Tour de Bornholm

Bornholm, described as a Danish Martha’s Vineyard, is a six hour ferry from Copenhagen and is home to absolutely beautiful scenery. While I slept very little during the overnight ride, when we arrived in Bornholm on Saturday morning at 6 am, the sun was rising and the island was beautiful. Our group of 98 students essentially took over the hostel in the coastal town of Gudhjem. I bunked with a bunch of St. Lawrence students which was really fun as we bonded over our successful attempt of making the most out of our bike trip to Bornholm.

We decided, after eating an enormous breakfast, that we were going to do the “Killer Tour” on the first day while we were ‘fresh’ and then do the shorter cultural tour the second day.

Our first day, covering around 70 kilometers of Bornholm’s south-eastern coast, was long and jam packed. We generally had good weather, with only a small section of light drizzle in the middle of the day, and managed to avoid getting lost despite the fact that I was leading the group of very trusting students with a virtually useless map. The day was packed with a trip to the second largest town, Svaneke, which had some awesome glass-blowing studios and a fun farmers market.
We moved on to a neighboring town Nexoo and then moved further down the coast to Dueodde, the sandy beaches. We followed the coast the entire time passing by beautiful inlets, windmills, bright houses and cute towns.

We reached Dueodde around 1pm which was good because this was our furthest, or halfway point, but for some reason, that wasn’t heartening for most of the group to hear … Regardless we continued on to Aakirkeby, where we were saved by soft-ices and candy, and then worked our way through Almindingen, a forest where we searched for Rytterknaegten, the lookout tower. Although we had to ask directions from a scantily clad runner in the woods, and then walk our bikes up a steep hill to an anti-climatic tower, it was still a beautiful view from the top.


We finished off the day by plummeting down the hills and stopping at a beautiful round church as we wearily worked our way back to the hostel.

The second day was equally as ambitious, although much more conservative in distance, covering roughly 40 kilometers.
This was the cultural tour and included stops at the cliffs called Helligdomsklipperne (I don’t even know how to say that,) a narrow cave called the Sorte Ovn, and Denmark’s depressingly small highest waterfall. We then traveled to the northernmost tip of the island to visit Hammeren, a steep rocky area, turns out they were NOT kidding about the steep climb, and then
Hammershus, the largest medieval ruined fortress in northern Europe. We visited all these sights on the way out then spent the next hour looking for somewhere to find smoked herring because we were desperate to try it and our blood sugar was reaching critically low levels. After asking at a few restaurants, we gave up- settling for the best hamburgers and ice cream cones that we have ever eaten.

All in all we definitely made the most of our trip, topping it off with a swim in the freezing cold Baltic Sea before showering up, crashing on the floor of the ferry and running to class at 8:30 on Monday morning.

I think this trip was one of the best things I have done in Denmark. Now that I’m back, I think I really needed it; I needed a little break. There was something so refreshing about being a tourist and just traveling around with friends. It gets exhausting trying to assimilate in and adjust to a culture, even if it is one you like. Going to Bornholm was a great way to just enjoy my time there, see the sights, and leave to go back to the real world at the end of the weekend…including a paper and a presentation the next day.

THAT crazy girl...

The end of last week was an absolute whirlwind. I was struggling to prepare for a short answer test on all of the institutions, member states, treaties and general issues and history of the European Union and it’s affect on business policy…wow...while also trying to cram as much homework in before I left for Bornholm, an island about 6 hours by ferry from Copenhagen, including a paper for the same class. While I managed to get the assignments done, the reading is going to a big project this week.

On Thursday, I practiced biking in and to ski training, again being that crazy American in a quiet Danish city. I strapped my poles to bars of my bike so that they stuck out the back and also, by the second leg of my journey, figured out that it was best to force my rollerskis into my backpack as opposed to trying to strap them on to the bike too. Should I stop short while riding though, not only does the person behind me run the risk of being impaled with my ski poles, but the whole operation may completely fall apart as I am trying to balance my bag with all my school books, my ski poles, rollerskis, backpack with ski clothing and my small piece of paper with directions written on it, all while balancing on my little, old, sky blue bike. The whole day was quite a workout involving a 15 kilometer bike into the city before my 8:30 class, a 10 kilometer bike to the ski training area and then a 10 kilometer bike home after an hour of Spenst drills, ski walking, and some intense hill running intervals. Thursdays are turning into quite the workout!

Needless to say, I am still alive and managed to avoid injuring others, and was happy to finally reach home at the end of the day. Although my family thinks I’m completely crazy, I actually had my first real Danish dinner, a.k.a. something completely foreign, waiting for me when I got home. We had two different kinds of open-faced sandwiches on rye bread. One version is with liverpostej (a liver paste spread) and beets, and the other is a meatball called frikadeller topped with red cabbage. Maybe it was because I was starving, or maybe I just love anything you put in front of me, but either way, the sandwiches were DELICIOUS.

On Friday, right before I got on the ferry for Bornholm, we went to dinner at the grandparents! It was so great to get to meet them and they were unbelievably cute. The grandfather spoke English very well and was very friendly, although the first thing he said to me was “Kristen? Your name is Kristen? That’s a boy’s name!”
My host grandmother didn’t speak English very well, but she smiled a lot. We ate an enormous amount of delicious food which left me well prepared for my overnight ride to Bornholm spent sleeping on the floor. My host parents also flew out to Rome for a week vacation on Saturday morning so my host sister and I are all alone this week.

An entry on Bornholm and some pictures to come soon…
In the meantime here is a picture of my the backyard of my house:


And a picture of the Lake that I run around...

The Epic Battle of the Ski Poles

It’s my first day with my ski poles and they very nearly killed me. I’d like to say it’s because I went out for some heroic or potentially insane double pole workout, but instead it is because I simply tried to get them home from the post office. A task which turned into a two day marathon.

On the first day, having discussed with my family where the post office was, I rode to the next train station over, about 15 minutes by bike, and took the train from there because that is where the post office is. That way, when I took the train home at night I could go to the post office and bike home with the package. I explained, apparently not to clearly, that I was picking up my ski poles, so it would be a large package, but I for some unknown reason, was easily convinced that it would be no problem. I could certainly bike home with a box with my ski poles in it-my first false assumption.

Day one continues with my attempt to make it to the post office before it closed at five. I have class until 4:10, but figured, assuming class ended on time (the second false assumption, while Danes stress their punctuality this seems not to apply to end times…) I would be able to make a train that would get me to the post office before five. But, class went over and one of the trains didn’t come, so I ended up getting to the station at 5, only to walk around realizing that my host family and I had miss-communicated on where the post office was, because the butcher didn’t seem to think he had a package for me.

Regardless, while day one was a disappointing attempt I was more optimistic about day two. My classes end earlier and I now knew the real location of the post office. At the end of the day I made it to the post office without a hitch and with 20 minutes to spare. I grabbed a number, hoping I was looking for the same service as the person in front of me, waited to be called and walked up to the counter. Once there I handed over my information, she went and got the package...etc. all was going well.

All was going well, UNTIL, she mentioned that I had to pay 460 DKK to pick up the package. 460 kroner! That’s just under $100!!! Apparently the Danes have to pay 25% tax on packages they receive when sent to their addresses at home. I need to change my address listed so that people will send packages to DIS instead, where apparently there is no tax. I’m already bumming that my mom sent my ipod here a few days ago. There goes another 100 bucks.

Anyway…not only was I floored that I had to spend so much to pick up the package, but I also had to leave, go to a bank, take out money, come back and THEN pick up my now VERY expensive ski poles, AND I still had to figure out how I was going to bike home with a box as tall as I was.

Seriously annoyed, I bustled out of the post office, found my bike at the station and walked for a quarter of a mile before I got up the guts to try and mount the bike with the long box. I chose a jousting technique. Putting my book bag in the basket on the front of the bike, I balanced the box over the handle bars so that at least 75% of it extended out over the bike in front of me. I then used my free hand, the one not holding on to the handle bars, in an attempt to hold the box in one place as I inched home through the blustery Denmark conditions that, along with the traffic and other pedestrians, threatened to blow the box and myself over.

Needless to say, the neighbors think I’m crazy, I’m exhausted from trying to get home, and my wallet will soon be empty due to taxes, BUT now I have my ski poles. Although I am not nearly as happy about it as I intended. My family is going to help me see if I can somehow get refunded on the taxes, but in the mean time, this one goes down in the history books-another priceless experience.

Back from Jutland

The company visits were really excellent.
Both Pressalit and Danish Crown were extremely kind and gave us not only great answers but a great impression of their companies. To be honest, they both outdid Maersk. They gave us snacks and excellent presentations, but most importantly they answered our questions honestly. At Pressalit, the very cool, designer toilet seat company, we got to go on a factory tour and they also flew the American flag for us!

All three businesses had some very different strategies and approaches, but they also had a lot in common. Writing this paper comparing the advantages and strategies of the three is going to be very difficult; but only because it has to be 1,200 words. I certainly have plenty to reflect on and keeping it short is going to be a challenge!

The rest of the tour really added to the experience. Western Denmark is very beautiful and a lot like Vermont. The rolling farmlands with small towns in-between made it feel slightly like home, although seriously lacking in mountains. The cities we stayed at were very quiet but still beautiful in their architecture and colorful European houses.


Our first night we stayed in Randers, where we sampled a Thor beer, which is piped into the bars through golden pipes that line the city! A very cool tourist attraction and a cheap way to distribute beer!




The next day we visited ARoS, a modern art museum in Aarhus with some awesome sculptures and paintings, and also visited the Old City, where we had a nice lunch and walked around the picturesque remainder of the city.


Our final day, after changing cities again, we visited Koldinghus castle, Jutland’s last royal castle that has been rebuilt many times and now is a unique combination of old brick ruins and gorgeous modern architecture. We also visited Traphold Art Museum, which housed a really cool furniture exhibit. It is important to note that the morning of our last day not only was the hostel we stayed at really nice, but they had pancakes for breakfast with some kind of maple syrup-type topping AND eggs with REAL ketchup. Not the Danish ketchup you get from the street vendors that is sweet and has a different texture...they had the real stuff…fabulous.
After lunch we returned to Copenhagen, a three hour ride over at least one very long bridge! All in all, it was clearly an action packed trip. It was a great experience and I was happy to get to see some of Denmark outside of Copenhagen.

I’m excited to have a free day tomorrow to try and catch up on all my school work and get ahead, if possible, for the week. Next weekend I head off to Bornholm, one of Denmark’s small islands, for a weekend bike trip!

Gearing Up...

All of these field studies have been keeping me very busy! Last night we visited Tivoli, an ‘entertainment park’ in the heart of the city, slightly similar to Disney’s Epcot in Florida. Tivoli has a garden theme and they call themselves an ‘entertainment park’ rather than an amusement park because of the many different entertainment options that they have. Just last night, after meeting with a VP and riding The Demon (turns out roller-coasters are much more fun when you are looking at the Copenhagen skyline as the ride climbs and drops off) we were walking the park and there was so many different things going on:
a jazz concert and a classical concert under separate gazebos, a show finishing up at the concert hall, all of the rides, games and booths were running, a pantomime show was beginning, and the fine dining restaurants (non-existent in US parks) were just beginning to fill up. The park appeals to all audiences and clearly provides diverse venues and activities. It was an extremely refreshing park to visit especially in comparison to the often hectic, crowded, dirty, and ride-centric amusement parks at home.

Tivoli also opens up for two seasons outside of summer. It closes in between each season to completely redecorate; reopening in mid-October for Halloween and the end of November for Christmas. I hear that on both occasions the decorations are amazing, and I am especially excited for Christmas. At this point, I’m pretty sure I’m going to buy a season’s pass. Not only do I want to go back for the two special seasons, but I would be just as interested in visiting Tivoli for the live music and fun atmosphere it provides…

I also visited A.P. Moller-Maersk today with my Business and Economics class, the first of our three company visits of the next few days. I learned a lot more about the company, a HUGE conglomerate of a variety of smaller companies, than I had previously known. Although our assignment for these visits seems daunting right now, the opportunity to visit some of the largest companies in the world is amazing real-life experience that I would not get from my school at home.

Tomorrow we will be heading out on our tour to Jutland, western Denmark, where the fun will continue!

Tonight was my first night cooking dinner for my host parents! I made a Tex-Mex style meal: guacamole, fajitas, salsa, sautéed veggies…etc. A regular meal at our house and I’m sure every one of their students has made it for them, but we all make it a little differently. I think I was the first to introduce my host dad to at least the concept of ‘salsa.’ I’m also excited because I picked up a pint of Ben & Jerry’s for dessert ($10 here, OUCH!) so they can use the ice cream scoop I brought them! It will be interesting to see what they think. Typically there are a lot less flavors here and definitely nothing as fabulous as B&J’s, although their creemees (or soft ice) is amazingly creamy. It’s very rich and they have amazing toppings from hazelnuts to sprinkles to finely ground chocolate…absolutely addictive and definitely not healthy. YUM

Week 2 Highlights!

It’s been another action-packed week!

The trip to Vega was really cool. We met with the CEO for about an hour before the concert and learned about the inner-workings of the concert hall and night club. We then stayed and watched Slow Train Soul, a band that combines soul, jazz, blues, electronic mixing, etc. into a really interesting sound. The concert was a lot of fun and probably one of the best fieldtrips I’ve ever been on...

We had great weather this weekend which was perfect for my trip up the Round Tower in Copenhagen, a ‘must see’ while in Denmark for me because !
I saw pictures of the inside of this tower in at least four different places before I came. While it takes 7.5 rotations to get to the 360 degree view at the top, the tower is not steps but rather a ramp! It’s very beautiful inside and much easier to climb than the thousands of steps it would have otherwise had

On Sunday I went on a group trip to Møns Cliffs about 2 hours outside of the city.
Although I was surprised at how long it took to get there, it was worth the trip. It was nice to see some of the Danish landscape and lifestyle outside of the city. We had a guided tour there and then spent the rest of our time walking around and looking at the gorgeous chalk cliffs and the thousands of fossils at their base.
There was also an orienteering competition going on there which was interesting to watch. They were using the trail system around the cliffs, including the mountain (the size of a large sledding hill for us Vermonters), and occasionally zigzagged in between our group. Their awesome 80’s style, brightly colored uniforms were also a highlight of the trip.
Anyway, I’m going on another field trip for the same Creative Industries class tonight. We are meeting with a VP of Tivoli, the amusement park here in Copenhagen which Disney used as the initial inspiration. Not only am I excited to meet with the VP but we also get to go to the park! While I plan on going more in the future, at least this first time will be free!!

As for the rest of the week, we are gearing up for our ‘Short Study Tours’ that are led by our core program, in my case International Business and Economics. We will be visiting three Danish companies this week and travelling to Western Denmark in the process. We are going to A.P. Møller Maersk (Denmark’s largest company, a shipping firm), Pressalit Group A/S (a toilet seat company which specializes in products for people with disabilities) and Danish Crown (Europe’s largest slaughterhouse). Although funny at first, I actually think the toilet seat company could be really interesting. They play such a major part in our everyday life not to mention the many factors we probably don’t think about when we consider our toilet seats! While in western DK we will also visit museums and other landmarks which will introduce us to the real Danish landscape.

Thanks for all your comments and support! Hopefully the blog entries are interesting to read! Feel free to send any questions you have! I’d be happy to answer them!

I’m going….to China?

I had my first DIS field study last week which was essentially a 4 hour introduction to my class China: Cross Cultural Exploration. Although there was a lot of reading, I found it the experience extremely interesting.

This course is based largely on learning some background information on modern China supplimented with experiences and information we gather from interacting with students from mainland China. We have formed interview groups which meet weekly to talk about differences in our cultures, customs and stereotypes. In the little that we've talked about I have already learned a lot about the differences between our cultures and I can’t wait to get to know this group of (mostly girl) students.

We also watched a Chinese movie and went to a Chinese restaurant where I practiced my abysmal chopstick skills, learned a few words in Chinese, and discussed the differences between American, Danish and Chinese food and dining customs. It was a fascinating discussion and I can’t wait to have more like it!

While this session was really great I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that I’m actually going to go there. At this point October and China especially seem so far away…

Exhaustion sets in

What a long week! While it is a great experience to be visiting a new place, it is absolutely exhausting. It’s very tiring to try to be a good student, a good traveller, a good family member, a good guest, a good athlete and a good Dane while also trying to be yourself. I guess this is my little moment of culture shock. I’m not homesick, not yet at least, I’m just tired. The biggest stress point for me, other than having to be completely independent, is my unfamiliarity with public transportation. I am constantly panicking about not being on the right bus, missing the train and having to wait 20 minutes for the next one, not having my pass ready, not knowing where I’m going, making a fool of myself…etc. Hopefully I’ll eventually get into a routine, but at this point the culture shock of city life is defeating me.


Regardless, this week did bring some new and funny experiences:

My family took me out for my first legal drink at a local brewery where my host sister works. We biked both ways and it was really fun, although they laughed hysterically at me because I could barely see over the bar. To this day they have not let me live it down.

We had our first week of classes and most of mine seem awesome. Tons of reading to do, but its all worth it when you look at the syllabus. Most of the classes have a few field-studies, which are basically related field trips to the area. My Creative Industries class, which sounds AWESOME, is going to a concert at one of Copenhagen’s biggest concert halls on this Friday and we will also visit the amusement park here! My other classes take trips to major companies, host cultural events, and visit major sites. All the trips sound great, although they certainly keep us busy!

I went on a bike and canal tour on Saturday, seeing the beautiful sights and learning the rules of city-biking. Trying to keep up with our maniac bike-tour leader definitely got me comfortable riding in the city. We also visited some really great sites that I was hoping to see while here, and they were even better by bike. One of my favorites was Christiania, a alternative hippie style commune or free town in the middle of the city that has been squatted on, and now basically owned, by this alternative group. The lifestyle and artwork here was impressive, not to mention how quiet and peaceful this place was when the city was just a few hundred yards away.

My host mom and I rode around our area on Sunday so I can start to get a little more familiar with my area. Today I biked into the city, about 15 kilometres and 50 minutes on the bike, a good ride! Biking to school and back will be my exercise for today.

This week I started an introduction week for my ski training by doing some exploring. As mentioned, I have found some great bike paths to use for rollerskiing and have also learned two different ways to run to and then around (7 kilometres) the lake. My host family lives about 100 yards from a forest which has an awesome trail system that I have been trying to get familiar with. I have already found a great spenst hill and a good ski-walking hill, although I think it is too short. I signed up for a ski-training group through a local athletic club that will meet once a week to go over some specific training and technique work with a coach! I’m hoping that I will learn some new drills, but also meet some Danes and maybe even someone to work out with one other day during the week. I’m desperate for a training partner and I really hope this will help. Next week will probably be a trial week for me, where I will actually try to complete a full week of training and then make changes as I go.

Thank God I'm a Country Girl

While I am much more comfortable with the silence and my time spent on the train, I apparently have yet to find my train-legs. Like any other morning, I had been sitting on the train for about 25 minutes when we reached the stop before mine. Closing my book, appropriately one of the most American books possible, The Devil Wears Prada, which I have been clinging to as my last tie to American culture, I put it in my bag and got ready to get off. I watched another man walk to the far side of the car to the exit alley, where he stood and waited for us to reach the station. Deciding this was a good idea, I got up and attempted to follow him past the rows of benches holding the normal morning traffic of dis-interested Danes.

As I stood up to make my way to the door, the train began to rock and sway slightly, as it normally does I’m sure, but naturally, being the rural, train-inexperienced American, I found myself stumbling down the isle. I managed to literally squash one poor guy, relaxing and reading his morning newspaper, actually using his body to stop me from falling over completely. I muttered, and immediately regretted because now I was obviously a foreigner, a quiet “sooo sorry” before being thrown back onto my feet by a jolt in the other direction. Now upright, blushing slightly and giggling to myself, I tried to make forward progress by bolting towards the door, only to lose my balance again, this time catching myself, or rather throwing myself, at the closed door. Peeling myself from the plexi-glass was an improvement from squashing someone, and at least now I had something to hold on to.

The whole scene was right out of a movie, it quite possibly could have been in my book. Clearly everyone was watching me, but the cabin remained silent. Expressionless and motionless, except for the other people cautiously following me to the door as if I possessed some kind of disease.

I exited the car and entered the alleyway trying not to burst out laughing and ruin the pristine silence. FINALLY, one guy, one Dane (I think) in a whole train full of people mustered a stifled laugh so at least I could finally laugh at myself…ridiculous.