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. :)