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.

Week 9 - Symphony

Though classes hadn't started for us three from Purdue, we decided to have a group meeting to work on both our report for our shared course and the semester project. I did get around to doing my laundry and on my way I talked to the inspector about the lights in the entrance to my building. They hadn't been working for quite some time, but since it's getting darker sooner I thought it would be nice to have them working. I gave a presentation for my biosensors course and then I met up with the DTU prayer group before my lunch. This week it was my turn to cook dinner for my life group and I decided to make sloppy Joe's. However, I decided to make it before I left so I just put the pot on the rack on the back of my bike and secured it as best I could with a couple of bungee cords. Thankfully it made it alright, but people may have been wondering about my sanity when they saw or heard the pot on my bike. Thursday my group was finally able to record ultrasound images of our phantom tissue we've been analyzing this whole semester. Back at the apartment I briefly Skyped with Matt, Maggie and our professors back at Purdue about our BCI project so they know how things are coming along. After dinner I played Over the Hedge on the TV in our common living area and a couple neighbors joined me. I tend to watch kids movies more and more. Perhaps this is good preparation for parenthood. Friday I was able to have lunch with Josh again and we enjoyed our time discussing our unique experiences over the past week.

 I was really looking forward to the evening because I was planning to go to a symphony with some friends from my church. We also planned to have a pre-symphony dinner that everyone was contributing to in some way or another. I had a little difficulty finding the apartment, but it was literally seconds after I finally prayed that God would help me find my way that I came upon a street I knew. The dinner was good, but we had to eat quickly because we weren't that close to the opera house where the symphony was taking place. Half of us rode our bikes and the other half took the bus. I rode with them and we lost each other when my chain slipped off. That happens occasionally and this time I even set a personal best for shortest time to reset my chain, but we still got separated. At that point though, we were close enough we found our way to the opera house and eventually found each other too. It was refreshing to hear actual instruments instead of amplified instruments or recorded music. During the intermission, which was between two different movements, we explored the opera house and enjoyed the view of Copenhagen from the balcony. Afterward we walked along the pedestrian streets and stopped at a cafe called Retro where we ordered coffee sort of drinks and played cards. Saturday night I had to set my clocks back an hour for daylight savings and then it was super Sunday at the Christian Center so all the services were combined and earlier than usual. My neighbors and I had planned a community dinner so it worked out very well that the service was earlier because I had extra time to prepare my part of the dinner. I made beans and franks and cornbread to add to what the others brought. As I've come to expect and appreciate, we had a great time together. Afterward, I enjoyed talking with my parents through Skype.

Week 8 - Autumn Break

This week DTU had their autumn break and we had no classes for the entire week. I had tossed around the idea of traveling somewhere as far as Spain or Italy which I'm sure would have been amazing, but I had no one to go with. I also had a lot of school work that had piled up, most of which was reading, so I didn't want to be away for the whole week. I decided to look into taking a day trip somewhere in Denmark or Sweden and discovered a place called Møns Klint which are white cliffs on one of the islands south of Zealand. I invited a number of others, but only Matt was able to join me. I was glad for his company as we embarked on our adventure. In order to get there we had to take a couple of trains, a couple of buses, and then walk the last 7 kilometers. Halfway through the walk we thought we'd try hitch hiking because neither of us had tried it before and we didn't really know how much further the park was. To our surprise within in about 5 minutes someone turned around and offered us a ride. To our even greater surprise the woman driving had her daughter and mother with her and still stopped to pick us guys up. We were certainly grateful for the ride though. Once we arrived Matt and I descended the hundreds of steps to reach the Baltic sea. We walked along the shore which was composed of medium sized smooth black rocks. I stood in the sea for a moment before we ascended back up to the top of the cliffs. The view was much better as we walked along the top and took pictures. Once we had thoroughly seen the sights we walked back the same way we came and tried to hitchhike, but without success. There was a small town where the bus would pick us up and we had to wait so we backtracked to the candy shop we had seen on our way. They had many candies to choose from and all were made at their shop. Matt and I both planned to get some to take back home to the U.S. if we could keep from eating it. The journey from here was not as much of an adventure as before, but there was a satisfying feeling that crept over me as we made our home and I reflected on a day well spent.

 




I had to get back to school work Wednesday and started it by meeting with Kapser, one of my classmates, to discuss our upcoming presentations for our biosensors course. I stuck around the library until it was time for my life group and we started going through Proverbs this week. On my way home I met Andy again at the same store I had seen him in front of and this time I was able to ask some more questions to learn more about him. I was genuinely interested in getting to know him and our conversation lasted quite a bit longer than last week. Thursday I made some headway on the reading I was behind on, but took a movie break before applying for some jobs. Friday I looked forward to a birthday party and dinner for Ruth, one of my friends from church. She actually lives above the church in the apartments there and that's where we had the pre-dinner party. Friends had prepared all sorts of foods including two kinds of Danish cakes and various cupcakes. My favorite was actually the rolls that Ruth made, but that's not to say I didn't enjoy the cakes. We were going to an Ethiopian restaurant for dinner and I'm glad we decided to walk because that gave us some time to digest all the food we had just eaten. I also had the opportunity to talk with Marshall, one of the others that lives above the church, about graduate school. I found out that Ruth works at the restaurant and knowing that we were coming they had set up a long table in a side room just for us. We ordered three giant sampler platters so we could try nearly every dish they served. The Ethiopian way to eat is to use a soft, sponge-like, sour pancake to scoop up the other food. It was quite an experience and the servers surprised us all with a cake. I'm pretty sure Ruth had a good birthday and I was glad to be part of it. Saturday was another dinner party, but this time with some classmates from my medical imaging course. I brought things to make oven baked French fries and monster cookies that I had made just before coming. The other guys cooked salmon, home-made ravioli, and a Spanish omelet. I think I was in a food making mood this week because I let my neighbors know I was making Swedish pancakes Sunday morning and served a couple of them before going to church. I helped with the ushers as usual. After the service the young adults group was going to make pizza and then spend some time in prayer and worship. I helped gather the ingredients for the pizza and prepared the toppings. I enjoyed the pizza, but the prayer and worship were even better. I made it home in time to Skype with my parents and then clean my kitchen to end my autumn break.

Week 7 - Culture Night

Mondays are good day for Matt, Maggie and I to meet for either our signal processing course or our brain computer interface project because none of us have classes. This week it happened to the BCI project and we reviewed the computer code from a previous BCI project that we are modifying.  I think it really helped to discuss it and put our brains together in order to figure out how each part worked. Maggie started making a flow chart as we discussed it so we could show our supervisor that we understood it. Later I took care of my laundry, but this time instead of walking back to my apartment I checked out the "free stuff" room. I don't know what it's actually called, but just as the name implies it's a room where people leave free things that they don't need, but don't want to throw away. Most of it is clothing and the room was an absolute mess in my opinion. I went ahead and organized some of it and after I put my clothes in the dryer I decided to organize the rest. I don't think it will stay organized too long, but at least some people will have an easier time finding things. I actually found a few things for myself in the process of sorting through everything. After all that I went shopping, but forgot my wallet so I bought just a couple things with the change I had. The coins are worth and used more here in Denmark, but I didn't have much change at the time. Before dinner I enjoyed the opportunity to Skype with my sister Laura. I don't think we've ever Skyped before and during my time here we had only messaged each other a few times on Facebook. It's pretty amazing how easy it is to communicate with people so far away. I sometimes wonder if I've taken for granted the ability to communicate like this. Of course I didn't think of this until afterward, but during the conversation we mostly talked about the new things we were both experiencing. I look forward to seeing her smiling face in person when I come home for Christmas. Then for dinner I decided to make tortillas and looked up a recipe online. They turned out pretty well and I added chicken, cheese and peppers.  Wednesday seems to be the time when I'm in the library a lot, but it makes sense since I'm already at DTU and bike into Copenhagen in the evening for my life group. This time I came prepared with a liter of chocolate milk to fuel  my work the whole afternoon. Eventually it was time to meet with my life group and apart from the usual things we discussed the book of Philemon. On my way home I met a man named Andy just outside a grocery store I stopped at. He asked me a lot of questions and we talked about the differences between the U.S. and Denmark. I did get to ask him a few questions, but felt like he probably knew more about me than I knew about him in the end. Thursday my team for medical imaging worked well and we accomplished what was assigned quickly. Finishing a little early was good because I had planned to make some of the food for a dinner with my neighbors. I picked up some ingredients on the way home and started preparing the vegetables for corn cheese chowder, but then I realized I was missing a couple things. After getting those, everything else went smoothly and we enjoyed dinner together. We had more than enough food and stored the leftovers for later.

I had really been looking forward to Friday night because nearly all of Copenhagen was celebrating Culture Night. I bought my culture pass which gave me free transportation and entrance into all the events before taking the train into Copenhagen. I met some friends from my intro week group and then some of their friends. We started by going up the round tower which was attached to an old Church. The only thing I insisted on going to was an American Halloween event which included s'mores and pumpkin carving. I was the only one that carved a pumpkin, but we all made s'mores. Later we took a ferry to opera house and went on a self-guided tour. It was pretty impressive. Some of our group really wanted to go to the zoo because they had heard it was open just like a lot of the other places that were open tonight that would normally not be. So we planned our route and made our way there, but it took a while. We almost gave up hope, but then we found the main entrance and explored the entire zoo in the dark. Half of the animals were already inside for the night, but of those that were inside we got to see some of them. I won't forget how the glasses of everyone in our group fogged up immediately when we entered the reptile and amphibian house. We were glad it was warm though because the temperature was dropping outside.
















Nearly all of us were hungry after walking around all night so we got some food at a pizza and kebab shop. They had recently opened and they offered free drinks not to mention I was offered a free kebab when they were out of what I ordered. When we were finished we parted ways and I tried to figure out which train to take since the trains had switched to the night train schedule at this point. The trains don't go to all the usual stops so I looked at my map which included the schedule. There weren't any trains going to the closest station to my place, but I decided to go to a station where a lot of buses usually pass through. However, when I got off the train I realized there were only a few buses and none to get me closer to my home. I found out I could have taken a certain bus from Copenhagen, but would have to take the train back there first. So I just decided to walk home since I knew the way, but it took a very, very long time. I was tired and my feet were sore from walking, but I eventually made it home and went to sleep quickly.  On Sunday I had to bike in rain to church. Perhaps I've gotten used to Denmark because I didn't mind since I had a change of clothes. Later that night I Skyped with my parents and told them about all the things that had happened this week.

Week 6 - Keeping it Fresh

This Monday I had some fun searching through my apartment junk yard. It’s not really a junk yard, but it’s a fenced in area where people put things that won’t fit into the dumpsters. Sometimes I see people taking things from there so I thought I would check it out. Most of it was worn out or broken furniture of all shapes and sizes, but I was excited when I found some hex wrenches. They were slightly damaged, but I found more than a full set and I had been thinking about buying some so I considered my searching a success. Tuesday I finished up the first report for our signals processing course and submitted it. Then Matt, Maggie and I had lunch with Kaj-Åge, the primary contact between DTU and our adviser back at Purdue. He wanted to meet us in person and to see how our transition was going, but wasn’t able to until now. Having finished the first report, we were given the second report for our signals processing course which would be due in about three weeks and started exploring ways to accomplish the tasks we were assigned. Afterward I looked forward to playing Ultimate Frisbee with some of my friends as we had been doing each week. We may not have many more days with suitable weather. Wednesday morning we had the opportunity to meet with one of the two developers of the brain computer interface system that we were working off of for our senior design project. This was especially helpful because she showed us how the MATLAB code worked and provided us with a copy of the code to work with. I appreciated how well she explained things and how willing she was to help our group branch off of her project. I was able to make it to the prayer group meeting again this week and afterward Grace, one of the others in the group, and I decided to go to IKEA to study instead of working in the library. We reasoned it was a good idea because both of us were going into Copenhagen later and both of us needed to study. Grace is also from the USA and is here for one semester as well. Not having my laptop with me, I had to print some things and was planning to read through some journal articles so I went to the library briefly before biking to IKEA. Grace took a bus and we met there so the timing worked out well. We both had some coffee and worked off and on, but chatted intermittently and I enjoyed getting to know her. About the time we were getting tired of working we met Kim, a mutual friend of ours, and strolled through IKEA marveling at all the Scandinavian designs. We parted ways and I biked to my life group where we had dinner and discussed Psalm chapter 1. I was looking forward to discussing the psalm and we had a good time together. Thursday seemed rather ordinary until our group meeting with Marcia and Allison. Jeremy, my BME adviser, surprised us by joining in on this meeting. I had worked frequently with him last year when I was on the board for the biomedical engineering society and I enjoyed hearing his usual upbeat, enthusiastic voice. He’s also the main reason we were able to come study in Denmark as the first BMEs from Purdue. Another highlight of the evening was when Steffen, one of my neighbors, I decided to eat and serve apples with peanut butter and cheese to our other neighbors. Though we served it separately, Steffen and I both tried the peanut and cheese combined on the apple, but we agreed it was best kept separate. Friday night was the first time the Danish and international young adults’ group at the Christian Center had an event together. Normally the Danish group meets every other Friday and the international group meets less often. We had a service of sorts in both Danish and English and then a good time getting to know each other afterward. Among other firsts, I finally made it to the fitness room at my apartment on Saturday and actually applied for some jobs. My arms will be sore for the first half of the week. On Sunday I helped with the other ushers at the Christian center and since it was the first Sunday of the month I also helped serve communion. As I’ve probably mentioned it’s a simple job, but needs to be done by someone. I’m thankful for the opportunity to serve. After the service I bought ingredients with Jessy, the international young adults’ group leader, for Swedish pancakes which I had planned to make for the group. The only complication was that the special induction stove top didn’t work so we resorted to using two plug-in burners. It was fun making all those pancakes and Joseph, one of the guys who lives at the church, took over after I had made about two thirds of them so that I could eat some too.

Week 5 - Balancing School and Relationships

I started off the week by doing my laundry and meeting with my group to work on our report for our signal processing course. Later I biked into Copenhagen to officially say goodbye to Simona. It was around dinner time and Simona had the intriguing idea to make a fruit salad because there are a number of cheap produce shops near where she was living temporarily. We probably both ate too much fruit, but we were determined to finish the entire salad. On Tuesday my signal processing lab was fairly good  with just a few sticking points. I had some fun mashing up potatoes for dinner before practicing the biosensors presentation I had to give the next day. The presentation went alright, but some more practice would have made it better. Keep in mind though that my biosensors course consists of two professors and one other student so the audience was quite small. It was actually a mix between a discussion and presentation. I had a quick lunch and met up with some DTU people from the Christian Center for the weekly prayer group. There were a couple new people and we all spent some time discussing a particular passage in the Bible before praying. Afterward I biked to IKEA on my way to Copenhagen, but again the rolling pins were out of stock so I just bought some ice cream (not that that solved my problem, but it tasted good). My life group met as usual and we enjoyed eating pasta that one of the guys made for us. I like how we share a meal together in addition to discussing the Bible. Thursday I went back to the same hospital as last week, but this time we had a lecture about PET and CT before using the PET/CT scanner on our tissue samples. My neighbors and I had planned to make pizza (the reason for trying to find a rolling pin) for anyone in our building and a few of us helped with the various preparations. They took longer to cook than we expected, but turned out well. There were seven pizzas in total. Friday my time was mostly devoted to my group's signal processing report because it was due next Tuesday and Matt and Maggie were both going to Oktoberfest over the weekend. We took a short break for lunch and met with Helge about our brain computer interface project before continuing on the report.  We made a lot of progress (in addition to my progress in consuming a liter of chocolate milk), but we worked later than I had hoped. Stine and Jerry, two members from my introduction week group, had birthdays this week and we decided to celebrate it tonight, but the party had already started before I even started biking to Copenhagen. I let the group know on Facebook and headed there as soon as I could. We had a good time and our host had a few games planned that we all enjoyed. It went quite late so I slept in on Saturday. I did get around to updating my resume and I was going to start applying for jobs, but I got side tracked when I created a website about myself. Pretty soon it was dinner time and then a few of my neighbors and I went to the sauna. The next morning was the "super" Sunday service at the Christian Center where all five of the services meet at the same time. They did the whole service in Danish and English (translating both ways). Even though I was in the balcony because of the great number of people it was incredible. They do that on the last Sunday of every month so I'll be looking forward to that next month.

Week 4 - Not So Typical

Monday morning I met with some students from my signal processing course because we needed to record an electroencephalogram (EEG) for an experiment. We don't normally meet on Mondays, but we did this week because only about ten of us from the lab could perform the experiment at one time. I volunteered to be the test subject partly because I was curious and partly because no one else was volunteering. As the test subject I had to have my head measured and electrodes with sticky gel attached to my head. Apparently it didn't make much of a difference whether I had hair or not. We had a few people in charge of very specific tasks so that more of us could participate and Maggie was the one that told me what to do for each part of the experiment. It wasn't difficult and all in all an interesting experience. We may have to do this again for the brain computer interface project we're working on. The next day I played Frisbee as usual, but this time there was a little rain at the beginning of our time together. Later we marveled at a double rainbow which was still there as I was riding home. Wednesday afternoons I usually spend on campus to get some work done and this time I met with Kasper, one of my classmates, to work on a presentation for our class. The reason I usually stay on campus on Wednesdays is because it keeps me from biking an extra 10km back home. I meet with my life group from church in the evening and from DTU it's the same distance to Copenhagen where we meet as it is to my apartment. The three locations form an 10km equilateral triangle more or less. Our time together went well as we ate and shared our highs and lows for the week. I think I had mentioned Bible studies I've been in and led in the past and the guys asked if I would consider leading next week just so they could see what it was like in the U.S. I was a little reluctant because I didn't want to assume a position of leader in a group I've only been in for a few weeks and I didn't have any idea what topic we would cover. Nonetheless we tentatively planned to do just that next week. Thursday the highlight was going to a Hospital in Copenhagen to take an x-ray and MR image of an animal tissue sample for one of my courses. It was nice to see the actual systems we had been learning about in action. Coincidentally, I went to another hospital on Friday for another one of my courses, but this time it was for a tour and some presentations about sleep disorders.


Saturday I planned to bike to Roskilde, which is about 30km away, to help Marie, a woman from my church, load everything in her apartment into a moving truck because she was moving into Copenhagen. Unfortunately, I didn't leave with enough time for that long of a journey, not to mention it felt like I was riding uphill and into the wind the whole way there. So I arrived a little late, but followed suit of the others carrying boxing out to the truck. Apart from three hired movers there were two other men, one of them with his wife, and Marie's mother.

It took quite a while but that was expected and afterward Marie served us lunch. After that I went to explore Roskilde because I had never been there before. I found a local park and read for a while before going towards the city center where I locked my bike and strolled along the pedestrian streets. Before it got dark I headed back towards Copenhagen because the church was having a party for all the international young adults. There I met some new friends and we enjoyed plenty of time around a campfire while roasting Snobrød, which is simply bread dough wrapped around a stick and roasted over a fire.

Sunday Simona, one of my former neighbors now living in Copenhagen, had expressed an interest in coming to my church so we had decided on Saturday we'd meet there at the beginning of the service. I was still helping with the ushers, but Simona found we without too much trouble. I couldn't help but wonder what she thought of the service, but I waited to ask until it was finished. As usual many people gathered in the cafe area and after a while some of the young adults decided to go to a restaurant called Dalle Valle for dinner. They had half priced food on this particular day so that was the main incentive to go there. I ordered one of their classic burgers just as many of the others did and it was very good. After we parted ways I biked back home, but I had to fight a very strong wind all the way. However, I think the time with my friends (and that burger) was worth all of it.

Week 3 - Getting Involved

At this point in my adventure there are still a lot of new things, but not nearly as much as during the first two weeks. From now on I will be collecting the details of each week and combining them into one post per week. It's probably easier for both of us and you probably won't have to read as much (even though this first one is long). So this week started with my day off as usual, but this time I actually scheduled my time for almost the entire day. I enjoy planning things on a weekly and daily basis and this is probably one of the things that helped me survive last semester. So being out of practice I wasn't able to do everything on my schedule, but I after breakfast I spent some time praying and reading the Bible. I hadn't set aside much time for this amid all that has been happening here. It was very refreshing and I hope to continue that. I also needed to catch up on some reading for my courses so I slowly made some progress through my medical signal processing text book. I also did my laundry and read some more after dinner. Tuesday I had breakfast with Zlatina, one of my neighbors from Bulgaria. We enjoyed the sunshine especially when we considered how little sun we'll see during winter. The lecture for signal processing was good, but when we began the lab Matt, Maggie and I realized our previous courses hadn't quite prepared us for this course. However, this just means that we'll have to put some extra effort into understanding and completing the assignments. Afterwards I had the opportunity to play Ultimate Frisbee again with the group of international students I met during introduction week. We only had six players, but we made the field a little smaller and had fun nonetheless. I had to leave at about the same time the rugby players invaded so we ended our game then. I was in a hurry to return to my apartment because I was making Swedish pancakes (per Simona's request) for a sort of going away party. It was Simona's last night at our apartment and she'll be spending the rest of the month in Copenhagen before going home to Lithuania. It turned out really well and there was enough for everyone to eat. Many others pitched in to help either by providing toppings or preparing some other things. One of the "toppings" was ice cream which I had never tried before with Swedish pancakes, but it was really good. Then we ended the night with a couple of card games. Wednesday I biked to campus to join the prayer group I missed last week, but I couldn't find the room they had told me about. I hope others didn't have the same problem. Next week I'll get more specific directions and try again. I met up with one of my classmates (we happen to be the only two students in our class) and we worked on a presentation we're going to give in two weeks over some topics included in the scientific journals that we've been given. Then I biked to Copenhagen for my small group. I needed to get there early because I was making pancakes for the group. Yes, pancakes again, but they requested "American" pancakes so I made buttermilk pancakes for them.  They even turned down my offer to make pizza which I will probably try sometime soon. Our time together was good and after the pancakes we shared our highs and lows for the week. We naturally transitioned into sharing our testimonies and it's incredible what God has done in and through these brothers of mine. I'm already looking forward to next week. Thursday morning did not start with breakfast because I didn't have any milk. Rather, it started with going to the nearest grocery store and then breakfast. I bought some boots as well that I had seen there before, but I didn't know what the sizes meant until I researched it my apartment. My lecture for my medical imaging course was different this week because it was specifically for the few international students and was of course in English. The professor gave a lecture right afterward in Danish to the rest of the students who are indeed Danish. Lab followed and with some help from the TA's and my teammates I finished my assignment before leaving. I had a quick dinner back at my apartment and met up with Matt and Maggie to make some head way on our report that we had previously had some trouble with. Friday started with a guest lecture about electro-cardiograms (ECG) and then we continued to make some progress on our report. I enjoyed meeting with Josh, who I had met playing Frisbee, and eating lunch together. We might be planning a trip or two in the future because we both have similar interests and have Mondays off. I finally received my student card and had enough time to activate it before my meeting with Helge, the professor Matt, Maggie and I will be working with on our senior design project. The meeting was short, but we determined that we would make a variation of a brain computer interface based on the previous two versions other students had designed. It seems very interesting. When I returned home I decided to go shopping for ingredients to make granola, one of my favorite snacks back in the U.S. If you didn't know already I'm not like most people insofar as I was making granola on a Friday night rather than going out. Jakob, one of my neighbors, and I planned to go later to the sauna at our apartment and he went early to get it warmed up, but when we got there shortly after 10:00 we found it was locked. So no sauna for us and we worried it might stay on all night. I attempted to get a lot of reading done on Saturday with breaks for food and a Skype chat with my parents. We went to the sauna again and were able to get in this time. I can't remember the last time I've been in a sauna, but it was refreshing. Sunday biked to the Christian Center in Copenhagen and enjoyed some upbeat worship music and Pastor Mikael's preaching over 1 Cor. chapter 3. After the service Mikael asked if Daniel, one of the other young adults, and I would be interested in becoming involved with the usher ministry team and we both agreed to follow him to the meeting. Previously there had only been a few guys doing this every week and they were hoping to increase the size of their team to make things easier. Basically the ushers help with some setup before the service, greeting people, showing some to seats, and then some tear down afterwards. I had been looking for a way to get more involved and this opportunity to serve just presented itself to me. After the meeting some of the young adults went to eat again at Kosk Kebab, where we had gone two weeks ago. It was just as good as I remembered and I got to enjoy the meal with seven others, four of which were Americans (there usually aren't quite so many Americans in one place here). All in all a good week, but it passed much quicker than the first two.

Day 18 - Fellowship

This morning I actually made some coffee to go which I put in my new thermos. The new route I had chosen worked well, but I arrived a little late to where the tour was starting. I had planned to meet one of my friends, Christoph, but was surprised to pass by Giorgia, another friend from my introduction week group. Eventually we found Christoph and met the rest of the tour group at the meeting place. We had an Australian guide named Chloe who gave an excellent, detailed tour. We had a break about 1.5 hours into the tour so Giorgia, Christoph and I bought lunch. However, I had to leave at this point to get to my church on time. I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to our route so I had to sort of feel my way back to where my bike was locked, but it was a success. I quickly planned a new route to the Christian Center and biked there in time to change. I sat by Marketa, one of the young adults I had met last week. I realized the reason I recognized most of the worship songs was because most of them were from Hillsong. After a baby dedication pastor Mikael continued from last week and preached on 1 Cor. 2 which I followed along this time. I think it helps me focus when I can read and reread the scripture that the teaching is based off of. I even made some notes. After the service I found Marion (or rather she spotted me first). We both bought some cake because there was a fund raiser for the upcoming women's retreat. As usual we made our way to the cafe area and enjoyed fellowship with the others there. The young adults group made plans to cook dinner at the church. We had some time though before things were ready so I went shopping for some things that had been on my list for a while. I finally found a bike helmet that wasn't too expensive and gloves and a hat for the coming cold weather. When I returned to the church I had to find the basement, but that was harder than it sounds. I met and visited with more people once down stairs and then I remembered I had coffee in my thermos from the morning. I was amazed it was still hot! The dinner was soon served  and consisted of pasta and garlic bread. I met four guys who were still in high school and eventually we were recruited to clean dishes. I tried to encourage them to appreciate opportunities to serve, but I'm not sure how effective I was. One challenge we faced was not having enough drying towels so before we finished we had wet towels. The leftovers were distributed and then I got some help from Victor, one of the guys from my life group, to figure out how the light on my helmet worked. A bike ride home without any wrong turns was a good way to finish the day.

Day 17 - Helsingør and Helsingborg

Saturday I woke up early and had a quick breakfast while packing for day. Simona and I biked to train station and went from Herlev to the central station where the intercity trains passed through. I had been there once before when arriving from the airport my first day. This time there were people passing out free gum! We both got three packs because we got one each coming into the station and then one on our way to the wrong track. When we went back up and towards the right track we got a third pack. Once at the right track we waited for our train to Helsingør. It took about 40 minutes to travel there and we saw Sweden across the water on our way which heightened our excitement. The first thing we did when we arrived was to check ferry prices because later we intended to go to Helsingborg which was across the water in Sweden. The we headed toward the Kronborg castle which was our main reason for coming. Along the way we spotted the little mermaid's boy friend (silver statue of a little forlorn looking boy), but he was too popular with a group of elderly folks for us to get a picture then. So we continued to the castle. Before taking a tour we realized we needed a restroom break and fortunately they had installed toilets (and running water) inside the castle though it was one of the oddest restrooms I have ever been in. We purchased tickets for the royal apartments and chapel and headed up the stairs. There were displays and then many rooms as we circled around the second floor. Both Simona and I noticed what we thought to be excessive empty space in the rooms and concluded that it would be rather lonely living there. We saw lots of tapestries and I joked about needing a carpet for my room (what a great souvenir!). About halfway around the third floor was the ballroom which in addition the classical music made us both have the notion to dance. We didn't because we were not in the proper attire (like what would have been worn). Finally we came to the kids room and began to color a paper king and queen which we left behind with the other ones set on display by either the children or their proud parents. After a brief tour of the chapel we had lunch right next to the sea, the idea of which we marveled at. On our way to the ferry we did get a chance to take a picture with the little mermaid's boyfriend and almost did not take the ferry because we were looking at the wrong set of hours of operation. We still had more than a few hours before the last ferry so we bought our ticket. We had seen some enormous ferries while we were waiting and were obviously a little disappointed when a smaller ferry for only people came to pick us up (the others had two floors just for vehicles!). Still we were headed to Sweden. It was further than we had anticipated because the buildings in Helsingborg were taller than in Helsingør. We first noticed there were less bikes although still more than the U.S. It was impossible to miss the tower (and steps) directly inland so we headed that way. Ironically, Simona thought the grass was greener, but I thought it had just been fertilized. To our surprise there was a heavy metal band practicing in a local park which entirely disrupted the peaceful atmosphere. Once through the park we looped back toward the city center and searched for some Swedish chocolates. The cashier may have thought we were a little strange when we both purchased 3-4 bars of chocolate, but we had our chocolate so we didn't care too much. We walked along the coast towards the ferry because our time was running short. However, on the way we witnessed a strange event that seemed to consist of many students wearing brightly colored pants and line dancing to loud pop music. Later we found out they were indeed students and the different colors of pants represented different groups. Next we saw a portable version of Tivoli (which is an amusement park in Copenhagen). While waiting for the ferry I looked around for a toilet, but decided to wait until the ferry arrived. I'm not 100% sure because it was in Swedish, but I think the toilet at the docking station was pay per use and I didn't want to pay for a toilet. Free drinking water is also hard to find by the way. We arrived back in Denmark just in time to miss the train we needed, but it wasn't the last one so we had an hour to explore more of Helsingør. We walked down some quaint streets with brightly colored houses and noticed most businesses were closed. At this point the sun was below the horizon and it was cold without it. After all that walking we sat by a fountain for a while until we realized we could be sitting by the sea instead. Once back at the station we got some coffee to warm up a bit and then took the train back to central station. From there we took another train back to Herlev and were entertained by a group of energetic kids eating candy. We biked back cautiously because Simona didn't have any lights and I showed her a slightly different way to get back home. After such a long day we were both hungry and I made some grilled cheese sandwiches which Simona had never had before. She reciprocated by making some warm milk with honey which I had never had and both were good. The last thing I did was to make some plans for tomorrow and I decided to go on guided tour of Copenhagen. What a great day!

Day 16 - Preparation

My first early course was today, but this was a continuation of the course I had on Tuesday. We met in lab and listened to a guest speaker from one of the hospitals. He asked for a lot of participation, but I think that was helpful and definitely kept us engaged. Unfortunately, our group a little behind because the course we had taken back at Purdue to prepare us for this was not thorough enough. For the rest of our time in lab we went through the same tutorial from Tuesday with minimal issues (we only received the hardlock error a couple times). Later I went to lunch and read for a little while before biking back. I took a different way home just for the sake of exploring and stopped in Lyngby where I bought  a map and thermos. I knew of a party at DTU later that night, but I didn't really feel like going. Instead I just had dinner and wrote for a while before going to bed early because I had plans to travel tomorrow.

Day 15 - Not Wasting Any Time

This morning I woke up to my music and enjoyed a full breakfast. I was proud that I biked to DTU in less than thirty minutes, but I was also a little late so I found my building and changed quickly. I realized later that I should have come in the rear entrance to the lecture hall after the professor mentioned it. In that course I found Carlos, one of the guys my intro week group, and since we had to form teams we decided to be on the same team. Ideally the teams would consist of four people so David, one the many Danes in this course, joined us as well. Later in our lab Signe joined our group too making it the ideal four people. There were actually only five or six international students in our course so the professor decided in the future he would give a short English lecture before the Danish lecture. Considering we only meet once each week we didn't waste any time and each group was given an animal tissue sample referred to as a phantom and we took a photograph of the surface as a reference for later. Throughout the course we'll be taking images of this phantom with all the current medical imaging techniques in order to gain a better understanding of how these techniques work. Once we were finished in lab, I was able to bike home in record time because it's slightly more downhill than going to DTU. Once home I found Zlatina had invited some of her friends over for a house/apartment warming party. She and her friends are studying what is called lifelong learning which goes beyond teaching and looks at the methods used to teach. Among these friends, Joe wanted to help make some food and I offered my potatoes so we made baked potato wedges in the oven. A few more of Zlatina's friends showed up and joined the party. Then once it was too cold to stay outside we moved inside and upon someone's suggestion decided to play a game of charades. The party continued, but I needed to go to sleep because I had an early class at DTU in the morning.

Day 14 - Unexpected

Normally my course on Wednesday would start at 8am, but I received an email telling us students to meet at 9:30 instead. I always try to improve my daily habits and make them more efficient (I call it every day engineering) so I biked with shorts due to the amount of sweat my pants accumulated yesterday. I had another opportunity to appreciate the quadrant building number system and had little trouble finding the building I was told to go to. However, I didn't want to show up to the lecture in my shorts so I found a restroom to change my clothes. I came to what I thought was the right room, but a lady in a nearby office explained that I needed to go to the next building over. I was a little skeptical at first, but I followed her instructions and found two professors and one other student in the lecture hall. That was it. Apparently the course had low participation this semester, but it was also optical biosensors which is a very specific topic. After introductions, Lars, one of the professors, sat in between us students and gave the intro lecture on a laptop because the projector wasn't working. We decided that the course format would be something like a journal club where us students would study scientific journal articles and present topics from those every few weeks. Afterward I had lunch with my intro week group in the kantine and then I went to the library to read. I saw Allwin and Marion from the Christian Center and Allwin sat next to me for a while. Apart from reading I needed to print a map in order to bike to Copenhagen for the small group I had decided to join. I got lost twice, but not too badly and I had plenty of time to get where I was going. I stopped along the way at one of the few bike shops still open just to check some prices. Once I found the apartment building I was looking I took a stroll because I was quite early. I also stopped at a nice candy shop where everything was priced per weight and purchased a sampling of their chocolates. When it was time I went up the five or six flights of stairs and met some of the guys who lived there. Chibz was the leader for the group and he asked me some very good questions that made me think introspectively. We shared a meal together and as we got to know each other better. Tonight was different than usual so we didn't study anything in particular. When it was time to leave I had to bike back in the rain, but it was actually kind of fun because biking at night in Denmark in the rain was a first for me. I went all the way to Herlev (a little further than I needed to go) and then used the hospital as a beacon to get home. Zlatina had some of her friends over whom I met them, but headed to my room shortly because I was tired from that biking. I tested my salvaged speakers which worked wonderfully and set my alarm to one of my favorite playlists before going to bed.

Day 13 - First Day of School

I slept in, but not too late because I needed to get to the leasing office between 10 and 11. I talked to the inspector and he gave me access to the fitness center by changing something in the computer system and I learned how to put money on my laundry account online. I then biked to the grocery store for eggs and asked Dang if he wanted any. He requested sunny side up, but I had to try a second time to get it right because the first time the yoke broke. Then we toasted some bread to put cheese and marmalade on (not together though). I met Zlatina as she was moving into Dang's room and gave a final goodbye to Dang. I packed for the day and headed off to DTU. Then I had to find building 450 and when I arrived I also noticed a strange alarm. No one seemed to be alarmed so I pretended not to notice it as I searched for the lecture hall. Matt and Maggie were near the front so I sat next to them. The professor gave a nice introduction and a better idea of course. During our break we discussed the brain computer interface project with Helge, the professor we'll be working with. We set up a meeting for the next Friday to discuss the project further. Helge described how he had recently been in an accident with a moped while he was biking and had broken some ribs. Fortunately he had a helmet and therefore no brain damage (I had already planned to get a helmet soon). Before we all left for our lab, Helge told us that he believed great things would come from us students. For the lab we needed to use a program called Matlab which all of us were familiar with. However, the activity required us to use a certain tool within Matlab, but all the groups ran into trouble when we got an error message that said "HARDLOCK!" and the best we could figure was that it was due to all the groups using the program at the same time. The only thing we could do was keep trying which the TA made explicitly clear on the chalk board. While we kept trying Maggie suggested watching a movie on Netflix, but we decided it needed to be a movie that was good enough without words because we didn't want to bother other groups. We decided Expendables 2 was pretty much the same action packed shooting and killing film without the audio so we started that. I pulled out some movie snacks, but eventually we gave up because we kept getting the hardlock error. I went to the bookstore to get some notebook paper and then ran into Christoph, one of the guys from my intro week group, in the kantine. I was able to bike  home with making any wrong turns this time. I found some surprise meat in my fridge space, but realized that Dang had given me the leftovers from last night. Another surprise for the evening came when I used vinegar to remove the calcium build up in the water boiler left for me and it worked. I also Skyped with my parents and wired together my salvaged speakers before deciding it was time to sleep.

Day 12 - Staying and Leaving

I woke up earlier than usual, but that was because Matt, Maggie and I planned to go into Copenhagen to submit our residence permits. We left around 8:20 and had a long bus ride to the metro. There were some school kids that got on the bus a two different points which considerably raised the noise level in the bus. I didn't mind though because I was just reading and it was something unique (at least for me). It also reminded me of riding on the school bus which I haven't done in a long time. The metro took us right to the Citizen Center, but we passed it once because we thought it was further. We had to each take a ticket and wait for about an hour. I read some more, but then I pulled out my cards and we all played a round of rummy (Maggie won). Matt was up first and fortunately they had a copy machine for public use for free so he was able to copy his passport before his turn. The main reason we had to go to this particular building was to record our biometric data upon submitting our residence permit application. This data simply included our picture and finger prints. We were happy to find out that we won't be needing to file for a re-entry permit when we travel out of Denmark (none of us have classes Monday so we plan to travel during some weekends). Now we just have to wait for a few weeks to see what comes in the mail. I don't think there's any reason we would be denied a residence permit, but I also don't know what we would do if that should happen. We explored that area as we walked back to the downtown area of Copenhagen that we have become familiar with. Eventually we stopped at a restaurant for lunch which was kind of like a fancy Subway with a turtle theme. They had some good meat and cheese and we were able to put the rest of the toppings on ourselves. Matt and Maggie needed to buy a bike and when they did they intended to ride them back to our apartments so we parted ways at Norreport and I took the train back to Herlev. This time I did catch a bus from the train station and picked up some groceries before walking home. We had a going away party for Dang because he'll be leaving tomorrow for the Czech Republic and will be gone for 5 months. I helped start and man the grill for the meat. Then someone suggested baked potatoes so we fired up the oven too. We realized the coals were cooling too quickly so we added some more. While all of this was going on I brought down a broken CD player to salvage because Simona had a screwdriver I could borrow. We first took off the antenna and added it to the CD player that was already in the living room because it's antenna had gone missing. The plan was to just take the speakers out so I could wire my iPod to them and have an alarm clock that plays music. After some work and a lot of unscrewing we separated the front panel with the speakers from the rest and I set it aside to wire together later. At about this time we scavenged the kitchen for enough clean dishes for everyone and set the table. As the meat was finishing  the meal began. We asked Dang to give a going away speech and he obliged us. Towards the end of dinner I asked if anyone wanted the last potato and I guess the way I asked was funny because everyone seemed to find it amusing (and joked about it later). We cleaned up the dishes and Dang brought out a surprise ice cream cake that we all enjoyed. One by one we headed back to our rooms and with that the night came to an end.

Day 11 - In Perspective

I woke up on time and had a quick breakfast before walking to bus stop. This was not the same one as usual so I enjoyed walking through a different neighborhood. However, I did have to switch buses at a certain point and needed to ask someone in order to find other bus stop. The Christian Center, the church I was going to, was near an area called Nørrebro and I had to try to remember what the map looked like because the road names were hard to find (they're usually on the sides of buildings at street corners). I actually made it there on the first try and was surprised to see Marion just inside (another international student at DTU I met during introduction week). We followed sound of the music because we were a little late. The worship was similar to what I was used to and we even sang a couple songs I knew, but the congregation consisted of so many people from different nations which I really appreciated. This service was in English, but at other times there were also Danish, Thai, Filipino and Spanish services. New guests were welcomed and I filled out some of my info. Eventually Michael (a Danish pastor at the church) introduced a new series focused on Corinthians. He also talked about how we are still in danger today of making something other than Jesus Christ the focus of our life just as the Corinthian church had. It sounded like they have communion every first Sunday of the month so we shared the Lord's supper together later in the service. Overall it was a very good reminder for me to focus on Jesus and live for God's glory. After the service Jarrod (another international student at DTU from Canada) saw Marion and I and we talked as we left the sanctuary. There was free coffee and tea in another section of the building and this was naturally a popular place to congregate. I met many people involved with and in charge of the young adults group. I think I'll get more involved perhaps with the international young adults group and/or a men's small group. At some point someone suggested going to eat somewhere and after quite a while we decided to go to Kosk Kebab (one of the many kebab places nearby). I don't think I've ever had a kebab before, but my new friend Dmitri had plenty of experience (he was also one of the primary advocates for going to a kebab place) so I asked for a recommendation. As I expected it was a good choice. The restaurant was fairly busy and with a group of about 10 people we had to try to make ourselves small, but that was better for fellowship. After lunch (or perhaps dinner considering it was about 4pm) we went our separate ways and I went with part of the group towards my bus stop. I waited for a while and then asked the guy next to me if I was at the right bus stop (more than one route ran through the stop we were at). He checked on his phone and I was in the right place, but then a girl next to us mentioned there was something going on with a bunch of motorcycles. I hadn't realized until then that I had seen a lot of motorcycles pass and they were completely covering a nearby street where our buses had to come through. Gina, the girl who pointed out the motorcycles, happened to be from Texas and was an exchange student from Columbia University in NY. We both decided not to wait around for the elusive buses so she went to another bus stop and I took the train from the nearby station. I knew I needed to get off at another station and switch to a different train to get back to Herlev, but... I had some trouble. First I unintentionally explored the entire station which included the overhead metro track, the cafe, the 7-eleven, both side of the track I was just on and the other overhead track. When I finally got to the right track (the last one I went to) there seemed to be a problem with the train or track, but it was in Danish. At this point I had to go to the restroom so I forgot about the train and asked in the cafe about a restroom nearby. There was restroom just outside around the corner, but it was locked so I waited a few minutes to see if someone was using it, went back into the cafe and found out the 7-eleven across the tracks was in charge of unlocking it, climbed the stairs to cross the track, talked to the guy at the 7-eleven who unlocked it remotely, climbed back up the stairs and found the bathroom was still locked. Fortunately the guy from the 7-eleven could see me and came out side so the remote worked and then I was able to use the restroom. I was glad to have that problem solved, but I knew I still needed to figure out what was wrong with the train because I really didn't want to take a bus (at this point I was convinced trains were superior to buses). After waiting a little while at the right track I asked someone if he could interpret the Danish (but not quite in those exact words) and he said there was some problem, but the train should arrive soon. I was relieved when it did and enjoyed some time reading before reaching Herlev. The train station is about a 25-30 minute walk from my apartment so I went to one of the bus stops. With it being the weekend the buses don't run as frequently and it was going  to be a while before one of the buses came that I needed so I walked the rest of the way. I didn't mind though and I had plenty to think about after an already long day. When I came back I went over to Dang's room because the door was open and Stephen, who I met briefly yesterday, was there too. We talked for a while, but then suddenly my left contact slipped into the upper part of my eye and I had to excuse myself to go fish it out. After struggling a while I finally retrieved it and saw that it was almost completely torn in two. No wonder it was so painful (not to mention out of focus). Needless to say I wore glasses for the rest of the evening. I was still hungry so I went down to the kitchen and found Jokub (one of the Lithuanians I had met previously) and met Amalia from Athens, Greece. She was still trying to move in, but had first been given the wrong key and then I think because of miscommunication her room was occupied for one more day. And I thought I had trouble! I can remember coming to the apartment the first day and I don't know what I would have done if I had the wrong key or someone was living in my room. After I talked with her and she met some of the other guys she seemed to calm down a bit. One of the other Lithuanians happened to be the one who was still in her room and that was because she had been granted an extension. She worked as quickly as she could to move the final things out of her room and cleaned so Amalia could move in. I'm sure she was glad for that.

Day 10 - Prayer Group Dinner

I think I slept in until 1pm so when I ate breakfast it was really lunch. Though I wasn't in desperate need of clean laundry I decided it would be good to familiarize myself with the laundry room. The directions were in Danish, but I figured my way through it. In addition to my clothes I cleaned my room while I was waiting. I briefly met Stephen, one of my new neighbors, as he was moving in and I was going out. He's from Denmark, but his mother is American so he's half American. Again I didn't have Dang's bike at my disposal so I headed off to the bus stop. I was on my way to a dinner for people involved with or interested in the DTU prayer group I had learned about on Wednesday. To my surprise I actually met up with some the group, two of which I had met before, at the Lyngby bus station where we had to change buses. This was fortunate because I only had a vague idea of where I was going. However, the other day when I was lost I had accidentally rode my bike past the dormitory we went to. Allwin was our chef for the evening and he made us Indian food. There were also two new friends that he met through Facebook that were from India as well that were temporarily staying there. Allwin intentionally made the food less spicy than the traditional food which was very gracious of him. Things weren't quite ready when we arrived so the five of us that came on the bus just had some time to get to know one another. Josh and Kim I had met before. The dinner was delightful and we even had ice cream for dessert. The ice cream was much lighter than I expected because it was mixed with whipped cream which was very good. Since we didn't help prepare the food we volunteered to help clean up and eventually formed an assembly line for cleaning the dishes. Soon it was time for us to go and for Allwin to go dumpster diving for food. He assured us that the food we ate was not from a dumpster, but apparently there is a lot of perfectly fine food that is thrown out in Denmark because of rules and regulations. We took the bus back to Lyngby station and Vladimir came with me because he lives near Herlev too.

Day 9 - Concluding Introduction Week

Today Dang needed his bike so I took the bus with Matt and Maggie. There are two routes that we could take that go all the way to DTU, but we found out that the 300S, which we took, stops more frequently than the 330E and therefore took longer. So when I do take the bus next I will be sure to take the 330E. The lecture this morning was focused on group work, but ironically most of my group was late. We decided if group members were late in future that they had to bake a cake for the group. The next lecture was about study methods which covered oral exams and reports that I found very beneficial. Then there was an introduction to the library which was done very well (not to mention they gave out prizes). Most of my group was there and we explored the two upper floors of the library. Unfortunately, the basement was being renovated, but it should be open in October. That's where most of the hard copies of books are, but they also mentioned something about a giant chess board. Next there was a race around DTU in order to answer a series of questions about the university. Our group didn't finish first, but we had fun anyways. We had some free time and we went to grocery store on campus where I bought dark chocolate and instant coffee (sadly we don't have a coffee maker at my apartment). After dinner we went to that grocery store again because most of the group wanted some beer and wine. Then we decided to sit on the floor in the middle of one of the main hallways outside the sportshall because there were a lot of people in the building. We hung out for a while before the rest of group went to the S-Huset bar and I decided to take the bus home at this point. And that concludes introduction week at DTU.

Day 8 - Danish Culture and Sports

I slept in because we weren't meeting until lunch and had breakfast before biking to DTU again. This time I was glad it only took me thirty minutes. At the library I copied and printed my entire passport because as tedious as I thought it was the residence permit application stated very clearly I needed a copy of my entire passport. That took a while, but once I finished I had lunch at the Danish culture lecture with a few others from my group. Later there was an info session about courses offered at DTU to learn Danish. I had heard plans about football (not American football) and Frisbee in the afternoon so I joined that group. There weren't nearly as many people that wanted to play Frisbee as football, but there were still enough for two teams of four. Josh, one of the guys I met, was from Maryland and in a similar situation since he's here for just one semester and finishing his bachelor's degree. I enjoyed getting some physical activity and playing something I was familiar with. Some of us hung around for a while after we finished and I was recruited to be the official time keeper for the football games because they were having a tournament due to the number of different teams they had. Then I biked back to my apartment, but made one wrong turn because I hadn't actually taken that route back before (things look different when you are going in the opposite direction). After a dinner consisting of potatoes, carrots and eggs - what I had on hand - Dang introduced me to Rene, one of my other neighbors. I hadn't met Rene until now and realized why when he explained that he did all his cooking in his room. He even had a fridge! His room looked much more cozy than mine, but I had to remember he's been living here a lot longer too. Later I sorted through many of my pictures and decided it was time to go to bed.

Day 7 - International Student Invasion

I was somewhat more excited to wake up Wednesday because I knew I was going to have leftover pancakes for breakfast. My trick to making leftover pancakes taste fresh is to microwave them a little bit and then toast them to give them a nice crispy outside. Carlos, one of my neighbors that also goes to DTU, came into the kitchen and we decided to bike together to campus. He had followed the bus route yesterday, but I wanted to try a route I had planned last night to avoid some of the traffic and stops. We did get lost once but that was because we missed the very last turn and went a little too far. This morning was the activity fair where some of the campus groups had info about them at different stations. There weren't as many as I was expecting, but after running into Ronja I found out these were only some of the larger more well known ones. She was disappointed that the smaller, perhaps more interesting, ones weren't there. Not too long after I arrived there were a couple of ladies that got up to talk about their group. Kim was first to speak and during her introduction she explained she was from Texas and was finishing her PhD at DTU. She then went on to explain that she was a Christian and shared some of her testimony. Also she wanted to invite the students to a prayer group that they had started on campus just a month or two ago. This of course spiked my interest and I went to speak with them after their presentation just as they had suggested. I wrote down my contact info so I could get more details about the prayer group. Kim invited me to her church called the Christian Center which was one of the few free churches in Copenhagen (and one of the English speaking ones too). The official religion of Denmark is Lutheran, but sadly it's just a status for most Danes and they don't live out their faith. That happens in the U.S. too but not in such proportions. After the activity fair everyone was headed down to Copenhagen for the rest of the day. Ronja, Tannis (one of the guys from Spain), and I rode our bikes all the way to Copenhagen and the rest took the bus. Our pace was fairly casual partly because Ronja was convinced that Tannis and I were not used to biking (and had tiny biking muscles) and partly due to Tannis's bike not being able to shift into higher gears. We reached Norreport station and had to hunt around for the rest of our group. We had some trouble because it was busy as usual and there was a lot of construction, but fortunately I remembered where I had seen the bus they would have taken drop off its passengers and we found them there. We stopped at a nearby passport photo making machine because some of our group members didn't have a photo of themselves and would need them for getting their CPR (central persons registry) number tomorrow. I already had one and I would have to obtain my CPR number at a later time because what DTU had planned for tomorrow was only for European students. We also went into a grocery store to pick up a few more things to add to our lunches that most of us packed. Then we had lunch in a nearby park and were entertained by a group of college age kids doing some team building games. They must have been from another one of the universities. We had to cut our time at the park short because Ronja received a call that our canal tour was actually a little earlier than we had originally been told. Thus we rushed there and ended up being  the first ones there. We took the seats in the back completely exposed to the weather and then enjoyed the tour in the sun. Later we went shopping because we had some time before our free dinner at Jensen's Beef House. I bought some soap, but didn't find speakers that I could use with my ipod to make an alarm clock. I was also looking for some biking shorts, but Ronja said most of the bike shops would be really expensive and suggested some alternatives. We made our way to another park and after all that walking decided to sit down on the grass. However, after a while we threw a Frisbee around and when it was time more walking. It turns out our restaurant was right across from the City Hall. We were given four choices to choose from the most intriguing of which was called "fitness chicken". No one actually ordered it because we heard from other groups that it was a smaller amount of food than the other ones. I was surprised I had to pay for water, but I had long since drained my water bottle so I did get some. For dessert we were all allowed to get some soft ice (soft serve ice cream) and added as many toppings as we wanted. I only wish they had given us larger bowls because mine was overflowing and melting. I suppose it would have been overflowing no matter what size bowl though. The last event of the night was a bar with free beer for the first two hours. I did get a beer called Tuborg Classic which of the ones I had tasted I disliked the least. As you can imagine with all of us international students and free beer it was very crowded, but I eventually made my way to the other side and met some new people from another group. It was very loud though due to the dance music and some of us found a separate room on that side and it was at least quiet enough to talk. Ronja found me later and I met some of the other international buddies. Maggie had mentioned yesterday that she probably wanted to leave around 10:00 and I went to look for her around that time. Again it was very hot and crowded and... well Maggie is not very tall. After pushing my way to the other side I hadn't seen her and I waited outside for a while. I decided I would take train with or without her, but when I decided I had waited long enough I rode my bike to the train station (the trains allow bikes except during peak hours). If it wasn't dark and I had a map I may have tried to ride all the way back, but I was also tired from the long day. I also was able to enjoy some time reading while on the train. The bike ride home from the Herlev station wasn't too long and I was already familiar with it so no wrong turns this time. I found Dang was still awake and we talked for a while about both of our days. He was working hard on a long paper and would be tomorrow as well so he said I could borrow his bike again.