Still Fighting the Good Fight

Well, no posts in a while cause I have had no activity in a while. My Danish class ended on Friday and I did well although I do not feel like I have learned much. I would like to at least learn to read it so I am thinking of picking up a dictionary and weekly newspaper subscription. As for speaking and understanding I am not too confident. It is a very difficult language to understand and speak...but maybe a few months of listening to it will make it a bit easier.

I have been dubbed a sort of local celebrity here among my classmates since routine excitement seems to attend to my life in Denmark. We went out together for an end of class celebration on Friday and the evening was abound with laughs over my many misadventures in Denmark from the water rescue to accidently waking up at 3 am and leaving for class without realizing the time. I am like the Forrest Gump of international students I think. Thats all I did this weekend and after an evening in the haze of cigarette smoke my cold/sore throat flared up again. I had a great workout and a terrific run yesterday though...I will not be defeated by a runny nose and mucus-filled cough! But I did go to bed at 8 last night. Thats the worst aspect of being sick so far is that I feel run-down all the time. I have been sleeping quite well, and I think it is the workout that makes all the difference. At home I would surf 3-6 hours a day and go for a 5 mile run. Here in Copenhagen I generally sit around in different places.

I am in the process of trying to plan an excursion next weekend cause my roommate may have friends in town so I will give them some space, and me some much needed solitude. So far I am looking into Sweden (Stockholm), Finland (Helsinki), or Germany (Berlin and Dresden). I think Finland is my first choice followed by Germany and Sweden...mostly cause the latter are rather close at hand so I am sure I will go to Stockholm some other time and there is a gallery exhibit in Berlin later this month that I would like to see. It has been more difficult to find out about traveling than I thought. Usually it is cheaper to fly, except to Stockholm, and I cannot afford a 16 hour strip to Helsinki at this point since I only have a weekend. Checking flights is a real pain though because they don't have those integrated search pages like Travelocity, Expedia, etc...so I have to check all the airlines and often accumulate legs of the trip given in different currencies...its dreadful really. So I may just do Sweden because its just a Danish train to Malmo and then a Swedish train to Stockholm.

Besides that I got tickets to a concert for a couple American bands I like in February and I am fairly stoked about that. Ok, I have nothing to say...and its time to go workout. I have to put some pictures up that I took like a week and a half ago...and if my classmate sends me the pictures she took of me and my friends on Friday then perhaps I will post them if they are not boring.

Dante's Ninth Circle of Hell

Well, the Internet is working again for the time being. I suspect this problem will recur from time to time because its onset and repair were both unannounced...which to me means that it was self-inflicted and self-resolved. Lets face it, we don't have control over these machines anymore. They do as they will and we are now forced to accommodate ourselves to them. The Internet is now so much a part of second nature that it has the feel of something like meteorological phenomena..."Its raining today, I suppose I will have to wear my rain-coat," "The Internet is down today, well I guess I will play computer solitaire all night."

You have not missed much...which follows directly from my not having done much. I did finally get a membership at the local gym which should make life 43 times more pleasant. There is too much sitting around for me here and it runs me down and makes my sleep problematic. I went in yesterday and despite the fact that I have not internalized the commu-metric system of measurement and scale I did quite well. Its not the best gym in the world but they have almost everything I need, and its close, so I will take it.

I did have one rather interesting occurrence yesterday afternoon...my frozen water rescue incident. Let me see if I can set the stage. Outside of the Humanities School there is a fake moat/river running around the newer buildings where my Danish course takes place. It was a day like any other...dreary and unspeakably cold. I was leaving after a typical class in Danish and scuttling along to catch the first metro so I would not have to wait long in the cold, but then everything changed. I am not sure if I saw or heard the ensuing trouble...I suspect I intuited that something was afoot with my 6th lifeguarding sense.

The 6th lifeguarding sense will be recognized by some of my fellow lifeguards and ex-lifeguards, but for the rest of you a brief explanation is due. After around a decade as undoubtedly one of the more accomplished lifeguards in the United States I have incorporated deep into my unconsciousness a sense of swimming pool rules and regulations, etc...In times of despair, as I walked in tall, long and proud strides around the pool in my short red shorts with whistle in hand, the lifeguarding 6th sense has allowed me to respond when conscious reflection would be too slow or timid. "Don't double-bounce on the diving board!" "Walk!" "No diving!" Often this sense follows you outside of the pool and you feel an urge to tell children at the supermarket to walk, etc...

A few years have passed since I hung up that fanny-pack of first aid supplies, the short red shorts, and the Fox 40 whistle and I began to think that the sense was in decline. Sure at times I would wake in a cold sweat hearing the shrill sound of Fox 40 whistles with visions of lifeguards pointing, in accordance with pool policy, to the site of a rescue in progress..."who was making the rescue?" "what kind of rescue?" etc... But even the nightmares have subsided. Yesterday took me back to a different time and place, a simpler time and place.

The fake moat/river was angry that day my friends like an old man returning soup. As I turned the corner from the building toward the metro station I sensed trouble brewing on the frozen fake moat/river. I wheeled around to the sight of a young girl, perhaps 7 or 8 years of age, stepping out on to the 1/2 inch ice. I am not sure what she was thinking, maybe it was a childish impulse, maybe she thought that beyond that frozen pass lie the shores of Valhalla of Nordic mythology. I know what I was thinking...she is going to fall through.

It was not like the movies where everyone freezes as the eerie sound of ice cracking fills the air to the tune of a dramatic soundtrack, rather the ice simply broke and she fell backward into the frozen depths. I ran as if carried by the wind, my arrival at the scene no doubt quickened by the fact that I was only two steps away. I was acting on instinct, lifeguarding instinct. My first thought was to activate the emergency action plan, but as I reached for the trusty Fox 40 whistle that so often hung around my neck I realized this time would be different...I was going alone, without rescue tube or my trusty team behind me...or even my short red shorts, this would put my considerable skill to the test.

As I leapt into the water (ok, stepped into the water) I would like to tell you that the only thing running through my mind was the child's safety, but my first thought was how ungodly cold the water was...this after my mind began working again from the temporary hiccup in my mental processes brought on by the icy waters. "Surely Tim, a former lifeguard of your accomplishment and stature, began to think instantly of the child's welfare after the initial shock settled...after all, so many times in the past you gallantly entered the water in response to a child's cries for help (even if this child was crying for help in that non-sensical babble, Danish)." Well, no, my second thought was why I hadn't thought about how much broken ice hurt and scratched you up as you move through it...but my third thought was of the child, and with my ability to think in crises this third thought arrived quickly! As I grabbed the child and lifted her to safety I realized how weak my once powerful body had been reduced to in the past few years...this girl weighed maybe 60 lbs and it took two attempts to lift her over the concrete edge. Maybe the commu-kilograms weigh more or something, or gravity's pull is stronger in Scandinavia.

As I made my way out of the frozen abyss below I asked the frightened girl if she was ok...in a language she did not understand. Her and her friend left quickly to return to wherever they came from. Meanwhile, and throughout the entire process, the Danes simply walked by...sure most looked at the spectacle...some may have even uttered some derogatory comment about the stupid cowboy American, always trying to save the world...but I felt as though I was simply doing my duty...a duty that I first took up when I was 15 and entered that American Red Cross Lifeguarding course at the Cypress Creek YMCA...a duty that I had instilled in others during my years as pool manager and head lifeguard...a duty that had proven exemplary during my time as a lifeguarding instructor...a duty that has become part of my nature and that every good lifeguard knows. Though the whistle and fanny-pack may have been hung up for good, those short red shorts are tattooed over the rear-end of my soul!

I left, a cold-shivering fool, for the metro with a smile in my heart...and when I got home the heat in my apartment didn't work!

Space-Time Confusion and the Stone Ages

Well, first an update on the 'net. Still no Internet. I really cannot be sure when it will be up, but hopefully soon because I need to catch up with the world. On the positive side I have been able to get more work done and do a bit more exploring in the city because I am not tied to a routine of checking my email 30 times a day or reading a half dozen newspapers to pass time. Of course, exploring to me is a kind of vacant wandering...I think its more personal exploration on the move than an exploration of my surroundings. So I have not done anything of note besides wander around and scout out the cafes so that I can find a regular hideaway for reading and writing.

A little news on the cafe search may be warranted. I have found a couple cafes that rate high on the comfort factor, meaning they are spacious, the noise is arranged in a manner to minimize distraction, and there is available comfortable seating. Cafe seating ranges from the kind of seats that will lead you to need to have your spine replaced to overstuffed couches and chairs that you can sink into and waste the day/night away. I have found a cafe (actually a chain of cafes, but more on that) which fits into the latter category. As I mentioned before though, comfortable seating and adequate lighting are often inversely related. Fortunately, I have found one location in the chain that seems to keep the room well-lit.

The chain is called Cafe Barresso, and while the tea is sub-par at best, the service and atmosphere are rather pleasant. There is the little matter of it being a "chain" that is rather disconcerting. In San Diego our market is saturated with small, locally owned businesses and they have a character that is absent in the factory-style of business that is the "chain." I also just don't like contributing to that business model because it is efficient and low-quality, which beats inefficient and high-quality any day since efficiency is really the only value we in the consumerist, uber-capitalist West have fully incorporated (at times we pretend to have other "values" by dressing our buyer-seller nihilism up in more noble attire like liberty, equality, or religion...a beast is a beast regardless of the grandeur of its gown!)...Anyway, the Cafe Barresso will have to do until something more noble comes along.

I did, however, have a mighty fine soy chai tea latte yesterday at a different cafe. Unfortunately the seating at this cafe was so uncomfortable that I had to chug the drink and get out in order to avoid agonizing discomfort. I would recommend a fusion cafe-bookstore that combines the best qualities of each. The cafe would be loaded with overstuffed reclining chairs and more traditional table set-ups for those who need the work space. The music would be present, but not overbearing, and the selection would be left largely up to me. The second floor would be a vintage-used-new bookstore overfilled with philosophical texts. I would probably avoid other genres because I do not know enough about them...and in reality this cafe-bookstore would be run by an iron-clad, but benevolent, dictatorship...the "tyranny of Tim." It would essentially be my private reading room open to the public because I enjoy their company. A nice touch, particularly here in Denmark, would be a fireplace. People could be banned for life for violating any of my arbitrary rules...and smoking would be strictly prohibited!

Oh yeah...I forgot about the "Space-Time Confusion" component of the title. I would like to discuss the mathematical proof that accompanies Einstein's theory of special relativity....yeah right! I know well enough to leave the science dogma and its "truths" to those priests in white lab coats. This actually has to do with the completely chaotic nature of my sleeping patterns lately.

I have been on anywhere between 2-4 hours of sleep a night, but it is not traditional sleep problems or insomnia with their varying degrees of misery. I have found that since I do not have a watch or a clock, and since the sun rises late and sets early here, that I have no concept of time. I wake up in the morning at 9 am and its dark. I wake up at 3 am and its dark. So I just get up, take a shower, and go. This has, on more than one occasion, led me to arrive at the Metro station anywhere between 3 and 5 am. This morning I got there around 4:35 am and was forced to stand in the cold for 25 minutes until the Metro started running again because if I went home I would have had to just turn around and go back. I have tried to infuse my eating schedule with a high degree of regularity so that my body will begin to self-regulate, but this approach has been fruitless to date.

Its not a big deal yet, but some of you are well aware of my propensity for rather horrific insomnia and this is the sort of thing that leads down that road quickly. What starts out as going to bed too late and getting up to early becomes not going to bed at all. Then comes the unconscious wakefulness where your mind seems to sleep while your body is awake (I am not a dualist, how do I reconcile this?). Or, what is infinitely more pleasurable is the delusional insomnia where you think for instance that you may be on the verge of solving an unresolved aspect of mathematical theory when a bit of reflection will lead you to realize that not only are you not a mathematical prodigy, but you cannot even accurately compute the tips at restaurants. There is the paranoid delusional insomnia too where you stay up all night changing the way you have ordered your books...alphabetized by authors last name, author's first name, title, genre, ad nauseam and then cataloguing the system to make sure nobody steals your books...from an objective standpoint it is just humorous...but from the inside looking out it is frighteningly surreal.

I will leave out the account of the monotonous insomnia in this "anatomy of sleeplessness" because, as the name implies, it is rather boring. The question is, does this ever really happen to me, or am I just rambling cause its early, I am bored, and I feel like entertaining! Who knows...but that is all from lovely Denmark and perhaps soon I will return to the 20th century with Internet connection. Perhaps more exciting things on the way though since my Danish class is almost over. A trip to Berlin may be materializing after I found out there is a gallery exhibit/film festival style screening devoted to Stanley Kubrick...whose films I don't get at all!

We are experiencing technical difficulties...

This will be brief cause I am at school right now. My internet at home has been down so I have not been able to receive emails or post entries. Hopefully it will be resolved soon. My roommate is really into the internet (stays up at night playing games with his friends) so he has kind of been in a panic and vows to fix it. I think I can free-ride this one out because I am not so attached to the 'net...but its funny cause it reminds me of the panic I feel when I think I may have misplaced a book! We all have our things I suppose (I remember Grandy always saying "To each his own..."). So everything is fine and I have not been doing much cause the weather is getting progressively colder. I just sit in the cafe and read or I sit at my desk and listen to Bob Dylan while playing solitaire...We will be back in action soon with my beloved wit, candor and charm...with a touch of 24 yr. old "on top of the world" megalomania to go with it! For now my good friend Bob will carry along the time....to make it easily passin'

Not A Lot Going On

Well I have not posted lately for two reasons. First, cause I think they pace was near unsustainable before...I am entirely too boring of a person to give daily accounts of my exploits (plus I have been writing for other ends lately and writing exhausts me...I can write well once, then I need to recover). Secondly, because I have been ill and tired the last few days, and telling people about that would become a two day pity-party. This morning I feel 100% better and I may be over that nasty little cold.

Yesterday I had a rather interesting occurrence, but I think it was of pure personal interest so I won't go into depth about it. I had my first ever snow-run. I set out to run in what I had hoped would be a break in the rain and about 5 minutes out it started snowing, hard. I consider it a break since rain in that cold, windy night air would have certainly cut the run off at its point (I think it may have been walking around in a freezing rain that originally caused my illness). The amazing thing is that I ran great. I went for probably about 40 min. at a very hard pace, and to be honest with you I think all of my runs here have been good so far. I think the cold pushes me to a harder pace generally. We should get a few days sans rain here so I hope to get a few runs in this weekend. The bad weather has kept me sidelined, and that, coupled with the illness, has led to a particularly bad temperament. I feel quite down when I am inactive and the weather is bad, no doubt a by-product of having lived in San Diego.

I have also settled into a cafe for the time being. Its not perfect, but it has a comfortable lounge and their green tea is fit for consumption, which I cannot say about Starbucks. I think this is more of a coffee drinking culture cause the cafes here seem quite tea deficient. I am used to having 20-30 teas to choose from, and I am partial to mint teas (spearmint, peppermint, Moroccan mint, euco-mint, etc...). I think I am going to start bringing my own tea for them to infuse...that ought to seal my reputation as a quirky enigma, which is preferable to the quiet American with bad Danish!

There are several downsides to the cafe. First, like everything else here in Copenhagen it is entirely too smokey. I have found that if I stuff my jacket in my backpack I can at least ameliorate the stench that attaches to it. As for my clothes, hair and skin, well that's a different matter. I will never get used to that and its going to result in a fortune in laundry costs. The second problem is bad lighting. This is a problem I often run into at home too. I think coffee drinkers prefer to sit in darkness or something cause it is certainly not us tea drinkers...Barbarians! Anyway, as the sun goes down, which is of course like noon here (an exaggeration), my work must start to wrap up or else I will be working in near dark. That's fine though cause the chatty crowd starts to move in around that time.

I am not averse to "chat," in fact I have a blossoming theory on small talk as a tactile activity that helps us to feel out the linguistic landscape. The linguistic landscape is the human, or social landscape. Without small talk we move like clumsy apes, blind-folded, and with our hands tied behind our back through a china store. That's neither here nor there though. I am against the late chatty crowd cause the noise distracts me from my work. Its odd that I prefer to work in public...in the passive company of other people. I have always called in "being-among" people as opposed to "being-with" them, which I don't do well. This is why I suffer the smoke and would rather bring the tea I like to the cafe than drink it at home.

I would like to try if I can to explain Danish cuisine, which as far as I can tell is non-existent. Many people have asked me, "have you tried any Danish food?" The truth is that I don't know. It seems to me that Danish food is substantially the same as ours but just tastes different and there is not as much to choose from. There is a lot of consuming of fresh baked goods and pastries, which is not really my bag. The beer is so heavy here that I suppose you could call that food too and they seem to eat a lot of beer. There is a lot of sandwich eating: ostesandwich (cheese sandwich), kyllingesandwich (chicken sandwich), etc...but the Danes have clearly not cornered the market on the sandwich. They do have an odd kind of bread here, rugbrod (again, its not supposed to be an "o," but an "o" with a slash through it). Rugbrod is a very course rye bread, it is very very heavy and it is cut into smaller square slices than your standard American bread. At first it is a bit gross cause its so different, but I am getting used to eating it and it is a quite hearty bread. The national dish here, as it has been told to me, is herring (which I won't try since that is like eating baitfish to me) and rugbrod with butter on it (smor is butter and its called Smorbrod or something). So that should really tell you everything you need to know about "Danish Cuisine." Saying that buttered bread is your national dish is a little like America claiming chicken is its national dish...I am near certain that every culture eats buttered bread. Generally, I think Danish food is similar to ours with less selection, a different taste, and much more fat. The health craze does not seem to have gained an inch on the spirit of the Danes considering the level of smoking, alcohol and candy consumption here. I will say thogh that I eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich daily here and the jelly is the best I have ever had in my life. Odd cause at home we have very fresh jelly from the local strawberries.

Beyond that there is nothing happening. These weekend I plan to read enough Nietzsche to kill a large mammal. I will not travel unless the weather is decidedly better and if I do then I may take a trip to the Kronberg Castle, which is about 50 miles north of Copenhagen (maybe less). It is also situated on the Oresund, like the Louisiana Museum, and it is the castle used as the setting for Shakespeare's Hamlet. The goal was to get there bright and early and read Hamlet cover to cover while I was there. I could not bring my Shakespeare works with me though cause it was too bulky so I may just buy a copy of Hamlet or forget my nerdy literary trip to Kronberg. To be honest with you I am not sure my spirit has recovered enough to be reading Hamlet...never read it with a light stomach! Other proposed trips are much bigger like the Danish mainland on the west coast to scout out the potential surf spots and the possibility of meeting up with a local willing to loan a suit and stick...preferably a shortboard, only a shortboard I guess. Last two possible trips, Germany or Sweden. The international trips would be semi-feral, meaning I will go with a book and a change of clothes and count on the winds of fate to resolve the niceties like food and accommodation, maybe instead of the "winds of fate" I should used Bob Dylan's "idiot wind." It is more likely that my half-planned lifestyle is carried along on the idiot wind!

Ha! I forgot to tell a funny little anecdotal story. I was walking with a friend from New Zealand and we walked past an ad for a housekeeper. She suggested that maybe I should become a housekeeper if my money doesn't come. I said that may not be a bad idea but it does not seem to pay very well. She replied, "You never know, I bet a European would pay extra to have an American clean their toilets." I thought that was funny.

Now to listen to the Cure for a while and then go read. "'Show me, show me, show me how you do that trick! The one that makes me scream,' she said. 'The one that makes me laugh,' she said. Threw her arms around my neck...."

Untimely Meditations

The theme for today is cold rain, sore throats, and insomnia. I began to think I was superman cause I could bare the (not so cold I guess) temperatures and take it all in stride, but I have suffered a slight defeat. This is like the Battle of the Bulge though...and cold weather is an evil that must not be allowed victory. I may be bent, but I will not be broken! Anyway, today I decided to walk around the commercial center of Denmark in a cold rain. So when I got home I instantly felt exhausted and laid down, "for a few minutes," only to wake three hours later with a sore throat. Now I have resorted to cruising the internet at 4 am to pass the time. This is one of the many drawbacks of sharing a single room with a roommate. I cannot get up and turn on the lights to read or something when I can't sleep, which is often, so I have to resort to prowling around in the dark and huddling in the corner with my computer.

Change of pace! That was devolving. I call something like that "insomniac ramblings," and they are a little like when you fill up a paper cup with water and learn the cup has a hole in it. What begins with a trickle will quickly breach the cup completely and pour forth with a vengeance. Lets face it, nobody can "pour forth" like I can...

Take three! Ok maybe I cannot do this tonight...

Today I saw perhaps the most bizarre thing I have seen yet. I was strolling down Stroget (the main shopping drag in Norreport, Copenhagen...if I could use the Danish characters, and you could pronounce them correctly, then you would see how clever my use of the word "strolling" was)..."strolling" in a light but steady rain searching out the Juridiske Fakultet to drop off some papers. Approaching rapidly from behind, I heard the most obnoxious ringing bell I have ever heard in my short lifetime. I spun quickly to make sure it was not one of these dinky, recycled energy-powered European automobiles bearing down on me. What I saw stopped me dead in my tracks.

As the scene came into focus, I stood there, in the freezing rain, mine eyes to behold......an ice cream truck! There I was, shivering and dripping wet, and these kids (not many) were purchasing their favorite frozen treats from the ice cream man. The oddest thing about this whole sureal turn of events is that my first thought was not, as any rational human being would assume, how absurd it was to be buying ice cream in this weather; rather, it was whether or not the ice cream man had "Bomb-Pops" as I quickly checked the change rattling in my pocket. Some of you will remember the panic as a child as you tried to secure the power to purchase ice cream from this rolling vendor before the opportunity had passed...could I make sense of this Danish currency in time!?! I am almost 25 years old and have not purchased anything from the ice cream man in over a decade, but even today the ice cream man is capable of sending my ability to reason spiraling out of control...No, I didn't get the "Bomb-Pop!"

Mondag her i Kobenhavn

Some people didn't get the joke so I won't make it...I am being censored on account of my failure to respect my freedom...the odd paradox of coerced liberty...rule of thumb...this blog is often not to be read as a news report from an outlet of the integrity of, say, the American politico-media...I really have few exciting activities and it is hard for me to come up with things to say. Ok, whew! Yesterday I had a fine blend of the mundane and the interesting. First of all, I stayed up all night trying to listen to the Steelers-Jets game. Ha! What a joke...well, I got up late after that comedy of errors and decided to go check out a local gym. I am going nuts here because running outside is terrible. Its not even the cold as much as the urban setting. I have to stop every minute to wait for a light to change or something...I have to find a good, large park.

So I went to the gym at the Frederiksberg Svommehal (swimming hall). I had planned on lap swimming but it was a Sunday and the pool was packed with recreational swimmers so I went upstairs to the weightroom. The big guy with the mullet at the desk was friendly enough to give me a free pass (maybe I look like I need to hit the weights or something!). So I went in and ran on the treadmill for 40 min. It was great, the best I have felt in a while. I think I may get a membership cause it looks like the bad weather is about to set in (of course the University of San Diego has not managed to give me my money yet so it will have to wait until that little hurdle is overcome).

I would like to talk briefly about one weightroom phenomenon, which all of us who have had the unfortunate experience of spending much time in weightrooms have had to deal with...the "meathead." The European meathead is not as physically imposing as the American meathead, but with the lower threshold for meatheadery it seems that everyone tries to pass themselves off as members of this woeful sector of humanity. For men in European gyms, less clothes is the rule. If there is a way to expose that bit of flesh you should find it. Attire is a pair of dark colored underwear that are supposed to pass as shorts and some tank-top, eviscerated to the point that it is less "top" and more "tank."

I steered clear of the herd by staying on the treadmill with the women and old folks. I long ago got over being emasculated by the gym experience...I run, a lot, swim sometimes and work on my abs. I think weightlifting is a waste of time unless it just pleases you or you are trying to improve your metabolism, overcome injury, or prevent injury.

I was once a member of this tribe though, Meatheadicus maximus I believe is the scientific name. They speak a very limited language of gestures and grunts with the occasional human word they have picked up in the course of running into human beings from day to day or making asinine attempts to hit on human girls in the gym. If you ever have an unpleasant encounter with a meathead I recommend distracting them by commenting on how big their arms are. Remember the myth of Narcissus, who died while staring at a beloved reflection of himself in a lake...he turns into the flower "narcissus" (see if you can get at the symbolism without me telling you!)...well, you can try tossing a mirror in the other direction and running. Finally, they can often be confused with a simple arithmetic problem...BUT, stay away from intervals of 2.5, 5, 10, 25, 35, or 45 as these correspond to the weight (in lbs) of free weights in the gym and they can perform functions using these numbers faster than a calculator.

After my gym experience I took a trip to Christianshavn. Christianshavn is a kommune (community) in Copenhagen known sometimes as "little Amsterdam" for its system of canals. It also contains some of the older and more magnificent churches in Copenhagen (and a castle I believe). I took a few pictures and I will post them tomorrow, but the most eventful aspect of the trip was the weather. It got sooooo cold right after I got there that I could not take pictures cause my hands hurt so bad. My cheeks got so cold and numb that I was slurring my speech...it was really out of this world. I never remember that happening in the cold before...does it happen often?

Finally, before leaving Christianshavn I visited a small part of Christianshavn called Christiania. Christiania is an old army barrack that some counter-culture folks took over in the early 70's and declared to be the "Free State of Christiania." I suppose over a thousand people have squatted on this land since then and the government has largely left them alone. They are not taxed and wholly self-sufficient. This commune is the 3rd largest tourist attraction in Copenhagen.

When you enter it is almost surreal. The buildings are all odd-looking with bright paintings everywhere like a funhouse. Everywhere there are street-vendors peddling their wares from bootleg music to rastafarian apparel. It is also famous for its open sale and use of marijuana that the state has largely tolerated (even moreso than California), and supposedly there are just carts on the street selling marijuana. I did not see any and I have heard the state has begun cracking down considerably.

Before leaving I stocked up on the health foods that I enjoy but have not been able to find at the supermarkets in Denmark. On the way out a sign says "You are now entering the European Union." My impression...a dirty rundown town full of closed-minded profiteering slackers...and the people were rather unfriendly. Those who know me well, and know of my enthusiasm for the development of the European Union, will rightly place my animosity with their antagonism toward the EU...I love reactionary progressives..."social justice for everyone (me) and free thinking (as long as it agrees with me), eradicate poverty (unless its somewhere else)"...get over yourselves.

Oh yeah...don't take offense at my indictment of narcissistic, banal, and vain weightroom types...I am just being playful...I once too was a weightroom guy...My name is Tim, and I am a recovering meathead...now I am a pretentious prick!

Tired, Will Catch Up Tomorrow

Even God rested on the seventh day, or so we are told.

"How can, how can you ask me again? It only brings me sorrow. The same thing I would want today I'll want again tomorrow."

Prince of Denmark <----link to pictures!!!!

There is much to say today...and I am certain I will not say it all. First of all, the above link should jump you to the photos I took today while I was in the countryside up north checking out the most incredible modern art museum, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, in Humlebaek (I wish I could use the Danish characters on things like town names, but, alas, I cannot...please forgive the inauthenticity). I cannot describe all the pictures here, but I will say that none are taken inside the gallery...as will be obvious...but several are taken from directly outside the gallery.

The first pictures you see are taken of the town center as I got off the train. These are followed by shots of the Oresund (sound) stretching between the coast of Denmark and Sweden. The coast of Sweden can be seen in the distance. I got a few sunrise shots, but I will be sure to arrive earlier next time to get a better sequence...I suspect it is breathtaking. Mixed in with these shots are some of the "beach" behind the museum...CA friends, you will notice the sad absence of surf...~35-40 miles of coast so far and no waves :( The picture of the building covered with some kind of plant-life, call it "ivory" since it resembles the outfield wall in Wrigley Field, is the entrance to the museum (you will also see the distinct stem of a huge flower design...it is an orchid and I could not get it all in...but you are not missing much). There are some pictures I took from around a small lake and walking path alongside the museum. The building structures here are also parts of the museum. Finally, I return to the beach (take note of this move! This is sure to become a theme in my life...). These pictures of the Oresund are on the other side of the museum, and they include some better shots of the Swedish coast (which looks quite impressive through binoculars).

Now for the narrative. The day started on an ominous note as the air was noticeably more chilled than it had been of late, but I pushed forth determined to waste away my day in the company of Nietzsche, great art, and some Bohemian Scandinavians...and my am I glad that I did. After the rather confusing experience of figuring out which train I needed to be on I was off.

The train was desolate, maybe Danes get up later because the sun rises later, but this experience only sealed my earlier sentiment...morning is the most splendid and peaceful portion of the day, and shame on all those who waste it away in bed. Better to quit your job, get up early to enjoy some warm tea or whatever pleases you, and then sleep the rest of the day. In any case, the train ride was pleasant but too bumpy to read Nietzsche while taking notes so I decided to just stare out the window at the passing coast. Within no time I had arrived at my destination and began the walk from the station to the museum.

Upon arriving at the museum I found the entrance charming, but slightly underwhelming. To begin with the giant orchid, which looks like a sturdy cardboard cut-out, is tacky even to the eyes of the most forgiving patron. But, like any good work of art, the museum provided wonders beyond my imagination at a closer glance. The museum is quite expansive on the inside, perhaps you can get a feel for this by glancing at the pictures of the side of the museum from the lake...notice how it slopes downward to unfold on three levels. I looked quickly at what exhibits were on display in addition to the normal holdings, and to my greatest delight I found that I had arrived on the final day of an exhibit entitled "The Flower as Image," which was set up to demonstrate, dually, the representation of the flower in modern art, and what this reflects about the development of modern art.

Anyone who knows my peculiar fascination with flowers and paintings of flowers, and I hope its not many of you, will understand my excitement. I had planned ahead of time to spend the entire day on one wing or one exhibit of the museum, and I had no trouble at all viewing, reviewing, and the re-reviewing this exhibit for nearly 5 hours with only one break for a veggie sandwich at lunchtime. The collection was wonderful with some of my personal favorite paintings and artists. I even found a new favorite painting, "Roses and Peonies" by van Gogh, and I highly recommend finding a copy online to check out. I will warn though that van Gogh's paintings had a power in viewing the original that can never translate into a photograph. A more refined and scrutinizing artistic eye will find this true of all paintings...and my "uncultured" aesthetic eye can agree...but Van Gogh was extremely impressive in person...much darker and more textured...almost sublime really. I am no art critic so I will not recount the gallery experience picture by picture, but I was in a quiet, yet ecstatic, delight all day long. (Below is a list of the artists represented in the exhibit for those interested).

After spending a copious amount of time in the gallery I ventured outside to the magnificent sculpture garden boasted by the Louisiana Museum. Backed by a gentle slope leading into the Oresund with Sweden in the horizon, the garden lay before me connected by gravel paths cutting across the frost-covered green grass. Here I pulled up a small patch of frozen grass to sit down and read a little Nietzsche...Nietzsche and the aesthetic, how fitting! Unfortunately I afforded this pleasantry only the shortest indulgence before the chilled Nordic air got the best of me ,and I retreated for the cozy confines of the gallery to catch one last glimpse of my favorites before leaving.

As I left I noticed the trail running along a small lake to my right and ventured that way for a quick look. It was really neat and I snapped a few photos before realizing that I was walking through a beautifully set....cemetery. I was not sure if it was proper to photograph the cemetery so I continued my walk and returned to the beach for one last look (my do I long for coastal waters), to say one last good bye before I return to my European urban retreat. I spent a few minutes sitting on a stone as the frigid water lapped up on the shore at my feet and reflected on a truly wonderful day spent in the coastal Danish countryside. I could even live in this quaint and wonderful little town if it were not for the lack of surfing. This is where I will open my utopian university some day...The University of Humlebaek for the Study of the Arts and Letters...Humlebaek, and the rest of the northwestern countryside should expect to see more of this yankee! But for now, thanks for the most wonderful day I have spent in weeks!

*The exhibit included paintings by:
Araki, Arp, Blossfeldt, Cardoso, Cezanne, Corinth, Cunningham, Cook, Edmier, Ensor, Ernst, Fautrier, Frandsen, Gauguin, Goncharova, Hockney, Hume, Kelly, Klein, Koons, Kounellis, Leger, Manet, Mapplethorpe, Matisse, Milhazes, Mondrian, Monet, Monticelli, Morrison, Nesbitt, Nolde, O'Keefe, Paine, Penn, Picasso, Polke, Quinn, Redon, Rist, Rosenquist, Schiele, Soutine, Steichen, Suda, Tillmans, Tomaselli, Twombley, van Gogh, Warhol...(and a quote by Bataille!)

Today, Not Much News

Well, today I did not do much because I had to run errands most of the day in addition to class. I did spend another day wondering around my kommune, Frederiksberg. Its a pretty neat little town. I made it into what must be the commercial district and it was like Pacific Beach, minus the tacky architecture of PB. It was just lined with restaurants, cafes, stores, and bars (I think bars and cafes here are quite similar which is a little unsettling cause I count on cafes as peaceful spaces where I can be in company but not intruded on at all). I will certainly have to check out some of these cafes as I start to get a routine down here. I also checked out a bunch of different grocery stores and found a couple that I am a little more comfortable shopping in. I even found pretzels at a couple, but they were all the same, a very small box of pretzels. I wonder if anyone has tried to link Denmark's suicide rate, the highest in the world, to the lack of good snack foods. I also found one that resembled our Targets back home. Along this road there are various fruit stands...they are not really any good...certainly no Henry's, but one was called "California Fruit and Grain." I don't think they had an ounce of grain in the store and the fruit in there would have been laughed out of the room by California fruit! Tomorrow I may take the train about 50 miles (47 kilometers...they use the commie-tric measuring system here...no wonder "W" doesn't like 'em!) to see the Lousiana Museum of Modern Art. It was highly recommended to me by a friend of mine and some of the pictures I have seen are great. Its on a beautiful coast with Sweden off in the distance. There are also beautiful gardens full of neat sculptures where I plan to lay for hours polishing off the book I am currently reading...a good book should always be laid to rest in a beautiful and peaceful setting, its the respectful thing to do. I expect it will be wonderful unless the weather turns on me...which reminds me...I have heard some comments about my inadequate "California" temperature tolerance...I'll have none of it! Unless you want to meat me in the water next January when the water temp is hovering around 51 and the air is 47...at 5 am!

Torsdag Her i Kobenhavn

Well, today I would like to share you a few cultural experiences. First, riding the subway with an old ticket. Each ticket lasts for 2 hours and costs 17 dkk (a little over $3). Today I just got my morning ticket and rode with it in the afternoon. The plan is to play "dumb foreign guy" if they check the tickets. I know enough French, Spanish, and of course English to be three varieties of dumb foreigner. "Je ne sais pas. Parlez-vous francais? Je parle francais, je suis canadien." "No se. Habla espanol? Hablo espanol." Will see how far the dumb foreigner gets. I figure everyone else free-rides off the wealth and power of the United States enough that I deserve a break.

Next matter is that of the residential bathrooms. I have been in three, and let me just tell you, it is quite the alien experience. First, I want to you to visualize your bathroom, go ahead, take a look if you have to. You have your standard sink and the various sink accessories. In most cases there is some sort of shelving located just behind the mirror. Often you will find one or two towel racks for hanging towels to dry, or perhaps your workout clothes that you don't want to wash everyday. Then of course there is your toilet. Most toilets have the standard handle flush system. Here in Denmark, many of them have two buttons...one for a small flush and the other for a large flush. Its pretty much up to you what kind of flush you use, although certain functions are better suited to one flush or the other of course. I think the Danes want water conservation, so that should be the policy behind your flushing decision-making. Of course, nobody wastes water like Californians...often I just use the big flush to be safe. Sometimes though, if you are feeling particularly adventurous, you may try small flushing what ought to be big flushed. The truth is that the flushes are practically identical (sorry to spoil the excitement).

Now, for the most important matter at hand, we come to the shower (using my public school education, I start a new paragraph whenever I feel like it...don't expect me to revise grammer or spelling on this blog...if you are a grammer fascist then look at my other blogs for proof of competency). In all American showers I have been in the shower is partitioned off in some effective manner from the rest of the bathroom...not so in Copenhagen. Imagine if you will that your bathroom just has a drain in the middle of the floor and a hand-held shower head in one corner. Sometimes there is a joke of a curtain to pull over the door (with a towel hook on the door so your towels stay comparatively dry), but basically the entire bathroom is also a shower. This has some perks...some of you will remember the episode of Seinfeld where Kramer decides to do everything in his shower...well you can do all your bathroom activities while taking a shower if that is your thing. The drawbacks are trying to keep some things dry. When you share the bedroom with a stranger you do not have the luxury of strolling around in the nude so, presumably, you wear some limited attire in and out of the bathroom (to do otherwise would be an "incident"...this is an "incident" of international cohabitation...you at least make an effort to be partially clothed at all times...I have not rundown with my roommate the "Constitution" of living with me, all incidents are punishable by forced expulsion from the premises). I have not figured out the best way to keep my clothes dry while I am showering.

The last matter pertaining to bathrooms is that of the public restroom. Here you don't have those stupid, quasi-commune, bathroom stalls...each stall is like a plot of real estate. There is a door that closes and locks, often with a hook to hang your jacket and bags on...make yourself at home. Each stall has its own sink, soap dispenser, and paper towel dispenser. I have even been in one with two rooms! Each had a door that closed and locked. You come into your first room where you have a sink, soap dispenser, and paper towel dispenser...come in here, perhaps take a break and wash your face and when you are ready, but only when you are good and ready, go into the next room. In the next room you have your toilet and a sink (I presume it is a sink, though I must admit that I have never used it because I know some cultures have additional bathroom apparatus that resemble a sink but perform other functions). I have not lived in an apartment in the last 4 years with two rooms my friends, much less seen such a bathroom! These are public bathrooms...I imagine that this is what a utopian cosmopolitan world would be full of...we would each have private two-room bathrooms everywhere we went. If things don't workout here in the apartment I plan to move into a public restroom...people in San Diego lived in public restrooms...this must be where people who live in public bathrooms in San Diego go when they die...this is public bathroom heaven.

Expatriation and its Discontents

Today I left a few minutes earlier so that I could go over my Danish numbers before class (I can count to 999 now and I understood the cost and change for my lunch today!) and the Metro was jam packed. As I stood there waiting for my stop I started to list some of the things I miss, mostly the "things" so don't be offended if I don't list people...ok, I am not going to list people only things and only California things (in no particular order):

- Bad surf sessions on Diamond Street at the crack of dawn just because I can.
- The odd surprisingly good session on Diamond Street.
- Perfect lefts at Black's (I imagine it without the 200 jerks per wave!)
- Soft empty sets at Sunset Cliffs, then watching the sunset with friends.
- A hot cup of tea and freshly made dinner on the floor of my friends live-in van after a cold water session.
- Skating the boardwalk.
- Running in La Jolla/UTC/Torrey Pines/UCSD.
- Tossing the tackified at LJHS, kicking the soccer ball at LJHS (even running on the track there from time to time).
- Listening to records at Copley Library USD (perhaps the only thing at USD worth wasting one's time with)--Beethoven's piano sonatas, in particular, have filled many a long day at that intellectual vacuum of a campus.
- My job w/ Prof. Brooks.
- HENRY'S MARKETPLACE!!!! God, what I wouldn't do to skate down to Henry's for some fresh fruit and trail mix...yes! Jared, I said it.
- Fresh salads at Soup Plantation.
- Hot tea and cold service at Cafe 976 on a typically beautiful San Diego afternoon (I here San Diego has been crying though since I left?)...Solitude among the multitudes...thats what 976 was for me...a place to be among people while I worked.
- Hot tea and friendly service/company at Panniken...long hours reading Nietzsche in front of the fire place on cool rainy days.
- The little bookstore next to the Panniken cafe...2nd best bookstore I have ever been to (Powell's in Portland?).
- Soy Morrocan mint tea lattes at the Coffee Bean and then strolling over to Border's to thumb through a magazine, listen to a CD, or buy way too many books at way too high a price.
- Surfing the jetties in O-side in the summertime...and Jared, my goodness "that session!" I can still feel the energy when I lay down at night.
- Watching people surf houses at Black's in the winter but not having the equipment, skill, or courage to join them.

Wow! Thats not even the beginning...look closely and you may actually see the point where I get homesick...just kidding. I do want to surf sooooo badly right now.

On my run today I got hopelessly lost and ran through a historic part of Copenhagen and it was really neat. I cannot wait till the weekend and some free time. I have no time to do anything now during the week...always class, studying, or I have to go somewhere to take care of paperwork, etc...This university is not very big but its kind of scattered all over the city so I spend lots of time (and money...got to get a bike when USD pays me...if USD ever pays me!) going places. Thats all for now. I may go to dinner tonight with the international students if my roommate comes back and I can figure out where. So perhaps more stories I can tell myself out loud.

Right now I am listening to the famous "Now That's What I Call Britpop 2001" and I wish I had brought some Radiohead along...Radiohead is good dreary weather music...dreary weather music like only a few London Jacks could make.

Running and Running Out of Money!

Well, I had my first Copenhagen run tonight and it went quite well considering that I have no watch, I have no idea how to get around my part of the city, and its like 25 degrees outside. My ears were in agony by the end of it and I got quite lost. I like running lost though...it always makes me run longer. I am just wasting time now cause I don't want to do my stupid Danish homework. I feel like I am in 2nd grade! Of course, USD is dragging its feet on posting my loans so I have no money and my rent is due at the end of this week (and its been deferred to the end of this week out of an agreement with USD that my loans will be ready by then). This is how it works...after months of wrangling with the providers I get approved. After I am approved the providers send the checks to the law school office of Financial Aid. Now, during this ambiguous period of time, the law school office of financial aid sits on the checks for a week and chews the fat. Then they post the loans and sit on them for another week or so shooting the breeze in the office. Finally, someone brings them across campus to student accounts where people there waste time for a little while. In the meantime we don't eat! What can you do though? Even small-scale bureaucracy is insufferable! Well, I have just finished a hearty bowl of "Multi-Grain Loops," I think they are the Danish ripoff of Cheerios...they taste like honey nut cheerios...they taste great! Now its time for my homework :(

Settling In

Well, I am in my apartment and it is nothing special. Its like a big dorm room...of course its a castle compared to that dump where I lived in SD. My roomate is from Singapore and he is studying English liguistics in Denmark....ok? He seems really nice but I have not really had the opportunity to talk to him much. Apparently this weekend we had a "hurricane" here in Denmark...the worst storm in 5 years. Well, these folks have not seen anything! It barely rained, but I will admit that the wind was crazy...it was hard to walk in.

Nothing really exciting has gone on yet. I have had a couple classes and I have to say that Danish is by far the hardest language I have ever tried to learn. I do not know the people in my class and I am not sure I would like most of them anyway. There is about 12 people in the class and a bunch of goofing around and stuff...we are university students right? I can tell some of the students find it as obnoxious as I do, but in settings like that it is always the lowest common denominator that reigns.

So I have a couple gripes about Copenhagen, at least initially. First of all, it is way too expensive here. I just paid $60 for probably a half a week of groceries. I paid $6 taking the metro to class (this has to be done everyday!). Also, too many people smoke here and they smoke everywhere...of course, few places are as enlightened as CA with the no smoking inside laws...a little proof that I reside in the superior state of the union! Final gripe...there is trash in the streets everywhere. Like people just throw whatever on the ground when they are done. Now we all know the US is a dirty country...and having just left Houston I can attest to the most disgusting city in the US. For the US I have to say that our dirty is from emissions...auto or industrial...and groundwater pollution, etc...regular americans tend to throw trash out and not just on the ground. In SD when the out of towners blow through and leave a mess we pick it up and we give them hell for the mess. Here people walk right by and drop more stuff. I must say that free education and healthcare is wonderful, but if I was paying the astronomical taxes that Danes pay I would at the very least demand some kind of public work to PICK UP THE TRASH!

Departure

Well, as I prepare to depart I bid farewell to Uncle Sam for a little while. No doubt, I am bound to return (I have been seduced by his lovely emerald daughter San Diego!), but for the time being we Americans should think of this as the limited colonization of Copenhagen. In terms Americans all understand, invasion and exploitation. I have nothing to say...well, here we go!