33 days ...

... I've been in beautiful Aarhus! Time flies so fast and at the same time it feels like I've been here forever. In the meantime since my last blog post, I've been on a few trips (canoeing and back to the Deer Park), enjoyed the sun at the beach, successfully had my first Danish lesson and of course, studied diligently!

We still have beautiful weather! Sunshine every day and around 25 degrees Celsius. Every Dane you meet tells you how lucky we are and that such a long period of good weather is very unusual for Denmark. The weather forecast even promises that it will continue. But you definitely can't trust that here. I have my rain jacket with me just in case. You can still be surprised by a sudden rain shower every now and then.

Anyway, the beautiful weather is great for exploring and going on trips. Last weekend, we went canoeing in Silkeborg, organized by the university. We not only enjoyed the beautiful view during 5 hours of paddling, but also felt our arms quite a bit. Even though I still have muscle soreness, it was definitely a great day and very idyllic to paddle through the lake and river and enjoy the beautiful weather.

There's even a short video here! (It's not from me and unfortunately I'm not in it, but you can get a good impression of the canoeing trip)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1066502240107396/permalink/1094480057309614/

I've already experienced quite a bit here in Denmark. Among other things, the famous Friday bars. The Danish understand Friday bar as follows: The university rooms and faculties are transformed into party rooms on Friday afternoons, a makeshift bar and refrigerators are brought in and then we party and dance until late at night. It's a lot of fun and Saturday morning everything is clean and tidy again. For us Germans, this is quite surprising because something like this would never be possible at most German universities. Last Friday, on the occasion of the founding date of Aarhus University, the largest Friday bar in Denmark took place in the university park. You can imagine it a bit like a festival with different stages and concerts. With over 2000 students, it was a pretty big event! Beer and partying are generally very popular here, so it's not surprising that there is a university bar in the student house that is open around the clock and where you can even get a beer during lunch break.

Of course, studying shouldn't be neglected either. The university is slowly getting into full swing and even though I'm only taking two courses here, I'm pretty busy. As I mentioned before, the atmosphere in the courses is more relaxed, but the level is still very demanding! I have to read countless pages of literature every week and complete small tasks and projects for each session. It's not easy to balance all of this with all the leisure activities! :) However, I find the courses here a lot more interesting than at home because we are allowed to do a lot of practical work and be active. The topics are also not so far-fetched and we don't just do theoretical research like in my studies in Augsburg. Furthermore, the lecturers are just cool and the courses, which last 3-4 hours at a time, fly by.

By the way, Aarhus University is one of the top 100 universities in the world (ranked 48th) - and in my field of study even in the top 50 in the world! If you don't believe it or if you're just interested, you can read more here:

http://www.shanghairanking.com/FieldSOC2016.html

Oh, and I already had my first Danish lesson this week! All ERASMUS students can participate in free Danish lessons and of course, I didn't want to miss this opportunity. They say there are two languages in Denmark: the one that is spoken and the one that is written. And that's really true! Danish written language is almost like a mix of German and English, but spoken it's incredibly difficult because you have no feeling for the pronunciation at all. I can already say my name and where I come from. Here's a little sample:

Jeg hedder Carolina. - pronounced like: Ja hilla Carolina.

Jeg kommer fra Tyskland. - pronounced like: Ja komme fra Tüsklän.

Or something like that. I'm looking forward to learning the language and I'm diligently keeping a vocabulary notebook!

As you can tell, I'm really busy and I love that there's always something going on here! I'm trying to take advantage of it as much as possible before the rainy and gray season comes, which everyone warns about.

I'm going to Legoland this weekend and Lukas is visiting me next week (finally!) :)