Regarding mail

For anyone interested in sending some snail mail, my address is:

Briana Lovell
Boulevarden 38, 3 th
9000 Aalborg, Denmark

In related news, I think I have figured out why USPS is going broke. A stamp here - this for within Denmark, which is just larger than Maryland, btw - costs $1.50. I don't know (yet) how much the rates go up from there, but when you consider that the maximum distance this $1.50 could send your mail is 600 km, compared to about 3,600 km in the US, the standard $0.44 for a letter look like quite a bargain.

In non-related news, I have a bit of a cold now. I slept for about 12 hours last night, drank some Emergen-C and skipped class to rest up today, so hopefully that will do the trick. I still did a short run since I didn't go at all this weekend :/

Tomorrow we have a bus excursion for one of the planning classes, so that should be neat. The weather here is pretty similar to what it looks like in Seattle - mid 60's with some sun and some showers.

Group Project, Part I

Just a short note regarding the group project, which from what I understand will be quite a massive undertaking, likely to require late nights in our "group room" and potentially to strain personal relationships (though they say we can mitigate this risk by developing a "group contract" to establish mutual expectations).

I've got a group, and a topic! Last week we had a few rounds of attempted group making, with the goal being to form 5 groups of 5 people each, each with a topic of interest to the involved group members. I've never done a group "assignment" this way, where it is more or less the whole class standing around a room with a list of topics, trying to figure out how to make it work. We had some facilitation from our program director, and in the end I think things came out really well. I'm in a group with 4 other people, a german girl, czech girl, french guy, and danish guy, all of whom seem very capable and interesting. Our topic area is roughly "bicycling and copenhagen". From here we need to "clearly define the question" (thanks branden!) and identify some specific research questions for further study.

I think a lot has been written on the physical infrastructure, so it wouldn't be too interesting to catalogue these interventions (cycle track, sidewalk markings, etc). However it could be interesting to pick a comparable city that has struggled to increase cycling, and propose a strategic approach based on the success of cities like Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Or it could be interesting to look at some of the more social aspects - is there a relationship between cycling and safety, or vibrancy? I'm hoping this will require some field work, i.e. trips to Copenhagen and/or Amsterdam :)

Any suggestions?

Fitting in

As some of you may know, one of the things I found challenging when studying abroad in Ecuador was the fact that I was obviously a foreigner, and a visibly American one at that. I dressed differently from the locals, and aside from that there just aren't many Ecuadorians with hair as light as mine (which is not even that light). I was constantly aware of the feeling of "standing out", and our program directors made sure to remind us about all the stereotypes that come along with being easily identified as American.

Well welcome to Denmark, me. Now, I am not the most danish-looking person around, by any means, but I'm feeling like I can blend in pretty well here (I packed as "europeanly" as possible). As you will see, whether this feeling is justified or representative of reality is up for debate, given the weakness of the evidence I provide here. For starters, here's how I demonstrate my "acting danish" skills at the grocery store, which is my #1 accomplishment:

Clerk: "Hej"
Me: "Hi!" (Note - they sound the same)
Clerk: "Something I don't understand in danish but sounds like numbers"
Me: (Check the screen to see how much I owe, give appropriate amount to clerk)
Me: "Tak!" (Translation: thanks!)

For whatever reason, this whole exchange makes me feel pretty proud. From the moment the clerk tells me the total in danish, I'm thinking oh yeah, they totally think I'm danish. (Of course, at this point all I've done is say "Hi" exactly the way I say it in the US.) Then the real kicker is the "tak" at the end. It's a beautiful thing, because even if my pronunciation is a bit off, I've clearly signaled the end of the interaction so there is really no potential for follow up.*

*Except for the one time the clerk did follow up by asking if I wanted the receipt, which luckily she was holding in her hand, so after a moment of confusion I was able to shake my head no* and, once again, complete the interaction without revealing my non-nativeness.

*Is it possible that I do not actually know the word for "no" in danish?

Accomplishment #2 (if you can even call it that) is that one evening when I was at "international night" at the university pub in town, which is typically packed with international students and hardly any danish people, a danish girl started speaking to me in danish. Niice.

However at the end of the day, there is some evidence that I am not looking mega danish, because I have been appraised by 3 or 4 other international students, who were surprised that I was American, but they did not suggest that I looked danish. Several of them said "maybe french" or "definitely not American". To which I say, "D'accord"

Classes vs. Bikes

Well it's almost the end of the first week of classes. (Labor day is, it will come as no surprise, not celebrated here.)

I have to say, it's been interesting. In a normal quarter or semester in the US, the first day of class you get a syllabus, go over it, and maybe even take a stab at discussing the readings that were assigned for the day, but really only one or two people actually read because, come on, it's the first day of class.

Here, things are set up differently. At least for my program, the first week has basically consisted of one extremely complex and difficult to understand introduction to a lecture series on "the philosophy of science"(relationship to urban planning: unknown at this time) which was bright and early Monday morning, and the rest has been more of a "learning how to learn" type of deal. It is an introduction to the teaching approach at Aalborg University, which they call PBL, or Problem Based Learning, and apparently they consider it to be one of the most complex subjects in the history of this great planet.

As it turns out, PBL really just means "Doing a large research project, with a problem or question as its focus, in a group".

We've probably spent about 20 hours now "brainstorming" on various topics (various may not be the correct word because in fact the topics have been almost identical to each other) with some brief lectures on "how to brainstorm" interspersed throughout the day.

Maybe I'm just a bit tired from 7 nearly consecutive hours of brainstorming, or maybe some of the class has in fact been quite boring and unnecessary. I don't want to seem too negative, because in the end the people in the program are great, and the project itself will be a wonderful and challenging experience. All this to say that after feeling a bit frustrated at the end of today, I found my mental health easily restored by hopping on one of the free City Bikes located on campus, riding through the countryside to the center city where I live, enjoying the fresh fall air, and even a bit of sun(!!) It is so cool to see so many people out riding bikes (even more than in Portland!) and to let my inner transportation-planning-nerd soak up the details of the bicycle infrastructure here. (Pictures and a post on that to come at some point.)

So, bike wins.

Aalborg - a few photos

The photos taken from higher up are from my windows, the others are streets nearby. My apartment is 38 Boulevarden, along one of the main (and cute!) streets through Aalborg. It is above a cafe called Cafe Luna, which I have yet to visit.

PS. It should be pretty easy to comment on posts, you can just use anonymous and leave your name in the post. I'm not going to beg for comments like I did with my ecuador blog, but do know that I appreciate any thoughts you feel like sharing, and so I know that I have some readers! 

More posts to come soon on the people I've met, my program, some planning topics of interest, the city, the funny things that happen when you really don't know what's going on in a new country, the drunk danes, etc!

48 Hours in Reykjavik, Iceland

I'm falling a bit behind here already so I will just touch on Iceland before I post about Aalborg (long story short, it is pretty awesome!)

Sunday

7 a.m.
1.) BLUE LAGOON

From the Reykjavik airport, shuttles are available to the Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa that is one of the most visited attractions in Iceland. I was on the same flight over as a friend from the UW planning program, so together we hopped on the bus to the lagoon, enjoyed some free wireless, and then went into let it soak. We even enjoyed a beer at the swim up bar in the afternoon (or maybe it was the after11am, I don't remember...). It was very relaxing, though by the end the fact that neither of us had slept on the flight the night before started to set in. So we caught a shuttle to our hostel in Reykjavik.

5 p.m.
2.) REST FOR THE WEARY

The newly-opened KEX Hostel turned out to be a welcome surprise. The cozy interior included a bar/cafe, lounging areas, and many a traveler taking a break from the gray weather to read or do some computing. After getting into our rooms, we visited the bar for a beverage and dining recommendations, and then headed out.

6 p.m.
3) NOURISHMENT

After wandering the main street and evaluating the options, we ended up at Prikid, supposedly the oldest restaurant in Reykjavik. In the end it had many american options, but we did our best to find something Icelandic. I had breaded fish that arrived with a hearty side of garlic butter, already melting around to coat the meal. After 48 hours awake, some emotional moments, and a flight across the atlantic, I didn't feel bad.

8 p.m.
4) TIRED OF THIS FORMAT

This NYT "48 hours" format is actually pretty exhausting, so I'm just going to say we went to bed around 8 and totally crashed, the next day Anne left to head towards her semester in Groningen, in the Netherlands, and I had breakfast at the hostel, wandered around the city, and the met up (by chance!) with a spanish guy in the Real Estate program at UW, who I had met once in Seattle. We ate some dinner at the hostel (A very hearty salad with cod! Yum.) and then once again I turned in early for a 4 am wake-up to begin my travels to Aalborg. A few pictures below. I think all the pictures get bigger if you click on them.

The Greenlake of Reykjavik

$5 grocery store lunch; Iceland was generally really expensive