5 STRANGE FACTS ABOUT DENMARK PART 3

Hej Everyone!

I know, that the upcoming posts were supposed to be about my apartment stories, however I think you are not that much interested in those.. Are you? Let me know! Today though, I have for you 5 Strange Facts about Denmark part 3. I know you love these series! Write a comment below and share your thoughts of Denmark too!:)

5 Strange Facts About Denmark Part 1
5 Strange Facts About Denmark Part 2

As always, a little disclaimer - these facts are not as strange to me as they were before. Those are the things that surprised me about Denmark and might surprise you! I am not writing these posts to offend Danes or show my huge love to them. These are just the things that I observed over 5 years in Denmark :)

1. Rich Students

In Poland (where I come from) students going to universities, in order to pay their rent and/or their expenses, they need to have a part time job. Unless you have rich parents of course! There are also some schools that you need to pay for. The people who did not get into public universities, are often enrolled into these private ones and they need to pay there money for each semester. Well, in Denmark all students are receiving their monthly pay from the government and trust me, they can afford to live well and party for that, without having to find any job! ;)

2. Black Prams

When my mother came to visit me here in Denmark she told me about this and I started noticing that. In my country there is plenty of colorful baby prams / strollers ! The bluest or the yellowest - the better. In Denmark though EVERY stroller is BLACK! When I said about that on my polish website, people commented that it is because, there is not that much sun here, therefore black brings a bit of warmth into the pram and the baby. Is that true, or is it just fashion? :) You let me know!:)

3. The Teacher May Be Your Friend!

I was so surprised when I came here and all the teachers wanted me to speak to them by name! Does not really matter if the teacher is young or older. They don't really like to be called mr. mrs. or Professor. Sometimes they can even sit down in a friday bar with you and have a beer together! It was a huge challenge for me because I come from a country where the power relation is kind of big and you talk to everyone calling them Mr., Mrs. or Professor and you keep a distance!

4. Clean Up After Your Dog (REALLY!)

When you see signs with "Clean up after your dog" you don't really pay attention to that, do you? At least I know me, and all my friends. However when they say so in Denmark, DO IT. Otherwise you will have people looking at you like killers or screaming from the window to clean the poop up! #neighbourpolice

5. Naked People Around Me!

One day I decided to go to the swimming pool here in Denmark, and what? And I was shocked! I had no idea that being naked is not a big issue here at all. In Poland everyone hide themselves in locker-rooms, or behind the towels, because you can't even see a knee of a child! (joke, or not..  but you know what I mean) Here nobody cares. Young and older women are going around with EVERYTHING on the view, either in the public changing-rooms or in the shower area. After a couple of times, I stopped caring as well, but until now it's a pretty strange view to me:)

Well, I hope you liked all of the observations and I am not the only one noticing them! Let me know what you think about it and if you have anything else that really surprised you?:) I am waiting for your comments!:)

Aleks

Sport for free - good for everyone!

Dear UCN'ers,

Today a very short blog post with some pictures and inspiration for you. (hopefully:) )

Since spring is here, you can see much more people on the streets moving themselves - as I was mentioning before, Danes love it! (Here are my previous posts about sport in Denmark) With that being said, I decided to also move my two weak muscles from the chair and do something with myself! So over 3 weeks ago now, I started my trainings.

my evening run with our UCN in Lindholm in the back:)

Even though the fitness in Denmark is not expensive at all (100 -150kr/ month and you can train how much you want to at the gym) I decided to do it without any payments and enjoy the nature at the same time. I train every day at least 45 min/day - running, cykling, cardio (with our polish trainer Ewa Chodakowska - youtube link here) voleyball, yoga in the parks, walking, and sometimes gym - that you can find in some parks in Aalborg - totally for free! I love it about Denmark! You never know what can surprise you next!

UCN tshirt for running!

And what can I say - I love it - totally! And I just can't get my eyes from the results. I was always a slim girl, but never so fit! I can see my muscles and I totally love my body! Now sport is a huge part of my life and a day without a training is a wasted day for me.

Free gym at the park with UCN in the background

So if you feel like training - do it! There is nothing better and cheaper than that for a better, not-stressful mood! I even use my old UCN tshirts for that ;)

Free gym at the park

morning run

morning run

The park gyms that I know:

1. Skudehavnsvej / Ryesgade

2. Østre Anlæg Park

Do you know more parks that have these fitness opportunities in Aalborg? 

What other ways of sport for free can you suggest? :)

Write in the comments below, or in FB site!! :)

Aleks

 

Løb for Kræft 2012

Hi everyone!

 

How was your weekend? I guess you are all overwhelmed with parties and events happening in Aalborg these days? I remember when  I came here.. I was really looking forward to the weekends, when I could meet some of my friends and have a good time. Nowadays I feel, I am kind of grandma. Chilling on the weekends home in my sweatpants. Not too interesting, is it?

 

This weekend, I put my pyjamas away and on saturday afternoon, I joined some of my friends, taking part in the event 'Løb for kræft 2012'. In the other words, it is a running marathon that supports children with cancer in Aalborg hospital. The tickets were 150 DKK but the money were spent on a good cause, to support the fight with cancer by running, or simply walking 6km distance. You can check the website here for more information :)

 

 

As I was writing in the previous posts, Danes love sport. And they also love to help others. So now you can imagine why there was more than 500 people running in this marathon. I really think it was a great initiative to organise this kind of event. Oh, and I forgot to mention that before the running marathon, we danced all together to the loud music. After the marathon there were some koncerts and zumba classes for everyone. Perfect!

 

I am really happy I took part in this, eventhough I have terrible pain in my legs. - Why? Hahaha, because I did not prepare for 6 km run, it was my spontanous decision and I gave as much as I could, and I promised myself - I am not gonna stop, even when I will not have energy anymore. Guess what! And I didn't. I finished the marathon, being very proud of myself and after that I went to work for the whole night. That is why my body is exhausted! But, hey - I am trying to be a Viking.

 

While running, I took a picture with my phone (because I was checking my time anyways) of our school. It is in the back of a girl in green, but I thought it would be a great connection between the marathon. Maybe one day UCN Students culd make one? :)

UCN Sport Cup

Hi Everyone!

Today just a little update. Do you remember the blog post about health agents? I was mentioning there about sport activities that the school is organising for all the students. Luckily I had the possibility to interview Lars Olsen - Student Counsellor and International coordinator, my aim was to find out, why the school is doing something like that. Unfortuanately you need to watch that with your headphones because the sound is very low from 24th sec. of watching, but it comes back to normal after 20 seconds. I will write that part for you here :

"In the summer, it's around, let me see, around 800 - 900 people who are doing sport, in the winter is around 600. Winter cup is not that big as in the summer,also because the winter cup has started 3 years ago, but it will grow, will be bigger and bigger" - Lars Olsen

As I was mentioning - I love UCN Sport Cups a lot, becuase it is something that not every school is organising, something unique that connects people together.That day Danes and international students play sports and get to know each other. Also for people who do not like team activities,there is possibility to take part in dancing classes / aerobic or joga! I know from Lars, that this year (september 14th) they plan to introduce to us new disciplines and for sure there are going to be more individual activities.

I guess that from the video below you can see everything and it does not need any explanations - so I leave you with that and wish you a great weekend!

Enjoy watching and let me know in the comments beloww what you think and what would you like to know more before coming to Denmark!

-Aleks

Hvordan er vejret i dag?

Welcome back!

Today I have prepared for you something unexpected and silly but actually highly requested.

When I was in Poland to promote UCN, many people asked me question "why they should come to Denmark? Isn't too cold there?"

Before I came to Denmark I also imagined people as vikings still in here, who are living in warmer ice age. Anyway, I have to say - I love the danish weather. You can experience 4 different seasons in one day!

Some say that danish weather is so unpredictable as women - you never know what is coming next.

What really surprised me when I came to Aalborg in September 2009 was - beautiful sun and looooong days. After I moved in to UC house, around October, I remember days were getting shorter, very windy and rainy. It was shocking for me that the sunrise came at 8 or 9 in the morning and when I was going out from school - around 15:30 it was already dark. Bearing in mind that I am living in Scandinavian country - it was beautiful for me to observe the changing days.

Winter

I also remember when teachers were saying that there was no really winter snow from 30 years. It is all the time raining and lots of mud on the streets. Well, what is that picture saying then?

November 2009

I remember when I woke up in UC House and I took this picture behind my room window. I also remember the days I was going to school that time. I even told my mother to send me in a package my snowboarding jacket! It was freezing so much.. As you can tell, it was unexpected for Danes as well:)

From that time we can see this every year right now. The climate is really changing.

But committing myself to vikings again - maybe they really are the ones. Even in that kind of weather you can see many of them walking on the street without jackets, sometimes in shorts.

Autumn

When I am writing about that - I just remembered when UCN took us for integration day together with danish students. It was our first year here. They separated us into small groups and we needed to follow some steps and make small exercises in order to finish the day with sandwiches and hot tea. I think it was end of September, beginning of October. It was getting really cold when you had to spend all day outside and   the most important - it was raining. The last exercise with the most rain on it, was to jump into water and swim to pick up some balls. Okay guys - even though I wanted to help very much and get some points for my group to win - I just could not take my clothes off, in such a weather and swim in that cold water! Guess what? All the international student did not do that! Just the Danes! I really admire them for that. Don't believe me? I think I should have some pictures from that time.. :)

Getting some points for the team:)

Spring

Me in Aalborg Park :)

When coming to spring time - I must say - the weather is really beautiful, although you can still feel some freezing wind. I remember the time of picnics in the park, boys playing football or basketball, girls volleyball. Danish  people love sport very much, so it is quite normal to see more and more people jogging after winter and going outside to play some sports or music. It is really nice to go to the river side and meet all the people walking with a dog or kids dancing on the streets.

Summer

I guess summer is the most beautiful time for all of us. I stayed in Denmark for the first time in the summer previous year. It wasn't too hot and it wasn't too cold. I even sunbathed in the parks ;) It was really good! Music is bombing the city, all the birds are singing and people are more happy. What else do you need? Wait! I know - days are so long that the sunrise is around 5-6 in the morning and the sunset around 23:00!

In summer time, there is a lot going on in Aalborg. You always need to check websites with different events (for example this ONE) to find something for yourself. When it is really warm outside I like to go out for a long walks and enjoy the weather of course. I am always buying ice creams and just go around the city to make some nice pictures. Going out with friends for a picnic, sunbathe and playing volleyball is my thing  as well. I also like to sit on the bench with a good coffee and just stare at the people. (It is not weird, right?)  I am leaving you with some pictures.

Twin sisters at the same bike, in the same clothes. Lovely

Guys! Let me know if came or stayed in Denmark during the summer and what did you like the most here?

 I would be really glad to hear your thoughts :)

PS. I created a facebook page, that you can like and be informed when is the next post ready!
YOU CAN LIKE IT HERE!