It is to my great dismay that I must tell you that I dropped my computer on the ground last night and as a result I will be without it for no less than 5 working days. Don't worry though, I still have it under warranty so I won't pay a dime. Just hope that it's nothing too bad.
So with all that in mind, blogging this week probably won't happen. I hope you are all able to continue going about your daily lives without a post from Eric Abroad.
From the entire team at the Eric Abroad blog,
Good night and good luck!
Monday, February 25, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Denmark on 60 Minutes
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml
Check out this link. 60 Minutes did a piece last week about Denmark, it is very interesting and I would agree with almost everything.
Check out this link. 60 Minutes did a piece last week about Denmark, it is very interesting and I would agree with almost everything.
Peanut Butter Musings
As I sit here and enjoy the wonderful peanut butter sent from home by my awesome mother, I thought I would fill you in on the recent trip to Copenhagen.
Let me just start out by saying that it is a great city. Not as tourist friendly as Paris or Rome, but just as cool. My class met downtown at 6:00 am on Tuesday to take the bus to Copenhagen. Included in this bus trip was a really cool surprise, a ferry ride. After a quick trip on the bus down to the harbor, we all boarded a ferry. I've ridden on ferry's before, but nothing like this. The trip lasted almost an hour. Since we left so early it was dark the whole time, but it was still very interesting.
The first day in Copenhagen was extremely busy. We met at the International Press Center (IPC) where we talked with a couple international journalists. The IPC is a great place, because any journalist can come and use the facilities free of charge, 24/7. Since they had free internet it kind of became out home base for the trip. Next on the agenda for the day was a visit to the European Environmental Agency (EEA). Let me also say that the focus of our trip was environmental issues, so many of the talks were geared towards that. A woman at the EEA gave a presentation about their agency and answered any questions that we may have had. I've never really been a big environment guy, but it was very interesting to hear everyone talk and broaden my scope on environmental issues. Following that meeting we finally had some free time so we took our luggage to the hostel, not where I stayed. Two hours later we all met at the Ministry of Climate and Energy. Because of ongoing environment talks at the time, we were not able to meet with the Minister, but instead we a met with Denmark's chief negotiator for environmental issues. Since I did my story on Wind Energy, I asked her a few questions concerning that topic. Denmark prides itself for being on the cutting edge of environment issues, so it was cool to listen to the person who makes a lot of that happen. The day that had started at 4:30 am ended with a visit to the Politiken, one of Denmark's largest newspapers. We talked with a reporter there who had spent many years working in Asia. He was a crazy guy, not PC, but very interesting and informative as well.
Lucky enough I talked with Andres Wilken, Chris's good friend, before I came over to Denmark and he told me about his cousin who lived in Copenhagen. I got in contact with Kristina and she graciously allowed me to stay at her apartment while I was in Copenhagen. She was incredibly nice and made me feel right at home. Unfortunately because of her long hours at work we weren't able to see each other very much, but we were able to meet for coffee on Friday before I left. Good conversation, good coffee, great city - that is a pretty killer combination. The picture is this post is her and I. She does architectural design, which should interest Brian, Penny and Charles. I don't think she went to the school Brian did though.
Wednesday and Thursday were spent working on my story and thus it isn't very interesting material for you to read about. I decided to stay an extra day so I could have some time to walk around the city more and check things out. Absolutely beautiful place with great architecture and the longest pedestrian only street in the world. I checked out the Little Mermaid statue on the harbor, for those of you that don't know (which I didn't either) the Little Mermaid was written by Hans Christian Anderson, a Danish hero. The statue is the most visited site in Copenhagen, but was surprisingly small. I was made aware of this fact before I visited, but I still wanted to check it out for myself. Lucky for me, the batteries in my camera were completely dead, but if you haven't seen it before check out a picture online. I basically just spent the day wandering around checking everything out. There is just something really cool to me about wandering around with no plan and just taking everything in. I loved doing that in Rome and Paris.
For those of you out there that like hot dogs, you need to try a Fransk Hotdog, aka French Hotdog. I have no idea why it's called that but there are really good. I had my second one ever Friday in Copenhagen. It's a long, cylindrical bun with a hole in the middle where you put the hot dog. The bun is toasted and there is also a french hotdog dressing, that u put inside the bun. Many of you may know what a "pig in a blanket" is, picture that, but just on a larger scale. Needless to say, it's very good.
I need to run, but now that I'm back from Copenhagen I'll get back into the swing of posting. Hope everyone is doing well!
Also, I want to give a shout-out to Grandma Durban on her 89th birthday. Happy Birthday! If there is a nicer person out there, I challenge you to find them.
Hej hej!
Friday, February 22, 2008
Please Make Comments if Possible
Sorry for the long hiatus, I've been in Copenhagen for the past 4 days and haven't had much free time on the Internet. I'll update when I get back to Arhus later tonight.
In the mean time I think it would be really cool if any of you reading made some comments. Question things I write, ask questions, contribute further information, or share another story. I've been going on everyday hoping for comments. I just want to maybe have some dialogue through the blog. Tak!
In the mean time I think it would be really cool if any of you reading made some comments. Question things I write, ask questions, contribute further information, or share another story. I've been going on everyday hoping for comments. I just want to maybe have some dialogue through the blog. Tak!
Monday, February 18, 2008
Fire Facts
As of Sunday, the Copenhagen Post is reporting that 379 fires have been lit in Denmark, including 108 cars and 11 schools. It also seems safe to assume that this number is on the low end because they can't possibly have seen every fire.
We leave for Copenhagen tomorrow morning at 6:30 am. For our assignment down there, I plan to do a story on the use of wind power in Denmark and their influence on the rest of the world. Should be an interesting experience.
In class this morning we had two guest speakers:
Lars From, a reporter for Jyllands-Posten, one of the country's largest papers
and
Irene Neverla, the chair of the Institute for Journalism and Mass Communication Research at the University of Hamburg
Both spoke on environmental issues and it was some pretty interesting stuff. Irene Neverla had a laundry list of educational accomplishments and spoke very intellectually. Her talk was titled "The Climatic Turn: How and Why Journalism Has Discovered Climate Change."
We leave for Copenhagen tomorrow morning at 6:30 am. For our assignment down there, I plan to do a story on the use of wind power in Denmark and their influence on the rest of the world. Should be an interesting experience.
In class this morning we had two guest speakers:
Lars From, a reporter for Jyllands-Posten, one of the country's largest papers
and
Irene Neverla, the chair of the Institute for Journalism and Mass Communication Research at the University of Hamburg
Both spoke on environmental issues and it was some pretty interesting stuff. Irene Neverla had a laundry list of educational accomplishments and spoke very intellectually. Her talk was titled "The Climatic Turn: How and Why Journalism Has Discovered Climate Change."
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Who Would Have Thought?
As part of the whole process of studying abroad, we had many informational meetings at school last semester. The biggest one, which everyone studying abroad attended, touched on many topics. One of them was remaining safe while abroad. Part of that talk was warning us not to get close to riots or political confrontations. I laughed at these warnings because how many riots was I going to run into in Denmark, a small Scandinavian country that isn't exactly a major player in world politics and doesn't have much to riot about.
I guess one of the ways you get people to riot is to print a cartoon that may offend (from numbers I found on the internet) over 1.6 billion people, the world Muslim population. Who knows exactly how many Muslims there are, but everyone knows it's a whole lot. So as you've most likely figured, I was wrong about the whole riot/political confrontation thing.
Fires are the main weapon of choice in Arhus. Today, someone burned down a daycare. Countless cars, bus stops and buildings have all been burned, in addition to the stoning of public buses. Certain bus routes have been temporarily shut down for fear of violence. Most of the action is taking place in West Arhus, which is about 15 minutes from where I live. It seems the police are having little effect in keeping things under control. The situation is dominating the local news. Last Tuesday, many Danish and European newspapers reprinted the Mohammed cartoon. Realizing the enormity of the situation I saved a newspaper, which should be another interesting thing to look back on 10 years from now and say I was there. I'm pretty used to seeing pictures of American activists and foreign enemies burning American flags, but it's absolutely crazy to look in the paper and see pictures of Muslims burning the Danish flag. This is certainly not the situation I envisioned when I sat in the auditorium last November and listened to the safety speech.
The original comic was published back in 2005 and to be honest I didn't remember that it originated in Denmark. Although this is a story that is very hard for someone like me to cover for school, it's so fascinating to be in this situation. The only thing I can hope is that people aren't killed. It's terrible that people are losing property to these fires, but when lives start to be lost then it completely changes the situation. That's what makes the alleged murder attempt on the cartoonist such a big story.
I know this post wasn't more about the Floorball game, but I really wanted to talk about this so I'll share more interesting Floorball stories soon. Hej hej.
To get some Muslim perspective check out this article: http://www.cphpost.dk/get/105731.html
I guess one of the ways you get people to riot is to print a cartoon that may offend (from numbers I found on the internet) over 1.6 billion people, the world Muslim population. Who knows exactly how many Muslims there are, but everyone knows it's a whole lot. So as you've most likely figured, I was wrong about the whole riot/political confrontation thing.
Fires are the main weapon of choice in Arhus. Today, someone burned down a daycare. Countless cars, bus stops and buildings have all been burned, in addition to the stoning of public buses. Certain bus routes have been temporarily shut down for fear of violence. Most of the action is taking place in West Arhus, which is about 15 minutes from where I live. It seems the police are having little effect in keeping things under control. The situation is dominating the local news. Last Tuesday, many Danish and European newspapers reprinted the Mohammed cartoon. Realizing the enormity of the situation I saved a newspaper, which should be another interesting thing to look back on 10 years from now and say I was there. I'm pretty used to seeing pictures of American activists and foreign enemies burning American flags, but it's absolutely crazy to look in the paper and see pictures of Muslims burning the Danish flag. This is certainly not the situation I envisioned when I sat in the auditorium last November and listened to the safety speech.
The original comic was published back in 2005 and to be honest I didn't remember that it originated in Denmark. Although this is a story that is very hard for someone like me to cover for school, it's so fascinating to be in this situation. The only thing I can hope is that people aren't killed. It's terrible that people are losing property to these fires, but when lives start to be lost then it completely changes the situation. That's what makes the alleged murder attempt on the cartoonist such a big story.
I know this post wasn't more about the Floorball game, but I really wanted to talk about this so I'll share more interesting Floorball stories soon. Hej hej.
To get some Muslim perspective check out this article: http://www.cphpost.dk/get/105731.html
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Floorball: Arhus Elite vs. Frederikshavn Bulldogs
I just returned from my first ever Floorball game and it was really exciting. Michael, a guy in my class from the Czech Republic, plays on the local Arhus Elite team and gave us (Jimmy and Michiel from Holland went with me) some free tickets for the game. He moved here in September to start playing for the team. So I'm sure you're still asking yourself what Floorball is, and that's a very good question considering I doubt that anyone has heard of it before. It's not widely played in Europe, but it's very popular in Sweden.
The game is essentially hockey, but played on a court several feet bigger than a basketball court. It's three 20 minute periods, you wear tennis shoes, play with light-weight plastic sticks and the ball is basically a wiffleball made of harder plastic. Being the great tourist that I am, I forgot my camera so I can't provide any shots of the action, but I'll be sure to bring it next time to give you a better perspective. For now, you can check out the program.
Ok, so back to the action. The game started slow and ended great. The Bulldogs struck first in the 1st period, but the Elite quickly responded with the equalizer. After again trading goals in the 2nd period, things got really interesting in the 3rd. Both teams are at the top of the standings for the league, and you could tell there was some bad blood between them. Several penalties in the 3rd period resulted in goals. Within a :30 second span, the Bulldogs scored 2 goals to take a 5-3 lead. With their heads hanging low and their spirit all but extinguished, the Elite seemed destined to go home defeated (this wasn't actually the case I just wanted to add something creative). Down 5-3 though, it did seem though like a loss was imminent. Still down 2 goals with two minutes to play the Elite scored after a player got fouled near the goal. Realizing that they might actually make a comeback we got excited. In the final minute, there was a frenzy of action and the Elite scored the equalizer with :25 seconds left. They withstood a few near goals in the closing seconds to pull out a tie.
The atmosphere was one of the things that made the game so cool. Although the crowd wasn't huge by any means, maybe two hundred people, there were Floorball hooligans on hand with drums and horns. Despite having no idea what they were saying we chanted and clapped the whole time. After Arhus would score, they sang a song that went by the Frarazca tune. The whole atmosphere was very cool to experience. We plan to go to a few more games. The regular season is almost over, but Arhus is hosting the championship this year so that should be exciting. Michael told me the crowd is packed for that game.
I have a lot more to tell from the game, but I have to run now. Some guys from class are hosting a party tonight at their place. They live near an area that's experienced rioting in the last few days as a result of the Mohammed cartoons. One of the guys told me he walked by a burning car the other day on his way to school. Should be an interesting night! Hej Hej.
The game is essentially hockey, but played on a court several feet bigger than a basketball court. It's three 20 minute periods, you wear tennis shoes, play with light-weight plastic sticks and the ball is basically a wiffleball made of harder plastic. Being the great tourist that I am, I forgot my camera so I can't provide any shots of the action, but I'll be sure to bring it next time to give you a better perspective. For now, you can check out the program.
Ok, so back to the action. The game started slow and ended great. The Bulldogs struck first in the 1st period, but the Elite quickly responded with the equalizer. After again trading goals in the 2nd period, things got really interesting in the 3rd. Both teams are at the top of the standings for the league, and you could tell there was some bad blood between them. Several penalties in the 3rd period resulted in goals. Within a :30 second span, the Bulldogs scored 2 goals to take a 5-3 lead. With their heads hanging low and their spirit all but extinguished, the Elite seemed destined to go home defeated (this wasn't actually the case I just wanted to add something creative). Down 5-3 though, it did seem though like a loss was imminent. Still down 2 goals with two minutes to play the Elite scored after a player got fouled near the goal. Realizing that they might actually make a comeback we got excited. In the final minute, there was a frenzy of action and the Elite scored the equalizer with :25 seconds left. They withstood a few near goals in the closing seconds to pull out a tie.
The atmosphere was one of the things that made the game so cool. Although the crowd wasn't huge by any means, maybe two hundred people, there were Floorball hooligans on hand with drums and horns. Despite having no idea what they were saying we chanted and clapped the whole time. After Arhus would score, they sang a song that went by the Frarazca tune. The whole atmosphere was very cool to experience. We plan to go to a few more games. The regular season is almost over, but Arhus is hosting the championship this year so that should be exciting. Michael told me the crowd is packed for that game.
I have a lot more to tell from the game, but I have to run now. Some guys from class are hosting a party tonight at their place. They live near an area that's experienced rioting in the last few days as a result of the Mohammed cartoons. One of the guys told me he walked by a burning car the other day on his way to school. Should be an interesting night! Hej Hej.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Goddag
It was a beautiful day today in Arhus! The main road from school to my dorm is a long hill that ends at the water. It was awesome to look out in the distance today on the way home and see the water. When I say a beautiful day however, that doesn't mean it wasn't cold. A few guys from class and myself went down to the beach after school and kicked around the soccer ball (futbol, sorry). I decided to take my shoes off in the sand so that they didn't collect buckets of sand in them. Despite the bright shining sun, my feet froze. Other than the fact that I walked around with numb feet for a while, it was a good time.
I'm sure many of you have heard, but the Mohammed cartoons (originally published in Denmark) created more controversy and violence within the last few days. Yesterday, many Danish newspapers, following the arrest of men planning to murder the cartoonist, ran the cartoon again. Today, a couple Arhus city buses were apparently attacked with rocks in the predominantly Islamic area of town. It is certainly an interesting time to be here.
Interesting fact of the day: they sell beer in the vending machines at school. Crazy!
Hej Hej! (Bye in Danish)
I'm sure many of you have heard, but the Mohammed cartoons (originally published in Denmark) created more controversy and violence within the last few days. Yesterday, many Danish newspapers, following the arrest of men planning to murder the cartoonist, ran the cartoon again. Today, a couple Arhus city buses were apparently attacked with rocks in the predominantly Islamic area of town. It is certainly an interesting time to be here.
Interesting fact of the day: they sell beer in the vending machines at school. Crazy!
Hej Hej! (Bye in Danish)
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
On The Waterfront
The canal running through downtown and the main cafe area along the water.
(10 points for the first one to name the main actor in that movie, see: title)
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Danish Media
Ok, so it's a beautiful day out today (Sunny, 45) and I plan to possibly take a walk to the beach, but I thought I would fill you in on some interesting stuff that I learned this week about Danish media.
We were given a 2 hr overview of Danish media this week by a professor from Arhus University, which is unaffiliated with the Journalism school. A very interesting thing about the media here is that it's completely based off an honor system. The government expects everyone who has a TV or radio to pay for the service they get and pay the taxes on their equipment. However, I don't think they send you a bill, you are just supposed to do it on your own. How many people in the U.S. do you think would actually pay if this kind of system was available at home? None! I think it's policed similarly to the whole pirating music thing at home. Of course you know the remote chance of getting caught is out there, but who actually ever expects to get caught. Again, no one.
The honor system seems to be very big in Denmark. There are many public services that just expect you to pay even though it isn't thoroughly policed. It's not like in Rome and Paris where you have to go through turnstiles to get to the subway. Something like that makes it much harder to not pay and still ride. In Arhus, you get on the bus in the back (exit in the front) which means you aren't forced to pass the driver and automatically pay upon entering the bus.
Ok, so back to the media. Paying for radio works the same way as TV, but the interesting thing is that the radio is completely state run. Which means...no commercials! Imagine if every radio station at home was like NPR and almost consistently ran information or entertainment without annoying breaks. That's what they have here and the interesting thing about it is, censorship isn't a problem. Despite the fact that it is state run, the radio still has a voice in politics and says what they want (to a degree) about whatever they think. Basically it's like what's on XM radio or any other satellite radio service at home. It's the best of both worlds, a state run service that can still question the state.
Another interesting talk for another time...Denmark has one of, if not the highest tax rate in the world, and yet their economy is doing great and the people are happy! Just something to think about as you eagerly await the next installment of EricAbroad08.
Hej Hej!
We were given a 2 hr overview of Danish media this week by a professor from Arhus University, which is unaffiliated with the Journalism school. A very interesting thing about the media here is that it's completely based off an honor system. The government expects everyone who has a TV or radio to pay for the service they get and pay the taxes on their equipment. However, I don't think they send you a bill, you are just supposed to do it on your own. How many people in the U.S. do you think would actually pay if this kind of system was available at home? None! I think it's policed similarly to the whole pirating music thing at home. Of course you know the remote chance of getting caught is out there, but who actually ever expects to get caught. Again, no one.
The honor system seems to be very big in Denmark. There are many public services that just expect you to pay even though it isn't thoroughly policed. It's not like in Rome and Paris where you have to go through turnstiles to get to the subway. Something like that makes it much harder to not pay and still ride. In Arhus, you get on the bus in the back (exit in the front) which means you aren't forced to pass the driver and automatically pay upon entering the bus.
Ok, so back to the media. Paying for radio works the same way as TV, but the interesting thing is that the radio is completely state run. Which means...no commercials! Imagine if every radio station at home was like NPR and almost consistently ran information or entertainment without annoying breaks. That's what they have here and the interesting thing about it is, censorship isn't a problem. Despite the fact that it is state run, the radio still has a voice in politics and says what they want (to a degree) about whatever they think. Basically it's like what's on XM radio or any other satellite radio service at home. It's the best of both worlds, a state run service that can still question the state.
Another interesting talk for another time...Denmark has one of, if not the highest tax rate in the world, and yet their economy is doing great and the people are happy! Just something to think about as you eagerly await the next installment of EricAbroad08.
Hej Hej!
Friday, February 1, 2008
More Impressions
One of the favorite candies in Denmark is salted licorice. That's right, licorice with salt on it. I had a couple pieces the other day and it is certainly an acquired taste. I'm not saying that it's bad, but it'll probably take a little while to get used to. I never would have thought to put salt on licorice.
I walked around one of their main malls downtown and to my surprise there was a Build-a-Bear store. I suppose building stuffed animals is really something that transcends all cultures, although I never would have thought I would have seen it here.
I walked around one of their main malls downtown and to my surprise there was a Build-a-Bear store. I suppose building stuffed animals is really something that transcends all cultures, although I never would have thought I would have seen it here.
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