What Time Is It?

Game Time.  Every other Sunday is the pub quiz at one of the local Irish pubs.  As you could imagine, I though it would be easy to dominate the field at trivia.  Being confident that I will be on the winning team (and more importantly the "1st Place Trophy" bottle of whisky) I did bring a certain amount of swagger to the field.  I like to think this confidence comes from my luck at having grown up in the great state of Texas.  You could imagine my horror and feelings of shame when on the first outing, we finished fourth.  On the second attempt the team finished third but I was not there to take part of the celebrations (the "3rd Place Trophy" is the most disgusting alcohol I have ever run across called Fisk).  I go out today focused on victory.  Go ahead put the bottle on my table.  The flag of my state will be behind me.

Beer Trumps Government

Every time.  I have been to both the National Museum of Art and the Carlsberg Collection, there is no comparison.  The National Museum is a nice one but for a major European capital, it is a disgrace.  The Carlsberg Collection on the other hand (a gift to the people of Denmark from the Carlsberg Beer family) is a truly amazing collection.  It is comprised mostly of classical sculpture and a small collection of impressionist masters.  If there is any famous person or deity you would like to see in marble, it is here.  The impressionist collection is especially interesting since it has some Van Gogh's from before he developed his famous style.  Unfortunately they do not allow photography in the painting section so you all will have to suffer through sculpture pics.  That is Alexander the Great on the left with Perseus and Medusa on the right.

My Home is Youtube Famous

See what I mean.

The Gauntlet has Been Laid Down

So the race for the most famous Irvine brother is heating up.  Go here to see what I'm up against.

I Live on What?

During the introduction meeting with the housing office, it was casually mentioned that our residence was in need of some soil tests to see if a factory nearby had contaminated the area.  I originally though this would mean a few engineers or scientists walking around taking samples with a small shovel.  What showed up was the small tank/drilling rig you see here.  It drilled holes for two weeks, six days a week, starting at 7 am.  Needless to say, the homeless looking construction workers became the most hated individuals in Holger.  Thankfully they are finished, unless they find something and then I will have to learn the best way to sabotage one of these drills.  On top of the whole living on a theoretical Superfund site, it was recently published in the daily English newspaper that exchange students are paying at least twice the market rate for housing at CBS.  Here is the original story and the follow-up.

Classic Copenhagen

So this is the mermaid statue that is probably the most famous attraction in the city.  In typical Danish fashion, she is kinda in the middle of nowhere so that when you finally find her, you are really underwhelmed (the statue is maybe 3 or 4 feet tall).  My opinion of the whole thing may be a bit tainted as I snapped this picture just after a Russian tourist felt the spotlight on him and responded by feeling up the statue.  It makes you wonder why some people actually travel.  When I was in Japan, we were waiting for a train when we ran into another group of Americans who were cleary just there to do nothing but lower the worlds' opinion of Americans.  It was nauseating to see and hear them talk rather explicitly about what they wanted to do to the Japanese women who walked by.  Seriously these guys could have gone to Daytona Beach for 20% of the cost and done the exact same thing.  As for the Russian, fate would have it that I at least got to see him bust his ass on the sidewalk five minutes later.

If I Were a Pacific Islander...

...this would be my sword of choice.  Incase the picture is not that clear, it is basically a wooden blade with shark teeth attached to it.  I found this at the renowned Danish National History Museum which is famous for its well preserved bog people (Danish mummies).  Those pictures did not turn out so well but you weren't missing much.  Call it Danish humor but in the floor with Roman and Greek statues they had a collection of smaller Hercules statuettes which incorporated a modern plastic one from the recent Disney cartoon.  

As a general note about life here that can be rather annyoing and heart stopping, you are almost always walking into a dark room.  According to my pre trip research, Denmark has one of the highest costs per kWh in the world.  As a function of that, nearly every light is tied to a motion detector and is compact fluorescent bulb.  In practice, when you walk into a room, you trip the sensor (maybe) and then it takes a few seconds for the bulbs to turn on in any meaningful manner.  So you can patiently wait at the door (not my style) or barge in and hope for the best.  So far I have almost fallen down a flight of stairs, walked into a winow shutter, hit my head on a lamp, and tripped over a chair.  At least I live near the local hospital.