Off to Berlin this weekend...

We are off to Berlin Germany this weekend. Some of the sights on the list to visit are:

• The Brandenburg Gate
• The Reichstag
• Hitler’s bunker
• The new Holocaust Memorial
• Potsdamer Platz
• The Berlin Wall
• Checkpoint Charlie
• Museum Island
• The former SS Headquarters

It should be a fun weekend, and I'll post the pictures on Sunday when we return.

Summer at IBM...

Now that school is starting back up at home, I have been asked by a number of my classmates how my summer internship at IBM went. So... I thought I would put up a quick post on my three months at IBM's Raleigh research lab this summer.

The IBM Extreme Blue Program (www.ibm.com/extremeblue/) was a great experience. Our lab was made up of 6 teams, each team consisting of one MBA and three technical interens. It was an impressive group with students from a number of the top schools (MIT, Carnegie Mellon, UCLA, Duke, UNC, UT Austin, Purdue, UW, etc). The whole summer was very well organized and funded. It was a nice balance of leaning, work, and fun. I met a lot of IBM executives that provided some great insight into what I might want to do with my career after MBA school. I also made a number of new friends from all over the US that I know I will keep in touch with.

The culmination of the program was the national expo at IBM headquarters in Armonk, NY. We were all able to show off the work we had done over the summer to the IBM executives and were even able to meet IBM CEO Sam Palmisano. It was a fun summer and I currently have several opportunities in the works to go back to IBM in a full time capacity after school.

Take a look at some of the pictures of the summer here

Our Neighborhood Riot !

Well, on Sunday we had some unexpected excitement outside of our apartment.

My apartment is located in Nørrebro, which is the historical working class and immigrant section of Copenhagen. It is also, as we were told, a hot spot for political unrest and riots on occasion. Before Sunday, however, we thought we would never have to experience any of the action that was said to frequent this neighborhood. We were wrong.

At about 4:00 pm on Sunday afternoon some loud noises started to fill the streets outside of our apartment building. From what we have been able to gather, there was a building down the street from us that had a number of unauthorized people living in it. The police decided that Sunday was the day they would physically remove them, but these people and a many others were waiting.

When the police arrived, in full riot gear, the group of 200-300 people began hurling large bricks and bottles. The action lasted about 45 minutes and ended in over 200 arrests. Most of my building watched from outside their bedroom windows, and a few of us ventured out the front door after the police got control over the situation.

It was an interesting event to have occur right outside our bedroom windows and will be something that I don't think we will forget. From the pictures you can see it got pretty rough at one point, but in the end no one was severely injured.

Take a look at all of the pictures here

Trip to Malmö Sweden...

Today was another unusually nice day in Scandinavia, so we decided to once again hit the road and do some exploring. This time, as mentioned in my previous post, our destination was Sweden's third largest city, Malmö (pop. 275,000).

A group of six of us met at Copenhagen's main train station this morning at 10:00 am and off we went. The train ride was only 30 minutes or so and took us across Europe's longest bridge (8 km or 5 mi), which connects Denmark and Sweden. The group today included 4 Austrians, including my roommate Chris, and 2 Americans.

Upon arrival in Malmö, we took a 1 hour scenic boat tour around the city. One of the most interesting things on the tour was the very large, modern, and architecturally interesting sky scraper which serves as a posh residence for the well to do. We also saw some of the old buildings which line the water and are, as the guide said, "where the rich and famous live."

After our boat tour we made our way through the cobble stoned city center and on to the park where we had a picnic in the sun. In the park, we enjoyed the scenery and sun as well as made some new web footed friends.

All in all the trip was great and marks the third country I have visited since I left last month. Three down and many more to come! Take a look at the pictures from our trip here.

Out sick...

Well, I have been out sick for the last couple of days, so I've slacked on the blog posts.

However, today I am feeling better so we are headed to Sweden on another weekend excursion. Today it's Malmö, which is Sweden's third largest city. It's only a short train ride across Europe's longest bridge and it's shaping up to be a beautiful day here in Scandinavia, so it should be a fun trip.

Pictures to follow...

Little Nicky goes to Pairs...

My classmate Nick finally made it to Paris this week. I received a fuzzy Skype call from him yesterday to hear how the trip went and all the interesting pitfalls he had to encounter on the way.
(Take a look at the blow-by-blow on Nick's blog)

Now, in my opinion, Nick is a brave sole, because with little or no French in his repertoire (not to mention little or no patients), I can only imagine the frustration that will take place during his time there. At least here in Denmark they all speak English and are open to speaking English. In France I have heard it's a little different. Even those who speak English, are reluctant to do so.

However, I'm confident he will find his way, as I have here in Denmark, but there will surly be a few weeks of intense frustration to come before everything starts coming together. It should make for an interesting blog, so I wanted to share it.

Good luck Nick and À la votre!

Sunday Football...

Well, I am going through a bit of a withdrawl with no American football games on Saturday and Sunday. However, on Sunday my roommates and I went to a local football (soccer) match. Both teams were highly ranked and the fans were intensely rooting for their respective teams, which made it exciting to watch.

As for NCAA football and the NFL, I am following all of the action via my computer. It's not the same as watching it on TV while sipping a Bud Lite, but it works!

Thursday's at Nexxus...

We have been having great weather here in Copenhagen and this means that Nexxus, the student bar on campus, gets started extra early. Thursday is the hot night, the students start to gather at about 3 pm and enjoy 25 DKK beers (~$4.00). Happy hour then runs from 5-6 & 8-9 and that is when the party really gets started b/c the beers drop to 2 for 25 DKK. They close the doors at about 7 PM and then the entire bottom floor of our business school building becomes a club. Fully equipped with DJ and dance floor.

Ah... campus life.

To North Zealand and Beyond!

This weekend we had great weather here in Scandinavia so a few of us decided to take a trip up to North Zealand. The north coast of Zealand is peppered with small fishing towns whose origin date back to the 1500s. Our goal on this adventure was to reach one of these towns by the name of Gilleleje, which boasts of a popular beach in the hot summer months. It took us about an hour by train to reach our first destination of Helsingor. It was a very scenic ride and was nice to get out of the city and see some of the Danish countryside.

In Helsingor, we took a short tour of a 17th century castle that was built to protect northern Denmark and later to collect tolls from ships using the narrow port. Today the town of Helsingor is a busy port town with ferries continuously shuttling across the Oresund Strait to and from Sweden to disgorge thirsty Swedes who stock up on booze. The booze is actually cheaper in Denmark than in Sweden.
Once in Gilleleje, we were completely lost but after some wondering we found our beach. Along the way we made our way through some of the back streets and found that most of the houses were half-timbered and thatch-roofed. It was an interesting sight to see.

All in all it was a great weekend trip and it marks our first of many exploratory trips around Denmark.

Take a look at the pictures from the weekend by clicking here.
Oh, and if you want to see the Geotagged photo's on the map click here

My first week of classes are over...

As my first week of classes came to a close, the CBS campus was a buzz with talks of weekend festivities marking the start of a new school year. My roommates and I tried to attended the welcome back festivities at the on campus student pub but quickly found that there was a 3-4 hour line to get in.

This brings me to some of the interesting things that I noticed in my first week as a CBS student and wanted to share.

I'll start with one of my favorites - the fact that there is a full student bar right in the main lobby of the business building. The legal drinking age in Denmark, and most of Europe, is only 18, so almost all of the students on campus are of drinking age. So... why not have a bar where all the students are, right? However this was a bit shocking at first, when exiting my classroom and seeing a full bar serving drinks right outside the lecture hall and right next to the student cafeteria.

Another interesting observation is that people are allowed to drink in public in Denmark, both on and off campus. So almost every afternoon you can see students hanging out in the campus common areas with a six or twelve pack of beer taking the edge off of a long day of lectures. Or a student riding his bike back to his residence hall with a case of beer strapped to the back.

Although a little shocking, I have a feeling I will quickly be able to adjust to most of these changes in school atmosphere. A little more interesting, however, is that most of the bathrooms on campus are co-ed. This has been an interesting sight to see, and I can imagine more of an adjustment for the female exchange students than for us males. The Danes, however, seem to be right at home with the idea.

So as the first week comes to a close, I find that there is some uniqueness to campus life hear in Denmark, but for the most part I am attending a University and school is school. Cheers!

My Roomates...

School has now started and I'm still getting settled in here in Copenhagen. I am living in a shared apartment with four roommates. The apartment building is entirely occupied by exchange students with four floors and a group on each. We occupy the entire first floor and the way the apartment is laid out there is a front door which opens to a small common area. We then share the kitchen and two bathrooms, one for the guys and one for the girls. We all have our own rooms which are fairly big, but the common area is pretty small, so most of us hang out in our rooms with the doors open. We also don't have a TV or a couch, so it makes it hard for us to gather for anything other than battling for things in the kitchen during dinner time.

The above picture was taken last weekend before we went to our official exchange student welcome dinner. My roommates from left to right are: Tuomo (Finland), Chris (Austria), Stephanie (France), and Sarah (Germany). All the roommates are undergrads, however Chris is 28 and taking some masters classes. Both Tuomo and Stephanie are going to be here a year, while Chris, Sarah, and I will return to our respective Universities at the end of the year.

We are all getting along quite well, and have met most of the other exchange students on the other floors. I had a traditional American barbeque last weekend, and tomorrow night we have been invited to the thrid floor where we are going to have a pot luck. Although our group has still not decided on what we are going to make.

I made it back to Copenhagen

Well, after a long five day's in the land of the Vikings, I made it back to Copenhagen. My trip up to Norway was a great start to my time in this part of the world and an experience that I will never forget.

I have posted the pictures from the trip on Flikr and invite you all to take a look. The pics.

Tomorrow I start school.

Back in Oslo...

On the way back from Bergen we took a two day scenic route through a number of Norway's deep fjords and stayed in a small town in central Norway last night. We are now back in Oslo and will board our ship again this afternoon to take the overnight cruise back to Copenhagen.

This weekend I will upload all of the great pictures we took over the week and post a link.