International students dinner

University of Copenhagen’s QA Program

One of the things that the University of Copenhagen advised us to do before coming to Denmark was join the “QA Program.” This is the University’s hand-holding-yay-we’re-all-multicultural-multiethnic-and-love-being-global-wooo type group where the international students are assigned a “Mentor” to help guide them through the transition period.

It’s one of those things that sounds great on paper, but is very hit or miss in practice. The “Mentor” I was assigned hasn’t done much besides create a Facebook and spam my inbox with event invites, but I guess that’s all you can really expect. The International Welcome Dinner was the big kick-off event for the QA program, held on Saturday after the first week of classes.

Of course it started pouring when I was biking to campus, so I arrived with super soaked jeans. Always fun. You can’t really tell in this picture, but that rain was comin’ down.

The QA dinner cost all the “mentees” 100 Danish Krone (i.e., about $15) and with that came 1 free drink, plus the meal.

The free drink ended up being a pixie sized cup of “wine, elderberry juice, and water.” Basically watered down fruit juice wine.

Kindergarten birthday party vibes?

Complete with cheesy ice breaker questions.

But it was alright; the good conversation with good people made up for it.

The food they served was pretty legit too: lamb shank, chicken breast, bulgar salad, roasted veggies, etc. I don’t have a pic, cause I was SO STARVING by the time we were finally fed.

We were able to grab seconds (and thirds), so I definitely got my $15 worth. #fatkidstatus

A group of us even braved the rain and the wind to get chocolate at the local Fakta (Danish grocery store chain) after we realized dessert wasn’t in the QA dinner cards. Sugar is always necessary, people! #superfatkidstatus

On the way back we stumbled upon a party going on in one of the main buildings on campus.

Them Danes though… they know how to throw back a few beers… or, twenty.

The fact that this sort of thing happens on campus (on a weekly basis!) is so surreal to me. Like, the University condones it! Allows it. Hosts it. Pays for the cleanup. Craziness.

Anyhoo, that was about the extent of my Saturday night. Culture sharing, socializing, rain, chocolate, and a pixie cup of wine. Weird combo, but I guess it worked.