Straight From the Horse's Mouth/Direkte Fra Hestens Mund

Since B is the one having exciting adventures, he's just going to tell you about them himself.

("What?" you say. "Creeping about in the cellar isn't exciting? What about the terrible thrill of will-it-fit on an epic scale? My adrenaline is already pumping!"

Well. There's exciting and then there's exciting.)

So, direkte fra Danmark... B!

"As you would probably imagine, lots has happened since I arrived here in Århus. I finished my first full week of work, moved into my summer apartment, did paperwork, made lots of trips to my bank, and watched Denmark’s World Cup game in a bar full of excited Danes.

First off, the apartment. I got to move in earlier than expected, which turned out to be last Sunday. I like it a lot! It has a very nice feel to it, and is very conveniently located. I’m two doors down from a bakery, there’s a little grocery store within a couple of blocks, and a really nice forest a very short walk away. It’s about 15-20 minutes’ walk from the University too.

The street. See the bakery?

The forest.

Work has been pretty good as well. I spent the week mostly reading and getting up to speed on what is going on around here. I got my new computer on Friday, so I feel like I can forge ahead on getting my data analysis set up now. I have two different projects to get going on, while hopefully making time for some leftover stuff from Berkeley as well.

The work.

There’s a pretty major effort here to make foreigners feel welcome. There’s an official government-run social group for internationals, and an informal equivalent as well. I signed up for both, and yesterday went on my first event with those folks. It was at a bar in the city center, to watch the Denmark-Cameroon World Cup game. Now, this being my first experience watching a World Cup game in that kind of setting I was really hoping for a good game and, more importantly, a Danish victory. Cameroon’s early goal really knocked the enthusiasm out of the crowd, but Denmark came back bravely to win it 2-1. Very exciting. There was lots of singing (there are apparently a number of different songs that one should sing when watching the Danish national team play – see this video for the importance of singing in international soccer http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3778206540494888107#)."

Wow. Look at how much this expat has learned already! I, E, am tremendously impressed--did anyone else notice he can type fancy Danish letters now? And I vow to find a video of Danish soccer songs to share with you as soon as possible.

Til then, hej hej!

Grade A Grey Days

Well, the first big day has come and gone.

B has already flown away to Aarhus. He's there right now! So far he says it's fantastic, despite the rain. In fact, he's already made a mark on the Danish social scene, spoken real Danish to real live Danes, and found a lead on an apartment! Here's B--


And here's Aarhus.



But the prediction is for more cool, damp weather, so we're also posting a sunny shot from here in Berkeley. The rat-bears say "Hej!"



Of course, it's pretty cool and damp here too, at least in the mornings. Seems like fog must be the Daring Duo's Destiny.