Kultur Natten

Once a year, Copenhagen hosts Culture Night.  It works similarly to First Night in Northampton - you buy a button and it gets you into all the events throughout the city.  Most events began between 4 and 6 in the evening and ended anywhere from 10pm to midnight to 5 am.  A lot of the museums are open late and have special exhibits.  Lots of shops and restaurants are open late as well, and some places have special events for the occasion.

The button also gets you onto all the public transportation for free, which is a pretty big deal considering how expensive the Metro, bus and train are.  A single ride between any two zones (metro, bus, or train) is 24 DKK, or roughly $4.50 at the current exchange rate.  A single ride across 3 zones is 36 DKK, or close to $6.  A ride from my apartment to the airport, approximately 25 minutes, will cross 5 zones and would cost over $15 one-way.  Its still cheaper than a taxi, which will run $50.  A ten-ride ticket between two zones is 145 DKK, bringing the price down to $2.75 each.  Reason # 42 why everyone here rides a bike.

Our first stop was the Statens Museum for Kunst.  We wandered through the botanical gardens to get to our stop and along the way picked up a gentleman who asked if my accent was American or Canadian.  He had just flown in from Australia and hadn't heard an American accent in forever. He'd gone to Williams college for undergrad and remembered western MA fondly.  He asked if he could tag along since he didn't have an agenda, so we chatted on our way to the museum.

The event descriptions on the KulturNatten website were pretty brief, so I wasn't sure what to expect from "National Gallery staff uses UV and other technology to show the layered stories behind the final image of a work of art."  We found the starting point of the tour and I belatedly wondered if the talk was in Danish or English.  The downside to studying in an all-English program is you assume everything outside the program will be in English, too.  Oops.  There were two portions of the talk and it turned out that one of them would be in English, since the restorer was Irish and not all that comfortable with Danish yet.  We also sat through the Danish portion and asked the guide afterward if he would be kind enough to summarize in English what he had just said.  He was very generous with his time and took my friends and I through the highlights.  You can read more about the exhibit we saw here:  http://www.smk.dk/en/explore-the-art/exhibitions/illuminated/  Don't worry, its in English.

Some interior shots of the National Gallery:

This one shows where the old building ended and the new addition began, bridged by a glass ceiling several stories up.  We're still inside the building.

After the talk we wandered around a little and found a performance space where people were getting settled.  I remembered reading something about a musical performance, but couldn't remember the description.  So we settled in for a listen.  On stage were a gentleman with an electric guitar, a woman playing an electric bass and an impressive array of foot pedals, and a gentleman standing in front of the piano playing an iBook and an electric turntable (not the piano).  On the screen behind them was a very strange music video that ended just as their performance began.  Once they began playing, the screen came alive with amorphous shapes and vivid colors, just melding into each other in what we assumed was supposed to be in time with the music.  Except there was no beat. 

Only the morning after was I able to figure out who we had seen.  The guy at the iBook was Martin Hall. THE Martin Hall.  Who?  "Martin Hall began studying music at the tender age of 10. He released his first album at the age of 17, and in 1995 he received a three-year grant from The Danish Arts Foundation for his work as a composer. In 1996 Hall released the album Random Hold, which is featured in the Politikens Rockleksikon list of the 50 most influential records in Danish rock."  Down at the end I'll post some videos of his work.  If you can listen to more than 5 minutes of it, I'll totally be impressed.

Anyway...

We snuck out of the performance after 10 very confusing minutes and headed to our next stop, the Center for International Study.  They were hosting an American haunted house and offered free smores. I couldn't resist dragging my friends along since I've been feeling a little homesick for a New England fall.  

Above is Gomathi roasting a marshmallow.  Both she and Clara enjoyed their first smore, but ended up with more marshmallow on their hands then they would have liked.  Never made it through the haunted house, as the line was far too long.  But I snagged a spiced hot cider for the road.  

It was approaching midnight, so we wandered back in the direction of the metro and encountered a street artist.  He was a very talented drummer banging away on plastic buckets set up around a dolly.  He also played a plastic pig that made squeeling sounds, we think it might have been a dog toy.  He was sprinkling his act with political commentary (we think) and was a big hit with the growing crowd.  Since we know about a dozen words in Danish, we moved on.  We found a crepe truck still open and opted for some cinnamon & sugar crepes for the ride home.

Some more on Martin Hall:

This is the video that played before the live performance began, its called Dead Horses on a Beach.  I believe he composed, but didn't play or sing on this track.  You can also find it on his latest album.

I cannot find a good representation of the live performance we saw, as all the Martin Hall YouTube videos are, well, normal.  The songs are 3-6 minutes, have a beat, and he sings some lyrics.  There was none of that in the show we saw.  It was continuous...I hate to say it....noise.  It was very odd and seems like a very big departure from Hall's previous work.

Danish Stats & Oddities, Part I

Why bury the headline?  I learned the other day that 70% of Danish people cheat on their partners.  The same source also tells me 1 in 20 children are being raised by someone they think is their biological parent but is not.  Apparently a good portion of this extra-curricular activity takes place during the holidays, which the Danes celebrate with vigor.  Scheduling starts in October and you can expect to have multiple holiday meals with your friends, co-workers, and your family.  Office parties are notorious for a little fun on the side, should one be so inclined.  Supposedly Vegas got their saying from Danish office parties.

The Danes are the second tallest people in the world after the Dutch.  Men in the Netherlands stand an average (yes, average) of 6'2" while men in Denmark stand an average of 6' even.  American men in comparison stand an average of 5'9".  My bed, while a single, is the longest bed I've ever slept in.  And the toilets?  My feet don't touch the floor.  Its hard to be 5'4" in Denmark.  Don't even get me started on buying pants...

Speaking of toilets, many of them are co-ed.  In a small doctor's office where there is a single bathroom, this is, for an American, expected.  I was surprised, though, to find it the case on campus as well.  When you open the bathroom door, you enter a vestibule with sinks and  mirrors and several more doors.  Each inner door closes off its own room with a toilet, mirror, sink, and hand dryer.  Totally fine if you have this knowledge going in.  A little shocking if you think you've walked into the ladies' room only to see two guys primping in front of the mirror.

Men and their hair!  Men here can spend hours and whole bottles of hair product getting ready in the morning.  It must look like they care too much and not one bit, all at the same time.  Some guys wear it short, others a little longer, always neat.  By contrast, there is only one acceptable women's hair style in Denmark - up and sloppy.  Women don't use hair spray or curing irons or even blow driers it would seem.  And after a week of riding my bike through the city, I completely understand why.  Unless you have a short, shellacked do, its never going to stand up to the wind & rain you're likely to experience on your morning bike ride to work.

Ah, the bikes.  This will have to be a post all its own.  Or, more likely, a 12 part series.

Money.  The unit of currency is the Kroner, or crown.  There are 100 ore, or ears, in a kroner.  There are 50 ore coins as well as 1, 2, 5, 10, and 20 kroner coins.  There are 50, 100, 200, 500, and 1000 kroner bills, each a different sized rectangle.  So how do I buy a box of cereal that costs 29.95 kr?  I have two options.  If I pay with coins, the amount is rounded up to 30 kr.  If I pay with a credit or debit card, the amount charged is exactly 29.95.  A little odd, yes, but think about gas signs in the US.  A gallon costs $3.89 and 9/10ths.

And taxes are included with all prices advertised.  If I'm in the supermarket and I see a box of tea for 17 kr, I know that's what I'm paying.  If I only have 100 kr on me, I can add all the items in my basket in my head and know I'm going to have enough cash.  Several of my classmates were stunned to learn this is not how it works in the US.  They all focused on one point - "So, you go to the store and the price on the shelf is not the price you pay?  How do you know they're not cheating you?"  I tried to explain that its all automated, it has to be considering each category of product can have its own tax rate.  But they still thought it was a complete scam.  And then a Canadian brought up paying less for things when you have cash vs. credit card, or negotiating price with smaller shops and that's when the Portuguese accountant's head exploded.

Weekends

I've only been here a little over a month, but I already have a typical weekend.  

Friday

Friday night found a group of us sitting on a classmate's boat chatting and having a few drinks.  Frank is a sailor and, rather than rent an apartment in town, he opted to buy a small boat and live in the harbor for the year.  I won't envy him when winter sets in.  We had burgers at the marina's restaurant.  They only had one burger option - it came with bacon, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and some kind of special sauce.  The thing I found odd was that they didn't ask me how I wanted it done.  When I asked the waiter about this, he said they all come out medium.  His version of medium was pretty close to my version of well done.  My new phone was having navigation issues, so I waited until someone else was leaving so I could follow them back to school.  Biking from the harbor to campus took about 40 minutes.  I think I've spent more time on a bike in this last month than I have in the last 15 years.

Saturday

Saturday morning I made my way to the Forum, a convention center in city center.  For this weekend only it was hosting a sample sale.  Several designers had clothes & shoes at a serious discount.  

Even on sale, clothes are still pretty pricy unless I'm shopping at H&M.  Typical shirt ran about $40 and shoes started around $100.  Some of the stalls were selling used clothes & shoes, which seems to be a popular thing here in Denmark.  I stopped at a flea market last weekend and at least 60% of the booths were just used clothes & shoes.  It just wasn't the same without Mom.

I had taken the metro two stops East to the Forum because I was afraid I would buy more than would fit on my bike.  So when I stepped out of the metro after shopping with only one bag, I stopped into the Fotex, my favorite supermarket.  Stores are open in Copenhagen M-F 9-4 or, if you're lucky, 9-5 or 6.  They're open Saturday from roughly 10-2 or 4.  They're also open the last Sunday of the month and, as we approach the holidays, more and more Sundays in the month.  I was hosting brunch the next day, so I knew I needed to get my supplies on Saturday.

Sunday morning I cleaned & rearranged furniture so I could host our weekly brunch for the MBA students on the graduate floor of the building.  I made french toast, though I couldn't find maple syrup to save my life.  Turns out agave syrup works in a pinch.  Tetyana, from Russia, contributed cheeses - mozzarella and feta.  Gomathi, from India, made curry and home-made roti.  Clara, from Portugal brought a fruit salad she had made the day before.  Kris, from the UK, made bacon in his flat.  Iryna, from Canada, contributed the coffee, and Hrafn from Iceland brought the OJ.  Frank (of Frank's boat fame), from the Netherlands, was invited since he had been nice enough to host us on his boat.  He brought himself.

After brunch, a few of us biked to the football pitch (soccer field) where there has been a weekly pick-up game between current MBA students and a handful of alumni.  Iryna doesn't have a bike yet so she caught a ride on the back of Frank's.  She's heard a rumor there's a police auction where you can buy a bike for as little as $35.  She's going to check that out on Tuesday.

The football pitch is in the shadow of a stadium where the pros play.  I went in the hopes that someone would explain the rules to me, but it turns out they don't really play with rules, so those of us not playing served as the cheering section.

When the football match ended, most of us went back home to read for Monday's Management Accounting class.