Our First Visitors -- Part I -- Arrival and Canal Tour

From May 4 - May 13 my parents were out here visiting us (a major reason for the lack of posts).  After a busy week of work and a day of sailing yesterday (more of that later on hopefully), I finally have the time to blog about their visit.

Day 1 of the Visit.

I met my parents, in true Danish style, just outside baggage claim waving Danish and American flags.  I haven't seen them since December so it was very nice to see them walk through the doors.   They were only slightly jet-lagged as they had spent the night before in Dublin visiting friends.  After purchasing some Starbucks coffee at one of the only Starbucks in the country (although I later learned a new one has opened up at a mall near me) we hit the metro for our 20 min ride home.

After a tour of the apartment and an unpacking of bags we set out to take the very excited and happy Charlie on a nice walk through the Frederiksberg Have -- a large park a few blocks away that also houses the zoo.  

Me and my dad in front of my apartment

The weather was absolutely fabulous.   We returned home and after a quick trip to the grocery store for some much needed appetizers/snacks, we made a lovely dinner of salmon, roasted tomatoes, salad and asparagus.

Day 2 of the Visit.

Refreshed after a good night's sleep (the first guests to try out our brand new futon) my mom and I ran around the lakes of Copenhagen (just some, not all of them). After we hit the local bakery for an array of pastries, we walked over to mass in Danish in Vestebro at Jesu Hjerte Kirke.

outside the Frederiksberg library and the "sol piger" statue (meaning Sun Girls)

Outside Jesu Hjerte Kirke

Collin met us when mass was finished and we continued our walk pass the city hall (Rådhuspladsen), down the pedestrian-friendly Strøget  and on to Nyhavn which means "New Harbor"... the scene of all the colorful harbor buildings you normally see when you look at pictures of Copenhagen.

Guards marching from Amelienborg Slot to Rosenborg Slot

Once there we boarded a boat for an hour-long canal tour which went up and down and all around outside the center of the city in a loop that looks something like this.

This woman was chipping the paint of her boat before we left and when we came back...looks like it was going to be a long day for her.

The Royal yacht

the Little Mermaid as viewed from sea

Amelienborg Slot (the Queen's residence) and Frederik's Church (Marmokirken)

Church of Our Savior spire that you can walk up on the outside

The old Copenhagen Stock Exchange building with the 4-dragon spire

Dinner that night was a Cinco de Mayo celebration of grilled shrimp tacos that Collin already blogged about previously.

Stay tuned for the next installment when we visit my place of employment and cross international waters...

Day 149 - If you thought rollerblading / skating was done...

...come on down to Frederiksberg. Unbeknownst to me, tonight is evidently some sort of rollersports gathering that pulls the bulk of atrociously embarrassingly active / disturbingly sculpted spandex wearing København-ians to my neighborhood. Skates. Cones. Skating therebetween said cones. Ick.

Day 146 - Working for a living Pt II, Permanent Occupation

Today I was called into the big boss's office.

The big boss is now on crutches. This was the result of a horrendous cycling accident. The accident resulted in a broken femur! Hard. Core. My somewhat littler boss is now - as of last week - operating without an appendix. Strange things are afoot in Måløv.

At any rate, the big boss - TBB from this point forward - lurched into the room that contains the plate tracking robot - a robot that can move cell supernatant from one harvest plate to another protein-coated plate, scan the barcodes of each plate, and then compile those barcodes in a file so that I can then connect the elisa plate to the harvest plate - and then, eventually, the culture plate. Believe you me, people-smart-enough-to-not-work-as-a-lab-technician, it's a good thing. Doing this by hand for fifty - or more - plates would be, well, inconceivable!

Anyway, despite it being about time to go - my bus was to hit Novo Nordisk Park West in about 5 minutes - I was a good soldier and dropped everything to sit down and chat with TBB.

What could it be? Had the Dansk Folkeparti called for the deportation of all USAmerican swine? Had the contents of this blog offended coworkers irrevocably? Did they not like my terrible American chocolates?

No, loyal readers, none of these things were true. I was offered a permanent position in antibody technology, one which I happily accepted. Tilykke to me!

Now I will need to make a "cake" for the lab. Suggestions are welcome.

Day 142 - Metro Systems without Drivers

As I've mentioned before, the København metro traverses the city in an automated manner, sans drivers. It works well for the most part. The only discernable difference from a city like Boston is that the voice announcing the stops sounds more like a female Stephen Hawking than the RZA. Downtown Cwossing.

Things run awry when this happens.

That's the Vanløse stop directly ahead. My train is stopped. Panic sets in.

How long will this train sit here? Does anyone know that it's sitting here?

Luckily, it stopped for about 3-4 minutes and started again. I made my S-tog and was good to go.

Additional fun fact, I am the only technician at work today. It is a "technician" holiday that the technician union negotiated for. I have cells to take care of so I mentioned that I might be coming in today to do so. It's no big deal for me, I'm used to coming in for a couple of hours to take care of stuff on the occasional weekend / day off.

No. Big. Deal.

You'd think that I had said something crazy. So many people came up and asked me about it and told me not to come in. That it's not my responsibility. That I should make one of the scientists take care of my cells for me. That the union earned this for us and it's basically our responsibility not to work.

To put this in perspective, I got in this morning at around 6 - it's 10:45 right now and I'm just finishing up. On stuff that I know exactly what to do. I was advised to give approximately 5 hours of work to a scientist who either hasn't ever worked with me or is almost never in the lab. Awesome.

Day 138 OT - An actual conversation during Danish class

Teacher : Collin, have you been practicing your Danish "R"?

Collin : Yes, but I am terrible at it. When I try to do it, I sound like Frankenstein. RRRRRRRR.

Teacher : Yes, that is quite ugly. Collin, "hvor kommer du fra?" (where do you come from?)

Collin : Jeg kommer fra USA. (I come from the USA)

Teacher : Hvad byen kommer du fra? (What city do you come from?)

Collin : Boston.

Teacher (to James, another American) : James, hvor kommer du fra?

James : Jeg kommer fra Louisiana.

Teacher : Can I hear your Danish "R"

James : (says danish word with a Danish "R" in it)

Teacher : That's great. I don't know why you can do this so easily but Collin cannot do it.

Collin : (dumbstruck / I can't believe people can be this horrible / rude / non-self-aware face)

--

This, in a nutshell, is why I hate hate hate this class. I was very close to walking out at the break. If I had a microphone, it would have been dropped yesterday. Possibly with expletives. I considered dropping the workbook on the floor, but I am neither spontaneous nor theatrical.

This is also, in a nutshell, a summary of the microcosm of the - insert other redundant word here - that is / are the growing number of innumerable things I hate about living here.

This is why many Danes - and without a doubt not all of them - are among the rudest people I have ever met. Anywhere. I lived in freaking Boston for six years! I've flown through ORD dozens of times! It's amazing.

Day 138 - This new Danish class is a pain

Emily and I have enrolled in a new Danish class at the Kommune - we had our first class last Wednesday. It's a Monday / Wednesday course that goes from 5:30 - 8:15 with a half an hour break.

I spent much of this first class being frustrated with my lack of ability to pronounce sounds / words / anything to my teacher's level of expectation. This wouldn't be so bad if she wasn't completely obnoxiously unapologetic about pointing out every single failure in a way that, to best describe it, was snobby at best. This class makes me not want to learn Danish. Ever.

I do not want to go to class tonight, but I'm going to tough it out for a few more classes, I owe myself that I suppose.

Frustration!

Day 137 - femte af Maj

But really, it's more like 5. Maj, which is just less exciting. All of which is far less exciting than cinco de Mayo!

And yes, this would be far more - and by far more, I mean infinitely more - appropriate for dia de los muertos, but as it's the only Mexican thing I have here, it has to do. Sorry for the inadvertent racism!

Here's to firing up the grill for the first time. Here's to tasty homemade tortillas and somewhat substandard fillings and rice and beans and every other aspect. Such is København. I'm sorry cinco de mayo. I'll keep working.