Panther style

This is what students do at the University of Northern Iowa

Thanksgiving break

During my Thanksgiving break, I went two places: Eagle Grove and Cedar Rapids. The actual Thanksgiving Day, I spent with my American friend, Kendall, and her family in Cedar Rapids. They cooked a traditional Thanksgiving meal with turkey, green-bean casserole, mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, bread rolls and apple pie. It was delicious! The next day was Black Friday, and I went to get a camera. Kendall had warned me that there would be a lot of people, but we were surprised to see only the average amount of shoppers.

Minneapolis trip

This weekend I went to Minneapolis with my boyfriend. It's about a 4 hour drive, give or take. The city is located in the state of Minnesota, which is north of Iowa. The city is very beautiful, and so is the nickname of the state: "Land of 10,000 Lakes".

On Friday we went to the Target Center where Minneapolis Timberwolves played against Sacramento Kings. This was my first NBA game, and it was a pretty amazing experience. I didn't really like the whole show they put on with entertainment, commercials and free stuff - and I especially did not like the fact that they played music during the game and encouraged the home audience to boo while the Kings took their free throws. But the game itself was amazing, simply because I've never watched a NBA game before. Both teams weren't playing up to their best, but I got to see some tricks, dunks and good passing.

Saturday we went to Mall of America. It is a HUGE mall... HUGE.. We probably only saw 15% of it or something along those lines. To my surprise there was a piece of Danish culture. A Lego store!

Here's a funny and slightly disturbing thing I saw in Barnes & Nobles.

UNI-tv - all the shows

All the shows from UNI-tv have been gathered on one page now. Take a look right here:

http://www.uni.edu/chen/sp10/current_5.htm

My room and surrondings

This is long overdue. Pics of my room and my hall. Better late than never I guess.

This is the first thing you see when you find yourself before room 130 in Noehren Hall. A board with my roommate's and my name, along with our status. We are either studying, sleeping (zzzz), out or in. My roommate, Rhianna, decorated the board, and I added the Danish flags. 

I really like the idea of decorating your door and making it personal. Here is my neighbor's door. 

Another example

Some of the girls have a bible study. Count me out.

 This is very funny. It's a poster which hangs in my hall and is replaced with a new one each month. Last month was concerning alcohol awareness, and this is about pregnancy and sexual diseases. My RA makes them (resident assistant. Look for explanation further down)

The building I live in is called Noehren Hall. The floor I love on is 1st floor. On 1st floor there are two corridors you can live in. One is called Dionysus-Palmer, and the other one is Phaedra. I live in Phaedra.

There is a soda machine in my corridor.

And very close by, in a lounge, is a vending machine.

This is the lounge. You can go here to relax or study. If you spotted the open door at the end of the lounge and wonder what it is, I can inform you that it's the office of Noehren. There you sign up for things, borrow vacuum cleaners, collect your mail, etc.

The girl who lives behind this door is called Mykal, and she is the RA of Phaedra. A Resident Assistant is a trained peer leader who supervises those living in a residence hall or group housing facility (I totally ripped that off from Wikipedia). Mykal is very nice and helpful, and during the first weekend I was here and desperately stranded without Internet, she let me use her computer.

Another informational poster made by the RA.

The corridor leading to my room.

My room. This picture was taken today (Saturday), so please excuse the mess. I blame weekend laziness.

My roommate's side of the room. She brought the TV, microwave, fan and fridge, which she kindly lets me use.

My desk. Not as neat as it usually looks (cough).

The sink area. Yes, very fascinating indeed.

My wardrobe. A lot smaller than the one at home.

My sparse collection of shoes.

Our beds. I sleep below.

I decorated the wall with photos of family, friends, and Liverpool of course!

The University of Opportunities

We all know the cliché that America is the land of opportunities. Well, since coming to the University of Northern Iowa, I have discovered it to be the University of Opportunities! It sure attracts some influential people. Take Michelle Obama for example, who I wrote about some time ago.

Last week this guy came to UNI. Check out his website: www.draplin.com
I went to his presentation, and I was very impressed. He is a graphic designer, who besides having a very distinct style, also has led a very interesting life so far. This guy has washed dishes, snowboarded, and designed graphics for the US Government and John Hughes (yes, thee John Hughes). After doing some more research, Draplin has definitely become an inspiration to me.

Today I went to another presentation - or rather a screening. I watched the Academy Award nominated documentary "If A Tree Falls: A Story Of The Earth Liberation Front, and after watching it the director himself, Marshall Curry, spoke to us and answered questions.

 

To me it is kind of insane that I have experienced all of these people in the short amount of time I have been here. I am honestly kind of gob-smacked because, come on, you won't see any of these guys in a Danish university. The biggest personality I have seen so far in Denmark is Anthony Giddens, and while he is one of the most influential academics in social sciences, he only came because my education, Human Centered Informatics, celebrated its 25th birthday. I doubt we will see anyone of his caliber at Aalborg University anytime soon. UNI on the other hand will continue to get these people year after year!

I cannot wait to see who the next guest speaker will be.

It's a learning process

During the last two weeks, most of my assignments have been very web site oriented. For my IDC class, I've made one site in Dreamweaver, one in Wordpress and one in Wix.
Check two of them out here:

http://nathaliahn.wordpress.com/


http://nielsnad.wix.com/nathalianielsen#!home/mainPage