This dormitory was made by a group of young Danish architects. Many popular journals and magazines have featured and highly praised it.
The dorm has everything. On the first floor, there are all kinds of cultural facility rooms. The party room can accommodate over 200 people and has bartender spot (it is not inferior to the Hong-Dae Clubs). The music room has various musical instruments including piano. The laundry room has colorful washing machines and dryers. The computer room has lastest computers and copy machines which are very useful during exam periods. The reading room has lovely desks and various colors of chairs. Lastly, the fitness room is the place where Tietgen men’s beautiful bodies are reborn every day!
While the first floor has diverse culture facility rooms, the rest, from second to sixth floors, have both individual private apartment rooms and common places such as the kitchen, multi-living rooms and drying rooms.
One of the most interesting aspects in this dormitory is the kitchen. One floor has four kitchens and around 15 people belong to one kitchen. Once people are allocated to the same kitchen, they call each other kitchen mates. Fortunately, all of my kitchen mates were so kind and were willing to open their minds for others that I could adapt to the new surroundings really fast and consider them as my family.
Of many traditions, the best I remember from my kitchen is having “common dinners” regularly. For this special dinner party, one or two kitchen mates would volunteer to cook delicious dishes and the others would help set the table and turn on romantic music. From these chances, I could taste many famous Danish foods and get to know Danish culture deeper by sharing comfortable moments with my kitchen mates.
Another thing I cannot forget is celebrating each mate’s birthday. The day before one’s birthday, others prepared a surprise morning breakfast. On the day, we baked bread and made salad and so on. Then we secretly went to the birthday boy or girl’s room and knocked. When our star showed up with a sleepy and disheveled face, we started to sing a Danish birthday song, shaking small Danish flags. Personally, this is one of the sweetest Danish cultures I cannot forget.
Not only were there these small events, but also various big events existed for the whole dormitory residents. For these events, usually one kitchen becomes one team.
Sports day is one of these events. On that day, we were dressed like Ninjas, putting black bands on our foreheads! Different races participated as one team! We ran a marathon, swam in the lake located in front of Tietgen and competed to climb up the stairs to the top of the dorm.
Also, there were multiple parties under special themes. The most impressive party was “Ladies and Gentlemen,” where everybody dressed up gorgeously and hit the red carpet. The party was so successful; it barely ended until 5 a.m.
Like this, Tietgen was such a lovely place. Although now I am back here in Korea, I can still vividly remember the moments such as having barbecue party while watching baby and mother ducks swim together on the lake. This must have been the best time of my life. I am sure that memory will last forever in my mind.
I am so happy and appreciate all the things that I could experience in Tietgen. How lucky I was! If I have a friend who is thinking about studying abroad in Europe, I will absolutely recommend Denmark and this adorable dormitory “Tietgen,” I promise that you will experience more than you can imagine!
* Han Bit-na (Journalism, 4) studied at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark as an exchange student.
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