Reflections

As my time here in Copenhagen draws to a close, it seemed like an apt time to stop and think about this semester - these four months in my new favorite city in the world.
Over the past four months, I have traveled to 14 cities in 8 countries. I took 10 flights, 4 trains, 4 buses and 3 ferries (only missed one!). I've eaten amazing food and drank amazing drinks, met incredible people and seen beautiful places. I've stayed out all night and watched the sun rise. I've swum in the Baltic Sea. I've spent far more money than I should and walked more miles than last semester and summer combined (I assume).

Red points are places I've stayed. Yellow points are places I passed through (airports).

Sunrise after a night out with my floor.

I've become comfortable on a bike again learned to find my way in a new city where I don't speak the language. I've gotten to the point where I can understand signs and decipher directions and letters with some effort. I still can't understand spoken Danish for the life of me, but that will come (oh yeah, have I mentioned I'm going to look into getting my Master's here?). I've fallen in love with the city. I am so thankful to all the amazing people I've met here. Each and every one of you has helped to make Copenhagen my home, delaying homesickness until the last couple weeks. As crazy as it may sound, I'm going to miss Socialt Kollegium and all the wonderful people in it. I'll miss looking out my window at the sunrise or the people playing soccer on the fields across the street. I'll miss chatting with people in the kitchen and watching Game of Thrones in the cinema. I'll miss the Danish sunsets, that seem exceptional, every time.

The SK DIS Squad. 

Luckily I'll have my memories to carry with me during the next year. And I'm looking forward to seeing my friends and family at home. The reverse culture shock will be interesting, and taking the T will be downright painful after the clean, timely Copenhagen Metro and trains.
I know it's cliche to say it, but I've learned so much this semester - about myself and sustainability and Danish culture. I've traveled on my own in countries where I don't speak the language at all - WITHOUT DATA - and somehow I've managed to make it home safely and enjoy myself every time. I've had to cook for myself, and as much as the Danes on my floor make fun of me and my cooking abilities, I think I did pretty well considering grocery shopping is a challenge and a half - not only a different language, but also cooking for one AND the food goes bad faster (probably because it's actually real food). Sure, I ate a lot of spaghetti and rice with chicken, but I'm not a foodie, so it worked out.
I've had many assumptions challenged this semester. For instance, I had never really considered consumption level as a part of sustainability, but now I realize that the developed world needs to drastically decrease how much we consume if we want to have a planet to live on - our current rates are incredibly unsustainable, not only in the amount of waste generated (and how it's being managed), but in terms of natural resources. A paradigm shift needs to occur, and it needs to happen soon. It's starting here in Denmark, but only slowly.
I've never seen how a city can function effectively without cars. Sure, Boston is a walkable city in terms of scale, but it still gives preference to cars over bikes, pedestrians and public transportation. I've had some real Eureka! moments in my classes this semester - now I need to figure out how I can take what I've learned and use it to make things better in the US.
There are so many things from this semester that I can't even begin to cover them all. I hope you've enjoyed following along on my journeys, as sporadically as I was able to write. See you Stateside!

Spring has sprung in Copenhagen and jumped right to Summer. 

Traveling and Spring

Clearly I was delusional when I said I would write a post every week. It's been closer to one a month... But that just means I'm busy and having a great time, right? YES.  It also means that this will be a long post.

A lot has happened since my last post. My core course, Sustainable Development in Northern Europe, went on a study tour to Oslo and Rjukan, Norway for five days; I traveled to Stockholm with Susie and Berlin with Julia; classes have had big deadlines as projects get going and conclude; and, most importantly, I've been getting to know my Danish housemates and this incredible city better.

The longer I'm here and the more I see of it, the more convinced I become that Scandinavia is one of the best regions to live in the world. Now, that's a heavily biased statement because I haven't seen the majority of the world, much less lived elsewhere for an extended period of time, but everything I've seen here seems hard to top. The public transportation is timely and clean and thorough; the cities are beautiful and built on a human scale; the environment is prioritized, along with civil rights and the needs of the citizens.

Sure, it's dark here in the winter. I wasn't here in December, but during the shortest days the sun barely rises. That can't be easy to handle. Even now, the sun rises around 7 AM and it's dark by 7 PM. But by the time I leave, there will be light for nearly 17 hours a day, so I think it balances out.

Yes, smoking is nearly ubiquitous. That has been the biggest disappointment for me in coming here. The US has done such a good job in eradicating smoking - the teen smoking rate is below 8%, I believe, and stores like CVS have stopped selling cigarettes altogether - but it's still very much the norm here. And there isn't the infrastructure to handle it, so people just throw their butts on the ground, littering the streets and sidewalks. I haven't had the chance to look into whether there are any campaigns to try to reduce the amount of smoking, but if there are, they aren't visible.

You bet that taxes are high. But it's easy to see what the money is being spent on - the best public transportation system I've seen, universal healthcare, paid maternity leave, free education - through a Master's degree and with a monthly stipend! - reduced childcare costs, and so on. It's also nice not to have to worry about tipping at restaurants. Sure, the bill may be higher than in the US, but once you factor in the expected tip, they even out. And the message that paying everyone a living wage sends... that's priceless.

Even with the darkness, the smoking and the taxes, I would move here in a heartbeat. If only it were that simple...

The mountainous Telemark region of Norway.

In other news, I had a once in a lifetime experience: I turned 21 in the beautiful mountains of Rjukan, Norway. The day started with a visit to Statkraft, a Norwegian state-owned renewable energy utility, where we learned about the work they are doing in Norway and around the world. After a few hours there, we boarded the bus for a three hour drive into the mountains of the Telemark museum. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day - it was snowing but bright, adding a magical quality to the already gorgeous scenery. Upon arriving in Rjukan, we headed to the Industrial Worker's Museum, a large decommissioned hydroelectric plant that played a role in World War II - look up the Heavy Water War if you're interested. Seeing the huge turbine hall with 6 of the original 12 turbines appealed to the engineering nerd in me. The things are massive!

One of the turbines at the Industrial Workers Museum in Rjukan.

After walking down the mountain that the plant sits on, we boarded the bus to head to our hotel. It was still snowing, so our bus driver, Helge, had to stop at the bottom of the valley to put chains on the tires, a task that took nearly an hour in the falling darkness and snow. 

Allow me to take a moment to talk about Helge. He is the MVP of the trip, driving us from Oslo to Rjukan, through the snowy mountains, and back again. The first time we understood how magnificent this man is was when we arrived in Rjukan. The parking lot for the museum was near the bottom of a hill, with several sharp turns, not so mention the hill was made slick with snow. To check whether there would be room for the bus to turn at the bottom, Helge got out of the bus and went running and sliding down the hill, made an assessment, and came running back up. Most bus drivers I've experienced would have just said "get out and walk," but Helge took the time to see for himself if it was possible. Later that night, he had to put the chains on the tires, taking them off again the following morning when we had descended from the hotel's mountain, and back on that night, and back off again the following morning. He navigated through countless snowy hairpin turns, and I never once felt concerned for my safety. The cherry on top is that, back in Oslo for our final visit, Helge got out and asked around about where the exact address for our visit was, once he had gotten us close. The man went above and beyond for us. Someone in the class made a card that we all signed, and his face when we gave it to him was priceless. I would be willing to bet it's hanging in his bus right now. 

Back to the story. The hotel we stayed at was actually a ski resort - Gaustablikk, to be precise. We arrived and went straight to dinner. Elizabeth, our program assistant, bought me a glass of wine for my birthday, which paired excellently with our meal, which I later learned was reindeer. 

Birthday wine!

Dinner at the hotel - apparently reindeer. It was fantastic.

To top off the best 21st birthday a girl could ask for, some friends from my class bought me a couple drinks at the hotel bar and we hung out playing cards for a few hours. Then, when I went back to my room, I found that my parents had left me a surprise:

Birthday surprise from Mom and Dad.

They had called the hotel and asked for a basket to be brought to my room, with a note that reads "Happy 21st birthday Meg! You will always remember where you were when you turned 21. Enjoy! Love you very much, Mom and Dad." I will always remember where I was on my 21st birthday. How could I forget?

The next day we went to the Hardangervidda National Park Center, where we learned about reindeer and saw some of the most beautiful scenery of my life - and I've been fortunate to see a lot of beautiful landscapes. We went snowshoeing with our guide, Christian, who lives in a cabin that is only accessible by snowmobiles in the winter and boat in the summer - a true Norwegian. It was a bright day, overcast but clear at the same time. Occasionally there would be breaks in the clouds that allowed the sun to shine on the far mountains across the frozen lake. The magic from the day before continued. 

My camera doesn't do it justice, but it was a breathtaking view. 

The following day we returned to Oslo, where we learned about Epleslang, a small company that picks the unwanted apples from trees in the yards of Oslo and turns them into a high-end apple juice that is the non-alcoholic alternative to wine. In addition to being a sustainable business, it has a strong sense of social justice, hiring mentally and physically disabled people to pick the apples, helping to introduce them into the work force. You can read more about Epleslang here. A tour of the Oslo Opera house rounded out the week before I headed to Stockholm to reunite with Susie for a weekend adventure of food, Swedish culture, ABBA and palaces. 

Inside the Oslo Opera House

Together at last - in Stockholm!

Riding Swedish horses at Skansen.

SWEDISH MEATBALLS. <3

The ABBA Museum!

Inside the Royal Palace in Stockholm.

This past weekend I traveled to Berlin with Julia, where I found a Meg again! (I'm bad at taking pictures, so you'll have to refer to Facebook for proof of the encounter). We saw the Berlin wall (of course), the Temple of Ishtar at the Pergamon Museum, climbed up the dome of the Cathedral, went up in the world's largest captive balloon, listened to algorithm-generated music, and ate some delicious food at a market hall. We packed a lot into our ~36 hour trip. I'll spare you the details, but here are some pictures:

A portion of the Temple of Ishtar from Bablyon.

The other side of the Temple of Ishtar.

Inside the Cathedral.

"Why" indeed. A portion of the Berlin Wall at the Topography of Terror Museum.

The largest captive balloon in the world! And we went up in it!

Happy hour drinks with Meg and Kyle at a Mexican restaurant near our hostel.

East Side Gallery.

The food market - yummy food and tasty treats. 

Tempelhof Airport, currently home to nearly 9,000 refugees.

I can't believe I'm more than halfway through my time here. I don't want it to end. But, I am looking forward to experiencing spring in this city, as well as seeing some more of Europe. Next up: Prague, Salzburg and Vienna. More on that later. 

Until next time!

Doing as the Danes Do

It's been nearly a month since my last post - sorry 'bout that - so I have some things to catch you up on. It's been a crazy four weeks. I can't believe I'm a quarter of my way through my time here. I threatened that I wouldn't come back to the US, and if it weren't for my last year at Olin, I don't think I would. I love it in this country.
But now for what I've been up to. Classes are in full swing, making the days go by incredibly quickly. I found a Meg and her sister wandering around near Nyhavn, so we decided to wander together and take a canal tour the next day. It was fun to tourist with a tourist. :) I thought I had more pictures of us, but I guess those were Snapchats...

if (Lego store == closed) {Meg == sad}; else {Meg == happy};

The giant Opera House

I went bowling with some of the other Americans and people from second floor one night. We played three games and I wasn't able to break 200 points (I don't mean in a single game, I mean the sum of my scores...). But the place was playing some great music and I was with fun people, so I had a great time!

Party bowling!

Two weeks ago, my core course, Sustainable Development, went to a small island called Ærø in southern Denmark for three days. We learned about the island's district solar heating plants and its wind turbines, we went to an organic beef farm and an organic brewery, and visited the island's maritime academy, where we got to use their simulators for about 15 minutes. Ærø is a gorgeous island, very peaceful, with lots of traditional Danish vernacular farm houses. And, as an added treat, a few of us were able to stay for a couple extra hours! We missed the ferry by THAT MUCH, and the next one was about two hours later. Luckily, our professor missed it, too, so we weren't stranded.  It was an amazing trip. I'll write a separate post about it sometime soon.

Ærøskøbing

Wind turbine on Ærø - owned by the citizens 

The night I got back from Ærø, my kollegium was having its Fastelavn party - basically, Danish Halloween. People dressed up, hit a barrel like a pinata, danced, played games, and generally enjoyed themselves until the wee hours of the morning. That's one thing anyone planning to visit Copenhagen should be aware of - the Danes party HARD. People typically don't go out until midnight, and don't come back until 5 or 6 in the morning. I think the latest I've stayed up was about 4:30 AM, and they still made fun of me for leaving early! I can't keep up. In other partying news, I'm learning how to open a beer bottle with another beer bottle (aren't you proud, Mom?!). My goal is to have mastered this by the end of the semester. I think I've done it three times so far, but after many tries. You do what you gotta do to fit in. :)

This past week I did a bit more tourist-ing. I went to the tower at Christiansborg (the Parliament building) on Tuesday, one of THREE sunny days last week. It was amazing! Blue sky and decent temperatures for THREE WHOLE DAYS. People were eating outside at cafes, the streets were bustling - it was a great time to be in Copenhagen. And today, Julia and I went to Frederiksberg Slot (castle). It's incredible - this big brick castle in the middle of a lake. Moats and all. It's very ornate inside as well, with beautifully decorated ceilings and parquet floors, and rich wall colors that you can barely see for all the paintings hanging on them. I've put it on the must-see places list for when the family comes in May - the gardens should be amazing by then, too!

Frederiksberg Castle

My favorite ceiling in the castle

The Great Hall - not an exaggeration! Easily 100m long. You can just imagine the balls they had...

On Wednesday, I had the rare opportunity to climb up a wind turbine with my Renewable Energy Systems class. I honestly don't understand the argument people have that wind turbines are ugly. To me, they are incredible monuments of hope that we are able to right the wrong we've done to our planet. And to address some other arguments people have against wind turbines: 1. They're loud. While there is a slight whooshing sound as the blades pass the post, this is much quieter than the sound of an idling car or truck, and is infinitely more pleasant. Also, since the turbines only run in winds of 3 m/s or higher, the odds are good that you won't be able to hear the whooshing over the sound of the wind. 2. They create shadows. This is true. However, most large wind turbines, especially those in Denmark, which has mastered zoning regulations, cannot be built close to residential areas. Additionally, new wind turbines that are near residential areas have a sensor that senses the sun's angle. If it's in the range where it will cast a problematic shadow, the turbine shuts off until it is no longer in that range. Pretty cool. Some other neat things I learned about wind turbines: They take about a week to put up; on the bigger turbines, the housing at the top - called a nacelle - is about the size of a city bus, the blades can be 173 feet long, and the height to tip of the whole turbine is over 470 feet; each individual blade can automatically rotate to optimize for wind speed and direction, and the whole turbine can swivel to face into the wind; to prevent wires from getting too twisted from following the wind, the turbine has a twist counter that will stop the turbine and unwind it when it gets too twisted. The things are amazing! A cool timelapse of the assembly of a wind turbine can be found here. Pictures I took from the top of a 50m, 600 kW turbine:

The view from 50m up

Oh yeah, and my group had to climb up the turbine - on ladders - in the pitch black because our guide didn't turn on the lights. So that was a great lesson in teamwork and communication: "Okay, you get off the ladder to your left, watch out for that thing. Next climber, go!" What doesn't kill you, right?

Some people have asked me about the food here. I'm not too much of a foodie, so I don't have a ton of exciting things to tell you, but I have tried traditional Danish smørrebrød - an open-faced sandwich on Danish rye bread (it's different than American rye bread - thicker and tastier). It usually has fish or meat, some remoulade or mayo, lettuce, and a garnish of some type. Yours truly made four different kinds with the other Americans at Socialt under the direction of our fabulous SRA, Anja. They were all delicious - even the liver pate. 

Four types of smørrebrød I made!

The Danish definitely do not mess around when it comes to pastries. There are bakeries all over the city with tempting sweets for relatively inexpensive prices. 

Some pastries after going to Frederiksberg Castle

The cake that Anja made for Anthony and VJ's birthday

The cake I had while waiting for the ferry on Ærø

Fastelavnsbolle made by Chris

Some other foodly adventures: at the kollegium, my floor has a dinner club, where every week two people make dinner for the other people on the floor who are interested, and everyone splits the cost. Anne and I made tacos for our night in early February, and last week we had beet lasagna.

6th Floor dinner club - tacos that Anne and I made

 I've been trying some of the places around DIS for lunch occasionally, and my new favorite place is MAX burgers. Apparently it's a Swedish burger chain. The fries and food are to die for, but the milkshakes are disappointing.

A DELICIOUS crispy bean burger from MAX, a Swedish burger chain. Their fries are better than McDonald's.

So needless to say, the food has been pretty good. It's been a bit of a challenge shopping and cooking for myself when all of the foods and directions are in Danish, but I'm making it work, and my floor mates are more than willing to tell me how to cook something. :)

Settling In

Whew! It's been a while since my last post, so I think it's time for an update. I've been in Copenhagen for about 9 days now, and I'm beginning to feel less like a tourist and more like a resident, though I'm still in this weird no-man's-land where I'm not quite either.

Classes started last Thursday, and I'm so excited about them. I know people don't typically study abroad for the classes, but I'm learning things here that I can't learn back at Olin. I'm taking five classes:

1. Sustainable Development in Northern Europe - dissecting what "sustainable" and "development" mean, and then examining the issue through the lenses of policy, economics (somewhat), culture, and technology. This is my core course, which means that I have a short study tour and a long study tour as part of the class. The short study tour is in two weeks, and we'll be going to the island of AEro for three days, in between the island that Copenhagen is on (Zealand) and the mainland part of the country (Jutland). The long study tour will go to Oslo and a nearby mountainous region in Norway for six days. 
2. Waste Management Systems in Northern Europe - just what it sounds like. We'll be considering how Europe manages its waste and looking at various aspects of the various technologies and methods available.
3. Renewable Energy Systems - again, what it sounds like. I'm really excited for this class, because I've always wanted to be able to argue knowledgeably for the use of renewable energy, and with this class, I'll be able to. 
4. Sustainable by Design - a class studying green architecture, with a focus on Danish architecture. This will be a nice continuation of my self study from last semester, but this time I will have someone who knows her stuff teaching me. 
5. 20th and 21st Century Danish Architecture - an art history type of architecture class that involves looking at buildings. I'm a fan. :)

I've already watched a handful of short documentaries for a few of my classes, including Trashed (would highly recommend if you want to know where your trash goes),  The Lightbulb Conspiracy (incredible short film about planned obsolescence and the culture of waste in the developed world - every engineer and designer needs to watch this), and Home (about what humans have done to planet Earth and what we need to do to save it).

But enough about courses. I am already so in love with this city. The architecture is gorgeous, there are bike lanes everywhere, public transportation is incredible, and the coffee shops can't be beat. I rented a bike for the whole semester; I've only ridden it home from the shop so far, but I'm itching to experience the city by bike. I think when I'm done writing this post I'll go do some errands with it.

I did my first real bit of exploring today after class, walking from the DIS "campus" downtown to Rosenborg castle, the Kastellet, back through Amalienborg, to Kongens Nytorv where I took the Metro back to Sundby - all told about 3.5 miles. I went by myself, and I never felt unsafe at any point, which I don't think I could say about Boston.

I happened upon Rosenborg castle, where a drill team was practicing, walked through the gardens for a bit - they're going to be gorgeous in the spring - and meandered along a street near the Statens Museum. I found a collection of yellow houses led me to an old fashioned windmill, which happened to be the Kastellet, a fortification from the 1640s.

Rosenborg Castle

Then I walked back through Amalienborg, the residence of the Danish royal family and also a traffic circle. Fun fact - the royal family is able to go out in public without being mobbed. As long as they aren't in official outfits, the city residents respect their privacy, allowing them to take the kids to kindergarten and go for runs along the waterfront. While walking through Amalienborg, a group of Danish students asked to interview me about the differences between the US and Denmark.

Half of Amalienborg Castle - four separate buildings around a plaza

After taking a panorama of the area (below) I decided to head towards the metro, by means of Nyhavn (you can't be near this canal without taking a picture. At least, I can't be). I went into the Magasin in Kongens Nytorv looking for my brand of makeup remover. Magasin is a crazy, terrigyinf, gigantic department store. Think Macy's but WAY bigger with more vendor stations within it. It was everything I could do to not buy all the boots, despite the sale.

Nyhavn

Then, feeling hungry, I got on the Metro to go home. The Metro in Copenhagen is so cool. It's entirely automated, so people can sit in the very front of the car and look ahead. And, unlike the T, it tells you when the next train is coming. It's a very efficient system.

From the stop in Sundby, it's a 10ish minute walk back to the kollegium through a quaint neighborhood of very small houses on tiny plots of land. It's so unlike any neighborhood I've seen in the US. The street is barely wide enough for one car, so forget about trying to pass. Each house has its own character, and some have chickens. Then I cross the street and climb six flights of stairs and I'm back at home sweet home.

Suffice it to say it was a fun day. I'm looking forward to watching the city transition from winter to spring - if it's this gorgeous in winter, I can't imagine what it will be like with leaves and flowers.

Thanks for sticking with me through this novel! Please comment with anything you want me to talk about in the next post.  Additionally, follow me on Instagram for sporadic pictures of my adventures: meggolidr. I'll also be posting pictures to Facebook less often. For my friends and family back home, the best way to reach me is through Facebook Messenger, or What's App with the number +45 50 11 87 66.

I Made It!

Hej!

I'm all settled in to my room in Socialt. It's pretty large, and has plenty of storage. This is pretty much the whole thing:

I'm standing in the small hallway with the wardrobe on the left, and bathroom on the right. The bathroom is pretty funky - the shower head is attached to the sink, so I shower in the sink area. It took some doing, but I finally figured out how it works. It's a pretty efficient use of space, but I think I need to get a squeegee to help the floor dry faster. 

I landed yesterday at noon local time, after taking off from Logan at 8:35 EST the day before. The plane took off and landed early, giving me a longer layover in Iceland. The customs process could not have been easier. I had to give my passport to a customs agent at KEF, but once we got to Copenhagen I didn't need it again. I don't know if that was a DIS thing or if it's Schengen related. Both of my flights were at least half DIS students, which was fun. I met another student whose birthday is March 2nd! I don't know what we'll do, but we're definitely going to celebrate. 

The rest of yesterday was waiting for the DIS bus to take me to Socialt, unpacking, and grocery shopping - Carly, we went to Netto - then I crashed at 9.

Today we had brunch, made by our wonderful SRA Anja, then went on a scavenger hunt around our neighborhood. This was my group, Julia, Oskar, and Alex, standing outside of Socialt: 

After the scavenger hunt, Alex, Julia, Anthony, Annie and I went to Christianshavn and Christiania. This city is so beautiful - I can't wait to see it as it turns into Spring and Summer. 

Orientation officially starts tomorrow and goes through Wednesday, then classes start on Thursday. More on that later!