Elissa Goes Abroad: Marsvine, LEGO, and HC Andersen...Oh my!

So...I've been quite busy running around Denmark these past couple weeks. I've had lots to do, and have been kept very busy.

Two Fridays ago, on the 12th, I went to go see Christian and Sophie in a school production of Odysseus Rejse. Contrary to the sweltering heat from being packed into small unventilated rooms with lots of people, and the school putting the entire show together in two weeks...they did a great job! The kids looked like they were having a blast singing altered modern songs such as "What Does the Fox Say" and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," and screaming out "Odysseus!" when the time came. The sets were fun, the costumes were great, and overall it was a nice, although warm, evening.

On Sunday the 14th I spent the better part of the afternoon with another Rotarian named Egon. On this rainy day, he and his wife took me down to the harbor where we went on a "whale watch" to see if we could spot some of the marsvine. Unfortunately, the only porpoise I saw that day was the stuffed whale on the boat, and I can't say I learned anything because the entire thing was in Danish. As always, however, I found a lot of peace being on the water, even though I was quite cold, and getting to see Middelfart from a boat. It's also not every day you get to go underneath a suspension bridge, so that was pretty cool too.

After the whale watch, I went back to Egon's house and drank some tea, played his piano for a while (singing out all my favorites for the first time in a little under two months), and had lengthy discussions about art history and architecture. It was really nice to have educated discussions with someone who not only knows what I'm talking about, but knows more about it so I can learn. We talked about Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank Gehry, and Norman Foster (whose work I am much more familiar with now, and I'm a fan of...except for his design of One World Trade Center). I had a really lovely evening with great conversation (and traditional Danish dishes!)

My week was generally pretty quiet at work, and otherwise. Jeg endelig spiste rød grød med fløde! (Or, for those who don't know what that says, "I finally ate red porridge with cream!") Rød grød med fløde is the phrase that is impossible for foreigners to say (although I'd say I've gotten very close), but also a very delicious, very Danish dessert made with berries and cream.

On Thursday, Lars let me bounce from work early so I could go see the Psykiatrisk Samling at the Middlefart Museum here in the corporate campus. Because Uhrenholt is housed in a former mental hospital from the 19th Century, there is a lot of history here and that's what I went to see. It was very interesting to see all the old tools, photos, furniture, and instruments that looked like the belonged (or arguably were) in a torture chamber. PS Krøyer, famous Danish painter who I talk a little about in the last entry, was the hospital's most famous patient and was admitted three times in 1900, 1903, and 1907.According to the information pamphlet, he had previously received treatment for syphilis and was afraid that the disease would return. Because of this, he was treated with quicksilver (mercury). However, a closer examination of his pattern of illness suggests that was a manic depressive, and his exposure to mercury only made his condition worse. They had some of Krøyer's drawings on the wall in his room, and stills from a recent movie made about him. I still often wonder why insanity is linked to some of the most amazing art.

I probably shouldn't really write this, but I thought it was funny. Having forgot my camera the day I went to the museum, Lars let me borrow the company camera, and told me to return it the next day. After I went to the museum, I went down to Middelfart Strand (the beach) out by the marina to take pictures. I was standing on the pier, with the camera around my neck. I fiddled with the lens cap and ploop! into the water it went. I laughed because I would do something like that. I removed all electronics, and into the water I went. Thankfully the water was relatively shallow, and only went up to my mid-thigh, and I was able to grab the lens cap with my toes so my upper half remained mostly dry. But it was a less-than-fun ride home on the bicycle.

On Saturday September 20th, the family and myself piled into their Mazda and headed off to one of the places I was most excited to see...LEGOLAND! The morning was grey and misty, and there wasn't a lot to see as we drove through the fog towards Billund. But it lifted shortly after we entered the park, and the day was amazing! The lines were short, and I got to go on pretty much everything twice. The best one was the Ice Pilots School (or called something like that...I only know it as the BIONICLE ride, and that's what it looked like. The mechanical ride arms resembled the body components of the Toa Nuva sets). This was my favorite ride, where you basically made your own ride. You set the intensity (I went with the most intense of course) and choose the motions. I felt like I was getting whipped around like a slingshot. It was awesome. But Miniland. OOOOOOOHHH Miniland. I will forever be impressed by the complexity of the models built. Mount Rushmore, The Capital, Düsseldorf, Kennedy Space Center, Skagen, Billund Airport (with moving planes), Amsterdam, the Dong Energy Oil Rig and Wind Field (with surfacing, breathing whales) among my favorites. It was all amazing and I had a blast hanging out with the family and bonding with the kids that day.

Immediately after LEGOLAND, I hopped a train to Århus to visit Arense again. This time her friend joined us. We started evening with board games, delicious pad Thai, and Irish coffees, then we went out into the night. After being unimpressed with a few places, we settled on a bar. Arense treated me to a couple of fitting beers: One called Albani and the other called Thor, and a third one was her favorite, but I can't remember the name of that one. After those beers, a group of seven handsome Danish men found our table of three women, and they joined us at a dice game, and buying us licorice-flavored shots (which were quite delicious). Arense also discovered her brother had moved to the city, and so we met him at another bar which was famous for its cocktails. Arense picked a drink for the both of us, yet another licorice-flavored mixed drink (quite delicious), but the 20-dollar cocktail was thankfully on the house. Contrary to me saying I only wanted to be out until two, we ended up getting home closer to four...but it was a fun night.

The next morning, Arense and I ventured out into the Old City, a historic part of Århus preserved to look like it had been during the 17th century. Some of the shops had "actors" in period clothes, and some places, like the bakery, cooked goods using old-style recipes. The Old City was very very cute, and we killed a couple hours wandering about the cobblestone streets. Also part of the Old City was a 70s exhibit, still under construction. Similar to the Old City in its setup, but a couple of centuries newer, the 70s exhibit featured homes and businesses from the 70s. This included an old communal living space, another bakery, a bookstore (this included old copies of Danish books, comic books (Batman & Robin in Danish!), and yes, porn magazines), and a gynecologist office. One of the coolest parts was that they included a functional rotary phone that could call between the rooms in the exhibit.

After visiting the Old City, Arense took me to her favorite ice cream spot (really gelato) and I had a nice chocolate-chili & coconut cone. And then we proceeded a little farther to see the church, which we couldn't go inside, but then onto ARoS, the museum of art with the famous rainbow walk on top. ARoS, according to the Wikipedia entry, is one of the largest art museums in Northern Europe. It opened in 2004. It was designed by architect Schmidt Hammer Lassen, who won the design competition in 1997. Its name is a the Old Danish name of the city, but also its capitalization is a reference the Latin word for art. Due to our time constraint, we didn't get to see a whole lot of the museum itself. I'm not usually a fan of contemporary art, but most of what I saw I rather enjoyed. We saw an exhibition based on Dante's Divine Comedy and the 9 Circles of Hell called "The 9 Spaces," and saw some other rather, eh, suffocating exhibits that I don't remember who the artists were. I also got to see the famous piece "Boy" by Australian artist Ron Mueck. I'd seen his works, including this one, on the internet but it was cool to finally experience his larger-than-life piece in person. But the work was really cool, and we took a couple of laps around the Rainbow, and boy was it amazing. The Your Rainbow Panorama was added to the building in 2011. It was designed by Danish-Icelandic artist Ólafur Elíasson.

I was sad to get on the train at the end of that Sunday. It wouldn't be the last time I saw her on this trip, but it was a realization that I wouldn't get another day with my friend like this for a long time. Same thing for Christina, who I would be visiting a few days later....which brings me to:

Wednesday, Sept. 24. I took the day off of work to go visit Christina in Odense, and this was one of the only few days off she had. I had a lovely day with my friend. She first took me to HC Andersen Hus, or the house where Hans Christian Andersen was born. There was a lot of overwhelming information here, but what I found the most interesting was that his books are the ones that have been translated into the most languages, and that his grandmother did a stint in prison because she had children out of wedlock. I loved his paper cutouts and drawings, seeing all the pieces that I didn't realize were his (like The Ugly Duckling and The Emperor's New Clothes), but one of the things I liked the most of this museum was actually one quote from a diary entry they had on display. It read, "Dust and ashes he is, dead, burnt-out like the candle, there is nothing left! Oh Lord may you let us disappear completely! I have a dread for it and am now too wise-- and unhappy." I thought that was really beautiful, and just the poetry of that one excerpt alone proves the talent this man was.

For the remainder of the day we walked around Odense, visiting a number of places on the Andersen tour like the cathedral where he was confirmed (absolutely stunning piece of architecture, but the back half was hidden by scaffolding since the organ was being renovated it seemed). We saw the very exciting (sarcasm) location where his mother washed clothes, and just wandered around the city through parks looking in shops. Christina took me to her favorite sandwich shop, a cute part of town with quaint houses, and even nowhere in particular. We stopped to watch some swans, who came and posed for me before baring their scary "teeth," hissing at me, and practically chasing me backwards. It was a lovely day (experiencing the same bittersweet emotions as I did with Arense), and the rain managed to mostly stay away until I was riding my bicycle back home.

Thursday the 25th was another really exciting day. Hans, our neighbor, was taking me back to Billund to see the LEGO Idea House, the exclusive employee-only museum. Inside, I marveled at the history of LEGO, LEGO's creations, and the wonderful interior and graphic design of the museum. I am forever grateful to Henriette, our "guide" and connection into the museum, for letting me in, letting me geek out (like a LOT), and answering my questions all while evading them. Also, a mega thanks to Henriette for taking my resumes and business cards, and attempting to put me in contact with someone who could maybe put me in a job not too far from where I live. We shall see, fingers crossed, but no hopes.

I had an amazing couple of weeks that were super busy, super fun, and very exciting. Now, onto the final one.

More observations:

Less smokers
More little dogs than I see in the US
Treated as equal, not intern, in the office. My opinion matters.
Commercials on TV. They (almost) don't exist.
An observation about LEGOLAND was the difference to the Six Flags parks I've been to in the US. There wasn't any security, and you were allowed to bring in and eat your own food and drink.

I feel like there's more, but once again I can't remember. So...
Until next time!

E