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

Look mommy, I'm on TV!

So some fun stuff. In my class, UNI-TV, I've been anchor two times now. The first time did not go overly well, therefore I'll show you the 2nd show. Enjoy!

http://www.uni.edu/chen/utv.htm

(These shows are actually shown on campus and in the Cedar Valley area. Live tv. No joke! There's microphones, teleprompters, huge lights - the whole setting is very professional.)

Also, a channel in the Cedar Valley, Channel 15, made a feature on our show. They talk about the course and show behind-the-scenes footage. Go to the 05:32 mark and learn more about my course. Plus as an extra bonus you'll see me as anchor!