Carbon Neutrality: idealism or realistic goal?

My next story for the Journalisthøjskolen is on the goal of Århus to become carbon neutral by 2030. Carbon neutrality means reducing a city's net carbon footprint to zero. The island we'll be visiting in two weeks, Samsø, is completely carbon neutral. They're the largest city in the world to become carbon neutral, though they only have 4,200 citizens.

We'll be focusing on why this goal is difficult to achieve. In the presentation we listened to a few weeks back, the presenter said the main obstacle was not government funding, which has increased exponentially in the last few years, but citizen involvement. We are prepared to hit the streets, asking citizens about how they plan to help achieve this goal, or why they don't care to participate.

We won't be able to take a trip to Copenhagen for this trip, but I found an interesting article and video about a carbon neutral building at the University of Copenhagen. Check it out.

Århus is not the only municipality in Denmark to set goals for carbon neutrality. The Sønderborg municipality also has a plan to become carbon neutral by 2029. Their plan is called ProjectZero. We'll have to see if they are finding similar problems to Århus.

More to follow...

It's so cold here, they're running out of salt for the roads

Seriously, they haven't seen this much snow in 14 years. Copenhagen is saying they'll run out of salt this week if it snows as much as is forecasted. At least it was sunny today.

Tonight I'm supposed to go have some real chili at a restaurant with some Danes. I can only imagine what this will taste like, but a bowl of it and a beer are on special for about $8.50, so hey, that's as cheap as it gets around these parts. Food is so expensive out at restaurants. Columbia, you've spoiled me with dollar burger madness and penny pitchers.

We begin our second assignment tomorrow. I don't know what the topic is or who my partner will be, but the suspense is killing me. It'll be nice to get back to work again. Also, plans to see Shutter Island tomorrow night. No spoilers please!

Speaking of movies, the school is paying for us to go see The Cove at a special engagement in a tiny indy-theater in the city. I'm excited to see a documentary making such an impact. Go Journalism! We'll be watching it with the Europe in the World class on March 3rd. A brief review is sure to follow.

For now, vi ses!

Video Blog: Making dinner with Mikkel

Mikkel and I made dinner on Friday night, and because we are journalists, we documented the process. Enjoy!

As always, it's here on Vimeo.

First Assignment: Completed

Hana and I turned in our first assignment today. I'll upload it tomorrow from the school's server, but today it was running really slowly because of all the students frantically editing before the noon deadline. It turned out just alright, not great. The subject was fine and his interview was good, but the lighting in the bar was worse than expected and the sound was a slight problem as well. Hana, for it being her first time filming and not just being the journalist, did a great job trying to think of creative shots and interesting editing styles. I felt bad that as an experienced photog and editor I took over sometimes, but she insisted she had something to learn from me. I hope that's true. I hope I was a better teacher than a bully.

For all you Broadcast J students at MU, this will amuse you. I thought of Greeley the whole time I was editing. We had shakey shots and more than one jump cut. Writing to video was difficult because the subject's girlfriend wouldn't be on camera, and she plays a rather important role. Customers in the bar yelled at us to get the camera out of the pub. "Ya make me look like a bloody alcoholic will ya?"

Greeley would have just looked at me, and said "So?" There's no excuse. I should have found a way to make the story better. I could have, thinking back. There were plenty of opportunities I missed. I can't blame it on not knowing the area, not knowing the language, having an inexperienced partner. I can only look at myself and the mistakes I made. I can only move forward and make fewer mistakes next time.

People here joke that the life of an international student is hard work, all the parties and bars. It's true, we do have so many opportunities to go crazy, and everyone is quick to point to the fact that we only have so long in this new city. It's easy to make friends and go out every night with them, because we get pass/fail grades. As long as we're not failing, we're fine. But it's so much more than that. If I miss the opportunities to make great TV, especially while I only have one responsibility, no work, no other classes, then I may as well have gone to any school. But I am going to resolve to remember that I am here to do great work, and try to make my other projects professional quality.

Video Blog: A weekend to remember

This weekend was Chinese New Year and Festelavn, the Danish Halloween. In the spirit of cultural exchange, we celebrated both. Many thanks to those who I borrowed pictures from, and all those who hosted events that made this weekend one to remember.

Or, as always, you can see it here on Vimeo.

A very cultural weekend ahead

This weekend contains several holidays or celebrations which are completely new to me. We will be celebrating them all as a class, and I'm really excited about it.

Sunday is Chinese New Year. We'll be welcoming the year of the Tiger on Saturday night with a meal prepared by our classmate, Ada, from Hong Kong. Also, she'll be teaching us to make sushi rolls, so I'm really excited to learn how to make one of my favorite all time foods. I know sushi is traditionaly Japanese, but we're having it anyway because it's delicious.

Sunday is not only Valentine's Day, which is not really celebrated by most Danes, but also Danish Halloween. Saturday night I'll be attending a costume party where we'll be breaking open a wooden barrel of candy. Back in the ''old days'' (I don't know how long ago) it was tradition to put a cat in a barrel and beat it to death, but today they just pant a cat on the outside and fill it with candy. Danish candy is for the most part the same as American candy, but black licorice is really popular.

Today is not a holiday, but just Friday, and still we are celebrating. Every Friday at 2:15 a bar in the basement of the school opens and all the students go to drink and socialize. I'm glad to see college is pretty much the same all across the world.

First Assignment

Today we began our first of five long-term story assignments. I'm paired with Hana, from the Czech Republic, and we are assigned to do a 2:30-3:00 minute long portrait of a person. Today we hit the streets of Aarhus for inspiration. The kebab stand owners were our first choice, but they didn't speak English. So we walked around a bit more, and thought of our tour guide from the City Hall tour. She was hysterical, so we thought she'd be an interesting person to film, because at least she'd be animated. She wasn't at the building today, so we walked down a street to an English pub called The Golden Lion. It turns out, all the bartenders there are foreigners, and they all speak English. Saturdays they watch a lot of football, and draw a crowd, so I suppose we'll be there Saturday too.

It's surprising the difficulties you'll find in attempting to do a story in a city where you know no one, nothing about current affairs, and don't speak the native language. Granted, most people do speak English, and quite well, but giving an interview in another language is sometimes difficult. Also, this cold will not let up. It's no fun walking around Aarhus while freezing despite heavy coats and the rest. Hana and I decided that we'll have the best knowledge of the city by Spring time, just in time for us to really enjoy.

My parents sent me an amazing care package yesterday that was awesome to see. They got me a watch with two faces, one for St. Louis time and one for Aarhus time. I got a lot of compliments on it already. But getting a package from home also reminded me of things I miss. Yesterday I stopped by a 7-11 to get change for bus faire, and I realized I miss fountain sodas. They just don't really exist here. And what soda is around is outrageously expensive. I drink a lot more coffee now.

But anyway, I'm excited to stop sitting in class all day and get out to do interviews and make packages again. It'll be nice to be back in my element in that respect, because Jørgen is a great teacher, but lectures are driving me crazy.

You say tomato, I say tomato...

The best part of exchange is meeting new people from different places who are so different, yet so much the same. For instance, even the students who are from Nordic countries still have trouble with their Danish phones or how to get around. We all have the same worries and it's so comforting when we can all talk about it.

One thing a lot of us have in common is blogs. Mostly photo students keep blogs, and they're all full of really amazing photographs. I'll link to a few of them, because they're all worth taking a look at for pictures of the sights and nights of Aarhus.

Jenny Aago's photoblog

Eve Edelheit's photoblog

Emy Fa's photoblog

Tonight is the Super Bowl, and a lot of exchange students are excited to watch it, which surprised me. The shared area at our dorm is hosting a watch party, so some students are getting together to see it. Other bars and restaurants downtown are also having "American style buffets" and the game on big screen TVs. It starts at midnight our time, so it'll be a long day tomorrow...

Video Blog: A day in the city

For more information on Denmark's plan to become carbon neutral by 2030, click here.

Video not working? Check it out on Vimeo here.

Denmark v America: Media

Yesterday we got a lecture on Danish Media. We looked at trends in print, TV and radio. The obvious decline of newspapers was of concern to the Danes too, but our lecturer pointed out that niche papers are actually doing better than others. He advocated for segmented media, ie, papers only focused on the economy, or religious issues. One such paper is Borsen, which has seen an increase in readership steadily over the past 7 years. Interesting side note, economic news in Denmark is always printed on pink paper.

But many of the similarities between Danish and American Media end there. In Denmark, there are a few major papers who are actually politically active. One such paper, Politiken, actually organized fund raisers to give money to families the Danish government is forcing to leave the country. The current administration is aiming to decrease the number of refugees in Denmark, so families from places like Iran are being asked to leave the country. Politiken launched a campaign against the government, raising money to give to those families so they could continue to live in Denmark. These kinds of involvement in public policy are argued to be "involving readers," but others say Politiken is becoming its own political party.

In TV, as previously mentioned in my post about DR, the state public service stations are actually the most popular stations in Denmark. Though Denmark has made the digital switch, and many channels are offered, those sponsored by DR or TV2 are the most popular stations overwhelmingly. Also, because commercial news is more expensive to produce than syndicated programming, there is very little competition in Denmark.

The Danish constitution provides the following statement in protecting media: "Any person shall be at liberty to publish his ideas in print, in writing and in speech, subject to his being held in responsible court of law." Similar to the first amendment, although there were some problems when TV and radio became popular news forums because the statement says "in print" and although "in speech" is included, there was still debate. Resolved, Danish TV is a lot more liberal than American TV. Both gossip tabloids and television programming are free to show naked people. Ads for prostitutes are also in some tabloids. Stories about pornography and prostitution are acceptable in normal news casts.

Mostly, journalism is facing the same issues across the world. The change to web-based citizen produced journalism is climbing rapidly everywhere. Out lecturer advocated for an approach of embracing the citizen produced content, and having the educated journalists begin to produce a more segmented, investigative, or analytical type of media, and let the uneducated produce the who, what, when, where, why stories. Either way, journalism is changing across the world.

Day One

Today was the first day at the school of journalism. All the international programs are together for the first few days of the week, getting an introduction to Danish life and culture. The majority of that today was a lesson in basic Danish....a three-hour long lesson in basic Danish. After which, everyone was so tired and angry at the teacher that some of us never want to speak Danish again. It's quite a confusing language. The teacher began the lesson by telling us that Danish is really two languages, the written and the spoken. For example: the phrase "Hvad hedder du?" (which means "What is your name?") is pronounced like "Va hetha do?" When the letter G is between two vowels, you don't prounce it. When you come across "nd" the D is silent, and "de" is pronounced like the american "the." It was a tiring three hours.

The school itself is completely concrete. It's beautiful in a way though, because it has a lot of interesting features.

There are a lot of sky lights and plants. Also, on the stairs there are ramps for people to take their bikes through the building. The walls are lined with photo projects and publications. The main area is mostly open, with branches of rooms spreading to either side. There's a big library and a cafeteria. There's also a bar in the basement, called the Friday Bar. It's open every Friday at 2:15 and there's a giant sign in the cafeteria reminding everyone of it.

My teacher, Jørgen, pronounced "Yorn" (well, almost) introduced our small group of 12 to our classroom today by lighting candles and telling us about what a cozy group we'll become. Anyone from MU knows what a stark difference this is from Greeley's B2 class.

I'm really excited to go back tomorrow for our lessons on Danish politics and current events. Being at school makes me feel like I have some purpose again. Despite the fact that I am there all day long, it's so thrilling to be part of something.