My first experiences in Denmark

Hello world!

I'm in Kongens Lyngby, Denmark. Weird huh? I'm still getting used to the thought of it.

Welcome to my blog! I'm hoping to update somewhat regularly during my stay in Denmark. My goal is to entertain and inform those who take the time to read this. It's my first time doing something like this though, so bear with me. It'll get better!

I've been in Denmark for a little over a week and a half now, and its been one of the most intense experiences of my life. I've met a lot of cool people, and have seen a lot of really cool things (I might incorporate pictures into these posts eventually, but I also plan on uploading pictures onto facebook. If you want to see what I've seen and don't have a facebook let me know and I'll get them to you another way).

I guess I'll start from the beginning...

After 12 hours of traveling, I finally arrived in Denmark, only to find it to be foggy and cold, not really a warm reception. I found my room at the PO Pedersen Kollegiet well enough, although figuring out how to get somewhere when you don't understand the street signs is a fairly frustrating experience. Here I have my own bedroom and bathroom and share a kitchen with 11 other students staying at POP. My kitchenmates aren't exchange students, so they've provided a different view into Danish life that I wouldn't have received otherwise.

My first week here consisted of an introduction week put on by the school. They broke us up into groups, gave us stuff to do (such as a scavenger hunt around the campus and a tower building competition) before feeding us and providing entertainment (which consisted of hanging out at the Cellar Bar, which is one of the many bars on the campus). Over the next couple of days I started to forge friendships with my group members and was also introduced to the city of Copenhagen. I went to Copenhagen twice that week. During that time I saw the Amalienborg Palace (where the royal family lives), the Copenhagen Opera House (a magnificent structure located on the water by the palace), the statue of the Little Mermaid (whose story originated in Denmark, who knew?), the Carlsberg Museum (Carlsberg is one of the most popular beer breweries in Europe. The museum included a collection of almost 20,000 different, unopened beer bottles, it was incredible), and the infamous neighborhood of Christianshavn, home of Fristaden Christiania (Freetown Christriana). Christiana is a self-proclaimed free state which contains a very interesting culture of people. They somewhat govern themselves, and everything is owned by all the residents of the town. People build their own houses, and there are some extremely beautiful houses there. Its also a very artsy community, and contains extensive, artistic graffiti and sculptures made by the locals (I'd consider the houses works of art, also).

Its my hope that when the time comes and I head home that I've extensively explored and photographically recorded Copenhagen, so stay posted for other cool stuff I find and see. I also hope to travel to other countries while I'm here, so I'll talk about those experiences when they happen.

Classes started this past Monday, and went well for the most part. I'm taking Energy End-Use Savings in the Environment, Sustainable Heating and Cooling in Buildings, Structural Design, Introduction to Nanotechnology, and Dynamics of Structures. The first four went well, and I'm really excited to learn what the classes are about. Asides from structural design I haven't taken any classes like these ones. The last class (Dynamics) didn't go so hot, and I think I'm going to drop it in favor of a math class, but I'm not sure yet.

The teaching style/ class set up is really different compared to UW. Back home I'm used to being in a certain class up to 4 times a week (between lectures and discussion sections). Here classes only meet once a week for a 4 hour period and consist of lecture, and exercises, usually done in groups. We're not really taught how to do problems here. The professors teach us the material, then have us work on the exercises on our own (well, in groups actually) and answer questions if we have any. This difference in teaching style will probably be the most difficult thing about my classes, as i don't see any of my classes being all that difficult (assuming i switch out of Dynamics).

I've loved Denmark so far, but I miss home. Homesickness has been something that's been more difficult for me to deal with than I expected (so all you reading this, know I'm thinking about you and I wish you were here with me!). Slowly but surely its getting better though. As classes get going, friendships form, and I develop a routine it'll get easier. It just takes time (at least that's what i tell myself, I've never been good at the whole patience thing).

I think that's enough for now. Thanks for reading if you made it through the whole thing! I'm sure it wasn't all that exciting, but I'm hoping to have a lot of awesome experiences when I'm over here, so those should be more entertaining when I get around to documenting them.

If you want to know about anything specific just let me know! I'll either respond to you or talk about it in a later blog post (if I think others will find it interesting).

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after previewing the post I realize its a huge wall of text, so thank you again if you did manage to make it all the way through, I promise future installments will either be shorter or contain pictures to make it easier to read)
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Peace and Love from Denmark

Matt