Name: Ryan Wakat
Home University: University of Colorado – Boulder
Summer Courses at DIS: Design and Society in Denmark, Furniture Design in Scandinavia
After being in Copenhagen for about 2 months now, I can say that my routine is pretty much set. To start, the first thing you need to understand, is that because Copenhagen is so far north (as far north as Juneau, Alaska), the sun rises around 4:30 in the morning. My room in my kollegium also faces east, so I get woken up by the sun early, even with the curtains drawn. I usually keep an eye mask near by in case I want to block it. But once I am up I get ready, making sure I have everything I’ll need for the day in my backpack, and then I stop by my floor kitchen, and make breakfast and my pack lunch for the day catch up on the news from CNN. I check up on CNN, because it is one of the only English TV speaking channels here in Copenhagen and because I feel like it’s important to keep up on what is happening stateside.
All my classes have started started at 8:30 for most of the summer, so I leave my kollegium about 30 minutes before, which give’s me enough time to get to DIS by either bus, Metro (subway) or bicycle. I prefer to travel by bicycle for several reasons. The main reason is because it gives you more freedom then the bus or Metro. There are actually 3 or 4 different routes I can take to DIS depending on how I feel that morning. One of them actually includes the Harbor Bus. I will usually take the Metro if it raining or if I am really tired. My commute time is usually 15 minutes and I can usually stop and get coffee and a crescent roll before class. The nice thing about my commute, is that I am usually surrounded by 20 other cyclists all going to central Copenhagen and it is quite the experience.
For furniture design, we are usually in class all morning. We have 2 lectures before noon, with a break in between, and then we are the design studio’s in the afternoon where we work on the designs for our chairs. As the the term went on, we were in the studio’s until mid afternoon, and then we had a quick lecture about our jurors designs.
Our professors usually stay with us in the design studio until 4pm, and then we are free to do what we want. Most of usually stay in the studio until we feel like going home. The bike home from DIS is very relaxing and is a great time to reflect on what I need to do the next day, and then get some sleep for the next day. Again, because Copenhagen is so far north, the sun usually sets around 10:30pm so you tend to loose touch with your inner clock.