Christianhavn, Denmark

Hello Friends,

I changed my current city from Spartanburg to Copenhagen today on facebook, it hit me hard then, would I really be spending my next four months in a typical European city? The answer is YES and I am sure my semester is going to be adventurous, and full of joys. The fact is that I am getting used to it, I am getting used to seeing everybody on the bike, I am getting used to see (Danish) words, which I can’t translate and I am getting used to shopping in much smaller stores. It is different here, in fact it is very different here than the US but I like the change.

We had a bright nice sunny day today, which does not happen very often in Denmark. Next to my dorm is a lake, which is frozen now a days, today people came out to enjoy the sun and they were walking on the lake. (I thought that was so cool and I tried to take some pictures from my kitchen window because I was lazy to go down at the lake).

Many of my friends have started going to see their friends all over the Europe (usually Prague and Sweden) on the weekends. My friend’s brother came to see her from Germnay. It was his first time in Copenhagen (like all of us) so we decided to go out. We went to Christiania, which is a small “hippie town” in Copenhagen. If you ever go to Copenhagen, your tour does not complete without seeing this place. Christiania is different than rest of the Copenhagen city. There is a special entrance to the place, it is cool to walk around, explore the streets and see small houses with horses and dogs. These people have their own lifestyle; they tend not to get really involved with outside people. We saw some shops in the streets with food, clothes and other necessities. People were very artistic in Christiania. We saw a lot of art around the streets but cameras were not allowed there so I could not take any pictures.

My classes are picking up the speed, we have started working on papers and presentations already but we still have weekends to enjoy and explore. DIS schedules several short tours on the weekends, which go all over Denmark. They are really cheap and a lot of students take advantage of them.

We are going on our short study tour on Thursday; it is a three-day tour of Western Denmark. I am very much looking forward to it.

Its time for me to get back to my studies, I have my first paper due this Tuesday but I have not started working on it yet (typical me). Hopefully, I would get it done on time.

Hej Hej (bye).

Berlin and Prague!

Week of 24.01.2011

On Sunday, some friends and I hiked throughout the Black Forest. It was absolutely spectacular! Many families were taking advantage of the crisp, beautiful weather. We stumbled upon a viewing tower that overlooked all of Freiburg. From the post we could see our dorm location, the stadium, the Munster Cathedral, and other major Freiburg sites. That evening I attended mass at the Munster Cathedral. I enjoyed haphazardly singing the hymns in German and tried very hard to understand the sermon. Unfortunately the only thing I could understand was amen and a few other words.

Early Monday morning was the beginning of the Berlin and Prague field study trip. As soon as we arrived at our hostel in Berlin and set down our luggage, we hit the streets for a city walk focusing on the post-war history. Our trip included Check Point Charlie, the Berlin Wall, the sight of Hitler’s death, several communist buildings, and the Jewish Memorial. Our next two days in Berlin I was able to visit the Reichstag, World Time Clock, Aqua dome, Berlin Zoo, Topography Museum of Terror, the Jewish Memorial Museum, Wilhelm Memorial Church, Lego Land, the former prison of the GDR ‘Stasi’, and more. There was so much to see and do! My favorite time in Berlin was enjoying kaffee and kuchen at the Opernpalais. The Opernpalais is a very nice café with the longest dessert bar in Europe (thank you Rick Steeves for the suggestion). They have over 50 cakes to choose from, including a chocolate mousse torte (it was very, very good!).

Berlin is definitely a place worth visiting. The grand scale of buildings (new and old), the history of the East and West under communism and socialism, and the reconstruction of a city in 20 years amazed me. Berlin is less expensive to live in than Freiburg, Munich, Hamburg, and other larger cities in Germany, so many students and artists populate Berlin. It is also very international- English is widely spoken and you see Vietnamese, Singaporean, Turkish, Italian, Mexican, and Portuguese restaurants within several blocks of each other. I enjoyed Berlin, but it was also a little depressing and eerily quiet after 9:00 pm.

Early Thursday we left Berlin main station for Prague. Once again we had a city walk with a focus on the Communist Era and architecture. As soon as our tour finished, we ate a typical Czech meal and grabbed a show at the Smetana concert hall. I had a wonderful time at the Smetana concert hall with several friends. We were entertained for about 2 ½ by the renounced Czech orchestra and famous pianist. It was an incredible show!

After seeing the devastation of Berlin in certain areas I was amazed that Prague had so many beautiful old, restored buildings that date back to the 17^th and 18^th century. I honestly don’t know much about Prague, but we made the most of our short 1½ days there. The Prague Castle offered a wonderful “short visit” to four buildings, including a gothic cathedral and old church that dates back to 937. The castle overlooked the Charles Bridge and city buildings of Prague. What a sight! I bought two paintings to help me remember how beautiful and spectacular Prague is. I actually felt cheated that I bought a copy of painting, even after I haggled 70% off the original price. So, I went back to a small gallery near the Charles Bridge and bought an original, small work of a Ukrainian artist who resides in Prague. His work is spectacular. I’m very excited to hang them both in my white room; it will be more colorful!

I am so grateful for the opportunity to travel within the program and visit sights that I have never seen before. Every day brings something new, exciting, and different!

Vienna: Week 2 Photos

*Prater


*Prater


*Prater Ferriswheel

*Hofburg

*Museum Quarter

*Stephansdom

*Parlament

*Parlament

*Wiener Eistraum at the Rathaus

*Bikes are everywhere, and I really want one for when it gets a tad warmer.

*Our apartment building!

Vienna: Week 2

Okay, so first of all I am about to explode because I am so full right now. Today I went to the nachtmart with 2 of my roommates and got a dürüm kebab. Kebabs are the main type of "street food" in Vienna, ther are kebab stands everywhere...even though they are Turkish its a popular and common food to eat here. My kebab was so good, but I am way too full.
I have had a pretty busy week, and seen many of the sights for the first time. Yesterday I went to a kaffeehaus with my German class and had coffee and plum cake, or Zwetschgenkuchen. It is my favorite pastry/cake I have had in Europe, and definitely in my top ten desserts list right behind Krispy Kreme donuts and The Baltimore Bomb at Dangerously Delicious Pies. Apart from learning the standard hello, goodbye, and thank you - kuchen (cake) and kaffee (coffee) were a couple of the first German words I learned...I felt they were neccessities for obvious reasons.
One of my friends who is from Berlin, but a student at Universitat Wien, showed me around yesterday after I got out of class. We went to literally every major tourist sight in the city and I had a blast. We went to the Museum Quarter, the Hofburg Stefansplatz, Prater, and many more places. I pass most of these places on the way to school but I did not realize how much more there was to it all. Prater is basically a big fair, kind of like Conney Island, but it was mostly closed right now. There is a huge ferris-wheel there that tourist love, because you can see so much of Vienna from the top.
Everywhere I went Friday I kept seeing tons of Police, a much larger presence than normal, and a lot of them were wearing extra protective gear and carrying clear sheilds. When my German friend and I got to Stefanplatz we figured out why. All through out Vienna, and many other parts of Europe, people were protesting the situation in Egypt. When we came uo to the Cathedral, we heard chanting and quickly saw a group of protestors. This is about the time that I took the picture on the left of a homelessman. Literally 60 feet behind him were the protestors. It was sort of sad to me that all these people were outraged about the situation in Egypt yet no one noticed one of their own people in need of help right behind them. I have realized I like taking pictures of people (even if I feel a bit creepy doing it). I feel like they are what really tell the story of a place rather than any national monument. Buildings are beautiful, but people matter.
Anyways, after our day of sightseeing my friend and I went to the nachtmart at night and to a nice little kaffeehaus, where we had coffee together before calling it a night. It was cold yesterday and it is extra cold today. I still have a cough and runny nose, undoubtedly thanks to the weather but I absolutely love this city. Vienna is perfect and I could not be happier.

Meeting my Danish host family

Right now, I am having a cup of “green tea”, I can count on my hands and tell you that it is the third time in my life taking green tea. I have decided to do things a little bit differently now that I am in Europe. I have changed my habits of drinking coffee; from now on I would be taking tea and I have replaced peanut butter with “nutella”. (Which I must say is quiet delicious). So, when I went out for my grocery shopping first time with a few friends, we all started looking for Peanut butter. Unfortunately, on our first shopping trip we were disappointed because we could not find any. But yesterday, my friend finally went on hunting for Peanut butter and found one in a super market. It feels really good to have Peanut butter with you while you are here, away from home.

So, this last weekend, I went to see my visiting family. I have a host mom, host dad and a sixteen-year-old host sister. My host dad came to pick me up from the train station, as we had planned earlier. It was a nice ride from station to home, we chatted in our way there. My host mom had prepared me a delicious dinner, which we ate, literally after 5 minutes we got home. Apparently, these people have their dinner really early (around 6 or 6:30 pm). I don’t blame them for that because it gets dark here after 4:30pm. We only have daylight from 9am-4pm. We spent our time chatting on a nice meal. One thing that I learned is that a traditional Danish meal is started off with Entrée and they eat salads/appetizers at the end. After our lovely meal, which included tasty fish, we had home baked cookies with tea. I felt right at home with my host mom and dad, saying good-bye for the day was hard. I did not forget to take a picture of my host family before I departed. It was a fine evening, which came to an end.

It was snowing here last night, these people keep walking on streets whether its snowing or raining, looks like these little things don’t disturb them. I have always loved cold weather (or at least I thought I did) but after having my first ten dark cold days in Copenhagen, I would be glad to see a sunny day.

Vienna: Week 2

When I woke up this morning there was good news and bad news... bad news, my computer is having technical difficulties, and by that I mean it broke (most likely permanently). Good news is, IT SNOWED!
This morning was my first actual snow in Vienna. We didn't get a lot, but it is still beautiful. It's always cold here, mostly because of the wind, but having snow makes the freezing walk home much more pleasant. Luckily, I love cold weather and weirdly that was a big reason why I wanted to study in Vienna. There are a lot of fun things to do in Austria while it's cold...skiing is very popular here as you can imagine. Right now in Kitzbuehel there is a big race going on called, the Hahnenkammrennen. We've been watching it on TV here and it is very easy to get sucked into the races. Since it such a big race its been sold out for weeks, but it is still fun to watch. Arnold Schwarzenegger was supposed to be coming to Austria to see the races, but his father in-law died so he had to cancel his trip...incase you were wondering, Austrians love Arnold. A student asked my teacher if it was true that Austrians did not like him anymore since he signed off on someone being executed while he was the governor of California, and to quote my Professor she said, "oh no VE LOVEEE HIM! All is forgotten now." They are very proud of Arnold here.
Anyways, back to things to do when it's cold in Austria....since we obviously cannot ski in the city, a lot of people would probably think it's pointlessly cold, but it is not at all. Just a couple of days ago the an ice skating rink of sorts opened and will stay open until March. Instead of the standard circular rink we have in America, the Austrian one is in front of city hall. It's normally a park, but during the winter months they turn the sidewalk paths into ice skating paths. It is absolutely gorgeous, especially at night with the lights. I pass it every morning and afternoon coming to and from school; it's one of my favorite places currently.
Since my computer is on the fritz I will have to post my photos a little later, but until then..here are some pictures of our ice skating rink: the Wiener Eistraum http://www.wienereistraum.com/

Exploring Copenhagen

Hej (Hello)

It’s been a week since I came to Denmark but I have not learned a bit Danish yet, I am very much determined to learn it in next coming days though. (I must say, Danish is a little hard; they don’t pronounce the way they write it).

This weekend, things were getting back to normal for me so I had time to wander around the city and shop a little. I went to explore the city with a friend. We went to the Royal Palace, Royal theatre, Opera house, and other cool places. The crown Prince Fredrick of Denmark had twins a few days ago, so we have been told that there would be a big baptism ceremony very soon. Apparently, it is a big thing around here.

I have started my classes already. They have been fantastic so far; we are doing more practical things than theoretical stuff (just like I want it to be). Every class has field trips or study tours every now and then. I am taking a leadership across cultures class, which focuses on how to lead a company well. This Wednesday, we are going to top companies and interviewing the employees or CEO’s. Our assignment is to write about the CEO’s abilities to manage that particular firm. I think, it would be a lot of fun.

We had an “immerse yourself” fair in our student center from DIS. There were so many clubs/organizations that we could join so that we would interact more with Danes. I signed up to tutor a 7^th grade student as a volunteer at Copenhagen International School. I went to the school on Friday for an interview. Hopefully, I would start volunteering this coming week.

Since I am not living with a host family in Copenhagen, I chose to have a visiting family. The purpose of the visiting family is to give us an opportunity to observe the Danish lifestyle. I am invited on a dinner by my host mom and dad tomorrow; I am very excited about it. They seem very nice and friendly people so I am looking forward to it.

A little fact about Danes: Danish people are considered very stoned face. They would not smile at you while you are passing the streets or anything like that. I have heard that it’s hard to make them friends but when you do, you have those friends for lifetime.

Now, its time for me to get back to my studies, I have some reading to do for my classes but I will keep in touch.

Farvel.

First seven days in Denmark

In front of a French embassy

The joys of Freiburg!

Week of 17.01.2011

This week was our intensive learning phase of the European Union and the German language before our field trip study to Berlin and Prague. Each morning we had two sessions on the EU and an afternoon German class. We learned much about the EU, what it is, who holds leadership, how it has evolved, its legislative processes, and more. Our German class was much less rigorous. We started each session with words we wanted to learn, what something read, etc. My favorite day was our fieldtrip to the supermarket to learn about food! We set off with a grocery list in the supermarket below Karstadt (I find it very different that grocery stores will be located at the bottom of department stores, access with an escalator, and won’t have any windows). I learned so many more German words, including milch (milk), brot (bread), saft (juice), kartoffell (potato), and kase (cheese). I love shopping for groceries here in Germany!

The weather in Freiburg is usually the warmest of all Germany. It has been warmer in Germany than in my hometown, Chattanooga Tennessee. The other day, Freiburg did get some snow! I enjoyed seeing the German children trying to catch snow on their tongues and compare their winter boots! I spent the afternoon in Munster Cathedral, Rick Steeves guidebook in hand, and ate a delicious bratwurst in the plaza.

It was my first time doing laundry and what a fiasco! As I know very, very little German I did not know how to operate the washing machine and dryer in our complex. I ended up spreading all my clothes around my room, window open to dry everything. Thank goodness I didn’t shrink all my clothes like my friend!

Saturday afternoon was quite an experience, my first SC Freiburg football match! I had no idea how intense football is to Germans until we boarded the tram. Each stop from Charlottenbergerstrasse to the stadium we added Germans of all ages dressed in warm clothes and Freiburg scarves. We were packed sardines by the time we reached the stadium! The fans were wild and the opposing team only had a small corner of the stadium. The student sections are standing only behind the goals. Fans had huge flags that they waved throughout the entire game and they held out their scarves when the SC Freiburg song played. Of course I had to enjoy the game with a brezel and beir! The match ended in a tie, 1-1. I’m sure I’ll go to another game when its warmer weather!

Berlin and Prague all next week!

Copenhagen, Denmark

Copenhagen, Denmark

Hello everybody,

Wow…. you get to Copenhagen and that is the first thing you say to yourself. Copenhagen really is a combination of old and modern art. It is attractive, beautiful and glamorous city. This is my fourth day in Denmark and I have loved every minute of it. The last four days have been the best days for me and I am sure there are more to follow.

Just to give an update on things, I am going to tell you about my journey to Denmark. I flew to New York from North Carolina and had a connecting flight from there to Copenhagen. There were a lot of DIS students coming to Copenhagen, from New York; we all covered more than half of the plane. It was so nice to meet them all, everybody was super friendly and excited about the trip. (It was a relief to know that everybody was on the same page). We arrived in Copenhagen at 7:30 am and were received by the DIS staff at Copenhagen airport. We got into our buses and were dropped at our housing where the housing staff warmly welcomed us.

Our dorm staff had all kinds of fruits for us, (apparently that’s Danish snack food here). After a while, we went to our rooms to get a little rest and meet again at night for a dinner party where we had pizza.

We went on exploring the city next day where each person was given 50 Kroners (Danish currency) to have lunch during out Scavenger hunt. I was planning a full three-course meal since I thought 50DKK was a huge amount of sum. It was not until I got into the restaurant, that I realized that prices were sky high for food. I ordered a Spanish salad; believe it or not it was $49.5 DKK. It was so shocking but then I did my calculations and realized that it was only $10 for the salad, which was a appropriate price for a good salad.

I am living in the DIS residential halls where I share bathroom and kitchen with other students. There are almost 15 of us living at one floor. I have my own room, which is very neat and cozy. I can see big and old-fashioned European style buildings from here.

There are three things that you must know about Copenhagen; first and foremost almost everybody here speaks English so you don’t have to worry if you can’t speak Danish. (I have not met a person who does not know English but the sad part is they almost write everything in Danish, it is rare to see any English translation). Secondly, they love to ride bicycles and they walk everywhere. (No wonder they have the perfect figures). Third, you got to love the bread if you come here. (Down here they have all kinds of bread and its included in every meal).

To be honest, I have not missed anything back home yet; Copenhagen has so much to offer to you that you just forget the rest of the world. I came to this small city to explore Europe and without any doubt that is exactly what I am doing. This is 12:30 am in Denmark, which means it would be around 6:30 pm in US. There are so many activities arranged for us tomorrow. We start classes this Thursday and we are going to two castles this weekend. I am really sleepy right now, even though half of my dorm fellows are in a Danish club somewhere in the city, I decided to have the night off. I would be in touch soon with a lot of cool photographs. Bye

Vienna: Week 1, Photos

*Walking to the car, with the small suitcases.

*Deutchlandsberg, Austria

*At the Schilcher Castle in Deutchlandsberg

*View from the top of Schilcher

Vienna: Week 1

I have been in Austria for 5 days now, but this is the first time I have been able to get to my computer. I have been so busy ever since I left for the airport last Wednesday. Back in Georgia we actually had snow (*see photo) which later turned into ice: lots and lots of ice. At our mountain house in northeast Georgia we had about 10 inches of snow and it hadn’t melted at all the morning I left. From past experiences we knew that the snow-plowman doesn’t plow all the way down to our house, so we moved our car about half a mile down the gravel road to be sure we could get out. We figured it wouldn’t be too bad to walk up there, especially since we do it frequently…we were wrong. We rarely walk up there in snow, never in 10 inches of snow, and never with 50+ pounds of luggage. Using our problem solving skills my mom, dad, and I grabbed some sleds to put the luggage on and drag to the top of the hill. I am confident this made it much easier than simply carrying my bags, but it was still shockingly difficult. About halfway up the hill I realized I should probably start going to the gym more often.
After we finally got in the car and left the mountains we drove down to Atlanta where the highway was covered in ice. Some out of state people have recently said Georgians were “wimps” when it comes to snow, and we may be on occasion, but this particular instance was not one of those occasions. Half of the highway was covered with at least 5 inches of ice. We progressed down a major highway at about 8 miles an hour before we decided to hop on Marta. We made it safely to the airport and I boarded my plane. I had a layover in France, which I was really excited about until I saw the airport. Charles de Gaulle is huge and confusing. As I was trying to navigate my way to my next gate I met another IES student from Atlanta. We found our plane together and got to know each other as we waited to board. We had mutual friends and got along great.
Our first day in Vienna consisted of sightseeing in the airport. We waited for all the other IES students to arrive, and instead of going to our apartments/housing in Vienna we loaded buses and drove 4 hours to the Austrian mountains: to Deutchlandsberg specifically.
We stayed there for four days and got to know the other students and visited a castle near our hotel. It was fun, but long and I could not have been more ready to get to Vienna.
Sunday night we finally made it to Wien!! I was so excited. One of my roommates and I caught a cab and started to head to our apartment. Our cab was a new Mercedes and our cab driver was adorable. He gave us little tidbits about the city, and was as excited as us when we told him where we were living. We live in the 9th district of Vienna and our apartment is wonderful. The building is a light yellow and made in the Baroque style. The inside has beautiful tiling and great old curvy stairs. It was a bit of a hike to our flat with the luggage, but we made it with a little help from our landlady.
I wanted to see the city, but my roommates and I were all so tired we just ordered pizza and went straight to bed. We had to be up early on Monday to go to the police station and register with our address as a resident in Vienna. After that we went to school for our first class.
For the next 3 weeks we will only be taking German. “Intensive German”… after one day I can tell you, intense is an understatement. We will meet for three hours a day, Monday thru Friday. Today we only met for an hour and a half but I already feel like the material I have to learn by tomorrow is what would normally be learned in months. By tomorrow we are to have studied and learned a list of vocabulary, all the primary question words (who, what, when, etc), common Austrian idioms, how to conjugation a regular verb in the present tense(1st person singular & plural, 2nd person singular & plural, and 3rd person singular & plural), and numbers 1 through 100. My brain feels like gupe just imagine all of this information… that being said, I am off to study…
Ein, zwei, drei….goodnight all.

... photos of my first week of Freiburg

Above: A view of Freiburg, Germany

Munster Cathedral before sunset

Left: A view of the ruined Staufen castle and vineyards

First Week in Freiburg!

Week of 16.02.2011

After an exhausting few days of winter weather and cancelled flights, I made it to Freiburg, Germany on January 12. There was a whirlwind of paperwork to catch up on, introduction to the dorm, tram station, and more. The first night I arrived, my 5 roommates and I had a delicious pizza with sweet corn, ham, salami, and mozzarella.

All of my roommates are Freiburg University students around the ages of 19 and 21, studying medicine, Islamic sciences, engineering, history, and more. Total there are four girls and two boys. The room setup is very different from that of Wofford. We share a small flat with a common room, kitchen, and table. Three people are assigned to one of two bathrooms (I actually share a bathroom with two boys, but they are the cleanest people I have ever met). We all have our own large, white room with a small safe, closet, TV, and large window. It’s a nice set-up that seems to work well for everyone.

The next few days consisted of catching up what I missed from orientation, configuring the internet, buying a German phone, figuring out the calling service, and, the most fun part, exploring Freiburg!

I walked around Freiburg to understand how it is laid out. Freiburg is located in the southwest region of Germany near the Black Forest. It is a beautiful university town of 200,000 people and about 30,000 students. It boasts a charming, upbeat city center near the Munster Cathedral that with plenty of cafés, bars, clothing stores, appliance stores, bakeries, and more. The city streets are lined with shallow streams or canals that were designed to keep fires from spreading. It is a walk able city and very “green.” Trashcans are sectioned for paper, plastic, and everything else. The stairwells of buildings, in particular the dorm room buildings, are not lit throughout the night, only if you trip a sensor. There are plenty more bikes than cars and there are even small plots of land one can rent to tend a garden.

My first weekend, IES took a half-day trip to Staufen, where there is a ruined castle and small quiet city center. The ruined castle is surrounded with vineyards, as the Rhine Valley region is known for its sweet wines made with Riesling grapes. A great stop was the kaffee and kaufen (coffee and cake) at café Decker. I really enjoyed my cappuccino and black forest cherry cake! I learned from Ms. Karin (she is in charge of housing and pretty much everything expect academics) that bakeries are required to use kirchen or cherry schnapps when baking the famous cake or they will be fined.

Our classes don’t begin for another week, but we started an intensive session about the EU and German language. We’re cramming in as much as we can before our trip to Berlin and Prague on Monday!