Finding accomodation

To find accommodation in Aalborg can take a while. There are three ways how to get your new home in the city. 

First t organisation for which are repræsentants of a boligforening (housing associations). For example Bo i Aalborg or Himmerland. All you need to do is to register and signed up yourself to those apartments, houses you wish to be offered. In most cases being signed up at these organisations requires a yearly fee. For instance with Bo i Aalborg it is a 100 DKK a year. Be aware that this fee varies from association to association. These associations offer family and student apartments for reasonable rent and offers a wide variety of options.

A little help, when signed up for an apartment, look after the % of tenants that moves out from there, it can give you a hint on how much likely are you to get this place.

Second option, using the commercial sites, such as bolig portal, where the fees are on monthly basis and the rule first comes first served applies. Especially in Aalborg, regardless that recently many new kollegiums have been build, there is a huge lack of accommodation for students. SO DO NOT LEAVE THIS TILL THE LAST MOMENT. If you do you might end up living at Dan Hostel, and anyone who has been there can tell you, that this is the last place where you wanna end up.

you can use these commercial sides for free to see how man offers are there on the market and what types of appartements are out there, but at the moment you want the contact information, that is when you need to pay.

Third option, and often used is using Facebook. So search facebook for all the groups of accommodation in Aalborg or searching for roommate. You can be luck and find your new home there.

Some of the organisation you can try are:
www.boligportal.dk/Aalborg
Himmerland
www.boligstedet.dk
http://www.boiaalborg.dk/


Those pages are of course in danish. The rent is from approximately 4 000 Dkk and above, usually including warm and water bills. Pets are not allowed in 99.99 %. Be careful befor signing contract about the renting conditions and what all do you need to do before leaving the apartment. Be prepared that the first month is going to be expensive for you. Not only that you have to pa the rent for the first month up front, but also there is this little thing called DEPOSIT! 

DEPOSIT is equal to 3 X the rent. At private apartments that can get very expensive, cheaper at the student appartements. ( IF the student apartment is one of the newly build the rent and deposit is the same or not that much cheaper than the rent and deposit of an apartment in the city). 

All of this is payed before you move in.

For students:

You can find several colleges located in the city:

UC house http://www.uchouse.dk/

Kollegiums : www.aku-aalborg.dk
- AKu is managing all of the college accomodation in Aalborgin AKU you will be put on a waiting list, be paitent as it is going to be long very long waiting list. P.S: You get three offers, ou may say no to two offers but have to accept the third one, else you will be removed from the waiting list.

Maj Kollegium : http://www.4majaalborg.dk/

Good advice in the end: Find your accommodation in advance and fast or you will end up in Dan hostel!
http://danhostelaalborg.dk/

Aalborg in pictures

the city center

Harbour

Lindolm Høje - remains of viking village,museum and burial ground

center

Bridge over the fjord

Aalborg Tower

Aalborg Airport

Aalborg is the fourth second biggest city in Denmark, located in region called  “Nordjylland “.......

The city population is approximately 200 000, located along side of a fjord........

One of the things that amaze me about Denmark and Danes is that everybody understand and speaks English. This is big advantage as it takes a while before you start to speak danish on basic level properly.

If you came to Aalborg only as a student, you might be wondering if it is worth to start to learn the language. From my point of view it is good to do so, it will make your life easier in daily situations. IF you want to find job in DK,you might not find it necessary to learn Danish if you are in Copenhagen,but here in Aalborg,if you want to have a good job knowing the language is must.

Once you have received your residence permit and the “ Gule Kort” ( Yellow card ) with your own CPR you can go and apply for danish lessons, which are provided by the city municipality for free. Here in Denmark you have right to receive 3 years  of danish education for free, but once the period is exceeded you have to pay for it. Never the less 3 years is enough to learn the language.

When you get accepted they will invite you for a short interview to see if you have studied the language before, if you know any other languages to put you into the right module.They will give you the option to choose between daily or evening lessons. Evening education takes place twice a week ( Monday + Wednesday or Tuesday + Thursday) and usually lessons will last from 17:00 to 19:30. The daily lessons take place everyday form the morning 8:30  till 14:00.

If you would like to now more about the language school in Aalborg, below you can find its link :

http://www.sprogcenteraalborg.dk/


It is big advantage if you already know English and German especially. Danish is similar in its grammar to German and use some words from English. This makes it specially easier at the very beginnings. I am sure, if you type in any browser danish,learn danish it will find you many links,  below i put some links about danish pronunciation. From personal experience i can say it makes you confused the first time you hear the language but you will have lots of fun while learning it :D


http://www.speakdanish.dk/en/pronunciation/
http://users.cybercity.dk/~nmb3879/danishpron.html


Basic communication:

Hello, my name is = Hej, jeg hedder...
I come from = Jeg kommer fra
I am 23 years old = Jeg er 23 ( tre og tyve) år gammel
Where do you come from ? = Hvor kommer du fra?
What is the time? = Hvad er klokken?

How old are you ? = Hvor gammel er du ?

Hello = hej
good morning = godmorgen
good evening = godaften
good night = godnat

How much does it cost Hor meget kosterdet?

Monday =mandag 
Tuesday = tirsdag
Wednesday =onsdag
Thursday = torsdag
Friday= fredag
Saturday = lørdag
Sunday = søndag

I am = Jeg er
you are = Du er
he is = Han er
she is = Hun er
it is = Det er
we are = Vi er
You are = Du er
They are = De er

Above you can see only some of the basic phases that will help you to get around. For more you can visit http://mylanguages.org/danish_phrases.php .

Danes and their culture

Probably the most common reaction you can get about danes,is that they are arrogant and distant. This is not only preception of foreingers but also some  danes are aware of the impression they create.

To assume all danes are like this woul be wrong. Some of them might really be arrongant or distant, but do not let the first impression scare you away. Danes are friendly, helpful people. They live according motto that could be explained followingly : everybody is equal,do not  stand out, do not inferior others.  Nice,  is not it,and they really live accoridng to it. 

Danes belong to culture,where at first you need to get to know person before they start to act more personal. Therefore, hugging somebody or kissing on cheaks, if you do not know each other that well, is not appropriate. They will not be rude on you,if you do so, but it will create so called " awkward moment". I can say form my experience, that even hug given from pure happiness can take them by surprise  :D I got some very good news from my landlord, instinctivly i gave him a hug for bringing me those news. Eventhough,  we do known each other quite well and communicate often, his reaction on my behaviour was : " What are you doing?". 

So as you can see personal space is quite important in here. If you are searching for job,allready got a job or have some meeting arranged, they are quite punctional when it comes to time,they will come even few minutes before the meeting and no interuptions are acceptable. On the other hand, when it come to work, they will not work longer then they are supposed to,if you see that for example shop is opened from 9 to 20,then they will close exactly at 20.  So be carefull if you need to manage some papers at municipality,police or bank not to miss it. 

As much as the personal space is important, they are less strict when it come to communication. It si absolutly normal to call other people by their first name, no hiearchical differences (Mr. or Mrs, sir or madam ) those have no use in Denmark. I come from country where you would call your teacher very formaly,  saying good mornig ,using the status teacher and their surname, in Denmark you just say hi to each other, and hi hi when leaving, no status or surname used.

I do not know if you have ever heard the phrase " drunk as a dane ", yes or no, it is quite interesting how danes are proud about their drinking. So once you are here, praise their beer.The two most  popular brands in here ar Tuborg and Carlsberg. Beer,or alcohol is one of the topic you can talk about, next favourit is weather.

As in every culture,they love complainig about the weather in here, and I must admit, there is reason for it, it is hard to like it :D Let´s say it makes you really appreciate every tiny sign of sun you get to see. Thought,the weather here si most of the time grey - ish, danes are smily peopel with their specific sense of humor  - irony. 

welcome

Big warm welcome to you all new in Aalborg, international students, foreing workers, immigrants, tourists or visitors. 

My name is Lenka, 23 years old student at University College of Northern Denmark, Aalborg. I have been living in this city for almost three years now.  The first time i came to Aalborg, was also the first time for me to get in touch with danish society and its culture. 

If you have ever bofore and  had the chance to live abroad for a while, you know it has its pluses and minuses.  Getting use to new rules, way of living, way of communication does not have to always be plesant. By writting this blog, I would like to help those, for who the danish culture is as new as it was for me three years ago. 

Within this blog you will find basic information about the danish culture, language,their habits,customs, ways how to get around the city and some useful information  for example about accomodation, findig work, health care.