Monday 10/10-2016

Monday the 10/10 - 2016

We woke up very tired after a long day yesterday.

After breakfast we went to the art institute of Chicago. The museum was a very beautiful building, and reminded us about the Tate Modern museum in London. There was very different artwork on the museum both older art and new art.

We went on a guided tour, where the theme was american art. We saw American artpieces from a very long time ago and later on the guided tour we saw more modern american art from Andy Warhol and earlier students on the art institute.

Our guide told us that the institute was previous mostly an American Art institute, but their director of the institute wanted the art institute to be more international because the newest trends on art museums are to collect as much international artpieces as possible.


We got a very chronological guided tour on the museum by our guide. The first artpieces we saw were paintings and sculptures of native americans.

And afterwards we saw the development in paintings when the europeans came to America and the industrialization begun.

We got to see art from the times when the metropolis start growing. There were paintings of the nightlife and artists presented how they felt lonely in the big cities.

At last we saw many artpieces from artist who had an international origin but had immigrated to America.



Some stayed at the art institute after the guided tour to see the rest of the art collection on the museum while others went out to find a restaurant to eat.

Emilie walked through the millenium park after she had stayed to see the rest of the museum. It was quite different to walk through the park, it was  very green and you could hear laughter everywhere when you walked through the park. It was interesting to see this contrast in the big city. It was quite different to walk on the streets sorrounded by big buildings and suddenly be located in a green park in Chicago downtown.

After we all had a little break from the art museum we went on an achitectural boat tour on the canals in Chicago.
One of the men from the crew talked about the architecture in Chicago. We saw all the big scyscrabers from the water perspective and he told us about the buildings and why Chicago look like it does today.
He mentioned that the residential population in downtown Chicago has doubled in the pas ten years which means that more of the scyscrabers are becoming residential buildings.


The canals we sailed has worked as a shipping river for many years and today it is still working as a shipping river, but are not used as much as before.

The guide of the tour told us that many buildings look like each other, and that has an explanation because in the 1960/70 many architects liked a minimalistic style, the buildings they made were black and had the same form. The building were cheap to make og it's only pupose was to be a business building.
But there are also many buildings that stands out, more buildings are part of the company's identity in the architecture of the building. Other buildings do also have remarks on how tall the buildings next to the building.


He told us that Chicago did previosly have the tallest scyscraber in the world, but they now have the second tallest scyscraber.

Sunday d. 9/10

We woke up early this morning, and eat breakfast at 9 o´clock. The breakfast was great and reminded a bit of the breakfast that was served in Madison, Wisconsin. At 10am we met in the lobby with the other from our class and started to walk to Navy Pier where we had to do our marketing assignment. The weather has been really nice today, there has been sunshine and no clouds on the sky and it has been warmer than we expected which is perfect.

Navy Pier in Chicago

As we walked to Navy Pier we noticed all the skyscrapers, the busy traffic, all the different kind of people and all the marathon runners who where going to run 42 kilometers today at the Chicago marathon.

When we arrived at Navy Pier, the first thing we noticed was the huge ferriswheele and the other fun things around the ferriswheele. Navy Pier is like a harbor where you can get entertained from restaurants, a theater, a modern architecture and the beautiful skyline of Chicago.  Navy Pier seemed like a cozy place to be and at the same time a cool place to hang out with your friends in the evening.

Chicago skyline

After our observations at Navy Pier we wanted to do some shopping. But first, we grabbed something to eat at McDonalds. We ended up spending the whole afternoon in Chicago downtown where we were shopping and took some great pictures of the city. For dinner, we ate at a really cool restaurant called “FlatTop Grill” where we were able to mix our own food, which was really delicious. Some choose to mix all kinds of vegetables and make them into a wrap where other just got an ordinary bowl. While we were eating it became dark outside, so on our way home to our hostel we saw Chicago by night which was very beautiful.

Our trip to Navy Pier had not only the intention that we should see  and experience the place, we also had a little task to do there. We had to take notes to the assignment below. The assignment was to make the 7 p´s for Navy Pier. The 7 p´s is respectively: 

- Product  -  Promotion  -   Price -   Process  -   People -   Place -   Physical evidence

The 7 P´s:
Navy Pier is a not-for-profit corporation and was originally opened as a shipping and recreational facility in 1916. It is located on Lake Michigan, and has served many purposes throughout its rich history and currently encompasses more than fifty acres of parks, gardens, shops, restaurants, family attractions and exhibition facilities. Some of the attractions are sightseeing tours from companies such as Seadog, Shoreline cruises, and the tall ship Windy. Another ship we saw, was called Mystic Blue and was a ship where you could go to eat and not a ship for sightseeing tours. 

There are many outdoor attractions at Navy Pier such as the Ferris wheel, remote control boats and other funny carousels.  

The Seventh day in The United States

The Seventh day in The United States

Friday:

So Friday is our last day here in Madison, but still, we had a long day to await.
The day started at Madison College or for the most of us, for sadly Maja had become sick over the night and could not attend.
At the college should we make a presentation about what we found most amazing or strange about our trip in America, so far. We all took the different experience we had thought the trip, like Epic and Dream Bank.
After our presentations we ate lunch at the school too, we had a real American pizza (Pizza with a hell a lot of cheese). After lunch we said goodbye to the teachers.

As said we had a long program for today, for later that day we should see a football game on high school level. But that was first in the evening so we had four hours of free time. And in that time we shopped at the local mall called East Towne Mall.

Around sixth o'clock we meet with the others from our class down in the lobby, from here we should take a real American school bus out to Waunakee High School where the game was played.
The was quite interesting, for not only did you learn a lot about American Football but also about American culture.

The game ended with that our team won (Waunakee High School).

"Our team warm up"

"The school band is playing at the game"

"The game is starting"

"Ann-Sophie, Cathrine and Tanya with a player of the other team"

The eight day in The United States

Saturday: 

Saturday was the day where we left Madison and travelled to Chicago. We have a quiet morning before we check out about 10am and loaded the bus, which should drive us to Chicago. One of our American teachers was there to say goodbye to us. It was a little sad to leave Madison because we had such a great week there full of good experiences and sweet people.

"Our hotel in Madison - Best Western East towne suties". 

We drove about 2 and a half hour with the bus but most of the class slept almost the entire way to Chicago. When we got to Chicago, we were totally blown away by this beautiful city and its amazing skyline. Only two of the rooms were ready when we arrived so we put all the luggage in the two rooms before we went out to experience the city and get some lunch.

We met back at the hotel at 3pm where people took their luggage into their own room. Afterwards we all went on a walk around in Chicago. Our teachers, Preben and Søren, shown us down town Chicago which include "The bean" as we call it, Millennium Park, The Magnificent Mile (which is a shopping street) and other streets in the town. The town is so nice and its skyline is amazing!!

"The Bean" in Chicago. 

One of the most impressive building is the "Trump Tower" which is almost a imitation of Burj  Khalifa in Dubai. The "Trump" building is huge and very beautiful and the placement is nothing less than perfect. Directly to The Magnificent Mile and with a beautifully view over the water and the town.

"The Trump tower" in Chicago.

Millennium Park is nice park, where you can go for nice walk, visit the famous "bean" or just relax a little. 5 minutes away from "the bean" is the Magnificent Mile, which is a famous shopping street with all famous brands and much more. Expensive brands as Burberry, Chanel and Armani, but also cheaper but stil very popular brands as Zara, Topshop and many other brands are placed here.

We got a very good first impression of Chicago - the people here is very kind and the town is beautiful and luckily is the weather very good as well. The sun was shinning the entire day which only made the town look even prettiere.

What a view over beautifully Chicago!

Chicago look like other American big cities like New York, but a very speciel thing about Chicago is the "metro". The metro here is very speciel because the trains drive over the cars like normally trains do. They don't have a underground system here, they do only use the metro driving over the earth.

The "Metro" in Chicago which is over the earth. 

At the evening some of us girls and most of the boys went to United Center, which is the home of Chicago's basketball team - Chicago Bulls. We drove to United Center with the driving app "Uber" which means that you order a private car that is near you and then the car pick you up and take you to your destination. Uber is very popular in the United States but not as popular in for example Denmark. It worked very well and our driver was so friendly.

Our experience at the United Center can't be described with words. It was totally amazing!! And we enjoyed every minute of it. We were there very early so we have lot of time before the game started. This saturday, Chicago should play against Indiana Pacers. The United Center is truly amazing and the atmosphere was something unique - everybody was happy and supportning the team by for example singing "let's go bulls!". In the beginning, Chicago was behind Pacers but before the half they were in front and they ended as the winner of the game with 121 point. During the game was there many times out so the teams could discuss their strategy. During the night was there some different competitions and shows from cheerleaders. The Basketball teams were both very good and without doubt in good shape before the season begin. The game consists of 4 quarters, which each is 12 minutes long. The rules for basketball is pretty easy to understand and the game is very interesting because the team can be 12 points behind and 10 minutes after 6 points in front of the other team.

United center -The home of the basketball team Chicago Bulls. 

Great team, place and atmosphere!

And the winner is????

Chicago Bulls of course!!

The sixth day in The United States

Thursday: 

Epic:

UW Hospital - American Center tour:

After the visit on Epic, which sells medical systems and software, we visited the UW Health hospital in Madison.

The hospital looked similar to hospitals in Denmark, it was very modern and beautiful.

We got divided into four groups and got a guided tour. The group Emilie was in, got an educater that educates new nurses. She was very interested in us, what we wanted to see.

We told her, we were business students, who were very interested in marketing, which she found very helpful to give us the best experience on the guided tour.

 

We saw their extraordinary facilities as a basketball track and football track. She told that people who primarely used the hospital were non-emergency surgeries (they are sent to the hospital downtosn in Madison). It was primarely people with a sports injure.

It looked like a very good place to be treated when you get an injure, but she told us that they had difficulties with their marketing and branding of their hospital, many in the area do not know the hospital, which we founded quite weird, because hospitals in Denmark do not brand themselves or feel the need to draw attention on the hospital.

The tour was great because we saw the hospital with a business and marketing perspective and it was very interesting to see how the american politics is difficult on health etc.

115th Fighter Wing:

Fighter Wing was our last company to see today. When we arrived at noon to the military base where there was served sandwiches for us and some chips. While we were eating we saw the first jet plane took off and everyone ran outside to see the 6 others who was about to take off. When the planes were long gone, we met a pilot who told us about the life as a pilot and about the education if you wished to be a pilot.

Last but not least we had a guided tour around in the base, which was really exciting and a huge experience. Some things we were really surprised about is that there were unbelievable many women who was employees there, and some of the employees in the base workt on a part time which means that they have another job besides the job in the military airforce base.

The fire engine at the United States Air Force base. 

Some of the girls in front of the fire engine. 

Mentor night - Departure Dinner with Mentors:
So today was our last day with our mentors. Sadly Signes, Cecilies and Tanyas mentor did not show up Again.We all meet at a bowlingally, where we ate, we got burgers(it was just a bun and meat) and pasta. To dessert we had a cookie.

Emilie's experience:

Sarah showed up as one of the first mentors at the departure dinner. Our group had so much fun with her, and we really enjoyed being together with her.

She had lot of things and knowledge to offer. I did not think americans would understand our humour with sarcasm and irony, but sarah was understood it and thought we were fun.

After we were finished with eating at the departure dinner, we drove to a walmart. We wanted to see the supermarket that are so popular on the social medias. It was a very big supermarket(we thought), they had everything and it was in so big packages. You will never see so big packages in Denmark.

Sarah said that we had to see a Costco supermarket then, if we thought Walmart was a big supermarket. She was right, Walmart was nothing compared to the Costco supermarket. Everything was big even the shelves that the products were kept on were big. Even if it was in big packages, it was so cheap. And beyound that, they had so many flavours and brands in substitute products, so it gave us a feeling that there are a lot more competition on the food-market in the US than in Denmark.

We saw parfumes from Marc Jacobs with 125 ml. to 50 $, which is nothing compared to danish prices.

We are not used to these "super" supermarkets in Denmark, mostly supermarkets in Denmark are small and local, and we figured out that the cost of living in the United States are much cheaper than in Denmark.

After we had looked around in Costco, we headed back to our hotel. Sadly we had to say goodbye to Sarah, but we agreed to find eachother on Facebook to keep in touch.

Futhermore we saw something that were worth thinking about. In America they fight obesity everywhere, but in the supermarket you could take a scooter trolley, where people who gets to tired to go shopping in Walmart, can take the one you will see in video down under this.

The sixth day in The United States

Thursday: 

Epic:

UW Hospital - American Center tour:

After the visit on Epic, which sells medical systems and software, we visited the UW Health hospital in Madison.

The hospital looked similar to hospitals in Denmark, it was very modern and beautiful.

We got divided into four groups and got a guided tour. The group Emilie was in, got an educater that educates new nurses. She was very interested in us, what we wanted to see.

We told her, we were business students, who were very interested in marketing, which she found very helpful to give us the best experience on the guided tour.

 

We saw their extraordinary facilities as a basketball track and football track. She told that people who primarely used the hospital were non-emergency surgeries (they are sent to the hospital downtosn in Madison). It was primarely people with a sports injure.

It looked like a very good place to be treated when you get an injure, but she told us that they had difficulties with their marketing and branding of their hospital, many in the area do not know the hospital, which we founded quite weird, because hospitals in Denmark do not brand themselves or feel the need to draw attention on the hospital.

The tour was great because we saw the hospital with a business and marketing perspective and it was very interesting to see how the american politics is difficult on health etc.

115th Fighter Wing:

Fighter Wing was our last company to see today. When we arrived at noon to the military base where there was served sandwiches for us and some chips. While we were eating we saw the first jet plane took off and everyone ran outside to see the 6 others who was about to take off. When the planes were long gone, we met a pilot who told us about the life as a pilot and about the education if you wished to be a pilot.

Last but not least we had a guided tour around in the base, which was really exciting and a huge experience. Some things we were really surprised about is that there were unbelievable many women who was employees there, and some of the employees in the base workt on a part time which means that they have another job besides the job in the military airforce base.

The fire engine at the United States Air Force base. 

Some of the girls in front of the fire engine. 

Mentor night - Departure Dinner with Mentors:
So today was our last day with our mentors. Sadly Signes, Cecilies and Tanyas mentor did not show up Again.We all meet at a bowlingally, where we ate, we got burgers(it was just a bun and meat) and pasta. To dessert we had a cookie.

Emilie's experience:

Sarah showed up as one of the first mentors at the departure dinner. Our group had so much fun with her, and we really enjoyed being together with her.

She had lot of things and knowledge to offer. I did not think americans would understand our humour with sarcasm and irony, but sarah was understood it and thought we were fun.

After we were finished with eating at the departure dinner, we drove to a walmart. We wanted to see the supermarket that are so popular on the social medias. It was a very big supermarket(we thought), they had everything and it was in so big packages. You will never see so big packages in Denmark.

Sarah said that we had to see a Costco supermarket then, if we thought Walmart was a big supermarket. She was right, Walmart was nothing compared to the Costco supermarket. Everything was big even the shelves that the products were kept on were big. Even if it was in big packages, it was so cheap. And beyound that, they had so many flavours and brands in substitute products, so it gave us a feeling that there are a lot more competition on the food-market in the US than in Denmark.

We saw parfumes from Marc Jacobs with 125 ml. to 50 $, which is nothing compared to danish prices.

We are not used to these "super" supermarkets in Denmark, mostly supermarkets in Denmark are small and local, and we figured out that the cost of living in the United States are much cheaper than in Denmark.

After we had looked around in Costco, we headed back to our hotel. Sadly we had to say goodbye to Sarah, but we agreed to find eachother on Facebook to keep in touch.

Futhermore we saw something that were worth thinking about. In America they fight obesity everywhere, but in the supermarket you could take a scooter trolley, where people who gets to tired to go shopping in Walmart, can take the one you will see in video down under this.

The fifth day in The United States

Wednesday:

Happy birthday Signe!

Today, it is Signe’s birthday, and may all her wishes come true!

We started the day with singing for Signe, we brought her cake, Danish flags and presents.

After, we went downstairs and ate breakfast before we headed our way to trek, which is a bicycle manufacturer. We have rent our “own” bus for the entire day, so we took the bus to Waterloo, where Trek’s headquarters is. The bus was a “real American school bus” just like those in movies, so even the bus ride was an experience.

"Our bus" - a yellow American school bus. 

Trek Bicycle:

Trek’s headquarters is and has always been in Waterloo, Wisconsin. At Trek we had a guide tour which was a great experience - we learn a lot and saw the production of a Trek bicycle from the very beginning to the final results. First we went through a little museum of Trek, where the guide told us about Trek’s history and about the development, which has been huge. We did also see some different kind of bikes, but old and new bikes. Afterwards we walked through the entire manufactory and we saw the production of the bicycles. First we heard something about the different models that they got and they have four different frames, which he showed us. After that he showed us the places where they collect the different pieces to a frame or to a wheel. When the frame is complete, it come to the “painting room” where both people and a robot are painting the frame in many different colours and patterns. The robot was very smart and incredibly effective, but also “the hand-made” work was excellent, most of the employees in the painting section have an art education, so they do want they are doing. After getting paint the frame comes to a “control room” where some employees are checking the frame for scratches and other defects before they polish the frame and send it further to the collect section, where some people collect the entire bicycle.

"Trek's motto."

Even thought the manufactory in Waterloo is Trek’s headquarter is not here where most of their bicycles are produced. The manufactory in Waterloo is primarily producing very expensive and customized bikes to private consumers and bikes to their professionals cycling teams. So most our production is customized to the individual consumer which explains the many different colours and patterns. They do both produce mountain bikes, racer, city bikes and children bicycles. Trek do also have a “teaching room” where both employees and their retailers can get new knowledge from experts, so they can give the customer the best possible experience, when they are buying a Trek bicycle.

"The Trek museum."

Unfortunately we were allowed to take pictures in the manufactory except from in the museum area. But we have some pictures from the museum area.

Harley-Davidson museum:

As you can see further down in the blog, there is an assignment about Harley Davidson, well there is a reason for that because today we went to the Harley Davidson Museum, where we got a guided tour around the museum, where got we divided into two groups.

"The museum entrance"

The tour was quite interesting it started out with an explanation about how there motors work and have developed through time. We also got and explanation to how and why they are so noisy, which some may think. After that, we heard about who the company survived through the world wars and the great depression, and to why they almost went bankrupt. The guide was especially interested in telling about world war II and the soldiers and the time after the war. Which we understand, because it was that way that the soldiers who were trained on the motorcycles got their bikes whit them home after the war, and many of them began to decorate them, like what bikers do today. For it was the soldiers who started the biker culture which we see today.
We also got a chance to see some celebrities bikes here was Elvis Presley's bike included.
After the tour has the museum made an exhibit where you can sit on some of their bikes, which were very fun, and only made us want a bike or to ride one even more than we did before.
After the museum visit, we ate at the motor museum, which is a cafe at the Harley museum. The food were good and especially the fries were excellent (I do not think I have had any better ones before), but sadæy it came a little late.

"Harley exhibits a  new bike every year"

"Elvis Presley's bike"

"Tanya on one of their bikes"

Johnson Creek Outlet Mall:

After the museum visit we vent to the Johnson Creek Outlet Mall, which is placed outside. The Mall is filled with cheap clothes  from brands like Nike, Addidas, Calvin Klein, Mac and Tommy Hilfinger.
We got about two and a half hour to shop, which is deffently not enough for us girls, but still we got to spend a lot of Money anyway.