place. Christiania has a population of about 800 people. It used to be a haven for drugs, but in the past year or so there's been a significant crackdown. Still, I saw a stand advertising hash pipes for sale. On the back side of the main gateway, when you leave, there is a sign that says "Now Entering the EU" so that gives some perspective. Anyway, I will be going back there with my Danish class at some point. I felt pretty creeped out walking around there.

Today is Wednesday; there are no classes on Wednesdays. They are reserved for field studies for various classes. There weren't any field studies today, but I still had to get up and go into the city at the same time I do for classes. I'm working on a group project already, and this was the only time we could get together and meet. So of course this was the first day that there were any serious delays in my commute. The signal at the Sydhavn (su-houn) train station was broken, so that caused about a thirty minute delay. I wasn't late, though, because as a result of the way the bus and trains match up I usually get in pretty early anyway.

On my way back, I met Vivi at Ishøj Bycenter (bu-center), which is a shopping center connected to the station. There, I registered with the Kommune office in order to receive my CPR number. Your CPR number is the equivalent of your SSN, Health Insurance number, and Library Card, so it's pretty important. Then we went to do some food shopping at the connected Bilka (beelka), which is pretty much the equivalent of a Wal-Mart. Interesting note: if you want the store to give you bags, you have to pay for them. This is true pretty much anywhere, I think. Then we got home, ate some lunch, and then I started writing.