dot dk | An American in Denmark

The Dollar Decline

November 8, 2007 2:51 pm // 1 Comment

The US dollar is taking a beating. It’s been on a steady decline for two years, and was recently surpassed by the Canadian “loony”. It’s at record lows against the Euro. Even the Mexican peso is at a seven year high against the dollar.

On the day I moved to Denmark, it took 6.28 Danish crowns to buy a dollar. Today it’s today 5.10 — almost a 20% difference. Given this, some of the prices I talked about earlier here have changed, especially compared to February 2006, when I got here.

For example, a Big Mac meal is now $9.21 in Copenhagen (it was $7.48). A large glass of beer runs about $9.80 in the popular parts of town (it was $7.96), and is $7.45 at my favorite cafe (it was $6.05). And gas is $7.43 a gallon here now (it was under $5.43, but part of that increase is just higher gas prices).

Posted in: Denmark, The US

Welcome! But don’t take your coat off

November 5, 2007 7:54 pm // 2 Comments

There’s an election on Tuesday, and Copenhagen is plastered with campaign posters. Many of these posters are targets of…umm… creative alteration, but none more so than the Dansk Folkeparti posters. In fact it’s rare to see one that hasn’t been somehow abused.Â Apparently the vandalism is so widespread that the party had to replace most or all of them. If they did, I certainly didn’t notice, probably because the vandals quickly soiled the new ones.

I have mixed feelings about this vandalism. On the one hand there should be freedom of speech, and a party should be able to run for office without having posters that they pay for ruined. On the other hand, it’s pretty funny.

Posted in: Denmark, Politics

Min nye cykel (my new bike)

October 25, 2007 10:27 am // 1 Comment

I’ve been wanting a new bike for a while now. Not because I don’t already have two good bikes, but one is too fancy to be left outside, and the other needs some serious work after being ridden hard all summer and has brakes that fade and squeal when they get wet. Besides, it’s always good to have a backup, in case one bikegoes flat,gets stolen, or whatever. I looked for a used bike, but it turns out that fall is a good time to buy a new one, as every bike store is desperate to sell bikes.

I wanted a “winter bike” — one with internal gears and internal brakes. Neither of these two things are frequently seen in the US, but they’re pretty common in Denmark because bikes are ridden all year and the winters are wet. I also wanted a mountain bike. although I love my city bike, sometimes I want to hop a curb or climb a short set of stairs, and my city bike doesn’t really like it when that happens.

Posted in: Bikes, Denmark, Pictures

Ben and Heather

October 24, 2007 6:39 am // Leave a Comment

My youngest brother Ben and his wife Heather visited last week. Having just started a new job, I couldn’t take the week off, so I mostly saw them in the evenings. I did take one afternoon off, and took them up to HillerÃ¸d to see Frederiksborg Palace.

Loyal readers may recall that Lisbeth and I stumbled on this palace by accident back in June. This time, however, I took a much closer look, both at the garden, and of the palace itself.

Posted in: Denmark, Personal, Pictures

From 79,000 to 16

October 17, 2007 11:18 am // 4 Comments

September 28th was my last day at Microsoft.

I resigned after taking a job as a “Senior IT Consultant” with a small Danish company called Codehouse. It’s small. 16 employees. It’s over 5,000 times smaller than Microsoft, with its mind-boggling 79,000.

Codehouse specializes in providing custom web solutions for large customers. In other words, big companies need big web sites, and Codehouse sets these sites up. They don’t do the content — they set up an infrastructure that the big company can then use to add and maintain content on their site.

Posted in: Denmark, Personal

Dublin

September 19, 2007 8:39 am // 4 Comments

Lisbeth and I went to Dublin earlier this month for four days. She was attending a class at the Microsoft Dublin campus, and I just tagged along for the fun of it. Neither one of us had been to Ireland before, and we were looking forward to, among other things, hearing Irish accents and drinking some Guinness.

For the weekend we stayed at Trinity College, which rents some of its dorm rooms out during the summer break. It’s a really nice campus in the heart of the city, so it’s a fantastic place to stay.

One thing that surprised me about Dublin is that all the public signs are both in English and in Gaelic. I thought Gaelic was pretty much dead, but apparently there is a movement to keep it alive. In fact, in Western Ireland, English town names have no legality in government documents or survey maps, and English has been banned from use on road signs.

Posted in: Pictures, Travel

Dansk Folkeparti

August 27, 2007 1:05 pm // 4 Comments

There is an ultra-conservative party in Denmark called Dansk Folkeparti, or “Danish People’s party”. Their primary concern is the Muslim population — mostly focusing on keeping them out. This party was co-founded by Pia KjÃ¦rsgaard (that’s her in the poster), who is… notoriously hardcore. Here’s an ad for the party.

These are both in NÃ¸rreport station. The second has creatively altered by, no doubt, some of the many Danes that are embarrassed by the party. The poster says, “Solidarity – we stand firm for our Danish values”, but the quotes from party members reveal a bit more than just protecting values. In fact several party individuals have been taken to court for making racist comments. Here’s a classic Dansk Folkeparti quote:

“We know the problem lies in those Muslim groups that come from the Middle East, and that other immigrant groups are harmless. So if Denmark shall not lock itself in totally, we have to distinguish between ethnic and religious groups. In fact I mean simply Muslims from all countries and not just in the Middle East.”

There are more quotes here.

There’s also a pretty good description of the Danish immigration issue as seen from an American perspective here. Here’s an excerpt:

“As an American, I tend to look at immigration as a long-term phenomenon. We’ve been through it repeatedly. Danes have not. They’re anxious. DF represents the sharpest and ugliest articulation of their anxieties.”

Posted in: Denmark, Politics

Gefion fountain, and yet another mermaid

August 12, 2007 9:04 am // 2 Comments

Gefion fountain was donated to Copenhagen by Carlsburg brewery to celebrate their 50th anniversary in 1897. It was completed in 1908, and depicts the mythical story of the Norse goddess Gefjon, who was told that she could keep as much land as she could plow in a day and a night. So naturally she turned her sons to oxen, and…off she went.

The statue is located not far from the Little Mermaid statue, which in turn is not far from “the genetically modified mermaid” — a sort of cubist version, which is shown in the third picture. Here’s a picture of her before she was placed at Longelinie in 2006.

Posted in: Denmark, Pictures

Mermaids, diamonds, and kayakers

August 2, 2007 9:45 am // Leave a Comment

The Little Mermaid statue is one of Copenhagen’s biggest tourist attractions, but I haven’t met any Danes that are proud of it. In fact, judging from its long history of being vandalized, it’s safer to say that the Danes are embarrassed by it. (There are plans to move the statue further out into the water, for her own safety.)

Yesterday I was in the area, and noticed a new mermaid. This one is…bigger, and…considerably prouder. The original one actually looks embarrassed in comparison. Maybe this is a statue that the Danes can be proud of. But on the other hand, it’s supposed to be the “little mermaid”, not the “big, proud, and busty mermaid”. Still, I doubt this one will be decapitated or blasted with dynamite.

After that I took some pictures of the Royal Library, or “Black Diamond” building. It’s in Copenhagen, on the waterfront facing Christianshavn and Islands Brygge.

From the same place, I captured some passing kayakers. The last picture is an example of some of the modern office buildings on Christianshavn.

Posted in: Denmark, Pictures

Arson update

July 31, 2007 7:49 pm // Leave a Comment

Restoration is underway on Lisbeth’s building after an arsonist set a fire in the back stairwellÂ earlier this month. Here’s a picture of the fire, the aftermath, and the canopy that’s in place now.