Sunday, August 27, 2006

Rain rain go away

I tried to deliver a photo today, but we were unsuccessful, so - being resourceful - here is a picture off the web of what we would have seen had we continued on through the rain. We headed out with good intentions to go to Frederiksburg Have for a poetry festival and to enjoy the park, but the weather did not cooperate. After two months of sun (June and July), August has been one of the wettest on record here. I'll add a link to the Danish weather page so you can check up on things here, as we have been doing with Hurricane Ernesto. A good thing about not being a tourist here is the freedom to take a day off and try again another time.

Denmark has many castles. I'm not sure we'll be able to see them all, but it is a worthy goal. Many were built by Frederik IV, who might have been better off had he spent the money on his army and navy fighting Sweden (not that I would advocate that). Living here, it's hard to picture the rather violent history of this region.

Our latest news is that Alexa is working now in two jobs. Teaching English at a private language school in Copenhagen and working as a substitute teacher at an international school north of Copenhagen. We've also joined a local choir, which will be a fun way to meet folks and learn some more Danish.

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Monday, August 21, 2006

Comments

I understand there was a problem with the comments (I was playing with the settings - unadvisable). It should be fixed now.

Friday, August 18, 2006

Street performers

Our current apartment is very convenient to two main pedestrian streets in Copehnagen, Strøget and Købmagergade. After a month we were able to recognize most of the street performers and know their acts just by having walked past enough times. There is the Australian guy with the escape artist routine, break dancers, jugglers, and several musical ensembles - most good, a few dismal. The performers are out in the evening after the shops close and before the bars really get going. With summer (unofficially) over here, most have moved on - to where, I don't know. In their absence. One of the regulars has been out of sight for a while now - the older gentlemen with the chess board, clock, and sign saying "test your chess reflexes." Maybe he'll turn up again next summer.

The people on Strøget are of all kinds. Many tourists following the instructions of their guidebooks to walk from Rådhuspladsen to Nyhavn and take in the sights and shops along the way. Others are fashionable Danes out for an evening stroll. There are also the few homeless people, often scavenging returnable bottles in enough abundance to keep them supplied with beer and cigarettes. One of the funniest interactions was when a person offered their 'empty' to the long-bearded shabbily dressed man we'd seen many times riding in the area on his recumbent bicycle. Though the exchange was in Danish, we could tell enough from the body language that he made it clear that he was not a bum and that she could return her own recycleables.

Anyway, what prompted this post was the ensemble we saw this evening on our stroll. At our first pass, we saw a man duct-taping bottles together and tuning them by pouring water in or removing water with a straw. We made a mental note to pass by on our way back to see what it turned into. On the way back (after turning around at the eastern European juggler/tumbler solo act) we found a group of six musicians performing with various combinations of the bottles. Most were Carlsberg beer bottles, but the bass section had 1.5 liter Coke bottles. All were taped together to be played like pan pipes. We didn't recognize the song, but it was well done with several musical lines and two key changes. We contributed to their pusuits before walking home.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Husk Fart Kontrol!

We know we haven't been here long enough when we can't help giggling at the highway sign "Husk fart kontrol." It means "remember speed checkpoint" - it was posted shortly before an automated speed monitoring station on the highway outside Copenhagen. Unfortunately we couldn't get a picture. Maybe next time... On the driving front, we now have a registered car in Denmark! Thursday was mostly dedicated to the final bureaucratic hurdles: getting the registration tax estimate, paying the tax, and picking up the plates. At this stage another anology came to mind - a scavenger hunt. The lowlight was when the woman at motorkontoret (the motor office) asked for my foreign plates and I didn't have a screwdriver and wrench to remove them from the car. That led to an hour-long detour to a local mall to track down the needed tools. Last visit was to get the resident parking permit, the only inexpensive part of owning a car in Denmark - DKK 175/yr (about $30) to park anywhere within a certain zone of the city. Gasoline costs about $6.75/gal. This morning we took a hike through a cool summer rain to get what we need to mount the plates on the car.

Summer has begun to fade here - we have a week of rain in the forecast, and the days are getting shorter now. Noone seems too upset, given the two months of sun we had in June and July, but it will be interesting in the next two months as the days get shorter faster.

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Friday, August 04, 2006

Chip away at the stone

As I drove this morning to have the car inspected, I realized that an appropriate analogy for the different layers of bureaucracy we have to go through is that of chipping away at a big wall of stone. If you're persistant you can get through, but it's awful tempting to give up. The car arrived on Monday. It was funny to watch them crack open the shipping container and see the car sitting in there. The last time I saw it was when the tow truck picked it up from the house on May 26. They had completely drained the gas for the trip, so it wouldn't even start. But with me and three other guys supervising, a fourth poured in a few liters of gasoline (benzin) that they had scavanged from the lawnmower shed at the moving site. It started with a little hesitation, but it has run fine since.

So the process is to 1) buy auto insurance 2) get a parking permit, 3) have the car weighed, 4) obtain form from the motor office, 5) have car inspected, 6) get any repairs performed,7) get an official estimate for the value of the car, 8) get bank check, 9) pay the registration tax (180% !!!), then 10) go to the motor office for the license plates (all within two week). Fortunately, someone at work went through this a few weeks ago, so he gave me some tips - hopefully I'm not forgetting anything. If you're wondering, I'm on step 5. The inspection turned up a lack of side turn indicators (useful for bicyclists) and the fact that the front turn signal bulb and parking light are the same bulb. Somehow, millions of Americans are able to survive the treacherous drive to and from work without having separate parking and turn signal bulbs, but it must only be luck or divine providence. Not everything is this involved, and everyone I deal with is helpful and understanding. An added challenge is that half the country is on vacation, so it is difficult to get appointments. Anyway, with any luck, by next week I'll be official.

Last weekend was our trip to Sweden. We were in Falkenberg and Morup, visiting Alexa's relatives. We were there last summer before we knew that we would move to Scandinavia. It's such a nice area along the west coast of Sweden where you can go from the beach to wooded hills in a half hour or so. We enjoyed the hospitality and the beautiful weather including swimming and rowing in/on the lake, eating meals out in the garden, and playing boule (same or similar to bocci ball). We went to church on Sunday and were treated to music by a group from Morup comprising six accordians, four violins, and a mandolin. We're eager to go back at the next opportunity.

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