travel break plans

since my last post i have gone to two FCK soccer games and both were a lot of fun. On sunday we watched FCK beat the defending danish league champs (Aab) 3-0
Last night (weds) we saw them beat another danish team 2-1
we had great seats among some fun fans who stood the whole game and sang songs for the majority of the game
it was a great atmosphere and i can't wait for the next FCK game

i'm the process of trying to finalize my travel break plans. After my one week study tour to london and brussels i have two weeks off. Right now i'm planning on going straight to amsterdam after we finsh in brussels for a few days. Then flying to madrid for about 5 days. After that heading to athens for about another 5 days before heading back to copenhagen to start class again. I'm really excited to be on the road and see more of europe. Any suggestions of interesting things to do/see/whatever while in those cities would be greatly appreciated also.

On saturday i'm going to a social event with my family with an organization that they belong to. I think we are going to a restaurant for lunch and then coming back to our house with everyone for dessert and relaxing. Should be a lot of danish but a fun time.

Also, i'm going on a DIS lead fishing program on sunday, should be a lot of fun to get a little some-what deep sea fishing in. Hopefully the nice weather will hold.

tivoli

Hey everyone,

so, on weds of this week i got to go to Tivoli (an amusement park in Copenhagen) with my creative industries class for a field study. we went at around 11 am and the park was almost emptied so we tried most of the rides including the star flyer (the world's tallest carousal at 80 meters, about 262 feet) and pictured below:
after spending a decent amount of time in tivoli i headed to "Club 36". Club 36 is an after school program for muslim kids to come and do a variety of activities like go on the computer, watch tv, play pool, get help with homework, etc. I went and helped tutor kids with their english and math homework. This turned out to be somewhat difficult, explaining hard math problems can be tough to someone in their second language, but i had a lot of fun and can't wait to go back.

After Club 36 i ended up going back to tivoli (i had an all day wristband) and spent some of the night there with Lynsey and her host family. Tivoli is awesome at night, lights everywhere. I'll try to get some pictures from Lynsey.

Also, i have tickets to the two next FCK games (sunday and weds) and can't wait to go to both.

Friday night i ended up going to a social event with my host parents (someone cancelled at the last minute) We went to the copenhagen main police building and went on a tour (which was in danish) and then headed for dinner at this musuem. The restraunrt was on the 5th floor and had an amazing view of the city. The food was really good and it was a lot of fun to talk to everyone (it was people from my host mom's work.

Also, here is picture i stole from someone with our study tour group outside of Jyske bank.


Also, Abby, Kira, and Erica are coming to Copenhagen in about a week to visit. There are on break from Hebrew U. Should be a good time.

short study tour

so, i just returned this evening (saturday) from my short study tour to western denmark.  It was a lot of fun and it was great to see a different part of the country.  My study tour is with part of the IBE (International Business and Economics) program students.  

We started off the day before we left by visiting the NASDAQ OMX exchange in copenhagen. We got about an hour presentation from someone that works there.  On paper this sounds like a great visit, but it was not at all.  We basically were ushered into a big room and listened to the presentation they give to potential investors by someone who spoke decent english.   we didn't get to see any of the actual exchange and didn't really learn anything that coudln't be found out by reading the company's bio.   

Luckly, past performance was not a good indication of future results and the rest of the visits were interesting, education, and 100x better.  On Thursday we got on a bus on headed to western denmark.  Our first stop was at the Silkeborg Art musuem, which had some really cool modern abstract paintings.   

Next, we headed to Jyske Bank hq's for a presentation and tour.  Jyske bank is the second largest danish bank and is doing some interesting and new things in the field of personal banking.  Their banks are very unique and they have found different ways to package what appears to be simple and boring banking things.  Kind of hard to describe but it is cool what they are doing.  

We stayed in hostels during the trip and the first night we stayed in this little town way out there.  It seemed like a ghost town when we got there at about 7 on thursday night.  But the hostels we stayed at were nice.   

On friday we spent the better part of the morning at Vestas, the worldwide leader in the production of wind turbines.  They are rapidly expanding (they hope to double in size in three years) due to the massive surge in demand for alternative energy.  We got an in-depth tour of the factory that they build part of the turbines in and that was really cool.  Due to their rapid expansion they were not subtle about their opening of a plant in america and their need for more employees.  It sounds like an interesting and fast moving field to be in.

After vestas, we visited the north sea for a short amount of time and headed to our next hostel.  After dinner, we went to one of the strangest things i have ever witnessed.  It was "The beach boys in the wild west" production.  they sang parts of beach boys songs but in a wild west style.  for the first half they were dressed as cowboys and in the second half as indians  (but very politicaly incorrect)       it was crazy stuff with lots of "flying" people and musicans.  so that was different.

On saturday we went to Odense (the third largest city in denmark) and the city where Hans Christian Anderson was born.  We took a tour, had lunch, and explored the town on our own for a while.  after that we headed back to copenhagen

yeah, so i had a great time and it was fun to get to know the people in my group better.  i'm really excited for the week study tour in october to london and brussels, it should be a great time.   well, i'm really tired from all the traveling, adventures, and all around shenanigans.   Also, i'll try to steal some pictures from people on the trip and post them on here for you guys to see.  And on a sadder note, the FCK soccer game on sunday got moved until later in the month, so tomorrow i will be biking to a beer festival with my host family.  And i'm going to Tivoli (the amusement park) on weds with my creative industries for an "experience economy" assignment.   

some picture from the Brondby-FCK game and some stories

Here are a couple of pics from the brondby-fck game that lynsey took and was awesome enough to let me post on here.  

so, this past weekend was a lot of fun

friday night, irene, lynsey, and I prepared a huge meal at lynsey's house for her host family

the food turned out great and it was a lot of fun meeting lynsey's host family even through i spilled my glass of wine all over the table while trying to pass the bowl of chicken.  

On saturday my host family took me north to a big castle called Kronborg.  It was very cool to see the huge castle, we got to explore the underground tunnels that connected the castle and the view from the castle was great, you can see sweden across the water  (its about half a mile away).  After we saw everything at the castle we walked around town and had some famous ice cream (i'm not sure why its "famous"  but it is)

sunday morning i went with my host family to a birthday friend (one of oliver's friends).  It was a lot of fun, ate a lot of food and played lawn hockey  (like street hockey but with a wiffle ball and on grass)

The first study tour (the short one)  starts on thursday morning and goes until saturday night.  We will be touring western denmark and staying in hostels.  I think we are going to a couple business meetings, a museum, and the north shore.  I'm excited to see the denmark that resides outside of copenhagen.

I was going to try to play soccer for a copenhagen men's club but am not going to continue because the 90 minute one way commute was too long and it didn't fit into my schedule well

However, once ramadan is done i will be coaching a kids soccer team with kids from the middle east.  I am very excited for that because there are some negative attitudes towards muslims in denmark for a variety of reasons and immigration is a very hot and divided topic here.  Since they dont' play during ramadan, i will volunteer at an after school program for kids that are having trouble fitting in.  I will help with boxing and tutor kids in english.  I haven't gone yet, but am also excited for that.

and we have been playing a lot of wii sports and now we have two controls which makes it a lot more fun

oliver is really good but i finally beat him in bowling once

for the past couple of nights we have been playing a couple of games of bowling with the whole family which has been great

that's all for now

first picture from denmark

Here is the link to the first few pictures I took in denmark before my camera stopped working:

First Pictures  

also, the title of my blog  "Denmark? That's in North Dakota right?"  is the question that i was asked while getting my haircut in Bemidji

Everyone thinks i'm danish

This is my first attempt at posting on my blog, i'm at the DIS (Danish institute for study abroad) library so i won't be able to post pics right now. Also, my camera is broken at the moment and therefore i won't be posting my pictures until i figure that out.

So i got into copenhagen about a week ago, the flight went great. I am living with a host family in the suburbs. My host parents are Bo and Tine and they have an 11 year old son named Oliver. Oliver just got a Wii and plays it all the time, its a lot of fun and i play it with him sometimes. The family is really cool and have a nice house, its not very big, but i like it.

I had orienation for the first couple days, they showed us around downtown and stuff, i took a few pics while my camera was still working. Downtown has a good setup, they have a few walking only streets with a lot of cool shops. About a third of the population bikes every day in denmark so they are bikes everywhere, it took a little getting used to.

The suburb i live in is about a thirty minute train ride or so from the city but right now the train station by my house is being repaired or somethign and i have to take a bus to another train line. Now it takes me almost an hour to get into the city.

Due to my blonde hair, somewhat blue eyes, and nordic looks all the danes here think i'm danish until i talk. A bunch of people have started talking to me on the bus in danish and in other places. The worst was on sunday when i was in a netto (a groccery store), wearing a white soccer jersey, and a guy comes up to me and asks, in danish;
`where is the spagetti?´
so i tell him i don't speak danish, only english and he is really surpised
so he asks in english, where is the spagetti?´
i tell him i don't work here and then some lady comes up to me and is like you work here?

wow, i'm writing a lot, i will have to save some stories for the next post and try to not ramble as much

On saturday, my host family had a big party and i got to hang out, eat, and drink all day with the extended family. It was so much fun and we played soccer for a few minutes with everyone, it was a great day, i ate so much food i couldn't move by the end of the day

On sunday, we went to the biggest soccer rivalry in denmark (fc copenhagen vs brøndby)
they are both copenhagen teams and they hate each other
i went with five people and we cheered for fc copenhagen even through the game was at brøndby, which was a dangerous thing to do
over a hunderd people were arrested before the game started
the fc copenhagen section was fenced off from the rest of the seats and with security surrounding it
and a couple guys spit on lynsey and I while we were walking outside the stadium (we were wearing fc copenhagen jerseys) so it was pretty crazy
unfortunately brønby won 1-0 but it was fun to go to a game that people cared so much about

well i need to go meet my survial danish class for dinner so i will write more later and post some pictures when i get the chance