Catching My Breath

Having just printed and stapled my last essay due this week, this is the first idle moment I have had in the last two weeks. And not a single moment of it has been dull. Last week I spent traveling on my Sustainability program study tour, a six day trip in Germany and the Netherlands around multiple cities. The morning I returned to Copenhagen, my friend Mike (buddy from the grade school days in Houston) arrived an hour after I did, and we have been trekking around Denmark non-stop until he left early this morning. Now, I sit.

The study tour with my class was a blast, we spent the first three days in Germany, around the little northern town of Flensburg. On the way there we had an afternoon at a marine center by the Wadden Sea, looking at the biodiversity and the dyke structures. Once in Flensburg we spent time at Renewable Energy research center similar to the one in Denmark, and toured multiple wind, solar, and biofuel companies. Particularily memorable was the solar energy company, which built circular wharehous type structures, with roofs that were made of solar panels tilted toward the sun.  The roof slowly rotated with the position of the sun to gain maximum absorbance. Taking up no more space than a residential house, the solar setup, during good conditions, supplies enough energy to support 40 four person Danish homes! If they find these to be effective and marketable in Denmark, than they are surely possible in the states. I would like to imagine that these would be very effective in Texas, should it seem so out-landish to have solar panels like these hooked up to residential communities in the vast Texan suburbs? I'd like to think it won't seem so much longer.

After Germany we drove to Gronnigen in the Netherlands for a night, where we then spent an afternoon at a sustainable forestry park. It was originally started by one of the Dutch kings to supply him with royal hunting grounds and lumber, and composed on only Scotch Pine. However, over the centuries the land has changed drastically and now has a strong amount of biodiversity and very little Scotch Pine, which was not endemic to begin with. They cut selected plots every ten years, cutting every few yards apart to ensure there is a variety of tree heights present just as would be in a natural system. It was surprisingly pretty and serene, and managed to shift my idea of forestry into a more positive light. Once in Gronnigen, I decided I would take a personal trip to experience the Dutch health system, which is superb I will say, because of graceful manuever I had attempted the day before. While leaping from a boulder in Flensburg, I managed to slightly miscalculate my landing and land face down on the pavement. Luckily I broke my fall with my right thumb, which suffered some bruising and swelling. The next day, when my ibuprofen stock was about gone, I decided to ask the teachers for thier opinion on the issue. Anyways, I spent a little time in the emergency room of a Dutch hostpital, which was very similar to a contemporary art museum, where it was determined that the tip of my thumb was indeed broken. So I currently have a great little plastic brace thing bandaged on my finger.

From Gronnigen we next went to Amsterdam to spend the last two days there. Amsterdam was as may be expected, a really fun place to be. I keep refering to it as a free-for-all version of Copenhagen, becuase they seemed pretty similar in some ways. While there, we spent time at the Van Gogh museum, went on a city bike tour, and canal coffee boat tour, and went to LiSER (living space for environmental refugees) to learn about efforts to deal with refugees/migrants moving due to environemtal issues. The sun was out on both days, and the temperature may have reached up to 50 F! It was so nice to be in the sun and enjoy just walking outside, there was period Friday when I even had my jacket off, it's a big deal.

Canal boat tour of Amsterdam.

After taking an overnight bus back to Copenhagen, I picked up Mike from the airport and took up the role as tour guide. He stayed at the Hojeskole for the weekend, and then we moved to a hostel during the week.  We must have walked 15 miles this past week while exploring the city, I don't think there was anything left to show him by the end of his trip. We also ate very well, between brunches at my place, shwarma shops, pastries, and one phenomenal pizza place in Sweden. It was a good week, and I think Mike was thoroughly impressed with Denmark. They have things pretty figured out here.

Spring, is that you?

I was awoken this morning by a strange sensation on my face, sunlight. It was 9 am, and I was planning on sleeping later (a lot later) after a bit of a late night. Despite the closed curtains, the morning rays still managed to wake me, partly from brightness and partly from how hot I was getting under my duvet. It's the brightest, clearest, most welcoming day I have seen so far here in Denmark. Could it be the approach of spring? I'll try not to expect anything drastic, although, we have been repeatedly told that February is the longest, hardest month to get through in DK (despite its least amount of days). The sun now makes it first appearance as we eat breakfast at 6:30 am (it rose after 9 when I first arrived), and we eat dinner at 6 pm with the last twinkling of twilight (the sun set at 4:30ish pm when I arrived). So maybe we can hope to experience more sunlit awakenings from here on.
After a cereal, yogurt, and cheese breakfast I decided to try and take advantage of the situation and go for a bike ride. It was about a minute and a half before I realized that the weather I had seen through my window was a little deceptive of the day outside, and I should have worn my gloves.  Despite the crisp air and steady wind, it was still extremely refreshing to be outside and practically feel the vitamin D being taken into my system. I found some woody areas to putter around in, and noticed that under the bed of dead leaf litter, all sorts of little green sprouts are in the process of uncurling, biding their time before they too wake up to a warm sunlit morning. I guess I'm not the only one noticing a shift in the weather.

Not for the weak stomached!

The fact that February is about to be over is a concept that I can't seem to grasp. Where is time going? Does real life happen this fast? I sure hope not. You so often here that life is too short, so that you eventually don't even acknowledge or ponder the fact that life, really IS too short. I dread the day that I think about my months here as just another chapter from the past. Enough of this, onto more exciting news.

I spent yesterday (Saturday) with my marine mammals lab course, as we traveled four hours away to a marine lab in Esbjerg. The facility is a public aquarium and seal center, but also a lab for Danish marine research.  After a very early morning (they are becoming a common theme here) departure, we arrived at the center and immediately jumped into action. The facilitator showed us to a lab where five seals were patiently lying on a bench for our attention.  It quickly became apparent that they were all dead, as one was hauled onto a dissection table and layed out for measurements. We watched as the researcher noted all observations and measurements, then procedeed to dis-assemble the plump little seal. The animals all come from local shores, where they are usually found to be resting on the beach, too exhausted or sick to try and evade people. This usually indicates that something is wrong, and they are taken in for inspection.  Years of rehabilitation programs have shown that sick seals, once fixed up and/or returned to the water, most likely appear again with the same issues. So most protocol now calls for humane putting down of the animals once they show up sick on beachs. Their bodies are then sent to the marine center for necropsy. And so this is what we were going to be doing for the day. Less than an hour later all nine of us stood at seperate tables, with our own specimens. Mine was a female, who died in October and had been frozen until we got them.  My partner and I measured the body stats, checked for injuries and body lice, and then proceeded to the first incision.  You don't need a lot of details (the pictures should show plenty), but we collected blubber layer measurements, kidney, liver, muscle and lung tissue samples, and checked for parasites in the lungs and heart. We determined from the amount of nematode parasites (worms) in the lungs and trachea, up to 4 and 5 inches in length, that the seal had a level 2 invasion which was to blame for her appearance on the beach. Cuasing exhaustion and leading to hunger, she would have eventually starved.



The instructor first showed us the procedure, before we got out own seals to work on.

Very interesting, I had never disected such a large animal, or anything that had not been heavily chemically preserved before hand. We spent some time looking at harbor porpoises that go throuugh the same process at the lab, most of which wash up after drowning in nets. I arrived home by about 9:30 that evening, and had a great night with a bunch of friends at our commune. Last night I got to catch up with my Mom over the phone for a while, its always reassuring to talk to your Mom, no matter how independent you think you are. Although I am loving my time here, I definitely miss my Mom and sisters, so many things I would show them here! This week will probably pass quickly, as we have our long study tour for Sustainable development next Sunday to Friday. I look forward to it, we are heading to northern Germany and then Amsterdam to look at numerous places related to the class. The morning after I return, one of my close friends from grade school days is coming up for his spring break, and I plan to show him a great time here in Scandinavia!



Harbor porpoise, very peculiar looking animals!



Berlin and Back



In Berlin, right by Neptune's fountain in downtown.



Sitting by the fire once again, back in Denmark. This past weekend was a new one in many ways, all due to the discovery of cheap airfare to Berlin last weekend.  Ten minutes after the discovery and following some quick negotiating amongst ourselves, and a few less than confident nods of agreement, the flights were booked.  Four of us were going to Berlin, and we soon had a four person room booked at the U Inn Berlin hostel for three nights.  I have been abroad for over a month, and I felt it was around the time for me to start doing a littel exploration beyond the borders of Denmark. And so I did.

I was not expecting the difference between Copenhagen and Denmark to be as significant as it was, cities less than 50 minute flights from each other.  First noticed, was the vast size of Berlin.  Taller buildings and wider thoroughways, we could get onto a metro or tram for 20 minutes and never leave a heavily urban area. There were dozens of public transit hubs all over the city, whereas in Copenhagen there are two main train stations to get into the city with smaller metros connecting the city area. The architecture was also generally less pleasing to the eye, putting forth a feeling of trying times and a shaky history.  Despite this, the monuments were an awesome sight, immense and grande, they emitted soilidarity and power (appropriately so for the time they were constructed).

The people were different too, it couldn't be taken for granted that most people spoke English as it is in Denmark.  They were very friendly, and offered help with tram directions without us even asking, which would not happen in Denmark.  Another obvious and much appreciated difference, was the cost of everything. Hostel, food and drink, and transportation where all much cheaper than can be found in Denmark.  We felt like we were getting a deal on everything, when in reality we could have just been paying normal prices. Your sense of value becomes skewed when living in a place with such large tax rates.

While there, I took a walking tour of the 'alternative scene' of Berlin which explored the street art and graffitti. I had no idea it was such a big organized presence. Apparently multiple well known artists create various murals and post-up drawings around the city, each recognizable by style, subject, and/or statements. Everything we saw on the tour we would have never seen on our own, since so much of it is underground and not considered 'tourist' attractions. We also made it to multiple monuments around the city, a huge flea market on Sunday morning, and the Ritter Chokolate factory.



Street art in a Berlin alley. 







We had some great food too. The first night, oddly enough we went to a Mexican restaurant where I was able to experience the German rendition of a burrito and margarita.  Not so bad at all, although I do miss my tex-mex. Nava had a birthday that night, and the waiters handed out sparklers to the entire restaurant, turned off the lights, and then brought out a melon filled with some kind of fruity rum drink topped with a birthday candle as we all sang. Determined to get some German food, the next night we ate at a restaurant recomended by our hostel. I was finally able to order some sausages and saurekraut, along with some 'dark beer'. Delicious, I think my travel companions were relieved as I had been nagging about getting saurekraut all weekend.



Mexican food, in Berlin?



A great time, but we agreed that the traveling did make us all appreciate Copenhagen that much more.  Copenhagen is so much more personal and approachable.  A large and advanced city, yet still very in touch with its history and quaint lifestyle. Copenhagen just seems much easier to get to know and be a part of. Phew, I did end up in the right place.



German food, 'Parade of Sausages' it was called.







Everything but a Gray Whale



Beaked whales.



In my quest to write about everything awesome that I encounter and eperience during my time here, I have already learned that reporting everything I'd like to is an impossible task.  Since I don't want to write in bullet points, and surely we all read enough bullet points on a daily basis already, I will not do that.  So I have decided to pick out the best of my times to describe, and last week's field study definitely qualifies as such.  The field study was for my Biology of Marine Mammals class, and we met at 8:30 am outside the Norreport train station. Now, many of my peers did not have morning field studies, or any at all, which did not make getting to bed at a decent hour the night before an easy task at all.  Regardless, I was there outside the train station at the right time, and was content to find similar bleariness in the eyes of my classmates. We caught a bus with our professor and evetually arrived at the Zoological Museum of Denmark, a mix of old world architecture fashioned with contemporary accents.  We were introduced to a head curator and then escorted into the back, past a door designated for museum personal only as we moved into the private collections.



The curator, obviosuly a friend of our professor, told us to explore and photograph the collections as much as we liked after our tour. Containing over 10 million specimens, and every species except a Gray Whale (although they have been searching high and low for one within reach),  the collections started in the 16th century, and is one of the five biggest in the world.  I spent the next two hours with the class as our professor took us through the thousands of whale, dolphin, porpoise, seal, sea lion, walrus, dugong and polar bear skeletal archives. It was incredible to see these things. The fact that each specimen, whether dated 1750 or 2005 was at one point living and breathing is mind boggling.  Eventually we were taken into the "whale basement", where they kept all the larger cetacean specimens.  We saw blue whale jaws and baleen pieces the size of SUV vehicles, and walked along the bus like spinal structure of each creature. To think that such dinosar like creatures still navigate the seas today is exciting.  Just as eye-opening to consider is that each of these large whales is over 60% reduced in world population size than 100 years ago due to consumption by man. 

In the whale basement, looking at the blue whales.

After our tour, we were given free reign to explore the three floors of private collections ourselves.  I saw everything from stuffed gorillas and rhinos, to thousands of preserved jarred reptilians. The biodiversity of this world is staggering, how such a vast array arose from single celled life is almost incomprehensible.  Of course, such incomprehensibility is why I go to school.

The specimens on the table had been acquired most recentely, and were still being labeled and organized.

 

Denmark By Bus





Danish government's energy grid control center.

I returned from a study trip with my Sustainable Development class on Saturday evening. It was a busy trip, where we travelled onto the mainland of Denmark; Jutland. Starting early Thursday morning, we made our way to different places dealing with energy, renewable energy resources/research, eco-villages, and an art museum.  Our first stop was at Energinet.DK, Denmark's energy grid control headquarters, a government run sector.  Just the building alone was amazing, upon entrance you would first guess the place was some kind of design firm.  Very modern and sleek, open spaces and glass walls, everything was incredibly nice, yet simply designed.  We were given a presentation by one of the senior planners, and he described how the entire country is hooked up to one power grid.  The energy supplied is 20% wind turbine produced energy during best conditions.  Since this flucuates constantly, they have to have an extremely flexible grid that can monitor and then act on surplusses and shortages of energy, this way coal supplied electricity can be implemented to flucuate with wind energy shifts.  Wind energy cannot be stored and must be used immediately, so their systems are very responsive.  We also learned that Denmark serves as the middle man between central Europe and Scandinavia, and that all of these energy systems are linked so that surplesses can be freely wired across countries.  The agreements between these countries allow free borrowing and lending of energy from other grids whenever needed, this is optimal so that no energy ever goes wasted. We were taken to the control room, a scene strait out of the Matrix where computer screens the size of walls show the entire Danish energy grid and consumption rates.  Four main controllers are on duty at all times, and I counted one long desk to have 21 computer screens monitiored by one man (on a very agile wheeled chair).  We then had lunch at their lunch buffet, where all employees eat for free each day (happy employees? I think so). The buffet was great, consisting of so much fresh food. The Danish concept of food is so different, you would never find a buffet similar to this one in a work building in the states.

We also travelled to the Nordic Folkecenter for Renewable Energy, just along the northern coast, the center has worked on researching renewable energy systems since the 70s.  All of their power is wind supplied, and they have outfitted all their vehichles to run on bio-fuels.  The bio-fuel they use in particular was grape seed oil, they have a large press that produces this fuel as you dump in the seeds. There was also a Folkeschole there where students stay and learn about environmental studies.  The school is akin to the Hobbit's Shire, as it is built into the side of a hill right near the shore.  A beautiful and cozy building, suprisingly intricate for being built into a hill, with a large domed ceiling common room, bedrooms and classrooms.  In one small quiet room we were shown an old wooden couch called 'John's Couch', which was apparently John Lennon's favorite place to sit when he was a student at the Folkeschole.  How cool to think that a Beetle also spent time at a Folkeschole (I am staying at one in Helsingør).

Nordic Center for Renewable Energy, wind turbine on its side.

We spent the next day's afternoon in an Eco-Village in Thy.  A community of about 35 houses, they create and supply most of their own energy, grow a lot of their own foods, and manage their own waste.  A very modern looking place, despite the centuries old living techniques.  We were shown around, and then put into some good 'ol fashioned manual labor.  The community pipes all the grey water (washer, shower, sink water) to a drainage field that was dug out, covered in a clay membrane, then filled with gravel, sand, and then soil. On top they grow Willow trees that absorb lots of water, pulling it up and filtering it at the same time.  Each year they have to cut 1/3 of the willows back to ensure they are always growing and absorbing water. So we managed to arrive during this time, and were put to the task of clearing the cut shrubs.  This entailed hauling them across a mud field and stacking them to be dried and used for heat later. By the end of the afternoon I was thoroughly covered in the mud, tasting it everytime I opened my mouth. All were in good spirits however, as we were rewarded with a hearty Danish (organic) meal of rye breads, cheeses, herring, liver spread, jams, and coffee. The following bus ride back was oddly quiet, interrupted only by snores.



Typical house in the eco-village, every room position for maximum heating/cooling efficiency, solar panels, etc.



Solar energy FTW.

Progress

No Wednesday classes is going to be a bittersweet treat this semester (but mostly sweet).  My school only has Monday/Thursday and Tuesday/Friday classes, and has no classes on Wednesdays to allow for field study days.  Each course has two field study days where we meet outside of the classroom and around town to look at local places relevant to our course.  In other words, we get to have almost a dozen field trips this semester.  Of course, this also adds Tuesday nights to the list of potential going out nights.  Today being Wednesday, and after having a field study downtown from 9 am to noon, I can say that the bitter aspect of free Wednesdays is making itself aparent.  I need more sleep!  My friends here and I have been having a great time exploring the night life of Copenhagen and Helsingør.  Finding the cheapest place to grab a beer has been important, as they range from 50 Kronor (~ 9 bucks = insanity) to our new favorite spot that offers them for 19 Kronor (~3.50 dollars = cheers). It's a great chance to sit down and get to know other students, but even better, it's the only time we can really get to know some Danes! As some teachers here have told us, the Danes incorporate drinking into their culture (there are no open container laws for alcohol, you can even bring open drinks on the trains), and it's understood that the real way to get to know somebody is to have a beer with them.  I have been told it's considered very rude to not drink if the person you're talking to is.  In other words, we're just trying to get into the Danish culture!

At the Dubliner, more touristy than others, but a good time. Prefer some much cheaper hole in the wall local places we recently found.

I feel that I have become very close with a lot of the other people I live with, and we already have many good times to talk about.  It's a lot easier to feel at home and less foreign when you know that you're with good friends, and luckily this is becoming more the case each day.  That being said, I still love some time to myself when I can simply explore and think.  It's amazing that such a big and busy city like Copenhagen is still very conducive to solo excursions.  My favorite part of the afternoon each day is wandering through cobbled streets before heading to the train station. I think I may be ready for some time 'outside', though, as I haven't had a chance to get beyond an urban setting yet.  Luckily the rest of this week is the short study tour portion of our core prgrams (mine's sustainability in Europe). We leave tomorrow at 7 am to the town of Aalborg and Thy in the north.  We're going to be looking at renewable energy plants, then put to work in an eco-village, and returning on Saturday evening. I'm hoping this will be a good break from city life, and introduction to the country side.