Friday, January 26, 2007
Some pictures
Pictures from the Amager neighborhood near where I live. With captions. Click on the picture above to view all of them in this album.
Tour of Carlsberg Brewery. This was part of the DIS orientation activities. Click on the picture above to view all of them in this album.
Bus tour of Copenhagen as part of DIS orientation activities. Click on the picture above to view all of them in this album.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Observations from walk home
Just a few things I've noticed walking around Copenhagen:
- People tend to wear more "stylish" clothes in general. Everyone certainly wants to look nice. Coats in particular are different from what I'd see walking around Gustavus. I'm sure my coat stands out a bit. Most people wear tighter fitting, "New York" coats I guess. Conservative and nothing flashy. The younger and middle age people would fit in just fine with their attire at home though.
- The older people typically have long coats, below the knee, from what I've seen. And bigger hats. Younger people either don't wear a hat, or have a stocking cap.
- Kids walking around are always in boots and a snowsuit. Babies are almost always in a stroller. Their moms leave the strollers outside (with the baby inside) when the go in someplace to shop. The baby is bundled up very warmly it looks like, but the fact that they leave them outside unattended is kind of different. Everyone leaves their bike around town too, with no lock or anything. I guess theft isn't a concern.
- 7-Eleven is a very large chain here. I think I know where about 8 of them are just on my way to school. They are usually small, at the corner of a building. It isn't a gas station (haven't seen any of those anywhere near where I live or in Copenhagen). It is the convenience store part of a 7-Eleven at home. I think they are pretty expensive though. 19 kroner for about a 16oz orange juice ($3). Bottled water and other drinks are about the same price.
- I know of two McDonalds downtown Copenhagen, and a Burger King. There is a Dominoes Pizza about 2 blocks from where I live.
- Certainly many more stores that are not familiar to me though. Downtown Copenhagen has many small, local shops I think. Cheap supermarkets include Netto, Fotex.
- Everything is clean. The streets don't have trash or bubble gum. Many of the ones I walk on are cobblestone, and trash would certainly get stuck in the cracks. There isn't any though. I do see people smoking, but no cigarette butts in the cobblestones either. There are no homeless people. No "hoodlums" on street corners. Everything is very organized and efficient.
First Classes
Today was the first day of class. I had my Kierkagaard philosophy class first. It is offered through Copenhagen University, so I guess we are registered with KU if we are taking the class. Typical Danish university courses like this one are only graded on the final paper. You go to class, do the readings, and then write a long final paper. This is read and graded by someone other than the teacher of the class. Then the teacher consults with the grader, and they make minor adjustments as needed. Our Kierkagaard class won't operate exactly like that, as DIS is kind of a mix between US/Danish styles. 40% of the grade will be the final paper, and graded by a different professor. The 10% participation and 50% small papers are graded by the professor teaching the class, which is like the US system.
My other class today was Danish. The teacher is originally from Odense, where Hans Christian Andersen was born. She is a French major, and came to the US for a year when she was 16. I guess she teaches Spanish at DIS too. Quite a few languages. My Danish class is 50% language and 50% culture I guess. She wants us to keep a little journal of cultural differences we notice, so I guess writing it here is as good as anywhere else.
My other class today was Danish. The teacher is originally from Odense, where Hans Christian Andersen was born. She is a French major, and came to the US for a year when she was 16. I guess she teaches Spanish at DIS too. Quite a few languages. My Danish class is 50% language and 50% culture I guess. She wants us to keep a little journal of cultural differences we notice, so I guess writing it here is as good as anywhere else.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
A few days in Denmark
The first few days here have been filled with orientation activities. Monday was jet-lagged. We walked through snow with a Danish "leader" to the opening ceremony. About a 30 minute walk. It was held at the Klytotek, which is owned by the Carlsberg Foundation. A big museum I think. After, a group of us from Øresundskollegiet (where I'm living) ate at a pub. We had no clue what we were ordering. Ended up getting a two-course meal, with fish-type appetizers and then a steak-type main course, covered in onions and with rye bread. The steak was good, although I didn't have much of an appetite from jetlag. Probably won't be going back there, because I think it ended up being $20 when all was said and done. Wandered around Copenhagen trying to find where our tour bus was leaving and we ended up missing the first set of busses. Caught the second though. The DIS director led our bus... he said it was so we could get our "Japanese tourist" sightseeing over and done with. There was a reporter from Politiken riding with us, writing a story on DIS. That is the newspaper that published those muslim cartoons last year that caused the uproar. She left early because there was a 60-car pileup south of town from the slippery roads.
On Tuesday we had "Survival Danish" from 9am-noon. Vowels are a big part of the language, and they have three extra ones. These seem like mostly variations on the "o" sounds, but much more from the gut and cut off quickly. Spoken Danish seems to vary significantly from written words. It is hard to tell (at least at this point) what a word should sound like from how it is spelled. I think if you just skip half the letters and smash everything else together...
In the afternoon yesterday we had a variety of other orientation sessions that focused on the DIS library, DIS security, the study tours, etc. These were probably longer than they needed to be. This afternoon we had an orientation to the business program (after Danish again in the morning).
I paid 18 kroner for a slice of pizza today for lunch...and I thought this was relatively inexpensive. 18 kroner is about $3. At home, I could get a whole pizza for about twice that...
Downtown Copenhagen is very pretty. Many walking-only streets, and the rest don't have much car traffic (nor room for car traffic). Bikes are very prevalent, and most roads have dedicated bike paths running alongside them. The bikes seems to have the right-of-way over everyone else, and they would certainly run you over if you don't get out of their way. Cars will wait for pedestrians and bikes. Everyone waits at the stoplights for the walk signal, even if no cars are coming. I haven't seen any Dane jaywalk yet. I stood at an intersection today waiting to cross a tiny little road with no traffic. Everyone was waiting for the light, even though the street probably took 4 steps to cross.
School is very easy to get to from Øresundskollegiet. I have been taking the metro thus far, because it is easy to understand and hard to get lost riding on. :) The metro station is only a few blocks away. I guess the bus stop is a little closer and a little faster (since we only have to go a short way), but haven't tried it out yet. Someday. Only need to ride 3 stops on the metro, and then a nice short walk to DIS.
Haven't yet met the Danes on my floor. Actually I think most of them aren't around. I think most classes for them don't start until Feb8 or so. Eventually...
I talked with the Danish "visiting family", Birte & Mogens Been, on the phone the other day and am going to go see them Saturday afternoon. They're going to pick me up at Øresunds.
The two supermarkets I've walked into have little barriers (like at Menards) when you walk in, so you can't walk back out through that entrance, but have to walk past the cashiers. I haven't quite figured out how you are supposed to do that if you aren't buying anything. The closed cashiers have barriers down as well. The only way I can figure is to wait in line until it is possible to sneak through without completely shoving someone out of the way. One time I did walk back out through the walk-in barrier. It is a wierd feeling to be in a store and not sure how to get out. :)
Pictures coming someday.
On Tuesday we had "Survival Danish" from 9am-noon. Vowels are a big part of the language, and they have three extra ones. These seem like mostly variations on the "o" sounds, but much more from the gut and cut off quickly. Spoken Danish seems to vary significantly from written words. It is hard to tell (at least at this point) what a word should sound like from how it is spelled. I think if you just skip half the letters and smash everything else together...
In the afternoon yesterday we had a variety of other orientation sessions that focused on the DIS library, DIS security, the study tours, etc. These were probably longer than they needed to be. This afternoon we had an orientation to the business program (after Danish again in the morning).
I paid 18 kroner for a slice of pizza today for lunch...and I thought this was relatively inexpensive. 18 kroner is about $3. At home, I could get a whole pizza for about twice that...
Downtown Copenhagen is very pretty. Many walking-only streets, and the rest don't have much car traffic (nor room for car traffic). Bikes are very prevalent, and most roads have dedicated bike paths running alongside them. The bikes seems to have the right-of-way over everyone else, and they would certainly run you over if you don't get out of their way. Cars will wait for pedestrians and bikes. Everyone waits at the stoplights for the walk signal, even if no cars are coming. I haven't seen any Dane jaywalk yet. I stood at an intersection today waiting to cross a tiny little road with no traffic. Everyone was waiting for the light, even though the street probably took 4 steps to cross.
School is very easy to get to from Øresundskollegiet. I have been taking the metro thus far, because it is easy to understand and hard to get lost riding on. :) The metro station is only a few blocks away. I guess the bus stop is a little closer and a little faster (since we only have to go a short way), but haven't tried it out yet. Someday. Only need to ride 3 stops on the metro, and then a nice short walk to DIS.
Haven't yet met the Danes on my floor. Actually I think most of them aren't around. I think most classes for them don't start until Feb8 or so. Eventually...
I talked with the Danish "visiting family", Birte & Mogens Been, on the phone the other day and am going to go see them Saturday afternoon. They're going to pick me up at Øresunds.
The two supermarkets I've walked into have little barriers (like at Menards) when you walk in, so you can't walk back out through that entrance, but have to walk past the cashiers. I haven't quite figured out how you are supposed to do that if you aren't buying anything. The closed cashiers have barriers down as well. The only way I can figure is to wait in line until it is possible to sneak through without completely shoving someone out of the way. One time I did walk back out through the walk-in barrier. It is a wierd feeling to be in a store and not sure how to get out. :)
Pictures coming someday.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Arrival
Arrived in Copenhagen airport Sunday afternoon, after a 8 hour flight from Chicago. I was very impressed by the Scandanavian Airlines service. Our plane was a large one, 2-4-2 seat arrangement, with about 40 rows I think. Each seat back had a TV screen, so you could choose which show you wanted to watch. I ended up watching a couple of English detective mysteries that were pretty good. The TV screen also had a channel where you could view cameras outside the plane. One faced forward, and the other down. These were pretty useless for most of the flight, since only clouds were visible. It was cool watching takeoff and landing from the front of the plane. The sunrise over the clouds was pretty as well.
We had two meals: salmon and pasta early in the flight, and then hot rolls and yogurt about an hour before landing. Very good. Even brought us a hot wash cloth after they woke everyone up.
After arrival in Copenhagen, DIS was there with a bus to transport our luggage. We went to KUA (University of Copenhagen, Amager), which is close to the airport. Got a bag full of information, and then had an orientation information session in a lecture hall there. DIS loaded us back up into the busses and took us to the kollegium.
My kollegium is a very large one in Amager (close to KUA). DIS has a paid representative here (a Danish student, Joel), who helps us out if needed. He gave us our room keys, and then a tour of the kollegium. This place has everything from a dark room, to laundry, to a bar in the basement, to a bike-fixup-shop. I think it is about 6 stories. I'm on the second. We have two seperate rooms, with a shared bathroom. The bathroom is a little different than home. The toilet has half-flush and full-flush options. The shower consists of a shower curtain to close off half the bathroom, and then a hand-held shower by the sink. Not the type of setup where you would spend 20 minutes in the shower, but then again maybe that is the point.
Austin (my roommate) and I grabbed something from the bakery a few blocks away this morning, and an orange juice from 7-11. It is snowing. A very light, fluffy snow that makes your whole face wet when a flake lands there. DIS opening ceremony is today. Joel's friend is walking the people from our kollegium over there.
I'll take pictures someday.
We had two meals: salmon and pasta early in the flight, and then hot rolls and yogurt about an hour before landing. Very good. Even brought us a hot wash cloth after they woke everyone up.
After arrival in Copenhagen, DIS was there with a bus to transport our luggage. We went to KUA (University of Copenhagen, Amager), which is close to the airport. Got a bag full of information, and then had an orientation information session in a lecture hall there. DIS loaded us back up into the busses and took us to the kollegium.
My kollegium is a very large one in Amager (close to KUA). DIS has a paid representative here (a Danish student, Joel), who helps us out if needed. He gave us our room keys, and then a tour of the kollegium. This place has everything from a dark room, to laundry, to a bar in the basement, to a bike-fixup-shop. I think it is about 6 stories. I'm on the second. We have two seperate rooms, with a shared bathroom. The bathroom is a little different than home. The toilet has half-flush and full-flush options. The shower consists of a shower curtain to close off half the bathroom, and then a hand-held shower by the sink. Not the type of setup where you would spend 20 minutes in the shower, but then again maybe that is the point.
Austin (my roommate) and I grabbed something from the bakery a few blocks away this morning, and an orange juice from 7-11. It is snowing. A very light, fluffy snow that makes your whole face wet when a flake lands there. DIS opening ceremony is today. Joel's friend is walking the people from our kollegium over there.
I'll take pictures someday.
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