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ParentNet—A slice of student life abroad written by a Michigan Tech student
October 11–17, 2006, Number 415—http://www.mtu.edu/current/parentnet/
ParentNET: A Student Abroad—A slice of student life abroad written by a Michigan Tech student
November 21–27, 2007, Number 169

Beau and his group Beau's international work group; from left to right they are Hendrik from Germany, Jekaterina from Latvia, Hubert from Germany, Christian from France, and Beau himself from the good ole USA.

Home Away From Home

It's hard to top the experiences I've lived the last two weeks of life, but with every great adventure a return home is inevitable but welcomed. It's kind of like the structure of a song if you think about it. With most songs there is a chorus that is familiar, and then verses that provide some variation. After each verse of variation a return back to the familiar chorus takes place. I think this style of song writing is called rondo and was made famous by the work of the classical musician Mozart. But seems pretty similar to the song of our lives. I love adventuring, but I also love home. For the time being the song I'm living sends me out on different verses or excursions and brings me back to my home away from home in Copenhagen. Although not quite as familiar as Michigan, it is still serving as that necessary place that I can return to and rest. Talks with my host family has made a shift from the excitement of starting life in a new place, to the realization that I will only be around for a couple more weeks. I know when I look back at the time spent with my host family it will bring a smile to my face. I've been able to be there for many different experiences that my host family has gone through. The joy of first place in soccer, the dance competitions, and recently, the sadness of one of the family dogs being put down. With that somber experience came the pleasurable anticipation of a new puppy for Christmas. I've also been able to enjoy one of the seasonal Danish drinks called Gløgg. Gløgg is basically a fruity liquid combined with slivered almonds and raisins that you mix with cheap red wine and serve warm. A Tasty treat enjoyed during the holiday season. It's fun to mingle with the local folk and experience their traditions. Recently I was able to share the joys of a true Yooper pasty with my host family. I used my grandmother's recipe as a guideline, and after a few quick English to metric conversions, and a small svinefedt (pig fat) substitution for baking shortening they were complete. The true test was passed as Lasse, my picky eating host brother, quickly devoured his. I felt I had done a good job representing my homeland and its native food.

Recipe of the week: Gløgg, a Scandinavian Tradition
    Ingredients
  • 1 bottle of red wine
  • About 10 cloves
  • 1 heaping tsp. of cardamom seeds
  • 3 cinnamon sticks
  • 1 or 2 pieces of ginger
  • Zest of half a lemon
  • 3/4 cup of sugar
  • 1 heaping tsp. vanilla sugar
    Directions
    Three ways this can be done
  • Mix all ingredients together in a large saucepan and heat until steaming hot but do not boil. Strain spices out and serve in glasses with raisins and slivered almonds in the bottom of the glasses.
  • Create a cheese cloth spice bag and put all the spices in the bag. Place bag into warming wine and sugar and bring to a steaming hot temperature but not to a boil, and serve in glasses with raisins and slivered almonds in the bottom of the glasses.
  • Search online for a more suitable recipe.

Life has been pretty focused on school this week. My group is on the home stretch of our final report that is due in a few short weeks. This hasn't left much time for sightseeing and traveling. However, we did decide to finally book our trip to Oslo and Bergen in the country of Norway. We are flying into the capital Oslo, and then we are going to head west to the magnificent fjords surrounding the town of Bergen. Should be exciting as usual and may be my last hurrah before heading home. I have briefly touched on the actual project that I have been investing my time into, so I think I will expand on what I have actually been doing over here. When this article series first started I shared that this project will be involving a vehicle system know as Rapid Urban Flexible, or RUF for short. These electrically powered dual-mode vehicles will be able to drive on both normal paved roads, and a specialized monorail from which they can also charge their batteries. This system is designed to relieve some of the problems that conventional transportation produce. These problems include, traffic jams, pollution, and consumption of quickly diminishing fossil fuels. Another cool aspect about this system is that when the RUF vehicles enter the monorail they become fully automated, or under the control of a powerful centralized computer. I know all of this may be a little hard to digest, but I will do my best to interpret it from the engineering jargon. Where I come into play is designing and dimensioning a junction for the RUF system. That is basically an intersection of rails that will allow a RUF user to access the monorail, and allow RUF vehicles already on the rail to turn right, left, or go straight on. There have been other attempts to create transportation systems similar to the RUF system to no avail. So it's pretty safe to say that we have our hands full. You can be sure though that if this system ever actually gets implemented that I will undoubtedly leak the word that I may have had something to do with its success, jokingly of course.

As of right now we are a five-member group made up of students from France, Latvia, and two from Germany. We have mixed educational backgrounds that include studies of economics, informatics, civil, mechanical, and plastic engineering. All of these combined seem to round our team out pretty well. Currently we are all working together to complete different tasks for the project. A physical scaled model of a street intersection in downtown Copenhagen is being constructed, and will be used as the display piece for the monorail RUF junction that we will be adding to it. There is also a 3D model of that same junction that is being created using the 3D modeling program Catia. I have been elected the overseer of the 150+ page final report that needs to be written in English. Right now we are about half way there so its time to shift into kick butt gear as time is running out. Seems like college is the epitome of a saying my high school football coach always used to say, "Work hard when you are working, and rest hard when you are resting." Of course my rest period is better described as traveling the world, but it still seems at least semi-applicable.

I'm thinking I'll wrap up this week with a description of the events of a normal day in my experience abroad. To give the readers and future Danish study abroaders a little nibble of what it may be like to go to school abroad. Up to this point a relatively average day would include a couple hours work before a noonish lunch followed by a couple more hours in the afternoon of semi-focused group work. It is funny how often talking and planning the next adventure always seems to slither in and trump actual productive work. If it's not the next adventure, it's the mystery meat the school canteen (cafeteria) is serving up. It's an ok deal for all you can stack on a plate for thirty krone (about six bucks). If the offered menu isn't wetting the taste buds, then a quick bike ride to the local grocery store, Fotex, is advised. I don't want to be self-incriminating and say we are ill focused, but I'll admit life isn't terribly stressful these days. But, as I have said before, the time for work is upon us, and these "normal" days are scarce, as they are quickly being replaced with long hours, and bugged out eyes from staring intensively at our computers. It is kind of nice to know that there is a little treasure known as Oslo waiting patiently for us when our final paper is finally handed in. Working hard but still smiling.

  • Farewell

    Beau signature