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.

Day 6 - Introduction to Introduction Week

Today was the first day of intro-week at DTU so I took a bus and made my way to the sportshall. It's located in the main building on campus and I didn't have any trouble finding it because I had been there before. The sportshall is simply a large gym and they had nearly 80 tables setup for the international students. Each table had one leader which they called an international buddy and about 9 other people. I was the second to arrive and met my buddy, Ronja, and Stine one of the other international students. Eventually everyone arrived except the guy we were expecting from Germany, but he was replaced by a guy from Spain. So in our group we had three from Spain, one from Austria, one from Norway, one from France, one from Italy, one from Hong Kong, Ronja from Denmark and me. There was a welcome message accompanied by Danish pastries called wienerbrød (literally translated actually means Viennese bread). One of the speakers was the dean of international affairs. Before we knew it lunch was served, but since we were in the middle of the sportshall we were nearly last and missed out on some of the choices. The next speaker was an American that had been an exchange student, but had decided to stay for his PhD. Afterwards everyone participated in a team building exercise. We had to build the tallest structure using spaghetti, tape and yarn with a marshmallow at the very top. After placing the marshmallow on top ours looked like a combination of the Eiffel Tower and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We were actually close to the winning height, but of course there was only one winner. Next Ronja took us on a short campus tour. The campus is split up into four quadrants and we only went from quadrant 1 to quadrant 4 then back. All the buildings have 3-digit numbers and the first one corresponds to the quadrant it's located in. We had some free time and then dinner, but this time they decided to call tables up two at a time and stress the importance of portion size which produced much better results for us. There's a courtyard in the middle of the main building we went to after dinner and many other people gathered there too. One thing I wasn't quite expecting was all the people drinking on campus. Along with the lower drinking age in Denmark (16 for beer and wine, 18 for everything else) they seem to do it lot just to socialize. I guess the "socializing" happens in the U.S. too, but I'm convinced that nearly all Danes will need a liver transplant by age 40 (well not really, but it was an amusing thought). I still had fun throwing a Frisbee around, but it was so crowded we hit a number of people nearby. Later we went to one of the campus bars (there are five of them and they're all in academic buildings) though I shortly accompanied some of my group upstairs to a recreational room where we sat and talked for while. I took the bus home and talked with Dang about borrowing his bike to test the route to DTU before classes start. Then I looked up the route on Google maps and wrote down the road names because they're difficult to remember when you can't pronounce them.

Day 5 - Without a Plan

I didn't have anything much planned for Monday so I slept in a bit. That may have also been the cause for my strange dream, but I will spare you from the details of its absurdity. Since it was later I suppose I had lunch or perhaps brunch instead of breakfast. I had emailed my parents earlier so we Skyped in the afternoon (which was the morning for them). Fortunately they were on their vacation in Michigan at the time because otherwise my father would have been working. I certainly appreciated talking with (and seeing) them. I haven't really used Skype much but I expect I'll be a professional by the end of this semester. Afterwards I went to work on filling out my residence permit application which I totally forgot to bring with me. Good thing I had a digital copy and printed two copies when I was on DTU's campus because I didn't realize until halfway through the first copy that everything was supposed to be in capital letters. I finally finished filling out the second copy in all caps and remembered I needed to withdraw some more money. I borrowed Dang's bike to go into Herlev to an ATM and then realized it was dinner time. I found a small restaurant where I bought a giant bacon burger. It seemed like a good price and it was the only on the menu I didn't have to translate. I guess I'm used to the size of everything gradually shrinking in the U.S. because I later found out this "giant" burger was normal for Denmark (except for Burger King). When I came back Dang had purchased a dresser  from IKEA and I volunteered to help assemble it. As I mentioned previously, Dang was leaving soon to study abroad in the Czech Republic, but the new furniture he had bought recently was actually for the girl who was going to sublease from him for the next five months. I admire him for his generosity and I hope to model it in some way in the future.

Day 4 - Like Children For a Day

I woke up early to make the pancakes I promised to my neighbors last night. However, I had to estimate the quantities because I looked up a recipe that wasn't measured in metric units and the only things in the kitchen to measure with were of course metric. The batter seemed a little thin, but they turned out alright. I formed an impressive stack as two of my neighbors joined me in the kitchen. Dang and Simona invited me to go into Copenhagen to explore the Experimentarium and Bakken amusement park. We all had plenty to eat and then walked toward the bus stop. I was pleasantly surprised when they told me that my clip card to ride the bus only needs to be clipped once and then it's good for an hour for any of the public transportation. So we took a bus, the train and then another bus from the train station to the Experimentarium all with one clip! Now you may have guessed, but the Experimentarium is primarily for kids and it has all sorts of hands on science things to study (or rather play with). At the front desk we received the student discount and also a suggestion to go check out the bubble display because it was only out for a little while longer. We made some enormous bubbles and Dang and I both put each other inside a bubble tube. They also had things about wind and water physics, puzzles, anatomy, toys and more. We spent nearly four hours there and would have spent more if they didn't close at 5:00. Thus we set off toward Bakken (pronounced like Baggen). We had packed food for lunch/dinner and ate just outside. None of us actually rode any of the rides, but it was still fun to see a Danish amusement park. It was amusing to watch the bumper cars because it's just so uncharacteristic of the Danes. There was a nature preserve area just outside the park and we walked its paths for a while. It reminded me of home actually except for some of the extremely large, old trees. Dang was hoping to see some deer which we eventually did. It seems the Danes really appreciate their deer. The first group we saw consisted of about 10 deer and three were completely white. Further down one of the roads we stopped as three deer with antlers crossed just ahead of us while eyeing with either suspicion or curiosity. We were a little worried they might be protecting the area or their other deer in the area, but they continued on their way. We hadn't noticed the larger group of deer behind them but these ones had enormous antlers and Dang said these were called something in Danish which meant crowned deer. Our last destination was the beach of the Baltic Sea which was within walking distance. Dang really enjoyed the wind, but he may have also been trying to take it in one last time because he was leaving to study abroad in the Czech Republic within a week. We took the train back and concluded the day with some tea back at our apartment. What a great day!

Day 3 - Copenhagen Take 2

I woke up a little later than I had planned, but still before we had planned to leave so I had some breakfast and then met up with the others. Matt knew of a bus stop that was little closer than the one Maggie and I had been dropped off at the first time so we took that bus all the way back to Norreport station. That's where Matt Morris had told Matt Pharris to meet us. Even though we knew he was coming on the metro we didn't have a specific place planned and I was the only one out of the four of us with a working phone. Before Matt P. was expected we tried to get Maggie a power adapter for her Macbook but found that a store was out of stock until next week. Then we went down to the bottom floor of the metro and ran into a couple of people with signs that read "Going to DTU? Need Directions?" and we talked to them for a little while. When Matt was expected we staked ourselves at the top of the escalators where we thought he wouldn't be able to miss us or us him. We took turns patrolling the street level just in case he came on train or bus because we weren't sure he did take the metro. On my patrol Matt P. actually spotted me from a McDonald's as I walked by. Somehow he sneaked by us and what's even more ironic is that Matt M. and Maggie had went to that same McDonald's just minutes before to use their wi-fi to check for updates. So we all set off to explore Copenhagen and to find some lunch because we were all pretty hungry with it being the middle of the afternoon. That didn't stop us from seeing some sights on the way though. We found a nice cafe near Nyhavn, a popular tourist area with attractions, restaurants and canal tours. Open faced sandwiches are a big things here so that's what we all ordered. We wanted to check out a large star shaped structure that we saw to the north east on our map and we followed one of the larger canals to get there. We found the star shaped structure was an old fort with a start shaped mote around it. We also ventured towards the sea to see the famous Little Mermaid statue. Then we decided it was about time we headed back and walked to Norreport station along a different route to take in more of the city. It wasn't hard to get on the bus we needed, but none of us remembered the exact bus stop we had left from near our apartment. We knew approximately where we needed to get off and had a list of the upcoming stops but that didn't help too much. We passed one stop that really looked like ours so we got off at the next one since the bus didn't stop. As we came closer to the stop we realized we had gotten off too early so we crossed the street and waited for another bus to continue to the right stop. This time we passed the real stop because we couldn't see it coming and got off at the next one again. This time we just decided to walk back. We used the Herlev hospital as our landmark and cut through a neighborhood. Eventually Maggie and I recognized where we had previously been lost while taking our luggage to our apartment. From there it didn't take too long and we were finally back. Now we could think about dinner and went to the grocery store to get ingredients. We all helped out making the dinner and also all helped eat it too. Since the preparing, cooking and eating took a while we were able to meet a few of the guys living in Maggie's building where we were cooking. I headed back to my building and although this was only a short walk somewhere along the way the idea occurred to me to make buttermilk pancakes tomorrow with the sour milk I had accidentally bought. When I entered my kitchen/living room this announcement was well received and aroused some excitement.