Initial impressions: Part 1

Spending six days in Denmark was really great. One of my big concerns was showing up for the first time laden with luggage and three kids in tow to a completely unfamiliar country where I had no idea where to go or who to talk to. I am really grateful that I had the opportunity to visit by myself (although it would have been really nice to have Shannon with me) and get a little bit more familiar with the city and people.

Outside the first build built at the campus I'll be working. est. 1855.

The Lab where I’ll be working invited me and paid for my visit, so the main purpose was to meet them, discuses my research project, and become acquainted with the lab; so I did not have a lot of time to be a tourist while I was there. However, the trip was eye opening to how different a lot of the aspects of living in Denmark are going to be and how similar others will be. I thought I'd just share a few of my observations:

Downtown Copenhagen

 Weather
The day I arrived it was cool but the sun was out for a short part of the morning. Nicolai, the professor that I will be working most closely with and who picked me up from the airport, kept saying how great it was that the I arrived on a day when the weather was so nice. I did not think it was really that nice it just seemed normal to me (since it was my first day it was the only weather I knew), that was the last time I saw the sun during my visit. I guess for some reason, probably something to do with how much water Denmark is surrounded by, most days in the winter are overcast (perhaps the name of this blog is not that accurate). The temperature was about the same as in Northern Utah right now, but I was glad I had brought my winter coat and hat because it felt much colder; I think it is because the humidity conducts the cold more easily.

Another somewhat unusual aspect was how early it got dark, by four in the afternoon the un-visible sun was setting and by five it was dark. I have been told it will only get worse for the next few months. This was somewhat challenging since it was always dark when I was trying to find my way around in the evening when I had any time to myself.

Exchanges
The Danish money is called a Krone (crown in English), one Krone is about 18 cents, but that means very little. I found very quickly that thinking in Dollars was going to get me nowhere, even if I was able to do the math in my head, things are so much more expensive in Copenhagen (one of, if not the most expensive city in Europe) the value of everything can’t be compared to what it would cost in the US. I think once we move over the it will take us a while before we can spot a good deal or are able to really know what things should cost.

50 Kroner is the smallest paper note they have, everything smaller are coins

 I have known and been prepared for all the unit changes that we are going to have to deal with. Europe uses the metric system (which by the way the US should us too); I am pretty comfortable using it for distances and area but less so with volume, so that will be one more thing to get accustom to.  They also measure temperature in Celsius, which I have to use with my work, so that’s not a problem (although my brother Blake can make some pretty compelling arguments as to why the Fahrenheit system is better, however, there are no arguments for not using the metric system). I have to be careful when writing the date because they write day/month/year instead of month/day/year (it is only confusing for the first 12 days of the month). And they don’t use pm, everything is in military time.

The red line on the corner of the building is a thermometer, it is 10ºC (50F)

Food
The food was not as different as I had expected (maybe even hoped). In fact I don’t know if I really even had an authentic Danish dish (Shannon can’t believe that I didn’t even buy a danish); I think, like America their cuisine has been greatly influenced by the rest of the world and it is hard to say what is Danish and what is not. Breakfast was probably the most unusual, I ate at the hotel and had bread with sandwich meat and cheese on it and yogurt with granola mix in, it was actually pretty good and kept me full better then cereal does at home (this meal is not so much unusual as it just seem more like lunch than breakfast).

Breakfast

Breakfast line - breads and yogurt.

Breakfast line - meat and cheese

I ate a lot of sandwiches for lunch and dinner, but I also had Chinese and Thai food. One night I bought a hotdog from a street vender and while the food was normal they served the bun and meat separate (I dipped the hot dog in a pile of ketchup and ate the bun like a roll).

Club sandwich I ordered, so good!

The salad the professor I was eating with ordered.

 Probably the most unusual part of eating was watch how they used there silverware. From what I observed, Danish people hold their fork in there left hand and a knife in there right, and they using them together with extreme dexterity that is hard to describe. Everything is cut in to neat little bites, no stabbing was necessary. This probably sounds like something silly to notice but it intrigued me to watch. I tried to imitate it but found it be more difficult than using chopsticks (although I have never really seen those used authentically and would probably be equally amazed); I would quickly become frustrated with my lack of coordination, put down my silverware, pick up my sandwich and take huge messy bites like any true American.
 
The grocery stores seem to everywhere. Not as big as in Utah, but bigger then I would have expected with the frequency I found them. I guess shopping for a several weeks at one time is not custom, rather going each day to the store is more common. One more change for us to adapt to.

One of the major grocery chains

Inside the produce department

Well I see that this is not going to be a short blog, so I thought I would post this much and do a second part later.