more copenhagen

Just as the title says!

Here's a cute little alcove off the Stroget, the main shopping street of CPH.












The Raadhus (city hall) with raadhuspladsen (plaza) at our back. First time we came through the plaza a few weeks before, there was a Thai festival going on.










View from the front steps of the Raadhus. Nope, nothing touristy here. We don't see any McDonald's or Burger King, or 7-11... nope.











If you look really closely at the side of this building, note the
working thermometer! It does indeed work! The numbers
max out at 28 degrees celsius, which equates to about 82 fahrenheit... that tells you something about the weather here. I'm feeling at home, temperature-wise. But you have to look at the same building again in the next picture...














This entire trip, I've heard that the Danes are known for not wanting to stand out. But read the side of the building: "Carlsberg: Probably the best beer in town." Come ON, this is your national beer! :) This statement on the side of the building just exemplified the "non-stand-out" stereotype I've heard...






We're finally inside the Raadhus! Now, after the half-hearted beer statement, there's a banner on the wall stating that CPH is the coolest city in the world. (however, it's small print, so they were a bit understated...)









Raadhus garden













Twenty-nine years ago, Bruce was here with his family and took a picture sitting on Hans Christian Andersen's knee. I had to take one this trip, as a comparison point. He is even color-coordinated.














Vor Frue Kirke -- a Lutheran church in the downtown area. I don't know that I've ever been to a Lutheran church before -- I've seen many Catholic churches, and the stark difference in styling was interesting. Very interesting to note the similarities to Unitarian churches.









From the bridge walk into the quieter neighborhood of Christianshavn










We were now on the other side of the canal and able to look into the opera house. I don't know what these gold/blue/purple orbs are, but they look cool.











The next day, we went to the north suburb of Lyngby to the Open Air Museum (Frilandsmuseet). This is a collection of several old buildings from several regions of Denmark depicting life as it was from centuries past -- some with staff dressed in period clothing acting the part.






Oh, what a fabulous business opportunity it would be to SELL NAP. Where do I sign up...

















The thatch on this particular building looked a bit shaggy, so we asked about it. Shaggy on purpose, actually. This building represents the island of Laesoe, off the northeast coast of Jutland. Apparently they use seaweed to make a lot of their thatch, causing the shagginess.







That does it for this batch... !!!

stockholm

(attempt #2 at this post -- round 1 had to be abandoned when network outages where we live got too bad)

Two weekends ago, now, we went up to Stockholm. Check out the following pictures...


Our hotel was 2,5 mi outside of Stockholm in the suburb of Bromma (cheaper). We were also walking distance from the Royal Residence, so we decided, when we arrived, to walk over. This was part of the walk -- a nice view over a bridge.










The front of the Royal Residence.













The Residence was closed for the day, but the grounds were open for wandering -- that we did. Note the greenery is not cut entirely evenly.
























The next day, we visited Gamla Stan, Stockholm's Old Town. Sadly, this is the only old part of the city which has been preserved. And luckily, we got there before 10:30, which is when all of the tourists infested. (However, I do recommend the ambiance of Cafe Art -- cool and away from crowds!)














Plaza in Gamla Stan.
















This is the aforementioned Cafe Art.













View across a Stockholm canal. Stockholm is set on over 26,000 islands. That's a lot of bridges...











The only artwork in our hotel room was a painting of a bunch of music stands. ??? Interesting, as if they knew who was coming...










Sunday, we walked around non-touristy parts of the city, including a park outside of the city limits. All of our ducks were in a row...











This is one of the metro stations. Not all of them were this interesting...












Another canal view, closer to museums and historic buildings. To our right is the Parliament building (to which we'd made a special trip, and only when we'd gotten there did the signs tell us it was closed to visitors until October...)









And finally... our tour of Stockholm ended with a walk around Haga Park, just north of city limits. This is where several locals seem to run/walk/exercise. Short bus ride from town.

fodterapi

Have I found a genetic link?

Some of you know about My Feet. I have weird metatarsals that are slightly S-shaped, rather than the normal straight... as structural abnormalities go, it's one of the more common ones (Z-feet, skew-feet, whatever you choose...) As you might imagine, this causes different "wear patterns" than the usual, typically creates bunions, and just is overall biomechanically bad for someone as active as I am.

In my time in Denmark, I have seen several "fodterapi", or foot therapy clinics. It's unclear to me whether they are podiatrists/physicians, or whether they are glorified pedicurists, when I look in the window. But it has me wondering -- since my Scandinavian father also has (had, surgically corrected) a structural foot issue, is there some sort of link?

Or are the Nordic folks just more in tune with their feet?

o canada

(yes, I'm slow on the update. our internet connection here is not the most stable... the weather looks more even today, so I'll try to do a lot!)

Tuesday, July 1, was Canada Day. We had no plans, but one of the Canadian students dropped by and asked if we wanted to join him and a few of the others for a trip to the harbor to sit and enjoy the day's nice weather. Why not... a way to meet a few more of the other students, to see more of the downtown sights we hadn't seen...

This is the classic Copenhagen shot of Nyhavn, or "new harbor". The first floor of all of the buildings are restaurants overlooking the harbor -- all very expensive, and not very good, according to the local who was with us that night.










At the end of Nyhavn, this is the "bus" coming in to take people across the canal to the Christianshavn neighborhood.











The Queen's Residence was a few blocks north, so we wandered up there to take a look. This is one of the guards.
















The gardens outside the Queen's Residence.



















Bruce's artsy waterfront photography (note the reflections) from the water's edge, also at the edge of the gardens. Looking across toward the city opera house. Much better than most city postcards, in my opinion!









And here's part of the group, L to R: me, Katie (North Carolina), Zini (North Carolina), Erin (Toronto), Christina (Germany). We ended the evening sitting on the steps of a church meeting u with some of the guys who'd bought a few pizzas, where Erin sang O, Canada! for us in French! (upon my prompting!!!)

first trip downtown

Sunday was our first trip to downtown Copenhagen. Of course, we want to share our pictures! We walked to the National Museum, which is free to visit.


Looking down Sankt Jorgens So towards the Tycho Brahe Planetarium (the chopped off building at the end). Several bridges cross small lakes ("so" = lake) into the true downtown.











Christiansborg Palace -- the bridge in front of. We didn't visit the palace, but it was a convenient picture, because it was across the street from the National Museum.









Bruce thought he was being silly with his picture taking. (insert eye roll) He was taking a picture of me looking at the map while under the "national museum this way" sign, trying to be funny. I was really trying to identify all of the neighboring buildings... I knew how to get to the national museum!!














Niels Juel = Danish war hero. Perhaps a long-lost relative of mine? Defeated the Swedish navy, and my father has always claimed that we are Swedish... no wonder I've always been so self-defeating. It's in my blood, I guess.
















I don't remember a thing about this building, other than -- it's a cool looking building with a cool looking gate. :)








And that's it for now! 'Til later...

goddag

Finally... yes... made it here via a four-legged flight with many layovers and nearly 30 hours of travel. Goddag fra danmark!

As promised, a first round of pictures, though we have been trying to settle ourselves into a dorm room/studio apartment clearly formerly occupied by students who previously up and left without cleaning anything... dirty dishes left everywhere. I am working through soaking piles of silverware/dishes/plates/etc in hot water, then scrubbing... meanwhile, balancing that with walks, and a bit of sightseeing, and meeting folks.

On to the pictures! We live in the community of Frederiksberg, fairly far out from downtown Copenhagen, so you will not see any of the traditional pastel houses and boats in the first batch. Presumably that will come later as we have more time.


During our layover in Munich, we had a "traditional" German breakfast -- veal sausage, a pretzel, and a beer. No, Bruce didn't have both of the beers... one is mine. But it looked funnier with him having both, eh? ;)











I asked for a diet Coke flying from DC to Munich... and got one with Arabic on the side. I had to keep the can. :)
















Flying into Copenhagen... windmills off the coast! :)






Our room for 6 weeks. All I care to do is collapse on the bed (but we did manage to rearrange the whole room and eat).










The view east from the room down Finsensvej (we're on the fourth floor)
















And, here is the view to the west. Note the cloudy, gray skies. Yes, makes us feel quite at home. Actually, weather is a lot worse here than Seattle for now... lots lots lots of rain in the AM... I tried to wear shorts this morning. It lasted about 20 minutes.









We went on a couple hours' walk today. I've seen this parking sign all over. I have no idea what it means, but I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the recent declarations that the Danes are the happiest people on earth.






Dave and Jen, we found this place just for you. But they spelled your last name wrong. We decided that when we're hungry at the right time, we'll try the Cafe Phister. Misspelled.








That's all we got, for now. Plans are to go downtown to one of the museums tomorrow, and we'll see what the coming week brings. One of the other guys around here found a dirt-cheap airare to Krakow next weekend, so that sounds like a plan. For now... hej hej.

early birthday gift

A little over three days to prep for the trip overseas...

And, as if I weren't already nervous about not having everything all together. Got a note in the mail today from the Washington Department of Licensing (DMV equivalent in other states) -- did I know that my drivers' license will expire on my birthday this year, which will pass while we're in Denmark?

No, I did not. Yes, indeed, my license expires 8-5-2008. Thank you for reminding me.

Yet another thing to take care of... and I'm glad the DOL celebrated with me 6 weeks early, so that I can still be legal when I arrive back here.

NB: Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Edamame were highly recommended to me. I like dark chocolate. I like edamame. In combination, I think they're just OK.

Photo Practice

Since I'm going to be using this site to post photos, I should figure out how in the heck it works, eh? So, I figure, why not practice by posting a few shots from last summer's visit to the in-laws'.

To the left is Xena. She belongs to my brother-in-law and his wife, who live in a little town on the border of NY and NJ. Cats have a tough life. All the sleeping and eating... but someone's gotta do it, y'know.









An Asian restaurant also not too far from Gavin and Eileen (and Xena!). However, the choice of name leaves much to be desired, don'tcha think? "Hey, you guys want to go eat at Yukhi tonight?" "Sure, let's have some Yukhi food!"









Since NYC is in Bruce's hometown backyard, we don't take too many shots anymore. However, we strolled Roosevelt Island (I had never been), and here is a picture of a bridge connecting the island to Queens, across the East River.










In this picture, we've just gotten on the overhead cable car to
take us over to Roosevelt Island. It runs parallel to the Queensboro Bridge. There is the temptation to spit into open sunroofs as you cross. (No, I would never do that. But someone with less tact might.) Sways back and forth a bit -- a real E-ticket ride.













And my next set of posted pictures will be from the other side of the pond!!!

could this be the end?

Warning: rant to follow. (what else is new...)

An hour ago, I just finished giving my last spring quarter final. I'm obviously taking summer quarter off of teaching, but I'm also using the time to decide if I want to continue teaching college at all.

Once upon a time, I dealt with the craptastic pay, the needing to balance multiple schools to make a reasonable living, the notion of schedule changes at the last minute to accommodate those lucky enough to be full time -- just for the excitement of sharing science with the new generation of sponges who soaked up the information. Not every day was rainbows and unicorns, but the good always outweighed the bad.

Nowadays, the growing number of needy and demanding students is driving me out of something I used to love to do.

Exhibit A: a recent group of students (for all I know, they may be reading this) from winter '08 squeezed every last drop of blood out of me. I gave and gave and gave. The rapport I feel with every class -- it just wasn't there. (I'd had several of these same students in the previous quarter, too, and I felt the rapport with that group -- what happened?) In any case, as this was majors chemistry, I gave them 6+ pages of practice problems posted on the web each week. I had a one-day turnaround on exam grading. These were also topics I hadn't taught in four years, so I studied a lot at home. For 8 hours of contact time per week, I was putting in 40+ hours per week for these students. Still, in the classroom, things felt icy.

What else could I do? I jump high, the students said to jump higher. I could never meet their demands, as they were infinite. In fact, I seem to recall after the one day I took off for illness (viral bronchitis, sinus infection, and a fever -- otherwise, I never cancel class), a student told me that she wished class hadn't been cancelled, because since the book sucked so much, she needed lecture. (Uh, missy, neither did you have a 100% attendance record.)

I was very glad to be done with the ultra-critical group, but little did I know how much they ruined me until the 10th week of spring quarter, when I read my evaluations. I'm thinking they talked with each other. Me, formerly getting teaching awards (recent, too), got SEVERAL evaluations from that class saying that I was their worst teacher ever, that I obviously didn't care about them, that I obviously never put any time into them...

Yeah, right.

Meanwhile... At the beginning of that quarter, a good friend, recently diagnosed with terminal cancer, took a turn for the worse. Now, any ordinary person would say, "I should spend more time with my friend while he's still alive", but I felt pressured to work for my needy students. I visited Erik, but nowhere near enough -- one of my BIGGEST regrets, for sure. And you know what? All the extra time that I put in for your sorry asses clearly meant NOTHING. And it's too late to visit now...

So, what has teaching done for me? It's caused me a great deal of regret these days. And I do need a break from it all. But I will thank my groups this quarter for being so easy-going in spite of my shortcomings. Best of luck.

ETA: if you are a student at a college anywhere, think twice about your part-time faculty community. Many of us scrape along with multiple jobs for the love of teaching, to evangelize our favorite subject matter -- and our schedules may change at the last minute, often to a class we haven't taught in years. This quarter, I have held five part-time jobs -- seamlessly so, for the most part! Just some food for thought before you think "teachers must have it easy".

reduce/reuse/recycle

This post has everything to do with blogging and nothing to do with this blog.

In the coming weeks, Bruce and I are going to Copenhagen, Denmark, for the summer and finishing things off with a few major cities, likely in eastern Europe. I'd thought of creating a blog to keep friends on this side of the pond apprised of goings-on and photo-postings.

But then I thought... there's too much crap out there in internet-land already. Why not keep on using this blog, the URL of which has nothing to do with travel or Denmark, but it recycles webspace? (Incidentally, I created this during my last desk job, when I was bored out of my mind and had little to do.)

So... as they say, watch this space. We'll be taking off the last week of June. I'll be letting you know.

fraternities

Found on the web:

You will learn early on in college that I Phelta Thi is not really a fraternity...

what the... ???

Yesterday, I dragged Bruce to the gym for some weightlifting. Much to my pleasure, the XM Satellite Radio was set to "obscure '80's songs" or something of that ilk rather than "today's bubblegum pop that makes a ripoff of every single song that's existed and has no originality of its own".

One of the songs that came on was a slower R&B tune from the '80's -- I remember having heard it then, but I couldn't remember the title or artist. And as Bruce sat there doing chest presses. he told me that this particular song reminded him of Strawberry Quik.

???? What the hell ????

Anyway, yes, he had an image of a rotating container of strawberry Quik powder while this song played.

Further reminding me that... I have a unique husband.

count your blessings

whether or not you're religious. Every now and then, I get a reminder.

I'm part of a large internet-based running community -- even though I've been laid up with more chronic injuries than I can count on one hand. One of the frequent posters, about a month ago, was out running a trail race with her friends and suddenly collapsed with a brain aneurysm.

Luckily for Karen, there were paramedics nearby also running the race. Apparently they saved her life. A month later, she's in rehab, finally transfered out of the hospital, and still getting used to the idea of feeding herself, talking, taking care of herself... it's going to be a long recovery, they say.

Also, luckily for Karen, she's a young strong running type. Yet even for someone of her health status, the fact that it took her three weeks to regain strength to say a single word is sobering.

Count your blessings. Enjoy every day you have on this planet. Hug your family and friends.

And for updates on Karen, check our her family's blog:

Karen's Blog

Longing for road trips of old...

We recently finished driving through the West for 2 1/2 weeks. Our time was limited, so we had to drive a bit farther, most days, than we wanted to.

Which brought back memories of my childhood family road trips, where we had nearly unlimited time. If something looked interesting, we'd stay the night. If we were too tired to drive, we'd stay in the middle of nowhere, just to make sure we could get enjoyment out of the trip.

Yet one of my fondest memories comes from a roadtrip of my own that I took a few days after dropping out of grad school, back in 1998. I hopped in my little Toyota and headed north of San Fran on 101. I'd also tossed my guitar into the back seat, just for kicks. Partway up to Mendocino (which ended up being my day's destination) the two-lane highway had one lane closed, and I had to stop for a while, waiting for the other direction to pass. I put the car in park, reached back for the guitar, and started playing -- all while sitting in the driver's seat. I still wonder what people thought, guitar neck sticking out the driver's side window... but heck, we weren't going anywhere for a while.

But that was back when life was more carefree...

166.66666...% increase

I rock. But I don't know how.

I've been teaching a "new" spinning class on Monday nights at the gym. As people get used to having any new class on the schedule, the class slowly grows. Usually.

Before I left town, I'd had three people for each of two weeks -- pretty paltry.

But tonight, I had eight. WOO!

I'm sure I had nothing to do with it. Maybe it was the fact that the gym finally started posting my class on the schedule (claimed they ran out of the proper label for the chart... for three weeks?). Maybe it was something my sub did over the past two weeks.

But in any case... yay! Far less danger of the class being cancelled, which is what I'd feared. And it feels good!