Day 60--Take the long way home

So today was a long day.  I woke up at around 7:30, finished packing up the rest of my stuff, said goodbye to Ian and Ryan, and walked with Hannah to the airport.  We got there at 10, and after checking our bags we split off into different directions.  The flight was long (8 hours), but it was smooth and I was able to watch 2 movies:  "Rise of the Guardians" and "Sleepless in Seattle."  The passport control upon arriving in the US was long, but I made it.  I reunited with my dad afterwards, and we drove home (2 hours, I had landed in Newark, NJ).  Anyways, now I'm trying to stay up until at least 9 in order to adjust to the time zone.  Denmark has been a positive experience overall; I might even go back through my blog to remember again what I did.  However, I am glad to be home for a little while.

Day 59--Presentation Day 2 aka LAST FULL DAY IN DENMARK!!!

Today my group was one of the three groups presenting today.  Our presentation went well, and Jacob (the director of the Danish Waste Association) and Niels gave us some expensive glassware as a gift.  I was able to relax at the apartment before going to Ian and Ryan's presentation (they were in the same group).  I left after their presentation since my group was going to lunch at a restaurant in Tivoli.  We had smorrebrod, and I got to try herring for the first time.  It was gray and looked completely unappetizing, but when I tasted it, it wasn't half bad.  Lunch was pretty long; it was after 3 when we left the restaurant.  We walked around Tivoli for a bit, since Chietara didn't have the chance to see it.  Afterwards, we went back into the office to finish our paper.  Chietara is still working on it now, so after she uploads it to WPI I can worry about the eCDR and all that jazz.  I left work at around 5:30, but I didn't feel like going back to Osterport.  Instead, I went to nearby Norreport and tried on dresses.  I wasn't expecting to buy anything, but I tried on this one dress that I really liked and I just had to buy it.  The person at the register was very nice and jacked the price down from 250 DKK (around 50 dollars) to 200 DKK (around 40 dollars), which is pretty cheap for a dress.  So I bought the dress and walked over to where everybody in this year's IQP would meet for dinner.  It was at a place called RizRaz, and dinner consisted of an all-you-can-eat vegetarian buffet.  It was pretty good and I stuffed myself.  After dinner, Ian, Ryan, and I walked home (but not before stopping so I could get Paradis one last time).  We also ran into our advisor outside of the apartment drinking wine, so we had a nice conversation with him.  I was getting cold after a while so I went back inside.  I don't have much else to pack, just some toiletries mostly.  I will need to be in the airport by 9:30 tomorrow morning; my flight is at around 12:30.  It is a direct flight to Newark, NJ and I will be expected to arrive at 2:50 pm local time.  

Day 58--Presentation Day 1

Today, two out of five total groups presented today.  Both groups presented for about 40 minutes.  The first group had a tour of a street as part of their presentation.  We were fortunate enough to have warm weather for this to occur.  Between the presentations, Mike, Chietara, and I got some more gifts for people at the Danish Waste Association.  After the second presentation, we went back to work, where we figured out the situation with the room in which we would present.  We also ran through our presentation.  It is now just under 30 minutes, with my part memorized and Chietara's and Mike's read from the script we created.  It was around 5:30 by the time we left work, and my roommates had already eaten, so I went to a cheap Chinese buffet for dinner, followed by Paradis.

Days 56 and 57--Last weekend in Copenhagen

This weekend is my last weekend ever in Copenhagen, so Ian, Ryan, and I decided to make the most of it.  On Saturday we went to Frederiksborg Castle for the afternoon, about 45 minutes away in Hillerod.  It was absolutely gorgeous, not just the castle itself but also the surrounding gardens.  After walking around the castle we got to see a free concert, which consisted of Chinese performers and Chinese instruments.  They were really good (they came straight from Beijing), and I was able to take some video samples of the performance.  After the concert we walked around the gardens for a bit (did I mention that they were gorgous?) and I got to take some awesome pictures.  We then had dinner and took the subway home.

On Sunday, I started to pack away most of my stuff.  I also decided to not go with Ian and Ryan to the arsenal museum.  Instead, I grabbed stuff from Baresso for lunch, ate at the park nearby, and walked around for a bit.  Additionally, I walked around the forts and passed by the Little Mermaid statue again.  Later, Ian, Ryan, and I met up with Kasper for dinner at a place called "Zalt" in Norreport.  The food we had was very good, and we stayed for several hours after eating.  It was close to 10 by the time we left the restaurant, and I stopped at Paradis to get ice cream on the way back home.

Days 51, 52, 53, 54, 55--Last week of IQP

Monday we had a very long day.  We didn't end up leaving work until after 6 since we had to finish the results, conclusions, and recommendations sections of our paper. On Tuesday, we worked on our presentation.  We had to cut it down a lot since our first time running through it lasted about 50 minutes.  We got it down to 40 after cutting it down, but we still need to cut down some.  However, we know pretty much what to cut from the presentation.  On Wednesday, we worked more on the presentation and left work early for Worker's Day, which is similar to Labor Day in the U.S.  This consisted of a huge festival in the park near my apartment, with several stages, kiosks, and lots of food.  I went with Hannah at 2 and we walked around a bit, but she had to go back to work on her project.  I then stuck around for a bit, trying to reach Camilla, who was supposed to be there as well.  After walking around, eating, and taking pictures, I finally found Camilla.  She was with one of her friends, who was nice.  We sat on a blanket by one of the statues in the park and we talked about stuff.  Sometime later, three Irish guys walked over and started talking to us, but Camilla and her friend had plans for dinner so we didn't talk long.  At around 6, I left with Camilla and her friend, and I headed home to the apartment.  Thursday and Friday, we finished editing our paper before submitting it to our advisor for a final review, after which we will submit it officially to WPI.  We also worked on cutting down our presentation some more.  After work, my coworkers and I had some refreshments in one of the meeting rooms, and after about an hour I went home to relax.

Days 48 and 49 (and 50)--DKK, SEK, NOK, AOK: Norway

So on Thursday night Ian, Ryan, and I took the overnight bus to Oslo.  We arrived at 5:15 in the morning on Friday and we got things rolling right away.  We first found breakfast, then checked in at our hotel.  We then walked over to Akershus Castle/Fortress.  We couldn't go inside the castle since it was closed on weekdays, but we got to walk around the grounds and get some nice views of the water and docks.  We then walked over to a nearby bakery for a second breakfast in order to tide us over for lunch.  Afterward, we walked over to the opera house in order to find out if anything was happening this weekend (since tickets were free).  Nothing of interest was happening this weekend, but we still got to walk on the roof of the opera house.  The roof is designed to look almost like a ski slope, which was pretty cool.  The roof also enabled more nice views of the water and docks.  We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant in the center of the city.  Afterward, we took a ferry to the Viking ship museum.  The Viking ship museum was nice, yet pretty small.  The building design indicated that it used to be a church.  After the museum, we walked around the center of the city for a bit, partially because that Ian had lost his hat and we were trying to retrace our steps in order to find it.  We successfully found it at the Chinese restaurant under the table we ate at.  We then went to a sushi place for dinner, quickly visited the Oslo Cathedral, and went to the hotel.  Given the amount of sleep we had gotten on the bus, I had no problem hitting the sack a few minutes before 9.  I didn't wake up until around 8:45 the next morning, which was when we had agreed to get up.  We packed up our stuff and walked over to a bakery in a nearby shopping center for breakfast.  We then took the subway to the Ski Jump museum.  The museum consisted of an actual ski arena (the only steel ski arena ever built, by the way), and an indoor exhibit.  The exhibit itself was small, but I got to see lots of cool skis and poles.  The ski arena consisted of a great viewing area.  There was also a Zipline down the slope, which I would have eagerly done had it not cost extra to do it.  However, we had a great time there.  After leaving the museum, we hit a cheap place for lunch (since we had spent so much on food the day before).  We then went back to Akershus in order to see the interior of the castle.  It was nice, especially since we had a free audio tour to go with our ticket.  We then unsuccessfully tried to hit the history museum before it closed, but then we went to the military museum and found out that it was much bigger than we had originally thought.  Therefore, we had to rush through the exhibits before the museum closed at 5.  After leaving that museum, we walked over to the docks to find somewhere to eat.  We were distracted by someone who was selling GINORMOUS sticks of cotton candy--the cotton candy was twice as big as my head!  Needless to say, I had one, while Ian and Ryan split another.  We then walked over to an Italian restaurant for dinner.  The food was cheap, but really delicious.  After dinner, we had trouble finding things to do, so we ended up walking around for a while.  We found a tourist stop in the Central Station, where I bought a shirt with the Norwegian flag on it.  We then went to the hotel to pick up our stuff (we had stored it for the day), and then we went back to the bus terminal to wait for our bus.  The bus ride was from 11 pm to 7:30 am, and needless to say, I gave up on trying to sleep.  When we got back to the apartment, I quickly went back to sleep.  I am planning to rest for the day, given that we had several marathon days of trying to hit what we wanted to in Norway, which exhausted my back and feet.  Tomorrow starts our last week of IQP, I can make it!

Day 47--Forrest Gump moment...

So today we had a normal day at work.  We were pretty much putting our results/conclusions/recommendations sections together.  We will revise on Monday as well as revise our final presentation on Tuesday.  We left work at 3:30, and after I biked home, I decided to go for a little run.  It was an amazing day outside.  I ran around the forts again and then ran along the dock.  My total run time was an hour, and I still felt that I could have run longer.  However, since that was the longest I'd ever run, I didn't want to push it farther for now.  After my run, we had dinner.  We're headed to Norway tonight and we'll come back on Sunday morning.