The final two weeks

So I'm not down to two weeks yet, but for intent and purpose I am. I am looking at the last few things I still need to do here in Århus, and trying to get everything in order for my departure. Today was the final exam for my class. Tomorrow we just have viewing of stories and feedback, after which I will make some changes to my documentary and re-post it on Vimeo.

This weekend I will be in Grenå with Mikkel's family at a cabin. I'm not sure what all we'll be doing, but I'm sure there will be lots of football and sitting in the sun. It won't be warmer than probably 15 (60 degrees) but the sun will be out I hope. Also, we are bringing a Wii, so that will provide some entertainment. I'm baking some "American" chocolate chip cookies on Thursday to bring along. I have yet to find chocolate chips in this country, so I suppose I'll be mashing up a chocolate bar? I realize this will not be the same, but close enough.

We'll return to Århus Sunday night and leave promptly at 6 am the next morning for Berlin. Five in the car for seven and a half hours should be a good time! Oh well, it's much cheaper than flying and I don't have to worry about bringing liquids on my person. Downside: no free baby cans of Cola Light. But we'll have an entire week in Berlin so if anyone has recomendations they would be strongly appreciated. After the street art documentary, I am excited to see the work in Berlin because I found through research that it is a very large city for street art. I will be sure to take pictures.

After I get back I will only have a few days left in Århus. I will need to pack up my room and make sure my bags aren't too heavy. I've already made calls in STL to get my serving job back for the summer, so besides the jet lag, everything will be taken care of before I leave.

But I'm not saying goodbyes yet. There is still work to do and lots of time to enjoy.

The next few weeks: an overview

This past week and the few to come will be packed with things to do, both fun and not-so-fun. Rather than painfully rambling, I'll make a timeline for reading ease.

Last Tuesday: Day One of assignment 3. Ewa and I decide, same-sex adoption it is.

Last Wednesday: St. Patrick's Day. (I'll post pictures later) Suprisingly, only really celebrated by the English, the Irish and the Americans. The Danes just came along for the ride. No one wore green to school, pinching those without was not allowed.

Last Friday: Panic. No real sources hammered out for interviews, but first real meeting produces a few promising leades.

Last Saturday: The Journalists Union throws a party at our school. Everyone attends, networks. 

Yesterday: Mikkel's 23 birthday! Dinner with Mikkel and Kim, then to the movies to see Brothers. It was a remake of a Danish film by the same name, so it was interesting to hear what Kim and Mikkel thought.

Today: Three of our four appointments for our story. So far, everything is going well. Tonight, to Heidi's Bier Bar for Mikkel's birthday with classmates.

Tomorrow: Final interview, edit all day.

Thursday: Turn in Assignment 3! Thank goodness! Dinner with Mikkel's family for his birthday. So much Danish.

Saturday: Leave for Paris!

Sunday: Arrive in Paris! Dinner with Jackie and Danny.

Friday: Goodbye Paris, hello Aalborg. Easter weekend with Mikkel's parents.

Easter Sunday night: Back to Århus. Sleeping soundly.

Photo slideshows to come.

Pictures from Samsoe

So the project is completed. 31 journalism students put together this website about the island of Samsoe...in one day. Enjoy it. My group did the portion on transportation.

This was the giant chess board at our hostel.

This was in a town at the north of Samsoe

Breakfast at the hostel.

Straw fight at the straw heating plant. Each bail of hay is equivalent to one barrel of oil in the energy it produces.

First Assignment: Completed

Hana and I turned in our first assignment today. I'll upload it tomorrow from the school's server, but today it was running really slowly because of all the students frantically editing before the noon deadline. It turned out just alright, not great. The subject was fine and his interview was good, but the lighting in the bar was worse than expected and the sound was a slight problem as well. Hana, for it being her first time filming and not just being the journalist, did a great job trying to think of creative shots and interesting editing styles. I felt bad that as an experienced photog and editor I took over sometimes, but she insisted she had something to learn from me. I hope that's true. I hope I was a better teacher than a bully.

For all you Broadcast J students at MU, this will amuse you. I thought of Greeley the whole time I was editing. We had shakey shots and more than one jump cut. Writing to video was difficult because the subject's girlfriend wouldn't be on camera, and she plays a rather important role. Customers in the bar yelled at us to get the camera out of the pub. "Ya make me look like a bloody alcoholic will ya?"

Greeley would have just looked at me, and said "So?" There's no excuse. I should have found a way to make the story better. I could have, thinking back. There were plenty of opportunities I missed. I can't blame it on not knowing the area, not knowing the language, having an inexperienced partner. I can only look at myself and the mistakes I made. I can only move forward and make fewer mistakes next time.

People here joke that the life of an international student is hard work, all the parties and bars. It's true, we do have so many opportunities to go crazy, and everyone is quick to point to the fact that we only have so long in this new city. It's easy to make friends and go out every night with them, because we get pass/fail grades. As long as we're not failing, we're fine. But it's so much more than that. If I miss the opportunities to make great TV, especially while I only have one responsibility, no work, no other classes, then I may as well have gone to any school. But I am going to resolve to remember that I am here to do great work, and try to make my other projects professional quality.

A very cultural weekend ahead

This weekend contains several holidays or celebrations which are completely new to me. We will be celebrating them all as a class, and I'm really excited about it.

Sunday is Chinese New Year. We'll be welcoming the year of the Tiger on Saturday night with a meal prepared by our classmate, Ada, from Hong Kong. Also, she'll be teaching us to make sushi rolls, so I'm really excited to learn how to make one of my favorite all time foods. I know sushi is traditionaly Japanese, but we're having it anyway because it's delicious.

Sunday is not only Valentine's Day, which is not really celebrated by most Danes, but also Danish Halloween. Saturday night I'll be attending a costume party where we'll be breaking open a wooden barrel of candy. Back in the ''old days'' (I don't know how long ago) it was tradition to put a cat in a barrel and beat it to death, but today they just pant a cat on the outside and fill it with candy. Danish candy is for the most part the same as American candy, but black licorice is really popular.

Today is not a holiday, but just Friday, and still we are celebrating. Every Friday at 2:15 a bar in the basement of the school opens and all the students go to drink and socialize. I'm glad to see college is pretty much the same all across the world.

Video Blog: A day in the city

For more information on Denmark's plan to become carbon neutral by 2030, click here.

Video not working? Check it out on Vimeo here.

Day One

Today was the first day at the school of journalism. All the international programs are together for the first few days of the week, getting an introduction to Danish life and culture. The majority of that today was a lesson in basic Danish....a three-hour long lesson in basic Danish. After which, everyone was so tired and angry at the teacher that some of us never want to speak Danish again. It's quite a confusing language. The teacher began the lesson by telling us that Danish is really two languages, the written and the spoken. For example: the phrase "Hvad hedder du?" (which means "What is your name?") is pronounced like "Va hetha do?" When the letter G is between two vowels, you don't prounce it. When you come across "nd" the D is silent, and "de" is pronounced like the american "the." It was a tiring three hours.

The school itself is completely concrete. It's beautiful in a way though, because it has a lot of interesting features.

There are a lot of sky lights and plants. Also, on the stairs there are ramps for people to take their bikes through the building. The walls are lined with photo projects and publications. The main area is mostly open, with branches of rooms spreading to either side. There's a big library and a cafeteria. There's also a bar in the basement, called the Friday Bar. It's open every Friday at 2:15 and there's a giant sign in the cafeteria reminding everyone of it.

My teacher, Jørgen, pronounced "Yorn" (well, almost) introduced our small group of 12 to our classroom today by lighting candles and telling us about what a cozy group we'll become. Anyone from MU knows what a stark difference this is from Greeley's B2 class.

I'm really excited to go back tomorrow for our lessons on Danish politics and current events. Being at school makes me feel like I have some purpose again. Despite the fact that I am there all day long, it's so thrilling to be part of something.

In Århus

At a public library actually. My dorm doesn't have an internet connection that I can tap into yet, and so here I am. Århus is cold and kind of big. My dorm is the same way. The people who live with me are lovely. There are 15 of us on the floor, and we share a massive kitchen. Last night we had a common dinner, where one person cooked for everyone, and then a meeting to talk about kitchen rules, money paid for shared items and parties. We're having one in the next month.

I don't think they know it, but I'm the youngest person there. Everyone else is 23 or 24 or even a little older, but last night they said they thought I was 23, so I suppose it doesn't matter.

I got my Danish phone finally. It's a fairly new model, on loan from Kathrine's dad. The phones here are small. Very few people have iPhones or touch screens or blackberries. Everyone has a small compact basic phone. I'm really OK with that. I like that aspect.

Last night I took my first bike trip through Århus. Two other dorm mates of mine took me to the Student House, a University owned building in the city with a cafe and bar and other student meeting places. It was a long, cold ride, but I am glad I went. I'll be getting a bike soon.

All is well otherwise. I'm attempting to meet up with some other students from my program, but it's proving to be difficult because no one knows where anything is. Not all of us have bikes or bus passes or any sense of direction, so we'll see how this turns out...

Learning about being abroad

Last night at an orientation, we learned that we will probably have something of a "W curve" of emotions while studying abroad. This occurs if one were to plot their emotions on a graph, and it would create a W, or a series of small Ws, depending on the person and their experiences. In example, someone would start high, fall when things get difficult, rise again when they become more comfortable, fall when they go home, and rise finally when they are readjusted to life back home. I suppose this will probably happen to me, and apparently it's a good thing, because I will be experiencing life, rather than just being a tourist. We'll see if it's true.

In studying the study abroad experience (which all feels very metaphysical) I remembered the first article I read about being abroad. The blog Stuff White People Like had a post about study abroad, and in re-reading it, I am more excited than ever. (Despite the fact that it completely discounts the experience as superficial.) I'm sure at some point I will be caught saying "When I lived in Denmark..." but who cares. I'm paying a lot of money to be able to say that. So what if it's viewed as a status symbol? So is a college degree, and I'll never apologise for getting one of those.

Class List

So after searching around Facebook for a few weeks, trying to find the other students in my class for the TV Semester, I finally asked Anna (the Coordinator) if I could just have a class list. She was lovely enough to send it to me, so I'll share it.

The font is really small, but the punchline is...I'm the only American. This is pretty exciting, but also kind of crazy. I think number 12 is the few Danish students who will also take the classes with us. Anna also said we would be getting more information on housing, mentors and other school information.

In headlines out of Copenhagen: Climate Change Summits.

49 Days and 13 hours until the day I leave, not that I'm counting...

Video Blog: I'm actually going to do one.

Enjoy. If you're having trouble you can view it here on Vimeo.

PS: I know it's totally cheesy, but I had fun making it. More professional videos will come soon.

Finalizing Plans

So the flights are booked! My dad was awesome enough to allow me to use his frequent flier miles to take this trip. I'm leaving January 21, STL to Dallas, Dallas to London, London to Copenhagen...31 hours later I'm there! I'll be meeting Katherine in Copenhagen, then to Aarhus a few days later. Visa application gets sent in this week, and I have two orientations to go to: Health and Safety and Pre-Departure. Hopefully the latter will let me know what I need to bring as far as apartment stuff. I really hope I don't need to bring bedding...it's so bulky. I'm going to try and be a minimalist while packing, but knowing me...and the fact that it's a five-month trip, I'll probably fail on a large scale. Oh well. (If you've got tips for packing for long trips, PLEASE leave them in the comment section.)

For Christmas I'm asking for a flip video camera, so I can add some video to my blog. I'd love to share as much of the experience as possible, and hopefully I can add at least a few "home video" style posts. So watch out for that. I'm also tweeting about my preparations, so you can follow the hashtag #Denmark2010 for other updates. (I'm a huge nerd.)

On a completely unrelated note: How 'bout them Tigers? Sorry KU, better luck never.

Study Abroad: a brief introduction to a long process.

After a good two years of preparing with advisers and planning classes, I'm finally on my way to studying abroad. When I was a freshmen, the first place I thought of going was Germany, because I'd been there just a few months prior, and was eager to visit again. Sadly, the Journalism School here at MU doesn't support any programs there. Next, I thought, France! But I don't speak french, and frankly, I had no desire to become near fluent in a year and a half. Then Brussels! That program was in English. Perfect. So Brussels it was for a long time, because it was a political reporting program, one which would hopefully mimic my career as a political reporter here in the states.

After I was accepted to my Broadcast sequence, I chatted with Emily, the study abroad adviser. She showed me a program in Aarhus, Denmark. It was not an internship program, but rather a semester at the Danish School of Media Journalism. Not only was it a very exclusive TV program, it was one of the cheapest programs we offered, second to only Hong Kong. Nothing against Asia, but I was pretty set on spending some time in Europe, and Hong Kong was an advertising program. I've since looked into the city of Aarhus, and it looks like it's going to be really great. It's akin to Columbia in that it's a comfortable distance from Copenhagen, but is still a city with a lot to do and a good place for a school.

So I applied. It was a long application, but the Friday morning when I finally turned it in, all 50-something pages of it, it was a sigh of relief.

A few weeks later, I met with the Danish Exchange students here at MU, and now I'm in the process of applying for a student Visa, and getting plane tickets and all that goes into leaving the country. Classes start February 1, and end June 5, but I've been told most people take a little while to have a vacation after with their classmates. I haven't contacted anyone I'll be in the program with, but there's only 14 others, and I don't even know where they live now. I'll be excited to finally meet them. All

things considered, even though I have about 70 days until I see Denmark, I have a lot to do still.

(Photo: Me with my completed application: Courtesy of Laura Xiao.)