Pre-Departure Happenings

As a part of the DIS program, every class during the second three-week session goes on a week-long study tour to a country other than Denmark. These study tours all fall on the second week of session 2, and are meant to give students a firsthand look at the issues discussed in class (as well as broadening their cultural experiences while abroad). The destinations of the study tours ranged from Amsterdam to Scotland to Poland, but for Sustainable Technology class we're visiting Norway. I've actually been in Norway for the past few days, but because of the tightness of our schedule I haven't been able to blog at all. Here I'll just cover some of the events leading up to the study tour, then on the trip back to Denmark I'll get around to recounting my experiences in Norway.

On Friday, I went to class as usual; we ended up discussing the results of the UNFCC and the provisions of the Kyoto Protocol. After class, Sam, Jason, and I all met in the DIS cinema and discussed our views of the material covered in class. Our discussion devolved into an hour-and-a-half long intellectual debate about how best to change American culture and people's perceptions in order to promote environmentalism. It was actually one of the most interesting experiences I've had while abroad; it's not often that people passionately engage each other about intellectual issues like this. Afterward, I went back to Hoffmans, got some laundry done, and made dinner. I then headed downtown with Albert, Jared, and a few other girls from our Kollegium who had just arrived for the second session, and we went to visit Tivoli - the renowned Danish amusement park centered in downtown Copenhagen. As I had just learned a few days before, the band Aqua (of "Barbie Girl" fame) were going to be playing a free show that night, so we were all excited - though also apprehensive about how good the concert would be, considering the band's status as the epitome of one-hit-wonders. Once we arrived, Albert and a few of the girls managed to sneak into Tivoli through through the back entrance of a restaurant adjacent to the park; however, me, Jared, and one of the girls decided to play it safe and pay the entry fee. Thankfully we made the right decision, since one of the other girls ended up getting caught in the act of sneaking in and was almost kicked out of the park. Once we were all inside, however, we realized that ride tickets were extremely expensive, so we only paid to get into the fun house - which was indeed fun, despite being a glorified children's playhouse. After exiting the fun house we ended up seeing Chris, Nia, and I girl named Hannah (whom I had met a few weeks ago), as well as Jill, Ashley, and Katie; it was definitely cool to see so many fellow DIS students there for the concert. We then staked out a spot for the concert early, only to find that one of our instructors (Pam) was also there - so chatted with her for a while before Aqua came on. I was surprised by how good of a show they put on - though it was infinitely more amusing because Pam knew all of Aqua's obscure songs and danced along the whole time. After they played "Barbie Girl,"we all headed back to Strøget, met up with Kate Schratz for a bit, and then went to a venue near DIS to hang out with Jill, Ashley, and Katie for a while. After that, the night got pretty interesting - I ended up chatting with a few Danish guys, hung out briefly with Andy Tucker and his friend Jay, and was hit on by a few unattractive Danish girls (whom I managed to escape from after smoothly passing myself off as Matt Wolschleger). Eventually, I headed back to Hoffmans with Katie.

Defying Gravity at the Tivoli Fun House

The next day, I slept in and spent a good portion of the day working on a paper for class with Albert. Early in the afternoon, we headed over to a cafe called Paludan Bøger - an old bookstore that had been converted into a cafe, where I had met up with Sara and worked on a paper a week earlier. After working for a solid 5 hours, we headed back to Hoffmans where I finished up my laundry and napped before making a delicious dinner of pesto-doused pasta. Then, I hung out with Albert, Jared, Kyle, Hirsch, Ryan, and a few other people from our Kollegium and played card games before Albert and I headed over to Gronjords to hang out with Sam, Dustin, David, Kelsey, Jason, and a few other girls from their Kollegium whom I had met before. We all talked and danced for a while, and eventually found ourselves chatting with a British guy named Neil who was in charge of organizing social events for the entire Gronjords complex (in total, Gronjords consists of 5 or so high-rise buildings). Me, Albert, a guy from our class named Dominic, and girl named Melissa whom we had met that night all hung out in his apartment for a while and made popcorn until it was almost 4 AM; seeing that it was so late, we decided to crash in Gronjords for a while. Neil grabbed a few spare mattresses and bedrolls from his room, and me, Albert, and Dominic all got a few hours' rest before getting up early and heading back to our respective kollegiums.

Me and a Couple Girls from Hoffmans Waiting for Aqua

Copin' with Environmental Issues

Aside from being one of the happiest nations on Earth, Denmark also is one of the most environmentally friendly. When you first land in Copenhagen, one of the most salient things you can see from the air is a series of wind turbines anchored off the coast. These turbines (which can easily be seen from other areas of the city too) send a blatant message to anyone who might not know: "Copenhagen is going green." This environmental consciousness can also be seen in other, more subtle aspects of Danish culture too. For example, most buildings don't have extensive air conditioning; rather, most Danes conserve energy by opening large windows and doors designed to provide ventilation to their homes. I've also heard from other students that the city of Copenhagen is planning to completely redesign their energy and fuel system in the next decade or two; even now, electric cars like the Tesla Roadster are becoming pretty popular in European countries, and the Danes hopes to capitalize on this by being proactive and updating their energy and fuel infrastructure early. All of this provides a perfect background for the class that I'll be taking the second session - Sustainable Technology and Culture.

On Tuesday, I went to my first class of the Session 2; as it turned out, I knew a few people in the class (including Sam, a guy from my last class named Christof, and a girl I had met earlier named Ellen) - which was a relief to know, since I wouldn't have such a hard time matching names with faces again. The material we covered during the lecture, though - corporate social responsibility, or CSR - was a bit over my head since I hadn't taken the CSR class from the previous session, while those who had taken that class seemed much more confident and knowledgeable about the material. After class, I met a guy from Massachusetts named Albert who was also living in my kollegium; Sam and I showed him around the city for a while, then I went back to Sam's kollegium and chatted with him while Albert went back to Hoffmans. After a little while, we all went to a Turkish buffet downtown with the rest of our class; I ended up meeting a few people (including a guy named Max and a Canadian girl named Kelsey), and a group of us (me, Sam, Albert, Kelsey, Max, and Christof) all tried heading to a bar to see one of Sam's friends play some live music. However, we couldn't find the place so we all sat down at a small hole-in-the-wall cafe and chatted for a while before we parted ways. After heading back to Hoffmans, I read for a while and went to bed.

Windmills Off the Coast in Copenhagen

Wednesday's schedule was about as jam-packed as Tuesday's; after sitting through our daily class lecture, our class went on a trip to a Danish alternative living arrangement called Hyldespjældet. At first, I thought it would be akin to a commune, but when we arrived I found that it actually had very good living arrangements that were even better kept than many of the apartments and kollegiums I had seen around the city. The man who showed us around the facilities told us all about the sustainable practices that the residents kept; they ranged from a communal chicken pen (which was the first program to be instituted there) to storage of urine in underground tanks in place of using an unsanitary sewer system to growing plants on the roofs of buildings to increase the buildings' durability and increase greenspace. One house in Hyldespjældet was run completely on solar energy, which I found fascinating. After the class returned from the trip utterly exhausted, I went with Albert, Max, and two other guys from our class named Jason and Dominic to start work on an upcoming class project. Then, we all went to a DIS-sponsored dinner at a local restaurant called Riz Raz, and from there Albert and I went to visit people from our class and my Positive Psych class at Gronjords before heading over to a DIS-sponsored social event at the DIS Studenterhusen, or Student House. We all headed back after a while to crash at Hoffmans.

Our Guide Showing the Class Sustainable Housing in Hyldespjældet

On Thursday, I woke up early and felt terrible; my allergies had been growing steadily worse over the past week, and that morning I could barely breathe through my nose. I decided to get some extra sleep, but slept through my alarm and ended up arriving to class late due to heavy traffic. When I arrived, I apologized profusely to the instructor, but she was very understanding and even suggested some steps I might take to find better allergy medications while in Denmark. As it turned out, I didn't miss much - only part of a guest lecture that the main instructor had scheduled only because she had a doctor's appointment earlier that day. After lunch, I went with a group of other students (Sam, a girl from Hoffmans named Ivy, and another guy named Wilson) to visit LiqTech, a cleantech company that we'd chosen to present on and write a paper about. As we learned, LiqTech produces silicon carbide filters for diesel engines and liquid waste treatment. We met with the founder and CEO of the company, Lasse Andreassen, and got the chance to talk to him about the history of LiqTech, its products, the sustainable practices it uses, and the demand for its goods and services. He then gave us a tour of LiqTech's facilities; the company was actually much smaller than we had thought. Afterward, we returned to our kollegiums, and I got a lot of grocery shopping done before cooking dinner, reading, and heading in for the night.

A Change in Scenery, New Arrivals

Again, I've been astounded at how fast time has been flying these past couple weeks. I've hardly had time to organize my thoughts, let alone blog about them; it's been one thing after another. I'll definitely make a more concerted effort to keep the blog updated, but it's tougher now that the pace of my life abroad is picking up.

Last Saturday, a group of friends that I had made from my Positive Psych class and I decided to take a trip to Malmö, Sweden. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a miscommunication about the timing of when we were supposed to meet. Two of the girls who were planning on making the trip with us arrived at København H (the main train station in Copenhagen) several hours early; after realizing that nobody else was at the station, they decided to leave by themselves. The worst part of the whole scenario was the fact that they left their phones off because they didn't want to incur any phone charges (the cost of making international calls, even between nations as close as Denmark and Sweden, can be astronomical) - so none of us could contact them. Needless to say, tensions were running a bit high as we left without them. Once we arrived in the city, things got better - we grabbed a quick lunch downtown, toured around for a while, and even saw the two girls (Caroline and Kelsey) for a bit. However,  they decided to go off and see the city on their own, and we could still sense some latent tension. The city couldn't really compare to Copenhagen though, and after our return I went and visited the kollegium that my friends lived in (Gronjords), met a few other people who lived there, and hung for a while before returning to Hoffmans.

Radhuset, the City Hall in Malmö

The next day, I went to pick up Jared Scheck around noon; we had been in contact though Facebook for a while, and I knew that he would be staying in Hoffmans as well. We met at Nørreport Station (the main Metro and S-tog station downtown) and I brought him back to Hoffmans. I showed him around the kollegium for a while before he passed out on my floor from jet lag; however, once he awoke we met up with Katie Schratz downtown (whom I had seen only a few times in Copenhagen before then) and we grabbed dinner at a local vegetarian salad bar. Afterward, we all hung out at a public park nearby and reminisced about our days at Denison. After we were finished trading stories, we met up with a few of my friends from Gronjords and chilled for a while before deciding that it was time to head back; Jared was really starting to feel the jet lag and we figured that we didn't want to be out too late. Jared then slept in the Hoffmans common room for the night.

Posing with a Troll in Malmö

The next morning, I took Jared downtown for the DIS orientation, then went to return my textbook from the first session before I headed to a beach in Amager to hang out with Sara, Eszter, and a few others from their kollegium (Tåsingade). Sadly it was a bit windy and not as warm as we had expected, so nobody really wanted to get in the water. Instead, we all just lay out, read, and joked about Sara's musical taste (she had brought her iPod, which according to her hadn't been updated in a good ten years). Later on, I went back to Gronjords to play a game of basketball with Dustin, David, and Sam (a guy from their kollegium whom I had met a couple nights earlier; as it turned out, he was taking the same class as me for the second session). As we found out, though, we were all sorely out of shape and got winded pretty quickly after just one game of 2 on 2. After that, I headed back to Hoffmans, grabbed some dinner, and went straight to bed.

An Odd Statue Garden in One of Malmö's Public Parks

The Last of Session 1

Last week flew by! On Tuesday, class was cancelled YET AGAIN. Without much to do or any way to contact people, I chilled on the roof of Hoffmans for a while, started working on a paper for class, and finished an application for an on-campus entrepreneurship program. I also discovered that the order for my phone hadn't gone through, so I re-sent it in the hope that it would arrive in the next few days. Later on, I met up with a girl named Sara who I had befriended a few weeks earlier; we hung out at a local coffee shop for a while and worked on our papers, then headed back to her place. There, her roommate cooked us dinner and I chatted with a few people from their Kollegium before Sara and I grabbed ice cream. Sadly, Ben and Jerry's was the closest and cheapest option; for the umpteenth time, I felt a bit guilty for getting the most American food while abroad. Afterward I headed back to Hoffmans, worked on my paper some more, and crashed for the night.

A Man Enjoying One of Copenhagen's Public Gardens

Wednesday was pretty uneventful; I went to class, came back to Hoffmans, grabbed a quick nap, talked to Jill and Karina for a while, and ran a few laps around the park's track before heading back for the night. On Thursday, I went to class as usual, and a guest lecturer came to speak for most of the time (he was essentially a motivational speaker who gave us pointers about staying positive). After checking my e-mail I found out that my phone had arrived at the main DIS office - so after class, I went to pick it up only to discover that the phone they had sent wasn't compatible with the SIM card I needed. After an hour or so of dealing with some inept customer service guy working for the phone company, I learned that I could exchange the phone in the city without having to order a new one. I made the mistake of asking directions to the phone company's drop-off point from the first Danish guy I saw; he insisted on walking with me to the address and giving me a quick run-through of his life story on the way. It was a very interesting exchange - he told me that he had just returned to Copenhagen from Germany and had been working on creating an interactive theater installation of Kafka's "The Trial" - but I was quickly sketched out by his disheveled appearance and managed to hastily make an excuse for ditching him as soon as we got to the location. Unfortunately, the building didn't seem right; the door was barred by a heavy iron gate and it seemed to be home only to a few private residences and a publishing company. Not sure what to do, I headed back to the DIS library and finished up my paper with Ravy. We decided to meet up in the city later to head over to a Kollegium where a few other guys from our class (David and Dustin) lived. Once I returned to the city, though, I couldn't find Ravy anywhere and decided he'd left already, so I went to grab food and money. Thankfully, just as I was about to head back to Hoffmans I found Ravy, and we met David and Dustin at their place before meeting with some other people downtown. I got to meet a few other people studying in Copenhagen and had a blast.

Some of the Sickest Graffiti I've Ever Seen

On Friday (the last day of class for our first session), we had yet another guest lecturer speak to our class about preconceived judgments and do a few workshops with us. Most of the workshops were very meditative and seemed a bit far-out to most of the people in the class, but what the lecturer had to say was fairly interesting. Afterward, I went to check with DIS and ask what possibly could have happened to my phone. They called the phone company and asked about the drop-off point but didn't get any definitive answer, so I headed back to the location see if there wasn't some sort of mistake. I entered apprehensively, and somehow ended up in the publishing company's office asking if it was the right place. As it turned out, there was ANOTHER street with a name that was only one letter off from the name of the street I was on. Sheepishly I went to the new location and found it to be even sketchier than the first one - it was in a basement that had been completely torn apart, and the haggard-looking man who gave me the new phone told me there had been a break-in recently. For as sketchy and haphazard as the situation seemed to be, at least the phone I got worked perfectly - so I went back to DIS, talked to Sara and found out where she was going to be later in the night, then headed back to Hoffmans. I later met up with Sara at a local cafe where some company party was being held, but ended up meeting an ex-con and was hit on by a drunk Danish dude - so we beat a hasty retreat back to Sara's place where I chilled with her and her roommate (Eszter) and ate Nutella until I was ready to pass out and headed back to my place.

Taxes and More Taxes

Although Denmark is rated as the happiest country on Earth, it also has one of the highest tax rates of any country. I've heard that the upper income tax brackets in Denmark can pay taxes that amount to almost 75% of their yearly income. This also extends to sales taxes, which are about 25% for most goods (including groceries). No matter where I go in Copenhagen, everything is expensive; I've seen music CDs that would be 15 USD max in the U.S. sell for about 150 DKK (Kroner, the Danish currency) - which amounts to roughly 30 USD. That's just outrageous. It seems to work for the Danes, though, since they all maintain stable and roughly equal standards of living.

On Sunday, I woke up early and went with Jill and her roommate Karina on a tour of Frederiksborg Palace, which built by King Frederik II in the 16th century and was home of the Danish royal family through the 19th century. We barely missed a guided tour of the palace, but we explored on our own for a while and got to check out every room of the palace that was open to the public. The palace was mostly filled with paintings of Danish royalty and famous events in Danish history, plus a collection of gaudy furniture and old astrological equipment - but sections of the ground and top floors were set aside as gallery spaces that were used for displaying artwork commemorating important figures in modern Danish politics and culture. We also happened to meet a few other people from our class at the palace, and afterward we grabbed some food at a local pølse stand (pølse is the signature Danish hotdog) before heading back to Hoffmans by S-tog. Later I just chilled in the room for a while and got some reading done.

The Facade of Frederiksborg Castle

The next day wasn't too eventful; in class a guest lecturer same in and explained the theories behind narrative psychology - a field of psychology that looks into the ways that people describe their life stories - and discussed how this field could be used to explore the positive qualities of people's lives. Everyone in the class then ended up participating in a workshop where we used narrative psychology techniques to consider ways that problems in people's lives that could be improved. During a break I chatted with a few guys form my class who had visited Berlin the past weekend an asked them about their trip, and after class me and a group of my classmates checked out some shops downtown. Afterward I browsed around for a while, headed back to my Kollegium, and grabbed some groceries from Netto. Later I studied at the park near Hoffmans and chatted with a girl named Nadia who lives  few floors up from me, then afterward a girl named Theresa who also lives here showed me how to get onto the roof of the Kollegium. It's so tight. From now on, I'll probably get most of my studies done up here!

The View from the Hoffmans Roof

(And yes, I'm currently writing this blog update from the roof. The view of Brønshøj - the suburb where Hoffmans Minde is located - is phenomenal.)

Distortion (Part 2)

The only thing I can say to preface this update is: Distortion was SICK!

Early on Thursday I went with a few girls from Hoffmans (Erin, Juliana, Vivian, and Theresa) and a guy  named Sanjay from the French Alps to walk around the city and explore. We stopped by the entrance to Christiania, a politically and socially autonomous community in downtown Copenhagen where squatters took over an old military area. We explored a bit but felt slightyl sketched out, so we left pretty quickly after finding food. I had a great time getting to know them all better, and talked for a while with Sanjay about how he compared his experiences in France and Denmark. Later, after knowing what to expect from Distortion on the first night, I went downtown with Jill, Katie, and Ashley again on Thursday. There wasn't as much going on during the daytime; again, there were live DJ sets and plenty of hipsters, but since we arrived later than the day before we didn't get the chance to check as many out. Later in the night we hopped between a club called Rust and a Latin dance club and had a pretty great time at both. Rust was definitely the better venue, though - with two floors and a better variety of music, it was awesome. Unfortunately it was pretty packed for most of the time, and I swear we spent a solid 10 minutes just trying to wedge our way through the crowd up the stairs to the upper floor.

Me and the Others at the Entrance to Christiania 

The next day, I got the chance to explore the park near my Kollegium better while getting some jogging in. After hanging around Hoffmans for a while, I headed to the King's Gardens to chill with Kyle, Ryan, Hirsch, Tom, a friend of Hirsch's who was visiting for a few days, and a guy from Boston that I'd met earlier named Tim. We all had a great time just hanging out and joking, then after a while met up with Ravy, grabbed some pizza, and headed to the location of Distortion for that night. The first few DJs we visited weren't the best, but after a while we found one we liked. At first, we tried dancing and waited for girls to approach us, but once that strategy proved ineffective Tom and Ryan straight up grabbed a few girls' hands and told them, "Dance with us!" After about 30 seconds of dancing, the girls ran away as fast as they could! It was by far one of the funniest things that had happened since I'd been in Europe. A few minutes later we approached a group of girls with a bit more subtlety, but they also scattered quickly; it seems that European girls' ideas of having a good time are different than American girls'. Later in the night we met a few other girls from Hoffmans, then while they stayed downtown we went back to the Kollegium. I, however, got separated from the rest of the group by accidentally getting on the wrong bus. While waiting for the bus back to Hoffmans I met a Danish student who was one of the friendliest Danes I had met so far. We chatted for a while on the bus, then finally I arrived at Hoffmans and crashed for the night.

Me, Ashley, Jill, and Katie at Distortion

On Saturday I hung around Hoffmans for a while, then headed back downtown with Katie and Ashley for the final Distortion events (Jill wasn't feeling well so she stayed in). This night, it was located in the old meat-packing sector of the city - so a lot of the events were in renovated industrial areas, which added a lot to the atmosphere. There were a lot of awesome things to check out - for example, there was a set blasting hardcore German electronic music, a reggae DJ who tossed out free shirts and whistles, a laser-light rave dancefloor set up in a gym, a huge electronica concert in an old warehouse, and a pool set up with neon lights and music. It was by far the best night I've spent in Europe so far. However, I sadly lost my brand-new pair of boat shoes after I left them outside the pool - which definitely put a damper on the night when it came time to leave.

Phoneless in Copenhagen, Plus Distortion (Part 1)

Normally, DIS provides all of its students with free phones to help offset the costs of international calling. However, since a DIS representative didn't pick me up from the airport, I missed the session where the phones were handed out. So ever since I've been here, it's been tough to communicate with anyone outside my Kollegium or my class. I've definitely managed to get by, but it's been a week since I've ordered a new phone and still no response. I guess I'll just have to stick with it and hope that phone gets here in the next few days.

A Windmill at Kastellet

On Monday, class wasn't much different from what I'd experienced in the past - however, our professor openly admitted to the class that this was her first time teaching (in either Danish or English). This really didn't come as a shock to me or any of my other classmates; although the professor always seemed very friendly and well-meaning, we could all tell that she wasn't very confident at directing class discussion or teaching the material. At least the simplicity of the class made sense to us now. After class, I browsed around the city with a few of my classmates - Ilya, Chris (the guy who had gone to Lakota East), Caroline, Gabby, Nia, and a few others - and we all went on a scenic tour of Copenhagen's canal system. One of the main highlights of the tour was a waterfront view of The Little Mermaid, a bronze statue based upon Hans Christian Anderson's tale of the same name. After the tour, we all grabbed dinner from a respectable restaurant on Copenhagen's main pedestrian street and then parted ways. I returned to Hoffmans, grabbed a quick dinner, then explored the park near the Kollegium and ran a few laps before heading in for the night.

A View of Copenhagen's Canals

The next day, a guest lecturer taught our class; he was hella better at teaching than our usual professor, and every girl in the class was captivated by his suave charm. After class, I went back to Hoffmans and grabbed a few necessities from the local Netto with Jill, then made a hearty dinner of rice and eggs. Later in the night I tried to meet up with some other people at another Kollegium, but the directions I got from a Copenhagen local proved to be faulty and took me in the OPPOSITE direction of where I wanted to go. By the time I realized I was going in the wrong direction, it was pretty late and I decided to head back to my Kollegium. On the way back, though, I met a kindly old man heading home for the night. In broken English, he told me that he was a cab driver who had just finished his shift and was looking forward to seeing his family that night. He then related to me how he was not allowed to drive his taxi home, but rather was forced to park it in a too-small, dank cellar for reasons of economy. It seems that the high tax rates in Denmark have as much of an impact on its citizens as they do on visiting foreigners.

Christiansborg Palace, House of the Danish Parliament

Yesterday morning, I was awakened by Jill telling me that class was cancelled again. Mentally I shouted a "HELL YEAH" before going back to sleep for a few hours. After waking up, I watched a few episodes of Community on my laptop, got a bit of reading done, then headed down to the park to run a few laps. After doing some laundry, I hung with Jill and a couple other girls from Hoffmans (Katie and Ashley) for a while before we all headed into town to check out Distortion - an annual 5-day celebration of Copenhagen's arts, street life, and club culture. This year it happened to coincide with a 4-day weekend celebrating Ascension Day, so the timing of the festival was impeccable. When we arrived in downtown Copenhagen, entire plazas were jam-packed with hipsters flocking around DJ sets. Seriously, this was the biggest collection of hipsters I'd seen in my entire life. We met a few other people there and checked out a few of the DJ sets, which were really fun. The atmosphere was sick, though as the night wore down and we started visiting clubs, none were really happening. We did manage to meet a Norwegian guy who looked spot-on like Jesus, though; he was extremely amusing and kept asking us why on Earth we'd want to study in Denmark, of all places! We talked to him for a while about his experiences in Denmark and the differences between the Danish and Norwegian languages, then walked around for a while before Jill and I decided to head back.