I apologize for my lack of attention to this blog! I was counting on being better at updating it, but lately I've just been so busy trying to settle in in my new school. This semester is already panning out to be fairly busy, but I'm glad I'll have some more variety here. My classes only meet once a week, so I only have class Monday-Wednesday. And to fill in the rest of my time, I've signed up to teach English at a rural primary school in HK on Thursdays! I'm also planning several trips already...like Taiwan for Chinese New Year!! Jenny and I are going to show our friends around since we talk so much about Taiwan and how much we love it.
Basically, I arrived here on the 30th with my mom and sister, and we spent a fun week exploring the island and mainland, and eating LOTS of awesome dim sum!! It was so nice to have them there to help me move in. My room already feels much more homey than my room in Denmark. Though there are ups and downs for each place, but I'm not complaining! I actually have a prime location in my flat with 8 masters/PhD students. I am not on the hallway of rooms, instead my room is in a corner of the flat with a half bath, so I consider it a super suite! Seven of my roomies are from the mainland, and one is an older PhD student from Taiwan. She's helped me out so much, and I feel lucky to have so much help here!
I've mostly been busy with getting everything I need here, books, etc. And catching up on homework, there's not too much yet, but I am definitely behind. I don't know where the time goes!!! On that note, I'm going to get working on cover letters due this week...
Sorry again for the randomness!
Anyway, the three girls spent
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Thursday, December 11, 2008
One Semester Down...
Well, I've completed one semester abroad. This may be cliche, but I've definitely learned a lot this semester about myself, about others and become much more independent. I've learned how to cook...well, my version of cooking. I mean, I've survived. It's impossible to even name all of the experiences I've had since I've come here. At first, I felt sad being away from my friends, but then I grew to love Copenhagen! It's funny to think I've never considered studying abroad here before the GLOBE program, but I think it's a great city, but maybe not the best schooling..
Some of the discussions I've had lately with Jenny are about what we will take away from this semester. One thing we agree on: we are not taking away CBS. I definitely learned a lot about business and management here, but the actual system is nowhere near where it should be. Also, the exams are unbelievably subjective. There was a huge grade discrepancy in my oral exam for Organizational Behavior since we had two different examinators, though there is a censor there, so maybe the grades will even out. Either way, I'm fine with the grades I've gotten so far! Though, I have to wait a month and a half before one more is posted for my written exam.
I know this has been short, but I need to finish packing. I'll be on a plane in about 9 hours!
Some of the discussions I've had lately with Jenny are about what we will take away from this semester. One thing we agree on: we are not taking away CBS. I definitely learned a lot about business and management here, but the actual system is nowhere near where it should be. Also, the exams are unbelievably subjective. There was a huge grade discrepancy in my oral exam for Organizational Behavior since we had two different examinators, though there is a censor there, so maybe the grades will even out. Either way, I'm fine with the grades I've gotten so far! Though, I have to wait a month and a half before one more is posted for my written exam.
I know this has been short, but I need to finish packing. I'll be on a plane in about 9 hours!
Friday, November 28, 2008
Thanksgiving in Copenhagen
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!
Since Thanksgiving isn't really a big thing outside of the US, I spent my thanksgiving with my sister. We started out the morning by going to the Carlsberg Brewery Visitor's Center. We learned a LOT about beer, and the history of Carlsberg. Then we were able to test 2 at the end. I only tested one..since I don't like beer. While we were sitting there, some school band from Norway came in and started playing music? Quite bazaar, but interesting nonetheless.
Then we prepared for our evening out! We went to Tivoli, which is an old amusement park here. They transform it into a Christmas wonderland from mid-November to Christmas, and there's tons of stalls everywhere selling christmas trinkets and goodies. I tried some Glogg, which is a traditional Danish Chrstimas drink. It's mulled red wine that is served warm with almonds, spices, and some kind of fruit..maybe raisins? But it turned out to be too sweet and made my tummy sad :( But, my tummy was quite happy when we got to dinner. We ate at Herman Restaurant, and had a 4-course meal. Just a rundown of the courses: bisque with scallops and mushrooms; some kind of white fish with bacon, onions, and apple; smoked duck with duck and potatoes on the side; lots of traditional danish cakes and some kind of amazing dessert that looked like art. My descriptions don't do them justice. This was perhaps, the most fabulous, sumptuous dinner I've ever had in my LIFE. They even served little extras at the beginning, including the fanciest pork rinds my sister and I have ever seen. They were served in an airtight jar, and opened the jar at the table, and a puff of steam came out. Wow.
After dinner, we rushed to see a hip hop version of the Nutcracker. Amazing dancing and show, but there was a lot of dialogue in Danish, so we didn't understand anything. And I'm not quite sure how it resembled the nutcracker at all. But at least we saw cool dancing?
And now we're back. Stuffed, yet satisfied. So, despite the lack of Thanksgiving-ness in Copenhagen, I still had a day full of delicious food!
Hope everyone had a filling Thanksgiving, and you're probably all falling asleep by now because of the tryptophan.
Since Thanksgiving isn't really a big thing outside of the US, I spent my thanksgiving with my sister. We started out the morning by going to the Carlsberg Brewery Visitor's Center. We learned a LOT about beer, and the history of Carlsberg. Then we were able to test 2 at the end. I only tested one..since I don't like beer. While we were sitting there, some school band from Norway came in and started playing music? Quite bazaar, but interesting nonetheless.
Then we prepared for our evening out! We went to Tivoli, which is an old amusement park here. They transform it into a Christmas wonderland from mid-November to Christmas, and there's tons of stalls everywhere selling christmas trinkets and goodies. I tried some Glogg, which is a traditional Danish Chrstimas drink. It's mulled red wine that is served warm with almonds, spices, and some kind of fruit..maybe raisins? But it turned out to be too sweet and made my tummy sad :( But, my tummy was quite happy when we got to dinner. We ate at Herman Restaurant, and had a 4-course meal. Just a rundown of the courses: bisque with scallops and mushrooms; some kind of white fish with bacon, onions, and apple; smoked duck with duck and potatoes on the side; lots of traditional danish cakes and some kind of amazing dessert that looked like art. My descriptions don't do them justice. This was perhaps, the most fabulous, sumptuous dinner I've ever had in my LIFE. They even served little extras at the beginning, including the fanciest pork rinds my sister and I have ever seen. They were served in an airtight jar, and opened the jar at the table, and a puff of steam came out. Wow.
After dinner, we rushed to see a hip hop version of the Nutcracker. Amazing dancing and show, but there was a lot of dialogue in Danish, so we didn't understand anything. And I'm not quite sure how it resembled the nutcracker at all. But at least we saw cool dancing?
And now we're back. Stuffed, yet satisfied. So, despite the lack of Thanksgiving-ness in Copenhagen, I still had a day full of delicious food!
Hope everyone had a filling Thanksgiving, and you're probably all falling asleep by now because of the tryptophan.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Changes
Hello all!!!
I know I've been absolutely awful at posting on this blog this semester, but I guess I just get so caught up in my own personal travel journal, traveling, and school. I promise I will provide more updates about the rest of my trip to Italy, but as for now I have to announce some changes in my schedule. But first, let's start with a story....
Before I left for Brussels, I was spending the day window shopping and just walking around Stroget; it had been far too long since I had done that! I realized all of the stores had window displays up ready for Christmas, and one of the large department stories was blaring Christmas music. All of the sudden, it hit me. I wanted to be home, and I wanted it to be Christmas. Thus, the onset of some homesickness, it's not affecting my everyday life here or anything, but I decided to look into the possibilities of having my flight changed. Originally, I was coming home the 18th, but now, due to some luck and changes in prices, I am coming home the evening of the 12th!!! Can't wait to see you all.
xoxo
Jamie
P.S. I've been watching way too much Gossip Girl...
I know I've been absolutely awful at posting on this blog this semester, but I guess I just get so caught up in my own personal travel journal, traveling, and school. I promise I will provide more updates about the rest of my trip to Italy, but as for now I have to announce some changes in my schedule. But first, let's start with a story....
Before I left for Brussels, I was spending the day window shopping and just walking around Stroget; it had been far too long since I had done that! I realized all of the stores had window displays up ready for Christmas, and one of the large department stories was blaring Christmas music. All of the sudden, it hit me. I wanted to be home, and I wanted it to be Christmas. Thus, the onset of some homesickness, it's not affecting my everyday life here or anything, but I decided to look into the possibilities of having my flight changed. Originally, I was coming home the 18th, but now, due to some luck and changes in prices, I am coming home the evening of the 12th!!! Can't wait to see you all.
xoxo
Jamie
P.S. I've been watching way too much Gossip Girl...
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Venice
After Milan, we left on a train the next morning to go to Venice! Our hotel was on Mestre, which is a small island right outside of Venice, so we had to take a bus to get to the island. Once we were there, it was overwhelming how picturesque everything was. Especially compared to Milan! I was actually slightly disappointed with Milan in comparison to the other cities, but it still had its perks.
We grabbed lunch at an Italian cafeteria and just started wandering the streets. There were street vendors EVERYWHERE, and I heard a lot of American voices. By the end of the day, we concluded that Venice is like DisneyLand, because there are so many tourists and it's almost too beautiful to be a city. But it's definitely easy to get lost in Venice because there are so many side streets and narrow alleys between the tall buildings. We got so lost that we didn't even make it to St. Mark's Basilica in time, or the Doge's Palace. But at least we got to go up the bell tower right as the sun was setting. Before that we went on a gondola ride, and heard all about the history of Venice and the different buildings we passed. We even got to see Marco Polo's house, and Casanova's!
Venice also had tons of glass, masks, and bakeries everywhere! Every single time I passed a bakery I wanted to buy something because everything looked so delicious, and I could always smell the yummyness! I eventually gave in and bought some pistachio bread, just because it was green. I thought it would be interesting, lol. It definitely wasn't as soft as normal bread, it was like eating biscotti, or a giant round cookie. Needless to say, it was really really good.
Just a note to those who may travel to Venice, don't take bathrooms for granted! We had to sneak into restaurants all day to use the bathroom! Otherwise you have to pay over one euro to use the public restrooms which are probably disgusting. Actually...come to think of it, since we walked all day during our entire trip, we ducked into a lot of different restaurants to use the bathroom...yea..that's all for now, haha!
Oh, and here's a little gift, I finally uploaded some pictures!! I haven't added descriptions to all of them yet, and I definitely haven't uploaded everything, but I will soon! I have so much work to catch up on.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jsueyang/Venice#
For your convenience, I also added a link to the right for my album gallery!
We grabbed lunch at an Italian cafeteria and just started wandering the streets. There were street vendors EVERYWHERE, and I heard a lot of American voices. By the end of the day, we concluded that Venice is like DisneyLand, because there are so many tourists and it's almost too beautiful to be a city. But it's definitely easy to get lost in Venice because there are so many side streets and narrow alleys between the tall buildings. We got so lost that we didn't even make it to St. Mark's Basilica in time, or the Doge's Palace. But at least we got to go up the bell tower right as the sun was setting. Before that we went on a gondola ride, and heard all about the history of Venice and the different buildings we passed. We even got to see Marco Polo's house, and Casanova's!
Venice also had tons of glass, masks, and bakeries everywhere! Every single time I passed a bakery I wanted to buy something because everything looked so delicious, and I could always smell the yummyness! I eventually gave in and bought some pistachio bread, just because it was green. I thought it would be interesting, lol. It definitely wasn't as soft as normal bread, it was like eating biscotti, or a giant round cookie. Needless to say, it was really really good.
Just a note to those who may travel to Venice, don't take bathrooms for granted! We had to sneak into restaurants all day to use the bathroom! Otherwise you have to pay over one euro to use the public restrooms which are probably disgusting. Actually...come to think of it, since we walked all day during our entire trip, we ducked into a lot of different restaurants to use the bathroom...yea..that's all for now, haha!
Oh, and here's a little gift, I finally uploaded some pictures!! I haven't added descriptions to all of them yet, and I definitely haven't uploaded everything, but I will soon! I have so much work to catch up on.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jsueyang/Venice#
For your convenience, I also added a link to the right for my album gallery!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
The First of Many
Right after I got back from Berlin I got to studying for my Strategic Management exam, which was on Thursday. I also had to catch up on my reading for International Management. I have International Management at 8am on Wednesday, that morning my laptop charger short circuited, or something like that. I plugged it in, saw a spark, which can be normal, but I also heard a buzz sound, and noticed a burnt smell. Alas, my charger was dead. I went to a store selling Apple after class and they gave me the AppleCare number. Turns out I can get a brand new one for free! Yay! Hopefully it'll be here in a few days. My sunglasses also broke Wednesday morning right as class was starting, so it was really hard to concentrate. Needless to say, it was a bad morning. The one positive that I found out of the mess was the fact that I got tons of studying done on Wednesday since I didn't have a computer.
The next morning I had my exam, and right when I was done, I had to rush back to my room and pack for my trip to Italy and Paris!!! We left around 4ish and got to our hostel in Milan around 8ish? We went to dinner at a place on the corner that seemed to be really homey. I had a simple penne pasta with spicy tomato sauce. We quickly learned that Italy's restaurants like to have "seating charges" just for sitting and eating. I also learned that it is nearly impossible to find a pasta dish with meat and sauce. You can either order pasta and sauce, or meat, not both. All of the dishes were simple. I was really surprised...
The next day we walked all around Milan, we were seriously on our feet for probably 8 hours. But we saw all of the big sights. The "Wedding Cake" Cathedral, Sforzesca Castle, and the shopping street. It was easy to figure out the metro system, and how to get around. Milan was huge though! It had more of a city feel to it, so it took some getting used to after living in Copenhagen.
This is just a super short update for now, I will write more about my trip soon! And post pics once my laptop is revived!
The next morning I had my exam, and right when I was done, I had to rush back to my room and pack for my trip to Italy and Paris!!! We left around 4ish and got to our hostel in Milan around 8ish? We went to dinner at a place on the corner that seemed to be really homey. I had a simple penne pasta with spicy tomato sauce. We quickly learned that Italy's restaurants like to have "seating charges" just for sitting and eating. I also learned that it is nearly impossible to find a pasta dish with meat and sauce. You can either order pasta and sauce, or meat, not both. All of the dishes were simple. I was really surprised...
The next day we walked all around Milan, we were seriously on our feet for probably 8 hours. But we saw all of the big sights. The "Wedding Cake" Cathedral, Sforzesca Castle, and the shopping street. It was easy to figure out the metro system, and how to get around. Milan was huge though! It had more of a city feel to it, so it took some getting used to after living in Copenhagen.
This is just a super short update for now, I will write more about my trip soon! And post pics once my laptop is revived!
Sunday, October 5, 2008
All I did in Berlin was eat Asian food
The past week in Berlin was amazing! We took a bus to the ferry for 2 hours, got on the ferry for 2 hours, and drove another 4 hours. It definitely didn't seem that long because of the break on the ferry. I got lunch, currywurst with fries! It's been so long since I had fries, unfortunately they were not good. But the sausage was huge and filled me up!
Once we got to Berlin we got settled into our hostel. The location was great! We were in the center of the city, right by the church that got bombed during the war. They never fixed the church, instead it is used as a memorial. The main shopping street was also right there. We had tons of cheap food below the hostel as well! Anyway, I stayed in a room with 8 other girls, so 9 total, with one bathroom! It actually worked out quite well. For the rest of the post I'm just going to do a day by day account of events.
Monday:
Went on a city tour in the bus, but our tour guide never showed up, so Ole gave us his own version. We went to the Berlin Wall and walked around for a little. Afterwards we had the whole day off, so I went to the Jewish museum with most of the group. It was interesting to see the history, because most people only think about the Holocaust. The architecture and creativity behind the design of the museum helped me get a sense of the history. There was even an outdoor area called the Garden of Exile. It was amazing how you could walk outside to this area and it would be completely serene. There was also a room called the Holocaust tower, which was a cold, concrete room that stretched up really far. It was completely silent in there, and had an overwhelming effect. The museum took up a few hours, and we went to Checkpoint Charlie since it was on the way to the U-bahn (metro). Took some pictures, and I went with Maibritt and David to Potsdamer Platz to meet the CUHK students at the IMAX theater. It was a good walk, and we got to see the Holocaust Memorial up close. I was glad we had some time to explore. Maibritt and I got pretzels, because we had spent the whole day looking for them, but couldn't find any! Had dinner at an amazing vegetarian Thai/Vietnamese restaurant, and ended the day with The Dark Knight at the theater. Neither of them had seen it before.
Okay...so Monday was really long, to speed things up. For the rest of the week we visited Deutsche Bahn, Transparency International, and Berlin Chemie for company visits. We went to the German Bundestag twice, once to go up the Glass Dome, and the second to listen to the Minister of Education give a talk about education and innovation for learning. On Friday we visited Topography of Terror and went to Potsdam to see the Sans Souci and Cecilienhopf. I'm pretty sure I got sick that morning because the Topography of Terror tour was outside, and everyone was freezing, the sun wasn't out either! But Potsdam was beautiful! We walked through gardens, and had a guided tour in Cecilienhopf.
As for the food, it was so nice to eat out. Maybe not everyday, but I haven't been able to do that in Denmark. Besides the vegetarian restaurant, I went to a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch one day, Chinese that night (super yummy!!), and an all you can eat sushi buffet. 17 plates!!! I was completely stuffed...and couldn't sit, lol.
I don't have all of the awesome pictures, I'll need to steal them once some of the others post their pictures. But for now, please enjoy!
Berlin
Once we got to Berlin we got settled into our hostel. The location was great! We were in the center of the city, right by the church that got bombed during the war. They never fixed the church, instead it is used as a memorial. The main shopping street was also right there. We had tons of cheap food below the hostel as well! Anyway, I stayed in a room with 8 other girls, so 9 total, with one bathroom! It actually worked out quite well. For the rest of the post I'm just going to do a day by day account of events.
Monday:
Went on a city tour in the bus, but our tour guide never showed up, so Ole gave us his own version. We went to the Berlin Wall and walked around for a little. Afterwards we had the whole day off, so I went to the Jewish museum with most of the group. It was interesting to see the history, because most people only think about the Holocaust. The architecture and creativity behind the design of the museum helped me get a sense of the history. There was even an outdoor area called the Garden of Exile. It was amazing how you could walk outside to this area and it would be completely serene. There was also a room called the Holocaust tower, which was a cold, concrete room that stretched up really far. It was completely silent in there, and had an overwhelming effect. The museum took up a few hours, and we went to Checkpoint Charlie since it was on the way to the U-bahn (metro). Took some pictures, and I went with Maibritt and David to Potsdamer Platz to meet the CUHK students at the IMAX theater. It was a good walk, and we got to see the Holocaust Memorial up close. I was glad we had some time to explore. Maibritt and I got pretzels, because we had spent the whole day looking for them, but couldn't find any! Had dinner at an amazing vegetarian Thai/Vietnamese restaurant, and ended the day with The Dark Knight at the theater. Neither of them had seen it before.
Okay...so Monday was really long, to speed things up. For the rest of the week we visited Deutsche Bahn, Transparency International, and Berlin Chemie for company visits. We went to the German Bundestag twice, once to go up the Glass Dome, and the second to listen to the Minister of Education give a talk about education and innovation for learning. On Friday we visited Topography of Terror and went to Potsdam to see the Sans Souci and Cecilienhopf. I'm pretty sure I got sick that morning because the Topography of Terror tour was outside, and everyone was freezing, the sun wasn't out either! But Potsdam was beautiful! We walked through gardens, and had a guided tour in Cecilienhopf.
As for the food, it was so nice to eat out. Maybe not everyday, but I haven't been able to do that in Denmark. Besides the vegetarian restaurant, I went to a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch one day, Chinese that night (super yummy!!), and an all you can eat sushi buffet. 17 plates!!! I was completely stuffed...and couldn't sit, lol.
I don't have all of the awesome pictures, I'll need to steal them once some of the others post their pictures. But for now, please enjoy!
Berlin
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