Everything

So the semester is slowly drawing to a close, but my workload is nowhere close to lightening up. I had heard rumors at the beginning of the semester saying that the first five weeks are cake, but the last five weeks are utter insanity. I now know this to be true. The other persistent rumor is that while the workload is literally overwhelming, the course grade generally ends up being noticeably higher than what one might expect based on feedback. I can only hope this is true as well.

I have taken away a lot about the educational system here, and a lot of it can be brought back to provide some additional perspective toward my own studies, which is arguably the main point of an exchange program. To preface my observations, virtually every RPI student (along with a sizeable number of the other international students here) has come to the painful realization that this school is teaching Master’s-level classes, and with that comes Master’s-level expectations.

That being said, the courses are designed to place the bulk of the responsibility for learning the material in the students’ hands. There are very in-depth lectures, generally followed by exercises where seemingly every student is trying to get the professor’s attention for clarification, and a small number (with two of my four courses, that number is one) of outside projects that ultimately determine the grade. It has all come as a bit of a shock to me, because the RPI learning environment actually babies you along, so to speak, even in terms of course metrics like projects and exams. Frankly, I prefer the RPI environment, because it has never left me as overwhelmed as I’ve found myself lately, not to mention how fundamentally easier the courses are at the Bachelor’s level.

Now that the topic of education is out of the way, I have quite a few more observations from Denmark and elsewhere that I feel compelled to share. So in no particular order, here goes:

The weather here is incredibly predictable. Winter was absolutely terrible, because it was cold, cloudy, and painfully windy, with some sort of fittingly cold precipitation (usually rain, sometimes a little snow) making an appearance for at least a few hours a day. With very, very few exceptions, it was exactly like that every day until about late February/early March. Then it just became mild with some occasional scattered spots of sunshine, and very, very rarely, a little rain. When April came, the sun came out, and hasn’t gone away once. Every day is sunny and warm, with temps generally hovering around 60 to 65. There came a point where I actually got sick of seeing the sun so much. Truth.

I thought the Danes only really drank so much because the winters were so terrible. Turns out they drink a ton to pass the winter, then they drink a ton to celebrate the warm weather. Your liver never gets a break, but you will get a healthy bit of color because the drinking moves outside. The reason there are no open-container laws has become quite evident to me at this point.

The music you’ll find around here is unique to an extent. Scandinavia, as a whole, has seemingly acknowledged the fact that virtually nobody else speaks Danish/Swedish/Norwegian/Finnish (especially Finnish) and as a result, everybody speaks English incredibly well. I’ve touched on this before. The music, though, is a bit of a split. Most of the artists opt to sing in English because it opens them up to a far larger marketplace than they’d get singing in Danish, for example. Some of Denmark’s biggest exports of late are (and these are just examples) Mew, Grand Avenue, and Ida Corr. They’re all singing in English. The Top 20 charts, on the other hand, are mostly dominated by Danish acts. This track has seen a lot of club time lately, and it’s extraordinarily well-produced, even though only six million people can understand it, tops:

Same case for the Swedes:

(*Trivia fact: The chorus of the song is “Everybody that’s not dancing is a rapist.” It’s classy.)

Although there are some hometown heroes of sorts that sing in English but don’t really have any outside acceptance yet:

This stands in contrast to places like Germany (which I know have firsthand knowledge of thanks to my 2700-mile road trip) where it’s more or less a 50/50 mix of English worldwide hits (I seriously cannot listen to any more Lady Gaga or Katy Perry) and questionably-produced German music.

In terms of European radio, I ended up with a ton of exposure to it over the course of my grand European adventure, and it’s just as varied as the music itself is. Starting off in Sweden, with the exception of the previously-posted Swedish chart hits, pretty much everything was American. I blasted over the Oresund bridge to Rihanna’s “Disturbia”, for example. (It was nowhere near as climactic as I had hoped.) The DJs themselves had a tendency to randomly break into English for purposes of dramatic quotation, as well. Apart from that, it was more or less par for the course by American standards. Danish radio was similar, although there was more Danish music mixed in, and I didn’t hear a word of English.

Germany was different. Like I said before, there was far more German music, but I think that speaks more toward their culture than their entertainment industry. To put it simply, there’s a reason American have the option to learn German and French, but not Danish or Swedish. Also, virtually every radio station, at the very least the ones that broadcast to the Autobahn between major cities, seemed to be state-run, with newscasts at the top of every half-hour lasting at least 10 minutes. There were some incredibly interesting stations I picked up along the way, like 94F (I think?) in Munich that played sort of a mixture of old-school funk and new, indie hip-hop. Really different and really awesome, but my car’s radio lost it when I switched and couldn’t find it again. Web searches are coming up short, too, but it was fun while it lasted.

The culture differences present were pretty interesting, too. The advantage to traveling Europe on a road trip is that you not only get to see the major destinations at your own pace (in my case, an incredibly hurried pace) but you can see all the differences unfold before your own eyes. You can take in the language at the rest stops and even try to use it yourself (“Uhh… Pump zwei? Danke!”) By far the most fun switchover to witness was from one end of the Gotthard tunnel in Switzerland to the other. It’s typical German countryside all the way past Zurich (think Pennsylvania or Ohio – now you know why the Amish settled there) suddenly juxtaposed against the Alps, then once you clear the series of tunnels, you’re suddenly steeped in Swiss-Italian culture. Gone are the cute farmhouses, and suddenly you’re surrounded by palm trees and villas. It was seriously astonishing to see how much of an agent for change the Alps were.

In fact, pretty much everything about my swing through Ticino was utterly amazing. Thanks to the power of Facebook, I managed to track down some distant relatives that were still living in the village my family started out in, and not only did they all meet up and treat me to dinner my first night there, but Guido took the next day off to show me around the city of Lugano, Campione d’Italia across the lake, and Pugerna, the tiny village on a hillside where we all started out in (where I also had probably the greatest meal I’ve eaten in a long time!) I’m still in awe of not only the beauty and history I found myself surrounded with, but the hospitality I was shown as well. I appreciated the effort more than I can possibly express in words, and I will never forget the experience. I only wish I could have spent more time there!

The only real downside to my trip ended up being the rental. I did end up with a very comfortable and competent Volkswagen Golf five-door, which did everything I needed it to (including a couple of Autobahn speed jaunts) without complaint, but Europcar in Sweden had it fitted with studded snow tires, which created innumerable headaches over the entire course of the trip. Apart from the fact that the tires did nothing to help out my fuel economy, road stability, and noise levels, it turns out Germany has a complete ban on them (as I discovered at a surprise Friday night border stop en route to Berlin that I may or may not have run from) and Switzerland bans you from their highways, as well. I nearly had a heart attack getting on the highway in Ticino, since the Polizia, with their pristine blaze orange and white BMW wagons, had a surprise highway tax vignette check that I was afraid was going to prematurely end my journey at its southernmost point. As I did everything I could to maintain control over my bowels as my car slowly clack-clack-clacked down the queue, I was simply waved along. Not a fun 60 seconds, let me tell you.

In the end though, I can now cross Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein (hell yes!) and Austria (very briefly) off my list of countries to go to, and it was absolutely worth it. Unfortunately, I somehow have to try to top it over spring break next year, since road trips are now par for the course. I’m thinking California.

Next up, I need to get to Stockholm, and I’m even considering flying to Reykjavik. All assuming I survive the next few weeks of classes, anyway. We’ll see where that goes.