Posted September 9, 2016 by UTS Think Global DAB

James – Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark!

I flew into Tirstrup Airstrip (nearest to Aarhus), apparently no one visiting Aarhus does. I should have caught the train from Copenhagen – its much cheaper! Everything has gone very smoothly, the past student feedback surveys and seeking out those who were here before me have been amazing.

Aarhus – The Cultural Capital of Europe in 2017

I Sweet talked the Danish exchange officer who gave me a spot at Borglum Kollegeit, which is one of the best located student dorms. (pronounced Bow-were-lum – not Baw-g-lum – get used to the Danes laughing at your pronunciation of everything) There are 380-ish students in the Dorms, with a 14 share kitchen.

The head of International Students at the Architecture School juxtaposed the Danes to a bottle of Tomato sauce. Turn it over and nothing will come out, but if you shake it and hit it, all of the tomato sauce will explode out of the Bottle. This is the same for a Dane to really open up, it is very true. Unlike the extroverted nature of every Australian ever, the Danes will not show their true colours until you get to know them after a while, or if they’re very drunk.

Coffee – 38 Danish Kroner – which is nearly 8 Australian Dollars. Best coffee ever, but we’ll have to get used to the Americano’s.

The party culture here compared to home is insane. They throw heaps of house parties, then leave at 12:30-1am to go out to the clubs. There are no bouncers, or lines, Because everyone is out to just have fun. I have yet to see any complications out in the nightlife. I am getting very used to getting home at 5-6am on the weekends.

Iv’e also been lucky enough to play with ASV, the Aarhus Volleyball team, as well as coaching two of the girls’. This has been an awesome way to meet a stack of people (And locals as well, not just the international group that you will fall into for the first few weeks of school). Keeping around the Danes also makes the language much easier to learn.

Now, School (It felt like a holiday and I have forgotten I’m here to study). For the past week the Architecture School has introduced scrupulous.dk. “… a cloud computing workshop in which 200 students will work as a company and collectively built up an enormous research data base.” They’ve set up in amazing factory by the Harbour, we will present our findings today.

As for studios, they start next week (mid October, everyone at home has finished mid-terms) and next month we’re off to Porto, Portugal. Its been a pretty sweet 3 weeks.

Some images around campus –