"Welcome to my Crib" and the Weekend Saga

We have officially moved to the new house in Bendstrup, which is one (or maybe two) village(s) away from Hillerød. The new house is beautiful (I'll figure out putting pictures up on blogspot very soon I assure you), and once I get my bike situation figured out the commute should only be 10 or 15 minutes longer than the commute from Gørløse.

My 14 year old host brother Kristian is really enjoying the new house and all of the space in the garden (which may or may not be related to his newfound freedom to engage in airsoft gun usage at his leisure) and has taken to walking out the front door and in very convincing MTV style proclaiming "Welcome to my Crib" with his arms spread open iin an expression that 50-cent would be proud of.

The move was quite an event, involving multiple trips with very full trailers behind a car borrowed from one of the teachers at Ingrid's school and one trip with a very full truck (I can never remember the name of the types of trucks that are bigger than pick-ups and smaller than 18-wheelers, but it was one of those) and a lot of loading and unloading. Things are not all unpacked and put away yet, but we're making progress.


My things, on the other hand, are, for the first time since arriving in Denmark, all put in their proper spot. I even unpacked my bag of Winterish clothes and found space for them in my closet. All of my bags (save my backpack) are now entirely empty and living under my bed. I didn't realize how much I was stressing about not having put all of my things away until I actually did it. Finishing that task was like having a weight lifted from my shoulders.


The weekend was not all moving from Gørløse to Bendstrup, though. On friday, DIS sent us all on a canal tour through Copenhagen, which yielded many wonderful photos (including a picture of the Little Mermaid that my sister Elizabeth was dying to see...) which will be up on facebook sometime this week. Also that evening there was a dinner for all of the students in my program (International Business and Economics) at RizRaz, a local vegetarian buffet. The food was fair, but it was a fun experience and the beer was outstanding and (this is a rarity in Denmark) FREE! That evening, there was a DIS welcome party at a København night club (I now refuse to call it Copenhagen...it immediately identifies you as a tourist) called K-3 which was fun, but had a bit of an awkward combination between a middle school dance gone horribly awry (imagine fueling one of those with copious amounts of relatively affordable alcohol) and a freshman mixer. I was not altogether disappointed to have my commute as an excuse to beat a hasty exit as the clock struck 11:30. I managed to get myself on the last train of the evening to my small community, and fell asleep early enough to pay off a good deal of my sleep debt from the previous week overnight.

On Saturday I went into the city with Carsten, Jonathan, and Jakob to watch the Christianhavn Roundt, a two kilometer swim in the center of Copenhagen. This was noteworthy for a couple of reasons. First off, Carsten competed and finished with a very good time of under 35 minutes. Second, I find it remarkable that the harbors and canals within Copenhagen are all completely swimmable. I think I might jump in at some point just to say that I did it. Maybe the day before I leave (towards the end of December) if I'm really brave.

That evening, after unloading a bunch of stuff, our lack of kitchen supplies led us to a meal at an American legend: McDonalds. I almost cried while I was ordering (hyperbole again...maybe that will be this blog's theme, we shall have to see) because I didn't understand the whole process of ordering fast food in Denmark. Fortunately, the girl taking my order (and most people over the age of 13 here as well) spoke excellent English and was very patient with me, even though there was a line developing behind me. You could cut the irony of an American's inability to order at McDonalds with knife.

The next morning I woke up around 10:30 (I guess I hadn't paid all of my sleep debt the night before), unfortunately having slept through breakfast. I made myself a breakfast sandwich and did some reading for my Monday and Tuesday classes while the Wredstrøms were at church. That afternoon, I went to a soccer match at the biggest stadium in Denmark, called Parken. The match was between F.C. København and Brønby IF, which is a huge rivalry. The fans were really into it, and from our seats we had a good view of the action on the field and in the stands. I personally would have liked to have been down in the middle of things, but I can see DIS's perspective that it might be better for us to have a bit of a buffer from the true hardcore supporters of either side. I know I'm promising a lot today and not really delivering much, but I'll put up a link to photos of the match by the middle of this week.

So now I start week two. I've gotten settled in for the most part, although I need to redefine my routine slightly to figure out my new commute (which will involve a bike, a bus, a train, and walking). This week will be the first "normal week" with classes four days and Wednesday off (no field study this week). It will be a good opportunity to get into the flow of Denmark and start to get a feel for how the semester is going to be.

That's all for now, but keep checking back for the photo links and further updates! Per request of some of you, the next set of photos will include photos of my host family and the place that I'm living...

A few upcoming dates that I'm looking forward to:

September 10-12: Short Study Tour to the city of Århus in Jutland (Western Island of Denmark).

September 20: H.C. Andersen Marathon in Odense

October 11-17: Long Study Tour to Brussels, Belgium and Frankfurt, Germany

November 1-7: Travel Break (I need couches in Europe...anybody offering?)

November 8-15: Travel Break Part II-Crete with the Parentals!

"The Danish Way"--Transportation

My first week in Denmark has come and (not quite I guess) gone. Although I'm planning on waiting until this weekend at the earliest to post another "life update" post, even though I know that most of my readers never tire of them.

Today I wanted to start a new series of blog posts that I hope to continue throughout the semester entitled "The Danish Way," looking at particular aspects of Danish society through the lens of a transplanted American. Maybe this will become a weekly event...we'll have to wait and see. The first post of this type will focus on an issue very near and dear to me, given my long commute each day: transportation.

In a word: easy. In two words: easy and clean. The most common way of traveling around the greater Copenhagen area seems to be a combination of a bike and public transportation. The public transportation system is a combination of busses, trains, and a subway. For example, for my commute into Copenhagen, I have the option of walking 10 minutes to my local bus stop and taking a bus to the train station one town over (which comes every ten minutes and takes roughly 18 minutes) or walking 10 minutes to my local train station, taking the 8 minute train (that comes each half-hour) to that same station one town over. At that station, I get on what's called an S-train that takes me directly into the center of Copenhagen in about 37 minutes. I then walk about ten minutes down Nørregade to Vestergade, the street that my classes are located on. All told, my door-to-door commute is roughly 70 minutes. In a car, driving the same distance would most likely take about 50 minutes, so it is a little bit slower, taking the extra 20 minutes to avoid the hassle of parking in Copenhagen is worth it. Also, given the price of Petrol in Denmark (roughly 10 dkk or $2 per liter), my $550 train pass (called an "alle-zoner," meaning I can pretty much go anywhere on any public transportation in the greater Copenhagen area) starts to look like a bargain.

The S-train is clean and quiet. Most of the time you can find a seat if you are willing to park yourself three-across on the bench, and if you go at off-peak times it's possible to find a bench to yourself. The S-trains (there are 5 lines I think) run mainly north to south through the city (underground once you get inside city limits). A few years ago, Copenhagen opened its brand new Metro system, an east-west Subway. Although my commute doesn't call for the use of it, I have been on the trains, and they are also clean and quiet and are a very quick way to get around the city. In addition, every train runs EXACTLY on schedule. Don't be a minute late trying to catch a train...it won't be there anymore.

The bus system is relatively easy to use (and I'm sure it would be easier if I spoke Danish), and the busses go all around the city at very frequent intervals. I haven't been on one of the ground busses yet, but they do appear to not run quite as punctually as the trains. One cool addition to the bus system is line 901-902-903, also known as the "harbor bus" brings people along the harbor from the Black Diamond to Nyhavn to the Opera House and beyond! It's a way to literally be "on a boat" while taking public transportation.

For those Danes who live relatively close to the city, a popular tranportation option is biking. In fact, there are significantly more bikes than cars in the city. It is not an uncommon sight to see a man in a full business suit or a woman in a dress and high-heels riding their bike past you on their way to work in the morning. This results in a large number of bikes parked in the city and a large reduction in the amount of traffic that one encounters while trying to navigate the streets. In reality, I am far more concerned about being hit by a bike than a car during my daily commute.

There are a lot of advantages to the Danish system of transportation, and I want to encourage all of you reading this who do not use a bike or public transportation to give it a try in the coming months!

Classes Tomorrow...First Lesson? Procrastination!

Danish word of the day: "Undskynd" (Sounds sort of like "Oondskoond")-Literally means sorry, but can also be used as a type of "excuse me" after the fact. This was the subject of my first interaction conducted solely in Danish which occured the day that I learned how to say this particular word. It probably wasn't all that remarkable of an interaction, but I was excited. A woman bumped into me in the train station as I was making my way to the train on my way home, we both looked at each other and simultaneously muttered (quite quietly) "Undskynd." That was all, and we were both on our way. Now this is noteworthy for a couple of reasons. First off, I spoke and understood an entire conversation in Danish! (Not a long conversation, granted, but I was pleased with the accomplishment.) Second, when we finished conversing with each other (conversing is probably hyperbolic, but you get the drift), I did not recieve the "oh that's cute that an American is trying to learn our language" look. On the whole, I was pleased.

Quote of the day: "This teacher is trying to torture me!"-Uttered by my host brother Jakob after discovering that his IB English teacher had assigned an entire chapter of (drum roll please) Harry Potter. Needless to say, I had to convince him that this was not an issue that would be considered torture by the Geneva conventions and that most Americans (Grades 3 through Graduate Students) would kill to have that as a homework assignement.

As for my previous post about how I wasn't going to post today, my options consisted of starting my reading that's due on friday, organizing my calendar, gathering all of the things I need for the next couple of days into my bookbag, surfing the net, or posting on hovsatak. Luckily for all of you, posting won out.

I hope you all had a chance to look at the pictures that I linked to. I think if anybody wants to become a better photographer, at least of things like buildings, by far the easiest solution is to go to a location that has some of the most magnificent examples of architecture (from all sorts of different periods). Unfortunately, the high quality (and therefore large file size) of the pictures I'm taking prohibits me from putting them up on blogspot, so it's up to you to click through (or copy-paste) the link below to access the pictures that I put up.

Anways, I've been very busy since my last post. Yesterday, we had a couple of meetings in the morning and then the afternoon was spent learning cool Danish words like "Undskynd" and "Jeg hedder Nat." Don't bother trying to pronounce either of them--Danish could never pass itself off as a phonetic language. That afternoon, I rode the train home, and saw my first example of a rainy Denmarkian afternoon. It started to sprinkle just as I got off the train in the town that I live in (Gørløse) and packing my umbrella to the city with me every day finally paid off as I was able to get it out just before the heavens opened.

The rain slowed to a drizzle in time for me to take a bike ride through the forest with Jakob (good thing he was there or I would still be trying to navigate my way back). It was a great time, and really made me appreciate the fact that I was lucky enough to be placed up in the country where doing things like that is possible.

After that, I had a delicious dinner of Durum, made my standard calls to the states, thought about doing some reading for class on friday (didn't actually end up opening a book--denial and all), and headed to bed.

This morning I woke up at 6:40 (the latest I will be able to sleep on a weekday now for quite a while I do believe), and made my way to town via the 7:38 train from the Gørløse station, getting to Copenhagen in with enough time to get lost trying to find Sopheya (a student from Brown who happens to be in my Danish class and live in the next town over) a cup of coffee while still arriving at the meeting place for our morning activity just barely after the designated time.

That activity was a scavenger hunt through Copenhagen! It was so much fun! We started by going to a very large department store, went from there to parliament, then to the harbor bus (pretty much the coolest thing ever in my opinion), then to the Royal Theater, then to the Royal Gardens, and finally to Trinity Church. There is so much to see in Copenhagen that I feel like it will take most of the semester just to give half of the destinations the time that they deserve. I will put in a good effort to see (and photograph) most of them though!

This afternoon we had our first meeting with our core course professors. Jørn will spend the next four months attempting to teach me the economic theories of globalization. I am really excited for that class. Although it appears that a few of the students are simply in it to get some credit toward their major (read: will not be putting in a ton of effort), hopefully discussion and all will still be somewhat lively in class. Looking over the syllabus, the class is better than I could have possibly imagined. When I signed up for it (and you have to promise to not tell Dean McKeon this), I had done almost no research on what the class would be like, but looking through the syllabus and the readings, it appears that the class will be covering almost entirely things that I have never learned before and that should for the most part be very interesting. Plus we get to go to Brussels, Belgium and Frankfurt, Germany in October to examine the Economics and Business of Climate Change.

After class, I made it home in time to have a lively discussion with Ingrid about the differences between and intricacies of the Danish and American political systems before she and the boys left for a road race in Hillerød. While they were gone I ventured back into the woods alone to attempt and find a decent route over which I could do some 4x8 intervals. Succeeding in not getting lost, I returned in time to get a quick shower before a late dinner. Now it's getting dark and I'm getting sleepy, and I believe I will call this it for this particular update.

I hope everything is going as well for you in the states as it is going for me here!

Good Night!

Notable Upcoming Events:

Tomorrow: Classes Start

Friday: IBE_E (My program) Dinner and the DIS Welcome Party in Copenhagen

Saturday: Moving to the new house

Sunday: Football (Soccer) game in Copenhagen--FC København vs. Brømby--The Red Sox-Yankees Rivalry of Danish Football!

Photos added to Facebook

No post today...here's a link to some photos I put up on facebook...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017665&id=1217580118&l=b72e40cb6d

In Denmark, May the Shenanigans Commence

Quote of the day:

Christina (Danish Language and Culture Prof): "This is Tiger, it's a sort of 'everything for 10 kroner' (roughly 2 dollars) store."

Student: "Sort of like a United States 99 cent store."

Christina: "Except that you can't buy anything in Denmark for 99 cents."

Today was my first full day in Denmark. I arrived yesterday morning and met up with my host family (more on that later). After a brief drive through Copenhagen, we drove the 40km north to Gorlose (the o's have slashes through them and it's pronounced Guhrluhseh), the small town that I'll be living in for this week (more on that later as well). After unpacking most of my stuff in my room, I spent some time relaxing with my hosts and then we went for a drive.

We drove to the location of my host family's new house, into which we will be moving next week. I'm not sure of all of the details yet, but the new house is beautiful, with a large lawn and loads of space. It should only add about ten minutes to my commute.

This morning I awoke at 6pm, massively jetlagged. It didn't help that I looked at my watch in the morning, having not remembering to change it from Eastern time, and saw that it was still shortly after midnight in the time zone where I had spent the vast majority of the last 15 years. I was tired, and I felt it all day.

The first event of the day was at 9:00 at the Black Diamond (Denmark's Royal Library), in Copenhagen. To get there, I walked 10 minutes to a train, took a train for 8 minutes, transfered trains, took the second train for 45 minutes, and then walked another 25 minutes (from what was not, in hindsight, the closest possible train station to the Black Diamond). It seems long, but once I start having work to do, it will provide a good opportunity to crack a book and maybe actually do some work while I'm over here.

The black diamond gets its name from it's remarkable color and shape. It is truly a beautiful building and an example of modern architecture done right that good rival even that of the '62 Center. While we were there, we had our Opening Ceremony, which included a few speeches and more than a few examples of attempted humor gone wrong, and a performance by a Wind Quintet which was quite good.

After the ceremony, we had roughly three hours off before our next organized activity. I took advantage of this time to find a Danish sim card for my cell phone (which actually works over here!) It's wicked expensive, so I'm not going to post the number here, but if you would like to know what it is, shoot me an email, and I'll decide whether or not you're worth it...

I then picked up all of my books, which are rented to us by DIS at no cost. Truly a wonderful service, and I have no idea why Williams can't manage to pull off a system like that given it's close to $2 billion endowment. Oh well. After that, I went to lunch, which was a packed pita sandwich, a piece of fruit, and a Carlsberg (my first legally purchased beer) from...I kid you not...the local 7-11.

Copenhagen is strewn with three things I thought I was bound to see less of while I was here: 7-11's, Irish Pubs, and McDonalds. However, the McDonalds here are of a significantly higher quality than in the United States (the wonders of effective food quality regulations) at a significantly higher price.

I was warned how expensive everything would be over here, but I was still not prepared for it. Lunch can easily run you 70 kroner (13 dollars) on the street, and almost certainly more in restaurants. I need to start finding the nooks and crannies and places that offer food on the budget of somebody who has been earning week American dollars for the last 4 months.

After lunch we had our first class. Not an official class, but it was a sort-of crash course in the Danish Language. Danish is going to be very VERY hard to learn, but I'll put in a good faith effort and try to at least pick up some of it.

After that, I got back on the train and went home, where I got a wonderful 9 mile (15km) run through the danish countryside before dinner. Since, I've spoken with the family and a couple of friends (readers?) and done a little bit of reading for a class on friday. Unfortunately, there's much more where that came from. Then I sat down and wrote this novella for the enjoyment of all of you!

Anyways, Denmark so far is amazing. Copenhagen truly is a wonderful city and the country itself is unbelievably beautiful. There are also many aspects of their culture (public transportation, biking, reuseable energy, etc.) that the United States really needs to think about. The ease of getting places is outstanding, and you can now certainly count me among the supporters of Obama's high-speed rail proposal.

I was going to write a little bit about my host family tonight too, but it's closing in on 10:00pm (4:00 your time for most of you) and I'm thinking it's just about time for bed! More to come later!

Contact Info Etc.

This will most likely be my last post stateside, because getting to the internet in Maine is a giant pain in the butt. That being said, I am currently connected (sitting in the Bangor Public Library for those Mainers reading), setting up a webcam with the express purpose of Skyping with friends and family this fall. The vast majority of my communication with people back home will be through Skype, and I am planning on purchasing a plan that allows me to use Skype to call people's cell phones (and landlines, but who has one of those these days) in the states.

For those of you who are tech-savvy enough to have a Skype account, post your Skype name in the comments section of this page and I'll add you to my contacts (mine is nat.hewett). If you don't have Skype, I'll be getting a cell phone that I can use in Denmark once I get there. I'll post the number once I figure out what it's going to be. However, the best (and least expensive) bet for those who want to get in touch with me while I'm abroad is likely sending me an email asking me to call you and giving me a good idea of a couple of times when that would work for you (keeping in mind that I'm 6 hours ahead of east coast time and will be on a train at 7:15 every morning).

I do want to stay in contact with my friends who are stateside (or any other place in the world I guess), while I'm abroad, so don't hesitate to Skype me at odd hours or send me an email (nkh1@williams.edu) or facebook me to set up a time when we can talk! I hope everybody enjoys their semester and I'll see most of you for Winter Study!

Welcome to hovsatak...

So, I'm off to Denmark two weeks from today, and I figured that I'd blog about it both as a way to let others no what goings-on there are in Scandinavia and as a way to remember the semester when I get back. I make no promises about posting regularly, and there is at least a 12% chance that this post will be both the first and last one on this blog, but I will try to at least update it weekly.

For those of you who are curious regarding the name of the blog, "hovsatak" is a combination of the only two words of Danish I know. Hovsa means "oops" and tak means "thank you." I figure between the two of those, I should pretty much have all of my bases covered.