Les Hannah, day 55, part 1

Up early and once again to the train station; this time I rode the bike. In Aarhus I had appointments with two people. One is Ann, a coordinator of foreign exchanges, and the other with Armin, a professor in the Theology department. I was introduced to Armin through a mutual friend in the US, Jace Weaver. Jace is a professor of Native Studies in North Carolina and has apparently been to Aarhus University before; this is where he met Armin. Jace e-introduced Armin and me, and arranged a visit long before I arrived in Denmark.

I had to change trains in Fredericia, which is common for such a trip as this. Each leg of the journey was about an hour. It was actually a quick two hours as I was watching the scenery, as I typically do when I ride a train. Additionally I was watching the rain change to snow. I suppose it was inevitable, as much as it has been raining here and with the temperature dropping steadily snow was bound to fall. It was not much and not until I got closer to Aarhus, which is farther north, but it was a rain/snow mix.

Once I got off the train I walked to the University, taking the opportunity to walk through the city centre. I have been told that Aarhus is the second largest city in Denmark and it did have a bit of that large city feel similar to Copenhagen, but also different. The walk turned out to be longer than I thought it would be, but I still had time; however, the university also turned out to be larger than I thought it would be and I ended up being a bit late for my first appointment, the one with Ann, the foreign exchange coordinator. I did ultimately find her office though, with the aid of a lovely young lady who took pity on this lost Cherokee and allowed me to follow her to the correct building.

Once I found Ann’s office she and I set immediately about discussions of potential exchanges between NSU and Aarhus University. She said there are on average 600 Americans and/or Canadians here during a term, so they are accustomed to handling people from our corner of the globe. Before my trip here Ann and I exchanged emails and I gave her the link to NSU’s home page. She had checked us out and found NSU to have some compatible programs. She seemed particularly interested in some of the language programs. The talks went well, and now I have more talks to do when I get home. Got to get NSU’s administration in the loop on this.