Jutland (U-land)

So last week was core course week which was a whole week dedicated to your core course, mine is International Business. Being so, my class went to Jutland which is in Western Denmark. We started in Copenhagen which I've listed at 0. Then we went to Randers (1), Arhus (2), Horsens (3) and back to Copenhagen. This whole trip took 3 days.

Day one:Monday February 4th

     We started the day with a visit to Carlsberg which was located in Copenhagen. Carlsberg is a beer company. After the presentation, we were given a tour of the old brewery by our teacher in the freezing weather (it was literally raining, hailing, and snowing all at once) oh and we can't forget about the wind that came with this "wonderful" weather. So after a frigid walk outside in my flats, my feet were very happy once on the bus. We then headed to visit Velux, a company that makes roof windows. Yea yea, I know what you are thinking, windows are so lame, right? Well that's what I thought too until our speaker began his presentation. Let's just say by the end of it, my mind was blown away with the company. They don't just sell roof windows, they sell beauty, sunlight and a view. I definitely wouldn't mind having a Velux window in my house (they are actually really affordable and can be found at Home Depot/Lowes) ...yes, i'm advertising for them but that's because they are gorgeous!  After Velux, we went to our Hostel which was called Danhostel Randers in Randers (place marked at 1 on map) Here are some pictures of the first day

Day two: 

        We visited Grundfos which is a leader in pumps. Once again, sounds lame right? Well it wasn't bad at all, they made pumps seem very interesting and it actually is. For example they have this Grundfos LIFELINK which provides sustainable water lfor developing countries like Kenya. Here is the website for the project so you can check it out (http://www.grundfoslifelink.com/) As you may or may not know, my family is from South Sudan and I told the Grundfos presenter that they should bring this technology for clean drinkable water in South Sudan and his response to me was "Well you can't save the world". Well that hurt a lot, you can't save the whole world (it's huge after all) but you can start somewhere. So, for those of you that are reading this, please prove this man wrong! Let's show him that one small kind act at a time, we can change the world. 

     After our visit, we drove to Arhus (place number 2 on the map) and visited the AroS museum. I can say that this is now my favorite museum. period. We had about an hour of free time so my friend Holly and I went exploring. We stopped at an Irish Pub and got a drink and nachos. We began speaking to the bartender about Carlsburg because our final project is on them and we learned a lot from him. He then proceeded to make us what is called a Snake Bite which is half Carlsberg beer and half dry apple cider(the alcoholic kind aka Somersby) which tasted delicious. He said that a lot of the girls drank it because it was cheap, good, had a high alcohol content which meant they would get tipsy/drunk faster. This was an amazing drink, I will definitely be ordering it here in Copenhagen. After the museum we went bowling! It was a great bonding experience. Once again, here are some awesome pictures from day two because words can't describe what I've seen.

Day 3:

    For our third day in Jutland, we visited a prison that is now a museum. This prison was ran from 1853-2006. It's called Faenglet. The prison was very cold and we had an amazing tour guide who told us every little story about this museum. For example, there was a famous innate who escaped from this prison and it was this inmate who inspired the movie The Shawshank Redemption. If you haven't seen the movie, go do it after you finish reading my blog. After the prison visit, we went to go eat at a buffet and then we were once again Copenhagen bound. now for more pictures:

For the 4th and 5th day of core course week, we were in Copenhagen. We went to SAS, CocaCola and BrewPub which is a brewery/restaurant. The SAS visit wasn't my favorite. I won't go into details about it. CocaCola was short and sweet. We got to do a beer tasting at BrewPub which was awesome! More pictures!!

And that's core course week. Oh one thing I forgot to mention, every single time we got off the bus, it was snowing. every. single. time. 

-Until next time! Vi Ses!

Burrr, it's cold in here!

Burrrrrr, it's cold in here! There must be some snow in the atmosphere.

So it's been two weeks since I've arrived in Denmark. There is so much I want to say! So here is goes,

1. Weather
It is close to the end of January and boy is it cold here! It's about -4 degrees Celsius and the wind here definitely doesn't help the cause. So yes, you HAVE to bundle up or else you will be freezing and trust me, losing a toe due to the cold weather is not something to be desired. But my host family is amazing and they've helped me with winter gear so I could save my money for other things.

 My friend Lisa and I matching

2.Bikes

Copenhagen has a huge biking community...everyone does it. So when walking in Copenhagen, you really need to watch out for the bikes because if you are like me, you WILL get run over (My friends are a huge help when it comes to keeping me alive). Buy yes, biking here is awesome, there are biking lanes everyone you go which is great because you don't have to worry about cars running you over. And the bikers have their own rules about the road. For example, if you want to turn left, stick your left hand up. If you want to go right, stick your right hand up. If you want to stop, bring your hand up to a 90 degree angle and if you want to pass someone, ring your bell. And the train has a special section for those who want to take their bikes to lets say the city (Copenhagen) and when you get there, you can "park" your bike at the station. 

See, you can just park your bike. It's awesome!

3.The City

Copenhagen is absolutely fantastically gorgeous. No joke. Everywhere you walk is stunning. The architecture here is something to behold. I feel like I am living in a museum that is actually really interesting. There is so much history here and being able to learn about it is wonderful. I went to a museum with my Danish Language and Culture class last Wednesday and we got a tour of the kings theater. Here are some pictures!

4.The Danish Language (Dansk)

I'm taking a language course while here and I will just say that Danish is a very difficult language to learn. They have certain vowels that are not in the English and hence, very VERY difficult for me to say. They have an O that has a line through it and I will tell you now, even if you repeat it 50 times, you still won't get it correctly (I've tried). So yes, I will be trying my best to practice my Danish while I am here and thank goodness I am leaving with a host family because they are extremely wonderful when it comes to me speaking Danish...and patient! (Jeg hedder Flora= My name is Flora). The spelling is nothing like the pronunciation so you may want to go to Google Translate.

5. My host family

One word that describes them so far. FANTASTIC! There is Tine (mom), Sidse (daughter), Pelle(son) and Ditte(daughter). Tine is a wonderful woman, she really wants me to feel comfortable while I am here and I appreciate it a lot. Sidse is the youngest and isn't comfortable speaking English but she still tries and she had me shave the side of her head...yes, shave, its all gone now but it looks good on her. Pelle is a little more reserved but he is really nice. Ditte is also really nice. Basically what I am trying to say is that I got paired with an amazing family that is welcoming and just great to be around. 

Now for some pictures :)

I went to an AWOLNATION concert while here! I went with my friend Lisa and man it was FUN!

 -2 members of AWOLNATION-2 members from the opening band. can't remember their name. But man, she has blue hair! oh and Lisa is to my right :)

I went to go see The Hobbit in 3D with my Mythology Class and the popcorn here is huge!

So yes, this is not even half of what I've experienced. Just know that right now, life is good, life is really good. 

-Till next time my good friends