A Fine Farewell to Denmark

There is much to tell.

First, the project. It went really well. We had our presentation in a beautiful room within an old Danish general store at the museum. People asked tough but good questions at the end. When it was over, we went out with our sponsors to a cafe in the town nearby. The weather was perfect which only made me feel even more awesome about everything being over. We left the museum with an outline of a scaled-down prototype teambuilding game for businesses. We had tested the setup on a couple of occasions and gotten a very positive response to it. The game makes good use of the history that the museum contains as well as the location-based information delivery technology that they have. The game combines the virtual experience of being guided with a live map showing where you and the other teams are, with the physical experience of recreating aspects of Danish life 200 years ago. The people at the museum were beaming with joy at what we had done and felt they could not thank us enough. Although I must say that there continuous praise and enthusiasm for our project was more than enough thanks.

Now I will give a brief-ish account of the time spent after our project was over and then I will tell you where I am now. On the eve of our project completion there was much anticipation of making celebration. Two other groups from WPI had presented their projects that day and were also totally finished. Just before going out with those people, however, I decided to give a call over to one of my good friends in Denmark: Stig. He told me that he and his friends were going to play football (soccer) and have a barbeque in the park. I could not resist. Twenty minutes later I was there. I felt bad having ditched the other group but as I would discover later, they would have little success at finding fun.

The next day, everyone else finished giving their presentations. I went with Peter back to the Open Air Museum to say goodbye to all the nice people there and to see the grounds one more time. Two sheep had been born just 2 days earlier and so we saw them as well. The weather was perfect and it was so nice to be at the museum again. It was also a little sad to say goodbye to everyone. It really is amazing how quickly the term went by. That evening, we all went out to dinner with Peder Petersen, the program director, and Mogens our orientation leader. It was of course a great time. After that, I walked with Prof. Pedersen, two other students, P.C. to a scenic part of the city. Even though it was 9 o'clock, it was still quite light out.

I woke up on Wednesday with a hurried feeling. My flight was not until 1 am the next morning but that only gave me maybe 14 hours to do all the things I had neglected to do in Denmark. The biggest of these was to go to Sweden. With the city of Malmö just a 35 minute train ride away it was sort of incredible that I had not been yet. In fact my friend Nolan hadn't been there either and so we went together. When we were at the last train stop before Malmö, a woman got on the train and sat next to us. She heard us speaking and asked us where we were from. We talked for a bit. When we got off the train she asked us what our plans were and we told here that we had no plans. She offered to take us around the city. However, as we embarked on our exploration of the city, we started to notice that everywhere we went something strange happened. At the money exchange booth the lady behind the desk was talking excitedly with our tour guide. When we got on the bus, our friend told the bus driver that we were her friends and asked how much would it cost for us to ride the bus. The driver said we could ride for free. From our friend's conversation and these other clues we discovered that she is one of the most famous people in Sweden.

We followed her to the theater where she was to perform the final night of a musical. Though it was sold out she said she could get us tickets. And why not, she played the lead role. She then took us to the Turning Torso, a freaky looking building near the water. We got ice cream at an Italian place and then sat in a skate park and watched the people.


Nolan and I eventually left that part of the city and wished our new friend a good performance. We walked the streets of Malmö and enjoyed the glorious weather. When we returned to Copenhagen, the time was about 6 pm. We were the only ones left besides our advisor and his wife. They invited us over to help finish their food. Stig came by to visit one more time and ate with us. I finished packing, watched a football match on tv, said goodbye to my Turkish friends at the pizza place across the street, and then waited at the bus stop. Stig was there as well and we had a nice chat before I left.

I am going skip telling you about the bus ride where I was the only one on the bus, the train ride, the other train ride, and the plane ride with all the Turkish people who stayed up all night congregating and conversing in different parts of the cabin. I woke up to a light tap on the shoulder. "Affedersiniz.....(turkish, turkish, turkish)....". I guessed that she wanted me to return my chair from the reclined position. I was right. I looked out the window and watched the plane fall slowly toward the ground as the Sun rose above it. For the first time in years I was on a plane where one walked from it on to the ground rather than directly into the terminal. So for a few moments I stood next to the plane and turned around, taking in the sunrise in İstanbul. It was comfort and joy. I met up with my dearest friend Pınar, and we went out for breakfast by the sea.

Later in the afternoon Pınar and I found ourselves on the other side of the city and decided to take a creative way back home. We took the Sea Boat. It was magical to see İstanbul from the water. I took a few pictures. As it turns out we only got most of the way home before getting lost. It was expected to happen at some point. However, we were able to get a cab for the last part of the trip.

Being back in Turkey, I still remember my life in Denmark very clearly. As exciting and relaxing as life is here, I still miss playing football in the park with my friends and eating the most amazing pastries the world has ever known. I miss the train rides to the museum and the exchange of smiles at its front desk each morning. My relationship with Denmark has only begun, and I will certainly return many times. I am so glad that I had the opportunity to do project work abraod. It was such a valuable experience and I cannot wait to get back home and tell all my friends about it. Most of all I cannot wait to someday return. But for now, my adventure continues in İstanbul.