Benefit of the Doubt

Check out my new site!!!

2012-01-21T18:12:00.000-08:00

I just started a little business. Spur of the moment but it gave me something to do for the past month when I had a lot of free time. Check it out:

http://www.evolvebackwards.com/

Weekend!

2011-11-13T15:10:00.000-08:00

What a great weekend! Right now, I'm watching a good game between my Giants and the SF 49'ers. Later tonight, one of my favorite TV shows, The Walking Dead airs a new episode and my girlfriend and I are about to cook a delicious dinner.

I attended the Gamecocks game this weekend against the Florida Gators. It was my first college (D1)/professional game I've been to. The game itself was great. It came down to the last play of the game and the Gamecocks won. Our seats were high up, behind the goal post and opposite of the student section. I had a great time.

The tailgating was great too. We joined a great group, organized by parents. The food was terrific. They served appetizers consisting of dips, meatballs, stuffed mushrooms and deviled eggs. I tried most everything and had a few beers before entering the stadium for the 1220 kickoff.

After the game, we went back outside to the same group where they had been all afternoon. Most of them didn't even go into the stadium. They set up satellites and TVs in their vehicles and sat around watching the game on TV. The food after the game was more like dinner. There was ham and crab legs and a shrimp dish. It was delicious, except you needed to peel the shrimp, which was a pain and hard to do when not sitting at a table. Afterwards, we all had some delicious cake.

I wonder if all tailgaters are this friendly. Was it just because we were in the South that we could just join a party and eat their food? Or, would we have been just as welcome to tailgate with a random group at a Giants game? I'll have to try it and find out.

Back in Charleston

2011-11-10T13:00:00.000-08:00

And I am happy to be back. I love it down here. The weather is my favorite part. And my girlfriend is here too, which is great. I don't know how I ever lived for so long in the Northeast.

I enjoy driving, especially when I'm in no rush and I don't care about traffic delays or getting cutoff. I just go with the flow. No pressure. Whenever I am stuck in a car for a while, like during an 18hr drive, I just think. I think about a lot of things. I listen to the radio, sometimes music, sometimes talk. I heard a very interesting comment on a Christian talk show. I wouldn't usually listen to Christian talk radio, but, in this case the hosts were covering about the Penn State sex scandal. After that ended, they began taking listener's phone calls. One caller said the following:

"The US has surpassed over 50 million abortions. It has been proven that most people who get abortions are Liberals. Therefore, it is safe to assume that a majority of these 50 million aborted babies would grow to be liberals like their parents, had they not been aborted. Is this God's way of purging the world of Liberals?"

I could not make this up. And the host's reaction was equally surprising, but, polite and professional. They laughed and said they had never heard that claim before. To answer the caller, they simply said that it was not God's will for any unborn babies to be killed.

Something crazy, at least to me, also happened. I was driving down 95 in NJ when I began seeing electronic billboards warning me of an accident ahead and to expect delays. As I came around the next corner, I saw lots of break lights and cars stopped. I made a decision to try and exit the highway and get back on after the accident to avoid the stop and go traffic. Well, once I got off the highway, I had a hard time finding an easy route back to the highway and for a little while I was lost.

I was trying to find my way back to the highway, taking all sorts of back roads and shortcuts. Finally, I knew I was heading the right direction when I stumbled across the same exact deli that I had stopped at when I was headed North from Charleston. It is probably one of the only places in NJ I have ever been and I accidently went back to the same spot. Because of that random accident, I got off at some random exit and randomly found myself someplace I'd been only a month before. Isn't that crazy?

Finally, I was in Northern Virginia when I decided to take a dinner break and let some of the rush hour traffic subside. I was leaving a delicious dinner at Chipotle when I took a wrong turn. I was mad about it because of all the traffic around and now I had to turn around. I was headed in the correct direction again when I went through a big intersection where there had just been a 3 car accident. It didn't look very serious, just some smoking engines and everyone was getting out of their cars to check on everyone else.

I couldn't help but think that I may have been in that accident if I hadn't made that wrong turn. Maybe it was divine intervention, maybe it was not my destiny and maybe it was just luck. I do like to believe that everything happens for a reason. That is how I stay stress free. I tend to let things play out because I believe they will play out in my favor. I don't sweat the little things because I feel that if they are supposed to happen they will, good or bad.

On the road again

2011-11-08T04:36:00.001-08:00

Headed back to Charleston.

As for yesterday, we didn't catch any fish to bring home. Caught a total of 5, but, nothing spectacular, therefore no pictures. Still fun and not that cold.

Fishing

2011-11-07T07:43:00.000-08:00

Pumpkin Pie

Going fishing today. I'll post pictures.

Yesterday, I did some cooking. I was anxious to start cooking again because I haven't been able to for the past 2 months, living in a hotel. I went out and bought ingredients to make Emeril's She Crab Soup and The Nourishing Gourmet's Pumpkin Streusel Pie. I've made the She Crab Soup once before, with my girlfriend. It turned out amazingly. Today, without the oversight of my girlfriend, it didn't come out as perfect. It was still well received but I know it wasn't as good as the first time.

The pie I made was delicious; to me. I thought it hit the spot and my parents each said it was good (but they didn't get seconds like me). They described it as "earthy" and I think that is a fair assessment. I used about a half cup of honey for the entire pie so it wasn't sweet at all. I was also pleased how it held together and looked like a classic pie.

Recipes here:
http://www.emerils.com/recipe/2284/She-Crab-Soup
http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2011/11/pumpkin-streusel-pie-grain-and-dairy-free.html

When I went out last night, I met up with my two best friends from high school, Matt and Louis. Both of them are in masters programs at their schools. Of course, we did some reminiscing. I was surprised at the different memories we had. I had completely forgotten about some things and was happy to be reminded of them. Likewise, I chipped in some memoriesof my own that they had forgotten about. We laughed a lot.

This is also why I'm keeping this blog. So that I don't forget these little memories that were so much fun.

2011-11-06T09:14:00.000-08:00

Last night was a blast. Dinner was great. None of us had been to this particular restaurant before and it was delicious; exactly what I was looking for. The three men in the group all got the veal chop special. It was a bone in 16 oz cut. It was extremely tender. We all loved it.

Today, I have a few things on my schedule. I want to vacuum out my car and clean my computer with compressed air. When my parents return from their wedding I know we will be having a steak dinner on the grill tonight and I look forward to that. I was hoping to do some hunting or fishing today but it's not going to happen, but, I will try again tomorrow.

I have been having dreams of performing my own weather balloon experiment to get my own pictures of near space. After I blogged about it last week, I have thought about it more and more and I am going to try it. I should have a couple of weeks to get it done once I get back to South Carolina. My budget will be $200. I will need to purchase a Canon camera because they can be easily hacked. I will also need a prepaid cell phone with gps capabilities so that I may track the location of the payload. Other obvious items to purchase are a weather balloon, parachute and stryofoam box. I'll keep you updated.

Interesting stat: I just read that 30% of Americans less than 40 years old, have a tattoo.

Home Sweet Home

2011-11-05T14:02:00.000-07:00

After my graduation in Groton, I b-lined it for Cheshire, CT, where I spent the evening with my Aunt and Uncle. They had some company over and we had a nice dinner together. I spent the night there, woke up this morning and was on the road by 1030, headed home. It was an easy trip and I made good time.

Once I got home (home alone because my parents are at a wedding in NH), I unloaded some stuff and wanted to work out. I jumped rope for 10 minutes to warm up and then went for a nice run around my neighborhood. I like running around my neighborhood because it is safe, picturesque, and a good workout. I like to see that it still looks how I remember it.

I'm going out tonight with newly-wed friends of mine. They have been a couple for as long as I have known them, since high school. I went to college with Steve and we joined the same fraternity. Needless to say, Steve and Elyse are some of my best friends. I couldn't make their wedding reception (it was a destination wedding) this summer because it was to close to my final exams. I have been telling them for a long time that I would treat them to dinner as a wedding gift. That is what were are doing tonight.

It also turns out that tonight is my fraternity's formal. The formal is called "3 to 3" because it begins at 3 in the afternoon and ends at 3 in the morning. Basically it is 12 hours of drinking, which gets difficult. The funny part is, tonight is also daylight savings, so it becomes 13 hours of drinking. This happened to my formal a few times. Most partiers will not be able to stay awake until 3am. Only my senior year did I make it until 3am and that was because I had a game plan. Pacing yourself is a must.

All this writing about my formal makes me wish I was going again. These were always great times... I think. After all, we have this motto: "It's the times you don't remember, that you'll remember forever."

Free the Animal

2011-11-04T05:17:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite bloggers, Richard at Free the Animal (retired Navy Surface Warfare Officer, hang glider and visionary) writes:

"You're at Free the Animal, but what kind of animal are you?

You're less strong, less fast, and less a tree prodigy than almost all other primates. And yet, you rule the Earth. Importantly.

...After all, do you have envy of wandering into the forest, trying to strike up a conversation?

Of course not, because you're so far removed evolutionarily that you can even imagine that a space alien created you, rather than that you are of some similar evolved lineage, and that they behave in mysteriously similar ways, both individually and social..."

http://freetheanimal.com/2011/11/of-the-beast-and-the-bi-cameral-mind-part-i.html

I like this statement because it points out that, although we rule the earth, we are inferior to wild animals. We are no longer wild animals. We are all domesticated, especially in America, which isn't all bad. I do think that it's important to remember and appreciate where we came from.

On a side note, notice how the only fat animals are domesticated animals. You never see a fat deer or a fat lion in the wild. However, how many people own fat dogs and cats? There are two reasons for this. One, our pets do not need to fend for themselves anymore, aka we have removed "survival of the fittest." Two, most of our pets get fed cheap GRAINS which causes obesity and other problems. My uncles beloved dog has diabetes?!

Fake Food

2011-11-03T10:49:00.000-07:00

I was working out yesterday when I randomly began thinking about what food could look like 100 years down the road. As it is, I don't think someone from the 19th century would recognize a majority of today's typical groceries. Funny how what we think of as "healthy food" didn't even exist a hundred years ago. Now that these healthy foods are readily available in every grocery store, are we more healthy? I think not.

In my day dreaming, I thought of artificial food. I was thinking of a green pepper. It was made out of edible wax and then "painted" green. The paint contained the nutrients to imitate a real pepper. I thought that this could be practical in case society has problems providing vegetables for the 7 billion people on the planet. As it is, most conventional fruits and vegetables in the grocery store are coated with an edible wax, for a number of reasons. I was only thinking of the inverse, a vegetable made mostly of wax, coated with nutrients. Is this the future of fresh?

After these dreadful predictions, I then realized these products already exist! I thought about Cool Whip, which is a whipped dessert topping that imitates real whipped cream (although Cool Whip now does contain some dairy). I thought about vegan food; specifically vegan "meat." They use fake food such as soy protein or cornstarch to create a meat imitation product. That kills me. I wouldn't touch that fake food, yet it is widely considered to be the healthiest option.

I also thought about juice. Juice is very misunderstood. While it can provide a lot of vitamins, it also provides a lot of sugar. Sometimes sugar is even added. Drinking juice results in an immediate, large spike in insulin because there is no time required to break it down. At least when you eat an orange, your body must process the meat of the orange to access the nutrients. This slows the absorption of the sugar, a good thing. When you drink orange juice, there is no processing needed, hence the immediate spike. So many believe juice to be healthy and important to drink throughout the day. I think juice is a joke and just another vehicle for sugar.

What about all the different cereals? I could write pages on the sins of cereal and how they are currently marketed. Breakfast in general is dumb idea. Why do we even need to eat breakfast? The standard American breakfast is pure carbohydrates, aka sugar. I don't care what cereal it is. It is all sugar. Now they make calcium infused cereal, high protein cereal... these foods are fake.

Fiber, sugar, grains and "low fat," are jokes that I would be laughing at, except I pity all those innocent people who try to do the right thing by eating "healthy," when in fact, they are doomed for failure and a life of full of problems ("Follow the Money..."). I will touch on these subjects again in the near future.

Finally, I have been watching a lot of the food network lately and noticed something. The fattest, most unhealthy looking chef's, use the most sugar and/or eat the cheapest food. There is no denying Rachel Ray, who prepares some of the cheapest foods, has ballooned in recent years. I enjoy Barefoot Contessa, but, she cooks with a ton of sugar, and she is a big lady. Then there is Giada De Laurentiis, who cooks a lot of real food (she was cooking with lobster meat last show), and she is very healthy looking. Chef Bobby Flay, is in decent shape and he cooks with real food. I just noticed some correlation there.

Understanding Islam Extremists

2011-11-01T10:59:00.000-07:00

In order to help me grasp terrorism I know I need a better understanding of Islam. I am almost finished with the book Inside the Jihad, My life with Al Qaeda. It is about an Arab Muslim, Omar Nasiri, who becomes a spy for the European secret service and infiltrates Al Qaeda training camps and sleeper cells. It is a great book provides insight into the justifications of terrorism. Here is one part I found particularly interesting.

I learned that there are many types of Jihad. These include "inner jihad (prayer), the jihad of knowledge and scholarship, jihad of the tongue (speaking out), jihad through actions and the ultimate jihad, the 'holy war.'" The ultimate jihad is the one that justifies terrorism.

Of course, the laws governing jihad, as described in the Kur'an and the hadith, are open for interpretation. Omar points out that there varying degrees of interpretation (hence the terrorists being labeled as extremists. Their interpretations are extreme). For example, there is an interesting interpretation comparing "innocent" people and the "enemy."

Extremists view the "enemy" to include the entire supply chain supporting the enemy. In other words, the people with the guns are not the only enemy. Anyone who provides money, food or water, moral support (journalists writing in favor of the enemy), to the enemy is also the enemy. Wives/children who pray for the triumphant return of their husband/father from battle, are the enemy. Clearly, in their eyes, every American is the enemy. Everyone, can be their enemy.

I've also learned that, for the most part, extremist's are incapable of innovation, which is what they prefer because anyone who innovates is an infidel. As history has taught us, time and time again, anything that fails to evolve, dies...

I'll post more on this topic as think up more interesting points.

Back to Charleston

2011-10-31T11:00:00.000-07:00

I'm moving back to South Carolina in about a week (and I'm pumped). I will be there for another 6-8 months. I need to find a place to live. I loved living on Daniel Island when I lived their last. My previous roommate and I are now stationed in different places and none of my other friends want to live on Daniel Island. They would rather live in downtown Charleston, within walking distance to the bars. I have a couple problems with this:
1. I'm not into the bar scene as much as I used to be
2. Parking downtown can be terrible. Where can my girlfriend park?
3. It's a long commute to work
4. No community pool or grill
5. Busy/Noisy
6. I have always lived with a roommate and never tried living alone
7. Downtown is pretty, but, old

On the other hand, there would be some pros of living downtown:
1. I'm good friends with the guys who invited me in
2. It is the closest I could live to my girlfriend
3. We could car pool to work everyday
4. Having roommates is fun
5. We can buy a grill
6. Close to the bars so that when I want to go out, it's easy.
7. It's cheaper living with others than living in a single
8. I don't have to furnish a living room because they have furniture

If I choose not to live downtown, then I would probably live by myself in Mount Pleasant. I need to makeup my mind quickly because I have found some nice single apartments in Mount Pleasant that I don't foresee lasting long. Damn, this is tough.

Believe in Passion

2011-10-30T10:02:00.000-07:00

Side note: Last night, I won $116 playing Craps at the Mohegan Sun. I had a good time and everyone profited from the shooting of newbie Jordan. I'm not nearly addicted to gambling, but, it is a good way to kill some time with some friends.

People need something to believe in. People need a passion. That is what keeps people going and enjoying life. When people perceive they nothing to believe in, they lose the will to live. However, that is only a perception. There is an infinite number of ways to believe and I'm not talking about religion. The key is to continue educating yourself.

Maybe you can learn a new language. Learning a second language is a major goal of mine. After my experiences abroad, I realize how ignorant it is that I only speak English. Many Europeans speak at least 2 languages. Part of that is out of necessity because of the relatively small size of European countries and the need to communicate in multiple languages when traveling. In Europe, English, has become a universal language. In that regard, traveling through Europe is easy for Americans (assuming they speak English...). I already have a background in Spanish from high school, but, I think the better choice for me would be to learn Chinese, albeit far more difficult. I think I would begin with Rosetta Stone.

One of my inspirations to learn another language is Benjamin Franklin. I recently finished reading his very interesting autobiography. I am extremely impressed in Franklin's intellectual discipline. At a time before electricity and reliable information exchange, he was able to teach himself several languages. He could read and write fluently in English, German, Latin, French, Spanish and Italian. Obviously, he was a brilliant man but, the fact that he could teach himself these languages, in this time period, removes all excuses I have for not learning another language.

Recently I saw a commercial advertising a car. The commercial featured the tracking of a weather balloon. That weather balloon took images of earth from space. How cool would that be? It can't be that expensive an endeavor and is something I would love to try. See here http://space.1337arts.com/

Believe in travel. I love to travel. That is one of the reasons I joined the Navy. Often times, traveling is accompanied by amazing experiences and lead to personal growth that cannot be otherwise attained. I'm currently reading The 4 Hour Work Week, by Timothy Ferriss, in which the love to travel is a theme. I will do my best to see all that I can.

The ability to view Earth from space and easily travel far distances are desires of our earliest ancestors that only became feasible in the past hundred years. Why not fulfill these natural instincts? As far as learning another language, that may facilitate your travel's and lead to more grand opportunities. It literally opens up a whole new world of possible friends and experiences. Our ancestors would have given anything for some of the opportunities I listed above and yet, many of us do not take advantage of them. Instead, we play videogames.

These are only a few things, of MANY, that I believe in. If you find yourself in a rut, try something new. Pledge to learn a new language and then travel to a region where you can employ your new skills. Who cares about money? You cannot put a price on a genuine experience. Your kids/grand-kids/great-grand-kids are not going to respect you for the money you may have left behind. Instead, they will respect you for the passion in which you lived your own life.

What your passion is, is not the point. The point is, to have a passion.

Living link to the Civil War

2011-10-29T11:29:00.000-07:00

My brother and I with our grandparents, spring 2010

My grandfather, whom I believe is 93 years old (and still in great health), has a neat recollection. He remembers seeing a parade in NYC, where he grew up, composed of veterans of the civil war. He was a boy at the time and I wonder how many people are still alive that have seen authentic civil war veterans? It cannot be many. How cool is that?

The war ended in 1865. There are accounts of very young men serving in both the Confederate and Union armies. These boys, some as young as 10, were drummer boys or message runners. They were not usually enlisted for combat, but, sometimes that came with the territory.

For example, lets say we have a ten year old boy who served during the civil war. If this boy grew up and fathered a child at an older age, perhaps at the age of 60, that child would be born in 1915. It is now 2012. That would make their child almost 100 years old. I wonder if anyone is still alive today whose father was in the civil war. It could be possible.

New blog- New Rules

2011-10-28T11:18:00.000-07:00

Originally, this blog was about my travels through Europe in the fall of2009, when I studied abroad in Denmark. Now, I want this blog to take a different direction.

I want this blog to become a diary of sorts, where I have the freedom to comment on a variety of topics i.e. the daily news, ideas, my personal musings, experiences, sports and life in general.

This blog will also serve as an intellectual tool, improving the transformation of my thoughts to writing. I will make every attempt to write something of significance every day of the year, for the next year.

I will define "something of significance" as an entry that takes some amount of original, creative, intelligent thought. It may only be a sentence long, a haiku, or the first four chapters of my book.

I hope you enjoy

another vid that I took of your apartment

2011-03-29T14:18:00.001-07:00

Apartment 3-- Get this one!

2011-03-27T12:59:00.000-07:00

it's beautiful and Elizabeth is cool.

apartment 2

2011-03-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

80% overall

apartment

2011-03-10T16:45:00.000-08:00

Crazy

2009-05-28T02:35:00.000-07:00

Mus and I were preparing for our test in Design of Integrated Circuits. We had a question, so we went and asked out professor, Flemming. He is a really nice guy who I had gone to before for help.

When we walked in, Mus and Flemming began speaking Danish. Flemming soon saw me and they changed to English. No problem. I commented how I thought it was cool that they could switch languages so quickly and asked how many languages [Flemming] knew. He said 11. I believe him.

Final Week. Exam 1

2009-05-25T14:11:00.000-07:00

I had my first written exam today. It was from 9am-1pm. All aides were allowed, including computers. It wasn't like that helped much. You either knew the material or you didn't. I've never taken a test that long. Everyone was there for the entirety. I wish I had an additional two hours. I think I did well though. I had prepared hard, but, it was still a tough test.

I have my final exam on Friday in Design of Integrated Circuits. I will study hard for that one as well. It is going to be another tough test.

On Saturday, I leave Denmark. Sara and I are still planning what we want to do. I'm not sure what our plans are yet, but, we will definitely be celebrating, somewhere, somehow.

After my exam today, it was gorgeous outside so Paul and I went on a run around campus. There is a wonderful "nature trail" that runs around the entire perimeter of campus. It is a 5k.

After that, we went to Paul's boxing gym and hit the bags together for a little while. Then we went back home for dinner. It was a great way to unwind from a 4hr test in the morning.

Dinner

2009-05-18T11:49:00.001-07:00

Today was a special day. I finally did something I've wanted to do for a while. I made myself pig heart for dinner.

I followed a recipe online. I braised it for 3 hrs in beef broth and onions. Near the end I added carrots, then tomatoes. It turned out really good and I ate the entire thing. The appearance and texture were different than that of a steak, but, the flavor was good. I let a few of my Danish friends try it as well and they thought it was good as well.

I will definitely make it again. Not only is it higher in protein than regular steaks but it also offers a host of nutrients and amino acids. It is also super cheap because most people probably can't deal with the "ick" factor. I think I'm going to walk back to Super Best and stock up tomorrow.

Soccer!!?

2009-05-17T15:10:00.000-07:00

Myself, Amado and Moose before the game

The mascot; a lion

Outside the stadium

I got the opportunity to attend a soccer match today. A friend of mine from Design of Integrated Circuits (we call him Moose) invited myself and another kid from that class (Amado). Moose is Danish, but, Amado is from Mexico. We had a great time.

Moose told me that this is the "game of the year." It certainly seemed that way. Moose picked Amado and I up on campus at 3pm for the 5:30 game. First thing we did was park near the stadium (I knew it was serious when we got out of his car and could hear the buzz from the stadium about 1km away; 2 hours before gametime...). Then, we had a couple beers in the park next door. That seemed to be the thing to do. It wasn't so much "tailgating," with food as it was just casual drinking.

About an hour and a half before game time, we went into the stadium store because jerseys were on sale and Moose needed a new one. It was very crowded in there because the sale was really good. 1 jersey for 40USD. That is really good, so good that I bought one as well. A jersey with Carlsberg on it is the only souvenir I wanted from Denmark so I decided to splurge and buy it here. That way I could wear it for the game as well.

The stadium is relatively new. It was built in the 90's. It is the largest stadium in Denmark with a capacity of 42,000. It was definitely filled. Moose explained to me that this game will likely determine the champion. There are only 3 games left in the season and these two teams were number 1 and 2 in the league. Therefore, this game was for all the marbles. Not only that, but, there is always some bad blood between these two teams. They have the biggest rivalry in Denmark.

The game was supposed to start at 5:30pm, but, it had to be postponed to 5:45 because there were still too many people in line waiting to get in. If the game started with that many people still outside there could possibly be a riot.

A huge flag that we held up during their national anthem.

The game was crazy. Moose had the best seats in the house. He got lucky to get his season tickets here. All seats cost the same price in Denmark. He is right at midfield, about 10 rows up. Perfect. All his neighbors were really nice as well. It is like a big family.

This was my first professional soccer game and it lived up to my expectations. You hear that soccer fans are the craziest and that did prove to be true. The section I was in was certainly not a place for children. It was just a lot of drunken people getting more drunk. However, everyone was rooting for the same team, FCK (football club of Kobenhavn), so there were no problems. In fact, they separate the away fans from the home fans by a distance and a couple fences and station all the police over there.

The opposing fans are in the top of this pic. They had a bunch of flares lit.

Comradery

I don't think the confetti ever stopped flowing the entire game. Not to mention all the toilet paper. We didn't sit down either; no one did in our section. A beer shower accompanied every goal. The final score was 4-0. It was really cool.

When I got back to my room, I went into the kitchen and Thomas was in there. He said "I didn't know you went to THAT soccer game!" He was very impressed.

Thanking the fans at the end of the game. Not my hand.

Belgium 2- Antwerp

2009-05-15T05:19:00.000-07:00

View from outside the Hilton

Day 2 began for Sara and I when we woke up at 10am. We were elated when we opened the curtains and saw a blue sky.

In one of the main squares of Antwerp

We were only walking around the church when we heard that an English speaking tour would be beginning soon. We jumped on that opportunity and were in a group of about 5. Originally, we weren't planning on staying very long, but, the tour was so interesting that we stayed for the whole hour. Much of the church is famous for the paintings that it houses. There are three paintings by Peter Paul Rubens, painted in the early 1600's, that are the most famous.

Our tour guide explaining Ruben's most famous painting

Another thing I thought interesting was that Napoleon was here and he wanted to move the church to Paris, brick by brick, because he thought it was so beautiful. Although that never got completed, he did have all the artifacts moved to Paris (including the paintings). Luckily, they have been returned. In that period that it was not a church, it was a barn for animals.

These oak walls seperated the two parts of the cathedral. The carvings were incredible.

After the great tour, Sara and I were getting hungry. Nearby we found a good looking restaurant advertising a 20% student discount. Yeah baby! We jumped on that and had a wonderful lunch outside in the sun. It was very enjoyable. Sara ordered a personal pizza and I got veal cooked with ham in a cream sauce. We both agreed the food was delicious.

From there, we continued towards the river because we wanted to see the castle that houses the maritime museum. This was a legit castle. It looked like it was built for war. We didn't get to go inside because it was closed for some reason. However, we did get to walk around the outside of it.

With the castle in the background

Infront of the castle

After the castle, we went and explored the city on our own a little. We saw some spears in the distance and we headed for them. The first turned out to be a government building, but the second was another church called Saint Paul's. This church wasn't as large as the first one we saw, but, it was just as beautiful with its Gothic style.

As we entered, we saw a tour guide opening a door leading outside. It seemed like he was doing it as an exclusive favor for someone. We tagged along and what we found was one of the coolest things. This excerpt is taken from another site:

"Inside the church gate, the Mount Calvary is situated, surround by houses from the beginning of the 16th century. It's a peculiar, spectacular open-air theatre of statues, built between 1700-1734.

It depicts the trial, torture, death and burial of Christ.

The Calvary garden was built from 1700-1734 and has 63 lifesized statues made of sandstone.

The idea came from two Dominicans who went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem and came back with the plan of making a "little Jerusalem".

The "road of angels" shows ten archangels that show the artifacts with which Christ was tried and brought to death: sponge, thorn crown, whip, cross, ladder etc.
There are 4 great prophets and 12 small prophets. It is very rare to see so many prophet statues together.

The old houses on the right hand side show the 4 Evangelists.

The Calvary itself shows Christ on the cross and also as being mourned by Mary Magdalena.

Four pastors of the St. Paul’s church are buried in this statue garden."

Here are some pictures of that. It was really cool and Sara and I felt lucky to get to see it. It was almost as if it isn't regularly open for viewing.

It is actaully built into the side of the church.

From there we proceeded to tour the inside of the church. It was equally as magnificent as the first. We didn't get a professional tour guide this time. It was ok though. The splendor of these churches just blows my mind. I love the Gothic style. I think that is the coolest style for a church.

After leaving this church, we went towards the train station because we wanted to go to the ZOO! We had heard that Antwerp has a great zoo, but, first, we had to get homemade ice cream. It was delicious.

After the zoo, we went back to the hotel room to meet Chris for dinner. He had sent us a message that said he was going out with his work for dinner. We were on our own again, but, that was not a problem. Sara and I went back the square in front of the nearby church. There, we found a nice little Italian restaurant again offering a 20% student discount.

We decided to eat here and it was one of the most relaxing atmospheres I'd ever been in. We were eating great food outside in the sun, looking at a 600+ year old Gothic church, where Napoleon and other famous people had been, WHILE a violinist played near the entrance!!!! It was like paradise.

The violinist playing outside the cathedral.

Our dinner. In the upper right hand corner is the violinist.

After the wonderful meal, we went back to the hotel for a little while and relaxed while waiting for Chris to turn up. It got to be like 9:30 so we decided not to wait for him any longer. We went to a convenient store down the street and grabbed some good local beer that we brought back to the room. We drank and watched TV. An hour later, Chris came home and he joined us. We ordered Pineapple Express and watched that.

Afterwards we went to bed. We all got up at 7am or so and Sara and I caught a bus to the airport at 8am for our 10:40 flight. We were debating between taking the 8 or 9 am bus and it was good we chose the 8. The bus got stuck in traffic for a while and then getting through security at the airport took a long time. However, after that, we made it back to Copenhagen no problem.

Belgium was a great trip. I enjoyed Antwerp more than Brussels but that could have been due to the weather difference. Either way, Sara and I had a blast touring the cities together. We are great travel partners. I'm glad we got to explore Belgium before leaving Europe. Now, it is crunch time.

Belgium 1- Brussels

2009-05-13T12:32:00.000-07:00

Sara and I on the Brussels tour bus

Sara and I made it to Belgium safely. No problems at all. We had a nice morning. I got up at 5 and prepared breakfast for Sara and I. She came over at 5:40am and we had eggs and sausage and apples. It was a great start to the day.

We were on different flights. I flew with SAS and my flight left an hour before Sara's. Therefore, I got into the Brussels Airport an hour ahead of Sara. That was fine. I killed the time walking around the airport. It was a really nice airport. She landed right on time. We met up and then took the train to the center of Brussels where we began our sightseeing.

As soon as we got out of Brussels train station, we felt rain drops. In a matter of minutes it was raining pretty hard. Not pouring, but, raining. We didn't let it deter us. We found a tour bus and hopped on that. We were driven around the city while listening to a description through headphones. It was nice, but, the rain kinda ruined it. It was a good way for us to see the most of the city in the short amount of time we had.

In front of the Atomium

The Triumph Arch

Saint Michaels Cathedral

By now we were getting pretty hungry (it was like 3pm). We began looking for a restaurant. Anyway, we found a nice little restaurant. It was just what we were looking for. We had trouble reading the menu because it was in Dutch and French. Those are the national languages of Belgium. However, we were able to get an English menu so we did that.

I had a chicken curry sandwich and Sara had a ham and cheese sandwich. They were each very good. Of course, we had to get beer as well. This was our first experiment with the Belgian beer and we each thought it was very good. We also had to get a Belgian Waffle. It came with powdered sugar on top and was really tasty.

From there, we continued to walk around the city. We realized that most of the chocolate shops offer free samples. We made the most of that and stopped into all the chocolate shops we passed. It was great to sample all the famous homemade chocolate in Brussels. Believe it or not, I didn't buy any chocolate the entire time in Belgium, but, I certainly ate a lot of it. It was very good.

In the main square

Around 6pm we made it back to the train station and took the train from Brussels to Antwerp. It was a 40 minute ride. Once we got off the train we had about a 20 minute walk to the Hilton, where Chris was waiting for us in the lobby. Perfect timing.

It was great to see Chris. He was doing very well and enjoying his time in Belgium. After dropping off our stuff in his room, we went out to dinner. Finally, we decided on a little restaurant-bar. It was interesting to say the least. Anyway, I had the Goulash with a couple beers and it was alright. There was nothing too memorable about that place.

Then, we went out to a couple bars. We each had about 4 or 5 drinks that night and we each tried to get something new every time. Then we would share. That wasn't hard because most bars had a list of about 100 beers to choose from. I stuck with the darkest, heaviest, and strongest beers that were on the list. They were great.

We got back to Chris' hotel room and went to bed around 1. We all had a long day ahead of us.

Belgium

2009-05-11T14:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. School work has been getting in the way. I'll write more about that later.

Everything else is going well. Tomorrow, I'm leaving for Belgium with Sara! More posts to come.

Also, check out the new Mark's Daily Apple at:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/

I already ordered the book.

Labor Day

2009-05-02T04:12:00.000-07:00

Our little DTU group.

Martin and his girlfriend Sara

On Friday, I went with a couple kids from my kitchen to a park in the city. Apparently, it is the thing to do on Labor Day. It was really cool. The only thing I can compare it to is Log Bay Day; except there were 10,000 more people and it was in a park. It was really intense. Everyone was just hanging out, partying. The weather was great for it as well.

Me and Kezia.

After dinner finished, I thought it would be the perfect time to introduce S'mores to everyone. They were a HUGE hit (Mom, you may have to send more). We had enough supplies that everyone in our group of 10 or so, got 2 or 3.

After the S'mores, we just hung out together for the rest of the night. I wanted to take it easy. Now, I have to do some real school work. Also, the countdown till I leave has begun. I don't really want to leave and wish I could stay longer, but, I am excited to start working in Pittsburgh for the summer.

Thursday

2009-05-02T03:50:00.000-07:00

I had a pretty good week. It was pretty uneventful after Andrew left on Monday. Friday is "Labor Day" all over Europe. There were no classes. As a result, Thursday night was really good. There was a party on campus called the International Party. At first, we thought that meant it was only for international students. Instead, the theme was International and they would serve different drinks from all over the world.

To their credit, they did a pretty good job. The best part was the price. They only charged 10USD to get in and then drinks were free the entire night. I stuck to drinking beer that night, cause I wanted to take it easy. There were a lot of people and it was really fun.

I forgot, I attended a group dinner for my Introduction Week group before the party. Thursday was a nice evening.

News

2009-04-26T05:39:00.001-07:00

In other news, I planned my last trip for the year. I'm going to Belgium with Sara Laprade. My good friend Chris Keenan (you've met him mom. He came for dinner that night) works for Johnson and Johnson and is part of a team that travels to all the different JnJ locations. He will be in Belgium for the first half of May, so Sara and I planned on visiting him from May 12-14th. This is during the week, but, right after classes end and before finals.

Also, everything is begining to turn green. Check it out.

Stuff

2009-04-26T05:24:00.000-07:00

My good friend from New Visions, Andrew, is here right now. He got here on Thurday night an is leaving in the afternoon on Monday. We are having a really nice time together. Both Friday and Saturday nights we went out to the city and we did hours of sightseeing during the day yesterday. The more time I spend in the city the more I like it.

There were two highlights yesterday. The first was walking through the King's Garden. It is a huge park right near Norreport station. I'm sorry I didn't bring Mom and Aunt Nancy through there. Basically, it is like a huge party/picnic. People just put down towels and have a couple drinks. I will definitely come back here.

King's Garden. How cool is that?

Andrew/Alex and I in front of Amelienborg Palace.

The second place we went was the infamous town of Christiania. I'm not really sure I understand it enough to explain it, but, basically, it is aself governed hippie town. It is very very liberal, to say the least. You are not allowed to take pictures in the town because there is lots of illegal stuff. It was bizzare and kinda scary. But, we spent a couple hours walking around there an went back to DTU.

I had a barbecue to go to to celebrate a friends 21st birthday. Andrew came with me and there were like 17 of us. It was fun.

Visitors! Continued2

2009-04-26T05:10:00.001-07:00

Tuesday:

I don’t recall meeting on Tuesday ecause I had class in the afternoon with a class on Wednesday morning. They told me they went shopping and walked the streets more.

Wednesday:

On Wednesday, we EVENTUALLY met up after my class in the morning (long story-miscommuntication). We went to the train station and caught the metro to Sweden. It was only a half hour trip, on a new, long, beautiful bridge called the Oresund Bridge (crosses the Oresund Strait). Then, we were in Malmo.

Malmo reminded me a lot of Copenhagen. It was a similar atmosphere. Lots of shops and squares with plenty of people. We walked around exploring for a couple of hours and had a nice time. We went into an old church and that was really pretty. Then we went and saw a famous old castle, but, we didn’t go inside. After that, we went back.

The most famous square in Malmo.

An altar from the 1500's.

The most interesting part of the day came at dinner. We chose to go to the Hard Rock Café in Copenhagen. This was a good decision. First of all, it was closeby and the food was delicious. When we entered, it was happy hour at the bar, so we spent some time there before sitting down to eat. I started talking to a guy at the bar in a Danish soldier’s uniform. His name was Dennis and he was probably 35 years old. He told me that he was a driver for a prestigious political figure. We started casually talking. In a little while, Mom and Aunt Nancy joined me and we spoke for a wile at the bar. When we were hungry to eat, to be polite, we asked him if he wanted to join us. He did and we had a nice time. He was interesting and he was able to answer a lot questions from Mom and Aunt Nancy that I could not. He also paid for dinner which was cool.

With Dennis at the Hard Rock Cafe.

After dinner, I went home because of class in the morning.

Thursday:

We met up after class on Thursday. However, while I was in class for the morning, Mom and Aunt Nancy went to a special event at the Amelienborg Palace. This is the same place we went on Sunday to see the changing of the gaurds, but, this time, they were celebrating the Queen’s birthday. They said it was a nice ceremony. I was proud of them because they found their way across the city and back on their own.

On Thursday, we kinda took it easy. I think we went for a nice stroll through some other parts of Copenhagen and then we went to the notorious Tivoli Gardens. This is the oldest amusement park in Scandinavia, dating back to 1843. It is located right in the center of the city and close to our hotel room. It is not a large park, but, it did have a bunch of roller coasters and rides. We could see the tall rides from the hotel. I didn’t do any of them because they were expensive, but it was beautiful to walk around. We went in the afternoon, but, apparently it is even more beautiful at night because they light over 120,000 lamps every night and it is open till midnight on the weekends. It also has about 30 restaurants, including some of the best in Copenhagen. It was a nice blend of an amusement park and a beautiful garden/park. In fact, there were as many older people just strolling around as there were kids.

We walked around for a little while and then made our way to a 30 piece orchestra. It was a nice little concert, right at the gardens. It went on for a half hour and we stayed for the entire thing. I enjoyed it a lot.

After the concert, it was dinner time, so again we made our way to the Hard Rock Café. After another great dinner, we went back to the hotel room and hung out together for the last night. I stayed again that night so that I could see Mom and Aunt Nancy off in the morning. After they left, I went back to bed an did my own thing in the morning.

Overall, we had a great time together and I’m really glad that we had this opportunity.

Visitors! Continued

2009-04-23T11:03:00.001-07:00

Monday:

I spent the night on Sunday so that we could get an early start on Monday. We got the train to Hillerod, which is where the Fredericksburg Castle is. I’d never been there and this place was fantastic. Not only is it a unique castle from the 16^th century, but, it is now the Danish National Art Museum so it had lots of artifacts. I didn’t bring my camera so all the pictures are on Mom’s, but, here are a couple from the internet.

The entrance.

The church in the castle (I took better pictures). It was beautiful.

We did a self guided walking tour, which was fine, and the place was absolutely gorgeous. It was extremely extravegant. We met a nice museum operator who pointed out some cool stuff about some of the paintings/architexture. I was really glad we went.

Visitors!

2009-04-20T13:25:00.000-07:00

Saturday:

Mom and Aunt Nancy came to visit me last week. We had a wonderful time together. They chose a good week to come to Copenhagen. First and foremost, the weather was great. The last couple of days were a little windy, but, still sunny. If it had rained, I don't know what we would have done. Secondly, I wasn't that busy this week. It was the first week of classes since spring break so there was not much going on and I could spend a lot of time with them.

I met them at the airport no problem and then we made our way to the hotel where we had a minor delay. Mom and Aunt Nancy were suffering from jet lag and the hotel couldn't give us a room for about 3 hrs. We spent those hours in the lobby, where Mom was the only one lucky enough to fall asleep.

Finally, around noon, we got checked into the room. The room was really nice. We got a cot and all of us took a 3 hr power nap. After that, we for a walk around the city. Nothing too intense, just a nice stroll so that we don't miss-out on a sunny day. There were not many stores open, as would be the case through Monday, because everything shuts down for Easter.

For dinner that night, we ate at a nice little pub called Strecker's, on the famous Stroget Street.

Sunday:

On Easter morning, we woke up and walked about 30min to a Roman Catholic church for mass. It was a nice ceremony that took about 1.5hrs. Unfortunately it was all in Danish, but, surprisingly, the routine was the same. I'm talking about the procession of the mass, it was very similar to the mass I'm used to in America.

After that, we went to the Queens palace to see the "changing of the gaurds" ceremony begining at noon. I'd never seen it before either and it was pretty cool.

Then we went to the infamous Nyhavn Street (which is where my homepage picture was taken) for brunch and a boat tour. It was a beautiful day and there were lots of people out doing the same as us. We did the boat tour and that was a nice, quick way to see the main sites of the city. The tour guide was most impressive because everything she said she translated into 3 Languages; English, German, and Danish.

A view of Amalienborg Palace from the water.

I guess Aunt Nancy was a little cold on the boat tour.

My own picture of Nyhavn Street.

Then, we went to DTU so I could show them where/how I lived and introduce them to my friends.

I believe that we went to an Italian restaurante for dinner that night. It was really good food and decently priced. That was a nice way to wrap up the day.

Day 6

2009-04-18T04:21:00.001-07:00

Last full day in Paris. In the morning, we went to the airport to pick up another friend of Pierre's. Like me, she knew Pierre through DTU. Her name was Gosia, from Poland. She was staying for a week in Paris as well, but, with a different friend. However, her friend couldn't meet her at the airport, so we did.

We decided to go to Versaille directly from the airport because it was nearby. We got there pretty early; like 10am. Even then, it was PACKED. There must have been 500 people in line to enter the palace. We didn't want to wait in that line so we just toured the outside; for free. We walked around the building and toured the gardens and it was beautiful, although the weather was a little overcast.

After Versaille, we went back to Pierre's house with Gosia. We hung out there for a little while and then went to the city. From there, we told Gosia where to go and Pierre and I walked around for a little while longer. We were tired so we went back to his house for dinner and then went back to Paris again and met up with one of Pierre's good friends. The three of us hung out in the city till late, just talking and doing some casual drinking next to the river. Then we went home.

Day 7:

My flight wasn't till 8pm that night so we planned on going to the Catacombs. However, we didn't get up early enough and we were worried about traffic, so we just relaxed for the day and then Pierre went with me by train to the airport at like 5. The journey home was easy.

Day 5

2009-04-14T08:57:00.000-07:00

After a long day yesterday, we took it easy. Pierre wanted to run some errands so he went out. At about 2pm I went for a bike ride around Pierre's neighborhood. His neighborhood was beautiful.

His house is close to the river, and there is a gorgeous bike path that runs along the river for several kilometers. As it turns out, I got really lost. I knew I wasn't far from Pierre's house, but, I got confused none-the-less. The area is really confusing. I made sure to pay attention when I left his house, but, I didn't realize that road changed names before it got to the river. After riding around for an additional 2 hrs, which I didn't mind cause it was a great/scenic ride, I finally got home in time for dinner.

The bike path.

A nice house.

A view along the bike path. The woman on the left was feeding bread to the birds.

Pierre was not home yet, so I ate with his parents and sister. It was homemade pizza, followed by apple pie with ice cream for dessert. It was delicious. Pierre arrived a little later and I took a couple pics of the family.

Pierre's Family.

Day 4. Continued...

2009-04-10T06:44:00.000-07:00

After touring Normandy, we continued west to Mont Saint Michel. We chose Mont Saint Michel over Sainte-Mere-Eglise (the church where the American paratrooper’s chute got caught on the steeple) because Mont Saint Michel is a much larger attraction. It dates back to the 10^th century. Pierre told me I would really like it.

We drove for another 2 hours from Normandy through a lot of farmland. Finally we approached a little city, and once we passed the city, you could see this HUGE castle (actually a church), all alone on an island, in the distance; about 20km away. It looked like something out of a fairytale. The only thing in sight is this huge castle sitting alone atop an island. It was very surreal.

The church in the distance.

We parked and walked to the castle. We went through the main gates. There is a little town below the main structure, but, still in the city walls. It was very touristy. We walked through the town and climbed to the entrance of the church. We didn’t go inside because it was expensive and the little town itself was cool enough. After taking more pictures, we left for home.

Walking the streets.

Notice that there is nothing around.

Notice the "elevator" on the left of the pic.

Day 4- Storming the Beaches

2009-04-06T05:49:00.000-07:00

7am: Pierre and I wake up. I head inside and eat two eggs over easy with some ham. Pierre finishes his shower, we grab some fruit, and we are off; to Normandy. The drive took us about 3 hrs to get to the beach, including one pit stop.

On our way there, the weather was nice as we left Paris. It was very promising for most of the ride. It was beautiful to see the French country side bathed in sunlight. The country is all farmland, like driving through Argyle or Harford, NY. However, as we got closer to Caen, the weather got worse. It became very foggy, but, that was expected because we were getting closer to the ocean. I was okay with the weather because that would make the visit seem more realistic.

The first stop was Juno beach, which was dedicated to the Canadians because they took that beach. There was a Canadian tank on display that had actually landed on the beach on D-Day and was knocked out of service. The beach was rather unimpressive. After a couple minutes we were anxious to move on towards Omaha.

Juno Beach.

Arromanches. You can see the remnants of “Port Winston”, an artificial harbor

The drive to Omaha took another 30 minutes or so. I didn’t realize the beaches were as spread out as they are. The small towns we drove through to go from beach to beach were amazing. 95% of the buildings are original. You can tell that they have been through a fight. It was intriguing knowing that, at some point many years ago, American soldiers walked the same streets and liberated each town, house by house. Most buildings looked very weathered, and not in a natural way. In some, you can see bullet holes. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to spend exploring the countless towns. One could easily spend days going from village to village and discovering all the unique liberation stories.

It was too easy to picture German MG-42 squads waiting in any window/alley of the small towns to ambush the American soldiers. You know that each village had to be liberated and you can see how hard that task is as you drive through these towns. Their layout is windy and very close quartered. Directly across the street from these little towns are huge green fields, just like are displayed in the movies/videogames.

Originally, I thought the trees/bushes/downed trees and ditches are made in the videogames so that they would be more fun to play. Not the case at all. Just like in the games, each field is distinctly bordered by tree /brush lines or small rock walls. Some even had debris in the field. In fact, there was one place in particular (besides the beaches) that I know I played in Brothers in Arms (a game that supposedly recreates the battle fields). It was easy to imagine the skirmishes that must have broken out in these towns/fields. You could picture gliders landing in any of them, or soldiers walking through them. It was really cool.

Finally, we made our way to my number one destination; Omaha Beach. At this point, the sun had come out and was shining brightly. After parking, we walked in and went straight to the cemetery. Wow. All those graves…The cemetery is gorgeous and tear jerking. We walked through the entire cemetary, paying our respects. I didn’t know this, but, the cemetery lies directly above Omaha beach. It offers a great view of the beach. Then we headed down to the beach.

The first thing you see when entering the cemetary.

A list of names of the soldiers burriend in the cemetary.

Standing next to the American Flag.

Cemetary with Omaha Beach in the background.

Picture of Pointe du Hoc in the background from the cemetary.

The trail from the cemetary down to the beach.

Halfway down the trail, looking up.

And it was a long, long, way down to the beach. If it wasn’t for the nice trail, it would have taken a while just to get down. (It was probably as steep and large a hill as Dynamite Hill, where we used to go sledding.) Off the trail, the hill was covered in vegetation; real thick and tall brush, like a jungle. This was not how I imagined it. I thought it would be covered in long green grass, like in the movies.

Once we got to the bottom we walked on the beach for a while. The beach itself is huge. It was low tide when we were there, just like when the landings began on D-Day. Soldiers had to cover hundreds of yards of sandy beach, all while running low with a 50lb backpack on and getting shot at from all angles. It was amazing anyone survived. Then, they had to climb up a huge steep hill; one that took Pierre and I a good 5min to climb up and we were walking up a trail with nothing on our backs and no one shooting at us. That is one thing Pierre and I commented on. We couldn’t figure out how the Germans lost. They had such a stronger position. The forces and obstacles that the American’s had to overcome are even more apparent to me now.

At the end of the trail, finally at the beach.

Standing in the middle of the beach.

From the middle of the beach looking toward the cemetary.

For comparison.

Nearly all the remnants of June 6^th have been removed. Even the huge concrete bunkers have been removed. I believe that this was done to create a peaceful atmosphere for the American Cemetery. It wouldn’t be right if those horrid war symbols remained in such a sacred, peaceful place as the cemetery. As a result of removing the bunkers, it felt like something was missing as you looked onto the hill from the beach. In other words, it was tough to get a realistic picture of what the American soldier’s saw when their landing craft gate dropped.

After taking our time at Omaha, it was off to Pointe du Hoc. The trip took about 15 min by car, again, through the classic Normandy landscape. Upon entering the cliff top from the parking lot, the first thing you realize is the terrain. It is full of huge craters; some about 50 ft in diameter and 25 ft deep. They are everywhere. All the bunkers remain, some in better condition than others. It was really cool to finally see some real bunkers.

Entering Pointe du Hoc.

Random man in a big crater.

Inside a bunker. Where the German guns were supposed to be.

View from the top of the cliff.

Underground bunker.

Inside an underground bunker.

It was surprising. You know that there were some close quarter firefights in those bunkers. Wow. There are also countless other underground tunnels and stuff for exploring. However, you’re never allowed to get too close to the cliffs so you can’t ever see directly down, but, you can see the steepness of the cliffs when you look to either side at the cliffs in the distance. Again, Pierre and I were amazed that the American’s were able to capture the area. The German’s had such a better position.

After a couple hours at Normandy, it was back in the car for Mont Saint Michel.

Paris- Day 3

2009-04-06T03:13:00.000-07:00

The following pics are viewed from the very TOP of the Eiffel Tower.

Having seen the Eiffel Tower up close at night, I had to see it up close during the day. To beat the crowd, Pierre and I got up early Saturday morning (9am) and immediately drove to Paris. We arrived at the Tower at 9:30 and bought tickets to walk to the second floor (there are 3 floors). 700(!) stairs later, we were standing on the second floor. The crowd was thickening, so we didn’t waste any time going to the very top. In order to get to the top, you must take an elevator. We bought tickets for that at about 7 Euro apiece, with a student discount. Pretty cheap. It was really cool and Pierre had never been to the top before, so it was new to both of us. The line for the elevator to the top took about 25 minutes.

Once at the top, the view was incredible. I thought the view from the Arc de Triumphe was great, but, we where about 4x higher now. I took a lot of pictures and we spent about 10 minutes at the top. It was nice. We then reversed the whole process to get down.

After the Eiffel Tower, we went across town to the Museum Rodin. It is a museum dedicated to the sculptor Rodin. It is also the museum that Pierre’s father was a director at for 10 yrs. It is a small but beautiful museum. Rodin is known for his sculpture of the Thinker and The Kiss. After seeing some of the famous sculptures inside, we went to the museum’s garden outside. This is where some of the largest statues were. This is where the largest “Thinker” is located (1 of 12 in the world) and some of the other famous ones. The museum is in the center of Paris Center, but, you would not know, even when outside in the gardens. It is surprisingly quiet and peaceful.

The museum from the outside.

The Burghers of Calais. The story of the statues is that six prominent town leaders of the French city of Calais stepped forward to sacrifice themselves in return for Edward III sparing the city. Luckily for the six persons, their lives were spared.

1 of 12. Thinking Man.

The Kiss.

Me in the garden of the Roding Museum.

Again in the garden of the Rodin Museum.

It was now about 1pm and we went home for a while. We took an hour nap and ate a little. Pierre’s mother had been nice enough to make a pork roast for us to eat when we returned. It was a delicious, classic French meal. We have been also eating a lot of bread. Every meal, we have bread; including for snack. If you know me, I do not regularly eat bread, but, I have been making an exception for this week. It tastes very good. We eat a lot of cheese as well. I have a new favorite cheese; Camembert.

On another note, Pierre’s mother does speak pretty good English. She just told me that she was out of practice after not using it for a while. We had a nice conversation today.

Also, when we got back to Pierre’s room, there were two bottles of wine near my computer with a note “you will drink this wine with your mother or friends.” (I had told them my mom was coming to visit). Can you believe that? Pierre’s parents gave me two bottles of wine. When I saw them later, I thanked them. I don’t know what else to do to say thanks. They have been much too kind.

After our brief relaxation, it was off to Paris again; this time by train. We wanted to see a Pillow Fight that we had been told about. It took place outside of the French Stock Exchange, or Bourse. We thought it was in response to the crazy economy lately but we’re not sure. It wasn’t as big as I thought it would be, maybe 50 people max. It was interesting though. We didn’t stay long. We met up with Pierre’s friend Charlotte and went to some more gardens, as well as Chautlese Church. Again, another beautiful church. It reminded me of Notre Dame, but, not as well preserved.

Pillow Fight!

In front of Bourse, the French Stock Exchange.

That pretty much concluded our day. We went home and relaxed. Although it was a Saturday night, we postponed the drinking cause we are getting up early tomorrow for NORMANDY!

Paris: Day 2

2009-04-04T13:23:00.001-07:00

The second day of my Paris trip began with a visit to a very beautiful church, called Sacred Heart, to the North of Paris Center. It is located on top of a big hill. Again, it was very beautiful. We went inside to tour, but, photos were not allowed. There was a mass going on, so maybe that was why.

After that, we went to Moulin Rouge. It was close by to Sacred Heart. We just walked down the street. That was nice too, but, boring. So, we proceeded to Luxembourg to visit the Luxembourg Garden. That was very large and beautiful. At one end is one of the two main police stations. There were a lot of people just hanging out in the garden.

Moulin Rouge

At the Luxembourg Gardens. The police office in the back.

One thing I would like to note is that, all of the building in Paris are worthy of a picture. It is unreal. I have never been anywhere as beautiful as France. Good thing for digital cameras because you would need dozens of rolls of film to capture the beauty of Paris. I apologize for being sparse with the text, but, it would take hundreds of words to describe each place. I’m letting the pictures do a lot of the talking. One thing they all have in common is they are huge, old, and gorgeous.

We proceeded to walk to the Pantheon where many of France’s famous people are buried. It was another beautiful building. From there we walked for a while until we got to a beautiful area where the Military Academy was. Napoleon is buried here.

The Pantheon

Outside the Military Academy.

Next, we walked to the Louvre. This time, we went inside. It was free for students on Friday evening, saving about 10 Euro. Hands down, the most impressive museum I’ve ever seen. Nothing compares, and rightfully so, as it is the largest museum in the world. The size of the Louvre is impossible to describe. It would take an entire month to properly tour that museum. We only had about two hours. We could have spent more time there, but, we were tired. Of course, we saw the Mona Lisa. It was the biggest attraction there and I had to fight to get to the front. It did seem like her eyes follow you. Then, we went and saw some of the Egyptian work. Amazing. We saw hieroglyphics and caskets and mummies. So cool. One really unique thing about the Louvre is that there were musicians playing around every corner. Sometimes, only two or three, other times as many as six. They were playing classical music…I think it was a Friday night thing.

The Louvre from a 3rd story Window. You can vaguely see the Eiffel Tower in the background.

Musicians in the Louvre.

Venus de Milo

There was a huge crowd to see the Mona Lisa.

The ceilings in the Louvre. All of them looked like this. Unreal.

A 4 thousand year old WOODEN Egyptian carving.

Outside the Louvre as we are leaving.

After the Louvre, we walked around the city towards a subway station and passed the Comedy Center/ Theater and Bastille. The city was beginning to get crowded. It was Friday night after all. However, we were tired. We didn’t even stop for a drink. We headed home, completing another 8hr day in the city. But, we weren’t done yet…

Bastille

THE COOLEST THING I’VE DONE SO FAR…Was return to the Eiffel Tower at midnight. Pierre said that he wanted me to get pictures of it at night. We went to the tower and it looks magnificent all lit up. It looks like it is made of gold. We got in a spot with a great view of the city and he told me to turn on my camera for video. I did this and at midnight, the tower began to sparkle. Gorgeous!!!! It sparkled for about a minute. After that we made our way to the tower itself and stood at the base. Very impressive.

Midnight!

Paris- Arrival and Day 1

2009-04-03T04:12:00.000-07:00

The flight to Paris was not a problem. Everything went smoothly. It was only a two hour flight.

Upon arriving, we picked up our luggage and sure enough, Pierre’s parents were there to meet us. They were very nice. His mother does not speak much English. She can speak a little broken English, but, that is all. However, his father is fluent in English. His father was a museum director and is now a banker. His mother manages a job search company.

The ride home was about 30 minutes and contained a lot of French. That was fine, after all, Pierre hadn’t seen his parents in about two months. They were asking me questions though.

Pierre’s home is very nice. It is in a beautiful neighborhood. He has got a great setup too. He lives in what is like a guest house, separate from the main house. He’s got everything he needs in there. We dropped off our luggage and went inside to get a quick snack of French bread and cheese. The four of us talked a little more, during which his mother managed to tell me “my house is your house.” That has been true thus far. They all say, I can take anything, use anything. Of course, I try not to and when cooking, I use limited amounts. They have been very friendly.

A neighbors house. Just wanted to show the style of houses.

Another neighbors house.

Pierre's house from the back.

Literally, Pierre's house (the guest house).

Little garden in the back yard.

After our quick snack, Pierre and I went for a ride. It was like midnight, but, he wanted to show me the city quickly. It took about 10 minutes to drive into the city in his car. It was beautiful, especially the Eiffel Tower. It is lit up and looks like it is built of gold. I forgot my camera but I’m sure I’ll be back again at night. He also pointed out some other notable attractions, but, you couldn’t see much because it was dark. Pierre was happy to be back in Paris. It is one thing I have noticed. He takes a lot of pride in his city.

Day 1

The next morning, I made two eggs for myself with a little bit of ham and tomatoes for breakfast. We went and ran a few errands. The weather was PERFECT. About 65 and sunny. Pierre showed me his town, which is quite large. The layout is similar to that of Long Island. All the houses are right on top of one another, but, the styles are very different from the styles in Long Island. All the houses are old, but, gorgeous. We say city hall and drove next to the river. It was a very pretty town. We found an HSBC and I took out some money. We went back home and Pierre continued running errands until about 1pm when we went into the city.

We took the train in and began walking around. The first stop was the Arc de Triumphe. It was HUGE and beautiful. It is built in remembrance of all the French soldiers that served in WWI. In the middle of the Arc, is a fire, specifically for the “unknown” soldiers that lost their lives. It never stops burning.

In front of the Arc.

The fire for all the killed unknown soldiers.

Champs Elysee. Viewed from the Arc de Triumphe.

Eiffel Tower. Viewed from Arc de Triumphe.

We decided to pay the 5 Euro to walk to the top. Pierre didn’t mind paying because he had only been to the top once before, when he was a kid. It was a huge spiral staircase that took about 6 minutes to climb. It was worth it. The view was amazing.

Then, we exited the Arc and proceeded down Champs Elysees, probably the most famous road in Paris (it runs from the Arc to the Louvre). It was full of shopping and restaurants. It was packed with people as well. We walked and walked and walked. I couldn’t get over how many shops there were. It was like Lake George Village in midsummer, except extended for miles. We passed the President’s house, which was heavily guarded. As was the US embassy that we passed. Then, we made it to the Louvre and it was amazing. I think we are going inside the Louvre soon.

Cafes lined Champs Elysee. Thousands.

Outside the Louvre. Going inside tomorrow.

Notre Dame.

(At this point, Pierre left me because he had a girl he was excited to meet up with. We decided to meet at Notre Dame again in 3 hrs. With that, we went our separate ways). What an amazing church. Entrance was free so I went inside. The interior was gorgeous. I’ve never seen another church like it. The stained glass windows were huge, the organ was huge, the place was gorgeous.

One of the many exhibits in Notre Dame.

I left Notre Dame and began walking one direction. By now, it was about 5pm and I was getting hungry. Pierre told me not to eat at any of the restaurants because they are too expensive. He said buy fast food. I don’t eat much fast food, so when I saw a Subway, I went in there. I bought a small sub, reasonably priced, and took it with me. I walked around the back streets for a little while. When I made it back to the river, I went down to the river’s edge and sat there and ate my sub. It was amazing. What a place to eat. I can’t describe how beautiful it was. I ended up hanging out there for about an hour, until it was time to meet Pierre again.

The view from where I ate dinner. Gorgeous.

I guess things went well with Pierre’s girl, because she was with him now. The three of us decided to go to an area a little outside the city to eat. Pierre had a restaurant in mind. We took the subway there and the restaurant turned out to be a little too nice. So, again, we decided on fast food. I wasn’t that hungry so I just went to the mini supermarket across the street and bought some peanuts.

Since we were in the area, we walked to the theatre. It was very pretty. Pierre’s new girlfriend, Charlotte, left us at this point and we went on walking a little ways to our subway station. We were going to go out for a few drinks, but, we were each exhausted and the cheap places were another train ride away, so we decided to do it another night.

Saint Jacque Tower.

Outside the Opera Garnier.

We finally made it back at about 10pm. It was exhausting but very worth it. I can’t imagine how many miles we covered, but, it was a lot. We’ll probably do it again tomorrow.

Paris

2009-03-31T12:30:00.000-07:00

Leaving for Paris tomorrow. Plane leaves Copenhagen at 8pm, arriving in Paris at 10pm. From there, Pierre's parents are meeting us at the airport and we are going back to his house. I think that night we will relax for the week of tourism ahead. Can't wait...

Textbooks

2009-03-26T10:30:00.001-07:00

They have a great policy here: free printing. That is awesome. I've acquired 2 ebooks for free. One was for school, the other for training in the gym. Then, I go and print them in the library. I kinda feel bad about doing this because it takes about 20 minutes to print about 300 pages, but, everyone does it. I usually print about 30 pages at a time so I don't hog the printer.

After that, I go and have it bound, which costs 10kroner (2 dollars). They also give you a nice plastic cover and back. You do the binding yourself, but, it is easy and takes about 1omin/book. Check it out. Each book costed me $2! Score!

Also, I've made some additions to my workspace. One of the kids in the hall was moving, so, he gave me an old monitor he didn't want to move. Works great. I've never used two monitors, but, it is the way to go. I can work so much faster now.

The same kid that left the monitor also left a new, but, big TV that he didn't want to take with him. I thought I might take it, but, I didn't have anywhere to put it. That was, until I went outside that morning and a perfectly good desk was in two pieces next to the trash. I took that inside and put it together. Looks brand new.

However, I didn't grab the TV in time and someone else took it. That is okay with me. I didn't really need it. Now I have this nice desk.

TDC

2009-03-26T10:19:00.001-07:00

Near the end of the night

TDC was last weekend. It was a great event. It stands for "Tour of Rooms." Each of the 12 participating rooms in our hall had a different drink. The theme this semester was "colors." It turned out really good. First we made dinner together, spare ribs and potatoes, and finally the fun started. Check it out.

Dinner.

Room 2. Some people spent a lot of time decorating. This room only had some color decorations.

People also put on costumes. The drink there is a "Tequila Sunrise." It was good.

After drinking my drinks. WAAAAYYY too much blue coloring. I think I got an allergic reaction from all the food coloring. It went away when I stopped drinking it, but, for a while, my face was all blotchey. Weird.

Haircut

2009-03-22T10:14:00.000-07:00

My hair was getting long. Probably the longest it has been in, probably forever. I kinda liked it, but, it did need a trimming, at least. My mom reminded me of this as well; every time we spoke on Skype.

The problem with getting a haircut locally is the price. When I asked some Danes where to go for a haircut they all recommended doing it yourself. Most of them get their hair cuts when they go home. I guess it is cheaper outside the city. But, for the local places, people estimated I would pay about 50USD for a simple cut. I was not going to do that.

One of the kids in my kitchen has a clipper and I've seen him cut his own hair. He said I could borrow it when I needed. Last Friday, I got the clippers and asked my good friend Sara Laprade to cut my hair. She also removed splinters from my foot one time; I trust her.

She warned me before that she's never cut anyones hair; only some horses. I told her not to worry. I just wanted a simple cut. Buzz the whole thing; leave the top a little longer than the sides. No problem.

Everything was going great. We got it down to a nice length on the top and sides. It was looking good. We then removed the protective head so she could cut around my ear. As she did this, she accidently took off all the hair within 1 inch around my ear. Hmmmmmm, that was not supposed to happen. We contemplated doing the other ear the same way, but, it looked too weird. We asked others from the kitchen and everyone agreed, it all had to go.

I don't mind having a shaved head. I've had one before and I'm not mad at Sara in the least (she felt bad). It's kinda fun having one. Lots of interesting looks. I do plan on a Mohawk sometime in May...

Shopping

2009-03-22T10:04:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest differences I notice between Denmark and the United States is in the department of grocery shopping. I took some pictures to illustrate my point. They are from the grocery store Netto, generally the cheapest place to shop. I do check the weekly flyers from all the stores, so I end up shopping at various locations.

This is the pork/beef section. Thats all.

A typical isle. I'm standing at the end of the store. You can see the registers at the front. That is also my friend Grant in the picture. I saw him there randomly.

Some people checking out. No shopping carts here.

My groceries: 2 heads lettuce, 3 cans tuna fish, 30 eggs, sunflower seeds, olive oil, a bottle of red wine, and 3 bags of frozen veggies in the bottom. I think it costed me 30USD.

All the grocery stores are small. Even the largest that I do not shop at because they are expensive, are half the size of a typical Hannaford or Price Chopper from back home. Also, surprisingly, there is no Walmart.

St. Patrick's Day

2009-03-18T07:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day. A lot of my friends went to Ireland to celebrate it, but, I couldn't go because I had a test that day (see previous post). I guess my test could have been on Wednesday, which would have been really unfortunate.

After my exam I went home and made dinner. [aside: I made Scottish Eggs for dinner. It is a hardboiled egg, wrapped in sausage meat and then cooked. It looked like a giant meatball. It was really good]. I made plans with lots of people and it was tough to get everyone on the same page. I wanted to go asap so I finally decided on leaving with just Evelyn, a girl I know from Introduction Week.

Evelyn and I waiting for the bus. She's really pretty.

I had done my homework and made a map of all the Irish bars in the area. From that map, I decided where the best area would be to go. It worked out nicely. There was a great group of bars near the train station (the triangle on the map), so we stayed in that area the whole time. Here is the map:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=115502857181940191930.0004653b6a6895b3044dd&t=h&z=15

The bars were a great scene. There were a ton of people out and everyone was dressed up. I guess the city had a bunch of events earlier in the day, but, I couldn’t go. The Danes do not celebrate the holiday. Some didn’t even know what it was. As a result, the bars were packed with a lot of international students. It was really fun.

The Irish Rover, 2nd floor.

The drinks were soooo expensive. I was hoping for some specials, like cheap drinks, but, that was not the case. Every beer was about 9USD. Unbelievable. I spent too much money, but, it is a special day. I will take it easy this weekend to compensate.

I stayed out late with a group I met up with at one of the bars. We had a lot of fun.

This weekend, TDC! More to come about that.

School Work

2009-03-18T07:05:00.000-07:00

School is going pretty well. I had a test last week in Planetary Physics and that wasn't too bad. I got an 86%. I'll take it.

I took a test yesterday (St. Patty's Day) in my most difficult class, Design of Integrated Circuits. It is a masters level class. For the test, I began studying on Sunday and it consumed me. I studied probably about 20 hrs in 3 days for that test. That was partly my fault. I hadn't done much work in that class so I had some catching up to do.

The test was only an hour, all multiple choice, no aids allowed; not even a calculator. And there was lots of math. It was a tough test because the questions could come from anywhere in over 300 pages of our textbook. We had to know equations and tables. There was lots of information.

Also, the test is graded like the SAT's where wrong answers are negative points. The answers were realesed after the exam and I think I got 10.5/20. That is not great, but, I don't think others could have done much better. I'm not entirely sure how it will be curved. I'm satisfied with that grade. That was a tough test. I'll keep you posted.

Concert

2009-03-14T15:40:00.000-07:00

Last night (Friday) there was a concert at DTU. Some of the kids in my hall were going and they told me where to buy tickets beforehand. I did that. The ticket costed me like 15USD, but, it was worth it.

I've been to 2 concerts already at DTU and they were good; not great. Each of the previous two times, the bands played on a stage in some of the different bars. The bands were each well known (none that I knew), sang in English, and drew a good crowd. The problem with that is it gets really crowded in the bars.

This time, we went to a concert hall on campus. I didn't know we had one. It was a great time. There had to be 500 people in there. Not to mention, the ratio of men to women was the best I'd ever seen it at DTU. I think that a lot of girls came from the city to see them play. The band didn't sing in English, but, it didn't matter. It was a blast. Everyone was rocking out.

Once the concert ended at midnight, we hung out at the bar next door for till we went home. I'll post pictures when I find some. I forgot to bring my camera.

Now, I really need to study.

LONDON, Thursday

2009-03-09T14:11:00.001-07:00

London is soooooo cool. So far, I’ve only seen 3 cities; Copenhagen, Berlin, and London. So far, I’ve liked London the most. Perhaps it really stood out to me because of the warmer weather and sunlight; something I have yet to experience in Copenhagen. It really reminded me of NYC; except the cars drive on the wrong side of the road. However, immediately I felt comfortable. It was nice to be in a country speaking English again.

My flight to London worked out really well. I was at the airport about 3 hrs early which was fine. I was a little nervous because the waited until a half hour before my flight was supposed to leave to declare what gate I was boarding at. In the end, everything worked out fine.

When I arrived in London, Whit, my friend, told me to check in first at his place. He had told me that he would talk to the front desk and arrange for a key to be left for me. I figured out how to get to Whit’s place rather quickly. The public transportation is really well organized. It was no problem traveling on my own in London. I had to take 2 different busses to get there, but, it wasn’t a problem.

WHIT’S PLACE IS AWESOME!!!!!!! I can’t believe I got to stay here. What a place. It was 3 blocks north on Oxford Square; in the center of London. It is a 5 star hotel, the Langham London. Normally, the place would have cost 500pounds/night or 750USD/NIGHT. I have never stayed in a nicer place and probably never will. Whit usually doesn’t have this nice a room, but, because his last week here was unplanned, this was the best they could do for him. What a place. On two of the nights, we ordered room service for dinner at about 1am after we got back in. It was delicious. The fridge in the room is fully stocked, from sweets to Red Bull. You have to be careful though, because everything in the fridge has a sensor on it and as soon as it is removed, you are billed for it. The bathroom was gorgeous. Everything was all I could have asked for.

I had to put on the robe.

Roomservice! Free! Yes. Everynight we got it.

I was finally done unpacking at about 9pm on Thursday night. I then called Whit using Skype from the hotel room He told me he had gone out with some friends to a bar. He said what trains to take and I did, meeting him soon after. Like I said earlier, the trains are very well laid out and easy to navigate. This first night, we hung out in the bar till midnight or so. Whit introduced me to about 6 of his friends from work. Everyone was really nice and really interested in why I was there. One thing that stood out to me was that everyone goes out for a drink after work. Apparently, all the “young” employees, up to 35, live in the city. Once you get to that age, it is expected that you move into the suburbs to raise your family. For that reason, the city is very young.

After ordering room service that night, we both went to bed.

LONDON, FRIDAY

2009-03-09T13:29:00.000-07:00

Friday morning, Whit went to work at about 7 and I slept later. I finally got up at 9, did a quick workout in the room, and was off. I researched and took the “original bus tour” through the city. Luckily it was warm and sunny. The deal with the bus tickets is that you can “hop on/hop off” if you see something interesting. I made the most of that and everything worked out perfectly. I started in the middle of the city. I took the bus to Big Ben.

A very popular square in the middle of London. That is a WWI monument in back.

The same square, this side shows the London Museum of Natural History

One of the Queens' gardens. They were all beautiful.

The rooftops where Mary Poppins was filmed.

A church. You can see my guide with the mic explaining things as we rode atop the bus.

Palace of Westminster. It was huge

Me looking across the bridge to the palace and Big Ben.

Statue of Winston Churchill.

A nice bridge that the boat is going under. You can see the guide speaking at the front.

St. Paul's Cathederal. This was the closest I got.

London Bridge. If you look closely you can see it written on the pillar.

Towers Bridge.

From there, I took the boat (included in the price) up the Thames River. I stopped at the London Bridge, next to the London Tower, for the Jack the Ripper walking tour. That lasted about 2 hrs and finally I made my way back onto the tour bus at 6 pm. I definitely saw the most important attractions that the city had to offer through that whole tour. It was very cool.

The tower of London. More like a castle. This is where all the famous beheadings took place.

A bar on the Jack the Ripper tour. This bar has been around since 1850. Jack's last victim was last seen alive at this bar.

The church where all the "street walkers" were allowed to do business.

When I got back to the hotel, I called Whit and again, he told me where he was going after work. I met him there again and we were off with some friends of his. First, we went to a nice pub and had a couple drinks; then we walked down the streets in search of dinner. The four of us finally decided on a nice Italian place for supper. I tried something different: lamb liver topped with bacon. It was okay.

We then went out to some more clubs. It wasn’t a very late night because most bars close at midnight; even on a Friday night (the clubs are open later, but, we weren’t interested). We called it a night around then and went back to the hotel room. The bar in the hotel was closed too. We decided to go to bed.

LONDON, Saturday

2009-03-09T12:47:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we woke up around 9 and planned our day. We went to the London Imperial War Museum. It covered the first world war and on (no mention of the revolutionary war). That was really, really cool. It was a gorgeous museum; very well laid out and easy to search. I could spend another couple days in there. I only spent like 5 hrs in there, but, it was well worth it; especially because it was free admission. Whit left earlier than I did because I was slow to go through the museum. I met him back the hotel around 6:30pm. From there we took about an hour nap and then were ready to go out again.

Big guns infront of the museum.

A German V2 Rocket

The famous American Tank, the Sherman

A replica of "Little Boy," the first nuclear bomb dropped on Japan.

After walking in the front doors of the museum

Another tank. There was a ton of stuff to look at on the ground.

For dinner, we went to a really nice pizza place close by to his hotel. We each got a personal sized pizza and they were very good. We then got on the train to meet another friend of his at a different bar in Notting Hill. His friend Carl met us there and we had a good time. We called it an early night because we were each tired and I have to get up early in order to catch my flight back home. Ugggh. I’m writing this as we speak. I’m pulling an all-nighter till I get on the plane for Copenhagen. I’m a little nervous because I need to catch two different busses to arrive at the airport on time. We’ll see.

I was so fortunate to visit Whit at this time. I was kind of forced to because Whit thought this would be his last week working in London (actually; they need him here badly. He is going to get an offer to move out here with full time). Each day was sunny and warm; apparently unusual weather for London this time of year (though a welcome change from the current weather in Denmark). I had a great time even though I was not touring the city with anyone on Friday. I would definitely visit again and recommend anyone visiting Europe to stop by London.

Leaving

*Update* All my connections in order to get back to Copenhagen worked out really well. I made sure to leave myself plenty of time wherever I was going. I left the hotel at 3:10am in order to catch a bus at 3:30am. From this bus, I had to catch another bus to the airport. I arrived at Stansted Airport at 5:30am for a 7:15am flight. The flight was not a problem and I finally arrived back at DTU at 11am.

Class, 3/5

2009-03-09T04:14:00.000-07:00

1/1,000,000,000 of an actual chip (like in your pc)

Cake Making—In class

In my microelectronics class on Thursday we modeled the building of a transistor using cakes. My team consisted of a Danish student whom I’ve grown close with and a couple of American students. The exercise was done to help us understand the many processes in building a single transistor of a semiconductor.

I’ve realized it is amazing what we can do with technology today. For instance, the semiconductors in our laptops today can contain upwards of 1 BILLION transistors. That is in a space of maybe one square inch. We used entire cakes to represent one transistor.

It was a good exercise. I do not think they do this exercise at RPI, but, now I think they should. I plan on sending some of my professor’s details about this lesson. Not only was it fun, but, if you take it seriously like my group did, you can learn a lot. Most groups did take it very seriously. I’m not sure if it would work the same way at RPI because you need to find a large kitchen to do this. We needed a means of heating chocolate as well as bowls and mixing tools/forks/knives to complete the cake. I’m not sure we have a kitchen available.

The tools we used to create our “transistor” was layers of cake to represent the silicon; the main ingredient. Then, we used strawberry and vanilla icing to represent p type or n type doping. Chocolate was the metal and chocolate also represented the connections. In our case, we decided to build a CMOS inverting circuit. That is the most basic/fundamental circuits you can build. It turned out really well. I did most of the planning, along with the other Danish student. The other two Americans in our group were clueless.

At the end, we got to eat the cake and it was really good. It gave me a nice sugar high before leaving for London.

We used overhead sheets to design the "mask," which defines what to cut out.

We cut out and filled our "N Wells" with strawberry jelly. Then used liquid nigtrogen to cool it.

You can see the transistors now. The chocolate is the metal of the transistor and the vanilla pudding is the "P Well." Again, using liquid Nitrogen.

After another layer of cake, we used chocolate powder and chocolate syrup to make the connections to the layers below.

We ate it. It was good.

I've been busy

2009-03-04T11:54:00.000-08:00

I had a test today, a dinner to prepare for 15 on Sunday, and I'm leaving for London tomorrow after class. Needless to say, I've been busy.

Today was my first graded assignment of any sort, a test in Planetary Physics. I thought it was easy. It is a remarkably different class style, however, from classes at RPI. In Denmark, there is no mandatory homework and only two of my four classes have a test outside of the final. I can't believe that. In a way, it makes it really hard to stay up to date; let alone go to class. Most professors just upload the slideshow they present to the internet after they present it. If you can look at it in your room at your convenience, why go to class?

Most of the time, you go to class because the professor verbally includes much more information than what is on the slides. There is one of my classes that is a complete joke though. It is interesting, but, there are no assignments and all the professor does is lecture for all four hours. This class kills me.

I've been preparing to leave for London as well. That doesn't take much time, but, I'm arriving in England and have to find my way to Whit's hotel on my own. I want to be sure I'm fully prepared. Thankfully there won't be a language barrier.

On Sunday, upon returning at 11am, I need to get ready to cook for about 15 people. They are the group from my introduction week. I went out today and bought groceries. The whole riding your bike thing to the grocery store is getting to me. That is probably because this is the second day in a row I've done it. I've bought groceries enough to make 2 bacon explosions, a chicken, and make apple crisp for dessert. Sunday will be consumed by cooking, but, I like to cook.

Class tomorrow should be really cool. This is one of my favorite classes. We are learning about semiconductor physics (quantum physics) and the process of making semiconductors. Tomorrow, there is no lecture, but, we do have a lab. To demonstrate the step by step process of making semiconductors, we are baking a cake. Each layer of the cake represents something different. At the end we get to eat the cake. It is supposed to be a really good exercise... I'll let you know how it turns out.

Right after that, I get on the bus, to the train, to the airport, to leave for London. Sweet.

Sorry

2009-03-03T02:16:00.000-08:00

I apologize to anyone reading my blog if you saw a remark I made about the club scene. I meant to delete that upon publishing, but, forgot. It was crude and didn't mean to put it in there. Sorry,

Matt

Whit's Here

2009-03-02T01:37:00.001-08:00

Whit also came on Friday night. Everything worked out really well. I went to a concert at a bar on campus where a famous Danish band was playing. Their music was in English so I understood it. It was really good. Just after then ended, Whit gave me a call and I met him at like midnight. We stayed on campus that night and get this. The ONE person Whit knows in Denmark, calls Whit out at the bar we are at. Apparently, this girl had stayed with Whit a couple months ago for a few nights. She was a friend of a friend or something. They didn’t contact each other beforehand either. That was pretty crazy. It turned out to be a late night, but, it was fun.

On Saturday, we got up late, had a quick breakfast and met Sara to go into the city. One of the Danish students from my hall went with us. We took the bus to the city and did a self guided tour. The tour was nice and you definitely see the hot spots, however, you need someone there for some commentary.

Free Ice Cream Day! We got some.

For dinner, we ate at a great little restaurant in the basement of a hotel that Sara had read was cheap with good, authentic Danish food. I would definitely go back there. This gave me a good idea of what I want to do when I have my family visit in April.

The restaurant bar.

Whit and Sara. Whit got a "sausage plate" and Sara got the "famous chicken sandwich."

Alex got a hamburger.

My dinner. It was tuna and qual eggs over a sald with some vinagrette dressing. It was good.

After dinner, we went back home, took a nap and stayed on campus again that night. Whit left on Sunday at noon, but, not before I made plans to visit him this Thursday.

Friday Nights of Bacon

2009-03-02T01:19:00.000-08:00

First off, you must go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWIUcoVH3e4 in order to understand the inspiration for "Friday Nights of Bacon."

I had brought up the Bacon Xplosion a week or so ago and the guys really like the idea. Since we had to do it on a Friday (because of the song), we decided the 27th was good. Actually, we cook together often. When someone wants to cook together, they put up their dish idea on a list and you are free to join. On Thursday, Julie organized a meatball dinner. You cook it together and clean up together. The organizer is only responsible for getting the supplies.

Getting the supplies...that was a task. I didn't want the meal to be too expensive so I did homework in terms of shopping. I looked up all the local supermarkets and found their online catalogues to see where I could get deals. In the end, I bought most of my supplies from Netto, but, I used 2 other supermarkets for some small things.

At around 5pm we started making it. It was awesome. We were all inspired by how epic the bacon explosion is. First, we weaved the bacon together to form a mat. Then, you add barbecue sauce and spices. On top of that goes the meat. In this case it was a mix of ground beef and sausage meat (taken out of the tube). Then, more barbecues sauce/spices. On top of the meat layer, we put a mix of peppers, onions and fried bacon; topped all that with slices of cheese. Finally, you roll up the meat into a log and then roll the bacon around the meat. It was the coolest thing I’ve ever made.

Not to mention, everyone thinks it’s awful for you, but, I don’t believe that. It is pretty much all meat and if I could have bought organic, grass fed meat, I can’t see anything wrong with it. It is a lot of calories because of the fat, but, natural animal fat is good for you. I’m more worried about the sugar in the bbq sauce we used.

We cooked it after that and the smell was amazing. It looked delicious in the oven. About halfway through, we pulled them out and added the remaining bbq sauce to the outsides. When it was finally ready, everyone was in the kitchen and could not wait to eat it. Martin sliced it up and we were ready to eat. The 9 of us sat down and enjoyed. Some people chose to eat it on a hamburger roll, in which case it is like a bacon burger. I ate my first slice alone; to get the full flavor. Everyone agreed it was delicious. It was a great dinner.

REACH

2009-03-01T05:03:00.000-08:00

One of the brothers from my house contacted me because he has the opportunit to come to Denmark, like me. I've included our conversation because I thought you may like to read my response.

Yo Kloepfer,

I just accepted into the REACH program and I’m looking to probably go to Denmark next semester. I was just wondering how things are there and if it’s worth pursuing?

I know it’s probably a huge change but I just wanted to get a feel for what I’d be in for before I actually send in my final application. You can either call me (518-567-7037) or just email me when you get the time. Thanks man

-C

And my response:

Yo man. Just got some time and wanted to update you.

First of all, I've never been to Europe, so I didn't really know what to expect. I just went in with an open mind and so far it has been a blast. DTU in general, reminds me of RPI. My classes are about the same difficulty except no homework. Most classes have a final exam as the only grade. There may be some project work, but, not much. The scheduling works differently. Each class is a max of 4 hrs. I'll attach my schedule so you can see. Most classes are only lecture 2 hrs, then the next 2 hrs are for classwork. This is not mandatory work. I guess it replaces homework, which is kinda nice. Overall, I haven't thought classes are very hard. The 4 teachers I've had I like a lot. They all speak really good English. The language barrier is not even a problem here. Everyone speaks English, no joke.

Living on campus is great. I live in a hall of 17 (2 girls) Danes and the kitchen is great. It is fully stocked and works really well. Everyone does their own cooking and dishes and occasionally we cook together (see bacon explosion on facebook). My room is really nice. It is much bigger than I expected. It is perfect. The kids I live with in this kitchen are GREAT. I guess I got lucky because I have a really sweet kitchen. They are very social. Some kitchens are not as social. Everyone has been really nice to me and helped me out a lot. In fact, if you were to come here, I would recommend you take my room. I would send out some emails to get you in here. That may work because the guys here are concerned that someone lame will move in when I leave. I'll look into it if you're down.

The social scene on campus is pretty good. It would be great, except they have a male/female ration of 80/20. That is a shame because the campus is set up to party. For example, in our dorm complex is a popular bar, at a different bar on campus I went to two concerts last week, etc. There are a total of 6 bars on campus, not to mention each major has a "happy hour" every Friday. However, outside of campus, there is not too much, party wise at least. You need to go to the city of Copenhagen. There are some awesome clubs/bars there. One of my favorites is La Hacienda. It is 35USD to get in, but, free beer the entire night. It doesn't get much better than that. One downside to partying in the city is the trains shut down from 12:30am to 5:30am, which means you have to take a night bus to get home between those hours. However, between those hours, the night bus is 2x as expensive. If a normal bus ride is 5USD for the 40 minute ride home, it is now 10USD. As a result, most stay out until at least 5:30am. This is something I've had trouble adjusting to. You can stay out all night every night if you wanted to, but, I find it hard. I seem to hit a wall when it gets past like 4. I think I need to begin pregaming later in the night.
The city is expensive, like the entire country. Quickly, you will learn where to shop for groceries and stuff. You've just got to accept that you are going to spend a lot of money. That is the only way you can justify it. If you travel, you should plan your trips in advance. It is easy to get a group together that wants to travel. Traveling from Denmark is easy. Denmark is practically in the center of Europe and you can go anywhere. I have plans of visiting London later this week for a couple of nights; easy as that.

I would definitely recommend coming to Denmark. I feel very cultured and I'm making a ton of new friends. I've made a ton of danish friends, not to mention all the other international students that I hang out with often (they have a great introduction week for international students). Now, I have friends from all over the world, how cool is that? It is a nice change from RPI too. I believe that you need to take a semester off from RPI somehow, either co-op or study abroad; everyone should do one of those two. I'm sure you know what I mean.

The decision is yours. I don't regret mine; not one bit. If you have any other questions, let me know. Take care,

Matt

Old Bike

2009-02-25T13:19:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture of my old bike. I wanted to get a photo of it before it got stolen because there is no lock on it. I don't think anyone would steal it anyway...But, even though the gears didn't work and the seat was too low, the handlebars were falling apart and the front tire kinda wobbled, I grew attached to this bike. I planned on using it and selling the other one pictured from the other day. That was, until, it got a flat rear tire. A flat front tire I may have replaced, but, a rear tire on this bike, no way. That would require too much work. Not to mention all the screws are completely rusted, I don't think I could get them off.

In other news, I went grocery shopping today with a kid from my hall, Tyce. He has a car, so I gladly went with him. It is a treat to ride in a car and not bike, not to mention you can buy more because you don't have to worry about carrying it back with you.

Here is a list of some things I bought so you can compare some prices:

2.2 lbs precooked ham (not sliced) = $12.5 USD

3 lbs grnd beef (16-20% fat. I don't mind) = $12 USD

30 large eggs = $5.5 USD

1 can tomato sauce = $.66USD

1 store brand deoderant = $5.5USD

3 avacado = $2.67USD

Saving money by shopping at one of the farthest grocery stores and buying no-name products, only to blow any saved money away during a night in Copenhagen..............priceless.

Keep in mind that I do shop at the cheapest grocery store around. This is the cheapest you can buy any of these products.

To be honest though

Stuff

2009-02-23T12:01:00.000-08:00

I've been really busy lately. I have been trying to organize trips for St. Patty's Day and our break in early April. As of right now, I think I will end up in Ireland on March 17th. A group of RPI kids are leaving March 10th and skipping classes that entire week to go to London first. Over the weekend they are going to fly to Dublin and stay through Tuesday.

I would like to do that because I've never been to London and the flight from CPH to London to Dublin and back is only 300 USD. I think that is a good deal considering the weekend we are traveling. My only reservation is that I have a test in one of my engineering classes on March 17th, of all days. I already spoke with the professor about taking the exam on the 13th and he said that was ok.

What I may do is stay for the test on Friday, then leave for Dublin on Saturday and return on Wednesday. I have found that flight round trip for 239USD. I have to decide.

April break is still up in the air.

Here are some random pictures that I took:

View from my building when I walk out. All the snow is gone now. that was the most we got.

My building in the back. I live on the second floor.

A bike rack. They are EVERYWHERE.

My second bike. I think I might keep this one. I thought I would sell it, but, my original bike just got a flat on the rear tire and I think it will be a big fix.

I'm brining a chicken. It was a lot of work.

Almost ready to go in the oven after the brining. I quickly steamed some onions and apple slices with cinnamon in the microwave and then stuffed it.

My chicken. The picture doesn't really do it justice. It came out a wonderful golden brown. Most of it is still sitting in the fridge. It was good, but, a lot of work. I think I will stick to the beer can chicken. That meat in the background is not mine.

Berlin and Back

2009-02-16T06:47:00.001-08:00

The Brandenburger Tor- the symbol of Berlin

Berlin was a very cool city. In just two days, I feel like I got a great feel for the city. Here is how it went:

I left with Sara Laprade at 4:50 am Friday morning. At least, I was supposed to. All of us went to the bar on campus Thursday night. I ended up drinking a lot and when I slept right through my alarm. When I woke up at 9:30am, I realized what had happened. I MISSED THE BUS!!! Sara made it and tried to get me by throwing snowballs at my window, but, I wasn't waking up (she doesn't have a phone or she would have called). I know I set my alarm, but, I don't even remember hearing it.

I was pretty upset when I realized what happened. Immediately, I looked when the next bus was leaving and it was at 4pm that evening. I contacted the bus company and they said there were about 20 open seats on that bus and I shouldn't have a problem getting on. So, I crossed my fingers and hoped that I could ride that bus.

Thankfully, I could. It was not a problem. The only problem now is that I'm traveling alone. Oh well, it is my fault. I made sure that I knew exactly where I had to go once I got to Berlin because I didn't want to be wandering the city when I arrived at midnight.

The bus ride was easy. The bus was empty, so you could spread out. I did some reading in one of my textbooks so that was good. About half way through the trip we get on a ferry to cross a the Baltic Sea. The ferry was really nice. It had 3 restaurantes and some shopping. After 1.5hrs on the ferry, we were back on the bus. The entire trip took about 7hrs, but, it wasn't too bad. The ferry breaks things up nicely.

On the bus, I had made friends with a kid from Denmark sitting across from me. He was traveling to Berlin to meet some friends as well. We were each getting on the subway, so I went with him. We got on the subway, which is right next to the station. He got off after a couple of stops and I stayed on. It was like a half hour ride, but, once I got to my destination station, the Wombat hostel was half a block away. I got there at midnight.

I checked into the hostel (at 20usd/night) and I was the only one there. I was living with 5 other kids from RPI, 2 of them girls. Everyone else was out having fun and I had no way to contact them, so I went to the bar on the 7th floor of the hostel. The drinks were cheap and the crowd was okay, but, they closed at two. I didn't want to waste a Friday night in Berlin, so I went out on my own.

I asked the man at the front desk where I could go that is nearby, cheap, and has a good crowd. He told me to go outside, take a left and the farther I went, the cheaper the bars got. So, thats what I did. I ended up at a cheap bar with kids my age and ended up having a good time. I got back at like 4:30am.

I got up at 9:30 the next morning and saw everyone. They were happy to see me. We went and got our complementary buffet breakfast in the lobby of the hostel. It was pretty good. They told me about what they had done last night. They went on a "Pub Crawl," where you visit about 6 pubs and get free drinks at each one. They said it was okay. That day, Sara, Whit (the RPI AEPi alum), and I, went on a "free" walking tour of the city. The group that did it yesterday said it was great.

Steph and Grant at the Hostel

The walking tour started at 1pm and had a group of 35 kids, all doing the same thing. The guide was GREAT. It was a 5hr tour, and in that time, I feel like I learned more than I could have in a whole semester. Some of my favorite parts of the tour was stading when Hitler had stood and given rally speeches to some 20,000 germans. The other cool part was standing above Hitler's bunker and standing at the spot where Hitler's and Eva Braun's bodies were supposedly burned after their suicides. And then there was the entire Berlin Wall....it was all really cool.

My tour group is up ahead.

The Old Museum. Hitler would give speeches from between those columns.

A Very Very elaborate Protestant church

The 2nd longest remaining piece of the Berlin Wall

I'm standing at the former SS Headquarters. Those are the torture chambers in the basement. The Berlin wall runs above it.

One of the Nazi Headquarters. The pictured gate used to have the swastika in the middle of that circle.

Standing on either side of the Berlin Wall.

A remembrance to those killed in WW2. Beneath this statue are the bodies of an unkown German soldier and an unkown prisoner from a concentration camp.

The controversial memorial to the Jews killed in WW2. There are 2,711 concrete blocks.

The TV Tower, a symbol of Germany

Very cool spot. The closest tree pictured is the location that Hitler and Eva's bodies were burned. The tree behind that is above the bunker where Hitler spent the last few months of his life.

The most expensive hotel in Germany. One night in the Exclusive Room will cost over 100k USD. It is also the hotel that Michael Jackson hung his baby out the window.

We went to dinner that night at a restaurante where we were told served some authentic German food. It turned out to be very good. I think I got the best meal. It was called the Pork Knuckle. It was huge. Check it out.

That night, we went out and had a good time. It was pretty typical, but fun.

The next day, the bus left at 3:15pm, so we had the morning to do something. After breakfast, we went to the Salvadore Dali musuem. It wasn't my first choice, but, it was okay and it took us to a different part of the city.

After, that we got back on the bus for the ride home. Overall, Berlin was a beautiful city, and cheap too. One last thing I noticed was the amount of graffiti. There was A LOT of it. Most of it was done nicely, but, it was still graffiti. I would definitely go back.

Reach Reception

2009-02-11T14:32:00.000-08:00

Well, today went better. At 9am I went to Planetary Physics and that was okay. At noon, I got out and made lunch. Mixed some tuna with an avocado and some mayo and spices. It was very good. Then, I went off to the city again to grab that textbook. That went smoothly this time and I made it back to campus for our Reach Reception at 3pm.

For the Reception, the American Ambassador to Denmark came and gave a speech as well as the president of the school. There were also a few representatives from RPI and it turned out to be a nice ceremony. It was rather informal for the type of affair, even with all the professional photographers. At RPI, it would have been an eloquent and dramatic scene. Here, it was everyone in a large Hallway, standing, and listining to the speaker right in front of them at a little podium. It was informal, but, very nice.

They also had some food on a table. They had little roast beef sandwiches, salmon rolls, olives, ALMONDS, and chocolate covered strawberries. After not having almonds in so long, I filled up on them and made that my dinner (I probably ate too many). They also served wine and champagne.

Tomorrow, I get ready for Berlin.

Long Day

2009-02-10T13:44:00.000-08:00

Wow, today was a long day. I'm going to go to bed after posting this. Here is what happened:

I had to go to the city today in order to pick up a textbook that could not be delivered. I took the bus from campus to the train station, where I got off. When I got on the bus at campus, I clipped my ticket for 5 Zones--perfect. The way the tickets work here is difficult to explain, but, from DTU to where I was going was 5 Zones, regardless of bus or train. When I got to the train station, I wasn't thinking and threw away my ticket because it was used up now. I got on the train and was riding when I realized what I had done. I threw away my proof that I had paid for the train ride. Now I was riding illegally and I had heard stories of people getting fined hundreds of dollars for this.

Luckily, the police didn't come through the train, but, I was sweating for the next three stops. (As it turns out, they came through the train on my way home, but, I had gotten another ticket, so I was okay).

I found my way to the package pickup office and it was closed!!! Even though, the day before I called to make sure it would be open. The man there was nice, but, he said there was nothing he could do. The office hrs are 1:30-8 (weird hrs for denmark). I would have just stayed in the city and walked around (and skipped my 1pm class) becuase it was 11am at this point, but, the day before I had made plans. I told a German girl that I would get lunch with her becuase she wants to live in NYC this summer to dance and she had some questions for me. So, I had to come back to go see her.

So, I made it back to the bus station and instead of taking a bus back to campus, I went to the Danish version of the DMV. I applied for a number that represents me as a temporary citizen called the CPR number and all my friends had already received theirs in the mail and I hadn't. So, I walked the 5 minutes to this place and got that number.

After getting that number, I figured I should continue walking in the direction of campus, instead of back tracking for the bus station. I thought I would find a bus stop "up the road." As it turns out, there was no bus stop for campus.

I was grudgingly walking up the road thinking about my poor luck when I saw a pretty nice bike on the side of the road with a sign "garbage" on it. I decided to take it. Even though it had a flat front tire, I still made it back to campus rather quickly. Now, I plan on fixing it up and selling it. So, that is one thing that went right today.

After I got back to my room, I had just enough time for an early lunch before meeting this girl to talk about her travel plans. After meeting with her, I went to my class begining at one. The professor lectured till 4:30. Shoot me.

Then, after dinner, I decided to fix that bike tire. I borrowed some tools, took the tire off and ran the tire tube under water to try and find the leak. No leak. That is great, except, I just wasted all this time taking the tire off for no reason. Now I have to put it back on and that is a hassel. After I get it back on, I borrow a pump and try to inflate it, but, the nipple for the tire doesn't fit anyone's pumps. I have to go to a bike store in Lyngby for that.

Damn. I'm going to bed.

Christmas Lunch

2009-02-08T03:57:00.000-08:00

The floor celebrated Christmas on Saturday with the Christmas Lunch. (It is tradition in Denmark that the big Christmas meal is eaten Dec. 24th as well as present opening). We are celebrating Christmas now because they didn't have time to do it last semester. It seems like other floors are doing the same thing. From what I was told, it turns into a big party in our kitchen. That was fine with me because I was tired from La Hacienda, the club we went to last night.

The first thing we did was got some much needed groceries. We went to the nearest grocery store, Super Best, with a cart to refill our beer fridge. We brought back the 16 cases of empties and got 16 cases of Carlsburgh for really cheap; it was on sale. We had to drag it all back on this cart because no one has cars. It was not easy.

Next, 4 of us went to Netto, the really cheap grocery store that just has whole foods. We bought lots of food for a traditional Danish Christmas Lunch.

The first course, and a very very traditional Danish dish is centered around a piece of bread. But, it is not like bread in America. It is very nutty and very delicate. It must be eaten with a fork and knife, you can't really pick it up. You put everything on it: eggs, shrimp, meatballs (which I helped make), fish, a meatloaf dish made from liver (which I wasn't crazy about), mayonaise, remoulade; anything you want. I usually don't eat bread, but, thought I could today. It was delicious.

We also got a salad, but, it was made by one of the Chinese residents. It was a seaweed salad and that was good too.

The main course was the pork. It too, was delicous. One thing a little different on their pork is that it is sold with a quarter inch layer of fat left on the top of each cut. When it is cooked, it becomes like a layer of bacon on top. Imagine that.

For dessert, we made a big bowl of rice "porridge," not sure if it is the same as our rice pudding, but, they called it porridge. It is just rice, milk, vanilla and crushed almonds. You put a cherry sauce on it. When it is being made, they put ONE whole almond and whoever gets the whole almond, gets a prize. The idea is, if you find it, you keep it hidden in your mouth. That way everyone keeps eating, hoping they will find it. I didn't find the almond...

After that, we were all STUFFED. I hadn't eaten that amount in a long time. We started some karaoke and played some card games, which were new to me. We just partied together the rest of the night. It was great.

Here are some pictures:

Floor Meeting

2009-02-06T02:36:00.000-08:00

We had our first floor meeting today (monthly). Including myself, the hall has two new members. We got the chance to introduce ourselves, even though we knew everyone already. There are elected positions in the hall, such as president, treasurer and scribe. It is run very loosely though. We just talked about the condition of the kitchen and what we needed to buy. We also talked about what food to buy for our "Christmas Lunch" on Saturday. They call it lunch, but, it is really dinner. We want to be eating by 5pm, which is really early here in Denmark for dinner. They usually eat at 7pm for dinner.

After the floor meeting, we went to the Kampsax bar. It is the bar in my complex. It was packed. I didn't stay too late though. I'm sure tonight will be long.

I asked to take some photos at the end of the floor meeting. These are the people I live with and they are great!

Here is everyone, except for the girl on the far right. She doesn't live with us. She is Martin's girlfriend.

Now, I'm in the pic.

Some shots celebrating the new guys (me).

Some drinking games.

Pictures

2009-02-04T04:10:00.000-08:00

Classes are good so far. It was what I expected. I have some free time now, so here are some videos of my room and kitchen.

First Day of Classes

2009-02-02T09:44:00.000-08:00

The first day of classes were today and they went well. Having two 4hr classes in one day is a lot, but, it wasn't so bad.

The first class, Emerging Energy Technologies, seems easy. There were only 30 of us in a small classroom and I sat next to one of my friends from France. The professor lectured for a while and then we got a 20 min break. My friend and I went back to his place for tea because it was really close. When we got back we got a guest speaker for another hour and then it was over. It only lasted like 2.5hrs and there is no homework (I don't think we will have too much).

After that, I went and made eggs (with some ham, salsa and jalepenos) for lunch. Then, it was off to my next class, Microelectronics.

This class went pretty much as expected. I sat next to a kid with an RPI sweatshirt on. As it turned out, he was at RPI last summer for research. He told me he was a phd student and that scared me a little. But, I later found out most kids in the class are 2nd yr students.

Once class started, the professor asked who in the class didn't know danish. Only myself and another kid raised our hands. I felt kinda bad. Everyone knows english really well, but, I'm sure they'd rather learn a difficult subject like this in their native language. Anyway, there was lecture and then we broke off and did some exercises. Pretty standard stuff.

Saturday Night

2009-02-01T05:11:00.001-08:00

What a great day. It was nothing formal, but, half my group decided to meet up at 3 and go back into the city. Our guide, Anders, met us there again. We just walked around and did some shopping.

So far, I haven't noticed the prices being too expensive. I have learned to shop at the cheapest supermarkets (they have aldi here). I can buy food for a week for about 120dkk, which is about 25 dollars american. I'm praciting my rationing. Beer isn't too expensive if you buy it at the supermarket. If you buy it at the bar, a cheap beer is 20dkk, or 4 dollars. This isn't too bad because tax/tip is included in everything. Most bars are between 30-50dkk/beer. Like at my fraternity, we have a beer fridge in the kitchen where you can sign out beer for 2.75dkk/beer. Sweet. You don't get a beer fridge on campus at rpi.

Clothes are expensive. I lost my rpi hat and I really need one because it is cold. I went into a huge store in the city yesterday. It was a 5 story mall of JUST clothing stores. I know my mom would like it. I couldn't look for too long because they were closing. They didn't have any of the hats I wanted, but, I was looking at the french style cap. I think I'm going to get one, but, not there. It was 60 dollars american. I also like wearing scarves.

Speaking of the kitchen, it is stocked with all the utensils I need. I was happy to see that. It might get kind of crowded when all 17 people are around and trying to use it. Right now, it is nice and clean and a good spot to hang out and talk. There is a tv in there too. Half of the stations are stations that I'm familiar with and they are in english.

I'm off now to go to the gym and try to buy a bike from a friend.

A great week...

2009-01-31T03:33:00.000-08:00

So far, it has been a blast. Our introduction week is over. I'm sad about that because all we've been doing is partying. Our group became very close. Once classes start on Monday, I'm not sure we will see each other much again, but, we've created a facebook group and we will try to stay together.

Thursday we all got up and walked into the town of Lynby to fill out some paperwork. I stayed in the town and did some shopping in a mall. In the afternoon, we toured a famous brewery in the city called Carlsburg. At the end of the tour was a beautiful bar and everyone got two free beers. Then, we partied on campus that night.

Friday was lectures on how to be successful in Denmark. It was all day but I only went to half of them because I needed to catch up on some sleep. I'm glad I did because we were out till late last night, on campus again.

I'm cooking a chicken right now (beer can chicken) to have for the next week or so. When that finishes, I'm meeting my group at the train station to go into the city.