Proud

Today, I am proud of myself. The main street art web site in Aarhus asked if they could post my documentary on the news portion of their web site. Because they are non for profit, I said yes. The woman who runs the site told me that it was the best documentary she's seen on street art. I am proud of myself.

You can see it linked on their site here: http://www.gadentaler.dk/street-news.html

I checked the video on my Vimeo site and I have about 300 hits in five days. If you want, you can watch it here.

The final two weeks

So I'm not down to two weeks yet, but for intent and purpose I am. I am looking at the last few things I still need to do here in Århus, and trying to get everything in order for my departure. Today was the final exam for my class. Tomorrow we just have viewing of stories and feedback, after which I will make some changes to my documentary and re-post it on Vimeo.

This weekend I will be in Grenå with Mikkel's family at a cabin. I'm not sure what all we'll be doing, but I'm sure there will be lots of football and sitting in the sun. It won't be warmer than probably 15 (60 degrees) but the sun will be out I hope. Also, we are bringing a Wii, so that will provide some entertainment. I'm baking some "American" chocolate chip cookies on Thursday to bring along. I have yet to find chocolate chips in this country, so I suppose I'll be mashing up a chocolate bar? I realize this will not be the same, but close enough.

We'll return to Århus Sunday night and leave promptly at 6 am the next morning for Berlin. Five in the car for seven and a half hours should be a good time! Oh well, it's much cheaper than flying and I don't have to worry about bringing liquids on my person. Downside: no free baby cans of Cola Light. But we'll have an entire week in Berlin so if anyone has recomendations they would be strongly appreciated. After the street art documentary, I am excited to see the work in Berlin because I found through research that it is a very large city for street art. I will be sure to take pictures.

After I get back I will only have a few days left in Århus. I will need to pack up my room and make sure my bags aren't too heavy. I've already made calls in STL to get my serving job back for the summer, so besides the jet lag, everything will be taken care of before I leave.

But I'm not saying goodbyes yet. There is still work to do and lots of time to enjoy.

There's a beach in Århus?

Yep.

The water is so cold!

Lots of people were out boating.

We had some tunes.

We played some games.

The beach here is really nice. From the brief time I've seen the East Coast of the United States, that's what it reminds me of. It gets warm enough in the day to lay out on blankets, and there are places to grill in the evening. Because of how far north we are, the sun sets about 10:30, so it's light for a very long time. We can go to the beach at 4:00 PM and it's still enough time to get a tan.

A Danish delight

So I've lamented the liver paste, pickled beets and mackerel with mayonnaise, but there is one Danish specialty that I am crazy about: Vaffel. Vaffel is a special kind of ice cream cone. Start with an extra large waffle cone. Add two scoops of any flavor ice cream. Top with soft serve ice cream, then add a scoop of strawberry whipped cream. To top it off, add a Floedbolle (A marshmallow on top of a cookie covered in chocolate and coconut.) The Vaffel is a huge ice cream treat, and costs about $4.50. Not only could this be an entire meal, but it will more that satisfy even the largest sweet tooth. Last night after dinner I had a Vaffel that I will never forget.

It might not be warm, but it certainly looks nice

The city is beginning to look so much friendlier. The sun is breaking through the clouds more days than not, and despite highs of 9 and 10 C (50 F) the sun makes everything look better. The trees are finally in bloom and it looks like there is life in Aarhus. Street parties and long days mark the beginning of a warmer season, though the forecast doesn't agree. I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever see 20 C. (70 F) The Danes laugh at me for complaining so much about the cold, but at the same time I know they wish it were warmer too. I've got a "camping" trip planned with the Linneman Johannson family at the end of May and I know they are all hoping for highs above 20. I put camping in quotations because they are renting a cabin with electricity and running water, so it's really more of a weekend away than anything else. I'm hoping it will be warm enough to spend the days outside. But regardless of how the forecast turns for the next few weeks, my family has reminded me that I only have 4 and a half weeks left of my stay. They have been counting the days, though my mother has always advised against that practice. I suppose sometimes it's forgivable.

It's warm enough for ice cream. I love this little shop on Mejlgade in Aarhus.

But not to forget that I still have a lot to get done in the following weeks. The documentary is in full force, and I have had some amazing filming opportunities. On Thursday an artist named Nicoli took me around the city and showed me hundreds of examples of street art, graffiti, paste up and tagging. He told me about the history of the different factions of the street art community and what the laws dictate as far as each type goes. He pointed me in the direction of the best people to talk to, and even some artists who now produce gallery shows. Hopefully this insight will be enough to produce a good story. Despite how unorthodox it is, I can tell the filming and editing experience I'll gain is invaluable. Doing a story in an environment that makes me uncomfortable is only training me for the million more times this will happen in my career.

Example of commissioned street art 

Speaking of uncomfortable, I was lucky enough to be invited along with some paste-up artists as they went out one night to mount their work. I know paste-up is illegal, but it's about as punishable as littering. A fine, a slap on the wrist and a "please go home," is the worst you can expect from getting caught. But even so, heading out in the middle of the night with people who are breaking the law can be scary. Having this experience though is the best training there is for a journalist. Knowing how to take precautions and when to leave are skills best taught through experience. Nothing at all happened when we went out on Thursday night, and the artists were very kind in speaking English for me the entire time. That's the thing about Denmark, everyone is really nice when it counts.

This week I'll be trying to get appointments with city council members, gallery artists, companies who clean graffiti and a few more interviews with the street artists. In the end, I aim to tell a story of a subculture that is greatly misunderstood and largely passed off as low life degenerates. It's laughable that I met these 20 somethings in an apartment, as they were drinking coffee and agreeing that they wanted to be done not long after midnight because they had class in the morning. Most paste-up artists are actually university students with jobs and life ambitions. I'm not aiming to defend them; they are breaking the law and vandalizing, but I still find their story interesting and worthy of being told.

Anyway, that's about all for now. Happy Mother's Day Mom!

A weekend in Nordjylland

This weekend Mikkel and I went to visit his family in the northern part of Denmark. The family had a party for two of Mikkel's cousins, Emil and Sofus, who are twins. Emil was confirmed and Sofus was "non-firmed" as they called it. Either way, the whole family got together to sing them songs and give them gifts. Their home is on a beautiful farm, and I even got to see some chickens and horses.

There was food for hours, and guests wrote songs about the twins and passed around the lyrics for everyone to sing along. This is apparently a really common tradition for most big celebrations like milestone birthdays, and confirmations. Luckily, I don't read Danish so I was able to just hum along. 

Earlier in the weekend, Mikkel and I took his niece and nephew to the Zoo for an afternoon. Jannik and Alberte were really excited to see the polar bears, so that was our first stop. After that we wandered through all the animal exhibits and even got to pet a pregnant goat. Near the children's zoo, there was a tree with pacifiers hanging from it. When I asked why, I was told it's some kind of tradition for children to tie their "sutter" (binkies) to the tree when they're ready to give them up. Alberte was not.

But we also got to see the harbor near Aalborg. We saw boats and ate ice cream. Though it's May, it's still surprisingly cold (in the low 50s) and very windy. Nevertheless ice cream is always a good idea.

All in all, a weekend full of people speaking Danish, eating Danish food and watching Danish television can be difficult for a foreigner to get used to. Sometimes it's hard to ask for someone to pass the salt or find the correct button on the remote control. But part of the cultural exchange is getting used to being uncomfortable. It's an empowering feeling to know you can get along without the comfort of understanding everything around you. It's a comfort you probably don't even know you enjoy. But all in all, there are some languages everyone speaks: laughing, eating, and enjoying each other's company.

My Usual Lunchtime Rant

I understand there's a great importance to allowing yourself to open up to the culture where you live. I tried the liver pate, I've slept with the wierd flat pillows and even forgotten how to drive a car. But one thing I just can't live with is the sandwiches. What would I have to do to get a turkey sandwich in this country? Apparently, kill someone. Danes hate turkey. It's so dry they say. This coming from people who slice cold meatballs and use that instead of lunch meet. I understand its not fancy to just have a few slices of deli meat with a slice of cheese and some mustard, but can we skip the strange beet sauer kraut or sliced eggs with tiny shrimp? This country loves a piece of rye bread with sliced hard boiled eggs topped with baby shrimps and mayo. You know, it's not bad... I just miss a turkey club. There is also rarely a place to buy deli sliced turkey in the supermarket. Even if you find it, it's 6 slices for 5 dollars. Danes never put more than one slice of meat on a sandwich. They also love mayonaise. There is mayo on most sandwiches and always offered with pizza. I'm not sure why.

Other strange food facts...
- Light beer here is light in alcohol.
- Cola, Doritos and other snack foods are sometimes categorized as 'Original American Flavor.'
- No ice in drinks.
- 7-11s have no fountain soda machines.
- 'Toast' is not just bread, but a pressed ham and cheese sandwich on white bread.
- Danes have never heard of bread bowls.

Anyway, now that I've been dreaming of an American lunch all day, I'll get back to my Danish day.

Documentary: It's on

So I'm coming nearer to the end of my time in Denmark, and the final project is all that's left to do. I've decided to center my project around a street art school called Frontløberne. It's an art school where students are free to try all different kinds of projects. My overall story will be on street art and grafitti. I want to look at this subculture and the artistic aspect of it. Moreoever, I want to see what these art students have to learn and if they get a degree, what does one do with a degree in street art?

This weekend Frontløberne had a street art party and painted a lot of walls around the school. I got to watch and talk to people and even got some footage. It was a nice enough day out, but it just won't warm up, so everyone is still wearing coats and scarves. I'll be making a documentary that is hopefully between 15 and 20 minutes long. I'm working alone and for most of the time I will be using a small handheld camera. I anticipate there being some difficulties along the way; trying to work with people who are vandalizing isn't exactly the best for video. But I'm sure we'll work something out.

As the project moves along, I'll be getting coaching from my teachers and feedback from friends. I'll need a lot of support and focus, because making such a long piece could prove to be challenging. Luckily, we have more than five weeks to finish the project. For now, more research and more filming.

Here goes nothing...

Stories finished this week

Here are the two stories I had to work on this week. First is a portrait of a Greenpeace recruitment worker and the second is a one-minute preview to the documentary topic I've chosen for the final project. I'm not as proud of the Greenpeace story as I have been of other projects, but you can't win them all. The only critique of the preview is that there are a lot of shakey shots, but the point was to be artful and tell a story without words. Unfortunately, Blogger is not letting me post videos right now, so until I figure out why, here are the links on Vimeo.

Greenpeace

Art

Danish Drinking Culture

In Denmark, it's pretty common to drink beer at lunch. We sell it in our school cafeteria, and most schools and some businesses have Friday Bars, a bar open only Friday, for staff members or students to come together and drink. Ours opens at 14.15 or 2:15.  Most school events have also been celebrated with free beers, and Schnapps at celebratory meals is common. The drinking age is vertually non-existant, though I think one must be 16 or 18 before buying hard alcohol in stores. Most people I met here were drunk for the first time when they were 11 or 13.

At the Carlsberg Brewery in Copenhagen, the management stepped in to limit the amount of drinking at work. Now there are no beer vending machines and the only time and place employees can buy beer is at lunch in the cafeteria. Workers went on strike. You can read the article here if you want further information.

The Danish perspective is that they drink more and more often than pretty much any other country. On numerous occasions I've had teachers, classmates and even people I've interviewed ask "so we drink a lot here, don't we? I mean, it must be pretty different." And not that I'm proud to do so, but I think back to tailgates and downtown Columbia bars, and say "No, it's really no different from college life back home at all."

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.

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.

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: 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.

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.

In Århus

At a public library actually. My dorm doesn't have an internet connection that I can tap into yet, and so here I am. Århus is cold and kind of big. My dorm is the same way. The people who live with me are lovely. There are 15 of us on the floor, and we share a massive kitchen. Last night we had a common dinner, where one person cooked for everyone, and then a meeting to talk about kitchen rules, money paid for shared items and parties. We're having one in the next month.

I don't think they know it, but I'm the youngest person there. Everyone else is 23 or 24 or even a little older, but last night they said they thought I was 23, so I suppose it doesn't matter.

I got my Danish phone finally. It's a fairly new model, on loan from Kathrine's dad. The phones here are small. Very few people have iPhones or touch screens or blackberries. Everyone has a small compact basic phone. I'm really OK with that. I like that aspect.

Last night I took my first bike trip through Århus. Two other dorm mates of mine took me to the Student House, a University owned building in the city with a cafe and bar and other student meeting places. It was a long, cold ride, but I am glad I went. I'll be getting a bike soon.

All is well otherwise. I'm attempting to meet up with some other students from my program, but it's proving to be difficult because no one knows where anything is. Not all of us have bikes or bus passes or any sense of direction, so we'll see how this turns out...

Video Blog: I'm actually going to do one.

Enjoy. If you're having trouble you can view it here on Vimeo.

PS: I know it's totally cheesy, but I had fun making it. More professional videos will come soon.

Finalizing Plans

So the flights are booked! My dad was awesome enough to allow me to use his frequent flier miles to take this trip. I'm leaving January 21, STL to Dallas, Dallas to London, London to Copenhagen...31 hours later I'm there! I'll be meeting Katherine in Copenhagen, then to Aarhus a few days later. Visa application gets sent in this week, and I have two orientations to go to: Health and Safety and Pre-Departure. Hopefully the latter will let me know what I need to bring as far as apartment stuff. I really hope I don't need to bring bedding...it's so bulky. I'm going to try and be a minimalist while packing, but knowing me...and the fact that it's a five-month trip, I'll probably fail on a large scale. Oh well. (If you've got tips for packing for long trips, PLEASE leave them in the comment section.)

For Christmas I'm asking for a flip video camera, so I can add some video to my blog. I'd love to share as much of the experience as possible, and hopefully I can add at least a few "home video" style posts. So watch out for that. I'm also tweeting about my preparations, so you can follow the hashtag #Denmark2010 for other updates. (I'm a huge nerd.)

On a completely unrelated note: How 'bout them Tigers? Sorry KU, better luck never.