Colorado State University Athletics

Life in the Mark

Katherine Whitney, a senior outside hitter for the Rams in 2006, finished school in December and decided to try playing overseas. She was able to get a contract with Holte, a team just outside of Copenhagen Denmark.

The following journal chronicles her experience in Denmark for all of our fans...

January 26, 2007

Life here is awesome! I absolutely love it. The people I live with, Tage and Su, are the sweetest people. They treat me like their daughter, cook me food everyday and make sure I know my way around...

Volleyball is good too. Way not as intense as what I'm used to, but I'm getting used to it no problem :-) . Our practices are only like 1? to 2 hours long so I have the whole day to pretty much do whatever I want, which so far is sit around in really comfy furniture (the Danes are known for their furniture design), drink lots of tea and coffee (they love their coffee), read, and take naps. A nice break from last semester, let me tell you.

It is so beautiful here, it looks like something out of a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. I live in a suburb just north of Copenhagen center in the 'country'. Full of cute little houses with woods and pastures in between, but just a train ride away from downtown Copenhagen. It started snowing a couple of days ago (the first of the year, very strange) but when it stops I'll bike into town and take lots of pics. Tage knows the head distributer for Carlsberg brewery (apparently "the best beer in the world") so he's taking me on a tour this weekend.

Pretty much, life here rocks. Danish people are super nice, they all speak fluent English, and they actually like Americans. I fit in quite well here because we agree on lots of things

Until next time,

Katherine
 


February 6, 2007

Hey everyone,

So I've been here almost two weeks now, and am settling in quite nicely. I can't believe how warm it is here! Well, not warm exactly, but not snowing and not as cold as what I left in Colorado!

We have our third game of the playoff tomorrow against a not so good team, so we should win. Currently we're ranked third in the standings, and depending on how the other top two teams do we could be bumped up to second. The playoffs are three months long, with one game a week. So really its like conference play, only we play each team once.

The team is awesome, but very new and very young. I guess there were only three returning players from last year's team and the rest all came from other clubs. The oldest player is 32, a couple girls are 26, there's four of us who are 21, and the rest are 19. It's an interesting mix. One girl is an engineer, one is a cop, we have a pharmacist, a teacher, and a midwife, and the rest of the girls are in school, either at university or in highschool. I feel sort of out of place with nothing to do but play volleyball, but I'm not complaining--I'm very much enjoying my time off!

Until next time,

Katherine
 


February 23, 2007

Hey guys,

Sorry it has taken me so long to write another update, but here goes...

I've been here for a little over a month now and I can't believe its been so long! I still can't speak a word of Danish (the pronunciation is really hard!) plus everyone just speaks English to me. But I love the food and the laid back culture.The food is delicious! Typical Danish food consists of mostly meat and potatoes, and not as much fish as you'd expect from being an island. They also eats lots of smorrebr?d, an open faced sandwhich made with dark bread, remoulade, and an assortment of meats and cheeses (very good).

Copenhagen is a beautiful city. I can't wait until the weather starts getting nicer--apparently Copenhagen just lights up in the spring and summer. There's lots of parks and outdoor cafes, an amusement park called Tivoli, and boat trips around the canals.

Our team is doing really well. We're on a 5 match winning streak, including beating the former #1 team to take over the top spot. We have another month and a half until the semi-finals and finals and have to stay in the top 4 to compete, so I hope we can pull it off! Holte has been in the finals for the past 19 years, but hasn't won since 2002 or something like that. Here's a link to one of the articles in the local paper, http://www.dagbladetonline.dk/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007102190181&Profile=1000
(St?rre billede means bigger picture)

When the season is over I'm going to Turkey with one of my teammates for a beach volleyball camp in Alanya. It's a pretty touristy place with white sandy beaches right on the Mediterranean Coast. Two more of my teammates might come as well. I'll be sure to send and update (and lots of pictures) of that!

I hope all is well in Colorado, and I miss you guys!

Katherine
 

 

March 5, 2007

Hi everybody,

I don't know if you've heard it on the news, but there's a little incidence going on in downtown Copenhagen currently, so if you haven't I'll catch you up to speed because its really interesting.

It involves this 'youth house' in the downtown part of Copenhagen called N?rrebro. Apparently it's just a regular piece of property that wasn't being used so these 'alternative' kids took it over about 2 or 3 years ago (maybe 5 years ago, I can't remember) and have been using it as a hangout. They feel like they need a place to express themselves, but more importantly, it just seems like a place to party for free. The government has known about this, but decided to let the kids stay there rent free because, well, the Danish government is very lenient I guess. It seems like most people I've talked to agreed that these kids did have the right to stay there as long as the house wasn't being used.

But the government sold the house to some church or something, and have asked the kids to move out. They gave them a certain amount of time that they had to leave by, but of course, they don't want to leave. So, the police are trying to 'remove' them from the house and a riot's ensued. This has turned into like a week long ordeal, and I don't know when its going to stop. The problem is that young people from other countries are coming here now too just to riot. So far they've just started a few fires and wrecked a school and are throwing rocks and molotov cocktails all over the place.

Anyways, the whole things' been pretty crazy. They called in all the cops in the country to deal with this and it just so happens our setter is one of them. She hasn't been at practice all week, and has to work around the clock some days. Its pretty funny to picture it, actually. Jindra's this little blong Danish girl and she's had to be decked out in riot gear for the past week. She managed to get today off for our game, though, but we lost. Damn.

So that's how things have been going lately. I'm sure you can find more about it on the internet. Hope everythings going well in Colorado!

Until next time,

Katherine
 


March 20, 2007

Hey Everyone,

Spring is finally here! Its been getting warmer every day, and the days are no longer short and grey. It still rains a bit, but most days are sunny--definitely a nice change!

We had last weekend free. Kind of a short break before we start the semi-finals. We have one more game next weekend which determines our ranking (we'll finish either 1, 2, or 3 but it depends on how the others do as well). I think there's a three way tie right now for first.

On Saturday I went to a Viking Ship Museum in the town of Roskilde. Its an old fjord where they found 5 sunken Viking ships from back in the day. They brought them up piece by piece and reassembled them to put on display in the museum. Then they started to build replicas of two of the ships so they could see how they sailed. They used all the same tools and techniques as the original ship builders and it took years to finish. The most impressive one is a long war ship (almost 100 feet long!) that they're planning on sailing from Roskilde to Dublin this summer. Remember these ships are completely open and have no modern equipment. It'll take 65 people and 2 weeks to cross the North Sea. Keep your eyes peeled, because this will probably be in the news later this summer.

Hope all's well. I miss you guys!

Katherine
 

 

April 2, 2007

Hi everyone!

So we're coming to the end of the season, but that takes a lot longer than it sounds. We played our last match yesterday for ranking going into the semifinals. We won, and so are second going into it (there was a three way tie for first). The semifinals and finals are the best of three matches played some during the week and some on the weekends. We'll be playing the same team we beat to take second and their pretty good, so we'll see what happens. They just got two more Americans on their team for the end of the season, so now they have three Americans who all start. Its pretty funny, actually, when we play them the whole gym is speaking English--you'd think you were back in the states...

A few weeks ago I started teaching at a high school near the club where I play. It's an English class, and the teacher is one of the founders of our club. He heard I was playing here, so asked me to help with the section they are studying this term -- Guns, Violence, and the Media.

I'm really enjoying it. It's so interesting -- Denmark has completely different views on gun control and violence. Guns are illegal (except hunting rifles, which are even hard to get) and people don't have the right to protect themselves.

It's a really big issue right now, because when I first got here in January, some robbers broke into this guy's shop and threatened him and his daughter with guns.

The shopkeeper had an illegal gun because this had happened to him before, and he shot and injured one of the robbers. Now the shopkeeper is facing a sentence longer than the people trying to rob him!

He's still waiting to go on trial, and it seems like people are for the most part in favor of him getting off without retribution, but I don't know whether or not the law will change.

Obviously, this is way different than the states where we believe that the right to bear arms will help protect us. People here are afraid that if this guy gets off and people are allowed to defend themselves with guns, that violence in society will only increase.

It's really interesting talking to these kids about it, and they are all very interested in why America has so many problems with gun violence.

We watched Bowling for Columbine to start the section and they couldn't believe it (definitely not the best portrayal of America, but it raises some good issues).

It really makes you think to talk about this stuff with people who aren't familiar with our laws and culture in the states. Hmmm...

Anyway, I'll keep you guys updated on how we're doing in the finals, and before I know it I'll be home!

Take care,

Katherine