mere tiger, klasser, og sygehuset.

today i am back with pictures of the interior of tiger and of the area around DIS. be excited.

i'll begin with a shot right inside the door of tiger. you can understand why i immediately fell in love. brightly colored trash cans and toilet brush holders right next to a section of items covered in mustaches. as you continue through the store, you come upon a small food section. here you mostly find candy but there's also some loose-leaf tea and rice cakes.

i bought a package of rice cakes with dark chocolate on top today to tide me over until my program social. deeelicious. in the candy section, you also find absolutely gigantic twix bars.

the next section of the tiger contains housewares and personal items. everything is organized by pattern so you have a grouping of things with hearts, some things with gnomes and toadstools, and an asian-inspired section (to name a few).

in this room you'll also find the candle wall. as i mentioned before, danes are obsessed with lighting in their quest to find hygge. hygge isn't easily translated, but we describe it as coziness or an intimate feeling.

as you continue upstairs, most of the items are educational in nature. lots of notebooks, paints, staples, etc. for me, the main event on this floor is the collection of miniature anatomical models. choose from the female pelvis, a human heart, or the brain. any of the three can be yours for the extremely justifiable price of 60 DKK (about $12).

after my stop in tiger today, i explored the area around DIS to document it for the enjoyment of my followers. here's a photo of the studenterhuset where a lot of, well, students hang out, danes and DIS kids alike. here you find some of the cheapest coffee in town for students, a lovely study atmosphere, and tons of fun and free events virtually every night of the week."events" can include crazy dance parties, swing dancing lessons, climate discussions, and the like.
today and yesterday i had my first two days of classes. so far i'm really excited for each of them. all of my profs seem like extraordinary people--especially my human rights prof. i'm looking forward to getting to know each of them over the course of the semester. today was also the first meeting of my core course: human health and disease. the 14 of us enrolled in section C took the bus over to the hospital we'll have all of our class meetings in. it's called frederiksborg hospital. it was built in 1902 and is set up in an outdoor campus style.

by "outdoor campus" i mean each department is housed in a different building. originally they weren't connected and a patient needing an x-ray would have to be bundled up and rolled on a gurney to the radiology department. they've since added underground tunnels from one department to another. i'm sure the patients are grateful. in the background of this photo of the hospital campus, you can see the building my class meets in. we'll be in there most days but we'll have our clinical lessons in the research center.

i'll leave you with a photo of another student hang out in the basement of one of the DIS buildings. i spent a considerable amount of time here today. i only have two classes on fridays with a three-hour break in between them. luckily, i've discovered the library and have already checked out my first book: a thousand splendid suns. we'll see how long it takes me to get through it, what with all the exploring to be done.

kærlig hilsen,
kati

tiger.

i'd like to dedicate a post to tiger, my new favorite store in the world. this is something i can now say with some certainty, considering my travels have taken me to more than one continent.

tiger (pronounced tee-yuh) is the danish equivalent of a dollar store. there you'll find an unimaginable variety of items for overtly reasonable prices. not only are things cheap; they're adorable. brittany (my roommate from vanderbilt who has also journeyed to københavn with me) told me the store looks like i invented it. there you'll find everything from tiny brightly-colored bathroom trash cans to salt and pepper shakers shaped like toadstools. they have an unbelievable variety of colorful candles and they offer a wide selection of school supplies. it's incredible. unfortunately, i failed to take pictures of the interior of the store, but i have a break between classes tomorrow that i'll likely use to document it for your enjoyment.
what i do have documentation of, however, is the spoils of my visit to tiger.

i brought all of this home for a grand total of $16. and people said living in denmark was expensive...

my lovely bowl. our room came with dishes but no legitimate bowls. i say "legitimate" because we did receive bowls but they're the fancy flat kind you find at olive garden.

here you can see my mustache socks (also purchased by brittany) and my mustache blanket (also purchased by taylor). popular items for obvious reasons.

my mustache bag.i'm very happy to have this guy. because denmark is a "green" country, you have to pay for plastic bags in the grocery stores. now i'll always be prepared in style.

my map of europe. brittany had the brilliant idea to get a map and use the heart stickers (seen in previous photos) to mark the places we've been. i followed suit. i hope to come home with a map full of love.

tomorrow is my first full day of classes. however my first class doesn't begin until 11:40. looking forward to the chance to catch up on sleep and gear up for a busy day. i go until 6:00pm. it'll take me a while to figure out a reasonable eating schedule.
i'll leave you with a picture of the train i'll be catching to class tomorrow. the bus drops me off closer and has a stop closer to school, but i just love the train because it's so different from all of my transportation options in the US. i sense this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

kærlig hilsen,
kati