Happy Thanksgiving

To all our family and friends in the U.S., have a Happy Thanksgiving today!

We'll be celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow night with Sophia, Susanne Bødker and her son, and Niels Olof.

We found a place in Århus where we could buy a fresh turkey and so should have a nice traditional meal tomorrow to celebrate this holiday from afar.

With our two kids, my receiving tenure, and this wonderful sabbatical in Denmark, we've got a lot to be thankful for this year!

Take care,

Ken

Visitors

We've been happy to host two visitors recently.



Elisa Giaccardi is a researcher at CU Boulder who stopped by Århus for a weekend trip to discuss her work with Leysia. Elisa had been attending a workshop in the UK so she was already on "our side of the pond" which made the trip to Århus easier to make. Max and Lilja had a lot of fun interacting with Elisa!

Our other visitor, Sophia Liu, arrived just before Elisa and is staying through this coming weekend. Sophia is Leysia's new Ph.D. student and has come to do some work with Leysia "face-to-face". She has also been enjoying her interactions with Max and Lilja!

We took both of our guests to Den Gamle By to see it decked out for Christmas. We snapped the picture of them above while we were there.

Ken

Max and Lilja's Wild Ride

Here's a recent picture of Max and Lilja riding a toy horse in a department store located in downtown Århus.



They are each wearing recently purchased shoes, since they both wore out the summer-ish shoes we had brought with us from Denmark.

Århus is gearing up for the Christmas season in a big way. (Stores have been putting up Christmas decorations since Halloween.) This Friday, Santa Claus comes to town and all of the stores stay open until Midnight. We will be missing out on those festivities, however, since we'll be celebrating Thanksgiving that evening with four other people. (We are not celebrating Thanksgiving on Thursday, since Danes don't celebrate Thanksgiving and, as such, Thursday is a school night.)

On Sunday, the town's Christmas tree will be lit; We plan on attending this event since our friend Anna is going to be singing in a choir at the ceremony.

Fun Fun Fun!

Ken

Our Lost Package

It appears that one of the packages that we shipped in July just before leaving for Denmark is well and truly lost.

This is unfortunate since it contained winter coats for Leysia, Max, and me along with several other miscellaneous things such as books and toys for the kids.

If you look back at my previous posts about our packages, I thought that we had shipped six packages and what I called "package number 3" was missing.

In point of fact, I only shipped five packages, two in early July and three the day before we left in late July. The missing package was part of the three shipped just before we left. I remember going to the post office when receiving a notice that those boxes arrived but I must have experienced a brain fade because I left with only two of the packages. What I think happened is that the person behind the counter didn't know that three packages had arrived and only brought two to the front. If I had been smart enough to ask about the third package that day, I probably would have received it, since Post Denmark's computer systems show that the missing package definitely arrived with the other two.

Unfortunately, the package's status becomes unclear after that. It took me about a month to realize that I had only shipped five packages not six, and by that time, the package I failed to pick up had disappeared. The weird part about this situation is that Post Denmark has no record of what happened to the box next. It SHOULD have been sent back to the U.S. but they have no record of actually shipping the box back. They also cannot find it in any of the storerooms they use to house undelivered packages. I think they have concluded that an unscrupulous employee decided that the box was never going to be picked up and made off with its contents. They sent us a letter (written in Danish but helpfully translated by our friend Martin) essentially saying that they will reimburse us for the package since they can't find it.

The depressing thing about this situation is that the U.S. Customs form that was affixed to the package has a field on it that says "Sender's Instructions in Case of Nondelivery" and I filled that out by specifying that the box should be redirected to the Department of Computer Science here at Aarhus University. That never happened so that field appears to be essentially useless, perhaps just a means for making people feel better when they ship off their stuff to another country!

Well, we are not quite ready to give up the fight (although we have bought new winter coats for Leysia, Max, and me)... I'm going to have Callie (Leysia's sister) fill out a form at her local postal office to have the U.S. postal service look for the box using the number on the U.S. Customs form as the package id. Since I had the package insured, I'm also going to file a claim with the U.S. postal service for a lost package (though I suspect the claim won't go very far, since it was Post Denmark that lost the package.) My hope is not to get reimbursed but perhaps a search by U.S. postal service representatives in Denmark can turn up some piece of information that exists outside Post Denmark's computer systems.

Anyway, I think we'll be shipping a lot of things home via airmail and we'll spread the shipments out so we can bear the added expense of shipping stuff by plane.

Ken

An Upcoming Trip

Hi,

Leysia and I spent some time finalizing an upcoming trip.

We are finally taking a trip to Copenhagen or, as the Danes say, København. It will be a short trip as we will be arriving Saturday, December 3rd and returning Sunday, December 4th, but it will give us enough time to see some of the major sights on Saturday and then spend a full day at Tivoli on Sunday. As an added bonus, we'll be meeting up with Polle Zellweger at Tivoli and then Polle will be returning with us to spend a few days in Aarhus at our apartment. Polle was instrumental in getting Leysia and I prepared for our stay here in Aarhus. She and her husband, Jock Macinlay, both did a stint at the computer science department at Aarhus a few years ago and provided us with all sorts of information and advice for our trip. Polle is looking forward to visiting Aarhus again and seeing people in the department and we are looking forward to hosting her!

Personally, I feel that our time here in Aarhus is rushing by (heck, Thanksgiving is almost upon us!), so unfortunately, I fear that summer 2006 will arrive all too soon. We just have to try to enjoy every minute of our stay and be prepared to take back a rich tapestry of memories so as to remember our time here in Denmark for years to come.

Okay, I'll cut this sappy prose short and watch the second episode of Lost, Season 2, on my computer. (At 2 bucks a pop from the iTunes Music store, its way cheaper than going to the movies!!)

Ken

Hello Sunshine

I'm biased, of course, but I think Lilja's pretty cute.



This picture was taken last weekend when we were visiting the Mosegård Museum south of Århus. (Pretty interesting place!)

Catching Up: Skagen

Last August, we took a trip to Skagen (which is NOT pronounced SKA-GEN but something closer to SKAIN; the word is pronounced with only one syllable, not two!), which is a city located near the northern tip of Denmark. We didn't actually spend any time in the city itself (which is a mistake we'll have to correct next Spring), instead driving straight through to the parking lot that gives you access to the beach that lets you walk to the aforementioned northern tip of Denmark!



The neat thing about this location is that two oceans literally crash into each other at the tip. So, as you stand knee-deep in water, you can watch first a wave roll in from the left and then watch a wave roll in from the right, etc. (See movie below.) These non-stop collisions make for very chaotic (although not too dangerous) water!



Since the spar of land that leads to the tip gets to be quite narrow, Max and I had a race between the two oceans. As you'll see, Lilja decided to join in the race as well!



In addition to these two movies, we took a bunch of pictures of the day (see below). We greatly enjoyed ourselves and look forward to returning to Skagen before returning to the states next July.

Enjoy,

Ken

Here's a shot of the famous lighthouse located near the Northern tip of Denmark.



And, here's a shot of the lighthouse up close.



As we walked closer to the tip, we took shots of our progress.





Getting closer...



Whoops, got distracted for a minute...



But how can you blame us when there were these things to look at...



Made it! (Some of us even made it with our clothes on!)



Having fun at the tip...





Enough fooling around with geography, lets play!









As we were leaving, we caught sight of some geese (near the lighthouse), and Leysia snapped a pretty picture of them.

Gas Stations

One of the interesting things about international travel is that you get to learn that the many things that you consider "normal" are instead "cultural" and subject to (extreme) change. And, while you are dealing with this change, you are surrounded by people (natives) who view all the strange things surrounding you as "normal". The next time you hear someone say "That's the way things ought to be." mentally add "given the social and cultural baggage that has contributed to MY definition of 'normal'." to that phrase.

Anyway, all of this is leading up to a discussion of a gas station that lies close to IT-Parken ("The Information Technology Park") where we work. We've encountered the whole range of gas station types here in Aarhus, from the its-so-old-fashioned-that-its-not-even-quaint "pay-the-cashier-before-you-pump" type gas station to the "pay-at-the-pump" type gas station that is common across most of the U.S. This gas station is a new (to me) type, namely, "pay-near-the-pump". This is a small gas station with three pumps. There is a console located near the pumps that is used before you pump gasoline into your car. You insert your debit card into the console, and enter your pin code. You are then asked to select the pump that you would like to use. (I'm not sure what happens if you select a pump that is currently in use, as I've only been there when I'm the only customer present.) This activates the pump and you go pump your gas. If you don't want a receipt, you're done and you can drive off. Otherwise, you return to the console and insert your debit card one more time and it prints your receipt. (It knows which receipt to print, since you had previously inserted your card to start this whole process.)

Anyway, I always feel just a little bit shifted from "normal" when I drive away from this gas station, because I've not encountered anything like this back in the states, and you wind up saying to yourself "Even pumping gas is different!"

Of course, I've been talking about how these differences can make you feel a bit off kilter, but its also refreshing to see all the variation that's possible in this life and it makes you view what you consider "normal" in a different light, realizing now that its just the result of largely cultural decisions that could be changed if needed.

Okay, time to squeeze in a bit of work before I go to my weekly Danish class. Min evne til at læse og skrive dansk er gradvis forbedret! ("My ability to read and write Danish is gradually improving!")

Ken

Update from Yesterday's Post: I almost ran into a cyclist today. :-( He was in my blind spot and I didn't see him until just at the last moment. I slammed on my brakes and came within inches, excuse me, centimeters of hitting him. What did I get for my trouble? Not even an acknowledgment! The cyclist went by without even looking at me! Sigh.

Observations on Driving in Aarhus

Hi,

Just a quick post with some observations on what its like to drive in Aarhus.

First, there is only one word that can be used to characterize the driving style of bus drivers in Aarhus: aggressive!

I've learned to give buses a lot of space because they will run into you otherwise and, heaven forbid, a bus is behind you and decides that you're going too slow!

Second, cyclists (and some pedestrians) in Aarhus have a death wish. Indeed, drivers appear to ignore pedestrians, pedestrians appear to ignore drivers, and cyclists appear to ignore everyone! I can't tell you the number of times I've seen cars making a right-hand turn come up short because the cyclist driving on their right, ignored the car, and went straight through the intersection! Now, I don't know about you, but if I'm riding a bike and I'm approaching an intersection where a car is turning right and I want to go straight through and I'm in the driver's blind spot, I WOULD STOP and let the car make its turn before proceeding through the intersection. My thought process would go something like this: "Oh, if that car hits me, it would put a serious damper on the day, so lets stop, wait 5 seconds, and let it turn."

Oh, and in addition to ignoring everything around them, cyclists in Aarhus appear to have adopted the convention of Boulder cyclists in which "the rules of the road" apply to cyclists only when convenient.

Finally, repairs of city streets occurs only during the work week and only during prime driving hours. The quality of life philosophy that underlies the Danish system of work would frown on doing such repairs at night or on the weekend. Indeed, except for critical community services (police, fire, and emergency medical services) most business is conducted during the work week roughly between the hours of 8 AM and 4:30 PM; Some shopping is available on the weekend, however, mainly between 10 AM and 2 PM on Saturdays and some grocery stores and gas stations are open on Sundays, but that's about it.

Anyway, we once observed a street repair project that involved digging up some of the existing pavement, fixing a problem underneath, laying new pavement, and then painting street lines on top of the new pavement which occurred over several days near our work. (For our local readers, this occurred at the intersection of Paludan-Müllers Vej and the O1.) The odd thing about this project was that the street workers made no attempt to close any of the lanes coming into or out of the intersection where the work was occurring! Instead, the workers ignored all of the cars, pedestrians, and cyclists moving through the intersection and just went about their work as if they weren't there. Meanwhile, all of the cars, pedestrians, and cyclists had to find ways to move around the significant obstruction that three trucks and several workers presented while trying to get through the intersection before the light changed. We observed several instances of grid lock caused by this during the local "rush hours" of morning and late afternoon.

So, given all this, Leysia makes sure that I stay very alert while driving through the city! And, my recommendation to anyone considering a trip to Aarhus and wondering how they will get around the city: Take the bus! No one messes with bus drivers!

Ken