First Full Day in Copenhagen

This morning I woke earlier than necessary due to the fact that I still have not procured and alarm clock. I got up, got ready and met the group down at the bus stop to catch the 1A into town. It was at this point, that I finally got to go to the official DIS office, which is where I can get packages, deal with issues, etc... The particular issue I had to deal with was the fact that I had no orientation packet due to my late arrival and I wanted them to know that I was, indeed, attending. After we hurried out of the office to catch a tour bus, and we loaded onto said bus, did I finally open tha packet and learn that DIS had placed me not in furniture design as was intended but instead in architecture for the summer. I was not pleased. I stood up and began looking around the bus but came to realize that only students were on the bus. There was not a single person of authority. I sat back down to write the diatribe I was going to lay on whomever finally stepped forward.

We pulled up to an unknown parking lot and the driver told us to get out. We did and found ourselves without the slightest idea of what to do. People began to group up and mill around and walk in differing directions when someone finally went inside and asked.

Turns out we were let off around the corner from the DIS orientation day two. And that the meeting didn't start for 20 minutes so we could go look at the display of the previous semester's thesis student projects. I was excited to see the kind of work the world renowned school could produce.

It made me sad. The projects were at best, poorly presented and at worst poorly conceived as well. I could only look through half of them before I went back outside and sat at a bench.

After a few brief speaches from the head of DIS, punctuated with intermittant string quartet pieces, which was very nice, we seperated into our seperate fields of study for the more detailed meetings. I still at this point was concerned about the fact that I was not in architecture, but went with the furniture design people anyway.

We got a walking tour from our two professors for the summer and saw the campus as it were. The whole of the Royal Danish Architecture Institute is in an old navy base that has been converted so there is plenty of space. We have, at our disposal, a three floor shop that puts all others I've been in to shame. The top floor consists of a enormous metal shop. Everything from welders to engravers, presses to lathes. If you could imagine it in metal it could be made in this shop. The next floor down is the woodworking shop. In here was an equal collection of woodworking machines. And in the basement, the veneer studio. No machines there but I imagine that the veneer students will be using the wood shop as well.

The tour continued and were were shown the furniture collection they had amassed. It was incredible! Every chair you;ve ever wanted is in this room. At they are all at our disposal for research. The only rule is we cannot sit in them. But we can flip them, study them, analyze them and admire them anytime we like. Not too shabby.

After our tour of the campus, we returned to our studio space which is an incredibly room consisting of two floors, the second of which circles the lower floor as a mezzanine creating a nice atrium for the first floor. It was here that the professors explained how the projects were going to be done. We would be given a set amount of material. Not due to budget but to make it more of a challenge. Furthermore, we will not get to choose which material we use but rather, that decision has been made for us.

The groups are
Metal A: circular tubes
Metal B: square tubes
Wood
Veneer

Everyone wants to be in veneer. People were sitting on their hands in anticipation. It was this time, my worry over which program I was in overwhelmed me and I finally went to the back of the room and told the TA that I thought I had a problem. It wasn't a second after I asked that the professor at the front called my name as the last student in veneer. It was a shameful victory but I'll take it. Turns out they just put the wrong paper work into my packet.

After the assigments and a brief lunch of sandwhiches and water, we all met at the pier for a boat tour of Copenhagen. I have to admit I am a little tired of touring. At this point, I am just ready to get to work, but what the hell. One more city won't kill me.

The tour lasted about 40 minutes, after which I went back to DIS offices and asked for my stipend from the accountant and headed off to buy a bus pass. I was tired of doing things. Anything at this point was going to bother me, so it wasn't too thrilling that as I left the ticket counter, it occured to me that I hadn't paid the slightest attention all day as to how I got to where I was. And of course at this point I was alone. Awesome.

A little walking and feeling out the city, of which by this point I am quite good, I was able to make it back to my bus stop from this morning. A brief 30 minutes later and I was back at Kollegium.

This would have been a pleasure for me to end it there. But alas, I had no food and needed to eat. There is a grocery store across the street, I hiked there, bought a minimum of supplies for I only have one shelf in the kitchen, and headed back for my meager dinner.

Well, that's it. My day. A little stress, a few victories, but at least it's done.

Tomorrow: Wherein Tom tries to find an alarm clock