Okay, it's taken until the absolute last day of the year, but I've finally forced myself to sit down and write this concluding post. Please ignore the fact that I ignored this blog for my last three weeks in Copenhagen, as well as nearly three weeks home.
I'll start off this final post with a brief recap of my last weeks in Copenhagen. After my siblings made my host family and me a Thanksgiving dinner, they flew back the day before Thanksgiving to be home for the holiday. I began my final week of class, which became more of an excursion into Hell for me - thanks to every final project, presentation, paper, and exam being scheduled for that week, and then getting tonsillitis. I made it through, bruised and scarred, but also with all As. #ballin
My last week in Copenhagen, which should have been filled with finals (if my teachers hadn't scheduled them for the week before), became kind of a goodbye week. Throughout the week, I had to say goodbye to each member of my host family, my teachers, and my friends. It was tough, and ridiculously weird for me.
After packing my final bags, having a good this-is-the-end cry, and sleeping for a short few hours, I left my apartment at 6 am to head to the airport for the last time. Oh, and then I had an eight-hour layover in Oslo, only made bearable by my friends who shared my connection in Oslo.
And that's it - I arrived in JFK to my dad smiling in the same Toyota Corolla I learned how to drive in. My four months of jet-setting and go-getting had come to an end.
Now that it's been a few weeks, I've had a bit of time to reflect on my experience and I can honestly say that I've grown exponentially. Not only do I feel that I have a greater appreciation of other cultures, but also do I have a more diverse perspective of my own. It's really difficult to explain, but my limited perspective has expanded a thousandfold.
I'd like to say thank you to everyone who made this semester possible - my parents, my host family, my professors, my friends, and, weirdly enough, myself. Thanks, Timmy, for throwing me out of my comfort zone and into a culture and environment that I could never have imagined.
I get upset sometimes thinking about how I'll never have an experience like this again, but at the end of it all, at least I experienced this. It was amazing and I loved every minute of it. It was hard at times and there were days when the things I was afraid to confront back in the U.S. found their way into my life, but taking myself out of everything I've come to know in the U.S. gave me more clarity than I could have asked for otherwise and I feel more confident to face the things I couldn't before.
Anyway, I think that's all. I'm not very good at goodbyes, but I'm fantastic at hellos. And luckily, those are actually the same thing in Danish. So thanks for a great semester, Europe, and hej hej!
But seriously, I'll be back.
#TimmyTakesDenmark2k15
#TimmyTakesDenmark2k??
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Sunday, November 22, 2015
One Man, Four Weeks, 975 Words
If you guys don't mind, I'm gonna skip the part where I usually make excuses for why I haven't written for the past four weeks. Instead, I'm gonna go ahead and recap a whole lot of stuff in as short as possible. Lots of stuff = no times for games. Or maybe just less games. There will probably still be games. Yeah, definitely expect games.
I've opened up my handy dandy calendar in order to go back and see what I have to recap because - let's be honest - I don't even remember the last time I blogged. Whoops.
Looking at my calendar, I realize I've travelled a lot in the past four weeks. In order to expedite this recap, I'm gonna break up this post into the cities I travelled to and mostly skip discussion on class and what my in-betweens have been filled with.
Amsterdam
WOW WHAT AN AWESOME PLACE. This city is beautiful, the canals were unbelievable, and the weather happened to be amazing the weekend I was there. It was also Halloween, which meant a swarm of American students, as well as students from all over Europe. My cousin Steve (hi Steve!) has lived in Amsterdam for quite a few years, so I got the chance to visit him and go around the city the first night, even with his broken leg. Other highlights of this trip included the Anne Frank House, the Rijksmuseum, the "I Amsterdam" sign, and of course, Van Stapele Koekmakerij, home of the world's best cookies. They were, in fact, the best cookies I've ever eaten in my life. Wow. Just wow.
Barcelona
After a week more of class, I took my last 10-day excursion with some friends, beginning with Barcelona. Within 10 minutes of getting off the plane, Barcelona became my favorite European city (but mostly because of the 75-degree weather). Barcelona is truly a city that never sleeps (which meant neither did we) and it has this unbelievable energy to it. Highlights of this trip included Park Güell, Sagrada Família, and Camp Nou for an FC Barcelona game. At the game, we sat sixth row behind the goal by the corner. It was amazing, and we got to witness one of the greatest goals of the year by Neymar, only about 100 feet away. Absolute craziness.
Florence
We technically spent the longest amount of time in Florence (four nights), but we had one full day trip to Rome. Florence was also breathtaking, and the weather was great while we were there. Highlights included Il Duomo di Firenze, Museo Galileo, nearly everly gelato shop we passed, and accidentally watching Pope Francis drive by in the pope mobile. Most Italians didn't seem to be that enthused by the pope's visit, mostly because it was just a normal Tuesday afternoon and I guess Rome is a little too close to Florence for a visit to warrant a large freakout. Georgetown has a villa right outside Florence in Fiesole and although we didn't get a chance to visit, we did get to hang out with maybe 30 fellow Hoyas in Italy. 'Twas a great time.
Rome
Although this was only a day trip (and we accidentally misread the time of our 5:50 am train, causing us to miss the train and forcing us to rebook it for 8:30 am), we stuffed in as much as we possibly could. Highlights here included the Sistine Chapel, the Courtyard of St. Peter's Basilica (because the line to enter was maybe 1,000 to 2,000 people long), the Colosseum, and the Pantheon. I visited Italy about 10 years ago with my family, but it was a bit disorienting visiting again as an "adult." Regardless, I loved Rome the second time around just as much.
Geneva
When originally planning trips, I had pushed for either Geneva or Zurich because of how beautiful I had heard Switzerland is. However, I also completely spaced on the "most expensive cities in the world" thing. Our trip became a combination of lots of walking and attempting to save money. Let me say though, Geneva is actually one of the cleanest, nicest, most racially/ethnically diverse cities I've ever been to. Highlights included Jet d'Eau, the United Nations, and the Red Cross Museum. I essentially only spent money on food, but still somehow spent the same amount as I had in every other city I've visited. Expensive was an understatement here.
So, that's my travel recap and those will be my last cities of this European whirlwind (save for an 8-hour layover in Oslo on my way back to New York for the end of the semester)! I would like to take a brief moment to pay homage to all those lost in the attacks in Paris, Beirut, Nigeria, Mali, Egypt, and more. Being in Europe while this crisis has been going on is definitely a frightening thing, but the solidarity expressed by citizens both around me and globally has been tremendous. I was planning on traveling to both Paris and Brussels, but I've cancelled both of those trips and I'll be remaining in Copenhagen for the remainder of my time abroad.
In brighter news, two of my siblings (Anna and Tony) have been visiting me in Copenhagen this past week and I've been their tour guide while they stay with me. I've gotten to revisit a lot of tourist spots around Copenhagen with them, as well as some spots I haven't yet visited, like Tivoli and a castle in Helsingør (about 45 minutes north of the city). It's been fun and I'm happy to have family around me!
Today officially marks three weeks until I return home to the states. I'll try to keep you all updated on my last few weeks in Copenhagen in the meantime, but I can't promise anything. I'll be home before you know it!
I've opened up my handy dandy calendar in order to go back and see what I have to recap because - let's be honest - I don't even remember the last time I blogged. Whoops.
Looking at my calendar, I realize I've travelled a lot in the past four weeks. In order to expedite this recap, I'm gonna break up this post into the cities I travelled to and mostly skip discussion on class and what my in-betweens have been filled with.
Amsterdam
WOW WHAT AN AWESOME PLACE. This city is beautiful, the canals were unbelievable, and the weather happened to be amazing the weekend I was there. It was also Halloween, which meant a swarm of American students, as well as students from all over Europe. My cousin Steve (hi Steve!) has lived in Amsterdam for quite a few years, so I got the chance to visit him and go around the city the first night, even with his broken leg. Other highlights of this trip included the Anne Frank House, the Rijksmuseum, the "I Amsterdam" sign, and of course, Van Stapele Koekmakerij, home of the world's best cookies. They were, in fact, the best cookies I've ever eaten in my life. Wow. Just wow.
Barcelona
After a week more of class, I took my last 10-day excursion with some friends, beginning with Barcelona. Within 10 minutes of getting off the plane, Barcelona became my favorite European city (but mostly because of the 75-degree weather). Barcelona is truly a city that never sleeps (which meant neither did we) and it has this unbelievable energy to it. Highlights of this trip included Park Güell, Sagrada Família, and Camp Nou for an FC Barcelona game. At the game, we sat sixth row behind the goal by the corner. It was amazing, and we got to witness one of the greatest goals of the year by Neymar, only about 100 feet away. Absolute craziness.
Florence
We technically spent the longest amount of time in Florence (four nights), but we had one full day trip to Rome. Florence was also breathtaking, and the weather was great while we were there. Highlights included Il Duomo di Firenze, Museo Galileo, nearly everly gelato shop we passed, and accidentally watching Pope Francis drive by in the pope mobile. Most Italians didn't seem to be that enthused by the pope's visit, mostly because it was just a normal Tuesday afternoon and I guess Rome is a little too close to Florence for a visit to warrant a large freakout. Georgetown has a villa right outside Florence in Fiesole and although we didn't get a chance to visit, we did get to hang out with maybe 30 fellow Hoyas in Italy. 'Twas a great time.
Rome
Although this was only a day trip (and we accidentally misread the time of our 5:50 am train, causing us to miss the train and forcing us to rebook it for 8:30 am), we stuffed in as much as we possibly could. Highlights here included the Sistine Chapel, the Courtyard of St. Peter's Basilica (because the line to enter was maybe 1,000 to 2,000 people long), the Colosseum, and the Pantheon. I visited Italy about 10 years ago with my family, but it was a bit disorienting visiting again as an "adult." Regardless, I loved Rome the second time around just as much.
Geneva
When originally planning trips, I had pushed for either Geneva or Zurich because of how beautiful I had heard Switzerland is. However, I also completely spaced on the "most expensive cities in the world" thing. Our trip became a combination of lots of walking and attempting to save money. Let me say though, Geneva is actually one of the cleanest, nicest, most racially/ethnically diverse cities I've ever been to. Highlights included Jet d'Eau, the United Nations, and the Red Cross Museum. I essentially only spent money on food, but still somehow spent the same amount as I had in every other city I've visited. Expensive was an understatement here.
So, that's my travel recap and those will be my last cities of this European whirlwind (save for an 8-hour layover in Oslo on my way back to New York for the end of the semester)! I would like to take a brief moment to pay homage to all those lost in the attacks in Paris, Beirut, Nigeria, Mali, Egypt, and more. Being in Europe while this crisis has been going on is definitely a frightening thing, but the solidarity expressed by citizens both around me and globally has been tremendous. I was planning on traveling to both Paris and Brussels, but I've cancelled both of those trips and I'll be remaining in Copenhagen for the remainder of my time abroad.
In brighter news, two of my siblings (Anna and Tony) have been visiting me in Copenhagen this past week and I've been their tour guide while they stay with me. I've gotten to revisit a lot of tourist spots around Copenhagen with them, as well as some spots I haven't yet visited, like Tivoli and a castle in Helsingør (about 45 minutes north of the city). It's been fun and I'm happy to have family around me!
Today officially marks three weeks until I return home to the states. I'll try to keep you all updated on my last few weeks in Copenhagen in the meantime, but I can't promise anything. I'll be home before you know it!
Monday, October 26, 2015
So About What I Said Last Time...
I lied. Like definitely lied. Sorry guys. I'm a liar.
In case you don't remember my lie, it went something like this: "let's pretend this month will be the one I post every Sunday." Fun fact - there are no more Sundays left in October. Whoops!
In all fairness, two Sundays ago I was amidst midterms and couldn't muster up enough lying power to pretend I was enjoying midterms. Last Sunday, I was in Germany. This past Sunday, I really wanted to watch TV.
Rewind!
Seriously, nothing exciting happened that first week I missed. I went to class, aced some midterms, and returned home to do work. I did make my first trip over to Sweden that Saturday though, which is surprising because Sweden is only a 30-minute train ride away. We visited Malmö and Lund, which aren't huge cities, but they have really cool architecture and urban design.
Malmö is split between an industrial half (which is completely devoid of people on weekends) and a more cultural half (which had a really cool fountain and a fake Chipotle). Lund is a younger, more lively city because of the university it houses, but because of the overcast weather, we gave up on trekking around and ended up in a nice cafe for some cake to top off the fake Chipotle.
The following week contained even more midterms and I think the only notable thing I did was check out the Rosenberg Castle in Copenhagen, which houses the crown jewels. Before you ask, no - I did not create a master plot to steal them. But thank you for asking; I appreciate it.
Alright, now we move into my awesome week in Germany. As I've mentioned before, this trip was to Berlin and Frankfurt with my core class, Video Game Development. There's 18 people in my class, plus our professor and academic director to round out the group to an even 20. We were gone early Sunday morning to late Friday night and we had a ~*blast*~. Seriously though, it was awesome.
We visited both gaming companies and cultural stops. I don't want to bore my interested readers with talk of nerd stuff, but some of these companies were unreal. Some produce video games (which is what I've been doing this semester), some create video game engines (which are then used to produce games), and some do 3D graphics and only do minimal gaming work. It was really cool to meet artists, animators, programmers, and everyone involved in making this industry worth billions of dollars.
As for cultural visits, Berlin held way more in store for us than Frankfurt did. Berlin visits included a city-wide bike tour, the Berlin Wall (multiple parts of it, including the amazing one with all the murals), the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Reichstag dome. A lot of people talked Frankfurt down because it's "boring," but my whole class thought Frankfurt was beautiful and well-designed. However, we didn't do many cultural visits so there's not much to talk about on that front.
Now let me just spend one paragraph talking about how unreal this food was. I cannot emphasize how luxurious this food was. Like wow. Who made this. Our study abroad institute paid for one group meal a day and they spent about as much money as it would take to feed me for a whole year. And I am not complaining. Pork this, duck that, lobster something. Tearing up just talking about this because I'll never eat that great again.
After we returned to Copenhagen, a few of my friends studying abroad in Dublin contacted me to let me know that they were visiting for the weekend, so I spent the past few days being a tour guide and food critic. I may just have a knack for one of those things. Scratch that, I may just have a knack for walking around and eating food.
Okay, I've thoroughly depressed myself with all this talk of deliciousness. I'll be headed to Amsterdam this weekend for Halloween, but I'll be back next week to start off your November right. Only seven weeks until I return home.
I'll be back soon. Mark your calendars - and mark my words!
In case you don't remember my lie, it went something like this: "let's pretend this month will be the one I post every Sunday." Fun fact - there are no more Sundays left in October. Whoops!
In all fairness, two Sundays ago I was amidst midterms and couldn't muster up enough lying power to pretend I was enjoying midterms. Last Sunday, I was in Germany. This past Sunday, I really wanted to watch TV.
Rewind!
Seriously, nothing exciting happened that first week I missed. I went to class, aced some midterms, and returned home to do work. I did make my first trip over to Sweden that Saturday though, which is surprising because Sweden is only a 30-minute train ride away. We visited Malmö and Lund, which aren't huge cities, but they have really cool architecture and urban design.
Malmö is split between an industrial half (which is completely devoid of people on weekends) and a more cultural half (which had a really cool fountain and a fake Chipotle). Lund is a younger, more lively city because of the university it houses, but because of the overcast weather, we gave up on trekking around and ended up in a nice cafe for some cake to top off the fake Chipotle.
The following week contained even more midterms and I think the only notable thing I did was check out the Rosenberg Castle in Copenhagen, which houses the crown jewels. Before you ask, no - I did not create a master plot to steal them. But thank you for asking; I appreciate it.
Alright, now we move into my awesome week in Germany. As I've mentioned before, this trip was to Berlin and Frankfurt with my core class, Video Game Development. There's 18 people in my class, plus our professor and academic director to round out the group to an even 20. We were gone early Sunday morning to late Friday night and we had a ~*blast*~. Seriously though, it was awesome.
We visited both gaming companies and cultural stops. I don't want to bore my interested readers with talk of nerd stuff, but some of these companies were unreal. Some produce video games (which is what I've been doing this semester), some create video game engines (which are then used to produce games), and some do 3D graphics and only do minimal gaming work. It was really cool to meet artists, animators, programmers, and everyone involved in making this industry worth billions of dollars.
As for cultural visits, Berlin held way more in store for us than Frankfurt did. Berlin visits included a city-wide bike tour, the Berlin Wall (multiple parts of it, including the amazing one with all the murals), the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Reichstag dome. A lot of people talked Frankfurt down because it's "boring," but my whole class thought Frankfurt was beautiful and well-designed. However, we didn't do many cultural visits so there's not much to talk about on that front.
Now let me just spend one paragraph talking about how unreal this food was. I cannot emphasize how luxurious this food was. Like wow. Who made this. Our study abroad institute paid for one group meal a day and they spent about as much money as it would take to feed me for a whole year. And I am not complaining. Pork this, duck that, lobster something. Tearing up just talking about this because I'll never eat that great again.
After we returned to Copenhagen, a few of my friends studying abroad in Dublin contacted me to let me know that they were visiting for the weekend, so I spent the past few days being a tour guide and food critic. I may just have a knack for one of those things. Scratch that, I may just have a knack for walking around and eating food.
Okay, I've thoroughly depressed myself with all this talk of deliciousness. I'll be headed to Amsterdam this weekend for Halloween, but I'll be back next week to start off your November right. Only seven weeks until I return home.
I'll be back soon. Mark your calendars - and mark my words!
Sunday, October 4, 2015
Before You Say Anything...
...yes, I have not written anything in three weeks. Do I have a good excuse? I don't know, does four cities, lots of game-making, and even a run-in with the law count as a good excuse?!
Let's backtrack, shall we?
I attended lots of school while not writing this post, but I also didn't attend lots of school either. Our program allows for a lot of travel, so they give us two weeks of class, followed by one week of either independent travel or travel with your core class (my gaming class). Seeing as how my travel with my core class isn't until two weeks from now, I had this past week off for independent travel. And boy, did I travel.
But wait, I forgot to backtrack more. Those two weeks were filled with school. I'm sorry I don't have exciting recaps for note-taking, test-acing, or completing assignments, but I'll work on that for next time when I don't have to recap as much. That first weekend I traveled to Munich to experience one of the wonders of the world - Oktoberfest.
Now, I had an unfortunate and unwarranted interaction with security, which I documented in some public Facebook posts here and a necessary clarification post here. Before you ask, I'm fine. In fact, I'd go so far as to say I'm great. We all face adversity in life and I believe it makes us better. And also, I have way too much to recap in this post to focus on this already heavily documented topic.
Let's get to a fun recap!
During my next exhilarating week of class (not gonna lie - I actually am thoroughly enjoying all my classes, but I don't think recapping class is too exciting for you guys), I attended a hygge dinner with some fellow students and it was fantastic. I linked to that section of that Wikipedia page because the concept of "hygge" is impossible to fully explain, but Wikipedia is the master articulator.
After enduring my exhausting two full weeks of class (please note the sarcasm here), I finally got a break. I traveled with a few of my friends to Prague, Vienna, and Budapest. Eight days of being the best tourist I could possibly be - waking up bright and early to ride a double-decker tourist bus around each city and taking pictures of literally everything remotely interesting, and then somehow mustering up the energy to experience the nightlife of whichever city I was in (even if it was Vienna on a Tuesday night).
Prague was gorgeous, but super touristy and maybe a little bit sketchy. They love their bridges and I dug them, too. Lots of walking in this one and way too crowded because we were there Saturday to Monday, aka tourist time. Overall, my least favorite of the three cities, but only because the other two were so awesome.
Vienna, oh Vienna, how I love thee. We spent the longest amount of time here - three nights from Monday to Thursday. This city is full of life, history, and reminded me a lot of something my dad would enjoy. (Hi Baba!) However, this was one of those things that even I enjoy, too. Highlights of this city include:
Finally, we move to Budapest. Here's a highlight: 1 USD equals about 280 Hungarian Forint. Here's another highlight: I felt like I was the king of Hungary. I spoiled myself and still managed to spend less than in any other city I've been to thus far. #BallinOnABudapestBudget. The city itself is beautiful, the architecture is unreal, and the Parliament makes me salivate (I was also under the impression that I was rich enough in Hungary to actually just live there, but even I know that's not possible with my bank account). I returned to Copenhagen Saturday night and I'm still working on catching up on sleep, but I'll get back to you on that.
And there we are - Sunday. Welcome to October. Ignoring the fact that I only posted once in September, let's pretend this month will be the one I post every Sunday. C'est la vie (I had a layover in Brussels and am now fluent in French). Until next time, whenever that may be!
It'll be next Sunday. Seriously.
Let's backtrack, shall we?
I attended lots of school while not writing this post, but I also didn't attend lots of school either. Our program allows for a lot of travel, so they give us two weeks of class, followed by one week of either independent travel or travel with your core class (my gaming class). Seeing as how my travel with my core class isn't until two weeks from now, I had this past week off for independent travel. And boy, did I travel.
But wait, I forgot to backtrack more. Those two weeks were filled with school. I'm sorry I don't have exciting recaps for note-taking, test-acing, or completing assignments, but I'll work on that for next time when I don't have to recap as much. That first weekend I traveled to Munich to experience one of the wonders of the world - Oktoberfest.
Now, I had an unfortunate and unwarranted interaction with security, which I documented in some public Facebook posts here and a necessary clarification post here. Before you ask, I'm fine. In fact, I'd go so far as to say I'm great. We all face adversity in life and I believe it makes us better. And also, I have way too much to recap in this post to focus on this already heavily documented topic.
Let's get to a fun recap!
During my next exhilarating week of class (not gonna lie - I actually am thoroughly enjoying all my classes, but I don't think recapping class is too exciting for you guys), I attended a hygge dinner with some fellow students and it was fantastic. I linked to that section of that Wikipedia page because the concept of "hygge" is impossible to fully explain, but Wikipedia is the master articulator.
After enduring my exhausting two full weeks of class (please note the sarcasm here), I finally got a break. I traveled with a few of my friends to Prague, Vienna, and Budapest. Eight days of being the best tourist I could possibly be - waking up bright and early to ride a double-decker tourist bus around each city and taking pictures of literally everything remotely interesting, and then somehow mustering up the energy to experience the nightlife of whichever city I was in (even if it was Vienna on a Tuesday night).
Prague was gorgeous, but super touristy and maybe a little bit sketchy. They love their bridges and I dug them, too. Lots of walking in this one and way too crowded because we were there Saturday to Monday, aka tourist time. Overall, my least favorite of the three cities, but only because the other two were so awesome.
Vienna, oh Vienna, how I love thee. We spent the longest amount of time here - three nights from Monday to Thursday. This city is full of life, history, and reminded me a lot of something my dad would enjoy. (Hi Baba!) However, this was one of those things that even I enjoy, too. Highlights of this city include:
- Wurstelprater (the oldest amusement park in the world)
- Schönbrunn Palace (a former imperial summer palace, which has the craziest backyard I've ever seen)
- Viennese Sausage (IT'S A HUGE HOT DOG FILLED WITH CHEESE AND THEN THROWN IN A BAGUETTE, WHO DOES THAT, IT WAS AMAZING)
Finally, we move to Budapest. Here's a highlight: 1 USD equals about 280 Hungarian Forint. Here's another highlight: I felt like I was the king of Hungary. I spoiled myself and still managed to spend less than in any other city I've been to thus far. #BallinOnABudapestBudget. The city itself is beautiful, the architecture is unreal, and the Parliament makes me salivate (I was also under the impression that I was rich enough in Hungary to actually just live there, but even I know that's not possible with my bank account). I returned to Copenhagen Saturday night and I'm still working on catching up on sleep, but I'll get back to you on that.
And there we are - Sunday. Welcome to October. Ignoring the fact that I only posted once in September, let's pretend this month will be the one I post every Sunday. C'est la vie (I had a layover in Brussels and am now fluent in French). Until next time, whenever that may be!
It'll be next Sunday. Seriously.
Monday, September 14, 2015
The Two-Week Recap
Well well well, look who it is. Where exactly have you been the past two weeks, Tim?
I don't know, reader - where haven't I been the past two weeks?
Short answer is most of the world. Long answer is everywhere except Denmark and Spain. But they were cool enough to suffice. Welcome back to Timmy's blog. Buckle up, because I got some 'splaining to do. About two blog posts worth of 'splaining to be exact.
For the most part, that first week of September was pretty uneventful. Classes, sightseeing, and biking are daily activities, so there's not much to report on that front. However, I experienced my first of many weekend excursions out of the country. First stop? Madrid, Spain.
*Cue flamenco music.*
Now, I've been to Madrid before. But let me tell you, there's a big difference between being a 16-year-old on a religious trip with your mom and being a 20-year-old on a weekend trip with your friends. And the winner of the biggest difference goes to... your sleep schedule! Thanks to all differences for participating in this competition and we invite you to participate next time, when we discuss the differences between being 10 and 20 years old in Rome (but we'll get there soon enough).
Our flight landed on Friday night landed at 12:30 am and I think we slept a total of seven or eight hours over the course of the weekend. Between experiencing a nightlife in a country where people eat dinner at 11 pm and sleep at 6 am and attempting to be the ultimate tourist at 9 am (taking selfies and all), it's a tough life. But hey, someone's gotta do it.
Tourist locations included:
And of course paella and tapas, because what is another country without food? The weekend was awesome and I returned refreshed (obviously from all the sleep) and ready to go back to class...
Just kidding, we didn't have class last week! Instead, we spent the week with our core class, which in my case is my six-credit Video Game class with accompanying lab. 18 students, 1 professor, ready to take on Denmark, video games, and the world.
In the first two days, we checked out a cool video game company called Io-Interactive, attended a "PLAY" exhibit at a small museum (which actually just means we played video games in a museum), and we participated in some coding challenges. Oh, and how could I forget - we LARPed.
For those of you unclear of the concept of Live Action Role-Playing, it's when you dress up in medieval gear, grab swords, as well as bow and arrows, and duke it out. For those of you unsure of what "duke it out" means, I'm sorry you've dated yourself here. #90sKid4Life
The latter half of our week consisted of us traveling an hour away to a small folk high school in the Danish countryside called Vallekilde Højskole. A folk high school is essentially an in-between stage for high school and college students to take classes without homework or exams for the sake of learning and figuring out what they want to do with their life before they get their free Danish education in a specialized field. Classic Denmark, coming in clutch.
Anyway, my class participated in a GameJam with the local students, where we broke up into groups to create video games in the span of a few days. My group created a possible underwater Flappy Bird ripoff which will probably make us millions of dollars one day. And we also came in third place (out of like nine, so I think that's pretty impressive).
I've been typing for a while and I'm bored of myself now. And I think you're fully caught up on my life! I'm back to classes this week, but look forward to next week's installment of "Timmy Pretends He's Going To Post Every Sunday."
Vi ses!
I don't know, reader - where haven't I been the past two weeks?
Short answer is most of the world. Long answer is everywhere except Denmark and Spain. But they were cool enough to suffice. Welcome back to Timmy's blog. Buckle up, because I got some 'splaining to do. About two blog posts worth of 'splaining to be exact.
For the most part, that first week of September was pretty uneventful. Classes, sightseeing, and biking are daily activities, so there's not much to report on that front. However, I experienced my first of many weekend excursions out of the country. First stop? Madrid, Spain.
*Cue flamenco music.*
Now, I've been to Madrid before. But let me tell you, there's a big difference between being a 16-year-old on a religious trip with your mom and being a 20-year-old on a weekend trip with your friends. And the winner of the biggest difference goes to... your sleep schedule! Thanks to all differences for participating in this competition and we invite you to participate next time, when we discuss the differences between being 10 and 20 years old in Rome (but we'll get there soon enough).
Our flight landed on Friday night landed at 12:30 am and I think we slept a total of seven or eight hours over the course of the weekend. Between experiencing a nightlife in a country where people eat dinner at 11 pm and sleep at 6 am and attempting to be the ultimate tourist at 9 am (taking selfies and all), it's a tough life. But hey, someone's gotta do it.
Tourist locations included:
- Museo Nacional del Prado (Prado Museum)
- Santiago Bernabéu Stadium (Real Madrid Stadium)
- El Retiro Park (this is just an awesome park)
- Palacio Real de Madrid (Royal Palace of Madrid)
And of course paella and tapas, because what is another country without food? The weekend was awesome and I returned refreshed (obviously from all the sleep) and ready to go back to class...
Just kidding, we didn't have class last week! Instead, we spent the week with our core class, which in my case is my six-credit Video Game class with accompanying lab. 18 students, 1 professor, ready to take on Denmark, video games, and the world.
In the first two days, we checked out a cool video game company called Io-Interactive, attended a "PLAY" exhibit at a small museum (which actually just means we played video games in a museum), and we participated in some coding challenges. Oh, and how could I forget - we LARPed.
For those of you unclear of the concept of Live Action Role-Playing, it's when you dress up in medieval gear, grab swords, as well as bow and arrows, and duke it out. For those of you unsure of what "duke it out" means, I'm sorry you've dated yourself here. #90sKid4Life
The latter half of our week consisted of us traveling an hour away to a small folk high school in the Danish countryside called Vallekilde Højskole. A folk high school is essentially an in-between stage for high school and college students to take classes without homework or exams for the sake of learning and figuring out what they want to do with their life before they get their free Danish education in a specialized field. Classic Denmark, coming in clutch.
Anyway, my class participated in a GameJam with the local students, where we broke up into groups to create video games in the span of a few days. My group created a possible underwater Flappy Bird ripoff which will probably make us millions of dollars one day. And we also came in third place (out of like nine, so I think that's pretty impressive).
I've been typing for a while and I'm bored of myself now. And I think you're fully caught up on my life! I'm back to classes this week, but look forward to next week's installment of "Timmy Pretends He's Going To Post Every Sunday."
Vi ses!
Monday, August 31, 2015
Timmy the Scholar
So I lied about the whole every Sunday thing; however, in my defense, Monday is only one day after Sunday. Don't believe me? Check your calendars. Check them all.
I've finally begun my second full week of classes, or as I like to call it, the week when real work begins. No more syllabus. No more "getting back into it." It's here. Have fun. Good luck. Welcome to... ~*September*~.
Although September doesn't begin until tomorrow, it already feels like it's in full swing. We've had rain nearly every day this week and nightly temperatures are dropping faster than my tolerance for Donald Trump's "campaign." On that note, I couldn't count the number of Danes who ask me everyday if the USA is seriously considering electing Trump. My answer is always the same - either Americans are joking or I'm moving to Canada.
On the topic of Canada and off the topic of politics, The Weeknd just dropped his newest album this "weeknd" (pun 100% intended) and it is definitely one of the highlights of my week. This was a difficult feat to accomplish, seeing as how other highlights included food (this is always its own highlight) and spending the weekend at my host family's summer house in some Northern coastal woods with them and their friends. It was amazing. I always forget how calming the silence of the ever-scary woods at night is, regardless of however real the imminent threat of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre guy flying over to the Danish countryside is (very real).
Anyway, let's bring this back to classes. Here's some courses you won't remember reading later when you ask what I studied this semester:
I've finally begun my second full week of classes, or as I like to call it, the week when real work begins. No more syllabus. No more "getting back into it." It's here. Have fun. Good luck. Welcome to... ~*September*~.
Although September doesn't begin until tomorrow, it already feels like it's in full swing. We've had rain nearly every day this week and nightly temperatures are dropping faster than my tolerance for Donald Trump's "campaign." On that note, I couldn't count the number of Danes who ask me everyday if the USA is seriously considering electing Trump. My answer is always the same - either Americans are joking or I'm moving to Canada.
On the topic of Canada and off the topic of politics, The Weeknd just dropped his newest album this "weeknd" (pun 100% intended) and it is definitely one of the highlights of my week. This was a difficult feat to accomplish, seeing as how other highlights included food (this is always its own highlight) and spending the weekend at my host family's summer house in some Northern coastal woods with them and their friends. It was amazing. I always forget how calming the silence of the ever-scary woods at night is, regardless of however real the imminent threat of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre guy flying over to the Danish countryside is (very real).
Anyway, let's bring this back to classes. Here's some courses you won't remember reading later when you ask what I studied this semester:
- Video Game Development (with lab)
- Danish Language & Culture
- Conspiracy Theories & Historical Controversies
- Television & Culture
Now that's what I like to call 15 credits of fun (maybe not so much that last one right now, but we'll get back to that eventually). My professors are all pretty cool and well-versed in their respective fields, so studying here really feels like a unique experience. Nerding it up in Video Game development, and I'm totally loving my two three-hour gaming classes a week.
As you can clearly see, I have returned to my scholarly roots. Timmy the Scholar has returned. Hide your books. Hide your calculators. Because he's back. And his intellectual curiosity is increasing rapidly. Maybe even... exponentially.
Sunday, August 23, 2015
#TheReappearance
Greetings fans of the world and everyone else, aka soon-to-be fans!
You may have noticed that I haven't written a post in a while (and by that I mean my first and only one), since before I even left for Copenhagen a week and a half ago. I'm not one to get into details, but recaps are all the rage right now.
After a surprisingly short 8-hour flight, an exhausting 6-hour time change, and only one brief what-am-I-doing cry on the plane, I arrived in Denmark on August 15, #ready. My host family picked me up from the airport and I had officially said "See you later!" to America.
That was until two days later, when I was swarmed by 1,200 other American students at orientation. I ran into dozens of Georgetown students without even trying. Regardless, I think I've done a good job balancing meeting Americans and Danes, partly because I seek out Danes, but mostly because my host family does a great job of keeping me involved in Danish culture.
I definitely made the right decision in choosing to live in a homestay, especially because my host family is the coolest and we live right in the city, so I'm still connected to everyone around me. Plus, I've regained my flawless physique from the inordinate amount of biking I do on my bike made for "short" people, which in Denmark is still a few inches taller than my 5'10" frame. It's been difficult dealing with how short I am here. Seriously, what do these people eat and why isn't it working for me yet?!
As far as classes go, they just started last Thursday, but I'm really not deep enough into those to even give some feedback on that so we're just gonna skip this topic for now. Don't worry mom and dad, I won't forget to study. Then again, let's not make any promises right now.
In terms of traveling the globe, I spent way too much money this weekend booking flights everywhere and back. I'll be traveling to Munich, Madrid, Amsterdam, Paris, and way more in the coming months, but we'll get to those when I get to those, ja feel?
I think I've covered all bases with this post, but let's do a recap just to make sure. Topics covered in this post:
I definitely made the right decision in choosing to live in a homestay, especially because my host family is the coolest and we live right in the city, so I'm still connected to everyone around me. Plus, I've regained my flawless physique from the inordinate amount of biking I do on my bike made for "short" people, which in Denmark is still a few inches taller than my 5'10" frame. It's been difficult dealing with how short I am here. Seriously, what do these people eat and why isn't it working for me yet?!
As far as classes go, they just started last Thursday, but I'm really not deep enough into those to even give some feedback on that so we're just gonna skip this topic for now. Don't worry mom and dad, I won't forget to study. Then again, let's not make any promises right now.
In terms of traveling the globe, I spent way too much money this weekend booking flights everywhere and back. I'll be traveling to Munich, Madrid, Amsterdam, Paris, and way more in the coming months, but we'll get to those when I get to those, ja feel?
I think I've covered all bases with this post, but let's do a recap just to make sure. Topics covered in this post:
- Classes (barely)
- Traveling (or rather, travel planning)
- The dopest host family known to man (but I'll definitely post more on them soon)
- Meeting people (and being #social)
- Biking (aka the third best way to travel after time travel and flying like Superman)
- Spending all my money / going broke (definitely more on this later)
Well, I think that's it for this one! Also, I've decided to write posts on Sundays to give myself some structure and keep me posting regularly. And of course because all you subscribers need a riveting Sunday night tale to start the week off right.
Ciao for now. Or as we say in Danish, hej hej!
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Counting the Hours...
I would be lying if I said that I've already started packing. Honestly, I'd be lying if I even said that I was sure I have everything I need. But I wouldn't be lying if I said that I'm excited to fly out of JFK this Friday night at 11 pm.
For those of you who have no idea what's going on in this blog, let me rewind. I was born on a dark Friday evening many moons ago...
Actually, that's probably a bit too far back to be relevant to this story. Let's jump forward to 2015. This past spring semester, I applied to the Danish Institute of Study Abroad through Georgetown University's acclaimed study abroad program and I was accepted to study Video Game Development for this upcoming semester in Copenhagen, Denmark.
I spent this past summer doing software development at an awesome healthcare tech startup in NYC and, having ended my internship only a few short days ago, I'm still suffering through extreme coffee withdrawals and incessant headaches. All in all though, I'd say I had a great summer working on stuff I actually enjoyed and meeting cool people.
And in just a few short sentences, we return to the present. As I sat in my bed mere minutes ago, staring at an empty suitcase and an overflowing laundry hamper, I thought - wow, I'm so excited to go abroad and to procrastinate packing. So excited, in fact, that I want to keep a journal capturing my worldly experience as a tech nerd leaving the nest, or, in this metaphor, the computer. But what better way to journal than to blog for all the world (or just my mom) to read? In other words, give me back my computer.
So I began this blog as a way to keep track of my semester, as well as act as a memory of times past when I'm old and in my 30s, in need of a good cry and something to remind me of the excitement my life once contained.
There you have it. An introductory blog post. We're officially off, guys. Just three short days away from flying some 4,000 miles to a new world. We are 20. We are young. And we are going to rock the socks off Denmark's metaphorical feet. Let's get it.
#TimmyTakesDenmark2k15