Danemerican

 

Hey all! Sorry it has been a while since I've posted. I've mainly just been attending class and having a lot of group dinners, so nothing extremely exciting to post about. I have now officially made an American "brinner" (breakfast for dinner) for me and a couple of buds, and they completely fell in love with it. They love pancakes and syrup. They wanted another one this week but I'm leaving so it will have to wait! Second picture is an awesome care package from my friends at KU. (You guys rock). I was starting to really have withdrawals from my normal peanut butter and chex mix, so it was very kind of them to aid in my unhealthy habits :) Next picture is from the Catalan dinner we had. Catalonia is really the region of Barcelona in Spain, but they like to consider themselves as more separate Marti informed me. We has Spanish omelets and I helped make the sangria! We also had toasted pieces of bread and you take a garlic clove and rub it against the toasted part of the bread and then take a tomato and do the same. You then drizzle some olive oil on it and bam! you have one gourmet piece of bread. There's also the option of putting a traditional Catalonian meat on top, or another kind of hard salami type meat.
   I leave for my Danish trip on Friday morning at 4am. That should be fun for me trying to wake up at 3 am and trying to go to bed at 8 the previous night... yeah right. Anyways, we have a whole agenda of sightseeing and museum attending throughout the 5 cities above. I'm extremely excited and it should be really neat. I'll have a lot more to say about it afterwards so keep checking in! I leave for Finland the following Monday and I can hardly wait for that as well. It'll be one busy week and a half for me, that's for sure.
   So far most of my pictures are of food, but I promise sightseeing is on its way! Tomorrow night is the Norwegian dinner and then off to pack! Hope everything and everyone is well and surviving the snow if you're in Colorado or Kansas.

Moving forward

 
   

    The first three pictures are from the library on campus and the inside of a building where I have classes. People watch the news on the big screen, and yes, those are giant bean bags. Each floor (3 floors) of the library are different noise levels, and have computers with two screens. The highest most level is the quiet floor soooo I usually am on the first floor. :)
    The picture with the colored chairs is the "lobby" or the middle of a bunch of classrooms on the first floor of what we call the "glass box". All the classrooms are surrounded by windows and have whiteboards, projectors, and flat screen TV's, although I don't know why because we have never used the TV. I think they should lend it to me to bring back to my container... just saying. There are group work tables and individual chairs outside of all of the classrooms. They are also obsessed with coffee so there is a coffee machine in basically every hallway, so when we are on break all the students can get coffee.
    The Danish are also addicted to fussball. There is a fussball table in literally every building I have class and every bar I have been to. I'm going to be so much better when I come home so I expect some fussball tournaments at the Grimm cabin. Also, if you don't score here, you have to crawl under the table.... I luckily have not had to do that yet. Knock on wood.
    Next is a traditional Japanese dish that I got to enjoy last night. My Japanese roommate, Takayuki, made homemade sushi and the dish above. I wish I could remember/spell the name of it. It was very good and it was his first time making it! I tried to learn how to make sushi so that I can make it when I come home. He layered the big dish with rice and thin strips of seaweed in the rice and then topped it with an assortment of fish and other items. One of my chinese roommates, Ablat, made another rice dish with shredded sweet carrots and chicken and then you put a type of yogurt in it. They made a chicken dish together as well. All of it was incredible.
    The last picture is the inside of the National library where you can study. It is spectacular inside! The ceilings have a bunch of art and there are multiple floors to study. There is also a restaurant.. its the perfect place for me because you can people watch, watch the river, study and eat.
    I signed up for the Danish trip which takes us to 5-6 main cities all over Denmark and then I signed up for a trip to Lapland where we can see the northern lights and a reindeer safari. I'm staying in some mountain village and each unit has 8-9 rooms I think. We're also taking and arctic tour and you can swim in the Arctic ocean! As if it isn't cold enough outside! I'm also planning on doing a husky safari which should be really neat.
    The other night we went into the city to watch some European football. The match was Madrid versus Manchester. It ended up being a tie so they will rematch later on. Watching football with Europeans is way different than watching American football with Americans... but it was still really fun. Tomorrow night we're going to experience the Copenhagen Dining Week at a restaurant called Le Cofoco.
    I'm also now a Danish resident and have my CPR number which allows me to take advantage of the free health care system if I get sick.
    Well, I'm off to finish up laundry (you should be proud of me mom, I'm not waiting till the last minute) and then head out to play some ping pong at the student house. Miss all of you!

First week of classes

     I had my 7th first day of a new school this Monday and it was great. The classes here are one day a week for four hours. It seems like a really long time, and it is, but we have lecture for two hours and then we work in groups for another two while periodically getting breaks. I have class Monday through Thursday so hopefully with my long weekends I can travel. All of my teachers are really cool. You're supposed to call your teachers by their first names because they're really laid back, so that will take some getting used to. They teach in pairs here so I have double the teachers in all my classes. They take turns lecturing and really emphasize team and group work here. I'm in a class called TEMO, its technology economics management and organization, and we have lecture in the morning for 3 hours then work in groups for another 4 in the afternoon. Companies give us case studies that we work on in groups of 6 and make a presentation for it. If the company likes the solution then sometimes they'll even have the students go back to head quarters and present the solution to the workers. I think it will be a very interesting course.
     We had our first "container dinner" with all the roomies which was really fun. Laura made Spanish omelets and Wenzhao made homemade pizzas with the rest of our help. I had authentic Korean food for the first time as well! The Koreans in my group made dinner for us Thursday night and it was wonderful. Spicy, but really great. They're trying to teach me some Korean words but once I get the pronunciation, I forget it 10 minutes later. I need to work on my language skills.
   There is a group on campus called ESN, and its international I'm pretty sure. Anyways, they coordinate group trips and events so I am trying to sign up for a few of those as well. The first one is a 3 day trip around all of Denmark, and the next one is a trip to Lapland. They also have a cruise later on in the semester with all the students from universities in Denmark.
Also- I'm going to take some pictures of where my classes are held so that everyone can sort of see what it's like!
   

Up to the Superbowl

   

Sorry that my picture configurations aren't very uniform, that's the best I can do with what time I have :) From my last post, when we visited Copenhagen to sight-see, I finally got around to posting some pictures of what we saw. The black glass building is the National Library in case you didn't get a chance to look it up and the other building is the Opera house. I definitely want to attend an opera, mainly just so I can go inside the building. Next is the Little Mermaid. I found out that Disney's version of the little mermaid is much happier than the real story by Hans Christian Andersen. More or less it is about how the Little Mermaid gives up her life in the sea to gain a human soul and the love of a human prince, all of which goes very poorly since he ends up marrying the princess. The Sea Witch gives her a knife to end the prince's life and to become a mermaid again and to cease all her suffering, but she does not do so because she still loves the Prince and throws herself into the sea instead. She does not drown but is made into a spirit, thus the statue. The story goes much more in depth, but I found it intriguing to read. 
    For the Superbowl, we went to a the "S-husen" in Copenhagen and they had projectors upstairs and downstairs in the bar with tables set up. They had face paint, american drinks, and a bunch of signs that said "AAA-Ask An American". It was interesting watching it with a bunch of Europeans. Hardly anyone knew what was happening and we had to explain the whole time instead of cheering. None the less it was still a great time and I made even more great friends. I'm telling them the Broncos are the best team ever and they should always root for the Broncos... :) I'm also trying to teach them Rock Chalk Jayhawk, go KU! It may take some practice. If anyone has any questions about anything at all don't hesitate to comment and ask! 

Introduction Week

   Wow! It's been too long since I've posted but I have been non-stop sight-seeing, meeting new people, and maybe partying here and there... Sorry mom and dad :) This is really going to be an incredible experience because everybody here is really outgoing and wants to have a good time. The campus is awesome. A few of the buildings are silver, black, and glass and very modern. They're called "smart" buildings, so it takes the sun from outside and uses it for the trees that are on the inside (for decorations) and automatically filters the air and such. Complicated but that's what I took away from it.
    My group for introduction week consists of Sebastiano from Italy, Marti from Barcelona, Audrey from France, Piotr from Poland, Jonas from Norway, Jonghyun and Soohwan from Korea, and our leaders Jonathan and Luca from Belgium and Italy. It is a superb group and we all get along great. I think we're the best group here... I might be a little biased. I finally got my room somewhat put together and I'll try to post a picture soon. We already had a "container" dinner (that's what they call where I live) and the Italians made spaghetti carbonara. It was sooooo good. I'm so happy I have Italians in my group :) Next week we're having Korean food. I'm a little nervous because they said that what I think is super spicy isn't spicy at all... yikes!
    

     We have walked around the whole city of Copenhagen I'm pretty sure, I've definitely broken in my shoes. We saw the national library, Christiania, where the queen stays, the little mermaid, the outside of the Tivoli gardens but I highly recommend looking them up because they're really something else. The library was one of the coolest libraries I've ever seen, very modern. We're allowed to study there, which will be really cool because it looks out onto the water. Christiania is a "free" town. They have their own rules and run themselves. We were told before going in the three rules: 1. No running because it causes panic 2. No pictures 3. Have fun. It was really interesting and a very different way of living. They sell marijuana along the street and smoke in front of restaurants and such. It's very interesting to read about.         
     They have 6 bars on DTU's campus and there have been events at 2 of them. Each department has there own bar pretty much.. crazy right? Then we went to the Kulørbar and the Minibar, both in Copenhagen. Its one thing to try and understand people with an accent and its another to understand people with an accent while music is blaring and they're drinking, but fun all the same! 
     Tonight all the international kids want to watch the Superbowl with the Americans. They're more excited than the Americans I think. One of the bars on campus, the Kaellerbar, is showing it so we're going to try and cook some American appetizers and stuff then head to watch and explain the rules. It starts at 12:30 am our time so it's going to be another late night. My first class is tomorrow form 5-9 pm so sleeping in is an option thank goodness.