Job from October!

After living in Copenhagen for a year now (3 October) and being unemployed for the past 5 months, I finally managed to get a job.

I am going to work as a Higher Executive Officer (AC-fuldmægtig) at the IT University of Copenhagen. It is Denmark's smallest university (in Norway universities of this size is classified as specialised universities), only a little bit bigger than my previous employer, the MF Norwegian School of Theology.

The university is also the youngest in Denmark, it was founded in 1999 (then as an independent part of Copenhagen Business School). Most of the people that work there are young and it is an innovative milieu. Actually my colleagues will all by in their thirties and forties.

The university used to be situated not far from where we live (in North-west), but moved in 2004 to Ørestad (just south of the centre of Copenhagen). Not far away is the Faculty of Arts, University of Copenhagen. It moved into a building that is really cool. Here are some pictures of it:

The entrance area - Inside the atrium - One of the seminar rooms.

The photo to the right is by La Petite Claudine from Wikipedia Commons and the one in the middle is by IT-universitetet.

I'm looking forward to begin, and the building is awesome. For more pictures, check out: Pictures of the ITU-building.

Oslo in the Spotlight

Today one of the major newspapers in Copenhagen, Berlingske Tidende, ran a story about the new opera house in Oslo (we went there in May). Copenhagen got a new opera house back in 2005, in the harbour area (just across the Amalienborg Castle). Earlier this year Oslo also got a new opera house, also situated by the waters. I guess we might call it the "Sidney effect".

Anyway, apart from the great pictures and a summary on the history of opera in Norway, the article also writes about the renewal of Oslo. Of which the city is in dire need of. Compared to Copenhagen and Stockholm there has been a lack of milieu in Oslo.

One of the things the article mentions is that the Munch Museum is going to be moved and situated not far from the Opera. What it doesn't mention is that the area surrounding the Opera House is quite appalling (big motorway, container docks etc.). All this is about to change, and the museum is just a minor part in the plans. The entire area is to be renewed, and the road is to be turned into a new turnpike tunnel (comparable to the turnpike in Boston, I guess). A grand scheme that will add more milieu to Oslo.
Also, just mentioning, one of the landmarks of Oslo is also about to be refurbished, namely the Holmenkollen ski jump that towers above the city is to get at new ski jumping tower. A change of appearance and an attempt to put Oslo back on the map when it comes to winter sports.

Most of the time I don't miss Oslo at all, but sometimes - when reading stuff like this - I wish that I was in the middle of what is happening.

Succinct September

September is one of those months that just goes by really fast. It's one of those waiting months, and it does not waste time on us. Sometimes it just rains away, at least in Copenhagen. This September the winds have come from the east, bringing rain and cold weather from the Baltic Sea. In conclusion: Summer is over and arrived have what the Danes call "afteryear", i.o.w. autumn. Although succinct, things do happen. I will fail to mention everything, but two things might be shared. One on a national level and one on a more personal level.

Currently there is a rather funny debate in Denmark, one about a mermaid. One of H.C. Anderson's most famous fairy tales is one about a Little Mermaid, and a statue of her in the harbour of Copenhagen is the main brand of the city. Here is a picture of the the famous landmark (cc: hoangnt):


This year China hosted the Summer Olympics (boring couple of weeks, if I may add) and in 2010 the will host the EXPO in Shanghai. The Danish pavilion will include the Little Mermaid. She will be dismantled and transported (together with thousands of litres of seawater from the Copenhagen harbour) to Shanghai. Obviously she is a strong brand to bring along, but a lot of people including the Danish People's Party (the Danish nationalist party) oppose the plans. Being neutral as a Norwegian, I must nevertheless say at least the Danish plans seem to strengthen Denmark as a tourist destination. The Norwegian contribution sounds rather dull and uninspiring compared to the Danish (being politically correct as always). Where will she go? Wait and see..


Theft is also on the September menu. I'm more and more aware that some people do not heed the commandment given through the Natural Law, and confirmed in Scripture, that "Thou shalt not steal" (AV, Ex. 20). A couple of weeks ago I found that my somewhat expensive, but run down bicycle, was stolen outside our building. A bit disturbed, not asking the question "Why me Lord?", I decided that all that I could do was to find a little more inexpensive bicycle (with a better lock). So after a lot of investigation I settled for a good MTB, solid tires and a good gearing system. Perfect bliss, and happy I was.

But as evil seldom denies itself, Sunday was to give the evildoers a new opportunity. We had been at at Baptism that day, and when going home we discovered that my new bicycle was gone. This time the question was put: "Why me?" At least the insurance would cover this bike (new better lock, you see).

And it is comforting to know that Christ died for the evil-doers (Rom 5:6).

I wonder...

I wonder why anyone would toss an entire box of old bread in the park.


I wonder what the signs in Arabic in the immigrants' shops around here mean.



I wonder why my punctureproof tyres do not prevent me from actually having punctures.



I wonder why it has to rain so much in Denmark.


I wonder how every sunset can be a masterpiece of its own.

A place where you MUST smoke?

Last year in August, Denmark finally got a "clean indoor air act" prohibiting smoking in public places like workplaces, restaurants, bars etc. However, this wouldn't be Denmark if the law did not have at least a few loop-holes. For example, you are still allowed to smoke at your place of work provided that you have your own office, and remember to close the door while smoking (it's true!!). It is also allowed to smoke in smaller pubs, bars etc., provided that it is smaller than 40 square metres. That's why you sometimes see signs like the one on the (otherwise not very good) picture above: "Her må ryges", means "Here smoking is allowed".

I wonder what a Norwegian would think if he saw the sign. While Danish and Norwegian are very similar languages, there are a few things you should be aware of. The word "må" is one of them. In Danish it's main meaning is something that is allowed: "Må jeg spise nu?", means "Can I eat now?", while the same sentence in Norwegian would mean "Must I eat now?". So I guess most Norwegians would think that the sign means "You must smoke here".

And sure, Danes are pretty bad when it comes to smoking and drinking, and miscellaneous other vices (at least compared to our goodie two shoes-neigbors), but even here it is very unlikely to find a place where you must smoke. At least I would like to think so.

Childhood Memories Food

When I was a child Fridays often meant that we would have Yellow Peas Soup and Pancakes for dinner, eaten simultaneously. It may sound odd, but it's actually nice. I love the mix between the salty soup and the sweet pancakes. They also serve it in Sweden, but on Thursdays, and not simultaneously (soup first and then cream filled pancakes for dessert).

Yesterday
Although it's not a Friday I thought I'd prepare it for high tea today. So yesterday I went to the store, looked all around for the traditional yellow peas, but could not find them (found chickpeas though). I didn't give up, and after a while I found a package with yellow peas, allegedly pre-cooked, so they needed only five minutes. Happy, I returned home, thinking I didn't need to pre-soak them.


Looks perfect, doesn't? The package says: «The millers yellow peas. Boiling time 5 min. Peas for ten portions».

Today
So close to heaven, but a long way to go. After cutting all the vegetables, making the broth (alas only bouillon from the store), I opened the package of yellow peas. But, hey -.. what's this? No peas, just small yellow pellets. Shocked, not understanding what was wrong, I almost started believing that in Denmark, this is what they call peas.
Nevertheless, I added the pellets, and hoped for the best.


Weird pellets, looks like it's meant for a gold fish.

The Result
As a sceptic, you might understand why I felt cheated on, but the result looked quite nice. The soup turned yellow. Puh... at least they've added colour to this strange type of strange peas ... :-)


Not too bad, I think? I'm used to more texture, from the peas.

First thing Jan said was that he hadn't had Yellow Peas in ages. During dinner Jan told me that only people living in the countryside still eats old fashioned peas. In Copenhagen they make soup from these pellets. How convenient ... I'm a peasant ...

An afterthought: It may be that people in Copenhagen are like a friend of mine. He can't stand the peel texture of beans, lentils and peas. Clever they are, no more peeling, just use pellets. It's a perfect gift for my friend. :-)

Show me your books

When you merge two households, you suddenly realize that there are a lot of things in your home that you don't know about. Not to say that it is an entirely new experience for me - cleaning out my room in the basement when I moved last year definitely was an eye-opener in that respect. In our case we merged two collections of books (of very different size) - so now we have decided to share knowledge about our books to get better acquainted with the content of the shelves in our living room. On a regular basis we plan to take out a book and say a few words about it. What's it about? Where did I get it? Did I ever read it?... So far we have shared introductions to one book about theology and one about history. We might begin to see a pattern already :-)