ALL the Pictures

Here's a link to all my pictures during the time I studied abroad, including DTU, some European cities, and the UK.

http://1drv.ms/1vJNu5P

Some select/favorite pictures:

Campus Village (DTU)

Video Game area in the library (DTU)

Open Area in the library (DTU)

Last Container (All desserts) Dinner - DTU)

Bellevue Beach (Lyngby, Denmark)

The Little Mermaid (Copenhagen, Denmark)

The LEGO Store (Copenhagen, Denmark)

Looks like Amsterdam (Copenhagen, Denmark)

Kronburg Castle (Helsingor, Denmark)

The Little Merman (Helsingor, Denmark)

Nyhavn (Copenhagen, Denmark)

The ferry from Denmark to Germany

Gamla Stan (Stockholm, Sweden)

Sunset (Stockholm, Sweden)

Stockholm, Sweden

Trevi Fountain (Rome, Italy)

Roman Forum/Palatine Hill (Rome, Italy)

The Colosseum (Rome, Italy)

il Duomo (Florence, Italy)

Piazzale Michelangelo - My favorite view (Florence, Italy)

Pisa Baptistry, Cathedral, and Leaning Tower (Pisa, Italy)

Riomaggiore (Cinque Terre, Italy)

Manarola (Cinque Terre, Italy)

Venice, Italy

Venice, Italy

Venice, Italy

Rathus Glockenspiel (Munich, Germany)

BMW Welt (Munich, Germany)

Tünnes and Schäl (Cologne, Germany)

Cologne Cathedral (Cologne, Germany)

Hamburg, Germany

Hamburg, Germany

Berlin, Germany

Prague Astronomical Clock (Prague, Czech Republic)

Prague Castle at Night (Prague, Czech Republic)

Tower Bridge (London, UK)

Buckingham Palace (London, UK)

London, UK

Cambridge, UK

Random Observations and Tips

Here are a few random observations that I remember, looking back on my time in Copenhagen (and the rest of Europe). Some of these are REALLY random, but I'm just saying what I noticed.

- People don't chew gum a lot. A nice side benefit of this is that there isn't any gum stuck on tables.
- Similar to the US, many people don't look at notes, but just look at the PowerPoint slides later. This is partially because of the European way of structuring a course.
- Although the quality (and cost) of living is high, there were surprisingly few Apple products in use. Back at UIUC, a large portion of smartphones and laptops are iPhones and Macbooks. It could be because of high import costs.
- Majors and concentrations seem to be different here. I met someone doing a Masters in HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), and he did his thesis on air flow in medieval churches. How cool is that?!
- A4 paper. The typical letter size of 8.5"x11" is not a thing in Europe. It gets to be a little annoying when your folders only fit letter.
- Buildings are very low in Copenhagen. Most aren't allowed to go past 3 stories because of an old mandate saying that the church should be the tallest building in the city.
- There are many refugees from Middle Eastern countries in Denmark.
- Revolving doors in Europe move automatically. It's one of those small things.
- More people walk on escalators than just stand. If you're going to stand, stay on the right, and leave the left open.
- The only places you'll really see graffiti is along the train tracks. Other than that, everything is very clean.
- SO MANY SMOKERS
- UIUC was surprisingly known.
- Driving is the same as the US. The driver is on the left side of the car, and the car on the right side of the road. The main difference is probably being that the cars are manual (stick shift) instead of automatic. For some reason, I always thought all of Europe was like London and that the US was just doing its own thing.
- Toasters are one sided. It's more of a grill shape.
- They take their shoes off inside their house, which is obviously the superior way of doing things.
- Gasoline is close to $8 per gallon. You think that gas is expensive in the US? Imagine paying more than twice what we pay now. Granted, people use more public transportation there, so that accounts for part of the difference.
- You don't exit buses through the front entrance. People only exit through the back.
- A great thing I noticed about lines in many stores and offices in Denmark: there are none. Everyone takes a number, and wait for it to be called while you do your own thing. It's nothing new, but the US can definitely use this.
- Professors are called by their first name. In one sense, people are very informal there. Just because someone holds a doctorate in something and they teach you doesn't necessarily mean you have to be extra formal with them.
- Fast food there is relatively upscale as compared to fast food in America. The places are cleaner, prices are higher...
- ...Portions are so much smaller in Europe. Or, it's just that portion sizes are massive in the US. Take your pick. For example, the "large" fries at Burger King in Europe is in between the small and medium in the US.
- Denmark is filled with 7-11s. They sort of died out in the US, but they're going strong in Denmark. Major transportation hubs will have multiple inside and nearby.
- Street stoplights go not only from green to yellow to red, but also from red to yellow to green.
- Government is organized an centralized.
- Work hours seem minimal and the pay (and taxes) are high. No wonder Danes are the happiest people on Earth!
- Germany is filled with Turkish food places. There are kebab shops everywhere!

Tips:

- DTU is really great for studying environmental engineering and wind energy. Fun fact: There's an off short wind farm in the Oresund, between Denmark and Sweden!
- The Elektrovej bus stop is right by Campus Village. It's perfect for going to Lyngby Station, from where you can take the S-tog (train) into Copenhagen.
- Bring actual shoes. I only brought my (thin) Pumas with me. It's not fun walking a lot with those.
- You can buy clip cards for cash in 7-11s (but I don't think they exist anymore...).
- Danes are really good at foosball. Like, it's practically a hobby/pasttime for them. Unless you're really confident, don't play for money against them.
- IMPORTANT: if you buy power plug adapters (which you'll probably have to), don't buy square shaped ones. All outlets that I saw in Europe are circular, so the square ones will have a hard time working.
- Grades and transcripts get processed by DTU in August/September.

Miscellaneous

- Denmark actually does have vegetarian food. Being vegetarian in a country where meat is pretty central to the locals' diet was naturally a concern for me. However, if you look in the right places (like the DTU canteen where there's a vegetarian meal option every day), you'll be good to go. Worst comes to worst, just buy some pizza!

Why I chose DTU

Everyone asks why I chose a place like Denmark, and more specifically Denmark Technical University. Without a doubt you will be asked countless times if you study abroad, both during and after your journey. Here are my three reasons and some ramblings.

First was location. When you choose where you want to study abroad, it's easy to pick some  typical European country like France or Spain like most people choose. I'm not denying those are great places, but don't think the other lesser known ones aren't as fun or have less to offer.

Denmark is actually very strategically placed in terms of other European countries if you want to be a tourist. Because of its location between central Europe and the Scandinavian countries, its a great gateway to see potentially all of Europe. That could also allow for travel to the Baltic region.

The second main reason was language. Danish is a really difficult language to learn in my opinion. Luckily, they speak a ton of English. According to Wikipedia, there is an 87℅ English literacy rate in Denmark. Granted that's for the entire country, which likely includes many people who don't have a full grasp on the language. But the Danish people in the greater Copenhagen area have a very strong understanding of English. This is especially apparent with students, since that's who you will interact with most of the time.

Since I was only there for a semester I chose not to learn the Danish language because I wouldn't learn enough in a few months to really be useful. Plus, in my humble and objective opinion, learning a language that only 6 million people know isn't worth it with only a few months to learn it. If you're there for a year, definitely learn it by taking the free course offered. On a side note, I didn't get my CPR number until March, so I couldn't sign up for the free class anyway.

The last big reason was the course offering. DTU offered a few unique classes that UIUC didn't have. For me, that was Cryptology 1, Data Compression, and Introduction to Nanotechnology. UIUC had no such classes. On a side note, I'm kind of surprised our strong CS department didn't have a cryptology and data compression class.

Those were just my top reasons. Everyone has their own reasons for studying abroad in their country of choice. As always, if you have questions about how to choose or if Denmark is right for you, don't hesitate to ask!

Transportation

While you're in Denmark, you'll have 2 basic options for getting around: biking, and/or public transportation.

Pretty much everyone that I knew got a bike for their time in Denmark. There are always people buying and selling them on local websites, so you won't have much trouble finding one. I personally didn't get one because all of my classes were very close to Campus Village where I was living, so I never had to walk far. For everything else, there was public buses and trains.
- If you're going to bike, you don't have to worry about safety on the road too much, besides common sense.
- Make sure to buy a good lock.
- You'll have to do some maintenance, but there are some resources in and around DTU for that.
- Make sure to follow all the rules (like getting the proper lights, following bike lanes, etc) while biking. The fines are massive, and the police are strict on biking. And people will get mad at you.

Public transportation throughout Europe is amazing. To be completely honest, I'm a suburbs kid so I barely rode public transportation prior to college. I got some exposure to public buses at UIUC, but those were also pretty good because UIUC is not in a big city like Chicago. Regardless, I think I can safely say public transportation is much better in Europe than in the US. You'll probably be disappointed by the US's buses and trains when you come back.

Unfortunately, public transportation is crazy expensive in comparison to biking, so I did wish I had a bike for when I wanted to get groceries or a quick trip into the center of Lyngby. Danish buses and trains are, however, very punctual. They almost always arrive within a minute of their scheduled time based on my experience.

Most European cities have the same setup for their public transportation using a zone based system. The metropolitan area is broken up into radial zones coming out from the center of the city. The price of the ticket, regardless of if you're using a bus or a train, is based on how many zones you travel.

Make sure to get a zone map and price table when you're at the train station, and ask your international buddy for help.

One interesting thing I noticed about European buses, suburban trains, and intercity trains is that everything is very integrated at a city, country, and continent scale. For example, when going from Copenhagen to Hamburg, Germany by train, Deutsche Bahn and DSB (Danish trains) work together on the same train to provite service. I'll talk more about European trains in a separate post.

Taxis are basically just too expensive to really consider; don't even bother. 

Regrets

I definitely have a few regrets during my time in Denmark. If it's within your power to do so, don't make the same mistakes I did. A lot of these are places that ESN goes to during their annual trips, so make sure to take advantage of it if you can.

1. Visiting Legoland. I don't know about you, but I loved LEGOs as a kid. LEGOs were first created in Denmark, so the largest Legoland, naturally, is in Denmark. It's a little more of an amusement park than a place for LEGO enthusiasts, but it's fun to be a kid again, every once in a while. ESN does a trip here.

2. Seeing the white chalk cliffs of Mons Klint. Nothing more to say here besides it's a beautiful place in Denmark. ESN also goes here. If you can't go with ESN, get a group of people and rent a car for the day.

3. Seeing more of Denmark. For some reasons, that I cannot for the life of me figure out, I chose to see more of Europe than I did Denmark. ESN also does a trip during a weekend around some of Denmark's largest cities other than Copenhagen, and it's a lot of fun. The Danish country side is beautiful, and I regret not seeing it.

4. On the same note, not experiencing Copenhagen more. I went to Copenhagen multiple times, but I was an idiot and visited it more from a tourist's perspective. I didn't go to many events that went on in the city, but I definitely should have. Wherever you go to study abroad, actually experience the city as if you're a resident there.
- As a side note, I did go to Copenhagen when EuroVision was going on, and it was great to be in the middle of the cosmopolitan atmosphere there. People from all over Europe were there representing their countries with flags, cheering on their country's representative.
- However, I still regret not going to the actual event. It was by chance that EuroVision was happening in Copenhagen that year, at the exact time that I was there. It would have been a lot of fun to be in that hall watching the performances.

5. I think the last big thing I regret is not going to Arsfest, which is DTU's annual ball/party at the end of the year. It's a TON of fun (based on all my friends' pictures). Even getting the tickets ends up being a huge event (DTUers call it a "line party") where people stay in line all night and have a good time.

Leaving with regrets isn't the best way of doing things, so do youre best to take advantage of all the different events that go on and places nearby. It makes your study abroad experience so much more rewarding. 

48 Hours in Stockholm

This should have been posted a month ago, but better late than never. I went to Stockholm with a friend I met here from March 21 to 23rd. Here's what we covered in just over 48 hours, and some tips!

Friday - March 21

We took a 5 hour Swedish SJ "high speed" train there. It only went 110 mph (compared to 180mph for Italo), but it did have outlets and free wifi, which is nice for getting a little work done. I used a rail pass, so all I had to do is get the mandatory seat reservations. There were many small lakes along the way to Stockholm from Copenhagen, but we were going too fast for my point-and-shoot to get good quality shots.

One major disappointment for me was that I didn't get a stamp on my passport. This was seriously lame. In hindsight, I should have known that once you're in Europe, you pretty much won't get stamped, especially for train travel, but it was still something I wish I got. I kept some currency as memory instead.

We got there around 2pm.  There was a free walking tour of Gamla Stan at 4pm, so we just grabbed lunch (there's a lot more fast food in Stockholm as compared to Copenhagen), checked in to the hotel to drop our bags off, and went to the meeting point.

We also bought a Stockholm Card at Stockholm Central Station. This allows unlimited use of public transportation, and free entry to around 80 museums and attractions in Stockholm. For the 48 hour version, it's 650 SEK (about $100). I definitely felt it was worth it, but only if you get the 48 hours version or higher, and you plan your time well. On our trip, we only did a little better than breaking even. The 24 hour version if 500 SEK, and I don't see any way that it's worth it.

We ended up having a little bit of time on our hands, so we figured we'd visit the Nobel Museum in Gamla Stan. Stockholm is actually where the Nobel Prizes (except Peace Prize - that happens in Oslo, Norway) are chosen and awarded every year. As you visit various places in Stockholm, you'll find this is a motif throughout the city. The museum is dedicated to the history of Alfred Nobel (the founder of the award), the award and process, and the previous winners. You may or may not enjoy this museum. Even though there's a lot of science and technology in it, I didn't enjoy it that much. Don't visit it unless you have an hour to kill and already have the Stockholm Card, because otherwise it's not really worth it.

But I digress. One of the most important parts of Stockholm to visit is Gamla Stan, or Old Town. This is the original Stockholm, before it expanded into what it is today over the course of hundreds of years. After the Nobel Museum, we walked to the meeting point of the walking tours (big staircase of Sergel's Torv - the main city square). We did quite a bit of walking, but our tour guide was great, and she gave us quite a good overview of the history of Stockholm. Gamla Stan also has quite a few other major buildings and landmarks, so you'll find yourself coming back to this area quite a bit.

We called it a day at this point, so we headed back to the hotel. We found a good Indian restaurant nearby, so I got my Indian food fix after a long time.

Saturday - March 22

We started the day with the 10am free walking tour of the main city. This one ended up lasting 2 hours, and had a lot more walking since it covered the entire city, not just the original small city. Again, the tour guide (a different one) was great, definitely knew her stuff. We covered places like the main square, main shopping street, some parks/gardens, and a bunch of random statues.

Next up was the Royal Palace. They have a big gaurd changing ceremony around noon or 1PM every day, and it was pretty cool to see for the first 15 minutes.  If you really want to see what's going on, get there around around 20 minutes early to get a good spot.

The Cathedral is right next door, so we squeezed this in before going to the palace. It was pretty nice overall.

The main palace was pretty cool. It was actually only built in the 1800s, so it's not as old as other palaces. You'll also learn that most of the Swedish Royal Family is actually of French descent, if I remember correctly. This place had a guided tour in multiple languages. It's worth around 1.5 hours of your time. Cameras weren't allowed though, which was a bummer.

Definitely one of the highlights of the trip was the Vasa Museum. It's a museum dedicated to a massive ship that didn't even go a few kilometers before it sank. The original ship was recovered and rebuilt. The museum has done a great job maintaining its ginormous size and all of the history associated with the ship. I only wish I had planned the time better, since I only got an hour in the museum. You could spend an entire day in here if you wanted to.

The Icebar is a pretty cool place (pun half intended) to visit once. It's basically just a bar, but it's made entirely of ice, from the counter to the glasses. It's pricey - 185 SEK for one person - and you have to book a 40 minute time slot in advance. It includes one drink, so it's not a complete ripoff. It's a mini version of the Ice Hotel in northern Sweden. If you can't go to that, I think the Icebar is a good substitute. I ended up going alone, though it wasn't the plan. It was pretty awkward just being one guy taking selfies in there. If you go, go with someone.

Sunday - March 23

If I remember correctly, we only had a handful of places left to see. City Hall was one of them. It wasn't that great overall, but a few of the rooms were pretty cool. This is where the Nobel Banquet is, so there's a few cool facts regarding that. This also is best visited with a guided tour, which starts every few hours in English and

I believe the last place we saw was Skansen, Stockholm's "open-air" museum. I personally thought it was pretty lame. For my fellow Napervillians, it's basically Naper Settlement but on a steep hill. It does, however, give good views of Stockholm.

It was time for our train back. Nothing special here, just the same views as before.

Conclusion

Pretty every place we went had free admission with the Stockholm Card. The Card's website is really detailed, so make sure to look in advance as to what you want to visit, and their admission prices.

Random Observations and Tips

There were A LOT more beggars than in Copenhagen
I thought it was more English friendly. There were more signs in both Swedish and English than many other places
H&M headquarters is located here. Get some shopping in!
Overall, it felt a little more expensive than Copenhagen.
Make sure to do walking tours, tip around 30-50 SEK.
You can trade DKK for SEK at a good rate in copenhagen central
In general, guided tours are good for info, not for time limits though. Sometimes you want to be able to speed through certain places.
There are quite a few boat tours in Stockholm. Most of them are probably good, but they're usually not available until April, so we didn't get to go on one.

Phone Home

DTU will give you a SIM card for a local mobile carrier, but for the most part, I don't think you'll need it. Here's why:

- I made a post about T-Mobile that's worth a read if you are also on T-Mobile. Having free international data roaming is simply the best.
- A lot of students are on Facebook, Google Hangouts, etc, so that's usually how I kept in touch with them on a daily basis. Another good tool here is WhatsApp.
- For calling home, I used a lot of Google Voice/Hangouts. It has free VoIP calling, and the Internet in Denmark is pretty good. You'll have no problem with getting a good quality voice call to the US.
- Viber is also a good tool, along with Skype.

Where it's nice to have a local number:

- Keeping in touch with other students outside of class
- You might need a phone number to give to Danish authorities for the CPR number and residence permit. If you ever have to contact them, you'll need a Danish number.

In short, I'd say just have a Danish number with a prepaid Lebara package and pay as you go on that. Otherwise just use the dozens of Internet based options you have.

My Courses

Now that my classes are finished, I can comment on the ones I've taken and what I thought of them. Hopefully they can help you choose some courses for your semester abroad. CS and ECE students will find these most valuable

Wireless Communications

Thoughts: This is probably my hardest course this semester. It's considered both a masters and bachelors class, which I found odd. This class is sort of a follow-up to topics like Analog Signal Processing (ECE 210) and maybe Fields and Waves (ECE 329). At UIUC, there isn't an exact equivalent to this course, because I don't think it quite matches the Wireless Networks course.

I think you absolutely need some signal processing course before-hand because this class will frequently mention Fourier analysis and things like that. They say you need to know transmission lines already (covered in Fields and Waves, ECE 329 for UIUC), but I didn't know them and I basically learned them through this course.

Lastly, there are 3 labs throughout the semester. While not technically required as they're not part of the grade, it's better if you go. At the very least, you'll get some hands on experience of what you're learning.

Topics covered: Signals, transmission lines, antennas, transmitting and receiving, modulation, noise.

Grade Breakdown: 5 home assignments each worth 10%, 1 written exam worth 50%

Recommendation: If you're an electrical engineering who is thinking about concentrating on radio related things, this class is a must. I personally wouldn't recommend it for anyone else, unless you're just randomly interested.



Cryptology 1

Thoughts: Technically a masters level course, but it's filled with undergraduates like me. It falls under the Mathematics and Computer Science department. I'm finding the class to be pretty good overall. It's definitely not too difficult. You absolutely need to take some sort of discrete math/structures course, otherwise you'll have a hard time. If you have taken one, you'll find it relatively simple to pick up. However, there isn't much coding involved here, since it's mostly about the theory of and how to break different cryptosystems. I think it will be useful to know in the industry, especially since RSA is very widely used.

Topics covered: substitution ciphers, other old ciphers, AES, DES, RSA (the main topic), cryptographic hash functions, digital signatures, and random number generation.

Grade Breakdown: 3 homework assignments, each worth 10%. Then, there's an oral exam (more on what this means in a different post) that's worth the remaining 70%.

Recommendation: If you're in CS, you should take this class. I don't believe there's a course like this back at UIUC (I may be wrong...but I doubt it), so it's a unique opportunity. Plus, it's relatively easy. It's basically an intro to cryptology, but with lots of real-world applications, mostly because of it teaches RSA and AES. Take it.



Introduction to Statistics

Thoughts: If you took AP Stats in high school, or basically any college intro-level stats class, this class will be nothing new. There's really not much more to say about it; it's just your regular intro stats class.

Grade Breakdown: The only grade in the class is a written final exam.

Recommendation: If this gets you out of some sort of stats requirement like it does for me, then definitely take it. It's a relatively basic course, so take that into consideration.



Introduction to Nanotechnology

Thoughts: For me, this is probably the coolest course I'm taking. It's definitely more towards the Materials Science side (with some applications to ECE in there, like transistors), so if you're a MatSE major past your (probably) 3rd semester, this class will likely be redundant. Everyone, including me before the course, thought something like "nanotechnology" is the future. But it really is in the past as much as the future. It forms the basis of things like very high resolution microscoeps to model atoms and making integrated circuits, transistors, etc.

Topics Covered: Overview of quantum mechanics, electron microsopy, lithography, nanofabrication, microfluidics.

Grade Breakdown: 30% report (written group project on a topic), 70% exam that's mostly about

Recommendation: Pretty much any engineer can gain something from this course. It's all international students in it this semester, it's likely to be the same in other ones. Also, it's a relatively laid back course. The professors are knowledgable, easy to work with, and this course can lead to some cool research down the line. Take it.



Data Compression

This class literally has four other students enrolled in it. It IS a masters course (and actually feels like one), but I just thought that it would get cancelled since there's so few people in it. Plus, only one other person and I actively showed up, so it was just the professor awkwardly going on about the topics to just two listeners. Anyway, that's besides the point. While class got a little boring, it definitely feels like it's going to be useful. In general, the professor largely focused on image based compression instead of general, but it is in the Photonics department...they touch on video compression, but that's a separate course altogether.

There are 3 labs throughout the semester. They are typically done in MATLab (since images can be treated as matrices), so that was a small perk for me because I hadn't learned MATLab yet. After about 10 lectures, you don't meet for lecture again, because you start work on a solo project where you implement an existing or new compression scheme.

Topics Covered: Huffman coding, arithmetic coding, universal dictionary-based compression, quantization, JPG and other lossy coding

Grade Breakdown: 80% - evaluation of your project. 20% - oral exam/presentation and defense of project.

Recommendation: Only ECE/CS people will appreciate this course. I'm a little mixed on this course. I do think it will be useful one way or another.

Groceries/Eating

As you probably already know, Denmark is crazy expensive. The place where you'll realize this the most is buying food and groceries.

Eating out every once in a while with a group of friends is fine, but unless you have all da cash, you're not going to do this often. Fast food, however, is relatively reasonable. But, fast food places aren't very common outside central Copenhagen.

Portion sizes are considerably smaller than the US (and people wonder why there's an obesity problem...), and there are no free refills (gasp).

Since you're going to be here for atleast one semester, you're going to be doing a lot of cooking, and that means buying groceries!


There are a few different options in terms of grocery shopping. The big Danish chain is Netto. The other options are the German Aldi

The DognNetto is a mini/express version of the Netto that's open until midnight, and at convenient locations. For example, there is one on the DTU campus, about 10 minutes walk from Campus Village. However, this means that there is significantly less variety (because of the smaller physical size of the store), and the prices are usually jacked up for 2/3 of the items.

Some tips

As is custom in Europe (and a lot of the world), tax is included in the price on the tag. Value added tax (VAT), is pretty standard, and I think it's rather convenient so you know how much you're going to pay at the counter easily.

BYOB - bring your own bags. You fill up your own groceries into your bags when you go to pay, and you either bring your own bag, or you pay 2 DKK for one. The Netto bags are very sturdy, so if you get one at the beginning of the semester, you probably won't need another one.

Some items are actually equally or even lower priced than their American counterparts. For example, I bought a pack of 150 Marie biscuits (they're like digestive tea biscuits, I get hooked on them after eating a few as snacks) for less than $2. I'm fairly certain that's cheaper than the US. 

ESN

Whatever you do when you study abroad, make sure to go on an ESN trip. Even if you don't go to Denmark specifically, this still applies to you. If you don't know ESN, it stands for Erasmus Student Network. Erasmus is a big network of resources for European students when they go on exchange.

Arguably my biggest regret during my time in Denmark was not seeing more of Denmark itself, and more specifically, not doing an ESN trip.

Almost all European universities have some local ESN chapter established. They routinely go on trips to nearby places, both in and out of country.  And don't worry, you don't have to be in European to be included. You can buy a membership card for like 50 DKK, if I remember correctly. When you want to join a trip, you get a 50 DKK discount on each trip.

I really really wish I was able to go on three specific trips: the Danish trip which covered a few other major cities in Denmark like Aarhus and Odense, the Mons Klint trip to see the famous white chalk cliffs, and the Legoland trip to see where the Lego was first created and the fun amusement park.

In Denmark, I actually only saw Copenhagen, Lyngby, and Kronburg Castle. There are a lot of other cities to see. The biggest ones are Aarhus, Odense, and Aalborg, which also has an exchange program with UIUC Engineering like DTU does. The Danish trip covers those other cities, and you get to go as a big group. I've heard it's a lot of fun.

From everything I heard, Mons Klint is a great place to visit. I was really close to going there, but at the last minute, some things didn't work out. 

Danish Language and Culture

Language

The Danish language, in short, is pretty difficult to learn. It's a Germanic based language, so if you've learned German, you might have a slightly easier time.

If you've already learned another Scandinavian language, you're pretty much good to go for Danish.

If you've learned a language like Spanish, French, Italian, etc, you're kind of out of luck for picking up Danish easily.

Arguably the single biggest reason Danish is difficult to learn is the "o" with a slash through it. It's one of 3 extra letters that Danish has over English (besides Danish not having "w"), and it's pronounced differently depending on the word. Even when it's used twice in the same word, it's sounds differently in the two parts of the word.

For me, it was nice to grow up with extended family who could speak English, but learned it as a second language. They learned it with a different fundamental structure, so picking up Danish in bits and pieces was a little easier for me. If anything, it put things in perspective.

But, you're all in luck!

1. Danish people (especially students) learn English early on, and they speak it very, very well. Sometimes they're accents are incredibly weak too, so you can barely tell they're not American.

2. DTU, in conjunction with some local organization, has a free Danish course for anyone with a CPR number. If you're up for learning a new language. They'll talk about it during Welcome Week, so make sure to look into it if you're interested.

Culture

In general, Danes are very private people. However, they are very nice. One great analogy I heard was that they're like eggs: hard on the outside, but gooey on the inside. (This sounds weird, I know, but I'd say it's pretty accurate).

If you say hi to a random person on the street, it's slighly frowned upon. You can say "hej" and they'll say "hej" back *maybe*, but it'll end there. There won't be any "how are you".

This isn't directly apparent with students, because we're still kids at heart, so to speak. We're all social. Which segways perfectly into my next point about...

...Beer. Beer is huge in Denmark, and in all of Scandinavia, for that matter. Perhaps they picked that up from the Germans. Hanging out with your fellow students over a casual beer, going out on the weekend, etc is pretty common. Remember that the drinking age there is 18, and bars are literally part of campus buildings. An interesting difference as compared to the US is that they won't drink a lot of other kinds of alcohol in between beers.

I'd say another big thing about Danes is that they're pretty environmentally conscious and friendly. You'll of course notice how many people are biking or using public transport, how few cars there are, recycling, etc. They take good care of their land.

If you want to know a little bit more about Danish culture, I recommend watching the TV show "Welcome to Sweden." You're probably thinking, this blog is supposed to be about Denmark, not Sweden. And you'd be right. Without a doubt, there are lots of difference between Denmark and Sweden. But I'd say there are quite a few common aspects as well. And hey, it's a funny show at times. 

Course Structure

If you're coming from the USA like me, you're not going to be used to the way courses are run here at DTU. Here are some major differences.

First, discussions aren't called discussions. They're called group tutorials. But they're the exact same thing. You sit with a group, working on some problems from the textbook or other source. There's also a TA present to help you as needed.

Arguably the biggest difference is that you don't meet multiple times a week for one hour at a time for lecture, then once for discussion, and maybe once for lab. Instead, at DTU, you meet once a week, for 4 hours at a time. Yeah, 4 hours. But, it's not just 4 hours of lecture. It's typically half lecture, half group tutorial There are, of course, breaks every hour or so. Usually people go and get coffee during this time.

This is how it is for 5 ECTS courses. For 10 ECTS, you will meet two separate times. There is also a few 7.5 ECTS courses, but I believe those are at the other campus, so they don't follow the normal rules.

The scheduling is different here, given that you only meet once/twice a week for long periods of time. For each day of the week, there are two time slots: 8:00-12:00, 13:00-17:00 (get used to the 24 hour format!). There is also a 17-21 slot, but there are very few classes in this slot.

You would imagine that each slot would follow something like, in order: F1A, F1B, F2A...F5B. Alas, it doesn't. Instead, it goes F1A, F2A...F5A, F1B...F5B. The only logic for this is so a 10 ECTS course (whose slot would be something like F3, which is F3A and F3B) doesn't meet for a full day. What I find funnier is that the exam schedule does follow the logical setup.

A small quirk I noticed: one of my courses only has 5 people enrolled in it. However, it (thankfully) didn't get cancelled. I suspect that it didn't get cancelled because it's a masters class, which usually has fewer people.

Exams

There are two types of exmas at DTU: written and oral. Written exams are your regular final exams where you sit down for a few hours and answers as many questions as you can.

Oral exams are a completely different animal. Like with written exams, you have to study all the course material, because anything could come up.

However, when you actually go and take the exam, you're actually presenting to your professor (and/or sometimes an external examinator). A random topic is chosen, and you just have to talk about it for 10 minutes. You basically have to create a series of short presentations, and remember everything. After, they can ask you questions about anything during the semester, especially since there's a chance you don't choose one of the major topics.

This may sound horrible, but I think it might be better than it sounds. On a written exam, if you're stuck on something, you're basically screwed. From what I've heard about oral exams, however, the professor might ask you a leading question to get you back on track. I have a feeling this is going to be extremely helpful for anyone.

Side-note: you can actually sign up for any exam, even if you haven't taken the course. This is similar to AP courses or proficiency exams where you can just study on your own and take the exam. However, the intention here is to allow people who failed a course the first time to have another chance.

8 AM Courses

I haven't had to deal with 8AMs since first semester, so having two 8AM classes this semester, and for 4 hours, was rough for me. I'm not a morning person at all. If you're like me, be ready to have this struggle.

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions about courses, exams, etc here!

How to get from the CPH Airport to DTU

how to get from the airport to dtu

So you've landed in Denmark, at Copenhagen Kastrup Airport (CPH), and you need to get to your new home away from home. I'm going to assume you've gotten a place at either Campus Village or Kampsax on campus. You have two options: taxi, or public transportation.

Option 1: Taxis

Basically, don't do this. For taxis from the airport to Lyngby (where DTU's campus is), you're going to pay upwards of 500 DKK, or about $100. The only way this is feasible is if you've coordinated with others in your group, and you can take a taxi together.

Further, this is best if you find a minivan taxi. I personally have yet to see one of those in Denmark, but maybe they're out there...somewhere. If you don't find one, you'll probably only fit 2-3 people inside a regular taxi. Either way, you'll be paying AT LEAST $25. More than likely, $50.

You can take the taxi to the DTU accomodation office in Building 101, get your papers together, then take it to campus village.

Option 2: Public Transportation

When you arrive at the airport, follow the signs for the Metro. You'll see some touch-screen kiosks with labels like DSB, Movia, M (metro). Here, you need to buy a 6-zone ticket. It should come to 72 DKK, or about $13. In Copenhagen in general, I haven't seen a machine with cash input, so be ready to pay with a credit card.

As far as I know, the airport is the end-of-line for the Metro, and the only one there should be the M2. Here are the steps to go to DTU.

1. Take the M2, and get off at Norreport station. This is one of the major hubs connecting the Metro, S-Tog, and Bus.
2. Since the Metro is deeper underground, follow the signs for the steps to the S-tog (suburban trains).
3. Take one of the following trains: B towards "Holte" or E towards "Helsingor".
- Be careful of the directions of the trains. Do NOT take the the B towards "Hoje Tastrup" or E towards "Koge". These go south, and you want to go north.
- The displays should say what the intermediate stops are, so look for "Lyngby".
- The E trains are only available on weekdays. If you're arriving on a weekend, just look for the B towards "Hellerup".
4. Get off at Lyngby station.
5. Walk down the convenient ramp, and when you reach the street, go to your left. There should be a bus stop, from where the 300S towards "Gl. Holte" departs. This is the one you want.
- Again, make sure of the direction. You do NOT want the 300S towards "Ishoj St." as that goes the opposite direction.
- You'll actually pass by Campus Village (Elektrovej stop) on your way to the DTU office. As tempting as it is to just get off here and drop your bags off, you need to go to the office first.
6. Get off at the DTU stop. You should see a huge gray 3-story building up ahead and to the left, with a big DTU sign. (This is the point where you realize you're not in Kansas anymore).
7. Walk towards that building, and take the first big entrance (should be entrance A). As soon as you walk in, you should see a sign for the Accomodation office.
- Have fun with this walk with all your baggage on cobblestone.

There are some alternative routes, using a different combination of trains and buses. This is the most common and will run the most frequently.

Conclusion

Now that you've signed your rental agreement and gotten your keys, you have to pick up a huge black duffel bag filled with linens. Take all your stuff and walk (or continue your taxi) to Campus Village. Go into your room and crash on your bed.

Side-note: the DTU accomodation office holds extra hours during the time international students are arriving. Make sure to look on their website for the exact times for the day you're arriving.

As with most things, you're paying for level of convenience. I personally felt that switching from the Metro, to the train, to the bus was a struggle, as I noted in an earlier post. But that's just me being picky.

Money

The currency symbol for the Danish krone is DKK, and the plural form is kroner. 

This is pretty similar to Sweden's krona and Norway's krone.

The rule of thumb for quickly converting from DKK to USD is that the conversion rate is 1 USD is about 5.5 DKK, so you can divide by 5 and just round down to the nearest dollar. That's what I've been doing and it gives a good rough estimate.

Currency

There are 6 different kinds of coins, and 5 kinds of bills in circulation and main use in Denmark. Here's a couple of tables that show what they look like and their values. I'm putting in a US dollar value based on the current conversion rate of 5.38.

The smallest coin is 50 øre, which is the equivalent of cents. 100 øre makes 1 krone.

Picture
Value (DKK)	0.50	1	2	5	10	20
Value (USD)	0.09	0.18	0.36	0.93	1.86	3.72

Picture
Value (DKK)	50	100	200	500	1000
Value (USD)	9.30	18.60	37.21	93.02	186.03

A few things to note/notice:

• I can't say I've actually seen a DKK 1000 note floating around anywhere.
• The gold colored 10 and 20 DKK coins are pretty handy.
• I want to point out that all of the bills above are logically sized, even though you can't tell on here. When you hold them in your hand, you'll see that the larger the value of currency, the larger the piece of paper. 
• Oh and would you look at that? They're even different colors.

I have to say they're easier to tell apart than US currency which is all green and all the same size. Of course, growing up in the US I didn't really notice it, but I can imagine it could be a bit of an issue for some visitors to the US.

Final thing about currency: a lot of places have these machines that the cashier just puts the currency in, and the change (if there is any in bill form) will be spit out. I know it's nothing revolutionary, but I kind of wonder why this didn't make it past the self check-out lines at grocery stores.

Credit/Debit Cards

The first thing that probably popped into your head regarding American credit cards in Europe is the foreign transaction fees. Yes they're very real, and very expensive if you're not careful. Here are some basic steps to help you. 

1. Don't use Discover Card, because no one knows what it is.
2. Use MasterCard or Visa since they're actual brands that people have heard of everywhere.
3. Don't use Discover Card.
4. ???
5. Profit

As you can tell, I hate Discover. Hypothetically, it should work relatively well in Europe because they have a collaboration with Diners Club International to not have any foreign transaction fees. But, it doesn't work. Not just the fees part; the card doesn't work at all. I'm not going to bother ranting on it in this post, but if you want to follow me raging about it, stay tuned. 

Back to business: the real options. That link should give you quite a few choices with MasterCard. A couple of friends of mine have the Bank of Americard and Chase Sapphire cards, and they seem to working fine with no foreign transaction fees. If you are already customers of these two banks, look into these card choices.

You can also get "cash advances" from ATMs with credit cards if you're really short on cash. I would not recommend this unless it's a dire emergency because you'll end up paying atleast 10% extra in fees.

One caveat with credit cards is that the vendor could end up charging you extra since you're paying in dollars and not DKK/Euros. I'm not sure how applicable this is, but I've heard stories, so keep it in mind.

Prepaid Cards

The other good option is prepaid cards. These are sort of like those Visa gift cards that have come around in the past few years (the ones that are gift cards but can be used anywhere). You buy it, put some money on it in your home currency, then the card converts it into the vendor's local currency at the point of sale. You don't get charged any foreign transaction fees, and the vendor gets the money in the local currency. Everyone wins. 

For this option, you have two choices: a MasterCard Net+ or a Visa MoneyCorp. I haven't looked into these options much, but I know a friend is using his here in Denmark and he used it in Sweden. There are probably some fees depending on the card but you can do more research into that. 

I've noticed quite a few local credit cards are chip based instead of just magnetic stripe, and there are point of sale terminals to match. 

Any time you want to buy a ticket at a train station, you will have to use some sort of card, so bear that in mind. 

Final tips: always always always have more than one card. The chances of an American card not working in another country are relatively high, so make sure you have a backup. The same goes for cash. I know that plastic has its conveniences, but the fact is, if you're in an unfamiliar place, having some cash to buy some food when you're lost and hungry is a lot more convenient when your card decides to not work.

Banks

First off, you will need a CPR number from your municipality if you want to open a bank account. Technically, everyone is required to open a Nemkonto, or "Easy Account". This is really only necessary for times where the government wants to put money into your account, for tax returns and such. 

As a student who will probably not be working here, you can go to any bank (I recommend Nordea; from what I've heard they're a good bank and are in Norway and Sweden as well) and ask for a free account. Just tell them you're a student with no income. From what I've heard, there are no opening, maintenance, or other hidden fees, and you get a debit card for free. Furthermore, there is an ATM on campus of Danske Bank, but there are no fees if you withdraw from a Nordea account on it. 

To open an account, go to a branch. There are two branches in Lyngby: nearest one is by the Lyngby Storcenter/Station across from Magasin and Danske Bank. 

If you're like me and you're using cash everywhere, you'll find that there are quite a few situations where cash doesn't really work (buying train tickets especially), and of course it's inconvenient at times. I really wish I could open an account, but I had some issues with the residence permit, and now I can't get a CPR number. That combined with the fact that I'm only here for another 2.5 months, it's not really worth all the trouble. 

Last thing to mention here is that having a CPR number and bank account is necessary for getting a Rejsekort (Travel Card), which you'd need starting June since clip cards are no longer going to be used. This is probably confusing to you right now so look for my post on public transportation. The same thing goes for getting a contract with a mobile phone provider: you will need a bank account, for which you'd need a CPR number.