The weekend of April 26, I went to Arhus with my lacrosse team. It was such an awesome time. We road tripped it down in three cars(showing how small the team was). I'm starting to get a sense of how expensive it is to drive in Denmark. I'm not sure if I mentioned new cars are taxed 100-200%. I was in a small car with 3 other guys and my share of gas money was 300 kroners for about 6 hours of driving. In other words, over $60. Crazy, huh?
The day of the tournament was one of my favorite days in Denmark. I slept the whole way down and then we watched a game. After the game we played team Copenhagen, who apparently wanted to beat us really bad. While I was on travel break we had beaten them in an exhibition game and supposedly they had never lost a real game to a Danish team on Danish soil. They had three other American kids, so I think we weren't expected to win. It was an intense 80 minute game(long for a lacrosse game). We came back from three goals down in the third quarter to win 13-8. We scored seven goals in a row and they were speechless. I think I had 4 or 5 points in the 7 goal run. What was cool was at home I usually just catch and shoot and let other people do the work.
In Denmark, I basically ran the show on offense and had to run over the half line sometimes to carry the ball up for my team. What was also cool was our team was basically a bunch of ho-boes. We didn't have uniforms or matching equipment.Team Copenhagen was all decked out with matching gear and stuff. We also had two subs who had each been playing lacrosse for less than a year. They had eight subs. So, we really worked for our win.
After playing Copenhagen, we had a half hour to rest. Then we played team Arhus. They played a zone, so we only beat them 5-2. We were really tired, so just held onto the ball the whole time.
The night was amazing too. Most of us stayed with one of the Arhus guys. His family was really nice and cooked us breakfast the next day. The night was wild. We went all over the town. My team had maybe one Dane on it and then people from all over. A few Americans, Irish, Dutch etc. Arhus was cool because it's the second largest city in Denmark, but doesn't get many tourists. So our English speaking was a huge plus. We would do our team cheers in the street and Danish girls actually thought it was cool.
More to come, lots of exciting stuff in Copenhagen now that the weather is getting nice.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Poland, Dublin, the past 2 weeks in CPH
Last weekend, I went to Warsaw. I went with a Polish friend from my kollegium, which was awesome. I didn't go with any Americans and I realized it was the most time I've went without interacting with a single American; 3 days. There was some international economics conference, so there were lots of other eastern Europeans there from Romania to Ukraine. It was cool meeting all those people and they all spoke English, since they had different languages. I missed most of the conference since it started Monday and I came on Thursday for the weekend. Thursday and Friday, I stayed in a hostel which a bunch of the conference participants. My room was me and three girls, one from Prague, one from Romania and one from China. It was cool meeting them.
I hung out with all the conference participants on Thursday night and then Friday I explored the sights. I saw the remains of the Warsaw ghetto wall and many palaces and churches. The juxtaposition of buildings in Warsaw is really interesting. It's a mix of historic buildings(most of them were bombed), communist buildings and flats and new capitalist buildings. What is interesting is that the native Poles do not have as much disdain for these buildings as you might expect, perhaps because they are young. They almost view the communist structures as a joke, the same way westerners do.
Warsaw ghetto wall:
Pretty cool castle:
Palace of Culture and Sciences(a gift from Stalin instead of a metro apparently)
After community service I went with Ben and my friends to Christania and we walked around there a bit and got food. I went even deeper in this time and I realized how big it is. Marcel, another one of my Polish friends, gave me a more detailed history of it. Basically, the issue isn't only the self government and the drugs, but also that the dwellers don't technically own the land, so developers want to put high end housing there. If they do that, the many many residents of Christania will riot.
My second field study was Nazi Occupied Copenhagen for my Holocaust and Genocide class. We saw all the sites of executions and the SS offices. Although some Danes did serve in the SS, many were outright rude to the Nazi occupiers. What is also interesting is the Danish government was allowed to operate until the middle of 1943. They had a policy of cooperation (they liked to call it negotation) with the Nazis, which allowed them to save many Jews. Since they surrendered fairly easily, they were treated pretty well. In class, we have been learning that the rescuers in many cases are not al black and white. While the Danes provided food to the Nazis, they also saved many Jews. Another example we were given was of an SS officer who provided the gas for Aushwitz. He also saved 50 Jews on the side.
The former SS HQ(now a Mcdonalds):
A memorial at the field where the Nazi executions took place:
Me by the coast:
We also saw the sites within Dublin. Dublin is not a big city, so in two afternoons we saw a lot of the sites(mostly churches).
We had a 6:40 AM flight Sunday, so stayed up all night. I was really tired on Sunday. This week I am going to get ahead on my work because some family is visiting next week. I also have a Danish film and food session for Danish class. I am excited to eat Danish food, since I don't eat it much because it is expensive.
This weekend I am going to a lacrosse tournament outside of Copenhagen. It should be fun and will be nice to escape the city a little.
I hung out with all the conference participants on Thursday night and then Friday I explored the sights. I saw the remains of the Warsaw ghetto wall and many palaces and churches. The juxtaposition of buildings in Warsaw is really interesting. It's a mix of historic buildings(most of them were bombed), communist buildings and flats and new capitalist buildings. What is interesting is that the native Poles do not have as much disdain for these buildings as you might expect, perhaps because they are young. They almost view the communist structures as a joke, the same way westerners do.
Warsaw ghetto wall:
Pretty cool castle:
Palace of Culture and Sciences(a gift from Stalin instead of a metro apparently)
Friday night, I went to the conference closing dinner. It was a buffett of delicious Polish food, including cabbage, sausages, desserts and lots of wine. After the dinner, we went to a bar in the park. It was beautiful.
Saturday was a more laid back day. I stayed at Szymon's(my Polish friend) best friend's place a little outside of the city. We didn't really do anything all day, except go over there and watch some soccer and nap. Szymon and his friend apologized for not doing anything, but I told them it was fine because I was experiencing Polish culture, which was true. Even though I didn't see any sights, I got to hear about their lives and experiences growing up. Szymon's friend was very generous and we ate a lot of meals at his house. They later told me the dad spoke English, but did not want to speak to me because of my fast accent.
That night we went and just relaxed at a flat in the city with a few of their friends. There, we watched a scary movie. You could really see the cultural differences between Americans and eastern Europeans at this time. When I was startled by the movie I yelled once or twice. When the Poles were scared, they either didn't say anything or maybe elbowed the other ones. I guess they just aren't as loud.
On Sunday, Szymon and his friend took me for a little sight-seeing. They took me to this awesome park where there were some old castle structures and peacocks running wild. It was spectacular.
Then we explored this old neighborhood of Praga and went to a cafe. It was interesting seeing the buildings from different eras in other parts of town. The guys complained that the architecture looked so different.
Szymon and his friend at the cafe:From this trip, I can make somewhat of a comparison betwen the Czech Republic, Poland and Russia. I can say I think Poland is the most progressive, which shows from its economic figures. They had by far the most ATMs and modern structures. But, I liked that it was still dirt cheap.
The students also seemed less eastern European than the students I hung out with in Prague and Russia. They seemed a little warmer. Granted I don't have much of a sample size, but I believe Poland is moving westward.
I actually really like Warsaw, even though when I went back, my other Polish friends said it was a dump. I look forward to seeing more of Poland. I still need to get to Krakow and the concentration camps. I was looking for a way to see Treblinka, which was close to Warsaw, but I would have had to drive there or go on some crazy hike, so I wasn't able to do it. I figure it was better to take advantage of my Polish friends anyway.
I had a busy week after that. One of my friend's from high school came to visit on Monday. I had class all day and a big paper due, so I let him explore the city and then he hung out with the Polish guys while I did work.
On Tuesday, I had community service. I've been mentioning it in posts, so I should probably explain it a little bit. I volunteer for somewhat of a homeless drop-in center, although many of the people who go are not homeless. Many of them are just pensioners or former drug addicts. It's kind of like a restaurant, but the food is discounted. It is mostly just a place where they can hang out to combat loneliness and allow the people to network. I don't really do much there because they have plenty of staff, but I help out where I can and interact with the patrons. It is sometimes challenging because many of them don't speak English. But, some of them do and it helps me work on my Danish.
That night I went out to celebrate my birthday. It may not have been the best idea, since I had two field studies on Wednesday. It was a lot of fun though. I share my birthday with the queen of Denmark, so my first field study was going to a royal musem and seeing the queen wave for her birthday. I think I mentioned this in an earlier post, but the queen is very popular in Denmark. They have a constitutional monarchy, so the queen basically has no power. Apparently, she can veto things, but never does. There was a band and a large crowd when the queen came out to wave. Everyone was cheering and waving their Danish flags.
After that I went back to school and took a 15 minute nap and picked up my birthday gifts. I got some nice cards and two books by Muhammad Yunis about microloans. My summer reading list is piling up. I still have to finish the John Irving book I am reading, read my dad's short story book, the two Yunis books and read Ulysses(more on that in a moment).
A memorial at the field where the Nazi executions took place:
On Friday, I went to Dublin with a few friends. We stayed with my friend's 32 year old buddy from home just outside the city. It turned out to be great because he lived right by the cost and near the James Joyce tower from the first chapter of Ulysses. So, I went inside the tower and learned a little more about Joyce. My high school senior thesis (kind of a joke) was on Dubliners. Apparently, much of Joyce's fiction was based off people he knew. He angered the people he shared the tower with by talking ill of them in a poem. He was finally kicked out when one of them had a bad dream and fired gun shots into the fire place. The other dweller thought it was something Joyce did and said "leave him to me" and fired his gun at the pans above Joyce's bed. The pans fell on Joyce and he abruptly left.
The tower:Me by the coast:
Irish people were interesting. Many of them were very drunk. We met a few at the pub with Brian's friend and a couple of my friends received interesting drunken nicknames. Brian was wearing a nice button down, so was referred to as "Tommy Polo" and my friend Nate was somehow called "Germaine." Of course this is a generalization, but many Irish people were either really nice or really mean. When we bumped into someone on the train in many cases they were very polite. Other times, they were outright rude. On the escalator one time, I was not quite to the right. Some people were rushing for the train and rather than saying excuse me just yelled "get out of my way." When I realized they were talking to me and moved, they both called me a jerk.
This weekend I am going to a lacrosse tournament outside of Copenhagen. It should be fun and will be nice to escape the city a little.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Russia
What an experience. I had a great time, and so many crazy things happened. I'll start from the beginning, but honestly, so much stuff happened, I definitely won't be able to get it all down. I' sure you will all hear about it though, and I welcome questions.
We flew Scandanavian Airlines to Moscow. That is unfortunate because I was hoping for some rickety ghetto Russian airline that shook the entire time. Oh well. Upon arrival we checked into the Hotel Kosmos, which had a big statue of Charles De Gaulle in front of it for some reason. There was also a space ship statue. It was a huge and was basically a little city. There were multiple restaurants and bars and other crazy things like massage parlors. The security was pretty tight and they stored our passports. We explored the neighborhood and to my delight there were many delicious street vendors with kebab and chicken and bread. Moscow is considered the most expensive city in the world(mainly due to expensive housing), so I was happy to discover my student budget would get me by.
We flew Scandanavian Airlines to Moscow. That is unfortunate because I was hoping for some rickety ghetto Russian airline that shook the entire time. Oh well. Upon arrival we checked into the Hotel Kosmos, which had a big statue of Charles De Gaulle in front of it for some reason. There was also a space ship statue. It was a huge and was basically a little city. There were multiple restaurants and bars and other crazy things like massage parlors. The security was pretty tight and they stored our passports. We explored the neighborhood and to my delight there were many delicious street vendors with kebab and chicken and bread. Moscow is considered the most expensive city in the world(mainly due to expensive housing), so I was happy to discover my student budget would get me by.
This program was through my study abroad program and they did a great job. That night, we met up with Russian students studying in Moscrow and they took us to Red Square. Red Square was beautiful at night.
Me in front of the Kremlin:
Me in front of St. Basil's Cathedral:
Then we had dinner with the guides. It was 11 American students and three Russians. It was really interesting hearing about their daily life and seeing where they live. We talked about school, the internet, standard college student stuff. Eventually politics came up. We met with the Moscow students twice, but I will briefly explain everything I learned politically from them here. They do not like not having a choice. Since they had no one to vote for, they ripped up their ballots or put exes through it. What was interesting was that, despite their discontent for the regime, they still had Russian nationalism. They believed Chechnya was part of Russia and were skeptical of U.S. military aggression.
The next day, we had a guided tour of the Kremlim. It was so amazing standing in the spot where the Bolsheviks came through the walls in 1917. We also saw some cool cathedrals(a common theme of the trip). Then we had a traditional Russian lunch and had free time.
For free time we went inside St. Basil's Cathedral . Unfortunately, even though Lenin's body was in Red Square, the museum was closed for renovation. I guess they were giving him botox or something. Then we went to a museum. We couldn't find the museum, but ended up seeing a Russian military demonstration/practice. We got caught taking pictures, but I still got a few. It was interesting that this was so standard and they were so proud, just demonstrating in the middle of the street. It was also crazy seeing soldiers who are younger than me, but that is not unique to Russia. I learned later that being in the military is somewhat of a right of passage for anyone in Russia who does not go to college, kind of like becoming a man.
We finally found the museum. Another theme about Russia is everything is huge. The museum is MASSIVE. After getting through all the portraits of inbred royalty, there was cool Christian art and cool military art. One artist I like portrayed the pride of Russian military history which was cool.
The next day we went to a modern art museum with our Russian student-guides. It was really interesting seeing the portrayals of Russian daily life. The main exhibit was this painting that was all black and represented a transition in abstract, since it actually meant nothing. It was called Black Square I believe.
After saying goodbye to our Russian guides, we went to meet with the producer of Russia's number 1 morning tv show. He basically told us that most Russian people were pretty stupid so anything serious did not get good ratings. Most of the stories they feature are like how to find a four leaf clover to make your husband beat you. It was also interesting that he could not have any political opposition on TV. He said he gave up politics because it frustrates him and is basically futile.
Then we took an over night train to St. Petesburg. It was cool because we got our own private sleeping cars. Everyone who didn't go right to bed hung out in ours. We met some shady Russian business men and we invited them to hang out with us(before we realized they were shady). Only one spoke Russian and would attempt to translate for the others. However, sometimes he did not have the opportunity, but they would speak Russian anyway, even if no one understood them. I think they were in the mob because they wouldn't tell us what kind of business they did aside from that it was engineering. When everyone decided to go to bed, the one who spoke English asked if we wanted his number. Being American, we were about to just take it and never call him. But, our Danish tour leader just said no straight up. It was a great Danish - Russian interaction; Danes being so blunt. One of the Americans tried to say that it was so expensive for us to call internationally and the Dane mumbled under his breath "not for me." It was pretty funny.
A few thoughts on Moscow:
- I've heard people refer to cities as dirty and I just assumed it had to do with emissions or something. In Moscow, I legitimately could not take a deep breath. It was pretty gross. I guess I know what dirty really means
- Red Square was unbelievable, but the rest of the city was a dump. Most of the buildings were falling apart, really modern.
- It was huge. It took more than an hour to go to the student's place for dinner.
- The metro was packed. It was crazy going from the cold outside, to a deep underground passage when you couldn't move. They were so deep because they were also meant to serve as bomb shelters.
-Throughout Russia, a cool thing is the old Soviet statues that are not a big deal to the Russians. It's interesting because it shows the continuous stream of Russian history and these guys were mass murderers.
-Throughout Russia, a cool thing is the old Soviet statues that are not a big deal to the Russians. It's interesting because it shows the continuous stream of Russian history and these guys were mass murderers.
Many ask to compare Moscow and St. Petersburg and usually it is pretty divided. Let me tell you, St. Petersburg was cool. It was like Amsterdam or Venice on steroids. Huge buildings, huge canals and lots of snow.
We checked into our hotel, which was a dump. It smelled funny and was dirty. The water stunk too. Some people said theirs was brown, but mine was just dirty. You can't drink the water in Moscow, but in St. Petersburg the water is known for being particularly full of bad things. In Moscow, all our rooms were near by. In St. Petersburg, we were all on different wings. There were lots of little kids at the hotel in St. Petersburg. We would see lots of little kids and they would say "hello how are you" and when we would answer, they would start laughing. I guess that's just kids being kids and knowing a little English. One interesting thing about Russia is everyone speaks Russian. Not just in terms of a lack of understanding English, but you know how when you are anywhere you usually hear other languages? Like you are on a bus in the U.S. and you hear Spanish or something? In Russia, you only hear Russian. Everywhere.
From the hotel we went to the Kremlin in Moscow and saw some amazing cathedrals. Kremlin means fortress, and every city has one. So, even though the Kremlin in Moscow is the Kremlin, many cities have one. It was pretty spectacular. We also saw a bunch of statues of Peter I, who built up St. Petersburg to match Europe and try to bring Russia into the west. He did a great job building the city. It's beautiful. I'm sure tons of peasants died in the process. But, Russia is certainly not part of the West and has never been.
Afterwards, we just walked around and went inside one of the amazing cathedrals,Church of Resurrection(see above in the canal pic). What was funny was that Stalin made it a warehouse.
That night, we wanted to go out, missed the last metro. So, we decided to find something near the hotel. When we finally found an empty bar, there was a cop at the door and he just yelled at us in Russian. I am still curious what exactly he wanted. Was it a private party? Did he want a bribe? So, we settled for some Japanese food that was opened and had cheap cucumber rolls.
That night, we wanted to go out, missed the last metro. So, we decided to find something near the hotel. When we finally found an empty bar, there was a cop at the door and he just yelled at us in Russian. I am still curious what exactly he wanted. Was it a private party? Did he want a bribe? So, we settled for some Japanese food that was opened and had cheap cucumber rolls.
The next day we went to Norvgrad(sp). It's Russia's oldest town and was about 3 hours away by bus. We saw its Kremlin and a WW2 monument. WW2 is still a big deal among Russians. Apparently Russian women of that generation treat men very well because there were so few men around after the war. Russia still swears it won the war.
We drove a little longer and met with a monk who lived in solitude. He told us how religion is growing in Russia and wished us all well. He also told us how everyone has an exam with God and we need to start preparing. Afterwards we stopped off at another cathedral real quick . This one had beautiful crome roofs, but was actually quite dilapidated .Apparently, it was meant to look good from far away, but they hadn't bothered to restore the part that you could see from close up.
When we got back to St. Petersburg we had dinner with some students from there. I was happy because the one I was sitting near just wanted to talk politics. Pretty standard Russian -student political views. Didn't like the government, feared US missile defense etc. I think he did not understand that the bases shot down missiles, not shot them. An interesting question one of them asked me and I was asked again later by some drunk guy was if it was true that all Americans have no friends and see therapists all the time.
One of the guides took us to a bar. A few interesting things happened at the bar. This girl we were with dropped her glass and the bouncer came over and started speaking in Russian. Some bystander who spoke English tried to tell us we owed 100 rubles($4) to replace the glass. My other friend and I did not know that the girl we were with broke the glass, but either way we said we didn't do it. Then some worker cleaned up the glass and the bouncer left. The guy still persisted that we owed the bar money, but it became obvious he just wanted us to give him money. Luckily a few more American guys came over and the guy got scared off. But, yeah, lots of drunk Russians.
We took a few cabs at night, including that night, so I should probably explain the Russian cab system. The actual taxis are really expensive, so when you held your hand out, you actually want an unmarked vehicle. Then you negotiate a price. We called these "sketch cabs." One of my friends on the trip spoke Russian, so I always stuck close to her when it was cab time because we would get a better deal. She would always talk Russian while we were driving. On our last night, she told us after the cab ride that the driver tried to buy her company for the night.
The next day, we had a walking tour of St. Petersburg "behind the facade." We went a half hour outside of the center. We saw typical Russians walking around and a park. They had some grand snow men and cool sledding - one advantage of living in such a cold place. I also finally saw someone passed out in the street (one of my expectations of the trip).
We then went to this really crowded market. One of the girls I was with saw a guy selling a gun.
After lunch, we went to the Winter Palace and the Hermitate. All I have to saw is WOW. Beautiful grand outside. So much history. Such a vast art collection. So, much beautiful interior architecture. We were only there for 3+ hours and I could have spent days there. Here's one picture, but I took about 100. ..
A few other interesting things about Russia:
- On two separate occasions I was asked if all Americans have no friends and see therapists all the time.
I will probably add more Russian details later on. I have more to add about Copenhagen, especially my community service, but I will do that later.
A few other interesting things about Russia:
- On two separate occasions I was asked if all Americans have no friends and see therapists all the time.
I will probably add more Russian details later on. I have more to add about Copenhagen, especially my community service, but I will do that later.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Spring Break Weeks 1 & 2
Sorry I haven't written anything in a while, but I have been traveling. The past two weeks I have been to London, Brussels, Zurich and Milan. And tomorrow I go to Russia for the week. I will try to fill you in on the last two weeks. I must say traveling so much is tiring. I was not feeling great by the time I got back to Copenhagen yesterday. After 12 hours of sleep and lots of vitamins, I'm feeling pretty good. I am very grateful for the opportunity to travel. These past two weeks have been lots of fun and have been a great learning experience.
London and Brussels were with a my business and economics program, so included many businesses. Zurich and Milan were just with friends. I will get more into that shortly. I will go day by day. You can click on the pictures and they should enlarge.
Sunday, March 9: When we arrived in London, we had fish and chips for dinner. Since it was Sunday, there was not much to do, so we just wandered around near our hotel. We ended up going to a casino, since that was the only thing opened. I don't gamble, but some of my friends did. One guy ended up making about 100 USD and one guy ended up losing about 50 USD. It was fun to watch.
Monday, March 10: We had a company visit to Wimbledon. We got a tour and then learned about their finances. Two interesting things to note:
1. Wimbledon is a non-profit with the goal of promoting tennis.
2. Due to this goal, the competitors are required to interview and answer any tennis related questions after the match. If they do not, they are fined 10,000 pounds. I found this interesting because I argue with many of my friends here about the importance of sportsmanship. Many of my friends believe in sports all that matters is winning and losing. While I believe that is a top priority, in doing so, I think you need to represent yourself, your team, family and the game well. They do not agree. Wimbledon agrees. But, I must admit, watching sports being played without class is entertaining sometimes.
Here, I am at spot where the players get interviewed. Pretty cool, huh?
Here is a picture of me at Wimbledon with the statues of the best players at Wimbledon getting rained on.
After Wimbledon, we had a guided tour of London. We saw all the major sites; Big Ben, the Parliament, one of the Queen's palaces, 10 Downing Street, etc.
My buddies and I in front of the castle.
Tower Bridge:
Tuesday March 11: We had a visit to the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development. It was a pretty cool organization. They invest in markets that are transitioning from communism. Mainly in eastern Europe and central Asia. One of their divisions is micro loans.I still need to do more research about them and their policies, but it is another good organization to keep in mind for the future.
Afterwards we went on the London Eye, which was pretty cool. It's a large ferris wheel with some great views of London.
Afterwards I went to a museum, but to be honest, I really regret not going to the British National Museum and seeing the Rosetta Stone.
That night, we saw Avenue Q. It's a play using puppets about life after college living in NY. Very witty with lots of truisms. I would highly recommend it. Then we went to the student bar. I met up with two of my friends who are studying abroad at London School of Economics for the entire year. It was interesting because one of them thrives in the study abroad environment and one of them was ready to go home. The one who was loving it was not doing too much school work and would have to do a lot later, while the other was steadily doing his work. Granted, they are probably doing a little more work than me, but it was an interesting perspective. I think I have a nice balance of work and fun, which has made my experience so great.
Overall thoughts on London:
London is actually where I have felt the most culture shock so far in my travels. Granted, I have experienced little culture shock, but I have been to Israel, Australia and all over Europe from east to west(I guess we'll see how culture shocked I am in Russia tomorrow. . .) What made London so weird for me was it was so similar to the United States, but still had a European feel. It has tall buildings, but European architecture. Everything was written in English, but spelled funny. It felt like the US with vinegar poured on it (I think Vinegar is kind of funky, some people love it, of course). So, London was like I was almost home, but not quite, which was an experience. I think this image describes that sentiment. Tall buildings and small European buildings together.
However, by the end of my few days there, I could see staying their long term.
I also found the Roman history of London very interesting. There was an old city that the Romans defended from invaders on one side of the river and on the other side there is the new city.
I was thinking a lot about culture shock throughout my trip. I was doing all the reading for my service learning seminar(I finally got placed, but I'll discuss that more after break). One of the readings was about cultural IQ and adapting to other cultures. I think my strength and weakness is I don't change much for other cultures. I try to be less loud like every American, but I do not change the way I dress or my body language, which supposedly makes you more adaptive to other cultures. I also do not speak any other languages. I admit that would make me better in other cultures, but does not come easy to me at all. My point is that I use fairly universal communication methods like smiling and being nice. When something doesn't quite work culturally, I do not get frazzled by it. I think this allows me to enjoy being in other cultures and thrive for the most part, and when I do not, I don't worry about it too much. So, I experience less culture shock. When I spend more time in less developed countries after graduation(hopefully), I will really put my culture shock theory to the test.
Brussels:
Wednesday March 12: Upon arriving in Brussels, we checked into our hotel and then had a guided walk of the city.
I think our hotel is worth mentioning. It was nice, but basically a large Chinese Restaurant. The complimentary breakfast included lomein and chow fun among other things. The TV had about 50 channels, 2 of which were in English and about half in various Asian languages. I mainly watched Euronews, which had interesting Euro-centric news. I also watched BBC back in London. I like seeing different perspectives of news while abroad. On the TV in Copenhagen, we get Al Jazeera, which is very interesting, albeit biased and poorly produced. That is what makes foreign news interesting though.
So, the guided walk of Brussels. A really sweet old lady took us around the city. She showed us many of the historic sites. My favorite was probably the monument of the little boy peeing. Apparently when the French attacked the city and burned it, this little boy was peeing to put out the fire. It is a major symbol of Brussels. Every souvenir store sold them.
Another cool thing that I saw in Brussels were guys dressed as statues. They sold bottled water and you could pay them to pose in a picture. I'm fairly certain you can guess which one is real:
Brussels is known for chocolate, waffles and beer. The Belgian waffles were so delicious.
I must say that the beer didn't do it for me in Brussels. We went to a bar with over 2000 beers. They even had chocolate beer, which was pretty good. However, there are some pretty good beers in Europe. I would say from the many beers I sampled, Belgium barely made my top 5 in beer, which right now is:
1. Germany
2. Czech Repubic
3. Switzerland
4.. . Belgium might fit in right here but Austria and Denmark are no slouches.
To its credit, the amazing beer is supposedly brewed by monks and other random groups outside of the city, but if you wanna be the beer brewing capital of the world, I would say you need some good beer in your capital.
Thursday, March 13:
On the subject of beer, we went to the Brewers of Europe for our business visit the next day. They are a lobbying group for beer producers in the EU. It is important to note that in Europe, lobbyists do not have a negative connotation. Unlike the US, European lobbyists are considered an essential element of the democratic process. I think one reason may be because they take a proactive strategy to lobbying. My Doing Business in the EU professor is also in the beer industry. He explained that the beer companies attempt to stay ahead of the commission. Rather than reacting to government and popular measures, they attempt to work with the commission to make the regulations work from the start.
We have to do a paper on a policy measure and how it affects these companies for class at the end of break. I think we are going to write our paper about how subsidizing biofuels affects the beer industry. By paying farmers to produce biofuels, it may provide less incentive to produce hops for beer.
After the meeting, we went to the Hoegaarden brewery. Everyone in Prague loved Hoegaarden, but I am not a huge fan. The brewery tour was real short and they gave us too much time at the brewery, basically doing nothing. I wish they took us to NATO and the EU, which I think are more essential to Brussels.
Friday, March 14:
We went to see how chocolate was produced. The chocolate was really good. After that, I used my free time to go see NATO and the EU.
I think the architecture of both structures explains the respective organization's view on the world. The EU had lots of grassland/forests, cobble stone and these futuristic looking buildings. Probably because they see an environmentally sustainable Euro-centric environment.
NATO, on the other hand, was really far outside of the city. When we finally got there, the guard told us that NATO was "not a musem" and that we can only take pictures across the street. It was basically just simple buildings, surrounded by intense fences, with a lot of flags. I believe that is how NATO sees the world. A lot of flags and fences. Of course, NATO was developed right after WW2 when Europe was broke and it does need to have high security, but it is still interesting to look at structure the way I looked at it.
After visiting those sites, we had a Chinese food at our hotel and took a 13 hour overnight bus ride back to Copenhagen. The bus ride included a ferry at 6AM, but I slept through the whole thing.
Saturday, March 15: Upon returning to Copenhagen, I basically had enough time to go for a run and unpack and pack again. That night, I flew to Zurich for some traveling on my own.
Zurich and Milan:
I arrived on Saturday night. It was pretty late, so I just caught up with my friends there(2 from high school and one from Denmark).
Sunday, March 16:
We were all tired from traveling. Jet lag or a week of traveling can ware one down. It was also Sunday, so not much would be open. So, we took it easy for the most part. We were staying at my friend's dad's place. His dad was not home, so we had the whole place to ourself.
There was a nice hiking ground near by. So we did a little hike. It was beautiful(a word I will be using a lot to describe Switzerland). It was a clear day and you could see the hills of the area. We were planning on grilling food, but could not light a fire because it was windy, so ended up going back to the house to cook and roast marsh mellows.
Monday, March 17:
We took the train into Zurich. It was cloudy, so the view was not that clear. We went to an old Roman square and got some nice pictures of the city.
We also saw various churches and explored various monuments and alley-ways of the city.
A common theme throughout the trip was our Swiss smiles. It's almost a frown, but one does not look upset. This seemed to be the demeanor of most Swiss people we saw. Tom(left) does it best because he is 100% Swiss.
After a pricey lunch(another common theme of Zurich), we decided to go to a museum. Most of the museums were closed, but the guide book we were using said one was opened. We walked about a mile to this museums. It was a beautiful walk that included a harbor and an arboretum.
Despite the nice walk, it was frustrating to discover that the museum was in fact closed and then it started to pour.
We took a cab back to the center and went to an Irish pub. After all, it was St. Patrick's day. We hung out there for a while, enjoying the atmosphere. We even met some Swiss students from the table next to us. We tried to pretend to be Canadian, but they knew were Americans. It is always interesting talking to foreign students. Look at Tom(right), charming his people.
I found the Swiss to be very approachable. In many countries, you have to come up with a good excuse to talk to the natives and with a little luck, they'll speak English and actually be interested. I guess because Zurich doesn't get that many tourists, people were very interested in talking. Just saying "are you from Zurich" started many conversations. Most countries are used to tourists, so many of the people who hang around in the center are not that interested in Americans. That was especially true in Prague and somewhat true in Copenhagen. In Zurich, the people I met seemed eager to chat.
Tuesday, March 18: We went back into Zurich and checked out the National History Museum. A lot of it was under construction, so it was pretty unimpressive. There was an exhibition about Mary Magdalene and the rest of the museum consisted of your standard spear heads, paintings, architecture and other natural museum stuff. The outside of the museum was probably the best part. This is the best picture I could get, because, like the inside of the museum, much of the outside was under construction.
After the museum, we walked around and saw some more of the city. Then we got a traditional German dinner, which was really good.
Wednesday, March 19:
I had lunch with Tom and his grandparents. Although Tom understands Swiss German, he does not speak it. So, the discussion between him and his grandparents was limited. And my conversation with them was even more limited. What was interesting was they still had the typical Grandparent qualities. The smile and interest in his well-being. I guess those characteristics transcend any language.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in Winterthur. It is the 6th largest Swiss city and known for its museums. We went to a technology museum which was kind of like the liberty science center and walked around.
Thoughts on Zurich:
Zurich was probably the most expensive city I've been to. The train price was comparable to get into Copenhagen (about 13 USD each way), but in Copenhagen, they subsidize our passes. The thing about Copenhagen is you can still find somewhat cheap food. It is about $4 for reasonable sized hot dog and you can get a gyro for 4 USD. In Zurich, the cheapest I saw a hot dog was 4.50 and it was tiny. Gyros were 8 or 9 USD.
Switzerland got me thinking about the importance of international relations. Zurich supposedly has the highest standard of living in the world. It was very nice. However, they stayed neutral in many morally pressing instances(WW2!) and are not part of NATO or the EU. Is it more important to focus inwardly on your own country and possibly sacrifice others or attempt to improve the world? Then one must also ask whether these international organizations or conflicts are morally right. Countries and people also do not always look at what is morally right. It is probably in Switzerland's best interest to stay neutral and not join these bodies.
I have continued to ponder this question because Denmark operates on similar principles. They are partially a member of the EU, but do not use the Euro. The homeless drop in center i have been working in only gets funding if it helps exclusively Danes. It is inhumane to not help people in need. On the other hand, if they help everyone, can they really sufficiently help anyone?
On another note, Switzerand is absolutely breath-taking. The train ride through the Alps and pre-Alps to Milan was something else. Here are a few of the photos:
Thursday, March 20:
Upon arriving in Milan, we checked into our hostel right by the train station. I met up with Lelio, my 2nd cousin. I have not seen him since I was 12. First he took me to meet my Great Aunt Sally, then he took me to two churches, including the Duomo in the city center which was spectacular.
Lelio said it is always under construction from repairs and that an expression of something never ending Milan is it is like repairing the Duomo. It also has an amazing view of the city and the Alps on a clear day.
That night, my friends and I went out to dinner with one of my friends from college who is studying in Milan. She took us to a place where you buy a beer for 6 Euros, and a buffet is included. It was delicious.
Friday, March 21:
We spent the day exploring Milan. I had to go the Duomo again with my friends. We also saw a cool castle.
Afterwards, went to the Brera museum which had some amazing art.
That night, I had dinner with Lelio and his girlfriend. Then went to a bar with my friends. We met some pretty cool Italians who spoke some English(rare). Here, you can see Tom(left) being an excellent cultural ambassador.
Overall I really enjoyed Milan. I can't wait to get back and see more of Italy.
Saturday, March 22: I flew back to Copenhagen. It was an interesting flight because I could see the Alps before it got cloudy. It was another breath-taking image that represents many of the breath-taking things I saw over my first two weeks of spring break.
The last day has been spent packing and sleeping. I am very excited for Russia tomorrow and am certain it will be an amazing experience.
London and Brussels were with a my business and economics program, so included many businesses. Zurich and Milan were just with friends. I will get more into that shortly. I will go day by day. You can click on the pictures and they should enlarge.
Sunday, March 9: When we arrived in London, we had fish and chips for dinner. Since it was Sunday, there was not much to do, so we just wandered around near our hotel. We ended up going to a casino, since that was the only thing opened. I don't gamble, but some of my friends did. One guy ended up making about 100 USD and one guy ended up losing about 50 USD. It was fun to watch.
Monday, March 10: We had a company visit to Wimbledon. We got a tour and then learned about their finances. Two interesting things to note:
1. Wimbledon is a non-profit with the goal of promoting tennis.
2. Due to this goal, the competitors are required to interview and answer any tennis related questions after the match. If they do not, they are fined 10,000 pounds. I found this interesting because I argue with many of my friends here about the importance of sportsmanship. Many of my friends believe in sports all that matters is winning and losing. While I believe that is a top priority, in doing so, I think you need to represent yourself, your team, family and the game well. They do not agree. Wimbledon agrees. But, I must admit, watching sports being played without class is entertaining sometimes.
Here, I am at spot where the players get interviewed. Pretty cool, huh?
Here is a picture of me at Wimbledon with the statues of the best players at Wimbledon getting rained on.
After Wimbledon, we had a guided tour of London. We saw all the major sites; Big Ben, the Parliament, one of the Queen's palaces, 10 Downing Street, etc.
My buddies and I in front of the castle.
Tower Bridge:
Tuesday March 11: We had a visit to the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development. It was a pretty cool organization. They invest in markets that are transitioning from communism. Mainly in eastern Europe and central Asia. One of their divisions is micro loans.I still need to do more research about them and their policies, but it is another good organization to keep in mind for the future.
Afterwards we went on the London Eye, which was pretty cool. It's a large ferris wheel with some great views of London.
Afterwards I went to a museum, but to be honest, I really regret not going to the British National Museum and seeing the Rosetta Stone.
That night, we saw Avenue Q. It's a play using puppets about life after college living in NY. Very witty with lots of truisms. I would highly recommend it. Then we went to the student bar. I met up with two of my friends who are studying abroad at London School of Economics for the entire year. It was interesting because one of them thrives in the study abroad environment and one of them was ready to go home. The one who was loving it was not doing too much school work and would have to do a lot later, while the other was steadily doing his work. Granted, they are probably doing a little more work than me, but it was an interesting perspective. I think I have a nice balance of work and fun, which has made my experience so great.
Overall thoughts on London:
London is actually where I have felt the most culture shock so far in my travels. Granted, I have experienced little culture shock, but I have been to Israel, Australia and all over Europe from east to west(I guess we'll see how culture shocked I am in Russia tomorrow. . .) What made London so weird for me was it was so similar to the United States, but still had a European feel. It has tall buildings, but European architecture. Everything was written in English, but spelled funny. It felt like the US with vinegar poured on it (I think Vinegar is kind of funky, some people love it, of course). So, London was like I was almost home, but not quite, which was an experience. I think this image describes that sentiment. Tall buildings and small European buildings together.
However, by the end of my few days there, I could see staying their long term.
I also found the Roman history of London very interesting. There was an old city that the Romans defended from invaders on one side of the river and on the other side there is the new city.
I was thinking a lot about culture shock throughout my trip. I was doing all the reading for my service learning seminar(I finally got placed, but I'll discuss that more after break). One of the readings was about cultural IQ and adapting to other cultures. I think my strength and weakness is I don't change much for other cultures. I try to be less loud like every American, but I do not change the way I dress or my body language, which supposedly makes you more adaptive to other cultures. I also do not speak any other languages. I admit that would make me better in other cultures, but does not come easy to me at all. My point is that I use fairly universal communication methods like smiling and being nice. When something doesn't quite work culturally, I do not get frazzled by it. I think this allows me to enjoy being in other cultures and thrive for the most part, and when I do not, I don't worry about it too much. So, I experience less culture shock. When I spend more time in less developed countries after graduation(hopefully), I will really put my culture shock theory to the test.
Brussels:
Wednesday March 12: Upon arriving in Brussels, we checked into our hotel and then had a guided walk of the city.
I think our hotel is worth mentioning. It was nice, but basically a large Chinese Restaurant. The complimentary breakfast included lomein and chow fun among other things. The TV had about 50 channels, 2 of which were in English and about half in various Asian languages. I mainly watched Euronews, which had interesting Euro-centric news. I also watched BBC back in London. I like seeing different perspectives of news while abroad. On the TV in Copenhagen, we get Al Jazeera, which is very interesting, albeit biased and poorly produced. That is what makes foreign news interesting though.
So, the guided walk of Brussels. A really sweet old lady took us around the city. She showed us many of the historic sites. My favorite was probably the monument of the little boy peeing. Apparently when the French attacked the city and burned it, this little boy was peeing to put out the fire. It is a major symbol of Brussels. Every souvenir store sold them.
Another cool thing that I saw in Brussels were guys dressed as statues. They sold bottled water and you could pay them to pose in a picture. I'm fairly certain you can guess which one is real:
Brussels is known for chocolate, waffles and beer. The Belgian waffles were so delicious.
I must say that the beer didn't do it for me in Brussels. We went to a bar with over 2000 beers. They even had chocolate beer, which was pretty good. However, there are some pretty good beers in Europe. I would say from the many beers I sampled, Belgium barely made my top 5 in beer, which right now is:
1. Germany
2. Czech Repubic
3. Switzerland
4.. . Belgium might fit in right here but Austria and Denmark are no slouches.
To its credit, the amazing beer is supposedly brewed by monks and other random groups outside of the city, but if you wanna be the beer brewing capital of the world, I would say you need some good beer in your capital.
Thursday, March 13:
On the subject of beer, we went to the Brewers of Europe for our business visit the next day. They are a lobbying group for beer producers in the EU. It is important to note that in Europe, lobbyists do not have a negative connotation. Unlike the US, European lobbyists are considered an essential element of the democratic process. I think one reason may be because they take a proactive strategy to lobbying. My Doing Business in the EU professor is also in the beer industry. He explained that the beer companies attempt to stay ahead of the commission. Rather than reacting to government and popular measures, they attempt to work with the commission to make the regulations work from the start.
We have to do a paper on a policy measure and how it affects these companies for class at the end of break. I think we are going to write our paper about how subsidizing biofuels affects the beer industry. By paying farmers to produce biofuels, it may provide less incentive to produce hops for beer.
After the meeting, we went to the Hoegaarden brewery. Everyone in Prague loved Hoegaarden, but I am not a huge fan. The brewery tour was real short and they gave us too much time at the brewery, basically doing nothing. I wish they took us to NATO and the EU, which I think are more essential to Brussels.
Friday, March 14:
We went to see how chocolate was produced. The chocolate was really good. After that, I used my free time to go see NATO and the EU.
I think the architecture of both structures explains the respective organization's view on the world. The EU had lots of grassland/forests, cobble stone and these futuristic looking buildings. Probably because they see an environmentally sustainable Euro-centric environment.
NATO, on the other hand, was really far outside of the city. When we finally got there, the guard told us that NATO was "not a musem" and that we can only take pictures across the street. It was basically just simple buildings, surrounded by intense fences, with a lot of flags. I believe that is how NATO sees the world. A lot of flags and fences. Of course, NATO was developed right after WW2 when Europe was broke and it does need to have high security, but it is still interesting to look at structure the way I looked at it.
After visiting those sites, we had a Chinese food at our hotel and took a 13 hour overnight bus ride back to Copenhagen. The bus ride included a ferry at 6AM, but I slept through the whole thing.
Saturday, March 15: Upon returning to Copenhagen, I basically had enough time to go for a run and unpack and pack again. That night, I flew to Zurich for some traveling on my own.
Zurich and Milan:
I arrived on Saturday night. It was pretty late, so I just caught up with my friends there(2 from high school and one from Denmark).
Sunday, March 16:
We were all tired from traveling. Jet lag or a week of traveling can ware one down. It was also Sunday, so not much would be open. So, we took it easy for the most part. We were staying at my friend's dad's place. His dad was not home, so we had the whole place to ourself.
There was a nice hiking ground near by. So we did a little hike. It was beautiful(a word I will be using a lot to describe Switzerland). It was a clear day and you could see the hills of the area. We were planning on grilling food, but could not light a fire because it was windy, so ended up going back to the house to cook and roast marsh mellows.
Monday, March 17:
We took the train into Zurich. It was cloudy, so the view was not that clear. We went to an old Roman square and got some nice pictures of the city.
We also saw various churches and explored various monuments and alley-ways of the city.
A common theme throughout the trip was our Swiss smiles. It's almost a frown, but one does not look upset. This seemed to be the demeanor of most Swiss people we saw. Tom(left) does it best because he is 100% Swiss.
After a pricey lunch(another common theme of Zurich), we decided to go to a museum. Most of the museums were closed, but the guide book we were using said one was opened. We walked about a mile to this museums. It was a beautiful walk that included a harbor and an arboretum.
Despite the nice walk, it was frustrating to discover that the museum was in fact closed and then it started to pour.
We took a cab back to the center and went to an Irish pub. After all, it was St. Patrick's day. We hung out there for a while, enjoying the atmosphere. We even met some Swiss students from the table next to us. We tried to pretend to be Canadian, but they knew were Americans. It is always interesting talking to foreign students. Look at Tom(right), charming his people.
I found the Swiss to be very approachable. In many countries, you have to come up with a good excuse to talk to the natives and with a little luck, they'll speak English and actually be interested. I guess because Zurich doesn't get that many tourists, people were very interested in talking. Just saying "are you from Zurich" started many conversations. Most countries are used to tourists, so many of the people who hang around in the center are not that interested in Americans. That was especially true in Prague and somewhat true in Copenhagen. In Zurich, the people I met seemed eager to chat.
Tuesday, March 18: We went back into Zurich and checked out the National History Museum. A lot of it was under construction, so it was pretty unimpressive. There was an exhibition about Mary Magdalene and the rest of the museum consisted of your standard spear heads, paintings, architecture and other natural museum stuff. The outside of the museum was probably the best part. This is the best picture I could get, because, like the inside of the museum, much of the outside was under construction.
After the museum, we walked around and saw some more of the city. Then we got a traditional German dinner, which was really good.
Wednesday, March 19:
I had lunch with Tom and his grandparents. Although Tom understands Swiss German, he does not speak it. So, the discussion between him and his grandparents was limited. And my conversation with them was even more limited. What was interesting was they still had the typical Grandparent qualities. The smile and interest in his well-being. I guess those characteristics transcend any language.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in Winterthur. It is the 6th largest Swiss city and known for its museums. We went to a technology museum which was kind of like the liberty science center and walked around.
Thoughts on Zurich:
Zurich was probably the most expensive city I've been to. The train price was comparable to get into Copenhagen (about 13 USD each way), but in Copenhagen, they subsidize our passes. The thing about Copenhagen is you can still find somewhat cheap food. It is about $4 for reasonable sized hot dog and you can get a gyro for 4 USD. In Zurich, the cheapest I saw a hot dog was 4.50 and it was tiny. Gyros were 8 or 9 USD.
Switzerland got me thinking about the importance of international relations. Zurich supposedly has the highest standard of living in the world. It was very nice. However, they stayed neutral in many morally pressing instances(WW2!) and are not part of NATO or the EU. Is it more important to focus inwardly on your own country and possibly sacrifice others or attempt to improve the world? Then one must also ask whether these international organizations or conflicts are morally right. Countries and people also do not always look at what is morally right. It is probably in Switzerland's best interest to stay neutral and not join these bodies.
I have continued to ponder this question because Denmark operates on similar principles. They are partially a member of the EU, but do not use the Euro. The homeless drop in center i have been working in only gets funding if it helps exclusively Danes. It is inhumane to not help people in need. On the other hand, if they help everyone, can they really sufficiently help anyone?
On another note, Switzerand is absolutely breath-taking. The train ride through the Alps and pre-Alps to Milan was something else. Here are a few of the photos:
Thursday, March 20:
Upon arriving in Milan, we checked into our hostel right by the train station. I met up with Lelio, my 2nd cousin. I have not seen him since I was 12. First he took me to meet my Great Aunt Sally, then he took me to two churches, including the Duomo in the city center which was spectacular.
Lelio said it is always under construction from repairs and that an expression of something never ending Milan is it is like repairing the Duomo. It also has an amazing view of the city and the Alps on a clear day.
That night, my friends and I went out to dinner with one of my friends from college who is studying in Milan. She took us to a place where you buy a beer for 6 Euros, and a buffet is included. It was delicious.
Friday, March 21:
We spent the day exploring Milan. I had to go the Duomo again with my friends. We also saw a cool castle.
Afterwards, went to the Brera museum which had some amazing art.
That night, I had dinner with Lelio and his girlfriend. Then went to a bar with my friends. We met some pretty cool Italians who spoke some English(rare). Here, you can see Tom(left) being an excellent cultural ambassador.
Overall I really enjoyed Milan. I can't wait to get back and see more of Italy.
Saturday, March 22: I flew back to Copenhagen. It was an interesting flight because I could see the Alps before it got cloudy. It was another breath-taking image that represents many of the breath-taking things I saw over my first two weeks of spring break.
The last day has been spent packing and sleeping. I am very excited for Russia tomorrow and am certain it will be an amazing experience.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)