København, if we want to be technical about it...

...and not look like stupid Americans.

Hi all, this is Eli Cohen ('11), welcome to my Study Abroad blog. You'll notice that there are old posts from when I was keeping a blog during my internship at EnerNOC. However, as of Monday, August 24, 2009, this is my study abroad blog for Copenhagen. København. So far, this place has been nothing but awesome. I'm glad I spent the summer in Boston prior to coming here so I could adjust to challenges of learning a transit system, cooking for myself, etc. before coming here to do all that in another language (well, partially in another language; there's plenty of English speakers).

Some things I've learned about money in my first 36 hours that are worth sharing.

1. "Everything costs more in Denmark" is only somewhat true. Most things cost more, and certainly eating out costs more. However, many common groceries have proven to be the same price or even cheaper than American goods (note: I've only been to two supermarkets, one which I'm told was cheap, one I've been told was average). I got a large box of corn flakes for about $2-$3 and a 1.5L carton of fruit juice for $2 (usually something like $4 for a half-gallon). And this is including the 25% sales tax. Which brings me to my next point:
2. It is the law in Denmark to include sales tax in the posted price. That means that when it says something costs 50 kr. (Danish kroner or DKK) that is the amount you will pay the store. None of that fussy "This $30 thing actually costs $31.50" business.
3. All that said, anything that could be thought of as a luxury item definitely costs significantly more. I went into a board game store thinking, "These are German board games, they'd probably cost a little less here than in the states." Turns out, the opposite is true. Games that cost $40 in the US cost about $70-$80 here. That also goes for movie rentals and purchases, video games, CDs (although those are less inflated), cafe food, and many other items.
4. Public transportation is expensive. DIS is buying passes for us, but we paid for them in a sense when we paid for tuition. Same goes for books; they're "free" for us in the sense that we're not paying for them right now.
5. Larger grocery stores are required by law to be closed most Sundays. It's an equalizing measure, of sorts. You're only allowed to be open every day if you're small; once you hit a certain size of store, you can only be open the first Sunday of each month. Helps the mom & pop stores out, I suppose.
   

That's all the insight I can muster right now. I'm going to go to the grocery store to get some dinner things. Unless something really interesting comes up, my next post will be about where I'm living (there will be pictures!)