Being in Europe for an entire year is a long separation from friends back home. I have luckily not felt extremely homesick during my stay in Denmark so far, but have felt that it would be nice to meet old friends. Quite a few of my peers from Cal Poly have invited other friends to …
Core Course Week Berlin
For core course week this semester all the full year architecture and design students traveled to Berlin. Last semester we traveled to Western Denmark and to switch things up, we went to Germany. For the first weeks of the semester I was of the belief that we were taking the plane to Berlin. I was …
Climate Change
What's the problem? The Earth is warming at an alarming rate. 20 years ago, United Nations' scientific community agreed that anything more than 2.5˚ C would result in widespread catastrophes throughout the environment. Currently, the Earth has warmed 1.5 degrees and already the impact has been felt through increased storms, increased fire seasons, and higher …
Human Exceptionalism
One of my classes this semester is Renewable Energy Systems. I came into the class thinking it was going to primarily focus on the different types of energy generation systems that exist, but I was somewhat mistaken. My professor has a background in National Security with a focus on energy security and brings a philosophical …
Danish Brewery Tour
I got lucky. One of my homestay network friends worked with a brewery in the US that partnered with a Danish Brewery. He got offered to tour the brewery and I got to go along with. Last Wednesday, we went up, taking an hour bus ride north to Gørløse to Dry & Bitter Brewing Company. …
Reflections
One semester is completed at DIS and another one is about to start. I took a while off during my winter vacation to relax and travel with my family. First: reflection on the last semester. It was a blast! I remember being absolutely nervous coming into Europe with questions of: will I like my host …
Thanksgiving
To celebrate Thanksgiving in a country that doesn't celebrate it with a family who hasn't cooked for it as a guy who hasn't cooked for it either, is an experience. I was late trying to get a turkey, so I guessed ham would have to do (I like ham better anyway). Now recipes... Just googled …
Long Study Week – Sweden/Finland
Two weeks ago, DIS had the second study week where the other half of students, me being part of that group, traveled with their core course. Furniture One of the goals for this week was to look at the different manufacturers of high quality wooden furniture. Our first stop was at the Ikea Museum to …
Sailing
The first few weeks of the semester, I took part in the Roskilde Viking Museum Viking ship sailing. The first time I sailed on a 1913 Nordic fishing vessel reconstruction with my host grandfather and host cousin. Most of the viking ships that Roskilde has, have square sails that use a boom on top, this …
Prague
Old Square First part of my trip can be viewed here. Second part can be viewed here. Another early morning to get to Prague, leave at 6 am to get into Prague around 10 am. We were not as lucky as the previous train and only had our seats to sleep on. However, about 45 …
My year abroad in Europe 