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.

Days 44, 45, 46--Dansk Retursystem and home stretch

On Monday I woke up a little later for a weekday since we had to meet Niels at Buddinge Station at 10:30.  After meeting him there, he drove us to Dansk Retursystem, which is in charge of the deposit-and-return system in Denmark.  Our interview was supposed to be at 11, but we got lost and there was a lot of traffic, so we arrived half an hour late.  We had a good interview though, and it was our last one needed for this project.  The rest of the day (and the rest of this week and next week) will consist of a lot of intense writing since we have to meet a lot of deadlines.  More will be explained later.

Yesterday, we continued to work on sections of our final paper in order to meet deadlines (intro/background, objectives/methodology, presentation outline).  It was a long day, but I was able to go on a nice run in the forts near Osterport Station before our meeting with the advisor.  The meeting was nice and short but he told us to pay attention to our writing style when finishing up the report.  The rest of the night (and Monday night) proceeded normally.

Today, we continued working.  Not many people were at work today, and there was also a fire drill this morning.  Work proceeded normally otherwise, as did the rest of the day.

Day 43--Art Museum

Today Ian, Ryan, and I spent part of the afternoon at the nearby art museum.  Admission was free.  We saw several collections ranging from French to Danish to art from other European countries.  A lot of the art was pretty good, I got to draw a goat in the sketching room that was in the museum, and I learned that surrealism is absolutely weird.  As in, weirder than even the most modern of art.  As in, some of it nearly made me puke.  As in, why does it even exist??  (No offense to those who actually like that stuff; this is just my opinion.)  My favorite pieces included anything with instruments in them, as well as something that looked like sinusoidal waves.  I was able to take a lot of pictures, so I'll upload them to facebook as soon as I can.  Anyways, we left the museum at around 3 and walked over to Norreport, where we had snack at Baresso.  We also went on a long walk, since it was a nice day out.  We ended up back home at a little bit after 5 and then we had dinner soon afterward.  Laundry day was today, as was more grocery shopping.

Day 42--Almost like the beach: Helsingor

Today, Ian, Ryan, and I went to Helsingor for the afternoon.  It took us approximately 45 minutes to get there.  When we got there, we took a 20-minute walk to Kronborg, which has a very nice castle.  It wasn't as ornate as Rosenborg, but it had some nice things inside.  Also, the area outside the castle was really nice, just overlooking the water, which was a pretty sight.  Ian and Ryan even decided to dip their feet in the really cold water, but I decided to play it safe and not join them.  For afternoon snack, we went to a cafe, where I had an espresso macchiato, which was bitter, and a chocolate muffin, which was delicious.  We walked to the center of town and ate at a cheap Italian restaurant for dinner.  The pizza I had was delicious.  Before heading home, I bought some ice cream, and then we took the train back home.

Days 40 and 41--Approaching the home stretch

Yesterday nothing much happened, except that our workshop went pretty well.  Even though only 3 people attended, they provided us with good feedback for our final paper.  Other than that I went for a swim after work yesterday and the evening proceeded normally.

Today was pretty intense.  We didn't end up leaving work until 4:30 because we had to finish revising our introduction and background chapter, which is due Saturday.  Right after coming back from work we had our weekly advisor meeting.  Our advisor told us that next week there would be a lot of things due, so we have to really work on those and get them done next week.  Nothing much else happened, except that Hannah made us some amazing chicken parm for dinner.

Day 39--Tivoli Gardens

Today we ended up staying late at work since we had to put the finishing touches on our presentation for tomorrow.  However, it didn't matter because Ian, Ryan, and I went to Tivoli Gardens after dinner.  Tivoli is an amusement park in the center of Copenhagen and there are also restaurants and even a concert hall there.  We arrived a little after 7pm, and although we had to pay a hefty price so we could get on all the rides, we all got our money's worth.  The rides that we rode included a 99-year-old roller coaster that was in the dark for parts of the ride, a flume ride that featured shooting at lights and an imaginary waterfall, a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale ride that taught us a lot of valuable lessons, the highest swing ride ever, a roller coaster that had several loops and twists, and the Double Shot.  We even took time to ride the bumper cars as well as go on a pirate ride.  That is where Ian and I discovered that Ryan makes very good pirate impersonations.  We also rode the carousel there, and I got to ride the giraffe.  We stuck around until closing.  A couple minutes before closing, there was an AMAZING light show with awesome music as well as some fire.  All in all, Tivoli was definitely worth it.

Day 38--Long live Queen Margrethe!

Today was a very special day.  That's right, it was the Queen's birthday today.  She is 73 today.  Every year on the Queen's birthday, she and the royal family greet crowds of people that gather outside the palace.  Chietara, Mike, and I did just that.  We headed to Amalienborg Palace at 11:30 so we could arrive in time to see the Queen.  After we got off the Metro at Kongens Nytorv, the National Guard was marching around and playing some nice music (changing of the Guard), and I was able to take a few photos of them.  Thankfully, Mike and Chietara knew where Amalienborg Palace was, so we were able to make it with minutes to spare.  We had a decent view as well.  The Queen stepped out onto the balcony on our left at noon and waved to the crowd along with the royal family.  Then the Guard played some sort of anthem, presumably the Danish national anthem.  The Queen and company stepped away from the balcony and towards the balcony several more times before the doors of the balcony were closed.  I was able to get several pictures of the Queen and the royal family, and even though the event itself wasn't much, it was still pretty cool to be able to see the Queen in person.  After the Queen's birthday, work preceded as normal.  I enjoyed the bike home again since it was just as nice as it was yesterday.  After getting home, I went for a 30-minute run, showered, and had my advisor meeting.  After that, Ian, Ryan, and I had dinner and went for a short walk.  It was a pretty lovely walk, since I got to see the nearby fort and dock, both of which were amazing to see at night.  After the walk, we relaxed in the apartment for the rest of the night.

Day 37--Finally, a warm day in Copenhagen!

Today was a pretty good day.  It was pretty windy on the way to work, but work itself was pretty normal.  After work, it had gotten pretty warm out, and I had the most awesome feeling as I was biking home from work since it was perfectly warm and sunny today.  After I got home from work I biked to the pool in shorts and flip-flops and I went for a swim, as usual. The bike back was good too since it was still pretty warm out.  We had a variation on shepherd's pie for dinner, which was pretty good, and then Ryan made us fried ice cream later on.  We relaxed in the apartment for the rest of the night.  Anyways, before I get to bed tonight, prayers to those at the Boston Marathon today <3

Day 36--An amazing day at the zoo <(")

Today Ian, Ryan, and I went to the zoo in Copenhagen.  We took the Metro to Valby, but we had to walk a bit before we arrived at the zoo.  There were so many amazing things to see at the zoo, including otters and flamingos and cute lion cubs playing with a rag and penguins and...gahh!!  I will upload pictures as soon as I can to facebook regarding the experience.  It was definitely worth the money.  After we went back, Hannah made pad thai for us, and then we went to Netto again and we relaxed after that.  Sorry it's such a short post.  So many indescribable feelings from today!  :)

Day 35--Rosenborg Castle, the National Museum, and...toilet racing??

For a good part of the afternoon today, Ian, Ryan, and I visited the Rosenborg Castle and went to the National Museum.  The first place we went to was the castle, which was within walking distance.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the inside of the castle, since I would have had to pay 20 kroner to take pictures.  However, the castle had a lot of neat stuff in it.  The first room, for instance, had many wonderful paintings covering the walls, including a painting of people ice skating.  Another room was a room full of mirrors, not just on the walls, but on the floor and ceiling as well.  There were also several instruments on display throughout the castle, including a lute and several recorders.  The basement of the castle had the king's and queen's crowns, which were totally amazing to see.  After leaving the castle, we intended to go straight to the National Museum.  However, we were distracted by a few things on the way.  We had snack at Baresso, which is similar to Starbucks.  Ian and Ryan then went to a Hobbit store that was nearby, while I went looking at dresses at a dress shop a couple stores down.  After a bit, we walked towards the museum, but we were then distracted by free Indian food (which turned out to be pretty good).  When we finally arrived at the museum, we had only about an hour before the museum would close, but we tried to get through as much as we could.  We walked home after leaving the museum, (where we saw the people racing toilets) and then I did one of Hannah's workouts with her and then we had dinner.  Also, Ian, Ryan, and I went to Paradis for dessert.  We ended up chilling in the apartment for the rest of the night.

Day 34--The Danish EPA

Today we didn't go to the office right away.  Instead, we took the S-train and Metro to Christianshavn and took a ten-minute walk to the Danish EPA.  We interviewed them for about an hour and then we went back to the office.  At around 2:30 there were some refreshments...aka beverages and a bunch of people from the office were drinking.  I tried a couple sips of beer, but they tasted disgusting.  I took the Metro home from work (since I didn't bike to work today), and soon after I went for a run.  It was still pretty gross outside but it was still a nice run, plus it wasn't as windy this time which was nice.  We had a whole-group meeting today with the advisor, as usual.  Then I had leftover pasta/meat sauce for dinner.  After a few hours of relaxing, I hung out with people downstairs for a good part of the night.

Day 32 and 33--The mysterious disappearance of the receptionist and Vestforbraending

Yesterday I had to function on only 5 hours of sleep thanks to course registration the night before.  (I finally got into all my classes as of this afternoon.)  I was surprisingly able to function at work.  We prepared questions for the two organizations we will speak to this week.  One of them we spoke to all day today at their facility.  Anyways, the receptionist mysteriously disappeared before lunch, so someone else ordered sandwiches, which arrived by 12:30.  However, I managed to find leftover food before I found out about the sandwiches, so I didn't eat any sandwiches.  Anyways, after work, same afternoon as always, swim then dinner then Netto then relaxing.

Today I got up early since we had to go offsite for the whole day.  We went to Vestforbraending, a waste management company that handles everything in the waste sector, including recycling.  It also has the largest incineration plant in Denmark and thus provides heating and power for many homes in Northern Zealand.  We traveled to several sites and we learned a lot about how their recycling system works.  We were there until a little after 2 pm, and we took the train back home.  I went swimming again and finally got to 3000 m in one hour.  I biked home and then made pasta and meat sauce for dinner, and the rest of the evening proceeded as usual.

Days 30 and 31--It keeps you running...

Yea, I totally forgot to make a blog post for yesterday, so combining days again, sorry about that.  Yesterday wasn't terribly productive.  I was really tired, especially since the radiator kept waking me up before I woke up.  However, I had a great swim after work; I swam a total of 2800 meters in one hour.  After swimming my roommates and I went to Netto to get more groceries.  Afterward I decided to get ice cream at Paradis on the way home since I was in the mood for something sweet.  I then relaxed and watched some movies at the apartment before going to sleep.  Also, Ryan made some sort of pastry that had vanilla-kiwi yogurt in it, and it turned out to be pretty good.

Today was somewhat more productive, but I was trying hard not to cry since I had received bad news this morning.  However, I was able to get through the day, especially since I ran on the edge of the lakes this afternoon.  The view is definitely amazing, and it wasn't terribly cold out.  Plus, I wasn't bored since I managed to download a lot of songs on my iPhone before coming to Denmark.  Anyways after I got back I had more of Ryan's pastry thing and I had my advisor meeting.  I then finalized my proposed schedule for next year.  Speaking of which, I will have to stay up until 3 am tonight for course registration (fun times).  Hopefully I'll be able to get all my classes.  I've been occupying myself with movies, but now I won't have much time for another movie.  Well, after I register I'm quickly going to crash, so good night!

Days 28 and 29--Night in Norrebro and Belated Easter

Since I was out pretty late last night, I figured I'd combine 2 days into one post.  Anyways, yesterday, I got up late, but Ian, Ryan, and I were able to go to the aquarium in Copenhagen, which is one of the largest aquariums in Europe.  It wasn't as big as some of the other aquariums I have been to, but it was a pretty nice aquarium.  It had a walk-in tank, which was pretty cool yet I felt a bit dizzy when I was in it.  There was also a touch tank, yet I was disappointed that I didn't get to touch a sting ray, like what normally happens whenever I go to an aquarium with a touch tank.  We also got to watch a couple of feedings, including a piranha feeding.  However, we weren't able to really see the feeding since it was on the other side of where we were.  Also, there were way too many people in that space and it was pretty warm so we couldn't stay much longer for the feeding.  After we got back, we had dinner and I got ready to go out.  Ian and Mike went with me to Camilla's place, which is right around Norrebro.  We hung out there for a couple hours, then we went to 2 bars.  I won't tell you very much about what happened, but I watched myself well, I had fun, and we all made it back okay.  

This morning, I woke up late again, but I felt fine (no hangover).  I had breakfast then did laundry.  After that, I made my dish for the Denmark IQP D'13 Belated Easter Dinner.  Ironically, I made charoset, which is a Passover dish, and I also brought some horseradish to go with it.  The dinner was supposed to start at 5, but some people were late in bringing dishes, so we got around to eating at 5:30.  The dishes I had were very good, particularly the chicken with the plum tomatoes.  Also, someone made Oreo ice cream from scratch, which was absolutely amazing.  After a few group pictures, dinner ended and I went back upstairs to relax.  It was definitely a nice way to end the first half of my stay in Denmark.   

Day 27--Sushi and chocolate

Today was a productive day at work despite there not being many people around.  We are currently preparing for our workshop with the stakeholders in our project, which will be April 18.  Right when we were finishing, Camilla told us that there was sushi a couple doors down.  Since I had discovered in Berlin that I actually like sushi, I quickly followed her into the room where the sushi was.  I tried a tuna sushi and a shrimp sushi, and they were both pretty good.  Well, I tried my best to ignore the fish part but the rice was good, very flavorful.  There were also chocolate things in a bowl (I think they were chocolate-coated corn flake stacks).  They were also very good, and the chocolate had just the right bitterness to it.  After work I went to the pool again, but the workout was cut short since I think a diving team had practice soon.  Soon after that was our group meeting with the advisor where each group updated him on the progress made so far.  Then we went to Paradis, which is an ice cream place nearby in honor of someone's 21st birthday, and the advisor paid for all of us, which made me grateful.  I had a scoop of caramel and a scoop of Oreo in a waffle cone, which was really good.  I then had to run to Netto to buy skim milk for the apartment.  After getting back to the apartment, Hannah invited me to do abs with her, which I accepted.  It was my first ab workout in a while, so I might be sore tomorrow.  We then had dinner, and Hannah made a cake for the person who turned 21 today, which we all had downstairs later.  It was pretty good; I had around 3 pieces.  Anyways, pretty big night tomorrow, so I'd better rest up.  Night!

Day 26--Making friends at the pool

So today Niels wasn't at work, but we reported to work today as usual.  I felt pretty productive today, for I was continuing to type up the Results section of our final paper.  This afternoon, the receptionist (I still don't remember her name) gave each of us a double chocolate chip muffin, which was pretty good.  We left before 3 today since Chietara had to Skype with a professor regarding registration for next year.  I then went to the pool for another workout.  While I was swimming, another girl who was about my age asked if I was American.  I said yes, and from there, we started talking about where we were from and why I was here and what we studied, et cetera.  We talked until about 4 since she had to go somewhere then, but not before exchanging names so we could find each other on facebook.  After getting back from the pool I had dinner; the night was pretty much normal (relaxing).

Day 25--Plastic Zero

Today, we spoke to two companies today in order to gather more data for our project.  In addition, during lunch today, Camilla told us the name of the bar she was planning to take us to.  I'm looking forward to it, but I still need to email her to find out where and when we are meeting.  Anyways that's pretty much what happened at work.  Also, Niels won't be at work Thursday or Friday, which should be interesting.  After work I went for a swim, since I needed to swim.  It felt pretty good even after not swimming for a week due to Easter break.  My roommates and I had a nice dinner of chicken and rice in the apartment and I relaxed in the apartment for the night.

Day 24--Feels like a Monday

So today was a relatively normal day at work, although it didn't start out terribly well since I didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night.  (I had to Skype with the officers of one of the organizations I am in.)  We spent most of our time devising questions for interviews we have this week as well as beginning to construct our results section of our report.  Also, Camilla asked us if we wanted to hang out with her on Saturday, maybe go to a bar or something like that.  After work, we had a meeting with our advisor, who handed back our proposal with very minor changes, which was good for us.  My roommates and I then had pasta for dinner and went grocery shopping.  I was "lucky" enough to go to 2 grocery stores, since Netto does not have grape juice or horseradish, which is what I need this weekend.  Also, I learned that "grape" is the Danish word for "grapefruit."  (Thankfully I bought grape juice and not grapefruit juice.)  After getting back to the apartment, I managed to somewhat successfully sew my hat from Berlin back together; one of the pom-poms had fallen off yesterday.

Anyways, tomorrow my day will be a bit long so I should probably try to go to sleep early.  Night!  

Day 23--Heading back from Berlin

So today we headed back to Copenhagen from Berlin.  It wasn't terribly eventful, and it didn't pass terribly quickly since Kasper was not with us this time to keep us company.  We had to get up pretty early--6:15 am--but I couldn't fall asleep on the bus despite that.  We spent 2.5 hours on a bus, then 2 hours on a ferry, then 2 more back on the bus.  The lunch buffet on the ferry was pretty good.  After getting off the bus at Copenhagen Central Station, we headed back to the apartment and had some fried rice for dinner.  We tried to go to Netto to get groceries, but it was closed, so we had to go to the more expensive Irma instead.  Sorry this post is so short; nothing much happened today.  Anyways, I'll see if I can get the Berlin photos posted, but I have to wait for my phone to sync to facebook.  Night!