Zealand Institute of Business and Technology, Denmark

“Hej” from Denmark!

Exam period in October went well and now it’s time for the fall break, which is from 14^th till 20^th of October here at the Zealand Academy.

The concept of studying here works different than in Germany. At Zealand Academy they appreciate independent learning. Our professors keep telling us, that they don’t care if we read the course literature or if we show up in class at all. We are allowed to study the way, we think is right. In addition, we address our professors with their first names. They would not even react to their surnames, because it is regarded as impolite. Class consists of 20% listening to the professor holding a lecture and 80% active, independent learning and collaboration. We have many presentations, exercises in practice and reading material. I go to an international class and in theory, we are 27 students, but most days we are no more than 15 participants at a time (on good days :).

Not only classes are different from what I am used to, but also the exams. We get access to the case, which will be discussed in the exam 24 hours in advance. We then have time to prepare ourselves until the next day, 8:30 a.m. Before we could start writing the exam, we had to agree to the general rules, which were explained to us in Danish first and then in English. We write exams on university laptops, which are equipped with a software to verify, that we only use the permitted web sides.  It also checks for plagiarism. If the program finds more than 20% in your exam, you fail. But let’s hope, that everything will be fineJ. The exam lasts two hours. Then you upload your text as PDF in “Wiseflow“. Wiseflow is our university online account, where examination questions and solutions are uploaded.

At weekends, we always try to do something together. This weekend, Emma (a French Erasmus student) and I went to Køge. The train ride takes about 25 minutes and it costs 20 DKK if you own a “Rejsekort”. You need to register your card at the “Check-ind-machine” every time you get on or off the train. You really shouldn’t forget that, it’ll get expensive otherwise.

In Køge, we met our buddy Cecilie and she showed us around the city. We explored the small alleys with their Scandinavian architecture.

Cecilie came by car and so she took us down to the harbor “Køge Marina“ with her. We walked around for a little while and then went to the beach where we found a nice place for our lunch break. Cecilie’s parents, who spent their day at the harbor, too, invited us onto their boat for a small tour.

After 2 hours on the boat, we went back to Roskilde. Because there are no meals provided on weekends, we used the kitchen to cook something. And because it is less expensive, I joined a small, bur culinary international group (German, French, Dutch and American).

Today, it was my turn, so I decided to do “Kaiserschmarrn” (cut-up and sugared pancake with raisins). After 6 weeks in Denmark it’s nice to eat something BavarianJ.

It is very convenient to have a kitchen, even though it leaves a lot to be desired regarding the cleanliness. 90% of the time it doesn’t look so nice, even though they installed cameras in the kitchen (and also in other parts of the residence). But when I asked about it, they told me that it would be too much work, to actually look through all the videos. So much for that. Danish laziness at its best.

But our nice kitchen meetings make you forget the cleanliness-situation, especially, if someone suddenly puts on some Dutch or Turkish music :).

And this weekend had yet another surprise for us. It took some time for us to understand from the Danish bulletin, that coliform bacteria had been found in our (drinking) water. But apart from students running to Aldi, Lidl, and co. to restock their water supplies, nothing serious happened :).