The next few weeks: an overview

This past week and the few to come will be packed with things to do, both fun and not-so-fun. Rather than painfully rambling, I'll make a timeline for reading ease.

Last Tuesday: Day One of assignment 3. Ewa and I decide, same-sex adoption it is.

Last Wednesday: St. Patrick's Day. (I'll post pictures later) Suprisingly, only really celebrated by the English, the Irish and the Americans. The Danes just came along for the ride. No one wore green to school, pinching those without was not allowed.

Last Friday: Panic. No real sources hammered out for interviews, but first real meeting produces a few promising leades.

Last Saturday: The Journalists Union throws a party at our school. Everyone attends, networks. 

Yesterday: Mikkel's 23 birthday! Dinner with Mikkel and Kim, then to the movies to see Brothers. It was a remake of a Danish film by the same name, so it was interesting to hear what Kim and Mikkel thought.

Today: Three of our four appointments for our story. So far, everything is going well. Tonight, to Heidi's Bier Bar for Mikkel's birthday with classmates.

Tomorrow: Final interview, edit all day.

Thursday: Turn in Assignment 3! Thank goodness! Dinner with Mikkel's family for his birthday. So much Danish.

Saturday: Leave for Paris!

Sunday: Arrive in Paris! Dinner with Jackie and Danny.

Friday: Goodbye Paris, hello Aalborg. Easter weekend with Mikkel's parents.

Easter Sunday night: Back to Århus. Sleeping soundly.

Photo slideshows to come.

Name Day

In other countries such as Poland and Estonia, they have a tradition called Name's Day. Every name corresponds to a day of the year, supposedly when that name was created. People celebrate them sometimes instead of birthdays. "Especially when they get old," Ewa said. She's from Poland and her name day is Christmas Eve, because her name is derived from Eve, of Adam and Eve. Gerly from Estonia had her name day yesterday.

So I must admit, I was jealous. I wanted a name day. So I searched the ever-wise Internet, and found a Web site that had all the name days. Names deriving from Michael are on September 29. Those from Margaret are July 16. Turns out, my name day is September 6. I'll expect a party this year...

Assignment three; underway

For the next assignment, we're to make a 5-6 minute piece on a current affair. We've chosen to look at gay couples who adopt children in Denmark. A year ago, it was made legal, and since there are still lots of obstacles. Recently, a conservative movement within the government has resurfaced the debate over the ability of gay couples to be married in city hall. This movement surely threatens to overturn the right of couples to adopt children. We're looking to find a couple who has or wants to adopt to interview for the next assignment. So far, we don't have one, but we have some leads and will hopefully find a great subject. We have a meeting with Jørgen today to talk about where we should go from here. More to follow on that.

Pictures from Samsoe

So the project is completed. 31 journalism students put together this website about the island of Samsoe...in one day. Enjoy it. My group did the portion on transportation.

This was the giant chess board at our hostel.

This was in a town at the north of Samsoe

Breakfast at the hostel.

Straw fight at the straw heating plant. Each bail of hay is equivalent to one barrel of oil in the energy it produces.

Samsoe: Much more than a deserted island in the middle of nowhere

Which is more than we thought when we got here. After spending a day at the Energy Academy, we saw that there is a lot going on in the minds of those who stay here all winter. Clearly, this island was made for the summer time. There are tons of beautiful beach houses and many docks, all now deserted with sad cold boats bobbing next to them. It's not warm here, or even sunny, but you can tell that this place comes alive in the summer time.

But its always sunny at the Energy Academy, where planners, artists, scientists and citizens work together to think of ways to improve the energy consumption of the island. They cultivated their fame by becoming carbon neutral, but they have much more to work on. Farming and transportation are areas of weakness that people like Malene Lunden want to work on. Her transportation project is in the early stages, but she aims to find ways to get this small island to work together and share. She envisions a future where perhaps a neighborhood buys a car together, and rent time with it, or pay a driver to take them where they need to go. Perhaps they build houses with solar panels and can plug electric cars directly into them. Maybe they will build a bank of cars that people can rent for one day at a time. On such a small island, most places are easier to walk than drive. And in an urban setting, some of the same rules apply. If people in the same apartment building shared a car, it would cost less than having one car sitting idle on the street while the tenants simply walked to the grocery store or pub that is right around the corner. The problem lies in the mentality that a car equals independence. Lunden said if we can change the minds of people that a car doesn't have to lend status or independence, we can move on a more cooperative society. She reminded us that we already share oil, and we are drastically running out.

The solution, she said, lies in giving people options and letting them take ownership. If we sold shares in a car that worked like a taxi, everyone would make money. That's the way they made the wind power work on the island. Several people own shares in the windmills, so the profits stay on the island. District heating works the same way. All 200 houses connected to the plant are also co-owners. Their heat costs the same price, but that money goes to pay off the plant, and in the long run they pay off their own energy bills. Ownership is the key to involvement; that is the only way Samsoe can function the way it does.

Pictures from the Zoo: all taken by Mikkel

Video to follow later today, but here are some of the pictures Mikkel took when we went to the Zoo in Copenhagen this past weekend.

Bear

Hungry elephant

Me watching a butterfly eat a pineapple

Lazy crocodiles

Little frog

Staring contest with a frog

Laughing camel

Angry lion

Lion family

I'm borrowing these pictures from friends with more talent than I have

Classmates at the Harbor

Girls, dancing at Friday bar

At school, open house.

Danny and I at Kurt's Mor, first Thursday of school.

Second assignment: finished...finally.

It's finished, thank goodness. Gerly and I ran into about a billion problems with this piece. People canceling on us, needing to change topics, general uncooperation by the people we were filming. All in all, I'm happy with what we produced; we found a creative way to tell news, and a more artistic approach to something I have done a million times before at KOMU and in classes at MU. Enjoy!



And I would be lying if I said you couldn't find it here on Vimeo.

New day, new project

So the CO2303 story didn't exactly pan out, so we switched focus to organic foods in Aarhus. Ecological foods are everywhere here, in every store, every restaurant serves at least one ecological item, and they're all publicized like crazy. Sometimes they're more expensive by a few dollars, other times, not at all. So we're asking why. We have a few interviews lined up, so hopefully this turns into something we're really proud of.

In other news, journalism is in a sad place when even fictional journalists are losing their jobs due to lack of interest in newspapers. Yes, that's right, in the issue hitting shelves this week, The Amazing Spiderman's Peter Parker will be losing his photography position, due to downsizing at the Daily Bugle. You can read more about it here on CNN.com.

In the final random point of the day, I've got some Danes glued to Glee. It comes on Sunday nights at 20.00 (8 pm) on TV2, but because I've been missing it due to Salsa dancing lessons with Mikkel, we're finding it online. Last night, we watched episodes four and five. Hopefully we'll be caught up by the time new episodes begin airing in April.