Week 16 - The Final Countdown

By the beginning of this week I felt an urgent need to study nearly the entire day and so I did with just a few scheduled breaks to improve my efficiency. Eventually Tuesday did come and I biked off to DTU for my signal processing exam. I had a 30 minute preparation period for a brief presentation on a section from the text book. However the first part of the exam was a presentation on the last report we had completed for the course. Then came the text book presentation. I had a week to prepare for the report presentation so that went smoothly though I was almost over the time limit. There could have been worse sections of the text book for me to present, but my main problem was that my presentation wasn't very organized. I still did well enough for my professor and the external examiner to give me a 10 out of 12 which I was told no more than five minutes after I stepped out. That kind of immediate feedback is not something that I have ever experienced at Purdue. Afterward I had lunch with Christoph from my intro-week group. I put in some time on the BCI report and then had dinner with some other people from Purdue that were visiting Maggie. They made chili and served it over rice and I brought cooked carrots. Later I Skyped with my mom. I had decided to make Swedish pancakes in the morning so I invited Maggie and her friends. My neighbors Carlos and Steffen also joined us. I studied some for my last exam (optical biosensors) by carefully reading through the journal articles I was to present. Later I reviewed the BCI report that we had put together before submitting it to our professor. I went into Copenhagen for my life group which ended up being short because there were only a few of us, but I got to say goodbye to those that were there. After a later night (and an early morning) I felt my biosensor presentation was complete and rehearsed well enough. The presentation and discussion that followed both went well even though I had trouble with a couple questions. I also received a 10 out of 12 (but you have to understand that the scale goes down to -3 and doesn't hit every number so this was sort of 13 out of 15, or a low A). After discussion about my future plans and the course I said goodbye to my professors. Then the most curious feeling came over me. It was the sense of freedom that came from the fact that I had (most likely) finished my academic career making way for my professional career. I just sat down and enjoyed that time to myself. I then had a late lunch with Abigail (whom I met through the Christian Center, but goes to DTU and lives in one of the containers of campus village) which was mostly chicken with rice. Now that my exams were over I had time to research the company and position I had an interview for on Friday. It was a decent interview from my perspective but I could tell before it was concluded that I didn't have enough experience with the FDA and patents. There was still some hope though so I intended to wait for a reply in the coming weeks. I was flying out on Sunday so I needed to pack and fortunately I had only come with one suitcase, but since I accumulated some things and wanted to bring some gift home I had to find new homes for the things I was leaving behind. Much of it (including a lot of food I couldn't possibly use up) went to my neighbors. I wasn't too busy to have some fun though because I prepared dinner with some of my neighbors and then we watched a movie called Chaos. I made hot chocolate for the occasion. Steffen made me Danish (similar to Swedish) pancakes in the morning and I said goodbye to him and Carlos. Since I had to leave the bike at the apartment (and because I couldn't easily take my suitcase on the bike) I walked to the bus stop. From there I took a couple buses and then the metro to get to the airport. I was quite early but I checked in my baggage soon after getting there and had lunch at a Burger King. I lost (or rather had to throw away) the jam I had in my carry-on because it was too much like liquid and larger than the allowed amount. I would have put it in my checked luggage if I hadn't been worried about being over the weight limit (even without the jam the luggage was about one pound over the limit, but the lady said it wasn't a problem). I still had some Danish currency and bought a few more gifts at a shop along the way to my terminal. That's where I finally met beck up with the group (Maggie and the friends that had visited her for the week). Boarding went smoothly and I met a Swedish couple I was seated next to. I think I did a pretty good job of incorporating variety into my flight because I pretty much rotated between reading, eating, sleeping, journaling, and talking. After a 9 hour flight we touched down safely in Chicago and I met up with one of my friends who was kind enough to pick me up. And thus my Danish adventure came to end, but it is simply the beginning of another.

Week 15 - Some of My "Lasts"

This week was the first of two weeks of exams , but I only had one exam this week which was for my medical imaging course. However we still had the BCI project to work on and were running tests all day on Monday (unfortunately the results weren't as promising as before). I enjoyed Skyping with my parents again on Tuesday and the rest of my time was spent studying for my exam. The exam was in the morning and all multiple choice (which is not typical for DTU). The instructions were given in Danish, but the guy next to me helped translate. We had two hours but I nearly finished it in one and then carefully went through it a second time. After all this counted for 60% of my grade (the other 40% was from our report). This was only the beginning of my day because I met with the prayer group, met with Helge sometime afterward, and then with my life group in the evening. Daniel had prepared the dinner and we discussed Matthew 5 and 6. I heard from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and they were interested in interviewing me so we decided to set the interview for the end of the next week because my exams went until Thursday. I had lunch with my imaging group on Friday (which I was an hour late to because it was at 13:30 instead of 3:30 PM). Later I composed a cover letter specifically for the position at CHOP and sent it along. I worked on the BCI report for a while on Saturday, but then biked off to Copenhagen for a Christian Center Christmas party at Jessy's. We enjoyed sharing memories and future plans, but later had to say goodbye because many of us were leaving Denmark soon (we enjoyed the Danish treats too, but not as much as each other's company). Of my many lasts (the things which I would never do in Denmark again) it was my last time ushering at the Christian Center as well as my last time preparing food for the young adults group. I went out with Sam to gather the ingredients and then we got to work with quite a bit of help from the others waiting for the meal. The main course was a soup with fish served over rice. We almost made caramel corn (which I had gotten the ingredients for), but someone brought ingredients to make a Danish apple dessert which we decided would be better. I guess I couldn't think of a better way to say goodbye than to serve.

Week 14 - The Last "Normal" Week

My group met at DTU to work on the BCI project and after lunch we finally got some decent results which was an answer to my prayer. I stuck around the university until it was time for me to bike to Copenhagen. I had been invited to see Catching Fire, the second part of the Hunger Games, with some friends from my church. It was my first time going to any theatre in Denmark and the room in which we watched the movie was smaller than what's usually found in the U.S. I think it was actually better this way and more cozy. Afterward a few of us went to McDonald's for some chicken nuggets and enjoyed some good discussion. Tuesday I prepared some for my optical biosensors presentation and then Skyped with my parents because my father doesn't work on Tuesdays. The presentation went fairly well and we discussed details for the upcoming exam. There were only three of us for the prayer group this week, but we met anyways (and in a different location than usual). I had lunch with Murray, one of the guys in the group, after we finished. I headed to library as usual, but this week I found Giorgia, a friend from my introduction week group. When we grew tired of studying we decided to find each other's homes and universities using the satellite mode of Google maps. Jose (also from my introduction week group) was nearby and joined us for this distraction from schoolwork. I took a quick nap for about 20 minutes before biking to Copenhagen to meet my life group. When I came home I realized I had a few bananas that needed to either be eaten that night or used for baking. So I decided to make some banana bread. I met with one of my groups in the morning to finish our imaging report and I brought the banana bread to share. It was a good thing that I did because two of the guys had stayed on campus over night working on a report they needed to finish for a different course and had not gotten much sleep or food. A few of us took a break for an abbreviated lecture to help us prepare for the exam. Then we had to rush to finish the report. To complicate matters we were working on the text on a Google document so we could all work on it at the same time and a few of the guys were piecing the report together through LaTex, software designed to produce nice looking reports. All the while we knew there was a wind storm headed towards Copenhagen. We had to submit the report right at 5 PM so I was still able to ride my bike home, but it was difficult on the last stretch of my route directly into the wind. Once safely back home I played some Nintendo 64 with Steffen (using my PS2 controllers, adapter and laptop) and then made my dinner. It was still very windy on Friday so I reluctantly took the bus for the first time since the culture night in Copenhagen. Our group received some feedback on one of our reports directly from our professor which was nice because we hadn't received any feedback on our reports up until this point (and it was good feedback). Since we were on campus and the semester was coming to an end we worked on the BCI project including developing a plan for next week and a direction for the report. 

Saturday evening in my kitchen I enjoyed a Danish Christmas dinner consisting of pork, potatoes, salad, meatballs, hot cocoa, and egg tarts (inspired by my half-Danish half-American neighbor). Then it started to snow, but what was falling was more like soft white hail. It was still good for a brief snow ball fight and a miniature snowman. Since my departure from Denmark was quickly approaching I had the opportunity, along with a few other students, to share about my time at the Christian Center and the impact it had on my life. We went out to lunch afterward to a kebab place, but this time to Oz Kebab which was much nicer (I was wondering why we had never gone there before). I finally did get the tools and hardware to fix Anjelli's bed, but had some difficulty getting to the apartment section above the church (not having any way of contacting her). One of my friends from Hungry helped me with the repairs and Anjelli was excited that she didn't have to worry about it collapsing anymore (it was particularly a risk for uninformed visitors).

Week 13 - Giving and Receiving

We had more problems on Monday with the BCI project, but tried to determine the next course of action. I was feeling especially tired that afternoon so I took a nap before dinner. I haven't taken very many naps here this semester compared to the last couple back home. By the time I was making dinner there were actually four or five of my neighbors in the kitchen as well which doesn't happen too often. A couple weeks ago I had ordered a USB adapter for PS2 controllers because I had found some perfectly fine PS2 controllers being thrown out. I intended to use them to play some old video games on my computer. The adapter happened to come in the mail today so I of course had to try them out. One of my favorite games was Mario Kart for Nintendo 64 and I played with a couple of my neighbors once we got my computer hooked up to the TV. That brought back some memories. I submitted a few more job applications this week because I'm trying to secure a position before I return home or soon after. We had a meeting for our BCI project in which we discussed what we could do to track down the sources of our problems and it seemed like a good plan to us. Wednesday I stayed home all morning and afternoon to finish some work and later I prepared dinner for my life group. I made corn cheese chowder and brought some sugar cookies I had made earlier. Thursday my medical imaging group needed to make some headway on our semester long report and we met in the morning and kept working until 5pm. This week we worked efficiently and I made a point of periodically making sure everyone was working on something pertaining to the report. I had to go home though soon after 5pm because tonight was Thanksgiving and I had planned to prepare a dish for a Thanksgiving dinner that one of my friends was hosting. The dinner turned out well and we of course had more than enough food. After the dinner I returned to my building next door and Zlatina, one of my neighbors, had planned a group game called Nordic Circle in which we took turns talking about anything we felt like while everyone else had to just listen. It was a unique opportunity for me to express my gratitude toward my neighbors. Friday evening I had agreed to help out with an event at the Christian Center. The event was called the Afrowood Film Festival and was aimed toward celebrating African movies, their directors, actors and actresses. I enjoyed the volunteering, but frankly the turn out for the event was rather poor. It was mostly due to some last minute changes and these had frustrated the efforts of the primary coordinator within the church. So a lot of things did not go according to plan, but I believe we benefited by overcoming the challenges we were presented with. They decided to cancel the rest of the event that was planned for Saturday so I was relieved of my commitment for then. That provided me the opportunity to work on the BCI project and then my report for signals processing. Zlatina also had a going a away lunch on Saturday. She had made a Bulgarian pastry and she had hidden a coin inside as was the tradition in Bulgaria. The one who found the coin was supposed to have good luck for the next year and I happened to find the coin early on, but kept it a secret until we were nearly done. I pretended to cough it up, but then explained I had found it in the first piece. Later I took a break from my work and watched Wall-E with Jacob, another one of my neighbors. On Sunday after church I tried to get some tools to fix a friend's bed who lives above the church, but without success . So I just planned to do it next weekend. Most of us young adults waited around the church until it was time for a dinner that one of my friends was hosting. It turned out really well and we were able to experience a traditional Danish Christmas dinner. There's a dessert that is something like a rice pudding with almonds and cherry sauce as topping. All the almonds but one are crushed and whoever finds the whole almond wins a prize. I happened to find this too just like the coin in the Bulgarian pastry or perhaps it was because I found the coin...

Week 12 - Chaotic Fun

We tried to start this week by working on our signal processing report but Maggie's kitchen floor was being professionally cleaned and we had to take a break and a long one at that. I actually got to Skype with Jared, one of my good friends from high school, on Tuesday and we had a lot to catch up on because we unfortunately don't talk that often. I may get to see him shortly after I return home, but I'll have to plan ahead if that's going to happen. That signal processing report that we didn't work on much on Monday needed to be wrapped up and submitted Tuesday so we set out to accomplish that. Then I nearly forgot about my biosensors presentation for Wednesday morning so I stayed up late putting that together and then was feeling too tired to rehearse it much. That showed when I gave the presentation, but my instructor was gracious enough to help me along during the discussion that followed. I ran into Giorgia at the international affairs office because we both needed to talk to them and we decided to have lunch together. Later Jose joined us who was also from our introduction week group. I joined the prayer group and then went to the library for the afternoon. I also had talked with a girl living in one of the dormitories near DTU and she needed some plates and cups for her place. One of my neighbors had found some that were being thrown out which subsequently sat in their boxes in the corner of our kitchen for a month or so. I had checked with that neighbor and he said I could do whatever I wanted with them so I decided to pick the best dishes and give them away. I cleaned them all really well of course before giving them and the time was well worth it. That same night I experienced some bike problems which I had noticed to a much lesser degree during the preceding days. I was doubtful that I would find an open bike shop on my way to my life group, but just before I reached my destination I saw one with its lights still on. The man working there was quite friendly and even though he wanted to go home soon he fixed a number of things on my bike that needed some attention. The main problem that he fixed was the chain, which was loose so he replaced it and it has never since skipped or come off the gears. Again the life group attendance was low, but we had a good discussion probably due to the fact there were only three of us. Thursday I got to sleep in and then biked to DTU for my imaging lecture. Our time in the computer lab I would describe as chaotic but fun. We weren't working that efficiently, but we enjoyed the time we spent together. I was supposed to have an interview with a software development company, but after verifying the time I never received the call. Perhaps it was not meant to be.

Friday night I made some sugar cookies (a recipe sent from home) with Steffen, one of my neighbors, who was kind enough to help. Later I also tried to make eggnog, but failed when I poured the nearly boiling milk into the egg/sugar mixture too quickly. Needless the say the eggs actually cooked a little which resulted in a chunky mixture. The cookies and eggnog were for a Christmas dinner that I was hosting for my introduction week group. If you're doing the math, this Friday actually is before Thanksgiving which was strange for me to be celebrating Christmas so early. However, that was the latest date that all of us from the group could meet for a dinner. It turned out really well though once everyone found their way to my place. It's not the easiest place to find which Matt, Maggie and I all have personally experienced. So I took care of a few more preparations for the dinner and then greeted people. We were each supposed to bring or make a traditional Christmas dish from our country which resulted in an abundance of food as well as some cooking chaos. We were able to all squeeze together at a single table and the order of the evening was the main course, hot drinks, dessert, and clean up. The next morning I went to a conference at the Christian center focused on the importance of life groups which I found to be beneficial. They had a series of general sessions and then some smaller classes or workshops. Being the last Sunday of the month it was super Sunday at which Steve, the main speaker from the conference, gave the message. Some of the young adults went out to a kebab place for lunch as we often do and then Anjelli invited us to her apartment for coffee and ice cream. We had a good long discussion about many things one of which was relationships. I then made home in time to Skype with my parents to finish the week.

Week 11 - Movies and Food

November the 5th happened to fall within this week so I decided to plan a movie night with my neighbors to watch V for Vendetta. There are a number of quotable lines in the movie, but one in particular was the reason for watching the movie on the 5th of November. "Remember, remember the fifth of November the gun powder treason and plot. I see no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot" said the character named V. With it being fall it seemed fitting to make some caramel corn so I gathered all the necessary ingredients, but not without some difficulty. The evening turned out well and later I even had the opportunity to  Skype with my parents. Wednesday I went earlier than usual to DTU to work on the BCI project in lab. I joined the prayer group soon after we finished and when the others had to go to their classes. I followed my usual routine of working in the library for rest of the afternoon and then biked off to my life group. A couple of things that were out of the ordinary this week include setting up my PC to receive and make phone calls and making anatomical slices of our tissue sample for medical imaging. We needed the cross-sectional slices to compare to the medical images we had taken of the same tissue sample earlier in the semester and that would be the topic of our report for the whole semester. I enjoyed lunch with Josh on Friday and my group's work with the BCI went well for a change. We had been running into problem after problem for a while and were getting a little discouraged so this work day helped us along. Often times I plan things well in advance, but Friday night I didn't really have any plans so when one of my neighbors asked if anyone wanted to watch a movie I decided a spontaneous decision would be good. We ended up watching Despicable Me 2 which neither of us had seen and we both enjoyed it. I also spontaneously planned to make cornmeal pancakes Saturday morning for a few other neighbors and experimented with a grape syrup which turned into something like jam when it was cool. Later this same day one of my friends at a different, distant dormitory had an event planned called "swap and trade". I had a few things to donate and ended up finding a few things I could use so it worked out exactly as it was meant to. This same friend is all for making things sustainable and part of that includes giving away things. He also goes dumpster diving for food, but that's mainly because Denmark has strict regulations on when to throw out food and often the food is still very good. I had to bike back into a strong wind and some rain, but I made it eventually back home. I was especially thankful to have a warm, dry apartment to go back to. I spent the rest of the day actually learning about Java programming which had been something of interest to me, but I had never had any courses that ever touched on it. I ushered at the Christian center as usual, but this week we had a guest speaker from Ireland. He had a humorous and entertaining way of presenting his message, but toward the end it became more serious when he drove the message home which I think was appropriate. To finish off the week I returned home to Amalia, my Greek neighbor, and about five of her Greek friends. They invited me to join them for dinner and I prepared a fruit salad to contribute. We had a great time and among other things I learned that Greeks really love their food.

Week 10 - People and Places

I finally was able to receive my CPR number this week. A central persons register number is like a social security number in the U.S. and the paper work took a long time to get through the system. I decided to stay inside the rest of the day because of an incoming storm. It hit the west coast of Denmark pretty hard, but since Copenhagen is on the east side we experienced less of it. However, there was some impressive wind which I watched from my window. Tuesday we finalized another one of our reports for our signal processing course. Then I enjoyed a brief lunch with Jose and Ronja, two from my introduction week group, and then joined the prayer group after that. I worked in the library for the rest of the afternoon and met up with my life group for dinner. We had a particularly good discussion that night perhaps because there were only three of us. Thursday I met a guy named David who needed a VGA cable and I happened to have one I didn't need. We connected through a Facebook group that exists for people to post things they need or things they want to give away and the best part is that it's all free. I was happy to put forth a little effort and get it to him as I'm sure he was happy to have a free cable. After that I had a longer lecture for medical imaging and subsequently a shorter time in the computer lab. Friday we had our signals lecture at the Bispebjerg Hospital which was focused on skin cancer. While we were waiting for things to start I checked my weight on a scale out in the hall and after converting from kilograms to pounds realized I was the same weight that I've been for the past four years. I'm not concerned about my weight. I was just curious if all the biking had any effect on me. Speaking of biking, I biked there with Matt and Maggie and then Maggie and I went to DTU after that. We stopped at IKEA to look around and I got some candles (the Danes like candles) and food before we made our way back to campus in time to meet with Sada, one of our two supervisors for the brain computer interface project. He helped us get our student cards activated so we could access the building and our lab whenever we needed. Friday evening I biked to the church to help with an event they were hosting for x-patriots or those that live and work in Denmark from other countries. The event was a masked ball and I helped with some of the set up and then manned the coat room to gather everyone's extra belongings when they came in. All of us volunteers rotated positions so none of us became to board. So after a while I switched to helping serve food. Eventually I rotated to greeting people, but at this point there weren't very many people still coming. I did greet a few groups though. The event turned out pretty well and after the guests had left we all pitched in to clean. The church is part of a very large building and we were only using a part of it for this event so that is all we had to clean. All this went quite late so waking up to meet my medical imaging group Saturday morning was a bit of a struggle. Once we were all there and had enjoyed some breakfast we got to work on our report. We worked efficiently until I started making Swedish pancakes for lunch and after eating them no one felt like working. Good food comes with a price I guess. The rest of the group was going to a party for the medicine and technology students, but I planned to be at a going away party for Kim, one of my friends from DTU and church. She's actually the one who invited me to come to the Christian Center. It wasn't her very last day but she was flying back to Texas early on the in next week. I baked and brought some cornbread which a few of the people had never had before. I biked of course but had never traveled this exact route. On the way I ran into Oscar, another friend from church, where I would have never expected to see him. He and his friend had stayed on their bus too long and were waiting for one going in the opposite direction. We talked briefly and then I kept biking because I couldn't take my bike on the bus. The bus caught up to me while I was waiting at a light and they got dropped off there. Still not the right stop, but I decided to walk with them at this point. None of us exactly knew the way, but we knew the direction we needed to go and that there should exist a path in the direction we were headed. What we found it to be just a bike path and a dark one at that. I made use of my bike light and we pressed on. We did make it eventually and when we entered we found a crowded kitchen not only with people, but also food. Everyone had brought more than enough and we didn't even have room to set everything on the table. Later we participated in what I will call "balloon encouragement" which was one of Kim's ideas. We all wrote some bit of encouragement on a piece of paper and put it inside a balloon. Then we took a few minutes to hit them around to mix things and we took turns reading our notes once of course popping the balloons. At one point Kim played a song she had written and recorded about her time in Denmark. She sang along with it and would have just played it live if we had a piano. She helps with the worship at the church frequently. Afterwards one the girls living in the dormitory brought out her harp and we enjoyed that for a while. I don't know if I've ever heard a harp in person all by itself. This girl who I later met was very passionate about music. Eventually the evening came to an end and I stayed to help clean up before saying goodbye once more. Sunday I had to bike in the rain to the Christian Center, but I had planned on it so I changed my clothes once I arrived. I helped with the ushers and served communion this week because we do that every first Sunday of each month. What a privilege it is to serve. After the service I helped gather ingredients for the family dinner the young adults group was making. Sam was in charge today and decided to make lasagna, salad, and garlic bread with the help of many hands. We had some left over ice cream from a previous dinner and I shredded some dark chocolate (also left over somehow) to put on it later. After dinner we had a discussion about relationships and talked about that among our tables. Another week here in Denmark to be thankful for.