Rob
Brown
Oklahoma State University
HORTECUS
Note:
The first part of this report will be more in detail as it describes my
arriving and getting adjusted. As the
first month progressed, the days became much more routine.
On January 31, I arrived
at the Copenhagen Airport and was met by Stine, my First Contact. Train/Bus/Walking to get to apartment—it’s
ok, lots of rules. Checked in with
Folkeregister about getting CPR # and Health Coverage. Found out I needed to bring my rent contract
with me. Met Lise Trillot and found she
had heard nothing about my course change.
So she had to change my acceptance letter so I can get a Student
ID#. Slept 6:30p.m. - 2:00a.m., 7:30
a.m. –12:30 p.m. I will be doing a lot
of walking!
Friday came and I couldn’t
eat right or feel hungry. Met Marianne
Reisby: She knows more about what is
going on than Lise (or speaks better English).
Found my class schedule. Ran
into Kristina, Sara (her First Contact) and Sarah Nie from Purdue (Env.
Science). Went to Avej (student bar)
and relaxed.
Saturday I travelled by
bus to City Center. How beautiful. Very tired from walking (at least a mile if
I want to go anywhere). Still can’t
swallow food easily. Sleep: 8:00-12:00,
4:30-12:30.
Sunday: Movies and sleep. Super bowl at 1:00 a.m. but I couldn’t stay awake.
On Monday, I attended the
International Student Orientation. Was
surprised to learn the man I had talked and eaten with at lunch was the Rector
of the University. Met a lot of people. Something like 22 different countries
represented. Skyyt Andersen
attended. We made plans to go to three
nurseries on the island of Fyn on Thursday.
Learned of all the activities for international students. Tuesday I got my acceptance letter from Lise
and went to “Soil, Water, and Plant Nutrients in the Tropics” class. Wednesday had 3-hour Plant Physiology
class. Definitely going to be hardest class
I have here. Must analyze two
scientific papers/week in addition to normal course work.
On Thursday, Kristina and I
met Skytt and drove to Fyn. Skytt is
the technical expert in litigation involving some improper propagation
practices with the Marguerite Chrysanthemum (Denmark’s national flower). The nursery was mainly a foliage plant
nursery with 12 varieties. Used an
interesting track system for conveying plants (picture will be on website). Had a good packaging/shipping system. Learned that one company in Denmark owns all
of the multilevel shipping carts.
Visited another nursery that was typical. Crown Jewel of the trip was visiting Nielsen Roses. What a place! Viewed a video on history and processes. Took a self-guided tour. Very efficient, very large. They use robotic arms like the kind you see
in auto factories to stick cuttings.
There are 6 cameras per arm (5 arms total) that digitize the cutting
image and relay it to a processor that decides if it meets certain
criteria. If not, then a message is
sent to the arm and it trims where necessary.
Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take pictures. I made a contact with Jacob Jensen, one of
the head growers.
Friday, attended “Adaptive
Physiology and Tree Management” class.
It is a bit basic, but I think I will be able to gain some knowledge on
the adaptive mechanisms and root growth in trees. Saturday and Sunday I rode my bike all over the place. I rode maybe
30 km and
saw lots of ethnic neighborhoods. Rode
by the refugee camps. There are lots of
Iraqi and Algerian people there. I
think I am finally getting a hold of my sleep patterns.
Monday and Tuesday were
nothing really special. On Tuesday, I
went to the Frederiksberg city hall.
KVL as well as my apartment is actually located in Frederiksberg, a city
within Copenhagen. It’s good though,
because it is right down the street from my apartment. I got a temporary CPR card, which is
necessary to get a Student ID and many other things (it’s like an ID
card). I also had to choose a doctor to
use for general health care. Wednesday,
Skytt took me on a tour of the glass greenhouses. They are very nice. I also got a tour of the IntelliGrow
experiments they are conducting. The
boxes they used for atmosphere control were some of the nicest I have
seen.
On the weekend, I
travelled with 44 other international students to Farum, just outside of Copenhagen. We stayed in a cabin for the weekend and had
various activities to promote our knowledge of Denmark and others designed to
help us understand each other’s cultures and diversity. It was a very fun and relaxing weekend that
also included a 3 hour walk of the Farum countryside. Quite picturesque. It
actually reminded me of some of the old farms in Iowa. It was only 150 Kroner ($18 US) for the
weekend and included food and drinks.
Sunday I returned from the
trip and attended a dinner at Skytt’s house in the country with Kristina and
Skytt’s successor (whose name cannot remember right now, unfortunately). The dinner was a traditional Danish dinner. It consisted of boiled red cabbage with
sugar and duck fat, exquisite pork with the rind fried and seasoned with salts,
and potatoes. Skytt’s wife Lorna is a
Danish Lutheran Minister and invited me to English services on the 24th. She was originally born in Japan, but lived
in Minnesota for a long time before moving with Skytt to Denmark in the 1960’s. It was a very cosy evening and I told Skytt
that it spoiled me because I compare all of my meals to that one now.
On Monday I decided to
make some changes in my course schedule.
I decided to stop attending the Danish Language Course. It was very confusing to me as it is so
similar to German but is very different where I expect it to be the same. It also occurs on a Wednesday when I have
class already from 8:00 to 4:00. So I
have decided to pursue my interest in Afro-Cuban drumming and have found an
instructor that I will be taking lessons from a couple times a month. I also decided to drop Soil, Water, and
Plant Nutrients in the Tropics and added a Community Forestry class. I have a great interest in sustainable
agriculture and problem-solving techniques in remote areas. This class is a perfect fit for those
interests (it’s also the same number of hours) and also contains a section on
Urban Forestry, which is an emerging field in Oklahoma.
I have been running a lot of
errands. As I can only take what fits
in my backpack, I have been living quite lean.
However, I am beginning to become accustomed to my schedule and have
changed my way of going about things. In
America, we go and stock up on lots of items at one time and store them in our
huge cabinets and houses. Here I get
things on an immediacy basis. There
just isn’t enough room to put a 64-pack of toilet paper if they even sold
one.
It has been raining and
snowing a lot. I initially didn’t
mention it in my journal because I thought it would pass. It hasn’t.
The normal precipitation for this time of year is 37 cm. So far they have had 74 cm. It begins to wear on you. Especially having to ride my bicycle
everywhere. The wind is comparable with
the wind in Oklahoma, but it tunnels through the urban areas and makes you feel
like you are pedalling in place. For
some reason it seems to always be clear at 4:30.
On Thursday, I attended my
Community Forestry class for the first time.
The topic of discussion was Medicinal Plant Extraction in Nepal. What a topic! I think this is going to be a really good class. It seems that most of the classes here are
based around papers that professors have done in the past. This is especially true in my Adaptive
Physiology and Tree Management course.
Also, when there is a question raised by the professor, it seems as
though the Danish students are very hesitant to answer. More than once I have known the answer, but
just did not say it so that I could find the “threshold” of silence before
someone answers.
On Sunday I attended the
church Lorna is a minister at. It was
much like the Lutheran services I used to attend with my grandparents as far as
its structure and rigidness (as compared to the Methodist services I
attend). Afterwards, we were treated to
lunch. There were 6 people from the
refugee camp that attended. On my bus
ride home, I talked with an Algerian and Iraqi woman who are living in the
camps. Initially I was hesitant because
I felt that they might blame me for their current state, being an American and
all. It was much the opposite.
I have settled into a routine now
where I attend my classes in the morning, meet with about 12 other int’l
students for lunch, and sit on the computer for a couple hours before going
home. The computer labs are only open
until 5:00 here (as well as about everything else), so you must get things
taken care of before that. Tuesday, I
went to a sports bar to watch the Rome vs. Barcelona soccer match and ran into
a bunch of Americans. Apparently, there
are about 150 of them in a program here.