Autumn has surely arrived here in Aalborg. This week I was quite happy to go to school in the crisp mornings with the sunrise greeting me as I rode up the final hill towards university. I was fortunate enough to be the winning bidder on a great bike at the last police auction. So for about a month now I've been riding to and from school. It's a healthy 6.3km trip each way and just hilly enough to really wake you up before class in the morning! Usually Jagoda and I ride together and sometimes coming home after Danish class I also have the company of my roommate Regina.
Learning Danish has gone well so far. The course is over half done now and this next week we have no class due to a holiday (and the fact that a large percentage of the international students are gone on trips). I think I've found my partners for the final exam - which involves the creation and performance of a sketch. Should be quite amusing.
I've been meeting so many fantastic people, which is party of the reason I wanted to be an international student. I finally met up with Mads, a Danish friend of a friend from the USA. It was with him that I got to see an Aalborg (AAB) soccer game! There was also a big welcome party on "the street", a police auction that most students missed because of the big party, and the university's annual "boat race" that I took part in. Other than the odd event like those, life here tends to be pretty simple.
There are the classes - going well and some have even finished already - the parties - there tends to be at least one thing every weekend, especially sangria parties and even my roommates and I even threw a party - and the dinners - there's a small group of us that has taken to the idea of home cooked dinners every week.
I'm definitely keeping busy. I'm working on a presentation on the social meaning and consumption context of small outdoor markets in Aalborg and I've formed my group for the big project. I don't have traditional American-style exams. Instead I will write a large paper, present it, and answer questions about it. I'll be working with three other international girls looking at the consumption of fair trade handicrafts. It should be quite interesting. It's strange sometimes how you can spend so much time with people and still not know them at all. With our classes it often feels like we show up, listen for hours and go home. Fortunately we tried to break that pattern with the CCG's annual "Happy Meal" where we got a number of students together on a Friday night, cooked food, and kicked back together.
I know what it's like to read stories that are out of context, so I'm not going to go on and on about my life here. I just wanted to pop in and give a quick update about what it's like to be an international student in Aalborg. Happy Autumn!
