Live from Lyngby

I really want to let you all know about my little excursion yesterday.  I have gotten caught up for the past hour or so returning e-mails and changing my layout and color scheme...like it???  Thought you might not have noticed.  Anyway, I'm heading out in about fifteen minutes so let's see how fast I can do this and I apoligize in advance for any grammatical and or spelling errors that may occur.

Yesterday I decided I had wasted enough afternoons just sitting around, not doing much of anything so I took the oppurtunity to travel to Copenhagen and just walk around and visit some museums.  After paying next months rent I took the 150s bus down to Norreport station.  While waiting for the bus a man was talking very loudly on his cell phone.  After he got off he commented to me in Danish.  I told him I only spoke English and was from America and he clarified his remark.  He mentioned that he was speaking so loudly because his grandmother was on the phone.  I told him I could understand because my mother always makes the same comments about my grandfather.  Anyway, while we waited he asked me if I was enjoying myself and what I had seen so far.  I told him I hadn't seen much but that I was planning all sorts of trips and for Easter I was heading to Spain.  He suggested that I visit Mon in Denmark, which is south of Copenhagen, a small island just north of Germany.  He said he thought that it was the most beautiful part of Denmark.  After consulting my travel books, it turns out H.C. Andersen felt the same way.  He also mentioned that Portugal is a very nice place to visit if I have the chance because it is gorgeous and not quite as touristy as a lot of Europe can be.  I may take him up on both these suggestions.  We inevitably began to discuss American politics, with the election and all coming up.  He made one comment though that I found most interesting.  Actually two.  First, he said that he has as much interest in the outcome of the American elections as he does in the outcome of his own.  The second comment was that he has a lot of bad sentiment towards America with the war in Iraq and the impression we give off as a sort of bully, however he was the first person I've come across to also note how grateful he was for us because when things go wrong we are often the ones to respond.  He noted the mess in Yugoslavia in the mid-to-late 90's and said, often people forget about the times like these.  I was very impressed by his take on America.

Anyway,  I eventually would make it to Norreport and since it was raining I decided to take the train to Copenhagen Station and from there walk to the Nationalmuseet.  The museum was full of culture.  It was really interesting because there were exhibits of mummies and ancient Greeks and Romans.  Also there were exhibits on Danish culture from before the middle ages up until modern times.  I found that they really liked to display dead bodies.  There were mummies, the actual bodies laying exposed for the patrons to see.  There were bones of animals.  There was the well preserved remains of a mass burial site found beneath a church in Roskilde.  There was also a head with a stake stuck through it.  The sign mentioned this was done in addition to drawing and quartering a person for a truly heinous offense.  Do check out the pictures because some this stuff was really amazing, but like I said, I'm in kind of a rush and am not going to post any, at least not at this time.

After the museum, the sun had begun to shine so I just started walking towards the waterfront.  I had no map so I just began to walk in the general direction.  I ended up finding a canal that was very nice and did make my way to the waterfront.  I crossed over the bridge and walked towards Christiania.  I don't know that I made it quite to the heart of Christiania because I didn't notice all the hippies that they suggest live there.  It is apparently a place for people with alternative lifestyles (alternative in the hippie/pot-smoking sense).  A little while later I turned around and stumbled upon the Danish Architecture Center (DAC). 

I decided to check it out since my guidebook told me they had free exhibits.  Well, they don't, or at least they didn't.  They were hosting Europan 9 which is a contest for aspiring European architects to showcase there talents.  I payed the 25 kroner (5 dollars and rising, the exchange rate is really faltering) and went in.  I had never been to an architecture competition before and decided it would be interesting.  I have decided that a lot of architects really just try too hard.  The designs appear to be really over the top most of the time but I guess that's why a lot of people categorize this as artistic expression.  My feeling was confirmed when no one was awarded a prize in one of the categories.  This was because none of the judges felt that the architects addressed the issues that had been given in the contest outline.  After this I decided it was a good idea to head home since I still had to go grocery shopping.  

I made my way back to Norreport, again without a map.  I cheated when I stumbled upon the Nyhavn Metro and took that back to Norreport.  Once at Norreport I bought my first Danish from Super Brusgen's.  I can say it was quite good, although I imagine they can be quite better when you get them fresh from a bakery.  I know of a bakery about a kilometer down the street and I think I will go there one day to see just how good they can be.

Well, it has been a month and one day now.  I am having so much fun.  I can't wait to see everyone over Easter break and I can't wait for the rest of my family to come visit in May.

Take Care.

JML

Ok, so I've been here a month.  To celebrate today I enjoyed my first Danish and went into Copenhagen and visited a museum and otherwise wandered the streets.  I will put my pictures up and leave a longer post about it tomorrow but it has really left me exhausted.

Having the time of my life.  Hope all is well, wherever you may be.

Last weekend I was too tired to go see some museums as I had hoped due to going out the night before and this weekend I promised myself that no matter how tired I was, I would not let this weekend slip by again.  Now that I have a bike, I wanted to road test it and see just how accesible Denmark is by bike.  I decided to bike to Hillerod, a small town with an old castle.  I had no other way of finding directions than an automobile trip planner so I tried this out.  After preparing the directions and taping them to my handlebars I set out on my trip.  One wrong turn and about two miles later, I was on my way.  Following the directions I ended up at Highway 19 which was supposed to take me all the way to Hillerod.  Turns out, Highway 19 is not bike friendly (as I am sure are most highways).  Disappointed but not completely discouraged I road around, now with no directions, looking for somewhere to go.  I decided I would try to make it to the shore since I vaguely remembered how we had gotten there before.

After about an hour and fifteen minutes I made it to the shore.  It was not the most beautiful day but it was nice to just sit and watch the sea for a little bit.  After eating part of the lunch I had packed, I traveled to a small town I could see from the beach and just road around seeing what they had to offer.  

On my trip back I saw a tree with a sign posted next to it indicating some sort of importance so I decided to take a look.  I'm not exactly sure what it said, although it was interesting because the tree was almost completely hollowed out and now resembled just a shell.  Here are some pictures of it:





I decided it was a good idea to try a different route back that I thought might be a little more direct.  I don't know why I always think it is a good idea to go exploring alternative routes without the aid of a map.  Anyway, two good things came of this decision.  First, I discovered a place to hop on National Cycle Route 9.  I had read about this and wanted to find it at some point but the maps offered online are not exactly the most helpful all of the time.  Often they are small and difficult to read.  This was important because in addition to Hillerod, I want to bike to Helsingor at some point, probably when it is a little nicer out.  Helsingor is about a 40 km bike ride but the trip would definitely be worthwhile.  It is the location of Hamlet's castle from the infamous Shakespeare play.  

The other thing was at the end of the road I was traveling down (no more than 500 meters) was a park.  It was gated off from cars but had a bike path so I decided to take it.  Once inside the park, I found an amusement park.  This was an exciting discovery.  The park reminded me of the set of a horror movie or the plot location of a Goosebumps novel due to the fact that it was closed for the season.  The amusement park was not gated off so I decided to explore it and take some photos.

There were rollercoasters...



...a log flume...



...a swan ride...



...and some spinning rides.



All in all, the place was quite impressive I thought.  It was surprising to see this in the middle of the woods.  I definitely think that it will be necessary to come back and have a visit when it is warmer out and the park is open for business.

After leaving here I continued on the path hopeing I was going in the right direction.  A short while later I came to a gate that led out of the park and I found a place where you get borrow horses and ride through the park ( I had seen two small children on minature horses riding through the park) and a hotel.  Down the road from here I found the main road that would lead me back to Lyngby.  It was quite the ride and without a map or any real idea of where I was, it was fun to explore Denmark.  

Tak For Besoget...

If you really want a taste of Danish culture you should simply refer to their modern music charts.

Here is a sample of what we hear every night we end up at a club and often more than once.  It is the number one song in Denmark right now.  I really like it, hope you do too.

Lizzie - Ramt i Natten

Ha, just thought it was nice to see that some people are taking notice.   Also, apparently I made it on someone's RSS feed about art museums.  Not quite sure how I managed to pull that one off.

Skål!

JML

...but i do feel as though I haven't done much exciting in the past week but I guess I should make a small record of what has happened to inform my readers and more important to document my adventure.

I made it through my second week of classes and by Thursday I was ready for at least a small break.  Luis (my roommate) and Francesco (my old roommate) were going to Kampsax, a small bar with an even smaller dance floor on campus.  Just as we got out the door we were pulled into the neighboring container and offered sangria and told to sit down and enjoy ourselves, at least for awhile.  Here I met Maria, a good friend of Matt Benfer and Brian Salyers, two friends of mine that were here last semester.  Turns out there are quite a few people who stayed from last semester and by all accounts, Brian and Matt were very well liked, and their friends were very easy to get along with.  After spending some time discussing the difference in the way animals sound in different countries (Did you know roosters in Spain don't go "cock-a-doodle-do" rather it sounds more like Lindsey Bluth's chicken impression from Arrested Development?  It also should be noted that sheep and cows do sound the same everywhere in the world.)  we got ourselves together and headed out to Kampsax.  By now it was half past eleven and we had missed out on the drink specials, and not that it mattered because I had class the next day and was simply more interested in getting my dancing shoes on.

There was an alright cover band that played at Kampsax.  I would have given them a better review except that the first two songs they played had just been played before they took the stage and I must say, Jon Bon Jovi does a better Bon Jovi and Axl Rose does a better Guns n' Roses than these guys, but that is just my opinion.  Kampsax isn't bad, it's nice and cozy and on Thursday nights inhabited with a great number of international students from DTU so everyone knows most everyone.  My only real complaint it that smoking is permitted in the bar (very uncommon in Denmark, there was a recent regulation passed) so I think I got a heavy dose of somewhere between first and second hand smoke for about 3 hours or so.  I returned home around 2:30 to finally get some rest seeing as I do have one class on Friday but not till the afternoon.

Friday came and, of course, it was "Cake Day" in my Physiological Transport Phenomena class.  What more could you ask for, a great teacher, really nice classmates, a sort of interesting subject, and someone brings in cake every Friday?  Wow, I really can't complain.

Friday night my roommate Nacho wasn't feeling well, and planning ahead for a big Saturday night (as every Saturday night is here) Luis, Daniel, Nacho and I decided to play some poker.  The game was very small money (10 krone; $2 U.S.) and was played with straws of spagetti.  I did not let this deter me and by the end Luis and I had decided to split the pot.  This decision was made because Bernard and Raul (two friends from Spain) convinced us to go out to Club Vega.  Before we left we were to go to Container "C" to meet them and when we got there no one was in any state to leave.  There was a large party going on with singing and dancing provided by rowdy Spanish students.  One note of particular interest this evening was the state of my friend Andy from Switzerland.  I don't know if I have ever seen anyone so happy (read: happily drunk).  He spent the whole evening chasing around a Polish girl, Asia, and attacking her with everything from a beer bong to his camera.  It was quite amusing to see this act play out.  The evening ended, for me, not with a trip to Vega (I'm not sure if anyone went.  Bernard may have because he had to be at the airport around quarter to seven anyway) but with a discussion with Micheal (from Switzerland) about American politics and the possible shift in power that we may be experiencing soon.  I was really surprised to see that he did appear to care about the outcome.  I'm not sure that most Europeans are particularly educated as to how our government works (or doesn't work) but they are definitely aware that it does have an effect on them and that we still play a large role in the landscape of the world.  From inside America it seems difficult to see this, and even outside I'm still not quite sure how all of these people are affected, but it does seem that they feel that way, and I suppose that is more important sometimes.

Saturday came and I was able to successfully waste an entire day.  Not particularly proud of this point but it is rather true.  Well rested, I was ready for a late night of clubbing.  On tonight's agenda was Rosie Mcgee's a club we had been rejected from a week prior for being too large of a group (we believe it was because we were foreigners).  Again with a 21 age limit my friend Lukasz helped me out and we had no problem making it in.  The music was playing when we got in there and with 45 kroner beers ($9) I couldn't justify it myself, I am so cheap.  It doesn't matter we had drank some before going out and I was in quite the mood to be dancing anyway.  One, two, three, six hours later we found our way out of the club and waiting for the six o'clock train back from Kobenhavn.  We reached Lyngby at half past six and I was in bed at seven.  Typical Saturday night.  Still need to get used to that.

Eleven o'clock I wake up.  I had forgotten to set my alarm for ten like I was supposed to but I had not yet missed my eleven o'clock meeting with my Bio-medical Optics group.  I don't know why I agreed to meeting at this time.  The meeting was over in fifteen minutes but by then I couldn't fall back asleep and I was too tired to do anything.  Sunday was shot.  Next weekend I'm going to surely going to take advantage of the city.

Monday was also rather uneventful.  Four things happend on Monday.  First, I watched American Gangster (courtesy of Conrad back in the States).  I must admit that it is quite the movie.  A very compelling, yet almost sympathetic portrayal of the heroin market in early 70's New York City.  Second, I met with my Optics group again (ugh...).  Third, I went to Lyngby, bought a handsaw, and cut the lock off of Matt Benfer's bike.  He told me I could have it but he had broken off the key in the lock so like any proper locksmith I simply cut it off.  So now I have a bike and when the weather is nicer I plan to bike to Helsingor, Hillerod, Copenhagen, and Roskilde.  We shall see.  The final thing was that I booked my Easter break flight and am now officially going to Spain.  I will be going to Madrid (and possibly seeing Eric Tola), then Valencia (where I will see Evan and Amanda!!!) and then going to Barcelona (where I may meet up with my sister).  This trip is going to be amazing I really cannot wait.

Today wasn't particularly eventful although I did go swimming and ate the last of my food.  Now I really should be reading up for my Optics course (seriously the only one that's going to be difficult and by difficult I really don't know about this one) but I have instead decided that I owe you an update on my trip.

Hope all is well for everybody.

Cliffs:  Another great week in Denmark.  Can't wait for Spain (March 14 - 23).

P.S. Oh yeah, I booked an overnight layover in Lyon, France on my flight out.  I think I'll wander through the city with no real purpose and see if there are any discos open late on a Thursday night.  I'm sure there will be.

Do people in Britain swim on the opposite side of the lane in the pool???

On a similar note, I went swimming today and am now quite exhausted and hungry and have decided waiting for water to boil is almost as boring as watching grass grow.

I had taken it easy Friday night relaxing with a couple of friends in our Container so when I woke up at 10 I was wide awake.  The weather outside was very nice and I knew I mustn't let the day get away from me.  I prepared bacon and eggs 
and packed up my backpack and headed for Copenhagen.

I had a travelling companion with me today by the name of Flat Stanley.  Flat Stanley was sent to me by my cousin Will for a school project.  I was to take pictures of Stanley's travels and then return him with the pictures and some thoughts on what we had done.  I thought to myself what might Stanley want to see???

I got off the train at Osterport and decided we should go to the Statens Museum of Kunst, the art museum.  This museum has free entrance so I decided that it would be worthwhile to check out.  I really enjoyed the modern art gallery and their installation Country Road.  I don't know much about art so I will not pretend but some of the paintings were quite good, at least I thought.

Here are a few of them:







...and from the Country Road Exhibit (not sure if I was supposed to take this one)...



After visiting the modern section I took at look at the sculpture garden.  Most of these pieces were so grotesque that I didn't take too many pictures.  I did, however, take photos of the most grotesque and if you'd like to check them out they are in my Travel Photos.  They are entitled F***ing Death and being the young, immature person that I am I decided I must take some pictures.  Again, I will not put them up here but if you want to check them out they are in my photos.

The next section I looked at was the children's section.  It was like an underwater, little mermaid theme, playing on the whole town's obsession with H.C. Anderson I suppose.  I did find one piece a little disturbing for the 0-6 year old age group.  It was a stone grim reaper type statue:



The older children's section was entitled 2 + 2 = 7 which I found interesting because I have often heard 2 + 2 = 5 but have never heard that phrase to make a point.  I guess they were saying art is not concrete like mathematics.  Anyway, I think it was just their excuse to freak kids out again.  This exhibit included...

...dead birds...



...and a stuffed pig's head (Lord of the Flies style).



Following this I found an interactive portion of the museum where enthused Danes were playing Second Life on large projection screens.  Kari Krauss would be so proud.

Two pieces I cannot deprieve you of are...

...a man who I thought was alive...



...and a fish in a blender.



As Jimmy Buffett might say, "How they got here, I haven't a clue."

After becoming more acquainted with the Danish culture and artform, I decided to take a brief walk around the harbor area to show Flat Stanley some of the sights.  This brief walk turned out to be a lot more than I had anticipated and I can certainly say I had gotten my workout for the day before all was said and done.

I took Flat Stanley to see Nyhavn (read New Harbor) which is a beautiful section of town on the canals.



We then walked out around and saw the Opera House and the Royal Palace, as I had done previously.  Of course it was necessary to go to see the Little Mermaid which was especially entertaining seeing as everyone was probably thinking who is this crazy guy with the paper doll.



I also took him to see an old windmill, seeing as Denmark is one of the world's forerunners in clean energy.



The final part of my day out consisted of a visit to Kastellet.  Kastellet is an old military  
establishment consisting of a star shaped hill that dips down in the center so the hills act much like walls and the whole thing is surrounded by a moat.  



Inside is the windmill Stanley is pictured with.  I took seven pictures of the windmill and one with a paper doll so I am most certain that any of the Danes walking or jogging around must have thought that I had never seen one.  And in truth, I hadn't.  One last picture I have included just to show you what a nice day 11 degrees Centigrade can bring:



Late last night we would return to Copenhagen to go out.  We spent much time wandering the streets before finding a bar that required you to be 21 to enter.  After striking out with the sympathy vote we waited till the bouncer changed and I was able to use my friend's second ID to gain entrance.  Who would have thought the first time I would use a fake ID I'd be in a foreign country where the drinking age is 16?  Oh well, we were all able to get in after that and we ended up having quite the time.

Important News of the Day from Back Home:

• Barack Obama sweeps three democratic primaries and caucuses making Tuesday's primary that much more important
  

• University of Maryland defeats N.C. State 84-70 giving them wins in 6 of their last 7 and 10 of their last 12 games
  

• Archbishop Spalding's wrestling team finished 7th at the MIAA tournament ahead of teams like Boy's Latin and Gilman thus proving they have come a long way from the perfect score Gilman won by in 2001
  

Ok, so I have one more course this afternoon but it will be the second time this week for that one.  That being said, I have been to at least one session of all my courses and can honestly say I may be in a little over my head.  I mean between trying to have fun and get to know people I don't know if there will really be time for any classes.  Well, I guess I'll have to find time so that I can graduate on time.  

Tuesday was Physiological Transport Phenomena which, at this point, is much a review of Fluid Mechanics, except I think I may actually understand it this time.  This class was interesting because the first thing the Professor said when everyone sat down was, "Is there anyone who does not speak Danish?"  After raising my hand he said, "Ah, you must be James."  Of course by this point the entire class had let out a grown of dissatisfaction that the lecture must be conducted in English.  Four hours are set aside for each course at DTU but this one the teacher had decided to only conduct from 9-12 in the morning.  That being said, many offer breaks for coffee and such.  During the first break everyone turned to there neighbor and began to speak in Danish.  Then the teachers joined in and everyone was laughing quite a lot.  This caused me to laugh, mostly because I understood nothing.  By the end of the class I had met a couple of very nice people who seemed to be genuinely interested getting to know more about me.  I really enjoyed this course, the people and professor, although I do think it will be quite difficult.

Wednesday was Bio-medical Optics in the morning from 8-12.  After finding myself tired on Tuesday I thought if I went to sleep by 1130 I may be more awake.  This was not the case and I have begun to find that 8 am classes are not enjoyable, especially when you know nothing on the topic.  I guess there were pre-requisites for this course?  Who knew?  Anyway, everything that was said about lights and lasers seemed to go right over my head.  If I wasn't getting major credit for this, I  would switch out.   We had a guest lecturer who had a great deal of enthusiasm in the subject and the advances are quite amazing, still it was very difficult to get enthused when half of the symbols used in the equation are completely unrecognizable to you.  At the end of the lecture I met two guys from Singapore who appear to be in the same situation as myself (Although, they don't need to take the course.).  We have grouped together to do our first assignment, a presentation on an existing bio-medical optic technology and its uses, advantages, disadvantages, and such.  Also, one of them spoke with the professor about having no previous knowledge and was assured we would be alright.  As a side note, this is the first time I have heard a professor use the term "shit load" as a quantifier.

Thursday was a relief, plain and simple.  Another four hour morning lecture but it was my CAD/CAM course.  This course is full of international students and is the most basic introduction to engineering CAD software.  We are designing a Lego man which is quite easy because they have given step by step instructions starting with the most basic commands.  This I can do.

After a short break for lunch I went to my Neurophysics course.  As difficult as the name sounds, I feel that this is one of the courses where I do have most of the qualified pre-requisites and the intensity I think will not be too great.  Anyway, this course is quite interesting.  Yesterday we learned about the history of neurology and had a very basic introduction to brain anatomy and phsyiology.  We have weekly assignments and this week we were to get into groups of two or three to write a short essay about "What is thought, emotion, conciousness, etc.?"  These were to be answered more from a scientific standpoint than a philosophical one.  This, of course, led to a discussion of axons, dendrites, electrical potentials, etc.  At the end of the paper was the most controversial question, and led to personal assurance that the Terminator movies might be the greatest predictor of the future of humanity, "What is free will?"

What is free-will?

Not social free will, as my groupmates informed me, but rather personal free will.  The actual ability to chose.  I suppose I'm more optimistic than logical when it comes to something like this but my groupmates really had what I would consider a quite disappointing life-view.  

Actual (Close to Actual) quotes from the discussion:

"We are just a sum of biological and chemical reactions and the only thing that strays from a predetermined output from a particular input is the randomness afforded from quantum effects.  Therefore it would be like saying the only choice we have is as much as rolling some dice."  

Really?!?!?  That's it?!?!?  I guess I might as well stop living, or will my programming not allow it.  

"I really just think of the brain as a large central processing unit that controls our body."

Oh, so we have not the ability to actually control ourselves any more than a computer?

"Exactly, we are just much more advanced than a computer, but really it is our like our brain is a parasite to our body, using it to survive, but simply does as it has been programmed."

This is the one that lets me know scientists don't have any respect for the concept of life.  Seriously, how can you care about the survival of an entire human race if you simply think that we are being controlled just as a computer is controlled?  Seriously, this discussion was starting to make me sick and it also made me realize I will probably be working with a lot of people like this throughout my life.  And if you have time and are in for some interesting reading you should check out the Wiki Article.

After finishing our paper, I went to the grocery store (which not many people understand so I kept having to tell them supermarket) to get food for another week.  Today I got some ground beef to fulfill the American stereotype and have a nice, juicy hamburger.  Although, there was not worchesthire sauce to marinate it or bar-be-que sauce to put on top, I did find some "Whiskey Sauce" which ended up being a nice alternative.  My friend invited me over for a couple drinks before we went out, so after dinner I went over and found a dinner party of about a dozen people at his place.  Being the hospitable Spanish and Italian that his roommates were I was of course served, and I refuse to refuse free hospitality because you do not know when it may stop.  I helped clean the dishes, figuring it was the least I could.  After dinner we went into Copenhagen to CBS (Copenhagen Business School) where they turn a large lobby into a dance floor and bar area.  This was quite fun and afterwards, around half past one (everyone thinks we say half past, although I do not know if I had ever said it back home), we went back to DTU, to Kampsax, a student lounge had relaxed for a bit.  I ended the night catching up on House, M.D. courtesy of Conrad.  Quite a funny episode.

Some Memorable Quotes:

House: How much is 13 grand divided by 4 cents?

Cameron: I am not giving you cable.  You are going to somehow survive on the broadcast networks alone.
House:  I'll be fine on Tuesday.

House: Great, I can't get cable but I can get the South Pole on High-Def.

Think I might go into Copenhagen this weekend and do some walking around.  We shall see.  Also, looking forward to Easter Break and traveling to Valencia for Las Fallas with Evan.

Classes began today, although I did not have any.  I slept in after staying up keeping track of the first half of the Super Bowl.  I was pleased to see this morning that the Giants had in fact beaten the Patriots.  

That being said, it was the third nice day in a row and with nothing to do I made myself go outside and walk around town and see what Lyngby had to offer.  I knew of a large lake that sits in the southwest of Lyngby and decided this might be a nice place to visit.  

I set out down the street towards the shops and downtown area but turned off on a street that I thought would take me to the lake.  While it did take me there, it was not direct but I was able to see a lot of the residential part of Lyngby.

There were houses in the woods...



...big houses...



...small houses...



...new houses...



...and old houses.



After taking in all of this local architecture I finally made it to the lake.  The sun was shining brightly and there was a family of swans who apparently had no problem with the temperature of the water.





At the lake I found a testament to the saying you hear around here that "Bikes are everywhere in Denmark."  In fact it is true as there was one easily visible in the bottom of the lake.



There was a nice little area by the lake with about a dozen picnic tables and a few docks.  On the shore there were many small boats that looked like they were used on warm summer days to get out on the lake.  I must come back here in the summer when it is warmer and I am sure quite crowded.

Yesterday was the last day of our orientation week.  Each group was given the task of preparing a particular portion of the meal.  Our group had the chance to bake the baguettes for the feast.  Honestly, I don't know if some of these guys had ever cooked before.  I helped out a little but mostly sat back and enjoyed myself and really got a kick out of the whole production.  We had three oven racks, a small toaster oven, a toast maker, and a toaster going at once.  What resulted was a successful completion of the task.  Here are some pictures because I'm sure you don't believe me...





While we were waiting, David from Spain was kind enough to make us some traditional Sangria to keep spirits high.



Luciano decided to showcase his talents with a juggling show.



After we completed our task we headed back to Building 101 (the place where everything happens at DTU) and had dinner.  We were greeted with a welcome drink and given lots of food to eat.  At the conclusion of dinner one of the leaders pointed out it was a student's birthday.  All the counselors got up and sang Happy Birthday in Danish.  Then the Polish people got up and sang in Polish, followed by the French in French, the Italians in Italian, the Spanish and Mexican in Spanish, those from Singapore in Chinese, the Germans in German, and then everybody sang in English.  For desert they gave us pie (which they referred to as cake) and I had the chance to try a salted licorice candy which is apparently either popular or simply traditional in Denmark.  I have no idea how it could be the former.

Next it was off to the Student House for drinking and dancing and otherwise having a good time.  As could be expected I was a little shy on the dance floor to begin with but was quickly enjoying myself mostly because my roommates would see it no other way.  We danced till about half past two before we headed home.  The highlight of this whole evening was the morning after (which you don't hear often) when I woke up and saw the sun shineing for the first time.  Again, I'm sure you don't really believe me that the sun shines in Denmark so here is proof.



Not a great picture, but that is simply because the sun is so bright.

Now I am left to enjoy the nice day.