Cornell Blog

Blog

	Abroad in Denmark: Sandie Cristina (who?) Barcelona By Sandie Cheng May 1, 2011 - 6:01pm I don’t know anyone by the name of Cristina, but I’m sure Woody Allen would have appreciated it. Even if I didn’t get into a bizarre love affair with an artist and his crazy ex-wife, Penelope Cruz. Anyway: our time in Barcelona consisted mostly of free walking tours of Gaudi and the old Gothic quarters, which require a “tip” at the end of the tour depending on how much you enjoyed it. We learned about Barcelon’s patron saint, a thirteen year old girl (Santa Eulalia), Picasso’s absinthe induced rant, and most importantly, Gaudi. He was the genius and madman of Barcelon. His architecture was too avant-garde for his time with the waves of the sea for rooftops and colorful mosaics on the walls....
	Abroad in Denmark: The Hitchhiking Begins (Toulouse to Barcelona) By Sandie Cheng May 1, 2011 - 5:52pm A big part of our trip was originally dedicated to hitchhiking, but due to the tight schedule we were on, we decided to get on a train from Brussels to Paris. We had a long lay-over in Paris. Since I had just been to Paris a few weekends ago with my Impressionism class, S. and I decided to pass the time in a cafe, while the others explored the beautiful sights. READ MORE
	Abroad in Denmark: At Least We Got Belgian Waffles By Sandie Cheng April 28, 2011 - 12:53pm Our next stop was Brussels, where we had two CouchSurfing hosts [A.] and [G.]. They seemed to be the exact opposites of each other, which shows that you can meet any type of person on CouchSurfing — you just have to be ready to expect the unexpected. A, who had positive references and a filled out profile, turned out to be rather cold and sarcastic. When we first met, my friend [V.] and I were still wearing our heavy backpacks, and he quietly led us around Brussels, half-heartedly showing us the famous sights, including Maneken Pis. READ MORE
	Abroad in Denmark: Couchsurfing in Amsterdam By Sandie Cheng April 28, 2011 - 12:39pm After weeks of wasting away hours in the Studenterhuset (my favorite cafe in Copenhagen), my friends and I finally planned a two week long adventure across Europe. And the best way to do it was through CouchSurfing, an online community dedicated to hospitality exchange. The concept is simple: people let you stay at their house, and you let others stay at yours. Of course, you have to fill out a profile, so others can now what type of person they are letting crash at their place for a couple of days. READ MORE
	Abroad in Denmark: Vi Elsker FCK! By Sandie Cheng April 21, 2011 - 8:46pm I just got back from an exciting football (that’s soccer) game between F.C. København and Brondby. Apparently, Brondby is Copenhagen’s biggest rival, and DIS provided all the Danish classes with free tickets! READ MORE
	Abroad in Denmark: Back from Milan By Sandie Cheng April 14, 2011 - 2:39pm I’ve just arrived back from Milan, Italy with my Positive Psychology class. It was a week of being constantly on the go, running from one academic visit to another. But in between the lectures from Italian psychologists (one of which was the acclaimed positive psychologist, Antonella Della Fave), there were breathtaking and extraordinary moments that I don’t think I could capture with words. READ MORE
	Abroad in Denmark: Hygge is Where the Heart is By Sandie Cheng April 8, 2011 - 8:58pm A couple of nights ago, my visiting mom, [H.], invited me and my roommate [N.] over for dinner. Following the etiquette taught by my Danish Language and Culture class, I bought a bouquet of tulips before going over, and she brought a box of chocolates. We were both very excited to be invited into a real Danish home, as if it would be drastically different from any other home. From our class, we learned that the Danes spend a lot of time inside their home, since Scandinavian winters are so long and harsh. Homes are expected to look not too neat but not too messy either — it should look like it’s been lived in for it to be the “hyggeligt” atmosphere that the Danes cherish. READ MORE
	Studying at Oxford: Am I at Hogwarts? By Phoebe Yu April 7, 2011 - 1:22pm It would be incredibly overwhelming to write about everything at Oxford so far, so I thought I would rely on the tool that gets me through life: incessantly draw Harry Potter comparisons to everything. For dinner, we have the option of “scaf”, or self-serve like those at Cornell dining halls, or “hall”, where you sit and wait to be served a formal three-course meal. Some colleges even require dinner attendees to dress of for hall, but over at St. Catherine’s we’re pretty chill about that. This is our hall during dinner: READ MORE
	Abroad in Denmark: Through Art By Sandie Cheng April 2, 2011 - 4:21pm Sweden followed us from a distance, as the train from Helsingør Station pulled along the coastal tracks toward Humlebæck. We were going to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art to see the Picasso exhibition, along with the acclaimed architecture and beauty of the museum. I was with [Y.], a Taiwanese-Japanese student from IPC (International People’s College/Den Internationale Højskole). He spent most of his time in the studio, working on unseen pieces of art — a talent, he said, he had just recently discovered. Weeks ago, he and I had found a common language through Mandarin-Chinese and a common admiration for Hayao Miyazaki. READ MORE
	Abroad in Denmark: Life is but a Dream By Sandie Cheng March 17, 2011 - 2:48pm Over the past two weeks, I’ve been living what most would call a dream. It feels more like a vacation than it does school, and sometimes, I forget that I even am in school. Sometimes, I feel like I’m more in a dream than in reality, especially when you live next to a castle by the sea. I can’t even remember the last time I spent a Sunday afternoon, sitting in a candlelit cafe, planning a trip to Sweden and Amsterdam with people who were strangers just two weeks ago. Although the days are grey and cold in Denmark, it gives the strongest and brightest ray of possibilities and adventures. READ MORE