On a whim, I decided to take advantage of the nice sunny weather and do some exploring this afternoon. The plan was to catch the Metro and get off at a random station and then walk around and see where I ended up! Well, the Metro was delayed for quite some time. Of course I couldn’t understand the announcements over the speakers, so I asked a man nearby to translate. Apparently there was a technical problem with one of the tracks. He also said there were people walking around on the tracks…I’m really hoping he meant repair people. :o

Anyway, after nearly 30 minutes of waiting, the system was up and running again. I decided to get off at Nørreport Station, which led to a part of the central city I’d never visited.

I walked around, enjoying the buildings and the newness of it all. Of course most of the stores were closed as it was after 14:00 (in Copenhagen, stores close early on weekend afternoons). I didn’t intend on doing any shopping however — I just wanted to explore!

This part of Copenhagen seemed so different from the suburb where I live…it’s hard to believe that it’s all part of the same city! Copenhagen is funny, it’s a big and modern city but feels small and old as well…that’s what I like about it!

Anyway, I don’t know how, but I stumbled upon this nice-looking botanical garden (I later learned that the gardens are part of Copenhagen University). I spent a great deal of time there, playing around with the camera. There were plenty of paths (too many to cover in a single trip), friendly ducks that roamed freely, benches at every corner, water and of course plants. There were also many greenhouses, but they were closed. Maybe next time!

After the botanical gardens, I walked around some more. At one point, my purse bumped against a bicycle (no one was on it) and accidentally tipped it over on its side…oops! This couple walking by chuckled. Thankfully it wasn’t damaged or dented. I set it back up and hoped no else one saw. Just reminds me that I need to be more watchful for bikes, both moving and stationary. There are just so many of them here.

Well, after walking for another 20 minutes or so, I decided to call it a day. On the way back to the Metro station, I stopped at this Thai place called Eastern Corner for dinner. I hadn’t tried the Thai food here until now. Took the food back to the dorm and it was delicious!! I will definitely be back.

So that was my day. Going to spend the rest of the evening finishing up the reading for class on Wednesday. I’ve uploaded a bunch of new photos from today, you can view them on Flickr!

I will do some more random exploring like this on later weekends.

Our School! Danmarks Bibliotesskole - Royal School of Library & Info. Science

Well, I recently got back from my first class ever in Denmark. It went well! The class is called “Knowledge Management.” The definition of Knowledge Management can change depending on who you ask, but generally it’s about how you manage the vast amounts of knowledge — both implicit and explicit — stored in people’s heads, within an organization, culture, etc. There’s going to be a lot of reading. I bought a compendium which is a binder with most of the articles for the class. The rest of the readings are books which we can buy from the bookstore. However the books are very expensive so I may try to order some of them online or make copies of them.

We had to introduce ourselves in class. I guess I did all right, but I am going to prepare a better introduction for the next class so I don’t have to think of what to say on the spot. I was the second person to introduce themselves so I didn’t really have much time to plan out exactly what I was going to say.

Plus, I can’t believe it but I already have a presentation to do next week! The professor passed around a sign-up sheet in class today, and we were to sign up in groups of 4 to present one of the books in our reading list to the class. He started the list on the opposite side of the room from where I was sitting, so while I was among the first to introduce myself, I was second to last to sign up for a group. Of course all of the later presentation dates were filled. So the only date left was next Wednesday. I guess no one wanted to go first. Meep. I am working with a fellow classmate, he is from Ghana. So we have to read a 203-page book and prepare a 15-minute PowerPoint presentation for next Wednesday. I don’t know how fair that is, but whatever. :-)

After class we went to the bookstore (which is located in the nearby University of Copenhagen) to see if we could find the book we have to present in a week. We found it and it’s quite expensive (350 Kroner for a small paperback 203-page book — that’s about $68). So another classmate of ours who already has the book offered to make copies of it for us at his work. It was so nice of him! Then the most logical way to do the presentation will be for one of us to read the first half and the other person to read the second half. Then we can each have about 7 minutes to summarize our half of the book for the class and come up with some open-ended questions for discussion.

My partner for this presentation and I met up with some of our other classmates at the bookstore and we went to the university’s canteen to have some coffee and sit & chat. That was fun. My classmates are all very nice and they seem really interested in hearing each other’s points of view.

So yes, the class is going to be very interesting. It’s discussion-based and highly interactive, and you are expected to talk in class. I normally do not like talking in class, but I decided to jump right in. I contributed to the discussion today, yay! I plan to speak up at least once each day. Maybe more. It depends. I hope that by the end of the semester I’ll be better at class participation and will go back to SILS with new confidence. We’ll see.

The final project for this class is a paper. We can write about whatever topic we want as long as it’s connected to Knowledge Management in some way. I’m still a little unclear on the exact requirements for the paper though, but I’m hoping that it’ll be spelled out in more detail as we go along. At the end of the semester we have to take an oral exam during which we defend our paper. December is far away so I’m not even going to think about that right now, lol.

So, no class until Friday. Normally I would have Interaction Design class tomorrow, but that class doesn’t start til Tuesday. I’m really looking forward to the Interaction Design class because it is closely related to what I’m interested in.

OK, that’s about it for this entry. I will be doing a LOT of reading this weekend. And putting together a presentation. The good thing about going first is that we’ll get it over with right away before the work really starts piling on. Later, folks!

I am a bit of an airplane geek, and so part of the fun of my trip is the process of getting there! I booked my air reservations way back in April (seems like an eternity ago). I will be flying with SAS Scandinavian Airlines, and I booked my reservations directly through their website.

I’ve never flown with SAS before, so it’ll be very interesting. I’m looking forward to the personal entertainment screens. Apparently there’s an option to view the take-off and landing from the pilot’s perspective on the screen via tiny cameras placed outside of the plane!

I also went with SAS because I wanted as few flights as possible. Fewer flights = less chance of delays, lost baggage, missed connections, etc. SAS is one of 3 airlines that offer direct flights from the US to Copenhagen. Delta and Continental are the other two. I ultimately didn’t choose Delta because although they use roomy 767s on the flight, the fare was expensive (over $2000) and instead of personal screens there are overhead monitors above every other seat. Continental had a good price, but they use the skinny 757 for the route, with no personal screens. The idea of sitting in a 757 for 8 hours wasn’t exactly appealing. Scandinavian also had a good price and their on-board offerings are amazing for the price. An Airbus A330, personal entertainment screens, etc. So I went with them!

So my itinerary is Raleigh-Durham to Washington-Dulles on a United 737-300 (SAS and United are part of the Star Alliance) and then Washington-Dulles > Copenhagen on a SAS A330-300.

For the return journey in December, I will be on another SAS A330-300 to Newark and then on a Continental 737-300 back to RDU. Continental is not part of the Star Alliance, so I guess airlines don’t always connect you with other airlines only from their alliance. Either way, I’m excited!!