Paris

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.