About us

We are a dynamic group of nine students from all over the world, promoting the Danish town of Aarhus as the ideal culture and travel destination. This blog runs part of our Youth Goodwill Ambassador (YGWA) initiative, as students from Aarhus University.

KICK BUTT: Aarhus Group 1 is determined to kick butt this year by promoting Aarhus as best student destination in Denmark! PIC: supplied

We are going with the theme “Any day Aarhus,” as many students believe there isn’t much to do in this “little city.” We are trying to counter-argue that if you explore enough, you are bound to find something new every day.

Our team includes:
Anca Dudau, from Romania
Daniel Höft, from Germany
Mavi Gomis, from Spain
Mihail Mitev, from Bulgaria
Mohit Kothari, from India
Sam Liwei Chen, from China
Sarkis Milo Hernandez, from Cuba
Vanessa Smeets, from South Africa
Vitaly Kazakov, from Canada

HARD AT WORK: Aarhus Group 1 teams up to formulate an amazing presentation in Copenhagen. PIC: Vanessa

How does Aarhus differ from our hometowns?

Anca: “It is quite difficult to find internationals in my hometown, Craiova, Romania. I love that in Aarhus you can find foreign students everywhere so that you live in a very multicultural environment. “

Daniel: “The differences are not that big. I live close to Hamburg. But Aarhus has a lot to offer for a 350 000 inhabitants city.”

Mavi: “I am from Alicante, Spain, where we don’t have green areas and it does not rain as much. It is wonderful see water and forest around you all the time! The level of education here is fantastic, you really learn about what you study.”

Mihail: “I used to live in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, which population is 1,500,000 people. You can get why Aarhus seems small to me. Compared to Sofia, Aarhus is cleaner and more organized, though. I have never used a bike as a means of transport in Sofia, simply because the city lacks proper bike lanes.”

Mohit: “I come from the place where there is always life and light (Jodhpur, India) and here everything closes by 6 pm. Aarhus is more cosy and peaceful.” Mohit blogs regularly about his travels: http://asiancorrespondent.com/67979/welcome-to-the-land-of-pineapples/

Sam: “I am from Shanghai, China. Here, I am not surrounded by any high-rising or tall buildings. The life pace is quite slow here, where people live a leisure life and stores are closed early every day. No crowded places, no jammed traffic and no restless atmosphere, Aarhus is just a ordinary small but nice city…”

Sarkis: “My home town is Pinar del Río, in Cuba, and it is different from Aarhus in every sense. It is an inland town, far from the sea. It is really warm the whole year long. People are really open. We talk much more with each other than they do here. The economy here is much better and there is clearly more freedom. Education is quite good in my country, we just do not have many resources. A Danish education also offers more possibilities to good jobs internationally that one from my country.”

Vanessa: “I grew up in Pretoria, the capital of South Africa, which is bustling 24/7 with cars and people. Aarhus is much quieter and you have the unique opportunity to study in forests and quiet museums, alongside people from all over the world. As a girl, I feel much safer here. As beautiful as South Africa is, the crime rate is one of the highest in the world.”
Vanessa blogs regularly about her travels, Africa and relationships: http://vsmeets.wordpress.com/

Vitaly: ”My hometown in Canada, Victoria, British Columbia, and it’s actually very similar to Aarhus. It is also a small university town surrounded by great nature and the ocean. In this sense, the transition to Aarhus was easy for me. The one big change I made is using a bike for daily transportation instead of driving a car. I am loving it so far, as it’s so easy to get around Aarhus by bike.”

Check out how we pronounce “Aarhus:”