Bikinis and Power Plants

This is an actual artist's rendering of a combined heat and power plant that they are proposing to build here in Denmark. As part of the proposal, they are planning to make it a multi-purpose plant, using the exterior of the plant as a ski slope. As flat as Denmark is, there could be the demand. But the ridiculous part is that it would only be the size of a small hill, and it usually is not cold enough to keep snow frozen anyway. I really found this picture amusing because the power company chose to communicate the positive attributes of the plan by showing ski-babes in bikinis enjoying themselves, with some guys off to the side ogling at them.

The Year of the Rabbit (fur)

This week, Copenhagen rang in the Chinese New Year the best way it knew how - with Copenhagen Fashion Week. The Copenhagen version of the better-known festivals held in Paris and New York is the largest and most significant fashion event in Scandinavia. As such, combined with the fact that Copenhagen is quite a small city, I expected to see plenty of super-hot models walking about town, and fashion events galore. Perhaps I am not glamorous or cool enough, but in fact, outside of the banners telling me so, I could not really even tell that the fashion festival was going on.This is the closest I came to seeing any models. The big screen let me know of all the cool stuff that was happening, but I was not invited to. Below is a pair of shoe/sandals that I happened to see in a shop window. If this is any indication of Scandinavian fashion, I don't think I missed much this week. They should stick to making furniture.

Guest of Honor

There have been some major highlights this past week. Finding siracha hot sauce, kim chi, and peanut butter in a grocery store. A night out where I am reminded how interesting the international community is here (I hung out with a Latvian, an American, a Spaniard, an Indian, an Israeli, and a Swede). But of most significance was the receipt of an official guest. While Obama may have had the pleasure of hosting Hu Jintao of China, I had the pleasure of hosting Keith Last of Lego. Keith, one of my good friends from Yale, was on his way back home after a trip to Lego HQ and stopped by for a night, fulfilling a long-ago promise he made to visit me in Copenhagen. We work for probably two of the largest Danish companies, only that most people probably don't realize Lego is Danish, and virtually nobody outside of Denmark knows what Vestas does. Keith received the abbreviated 5-hr night tour of Copenhagen where we ate, drank and talked to strangers on the street, and next morning he was off to the US and I off to more meetings.

Copenhagen, City of Nights

After almost three months of living here, one may wonder why I have not posted too many pictures of the city of Copenhagen. The reason is two-fold: while Copenhagen is a really pleasant city, it is also a very unassuming city where nothing really stands out. Paris has the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, while London has Big Ben and Parliament. Copenhagen really doesn't have anything, other than the stereotypical image of old European-style buildings that Americans have in their head - which while is quite pleasant to be around, it doesn't translate well in a photograph. Secondly, being so far north, it is often dark here. At least it's dark when I am not at work or have finally gotten out of my apartment on the weekends. One thing they do in fact do well here, though, are Christmas decorations, so before Christmas has fallen to a full month in the past, here are some Christmas-related photos.

Magasin, a large department store like Harrods, all lit up like Harrods


A tree I stumbled into, in one of the many side streets of the pedestrian shopping area

This is an excerpt from a pictorial Christmas story that I found very interesting

Discovery of the Sea

After Christmas holiday back in the States, I have been slowly getting back into the groove back in Copenhagen. Last week, this entailed listless nights while suffering from jet lag, resulting in my appearance at work at 10 or 10:30 AM each day. I felt very guilty about it, but when you have a job that doesn't require you to be present at any certain time, you get over that guilt pretty quick.

On my first weekend since coming back to town, I was determined to get out of the shell of just living everyday life in Copenhagen - which meant finding some blog-worthy experience to write another entry. As we try to deal with the trials and tribulations of life, we can fall into a routine. What would happen if we changed up that routine? Turned right instead of left? For me, I took that quite literally, and I discovered the sea. To my surprise, I never realized that I live just half a mile to sea side, the straight of Øresund that leads to the Baltic Sea. I have always turned left coming out of my apartment to head to the main street that I never realized that if I turned right I would arrive at the waterfront. Unfortunately, the waterfront of Copenhagen in my area is mostly quite ugly - an array of shipping ports, warehouses, and docks. The sea itself is pretty much like Copenhagen weather - cold, gray, and makes you wish you were in Florida.

Note here the wind turbines in the background, behind the factory. Despite working for a company that manufactures and sells wind turbines, this is actually the closest I've ever been to a turbine. I don't think there are any polar bears in Denmark, so I don't know what the deal with this statue is about.

Hans Christian Andersen is a god around here. He's probably one of the most famous Danes there ever has been. People are super proud of him, and he has a street named after him, too. "Who's Hans Christian Andersen?" you may ask. Well, he's the guy who wrote the Little Mermaid. Wait...Walt Disney didn't come up with little Ariel? Well, no, but I'm pretty sure they came up with the idea of singing crustaceans. Walk far along the seaside and you'll get to a nicer area (which just means no warehouses) where you will find this beautiful statue of the Little Mermaid that invokes the sudden urge to say, "What? That's it?" The picture lacks a point of reference to judge size, but the Little Mermaid is about half the size of a small human. It's a huge tourist attraction, with tour bus access and tons of people visiting to take pictures, which just blows me away as to why. For me, I was told by two friends to not waste my time by going to see the statue...which of course piqued my curiosity to find out why it was such a big waste of time. Interesting factoid, the Little Mermaid was recently vandalized when someone cut off her head. Probably disappointed a lot of tourists.

Hamburger Heaven

Last week I had my first international business trip since moving to Copenhagen...a whole 30 minute flight away to the city of Hamburg, Germany. It was my first time to Hamburg, so I was quite excited - especially for the opportunity to see all my fellow program mates again after 9 months apart, as we gathered for a week-long training camp. I will not bore you with the details of the training (it was even a bore for me), but interestingly, it caused an odd situation - over 7 days in Hamburg, I only saw the city in the light of day for one single afternoon. Most of the time I was cooped up in a hotel, and I did not even leave the hotel walls until the third day. Given that situation, I must report that Hamburg was quite beautiful after being covered in two fresh snowfalls, but I cannot properly convey how nice it was given that it was often too dark to take pictures. Fortunately, Hamburg avoided the super heavy snowfall that plagued the rest of Europe, but it was still a mess of snow, slush, and freezing cold.

All of Hamburg was awash in the Christmas spirit, as evidenced by the Christmas markets present around every corner of the city. Christmas markets exist across Europe, and was described to me as a place to drink mulled wine while shopping for things you don't need. The Hamburg model follows the American street fair model - the market is simply an excuse for Germans to drink booze outside in public under the guise of yuletide spirit. Stands that sell glüwein and other hot liquor beverages are about every 25 meters apart, separated by a multitude of food vendors and a sprinkling of vendors selling crap you don't need.

Every once in awhile, Santa and his helper fly across the market and up to the big Christmas tree, then proceed to back it up in reverse over the market again. I really love how Santa has to use a crane lift to get into his sleigh.

The best thing I ate in Hamburg - a bag full of mini beignets. It made me forget about Dunkin' Donuts quite quickly.

For those unaware, Hamburg has quite a nightlife. I don't have any pictures except for this one - an upwards view of the WWII bunker that I went to a dance party in. A fair amount of time was also spent in the Reeperbahn, the city's nightlife and red light district. I didn't get a chance to see the special street that only men are allowed to visit due to my ill-fated decision to continue talking to a pretty Hamburger (yes, they are called Hamburgers) I had met outside a bar. I did, however, get to see the many, many prostitutes that walk the streets. It was quite shocking to find out that prostitution was legal, and many of them were in fact quite pretty. The key to spotting them and avoid accidentally chatting one up is to look for the fanny packs they all wear. All in all, my last night in the Reeperbahn was probably one of the most fun nights I've ever had. A big thank you to the DJ at Rosie's, the sole reason we did not head back home until 7:30 AM.

Øbamakare

Today I had my first experience with a nationalized health care system. Concerned that I may have a broken foot after falling down some stairs last week, I got a little taste of what the new American system may be like, at least for those who are government-insured. Here's how I score it for the American politicians, given my experience:

Claim: a nationalized system a dis-incentive to doctors, as they are not motivated to earn more and more money by seeing more and more patients.
My experience: the doctor office is open from 9AM to 2PM. 5 hours a day! However, if I only had to work 5 hours a day, I would not be as concerned about making $200K a year instead of $100K.
Republicans +1 point.

Claim: a nationalized system would cause a flood of patients that overwhelm the system.
My experience: I was able to see the doctor the very same day - just like my experience with my GP in the US. Even though the doctor only worked 4 hours a day, it was no problem seeing him the very same day.
Democrats +1 point

Claim: quality of service will go down
My experience: the doctor treated me like he didn't really want me there, and was with me all of 5 minutes, at most....just like it is in the US!
Could be a push, but I'll say Democrats +1 point because technically service level did not go down.

Claim: we can't afford nationalized health care
My experience: if you charge 45% income tax, you can afford it.
Republicans +1 point (since nobody in the US wants higher taxes, even if it benefits them in the end)

Tie score it is. But overall experience, I found it to be just the same as going to the doctor in the US, with the exception that I didn't have to pay a cent (or, in this case, a single øre). Overall, I'm pleased. Tiebreaker goes to the Democrats. Oh, and apparently my foot is not broken. Good news!