Just a quick update-
I've booked a trip to Southern France!! I leave October 6th and I'll be there through October 15th. I'll be in Marseille for 4 days and Nice for 6 days. I plan on visiting Aix-En-Provence, Monaco, and Cannes as well. From there I'll fly to Copenhagen.
Add to the excitement Mom and Dad are coming to visit me October 16th. I'll fly from Nice to Copenhagen to meet up with them then we'll spend some time in Copenhagen before it's off to Stockholm for a couple days. From Stockholm I'll go to Oslo and hopefully take a day trip to the western fjords and I'll stay in Oslo for a few days. Then it will be back to the normal life in Aarhus on October 25th.
After almost 3 weeks straight of traveling I'm sure that I'll be ready to come back to my temporary home and see everybody again.
In summary: Marseille-Aix En Provence- Nice- Monaco- Cannes-Copenhagen- Stockholm- Oslo- Aarhus. Should be absolutely wonderful and probably the absolute best birthday present ever!!
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
School Has Started!
Life has been more than a little busy the past 3 weeks. A short re-cap of the important stuff:
Trip to Copenhagen from September 5-7. I went by myself and met up with my friend Magik from Poland who lives there. He was generous enough to let me stay at his apartment which saved A LOT of money. I love Copenhagen and the weather was beautiful while I was there so I spent a lot of time wandering around especially when he was at work (he's a mechanical engineer). He and I went to this IceBar one night and EVERYTHING was made out of ice. From the walls to the ceiling to the glasses. They give you giant insulated capes with gloves because the temperature inside is about 12 degrees F. He and I lasted about a half hour before it was too cold to stay any longer.
At Aarhus Uni we have something called Friday Bar which basically means every Friday the whole campus can unwind at the bar together. On September 10 the Uni threw us the biggest Friday Bar in Demark. It started at noon and went until about 3am and was sponsored by Red Bull, Carlsberg, and others... there were over 50 live bands on like 3 stages.. it was INSANE.
This past Friday night we threw a toga party here at Vilhelm Kiers. Let's just say it's probably one of the best parties I've ever been to. It's nice to have everybody come up here on the weekends because I don't have to worry about getting home.
A lot of us who live at Vilhelm Kiers have taken to cooking dinner in groups a couple times a week. It saves money and it's nice to eat dinner with really good friends and great company. Most blocks also have a floor dinner every week. Mine is on Wednesday and I found out that my week to cook is also the day before Thanksgiving so I'm going to cook a traditional Turkey Day dinner (or as close as I can get to one)!
Classes here are very different from those back home. I basically have about 400 pages of reading to do for my 3 classes every week and class consists of some lecture and some discussion. At some point in the semester for all my classes I have to give a group presentation over a certain topic. We don't have homework but it's important to keep up with the reading because it makes it easier at the end of the semester to write your term paper or prepare your presentation. Class doesn't usually start until about 15 minutes after the start time so it's okay to be a little late and you call your teachers by their first name. Classes are also taught in block form so you only meet for class once a week. Class size is also much much smaller than back home (about 35 people is average)
My Analyzing the European Union will be the hardest class I think. It has the most reading to do of all the classes. I have it on Wednesdays and it's a 4 hour lecture with a half hour break at noon. We also have a seminar session on Thursdays.
Introduction to China's History won't be too bad. The teacher is German and the class is pretty laid back. I already gave my group presentation last week (3 of us had to teach the class one chapter of the book) so I don't have to worry about that anymore. It meets on Thursday for 2 hours.
History of Eastern Europe Since the First World War will probably be my favorite class. There are about 15 of us in it that are friends (Jesse, Jane, Darren, Candice, Nick, Jess, Sally... I could go on) and the teacher is from Canada. He's really really cool and we'll be watching some movies as well. It's on Friday afternoon for 3 hours.
I'm also taking a Biology class but it doesn't start until the last week of October so I don't know anything about it.
The weather here has been cold. The high is about 63 for the day and at night it gets down to about 40. I've had my heat on for the last 2 weeks and I already had to pull out my winter coat (North Face) that I don't usually wear at home until at least November. It's raining a lot more as well.
Hard to believe I've already been here over 2 months!
Trip to Copenhagen from September 5-7. I went by myself and met up with my friend Magik from Poland who lives there. He was generous enough to let me stay at his apartment which saved A LOT of money. I love Copenhagen and the weather was beautiful while I was there so I spent a lot of time wandering around especially when he was at work (he's a mechanical engineer). He and I went to this IceBar one night and EVERYTHING was made out of ice. From the walls to the ceiling to the glasses. They give you giant insulated capes with gloves because the temperature inside is about 12 degrees F. He and I lasted about a half hour before it was too cold to stay any longer.
At Aarhus Uni we have something called Friday Bar which basically means every Friday the whole campus can unwind at the bar together. On September 10 the Uni threw us the biggest Friday Bar in Demark. It started at noon and went until about 3am and was sponsored by Red Bull, Carlsberg, and others... there were over 50 live bands on like 3 stages.. it was INSANE.
This past Friday night we threw a toga party here at Vilhelm Kiers. Let's just say it's probably one of the best parties I've ever been to. It's nice to have everybody come up here on the weekends because I don't have to worry about getting home.
A lot of us who live at Vilhelm Kiers have taken to cooking dinner in groups a couple times a week. It saves money and it's nice to eat dinner with really good friends and great company. Most blocks also have a floor dinner every week. Mine is on Wednesday and I found out that my week to cook is also the day before Thanksgiving so I'm going to cook a traditional Turkey Day dinner (or as close as I can get to one)!
Classes here are very different from those back home. I basically have about 400 pages of reading to do for my 3 classes every week and class consists of some lecture and some discussion. At some point in the semester for all my classes I have to give a group presentation over a certain topic. We don't have homework but it's important to keep up with the reading because it makes it easier at the end of the semester to write your term paper or prepare your presentation. Class doesn't usually start until about 15 minutes after the start time so it's okay to be a little late and you call your teachers by their first name. Classes are also taught in block form so you only meet for class once a week. Class size is also much much smaller than back home (about 35 people is average)
My Analyzing the European Union will be the hardest class I think. It has the most reading to do of all the classes. I have it on Wednesdays and it's a 4 hour lecture with a half hour break at noon. We also have a seminar session on Thursdays.
Introduction to China's History won't be too bad. The teacher is German and the class is pretty laid back. I already gave my group presentation last week (3 of us had to teach the class one chapter of the book) so I don't have to worry about that anymore. It meets on Thursday for 2 hours.
History of Eastern Europe Since the First World War will probably be my favorite class. There are about 15 of us in it that are friends (Jesse, Jane, Darren, Candice, Nick, Jess, Sally... I could go on) and the teacher is from Canada. He's really really cool and we'll be watching some movies as well. It's on Friday afternoon for 3 hours.
I'm also taking a Biology class but it doesn't start until the last week of October so I don't know anything about it.
The weather here has been cold. The high is about 63 for the day and at night it gets down to about 40. I've had my heat on for the last 2 weeks and I already had to pull out my winter coat (North Face) that I don't usually wear at home until at least November. It's raining a lot more as well.
Hard to believe I've already been here over 2 months!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Everyday Life
More pictures from Barcelona on Flickr!
Now that summer is basically over I figured it was probably time to talk about my everyday life here. It's hard to believe I've already been here 6 weeks!
The University is pretty much what you'd expect of a European University. Campus is absolutely beautiful with a HUGE park and lake right in the middle of campus. There's a lot of ducks that live there that are basically tame and Aarhus has taken time to put picnic tables and park benches in the park. The buildings are limestone with lots of ivy on them. (Search Aarhus University on Wikipedia; they have some good pictures). There isn't a "student union" like what we have at K-State but there are a number of canteens scattered throughout campus and the food is actually pretty good and reasonably priced. Most of the buildings are connected and instead of being named they are numbered, which, being connected, can be quite confusing. The library (Statsbibliotekets) is huge.
I haven't had class yet (mine don't start for another week) so I'm not sure how they will differ from back home. All I know is that there is a lot of reading to do and homework doesn't exist.
There are a number of grocery stores to pick from but I haven't found one that has a Deli or anything like that. I usually go to Netto for basics (bread, frozen food, crackers etc) and Føtex for produce, cheese, meat, etc. Netto is cheaper but Føtex is better quality and has a much much larger selection. Føtex also has a good wine selection, paper products section, things used for cooking (pasta, olive oil) and breakfast foods. Kvickly is pretty good as well and is somewhere inbetween the two. I eat a lot of pasta because it's filling and cheap and a lot of apples for the same reason. Sandwich meat is very expensive and I cannot for the life of me find sliced turkey so my sandwiches are usually cheese with bell peppers or something like that. Cookies are called "the famous American style" which I find amusing and pretzels are "salt sticks". Nutella and toast is what I usually have for breakfast but I also have Cheerios and Frosted Flakes. I don't usually eat much for lunch; I just eat small snacks in the late morning and late afternoon to get me through to dinner. It's hard to lug a whole bunch of groceries home, everything is a lot smaller here (no extra large bag of potato chips) plus everything is kind of expensive.
It's hard to find a store like Target or Walmart that's a one-stop shop. I haven't done much shopping outside of IKEA (which was more than intimidating) and groceries but I've bought some shoes and a couple shirts. They have H&M here (it's a Swedish company and they're everywhere) but that's the only clothing store that I've recognized from home. Shops are much more specialized here which can be good and bad. Selection is often bigger between all the stores but the prices range wildly so you can't just go to one store.
I ride the Metro (the bus) everywhere that's not within walking distance. I'm not very close to downtown but there's a relatively large shopping center that's about a 15 minute walk so I can go there if I want to. The grocery stores I like to go to are all too far to walk to so I usually go grocery shopping once a week. The Metro is really really efficient and I've figured out how to read the schedules. They have a nice website where you can type in your starting and ending address and it will tell you which bus to take, where to get off, and give you a map of where you have to walk to. I'm about a 20 minute walk to campus so on nice days I'll walk but not if it's super cold or raining.
The Danes like to be efficient so there are the little take a number instead of wait in line machines. They're at the post office, the library, the train station, the pharmacy... anywhere where a big line could develop. I actually really like it.
Speaking of the pharmacy, they don't allow self-medication here. So if you're sick expect to wait until your number is called and tell the pharmacist what's wrong and they'll give you whatever they think will help. Example: I'm still sick and wanted cough syrup. Instead of cough syrup she gave me pills because the syrup apparently makes you really really tired. I would've preferred to just get the syrup but whatever.
One of the interesting things is any bill you receive you can pay at the post office. I don't have a Danish bank account so I just go to the post office to pay rent. It's definitely very convenient.
Warning: If you are expecting to use a credit card that does not have a pin code it's not going to work. Period. Don't even try to. They are going to make you use a different card.
It rains a lot here and you learn to not go anywhere without an umbrella if you don't want to get wet. When it rains it usually doesn't rain for very long but we've had a couple days where it rained pretty much all day. Now it's about 63 degrees for a high and it hasn't been very sunny the past couple days. Sometimes it's really windy as well.
Hopefully this helps explain what my everyday Danish life is like!
Now that summer is basically over I figured it was probably time to talk about my everyday life here. It's hard to believe I've already been here 6 weeks!
The University is pretty much what you'd expect of a European University. Campus is absolutely beautiful with a HUGE park and lake right in the middle of campus. There's a lot of ducks that live there that are basically tame and Aarhus has taken time to put picnic tables and park benches in the park. The buildings are limestone with lots of ivy on them. (Search Aarhus University on Wikipedia; they have some good pictures). There isn't a "student union" like what we have at K-State but there are a number of canteens scattered throughout campus and the food is actually pretty good and reasonably priced. Most of the buildings are connected and instead of being named they are numbered, which, being connected, can be quite confusing. The library (Statsbibliotekets) is huge.
I haven't had class yet (mine don't start for another week) so I'm not sure how they will differ from back home. All I know is that there is a lot of reading to do and homework doesn't exist.
There are a number of grocery stores to pick from but I haven't found one that has a Deli or anything like that. I usually go to Netto for basics (bread, frozen food, crackers etc) and Føtex for produce, cheese, meat, etc. Netto is cheaper but Føtex is better quality and has a much much larger selection. Føtex also has a good wine selection, paper products section, things used for cooking (pasta, olive oil) and breakfast foods. Kvickly is pretty good as well and is somewhere inbetween the two. I eat a lot of pasta because it's filling and cheap and a lot of apples for the same reason. Sandwich meat is very expensive and I cannot for the life of me find sliced turkey so my sandwiches are usually cheese with bell peppers or something like that. Cookies are called "the famous American style" which I find amusing and pretzels are "salt sticks". Nutella and toast is what I usually have for breakfast but I also have Cheerios and Frosted Flakes. I don't usually eat much for lunch; I just eat small snacks in the late morning and late afternoon to get me through to dinner. It's hard to lug a whole bunch of groceries home, everything is a lot smaller here (no extra large bag of potato chips) plus everything is kind of expensive.
It's hard to find a store like Target or Walmart that's a one-stop shop. I haven't done much shopping outside of IKEA (which was more than intimidating) and groceries but I've bought some shoes and a couple shirts. They have H&M here (it's a Swedish company and they're everywhere) but that's the only clothing store that I've recognized from home. Shops are much more specialized here which can be good and bad. Selection is often bigger between all the stores but the prices range wildly so you can't just go to one store.
I ride the Metro (the bus) everywhere that's not within walking distance. I'm not very close to downtown but there's a relatively large shopping center that's about a 15 minute walk so I can go there if I want to. The grocery stores I like to go to are all too far to walk to so I usually go grocery shopping once a week. The Metro is really really efficient and I've figured out how to read the schedules. They have a nice website where you can type in your starting and ending address and it will tell you which bus to take, where to get off, and give you a map of where you have to walk to. I'm about a 20 minute walk to campus so on nice days I'll walk but not if it's super cold or raining.
The Danes like to be efficient so there are the little take a number instead of wait in line machines. They're at the post office, the library, the train station, the pharmacy... anywhere where a big line could develop. I actually really like it.
Speaking of the pharmacy, they don't allow self-medication here. So if you're sick expect to wait until your number is called and tell the pharmacist what's wrong and they'll give you whatever they think will help. Example: I'm still sick and wanted cough syrup. Instead of cough syrup she gave me pills because the syrup apparently makes you really really tired. I would've preferred to just get the syrup but whatever.
One of the interesting things is any bill you receive you can pay at the post office. I don't have a Danish bank account so I just go to the post office to pay rent. It's definitely very convenient.
Warning: If you are expecting to use a credit card that does not have a pin code it's not going to work. Period. Don't even try to. They are going to make you use a different card.
It rains a lot here and you learn to not go anywhere without an umbrella if you don't want to get wet. When it rains it usually doesn't rain for very long but we've had a couple days where it rained pretty much all day. Now it's about 63 degrees for a high and it hasn't been very sunny the past couple days. Sometimes it's really windy as well.
Hopefully this helps explain what my everyday Danish life is like!
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