As of the wednesday I have now been in Denmark for two months. I can not believe how fast the time has past and I feel as though I have not done enough. However considering I put many of my trips at the end of the semester because of the nicer weather I guess that makes sense. It has been a lot of fun enjoying Denmark and what it has to offer but starting tomorrow my trip becomes more international. Tomorrow I am taking the train to Frederikshavn, DK. From there we will take a 3:15 ferry ride across the sea to Gothenburg, Sweden. I will be traveling with two of my friends from my collegium Vincent and Mathieu. I have heard the Gothenburg is a great place to visit. It is definitely a larger city than Aalborg (130,000 ppl) more on the scale of Arhus (400,000 ppl) but maybe not as big as Copenhagen (2,000,000 ppl including suburbs). I heard that they have some wonderful architecture there and that there is a section of the city that is very old because it escaped a devastating fire which burned down almost all the wooden houses in the city. Also there is an amusement park much like Tivoli in Denmark yet much larger however I have my doubts of it being open this early in the year. It will also be nice to get a taste of what western Sweden is like because I will be traveling to Stockholm in the east in a few weeks with my family.
Last weekend we had a cleaning day for our collegium. We had to clean all the common areas including the laundry room, freezer room, kitchen and bathrooms. This would seem like a daunting task but with 35 people it took only about 2-21/2 hours. In the end we were rewarded with free pizza which was awesome. I also got to play some football (soccer). Despite not having played in a while (I played some pick up last summer), I was still quite competitive. Football is the unquestionably dominant sport in Europe and so I had very high expectations for the skill levels of all Europeans. However I think I made the US proud as I scored not one but two goals during the game. Especially because both of them were with my right foot and I shoot lefty. It was a lot of fun to play especially because it started snowing during the game. My wrists were completely numb by the end which made for a fun 3k bike ride home but I definitely enjoyed it. Unfortunately they play every sunday at 3pm but I will not be around much in the month of april so I think it will be may before I get to play again. However now that it is warmer out and they sun is shinning the opportunities to play sports are growing and I hopefully will get some play time in during the week. I would love to play frisbee but it is sooo windy here I think it would be a nightmare. Especially because many of the athletic people I would like to play with have little experience with the game and playing as is can be tough but add in 20-40mph winds on a regular basis and good luck. That kind of explains why wind power is so common and so effective here in Denmark.
I have also started my two new classes: thermal stress and energy and the environment. Thermal stress is like an extension to mechanics of materials (ME014) from home and in fact the problems are often taken from my same book. It is both interesting but very difficult. Energy and the Environment however is a very different twist. Unlike my other classes it is not about crunching numbers and doing calculations. Instead it is about ethics of environmentally conscience decisions for energy policies and renewable energy. It is quite interesting and a nice change of pace. In that class we have a different professor lecture each week. I met my professor for next week already because this week in my ISCAN class he gave a lecture. His lecture was about renewable resources and danish environmental policy which I thought was fascinating but many of my class mates were not so thrilled.
After the four of us who were in some way related to energy engineering all went up and talked with the professor for about an hour about various environmental decisions and debates. It was really interesting to here the opinions about energy policy from people across Europe. For instance one guy was from the Czech Republic a country that unlike Denmark is not blessed with strong winds and unlike Spain does not have the best sunlight. At his home they are currently building the worlds largest nuclear fission power plant (4Gw). He was very pro nuclear power even though he is completely aware of the current disaster in Japan and what happened in 1986 in Chernobyl, Ukraine (Actually I learned an interesting piece of information about that disaster. Apparently there is still a nuclear meltdown happening in Chernobyl and there will be one for the next 10,000 years because there is no way to stop it. As a result there is a gigantic steel, lead and cement tomb that encases the old power plant and there is a 12mi-20km circle surrounding it that is considered a dead zone and no one is allowed to live there for the next 10,000 years. ) Hopefully the same will not happen in Japan because that would make the Tsunami a true tragedy to have a second plot of 1300 square km that are uninhabitable. But it was interesting to hear about why he thinks nuclear fission is still a good option and how he thinks that when fusion is a stable process it will be the ultimate power source. I do have to agree that fusion is much better than fission because of the lack of radioactive waste and hazardous materials (The reactants and products are hydrogen 2,3 and helium both very safe elements) but I think there are still problems with it especially because of things like intermittency and the need for a "smart grid". The discussion really got me thinking about what I am interested in pursuing as an engineer and I have known for a while that I would like to work with wind power because I think it is the foreseeable future in renewable energy which the professor completely agreed. So I think I would like to work with some aspect of energy technology whether that be thermal (such as heat pumps or hot/cold storage) or mechanical (such as wind turbines). There are a lot of problems to be solved and the only way we can tackle the problems with the environment is to start with how we create and use energy for heat, appliances etc. Anyways enough of the engineering, I could go on forever about this stuff. All in all it was a cool lecture and I am excited to hear what he discusses with us the engineers on monday.
Oh and one last thing, I saw the movie Sucker Punch (I streamed it from this wonderful European site) and it is pretty terrible. Despite the fact that it is somehow doing well in the box office it is a terrible movie and do not watch it. I understand the appeal-it is featuring a bunch of girls running around with guns and swords killing crazy beasts and undead soldiers but it had no plot, no character development and was a dumb story. On the other hand I also saw limitless, which I thought was pretty good. It had a clever new idea and although the ending was perhaps a little too predictable it was a very enjoyable movie and I would recommend it. Hopefully I will get my pictures from the weekend up by sunday/monday. I have found a much faster way to add them to facebook but it is still slow for the blog so my album here may be limited again.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Conquering France
When I came to Denmark I began a great undertaking, to defeat the French. How you may ask? In ping pong of course. Within the first day of playing it was obvious who were the best at the game because they always were in the final rounds of the "running game," the French. Initially with my lack of skill and experience I was rarely seen in the final rounds. However with in my first week of intense play I quickly moved up in the ranks. First I defeated the Danish, then the Portuguese, English and Polish. My next task was to take on the Italians a good stepping stone on my road to Paris. They were not easy with their difficult serves and punishing "chinese" smash. However within that first week even they feel to my American might.
My confidence high I decided to challenge one of the french. Unfortunately I was put in my place by my first competitor from Basque. This did not discourage me, in fact it gave me more inspiration to train harder. I practice every day with the others seeking to defeat the french empire. I also constructed a mental list of the Frenchmen that I must defeat in order claim victory. First Mr X, then the cake master, then knicks, then the once bearded man, then G man, and then and only then would I have a chance at defeating Master V. There are other french not on the list but it is my goal to defeat them as well along my trek. It has been a long journey. I have had many hiccups along the way. However daily practice and some tough lessons from Austria and Italy have aided me in sharpening my skills. I am in this venture alone, no other Americans have sought to embark with me on my quest but I am going strong.
I was able to defeat the first three on the list through repeated matches and lots of practice. The others would take some skill and a knowledge of their weaknesses. My most recent training has been a relentless series of losses to the one and only master V as I push ever closer to victory. In these battles however I have learned some of his weaknesses and have better prepared myself against his strengths. There may be a day when I shall defeat him but that day has not yet come.
Today, many weeks after the start of my quest, I reached a major milestone on my quest. I defeated G man not once but twice in a row through solid play and a little bit of luck from the net gods. With this I now have defeated all the residents of my collegium at one point or another with the exception of master V. I have come very close a few times being only one or two points from victory. However defeat has remained elusive to Master V. I continue my quest ever stronger pushing myself to succeed where so many others have not, with the hope that some day American might will reign true and like so many times in history France will be defeated.
My confidence high I decided to challenge one of the french. Unfortunately I was put in my place by my first competitor from Basque. This did not discourage me, in fact it gave me more inspiration to train harder. I practice every day with the others seeking to defeat the french empire. I also constructed a mental list of the Frenchmen that I must defeat in order claim victory. First Mr X, then the cake master, then knicks, then the once bearded man, then G man, and then and only then would I have a chance at defeating Master V. There are other french not on the list but it is my goal to defeat them as well along my trek. It has been a long journey. I have had many hiccups along the way. However daily practice and some tough lessons from Austria and Italy have aided me in sharpening my skills. I am in this venture alone, no other Americans have sought to embark with me on my quest but I am going strong.
I was able to defeat the first three on the list through repeated matches and lots of practice. The others would take some skill and a knowledge of their weaknesses. My most recent training has been a relentless series of losses to the one and only master V as I push ever closer to victory. In these battles however I have learned some of his weaknesses and have better prepared myself against his strengths. There may be a day when I shall defeat him but that day has not yet come.
Today, many weeks after the start of my quest, I reached a major milestone on my quest. I defeated G man not once but twice in a row through solid play and a little bit of luck from the net gods. With this I now have defeated all the residents of my collegium at one point or another with the exception of master V. I have come very close a few times being only one or two points from victory. However defeat has remained elusive to Master V. I continue my quest ever stronger pushing myself to succeed where so many others have not, with the hope that some day American might will reign true and like so many times in history France will be defeated.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Burrito Pie
I made this for dinner last week and it was really good. So much so that I want to share it. Also if you have any ideas for upgrades either through your own experimentation or experience they would be nice to hear. It was based off a recipe I found online but I used my own twist.
Meat Mix
1 lb ground beef
1 onion cut into thin disks then quarters
2 tbsp butter
1 red pepper diced
2 small habenero peppers diced small
1 large clove garlic minced
1 pack taco mix
Water to match taco mix directions
cayenne pepper if desired
salt to taste
Gaucamole
1 avocado pitted and quartered
1 clove garlic minced
pinch of salt
squirt lemon juice
Preparation
1 jar salsa
1 can of beans ( I used kidney because that is what I had but i would recommend black)
1 can re-fried beans (I did not have this but the original recipe did and I think they would have been good)
Sour Cream ( I do not like it so I did not include it)
6-8 tortillas
8 oz shredded cheese (cheddar, mozzarella, jack, or some combination of the three)
Directions
Preheat oven at 375 F or 175 C
In large frying pan on medium heat add butter then onions. Cover and cook until translucent (~5 mins). Remove from heat and further cut into small pieces about the same size as the peppers. Put back on heat with the ground beef and garlic until the beef browns. Once the beef browns add water and taco mix. Then let simmer uncovered for 5 mins or what the taco mix directions specify. Then add the cayenne, habenero and bell peppers. Cook for one to two minutes then remove from heat
To make guacamole add all the ingredients in a bowl and mix until a paste forms and there is no more solid avocado
In a glass pan (7"x11"x2") is just enough space prepare in the following order:
thin layer meat mix then repeat the rest twice
half the tortillas
half the guacamole
half the salsa
half the beans
half the remaining meat mix
slightly less than half of the chesse
at the end add the rest of the cheese
Bake for about 20-30 mins or until top is brown and bubbling and insides look cooked
Meat Mix
1 lb ground beef
1 onion cut into thin disks then quarters
2 tbsp butter
1 red pepper diced
2 small habenero peppers diced small
1 large clove garlic minced
1 pack taco mix
Water to match taco mix directions
cayenne pepper if desired
salt to taste
Gaucamole
1 avocado pitted and quartered
1 clove garlic minced
pinch of salt
squirt lemon juice
Preparation
1 jar salsa
1 can of beans ( I used kidney because that is what I had but i would recommend black)
1 can re-fried beans (I did not have this but the original recipe did and I think they would have been good)
Sour Cream ( I do not like it so I did not include it)
6-8 tortillas
8 oz shredded cheese (cheddar, mozzarella, jack, or some combination of the three)
Directions
Preheat oven at 375 F or 175 C
In large frying pan on medium heat add butter then onions. Cover and cook until translucent (~5 mins). Remove from heat and further cut into small pieces about the same size as the peppers. Put back on heat with the ground beef and garlic until the beef browns. Once the beef browns add water and taco mix. Then let simmer uncovered for 5 mins or what the taco mix directions specify. Then add the cayenne, habenero and bell peppers. Cook for one to two minutes then remove from heat
To make guacamole add all the ingredients in a bowl and mix until a paste forms and there is no more solid avocado
In a glass pan (7"x11"x2") is just enough space prepare in the following order:
thin layer meat mix then repeat the rest twice
half the tortillas
half the guacamole
half the salsa
half the beans
half the remaining meat mix
slightly less than half of the chesse
at the end add the rest of the cheese
Bake for about 20-30 mins or until top is brown and bubbling and insides look cooked
Monday, March 21, 2011
St Patricks Day and the French Dinner
This past week my first group of classes came to an end. I had my first exam in Combustion and the Environment. Along with everyone else in my class I found it to be very difficult and we are hoping that the professor will in some way curve it. It also means that starting this week I will have my next round of classes which includes thermal stress and energy and the environment in addition to the continuation of my ISCAN course. The project is moving along. We are now into the computer modeling of a single bladed VAWT as well as attempting to submit our plans for the model to the lab so they can build our prototype. There is a 4 week backlog so in order to do our tests we need to get this done as fast as possible.
Thursday as you know was St Patricks day. Christine from my collegium is the only Irish we had and wanted to make corned beef and potatoes. I agreed that it would be nice so I joined in as well as a few others. Unfortunately the grocery store did not have corned beef so we had to get another cut of beef which was not as soft and definitely more fatty. However the dinner came out great especially the Soda bread which was fantastic. The most exciting part however was the left overs and the prospect of corned beef and hash for breakfast the next few days. In fact it was so good when I made it on friday that I repeated it again on sunday.
On saturday night I got to enjoy a lovely french dinner. After the success of our pizza filled italian dinner a few weeks ago we decided since there are so many french that we should have a french dinner. So that is what we enjoyed this weekend. It was a five course meal starting with two types of quiche as an appetizer. Then we hit the entree which was more or less the filling of a chicken pot pie and was absolutely delicious combined with a baguette to soak up all the sauce. Round three was a palette cleansing lettuce salad with a french mustard and oil dressing. The next round was much anticipated by all. It was cheese and baguettes. For cheese the was bleu, brie, goat, and camembert. It was very delicious and was well complimented by some red wine. Finally we had dessert which consisted of brownies, cookies, an apple pie and Charlotte cake (fluffy pieces of breadlike crust with chocolate and pear on the inside). Needless to say we were stuffed. We finished the night with some ping pong and a game of salad bowl.
All through the night people were asking when the American Dinner would be. I told them since everyone wants me to grill probably in May. The first dinner had 18 guests and this one had 25 so i am guessing by my turn it will be in the mid 30s. So if anyone has suggestions for food to go with Hamburgers or something like that please tell me. I was thinking of maybe some type of kebabs. I will absolutely NOT make and pasta, egg, or potato salad because I hate all those cold mayonaisey salads. I was thinking also perhaps some baked macaroni in cheese would be good. Unfortunately my barbecue supplies are limited here and if I wanted to make real barbecue food like ribs or pulled pork I couldnt because they do not have what I need at the stores so I may have to be creative. I would love your suggestions though.
I will try to be more frequent with my posts, sorry.
Thursday as you know was St Patricks day. Christine from my collegium is the only Irish we had and wanted to make corned beef and potatoes. I agreed that it would be nice so I joined in as well as a few others. Unfortunately the grocery store did not have corned beef so we had to get another cut of beef which was not as soft and definitely more fatty. However the dinner came out great especially the Soda bread which was fantastic. The most exciting part however was the left overs and the prospect of corned beef and hash for breakfast the next few days. In fact it was so good when I made it on friday that I repeated it again on sunday.
On saturday night I got to enjoy a lovely french dinner. After the success of our pizza filled italian dinner a few weeks ago we decided since there are so many french that we should have a french dinner. So that is what we enjoyed this weekend. It was a five course meal starting with two types of quiche as an appetizer. Then we hit the entree which was more or less the filling of a chicken pot pie and was absolutely delicious combined with a baguette to soak up all the sauce. Round three was a palette cleansing lettuce salad with a french mustard and oil dressing. The next round was much anticipated by all. It was cheese and baguettes. For cheese the was bleu, brie, goat, and camembert. It was very delicious and was well complimented by some red wine. Finally we had dessert which consisted of brownies, cookies, an apple pie and Charlotte cake (fluffy pieces of breadlike crust with chocolate and pear on the inside). Needless to say we were stuffed. We finished the night with some ping pong and a game of salad bowl.
All through the night people were asking when the American Dinner would be. I told them since everyone wants me to grill probably in May. The first dinner had 18 guests and this one had 25 so i am guessing by my turn it will be in the mid 30s. So if anyone has suggestions for food to go with Hamburgers or something like that please tell me. I was thinking of maybe some type of kebabs. I will absolutely NOT make and pasta, egg, or potato salad because I hate all those cold mayonaisey salads. I was thinking also perhaps some baked macaroni in cheese would be good. Unfortunately my barbecue supplies are limited here and if I wanted to make real barbecue food like ribs or pulled pork I couldnt because they do not have what I need at the stores so I may have to be creative. I would love your suggestions though.
I will try to be more frequent with my posts, sorry.
København
Sorry this took soo long. I just was pretty slow going on getting everything organized especially sorting out and uploading all the pictures I took which is a painfully slow process for the blog because you must go one at a time... Below is a description of my trek to Copenhagen as well as photos to go along with it. I traveled there last weekend with seven friends. However not surprisingly we met more friends there and so we became a very large group as we toured the capital of Denmark.I was with Kathi Vincent and Mathieu from my collegium. Additionally we went with Fanny, Felix, Guillaume, and Bernard. Everyone in my group except for Kathi was french, so kathi and I had to band together to ensure english remained the spoken language.
So on friday morning still tired from my previous night incident with the alarm I woke up around 5:30 so we could catch one of the early buses from the University to the Airport. These two places are diagonally opposite each other on the map so even before traffic started in Aalborg the trip was 45 mins which is much larger than the 30 min flight to Copenhagen plus 15 min take of taxiing... However unlike the US there is no need to get there very early especially at a small airport like Aalborg (about the size of Jackson hole's airport maybe smaller). It was nice leaving so early because we were in downtown Copenhagen by 9:30 in the morning and ready to begin our friday tour. We did not want to see the major attractions on friday because a few of our friends were not arriving until friday night so we agreed to see the most important attractions on saturday with them. Instead we strolled the streets of copenhagen looking at shops and buildings because like Arhus and Aalborg there were an abundance of pedestrian streets. The first building of significance we arrived at was a palace. It was very large and had a museum in the grotto underneath but with a 70 kr entrance fee we decided to pass.
We also wanted to locate our hostel as well as a place to eat. The hostel was not hard to find as it was about 20 stories tall and one of the tallest buildings in the area it was located in addition to having its name written on it. However we got a room on the 15th floor so the view was quite nice from where we stayed which was a bonus. We next checked out some other old buildings and found one of the major pedestrian streets so we could get some lunch. Unfortunately the weather began to change rapidly, it went from cloudy to misting rain to pounding hail to snow then back to sunny all with in half and hour. We were able to dodge much of this bad weather by getting lunch at a Kebab place.
Next we visited the Copenhagen university student house which was a smaller place than Aalborg's student house. This was a little surprising but we knew it would be a good place to come back later for coffee and when we did we were surprised with a little live music. We ventured to the rather sizable church next door. Inside was a giant pipe organ of which I do not think I have seen bigger other than in pictures from other large European Cathedrals and Churches. The church also had a tower with a spiral ramp to the top that gave a pretty good view of Copenhagen especially because it is located more or less in the center. However we felt it was not worth 30 kr ($6) to walk up 8 stories for a view when we already paid for one from our hostel.
We spent some more time walking around Copenhagen to the Botanical Gardens, King's Garden and Rosenborg Slot (Palace). However most touristy things in Copenhagen close between 3 and 4 pm so by the time we got to Rosenburg they were doing the final changing of the guard and we had to leave. Unlike at Amalienborg where we would see the changing of the guard on Saturday here the Royal Guards were dressed in 21st century camo and armed with head sets, and all the latest technology in addition to their m-16s which interestingly enough were bayonet equipped. Unfortunately I forgot my camera at the hostel when we checked in after lunch so I have no pictures of this. Afterwords we went to a Lego store. Interestingly enough Lego was founded in 1937! and has been producing toys ever since.After we made a simple dinner in the room we went back out to meet some friends and check out the night life in Copenhagen which we found to be extremely expensive.
On saturday we had a full day of sightseeing to do. After a breakfast of croissants in the room, we took the bus to Amalienborg just in time to see the changing of the guard. From their we went to St Frederick's Church which is in line with Amalienborg and opposite of the Copenhagen Opera House. If you want to see take a look on google maps. The church was a giant circle(I think it was actually a 16 sided building) with a massive dome. It was so large in fact that my camera was not capable of capturing the entire dome in one shot without shooting at an angle which would result in the shot cutting out part of the picture anyways.
After that we walked to the Castle or in this case star fort that protects the city of Copenhagen. If you go on google maps will notice a rather larger start in the northern part of the city. This is the star fort I speak of. However if you zoom out you will notice the there is a much larger fortification going all the way around Christianshavn island. The larger fort was an extension to the star fort and a way for the Danes to say Sweden keep out! The start fort was constructed some 400 years ago. It was built at the time where architects realized that tall stone castles were no match for more modern weapons such as cannons. Instead the low profile of the fort and banked earthen walls allowed for maximum protection for the men and buildings inside. While the start design maximized perimeter length which would allow the soldiers to have greater concentrations of fire which is the best way to defeat the enemy at the time. After walking through the fort we then headed to the most famous attraction in Copenhagen, the little mermaid. In the canal next to the fort there is a very small bronze mermaid statue sitting on a rock just barely off the shore. She is in honor of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale the little mermaid.
After the mermaid we started to get hungary but we also wanted to see the last major attraction in Copenhagen which is Nyhavn. Nvhavn is the street with the canal in the middle full of old sail boats and colorful houses along each side. Now those houses have become restaurants and bars so we figured that would be a good but maybe more expensive place for lunch. On the way we saw a giant fountain which seemed photo worthy as well as a small but I thought interesting looking church.
After lunch we went to Christiania. Unfortunately they hate pictures there and there are signs up everywhere saying do NOT take photos so I can only describe it. Chritiania is a free spirited section on the outskirts of Copenhagen that is not really part of Denmark. It is a community that has squatted a small part of the city for 40 years and thrives on tourists coming to experience it. It reminded me of what I would picture the poor parts of George Orwell's 1984 or if you have seen the movie Children of Men with Clive Owen. In Chrisitiania is a famous street called pusher street. Although the drugs sold on pusher street are illegal in Denmark Christiania's paralegal status has allowed this open market for weed to exist for some 40 years. All in all it was quite an experience and if you are traveling to Copenhagen with people who are at least 18 definitely a place you should see.
On Sunday we were exhausted from two days of traveling. However we knew that the museum near the hostel was free and opened at 11 as well as the fact that the botanical gardens would be open. We had to check out of our room at 10 so we went the museum. It was mostly filled with old statues and some paintings. there was even a french collection which excited many of members of my party. I have pictures of works done by Monet and Rembrandt as well as statues dating back to the greek, roman and egyptian times. We were very tired after the museum but mustered the energy to see the conservatory in the botanical gardens. It was a nice change of pace to be in a room that was 85 degrees and about 90 % humidity. We even got to see the orchid room because it was sunday but because it was still march many of the plants were not flowering.
We were too tired after the garden so we took the metro to the airport and made it home to Aalborg in time for dinner. All in all it was a very successful weekend and a lot of fun.
So on friday morning still tired from my previous night incident with the alarm I woke up around 5:30 so we could catch one of the early buses from the University to the Airport. These two places are diagonally opposite each other on the map so even before traffic started in Aalborg the trip was 45 mins which is much larger than the 30 min flight to Copenhagen plus 15 min take of taxiing... However unlike the US there is no need to get there very early especially at a small airport like Aalborg (about the size of Jackson hole's airport maybe smaller). It was nice leaving so early because we were in downtown Copenhagen by 9:30 in the morning and ready to begin our friday tour. We did not want to see the major attractions on friday because a few of our friends were not arriving until friday night so we agreed to see the most important attractions on saturday with them. Instead we strolled the streets of copenhagen looking at shops and buildings because like Arhus and Aalborg there were an abundance of pedestrian streets. The first building of significance we arrived at was a palace. It was very large and had a museum in the grotto underneath but with a 70 kr entrance fee we decided to pass.
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| Backside of Christiansborg Palace and courtyard |
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| Kathi and Bernard in the hail storm |
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| Pipe organ at the back of the church -was equipped with mirrors so the musician could see forwards |
On saturday we had a full day of sightseeing to do. After a breakfast of croissants in the room, we took the bus to Amalienborg just in time to see the changing of the guard. From their we went to St Frederick's Church which is in line with Amalienborg and opposite of the Copenhagen Opera House. If you want to see take a look on google maps. The church was a giant circle(I think it was actually a 16 sided building) with a massive dome. It was so large in fact that my camera was not capable of capturing the entire dome in one shot without shooting at an angle which would result in the shot cutting out part of the picture anyways.
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| Changing of the Royal Guard at Amalienborg |
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| A view of St Frederick's Church from Amalienborg |
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| The inside of the dome of St Fredericks, note it does not fit... |
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| The main entrance to the star fort, note the moat surrounding the fort |
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| Vincent and Steve with the 6" cannon in the fort, and a dutch windmill in the background |
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| The little mermaid |
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| I believe it is Athena whipping some bulls but I am not sure |
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| The church next to the star fort |
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| A look down Nyhavn |
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| Across Nyhavn from where we ate lunch |
After lunch we went to Christiania. Unfortunately they hate pictures there and there are signs up everywhere saying do NOT take photos so I can only describe it. Chritiania is a free spirited section on the outskirts of Copenhagen that is not really part of Denmark. It is a community that has squatted a small part of the city for 40 years and thrives on tourists coming to experience it. It reminded me of what I would picture the poor parts of George Orwell's 1984 or if you have seen the movie Children of Men with Clive Owen. In Chrisitiania is a famous street called pusher street. Although the drugs sold on pusher street are illegal in Denmark Christiania's paralegal status has allowed this open market for weed to exist for some 40 years. All in all it was quite an experience and if you are traveling to Copenhagen with people who are at least 18 definitely a place you should see.
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| A lion statue that was guessed to be around 2000 years old |
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| A painting by Monet |
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| One of the orchids at the garden's conservatory |
We were too tired after the garden so we took the metro to the airport and made it home to Aalborg in time for dinner. All in all it was a very successful weekend and a lot of fun.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Tales from Copenhagen
I am very busy studying for my Combustion and the Environment exam. Therefore my pictures as well as my stories of my adventures in Copenhagen will probably not be posted until tuesday night/ wednesday morning. Sorry for the delay. As it turns out I decided to remain in Aalborg this weekend to celebrate St. Patricks day as well as enjoy a French -made dinner. Thanks for all 4 people who responded to my poll... It was hard to decide a winner... In the future note that you do NOT need a gmail account to respond to polls just to post comments...
Thursday, March 10, 2011
The Alarm from Hell
So unlike my home in the US here in Denmark my room has an alarm system. I have yet to use it because I think that is a little excessive especially in a relatively peaceful and low crime country like Denmark. Yesterday when I returned home my alarm system was beeping and apparently it had been for several hours. In fact my neighbor Lou tried to facebook message me because she did not have my cell number and even checked outside to make sure no one broke in. I opened the door and found that my alarm's battery was low. With some help I stopped the beeping and thought nothing of it and continued with my activities. Unfortunately shortly before 4am the beeping started again. Now I knew how to make it stop so I did. and I tried to go back to sleep. I dozed off and then it started again. Luckily I was tired enough that I actually fell asleep this time, but half an hour later it woke me up and this continued until about 8 am. I did not want to leave my room and try to find somewhere else to sleep because I knew that my neighbors would not be thrilled to have the alarm going off for hours. Unfortunately the intervals between me entering the code and the alarm beeping were rapidly getting shorter to a time of less than 15 seconds. I decided I had three choices. Find a hammer and smash the dam thing which would likely cause something else to start beeping, try to take it apart and figure out the problem or suffer from beeping because at this point I could no longer fall back asleep. Out of fear of an early morning police visit I decided the second option. After unscrewing the case I realized another problem. The alarm more than likely is designed to be tamper proof. I did not know the master code so I guessed as soon as I started to take it apart it would beep even more. Being overly tired I decided to keep trying but what do you know as soon as I pulled the case off another alarm started beeping even louder. I quickly slammed the case back on and started entering in my code very rapidly which stopped that problem. After half an hour of suffering I then went to david the collegium president who luckily was awake and home (It is about 9 now). He was able to solve the problem temporarily but ten minutes later it was back in business so I asked him again and he texted the janitor who doesnt speak much english. Meanwhile I had to wait. My first thought was to listen to music with my headphones on my computer on a very loud setting. Unfortunately my computer's head phone jack which had been on the fritz for well over a year now was not working. So I decided to take a long shower with the hope that the noise would drown out the beeping which it did. But even still the janitor had not shown up. So I found my ipod plugged it in and blasted some hard rock music which did the trick as I sat in my bed. Luckily the janitor finally showed and realized he could not fix it so he called the technician from the alarm company. Another 15 minutes later of more incessant beeping and the technician shows up. He tries a few things then makes a phone call and somehow shuts the machine off and leaves. The janitor tells me they will return in a week with a new one. So I am thinking thank god it stopped beeping. But god dam it I should have just smashed it will a hammer, I could have gone back to bed (I dont have class today) and they are replacing the dam thing anyways... So I am about to take a nap because I got barely any sleep last night and I have to get up early to catch a plane tomorrow.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Theoretical Travel Itinerary
The following itinerary is just my concept so far and is subject to change a lot due to costs varying sometimes by hundreds of dollars if I change one day. I have broken my time into one week increments starting on the Monday of that week (Therefore current time it is the March 7 week).
March 7 Weekend in Copenhagen
March 14 Weekend trip to ?????? (Unconfirmed perhaps I will remain in DK and travel to another city)
March 21 Weekend at AIK- we have a big event planned!
March 28 Weekend to Gotenburg Sweden by Ferry
April 4 Beginning of Birthday weekend Perhaps trip to Amsterdam
April 11 Perhaps a trip to Amsterdam or Elsewhere close ??????
April 18 Family arrive in Denmark- Trip to Finland, Latvia and hopefully Estonia
April 25 Work time-classes end
May 2-Work on project!
May 9 Work on project perhaps interrupted by a midweek trip to Germany
May 16 Work on Project
May 23 Finish project - Lyndsay Arrives-Carnival!!!!
May 30 Trip with Lyndsay to Northern Italy
June 6 Finals
June 13 Finals and project presentation and defense preparation
June 20 Project Defense and beginning of my big trip time will be spent in France
June 27 Spend time in Belgium, Germany, Austria and Czech through then end of my time in Europe
July 4 end of my big trip in Czech then return to the US july 6th
I am going to be pretty busy but I am very excited. I know I can not hit all the places I wanted to go however I am already planning my return to Europe hopefully summer 2012. The places I am missing include but not in any order other than roughly east to west: Reykjavik Iceland, Dublin Ireland, Edinburgh Scotland, Lisbon Portugal, Granada Spain, Barcelona Spain, Toulouse France, Marseilles France, Nice France, Geneva Switzerland, Catania/ Palermo Italy, Naples Italy, Rome Italy, Zagreb Croatia, Salzburg Austria, Lichtenstein Lichtenstein, Stockholm Sweden, Budapest Hungary Bucharest Romania, Athens Greece, Istanbul Turkey, Warsaw Poland, St Petersburg Russia, Kiev Ukraine and perhaps a few more that I can not think of off the top of my head. However they will be not forgotten and I hopefully will see them all some day. If you think I missed some it may be because I am planning on going to see that city already, if it is in a country I have not listed or you think I would like it anyways please tell me.
March 7 Weekend in Copenhagen
March 14 Weekend trip to ?????? (Unconfirmed perhaps I will remain in DK and travel to another city)
March 21 Weekend at AIK- we have a big event planned!
March 28 Weekend to Gotenburg Sweden by Ferry
April 4 Beginning of Birthday weekend Perhaps trip to Amsterdam
April 11 Perhaps a trip to Amsterdam or Elsewhere close ??????
April 18 Family arrive in Denmark- Trip to Finland, Latvia and hopefully Estonia
April 25 Work time-classes end
May 2-Work on project!
May 9 Work on project perhaps interrupted by a midweek trip to Germany
May 16 Work on Project
May 23 Finish project - Lyndsay Arrives-Carnival!!!!
May 30 Trip with Lyndsay to Northern Italy
June 6 Finals
June 13 Finals and project presentation and defense preparation
June 20 Project Defense and beginning of my big trip time will be spent in France
June 27 Spend time in Belgium, Germany, Austria and Czech through then end of my time in Europe
July 4 end of my big trip in Czech then return to the US july 6th
I am going to be pretty busy but I am very excited. I know I can not hit all the places I wanted to go however I am already planning my return to Europe hopefully summer 2012. The places I am missing include but not in any order other than roughly east to west: Reykjavik Iceland, Dublin Ireland, Edinburgh Scotland, Lisbon Portugal, Granada Spain, Barcelona Spain, Toulouse France, Marseilles France, Nice France, Geneva Switzerland, Catania/ Palermo Italy, Naples Italy, Rome Italy, Zagreb Croatia, Salzburg Austria, Lichtenstein Lichtenstein, Stockholm Sweden, Budapest Hungary Bucharest Romania, Athens Greece, Istanbul Turkey, Warsaw Poland, St Petersburg Russia, Kiev Ukraine and perhaps a few more that I can not think of off the top of my head. However they will be not forgotten and I hopefully will see them all some day. If you think I missed some it may be because I am planning on going to see that city already, if it is in a country I have not listed or you think I would like it anyways please tell me.
Ryan goes to the Opera
Tonight is wednesday night, which means normally I would go curling. However tonight I went to an Italian Opera instead. Yes an Opera entirely in Italian in Denmark, what a concept. I figured since it was free and I knew people going I would give it a shot since I have never been to one before. It was cool, besides the fact I could not understand what they were saying. It was in this giant factory turned arts center and the show traveled from room to room with the views following along. Luckily I went with my buddy Sandro from Catania Italy so I had a translator. However he was having trouble doing so because they were singing opera so it was not straight Italian and he said they were making lots of mistakes so it was not until the third act that he understood what they were saying. However based on the acting I could understand mostly what was happening and when I found out the actual story I was more or less correct which was exciting. It is actually a rather famous opera called "Rigoletto" by a composer named Verdi. Conveniently I had my bike so the 4km trip to the theater was very fast and easy and perhaps if given the opportunity I would go again. It is nice how many free events there are here. For instance last night was a quarter finals hockey match for a European tournament at the Gigantium in Aalborg which is about 2km away from me. I would have gone but the woman I bought my bike from was dropping it off during the first period so I reluctantly had to stay because I could not pass up the opportunity for free delivery especially because she lives 17km from me... Which would be a long bus ride there and bike ride back. Unfortunately I was in a rush tonight and forgot to grab my camera so I have no pictures but Sandro brought his so if they come out okay I may post one or two pictures later.
Since last time
I know I have not written something in a while. That is because I have had little to say. I am in the process of finalizing my itinerary for the the rest of my time abroad. I will post that in a little bit. There are still some open spots. Please if you have recommendations for places to see or more importantly things to do in the places I am going to see then tell me. This week I have had the last of my C-Programming and Combustion and the Environment lectures. My ISCAN course continues for four more weeks and my Aerodynamics lecture has one class remaining. So that means my first exams. Luckily for me Aerodynamics is attendance and participation based on a pass fail type scale so that is all set. ISCAN is still in session and my essay is not due until early may. Combustion has its final exam on the 15th of March so I have begun studying for that, and have taken a break from working on the project. And the worst is C-Programming. The final for that class unfortunately is not until mid june so I have three months to forget what little I have learned. Luckily I have a good friend here in Aalborg who is a Computer Science major so hopefully he can point me in the right direction. My professor decided to open a huge can of worms on the last lecture by telling us that now we have learned some C so here is a one hour into to the differences between C and C++, so go program in C++.... Also most of the students are electrical engineers in my class so he started talking in depth about filters. All of us thermal engineers were completely lost. Luckily I remembered some basics from EE100 but when related to computer programming it was way to deep for me so that made the work really hard. He realized this at the end of the last class and so maybe he will give us some lee way during the final because it is an oral exam...
In other news I am traveling to Copenhagen this weekend. I going with some friends from my Collegium and elsewhere in Aalborg. Eight of us rented a large room at a Hostel in the city so we are going for a long weekend starting friday morning. Hopefully we will tour around, vist Christiania, or maybe cross the water to Malmo Sweden and also check out the night life. For those who don't know Chrisitania is a large free loading hippie community in the middle of Copenhagen that has existed for almost forty years. It is a paralegal location with a history for being a place with very colorful people and at one time lots of drugs. however they were outlawed by the Danish government in 2004. They do not own the land but instead pay a sort of tax on the revenue they generate from their cottage industries such as hemp clothing, jewelry and art. I will give more information and photos upon my return
I also finally purchased a bike. It was reasonably priced and came with lights which are mandatory by law after dusk. The lights are the nice ones that are powered my magnets so no battery issues for me which is good too. It is a road bike but not a racing bike that had a seven speed internal cassette. Unlike in the US and many other places most bikes in denmark that are not specifically mountain or road racing bikes have internal cassettes. That means that instead of having visible gears and a derailleur, there is one gear and when you press the shifter a piece inside the center of the rear wheel changes a gear. It means that there is what looks like a can of soup wedged horizontally around the rear axle that the gears hide inside. It has been much nicer and faster to travel by bike. It also has a bell but it is missing the spring. However I want to get all "engineery" on the bike because it is relatively simply made and if I make it nicer I can resell it at no loss at the end of the year. The other interesting difference about bikes here is the brakes. A standard bike has a cable friction brake on the front wheel but not on the rear. Instead if you pedal backwards that initiates the brake, a nice function of not having a derailleur. For me I have both cable brakes and the pedal backwards on my bike. However the rear one is missing the pads so it does not work. This got me into trouble today not once but twice in about 30 seconds going down a long handicapped ramp. I squeezed the brake but no matter how hard i tried i only went faster until i nearly crashed.... So I may stop by the bike junkyard nearby and get some pads a bell spring and perhaps a chain guard for some bike upgrades...
In other news I am traveling to Copenhagen this weekend. I going with some friends from my Collegium and elsewhere in Aalborg. Eight of us rented a large room at a Hostel in the city so we are going for a long weekend starting friday morning. Hopefully we will tour around, vist Christiania, or maybe cross the water to Malmo Sweden and also check out the night life. For those who don't know Chrisitania is a large free loading hippie community in the middle of Copenhagen that has existed for almost forty years. It is a paralegal location with a history for being a place with very colorful people and at one time lots of drugs. however they were outlawed by the Danish government in 2004. They do not own the land but instead pay a sort of tax on the revenue they generate from their cottage industries such as hemp clothing, jewelry and art. I will give more information and photos upon my return
I also finally purchased a bike. It was reasonably priced and came with lights which are mandatory by law after dusk. The lights are the nice ones that are powered my magnets so no battery issues for me which is good too. It is a road bike but not a racing bike that had a seven speed internal cassette. Unlike in the US and many other places most bikes in denmark that are not specifically mountain or road racing bikes have internal cassettes. That means that instead of having visible gears and a derailleur, there is one gear and when you press the shifter a piece inside the center of the rear wheel changes a gear. It means that there is what looks like a can of soup wedged horizontally around the rear axle that the gears hide inside. It has been much nicer and faster to travel by bike. It also has a bell but it is missing the spring. However I want to get all "engineery" on the bike because it is relatively simply made and if I make it nicer I can resell it at no loss at the end of the year. The other interesting difference about bikes here is the brakes. A standard bike has a cable friction brake on the front wheel but not on the rear. Instead if you pedal backwards that initiates the brake, a nice function of not having a derailleur. For me I have both cable brakes and the pedal backwards on my bike. However the rear one is missing the pads so it does not work. This got me into trouble today not once but twice in about 30 seconds going down a long handicapped ramp. I squeezed the brake but no matter how hard i tried i only went faster until i nearly crashed.... So I may stop by the bike junkyard nearby and get some pads a bell spring and perhaps a chain guard for some bike upgrades...
Friday, March 4, 2011
Photos from Arhus
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| A street in the Old City of Arhus |
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| The largest building in the Old City it was the manor of the man who printed currency for Denmark |
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| The doors were rather small 400 years ago |
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| A Dutch windmill |
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| In the 1970s poster museum, Santa and his sled dogs? |
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| The Theater in Arhus |
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| A watermill used to grind grain |
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| On the train ride home, pictures of the wind turbines in the Sunset |
Photos from Denmark
I finally got my camera cable, so I have some photos to post. In the future my blogs will each contain one of two photos but here is a brief summary to give everyone a glimpse of what I have in stock. I will upload the complete albums to Facebook. However I am going to upload many photos from when I went to the old city in Arhus. I would put more photos on my blog but it is really annoying because the Uploader only allows adding one photo at a time.
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| Sunrise at Copenhagen International Airport |
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| The Front of AIK Collegium |
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| My Apartment |
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| Common Area and Kitchen |
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| The back of the AIK collegium |
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| Aalborg Train Station |
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| The Streets of Aalborg |
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| A classic Danish style building on one of Aalborgs many pedestrian streets |
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| Pontoppidanstraede 101, my new Votey |
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| Please try to pronounce those words... |
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| One of the older streets of Aalborg with the classic Danish homes |
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