Back to the Homeland

hey everyone!

As I mentioned before, I'm no good at keeping up with blogs, possibly because I write too much when I do make a post. So my goal this time will be to make shorter posts when I am short on time, and make longer posts when I do have time.

So right now I am in Taiwan for the 3rd time in 5 years, and the 1st time back since my summer teaching program two summers ago. All I could think about as I was walking through the airport was memories from the summer program, and how much I still miss all the people I met at the program and everything we experienced together. In fact just today, I went to back to 北埔 (Bei pu), which is a small Hakka village, to have some traditional Hakka tea 擂茶 (lei cha), which I had gone two times previously during the summer program. Although we couldn't find the place I had gone to last time, the whole going-back was very nostalgic. After we got back to my aunt's apartment, I searched all over the internet for the place that i went to and finally found a picture of the outside on some random person's pictures. In anycase, the whole program still stands today as one of the best experiences of my life. GLOBE is definitely on its way up there.

As much I call Taiwan " the homeland" it still feels so foreign, mostly because of the language barrier. I always feel really inspired to improve my chinese after visiting my relatives so that I can converse more smoothly and not have so many awkward silences. I really want my kids to be bi-lingual.

Here are some pictures of my experiences in taiwan from the summer program and this time:


So now in a couple of days, I will be heading to Hong Kong for the rest of the semester and for the last study abroad part of GLOBE. I haven't even quite processed everything, which includes the 4 months in copenhagen, 10 days at home, 3 days in taiwan, and now preparing for hong kong. its strange because i miss copenhagen so much, but have not thot about it much over break because i was so happy to see my friends and family. And now that i'm in taiwan all i can think about is taiwan and haven't quite thot about hong kong even tho i'm so excited to be going there. Traveling in Asia is going to be sooo different than in Europe, and since i haven't quite prepared mentally for going to hong kong, i know the culture shock will be pretty hard.

Here are some pictures from the rest of my time in Kobenhavn and Europe after Berlin. I ended going to Italy (Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome), Paris, Oslo, Madrid, Brussels, and Vienna. as always, GLOBE has been an amazing program so far and I am so grateful to be able to get to know the people on the program. Over my time in Copenhagen, I've gotten a lot closer with the Danes, the CUHKers, and the American globers, and hopefully you all will be able to meet them in the fall of 2009!





so until next time...

~Jenny

Germany!!!

Hey everyone!
I'm finally back from my first adventures outside of Copenhagen in the lovely Germany. I first went to Munich with two of my GLOBE friends and then to Berlin for the first GLOBE study trip.

So here it goes:

Destination 1: Munich aka Oktoberfest 2008
Our oktoberfest adventure first started when we boarded the night train thursday night (Sept. 25). Simone, Weck, two random Danes, and I shared a 6 person compartment, and our compartment was conveniently located next to a compartment full of American boys who began partying long before we arrived in Munich the next day at around 9 am. We didn't start drinking immediately when we first got onto the train, because we knew that we had the rest of the night to do that as well as the next day. However, about an hour or two into the train ride and after chatting and getting to know the two Danes, we started drinking along with the rest of the people in our train car. Simone and I spent some time wandering around the train meeting alot of cool people, many of from the US, one who was a student at cbs, and a few creepers who kept wandering into our compartment. At around 1 ish things started to die down and we all tried to get some sleep. Trying to sleep in that compartment has just topped my list of one of the worst sleeping nights of my life. Throughout the whole night, weck, one of the danes, and I kept switching sleeping positions, and every position i tried to sleep in would hurt after a few minutes. I went to use the bathroom at around 4 or 5 am, and as I was walking by the other compartments, I could see the other passengers who also couldn't fall asleep open their eyes showing their agreement that this was one of the worst sleeping nights...ever. But even tho sleeping wasn't so fun, the whole night train experience was really cool, and I'd recommend it to anyone!

So after we arrived in Munich, we parted ways with the Danes we met and Simone, Weck, and I headed to the park where Oktoberfest was located. I don't know if any of you have an idea of what Oktoberfest is like, but i had no idea or even an image of what it was going to be like except for maybe the tents, which i had seen an imitation of at busch gardens. Anyways, Oktoberfest is a lot like the North Carolina State Fair, in that there are a lot of carnival rides, lots of AMAZING fast food, and lots of people (later in the day). However, at oktoberfest, the carnival rides are a little better, there are huge"tents" with tables and tables where ppl drink liter size cups of beer, and the food was all very Bavarian or at least German consisting of white sausages, crepes, strudels, nuts, and even more kinds of sausages. Also, everyone that's not a tourist walks around in Bavarian outfits (lederhosen for guys and dirndls for girls). So with that image in mind, we wandered around eating food and riding only one or two rides for a good few hours. At around 2 pm, we decided to find a tent that we could get into, which we kinda knew would be an impossible task, because you either had to wait a reallllly long time or reserve seats almost a year in advance. Since we were only going to be there for the day, we opted for sitting at the tables outside one of tents and commenced our oktoberfest drinking. I only had about 1 and a half liter "Mass" or one liter beer mug. So we spent a good few hours drinking and mingling with the Norwegian people we met at our table. I don't even know exactly what we did for those hours, but it was really fun, and we got some good pictures and contact info out of the very interesting and sorta strange norwegians we met. After that we ate some more, bought some souvenirs, and wandered around the city of Munich. We had one successful attempt at finding a church and an unsuccessful attempt at trying to get to a famous Munich church that had the devil's food print in it. We ended our time at Oktoberfest by riding the ferris wheel overlooking Munich and the park, and I also had another sausage sandwich with mustard :) By the time we got onto our night train back to Copenhagen at around 11 pm, we were EXHAUSTED. Our ICE night train back (with an hour layover) was much more conducive to our physical and mental state; the seats were big and spacious, with a layout like an airplane's. Also our ICE train drove onto a ferry, for which we had to get off the train (inside the ferry) and go up on deck. We finally got back to copenhagen around 2 pm on Saturday. So even though it was only a two day adventure, I came back with a bavarian hat, cookie (that i hope doesn't mold), a Mass glass, a t-shirt, and a souvenir or two for my family and some great memories!

Here are some pictures:




Destination 2: Berlin!
After arriving back from Munich saturday afternoon, that gave me just enough to relax for a few hours, catch up on email and news, and pack for my 6 day GLOBE trip to Berlin. We left copenhagen around 10 am Sunday morning. I definitely was still exhausted from Oktoberfest at that point, but i was also really excited about all the things that we were going to do in Berlin. Just a few general thoughts about Berlin: I really like the city a lot. It's definitely a place I'd rather visit than copenhagen (i'd much rather live in copenhagen than visit it). It's a city where you can actually feel and get a sense of how much history it has and how important it was in European history. You can also really see the difference between the East and West sides of Berlin. That being said, I got to see a lot of Berlin and in many perspectives. As part of the planned GLOBE activities, we went to numerous company lectures and presentations. Some were good and some were not....some had food and drinks!...and some did not... Companies we visited included Vattenfall and Deutsche Bahn. We also got to go to the Bundestag, which is the German parliament building, the one that went up in flames when Hitler took over. On our free time, we went to the Jewish Museum, holocaust memorial, the berliner dome and its crypt, and the Pergamum museum. The Pergamum museum has the Ishtar Gate of Babylon, which is honestly one of the most breathtaking sites I've ever seen. I wasn't allowed to get a picture of it, but if you ever have the chance to go see it, it's magnificent. I was also pretty impressed with our hostel because it was in a great location, right next to the main shopping street. it also had its own bar that we frequently went to when no big plans were made to go out. Also very close by to our hostel, there was an awesome nightclub called Maxima. It was HUGE, within the nightclub there were about 5 different bars/areas, and two main dancefloors, not to mention the music was great too. We went there on two different nights, trying to get as many of hte globers to go as possible.

In the end, all 45 of the globers were never together for more than one or two times outside of the mandatory activities. However, that was kinda expected. the study trip was amazing and it really brought the globers even closer together. I shared a room with 8 other female globers, and so the people in my room specifically got a lot closer. Traveling around Berlin was also great and traveling/experiencing something new with globers was another step in the globe experience. I'm just really happy to be doing this program. I know i've said that so many times, but it's true.

Here are some pictures of my trip to Berlin:




I got back to room around 1:30 am (between friday and saturday). I just had my final exam for my economics class this morning and now i have one more exam on thursday. I have to admit that when I first left copenhagen to go Munich two thursdays ago, I was ready for my traveling adventures to begin, but returning to copenhagen last saturday and walking around copenhagen after being away for about a week and a half, felt like i was returning home for a long time. And now it seems so soon that I'll be leaving for Italy this thursday for another week and a half for our midterm break. So that's really what i've been up to for the past week and a half!

until next time....

One month benchmark

Hey Friends,

After being here for over a month now, I really feel like I've reached a benchmark in my study abroad experience. I haven't really realized until recently how much I've gotten used to life in Copenhagen, how much time has passed already, and I notice little things that remind me of this. For example, one day last week, I was walking home on a rainy day with one of my friends who was walking their bike home. Fyi, the usual route home from school is to catch the metro right outside the school back to the our district, walk up/ride the many escalators and stairs to get out of the metro station and then walk about a 5 min. back to the dorm. in anycase that day, we got off the metro, had to ride the elevator up to the street (because my friend had his bike). When the doors finally opened, i had this moment of deja vu and flashbacked to the very first day i arrived in copenhagen. I hadn't ridden the elevator since that day when i first arrived in copenhagen lugging my two huge suitcases. I remembered all the feelings that I had when my buddy and I got off the elevator, and all images of how foreign everything looked when i first saw my district. I remembered what route my buddy took me to my dorm, which i always had a faint image of because i hadn't really paid that much attention that day since i was pretty jetlagged at that point. And now reading over what i had written on my last blog entry, i just feel very different and very at home now, which I didn't realize until last week and now.

That being said, this past month has been a little crazy and definitely a learning experience! I don't know if it was culture shock or whatever, but i had been having a tough time with the CBS school system and the international office, including overlapping class schedule because their system makes it hard for exchange students, the inability to get access to my course website, giving me the run around about how to get access to the website (which is finally fixed now as of two days ago, when my class ends in 2 weeks...), unhelpful receptionists with an attitude at the international office, and the list goes on! But what school isnt without its problems? Also, two weeks ago i got really bad infection in my sinuses, which I am still currently recovering from. I had finally gone to doctors, and gotten some antibiotics after a week of feeling like death, and thinking that i had a really bad common cold. On the brightside, I got to take advantage of the free healthcare system in Denmark!

So like i've said before, I've gotten very used to life in copenhagen (so far) and it's been great. I've started to take less pictures, because i've seen less touristy things, but I will start up again. I've settled into classes, and now I get to see all the globers regularly. I've started to cook my own dinner; I fix my own lunch for school, and go out regularly (except for the past two weeks when i've been trying to recover). Now I'm just waiting for the cold to really settle in, and for my traveling to begin! Next week two of my friends and I will be taking a night train to Munich for Oktoberfest on thursday and then catching a night train back on Friday night and arriving back in copenhagen on saturday. And then on sunday, the first GLOBE study trip will begin, and all 45 of us will be in Berlin for a week. This wil probably be the last full weekend i'll be in copenhagen until November.

so until next time!

Intro to Kobenhavn "the happiest place on earth"

Hey everyone!

I'm finally getting around to making my first post from Kobenhavn (Copenhagen in Danish) and after only being in CPH for about a week, I feel like time has been passing slowly, but in a really good way. So much has happened within a few days that it feels like i've been here for quite a while! So where to begin....

Copenhagen is an absolutely charming city and it really has a picturesque image of a European town; cobblestone roads, cafes along the street. Cophenhagen is a place that is far more environmentally conscious than the States. Many people, if not the majority of ppl ride their bikes around the city. It's pretty amazing to see tons and tons of the bikers riding along the bike lanes. The metro and bus systems are also very popular. Everything is recycled, in fact you get paid when you recycle beer bottles and cans. My dorm is in the heart of the city, which is right outside the longest pedestrian walkway in Europe. Being in the heart of the city, as well as in Europe in general, means that everything is pretty expensive. I learned within the first two days that I needed to learn out to cook...fast.

(view from my room) (outdoor area of a restaurant)

Like i mentioned before, it's been quite a whirlwind of a week. The first few days/first weekend I met a lott of people, some international and some americans. It was really just refreshing to hear where everyone is from and meet new people.

On the very first night that I was in copenhagen, I got to eat dinner with a few of the danish globers, and for the rest of the weekend, I mostly hung out with the other exchange students and the few unc globers that had arrived. By sunday, the rest of the unc globers as well as the hong kong globers had arrived, and the next day all 45 globers began the GLOBE intro week.

So much has happened within the last week that its particularly hard to recall my first few days in cph. Once the GLOBE intro week started, i barely got to see anyone i had met in the first few days, and those first few days seemed like they happened ages ago. For our intro week, we had a barbeque, a long lecture about strategy (which was surprisingly interesting), a scavenger hunt around the city, nights out, etc.

But probably the thing that sticks out most of this whole week, was our GLOBE case competition, which we literally had 2 days to read/research everything we had to know about Vestas, and write a 9 page report and prepare for a presentation in front of one of the original GLOBE program creators and a Vestas representative. We were put into groups of around 6, with 2 UNC globers, 2 Danish globers, and 2 HK globers. For the next 48 hours we spent most of our time in a study room researching, reading, and writing. We'd arrive at the school early in the morning, not get back until around dinner time, and feeling exhausted in the way that you feel exhausted after you've just watched tv for 6 hours straight.

Despite the fact that the topic of the case competition was quite boring, i really enjoyed working with my team. It was interesting to see how people from completely different educations and societies worked together towards one objective. Even though there were moments that we were all so drained and got a bit antsy, our team for the most part got along really well, which I can't say the same for some of the other groups...For some of the other groups, there was definitely a struggle and somewhat of a tension to collaborate with ppl with different styles of working.



In the end, our team did not win the case competition, the winning team won MP4 players, and we all let loose at our GLOBE dinner (which was probably the first real meal any of us had had in the past week). They served champaigne, wine, and good food. An interesting note is that we were all sipping wine and getting a little tipsy with the vice-deans of cbs and ppl up high at the international office. We all then went out for the rest of the night where everyone proceeded to have interesting adventures...


So again so much has happened and since I'm writing so late, most of what i'm writing about is what has happened within the past few days. Today, I went out with a few globers to get brunch, and then visit the Rosenbort slot, which is an old summer palace. It was a great way to end a crazy week with a lazy afternoon around the city.




Just a few more lasting thoughts about the time that I've been in Copenhagen. It's been an amazing experience so far. Copenhagen is a beauttiffulll city. I'm getting really excited about getting to know all the globers over the next year and a half. I also hope that i can meet other exchange students, because the globers are really secluded from the rest of the exchange students, we don't even really get to do the same intro week activities with the other exchange students. One more interesting note is that danes have a rep for being "rude" or impolite in that they don't sugar-coat anything, and that they are pretty much upfront and real to everyone they meet. Americans, on the other hand, have a rep for being too superficial because we are too nice upfront. The Hong Kong students have a rep for not going out to the bars and not partying as much as everyone else. Whether the stereotypes are true or not, there are definitely moments where these cultural differences are obviously apparent when all the globers are interacting, and I hope that everyone, including myself, will learn to overcome them. And finally, I've been having a blast and I'm really glad to be doing this program because it's just been amazing, so refreshing, and eye-opening to meet so many new people!

Here are a few pictures from my past week...








I miss everyone so much and get skype! So, until next time...

~Jenny