Dansk avisen

I had no idea when I chose Denmark to study abroad in that I would land here in the middle of the most exciting time for newspapers here in many decades.

They call it the newspaper war, a catchy enough title to give those of you who don't really care about newspapers some idea of how important the situation is.

And through DIS, I've had the chance to learn quite a bit about the war and to hear things I otherwise wouldn't It's fascinating to me, and I'm sad that I will miss the conclusion of this war because I am leaving in December.

*Sources for this are: Sune Aagaard and Søren Jørgensen of Kontrabande, editors at Politiken and 24Timer, and my own observations*

Summary: Background on the Danish newspapers, and an overview of major newspaper developments since the announcement by an Icelandic media conglomerate that it would start a free daily newspaper to be delivered to people's homes in Denmark. Then, an overview of what caused the war and its long-term effects. Also, a look at what some newspapers' goals are for surviving the changing face of newspapers.

And they say Denmark's situation is just a test market for what will happen in the rest of Europe and the world.

It's long. But hopefully interesting.

Background and Recent Developments

Denmark has three national newspapers: Jyllands-Posten, Politiken and Berlingske Tidende. J-P and Politiken actually merged about five years ago, but are different politically and though they are owned by the same (Danish) foundation, their content is very different (so I hear...obviously, I can't read them). Berlingske Tidende is the country's oldest newspaper, as old as the American constitution, and was owned by a Danish foundation until around five years ago, when it was sold to a Norweigan company. Just in the past couple of months, it was sold to Mecom, a British media giant owned by David Montgomery, who fancies himself the next Rupert Murdoch. Each of the three papers has a circulation between 100,000 and 120,000.

The last newspaper to launch did so over 50 years ago, except for a daily newspaper that printed for about a month a year or two ago before it ran out of money.

But in February, the Icelandic company 365 Media Scandinavia announced a radical plan that no one believed to launch a free daily newspaper - to be delivered to people's doorsteps. Its expected circulation is around 750,000 [Denmark has two free "commuter" newspapers, MetroXPress and Urban, which are distributed at train stations here in Copenhagen -- MetroXPress is owned by a Swedish company that produces a similar product in many countries, including the US, and Urban is produced by Berlingske. They have circulations of around 350,000.]

Reaction to this announcement was strong. Danish newspapers aren't used to competition, and nobody expected the series of events that happened over the next several months.

Politiken, a leftist paper, announced in the spring a format change that I learned today had been in the works since December - to put all "news" on the Internet and use the newspaper for analysis and insight and commentary. More on this later, our class took a field trip to Politiken today and learned about what they are doing.

The Icelandic company also announced it would start a news agency, like a wire service, that would compete with Denmark's news agency, Ritzaus Bureau.

J-P/Politiken announced in June they would start a free daily with home delivery called 24Timer (24 Hours). They had been planning this for several months, and began hiring people in April, with about 1/3 the staff from J-P and Politiken. This announcement shocked the Icelandic 365 Media, who were not expecting competition.

Then 365 Media announced it would start a distribution service jointly owned with the Danish national Post Office, which will eventually somehow be in charge of delivering ads. (I admit, my understanding of the distribution aspect of newspapers is fuzzy, but I do know that J-P/Politiken and Berlingske have a joint distribution service, run by subcontractors, which has its own problems...more on that in a later post.) This plan was investigated by anti-trust authorities, who just ruled two or three weeks ago that it was legal. Basically, what they will do, and what 24Timer aims to do as well, is to start distributing ads to these households as well as the newspapers.

In July, Berlingske Tidende announced it would change from a broadsheet format to a tabloid format. (In non-newspaper-speak, broadsheet is the big ones, like the New York Times or The State, and tabloid format is like the Free Times or the National Enquirer, though it has nothing to do with content.) This is huge. One of the most trustworthy, reliable newspapers was changing its entire brand and image.

In August, 24Timer actually launched, trying to take the new ad market before Nyhedsavisen, the Icelandic paper, launched, which it is supposed to do October 6. Nyhedsavisen, by the way, literally means New Newspaper...creative, huh?

David Montgomery, just shortly after he bought Berlingske, announced for the first time that Berlingske would also start a free daily. From his announcement of this to the launch of Berlingske's paper, Dato, took one week. One week to design a newspaper, pull together a staff from other Berlingske papers, find a distribution company, etc. They had barely any ads at first, and it's estimated they will spend DKK 200-300 million in a year. [The current exchange rate is about 5.8 kroner to the dollar. You do the math.]

MetroXPress then launched an afternoon edition of its paper -- now commuters have something to read on their way to work and something different to read on the way home.

Right now, the newspapers are throwing money at the free dailies. They are bleeding money. The current estimate, which an editor at 24Timer wouldn't confirm, is that they are spending about DKK 1 million every day. They are not thinking months ahead, they are thinking in terms of weeks ahead, maybe. A lot of the things happening right now should not happen in a rational market. They are desperate and defensive measures.

Impact and Effects

So now you have the facts, but what prompted all this change? The two journalists from Kontrabande who I've heard speak about the war say it's a war that will, in some way, reach every country. And what lies ahead for the Danish newspaper scene?

The war is a symptom of the break in the way we consume news and in the way different media companies are distributing the news.

When the war started, there was a mental change in newspapers in Denmark. They were used to having old newspapers owned by foundations with grand ideals of enlightenment. They wanted to create a public debate and make people be able to think critically. Old newspapers wanted just to make enough money to survive and be able to produce decent journalism. When the Icelandic people said, "We want to take this market," the idea of owning newspapers changed.

If the free newspapers are decent and quality enough to satisfy the Danish people, the paid-for newspapers will be in trouble. So journalists working at the free newspapers owned by the two big media houses can't do their jobs too well or they will lose them. What scares everybody is that the Icelandic guys want to make a newspaper that's much better than even MetroXPress.

Nyhedsavisen was just the catalyst for media changes that have been brewing for over a decade, stemming from

• the boom in new media
• declining newspaper readership
• lack of innovation in newspaper business models (read: slim to no profits)
• lack of innovation in newspaper journalism and publishing (read: newspapers aren't too different from what they were 50 years ago, where radio and television have jumped leaps and bounds)
• interactive media (wikipedia, blogs) are exploding

Even though newspapers are attempting to make great, interactive web sites, when Americans turn to the Internet for news, they don't go to newspaper web sites. They go to Google News or CNN. USA Today and the New York Times each have no more than 5 percent of the share of online news consumption, according to a table Søren showed us.

And so, if people don't want a quality newspaper product, they can't interact with it, and the newspaper loses.

In the short term:

• Some of the free dailies will die because of too few readers and too few advertisers.
• Nyhedsavisen is expected to wow, but it may not have enough money to stay in business.
• Traditional newspapers will lose some advertising revenue.

In the long term:

• National news will forever be free.
• National pay dailies will specialize and focus their content for elitist and niche markets. Readership will continue to fall, and some of the old newspapers will die.
• The media industry will converge with other industries, like distribution.
• Old publishing and journalistic ideals will give way to market-oriented, capitalistic ideals. This means news coverage will lean toward what makes money: entertainment and gossip, not "classical reporting."
• For the free dailies, their advertising appeal depends on being nationally distributed, so they cannot have a niche. They face the same content problem as the paid-for dailies in terms of finding the right market.

Politiken

Politiken is a leftist paper with a very good opinion of itself. Though its traditional reader has been the 50-year-old schoolteacher, new readers are younger, and choose Politiken for its commentary on politics and culture. It is admittedly weak on business.

Deciding to build on this, and looking to move "up-market," Politiken decided to relaunch itself as a new sort of newspaper. With a new, strict layout, the newspaper will offer only a banner of news on its front page, written by its current online staff. It will run a signed editorial on the front page, and two stories. Inside will be more commentary, and the articles it prints will be not news, but analysis. Insight pieces that offer background and context. As the current analysis editor said, they do not want to live in the moment, but in the trend.

Politiken's web staff of about 25 people writes short news articles for online. The online reporters are often people who worked for the print division but were sort of banished. If they don't like writing short news articles, they leave. This will continue after Sunday's shift, but with all the news from Politiken online, with the news banner in the printed edition.

You can't charge for the news anymore, the editor said. Anyone can find the news for free online, but they will still pay for commentary. Newspapers must adapt to not being the news leaders, but producing something else.

The editor (sorry, I didn't catch his full name, though I think it may be Morton Something?) was frank that Politiken was seeking to become an exclusive, high-brow newspaper, even raising its price to add to the exclusivity factor. He compared Politiken to the UK's The Guardian. Someone from my class asked if this was just turning the paper into a magazine, but he had a good point that while we live with a weekly rythym in our lives, we also live with a day-to-day rythym, and a weekly newsmagazine doesn't fulfill that. It helps, probably, that Denmark has no newsmagazines.

So, while I think he had some good points, not every newspaper wants to be upmarket or wants to cater to the highly intellectual. Politiken also has the benefit of being run by a foundation instead of a profit-driven company. The editor we heard from said that all the newspapers in J-P/Politiken Hus exist to make money so that Politiken can be funded. Also, while people in Denmark are generally getting even more education (it's free, thanks to high taxes), people like Americans are not, and they tend to like things more like "info-tainment," which brings me to...

24Timer

You already read about how 24Timer came into existence. But while most people think that with the end of the newspaper war will come the end of the free daily, including journalists who work at the free dailies, a new way of thinking is starting to emerge.

We spoke with an entertainment editor at 24Timer about the newspaper. She was hired from Politiken's culture section in April, and is guaranteed a job there if 24Timer fails, as are the other staffers on 24Timer from J-P/Politiken. She said that while she thought until about two months ago that the free daily would end as soon as one emerged as the clear winner, now she thinks that her newspaper is filling a hole in the market, and may survive for years to come.

24Timer is not taken seriously by most people, not to mention journalists. One professional journalist told us that the stories are shitty and boring, and my Danish friends who have seen 24Timer say they were not at all impressed, and prefer MetroXPress.

24Timer is aimed at people from 25-45 who don't read Politiken or J-P already (the company is desperately afraid of losing paid circulation to free papers), and who are busy and want a 10-minute look at the news. The front page is not always hard news, but can be something like "In high schools, students are using their computers to chat instead of to take notes."

The editor was very proud of the story and others like it that the investigative journalists on staff have written. She also proudly said 24Timer was a high-quality newspaper, much better than Dato. 24Timer prints human-interest stories, family-oriented stories, stories about teenage drinking and dealing with pregnancy, and does not concern itself with politics or the economy. Quality, in this case, is obviously dependent on the goals of the newspaper. Eventually, 24Timer wants to have more specialty sections that are focused on entertainment and lifestyles. 24Timer does not print any editorial content, and it seems to outsiders that it has no focus, no purpose other than to sell ads, which it does within a package with J-P and Politiken.

In theory, 24Timer's print run of 500,000 combined with J-P's 120,000 and Politiken's 110,000, will bring it to the total of around what Nyhedsavisen's print run will be. It has no plans for expansion to other areas of Denmark, like Fyn (the second-largest island), and instead will stay in Jylland and Sjealland, yet proclaims itself a national paper.


Nyhedsavisen

Nyhedsavisen hasn't even been launched yet, but it's been the catalyst for a media boom in Denmark. It sees itself as Denmark's fourth truly national paper, and will attempt to compete with Politiken and J-P and Berlingske, where 24Timer sees its competition as televison news and Dato.

Nyhedsavisen doesn't want to take what the news agencies write, it wants to make quality, respected news. Nyhedsavisen has almost 100 journalists, where 24Timer and Dato have around 50, but Nyhedsavisen has an added risk that the others don't -- if the paper fails, those journalists aren't guaranteed their old jobs back.

Distribution

As media companies converge with other kinds of business, distribution is taking a lead role. With the best distribution system comes the most advertisers paying for their ads to be distributed.

Today, distribution of the free dailies is a mess. Utter confusion. On the streets in City Center, eager men and women in neon vests shove newspapers into your hands. In the houses of Copenhagen and its suburbs, people are getting newspapers they haven't asked for, but with no regularity. Some have not gotten a single paper, while others have gotten spotty delivery. Less than three weeks after the papers launched, some people had already put signs outside of their doors saying they didn't want the free papers.

Also, for 24Timer, their audience is one that doesn't already get J-P or Politiken, yet they have no way yet of distinguising between homes that should and should not get newspapers.

Much of this problem lies in the confusing system that exists right now, full of subcontractors and trucked-in workers from Poland and the Baltic countries to distribute the papers.

I had the pleasure of meeting a Danish-born Swede who worked for two weeks distributing newspapers, a man who wanted to work hard and who did work hard, but quit because of the confusing work environment and the horrible pay.

He worked for 12 days, from two hours a day to 12 hours a day, delivering the newspapers. He made 1,800 kroner. To compare, the average salary of a Danish person is at least 20,000 kroner per month. He made more money sitting on his couch getting unemployment checks. The companies were not honest with him and the other employees about how much they would make, and with no help for the cost of living expenses, he and others actually lost money as they tried to work.

The real winner of the newspaper war, in terms of strict profit, will be the company that is best organized.

::: Read more:
The Sunday Herald on the newspaper madness
New Media Trends blog on Politiken's relaunch

Lazy Sunday

The Internet at DIK is on the fritz again - I'm writing from DIS. Yes, I know my life is summed up with convenient 3-letter (insert word here that is not acronym but the other one that I should remember from copy editing class).

I know my Tivoli narration was pretty lame. I went back on Saturday night with Abbie (we got in free again), and did more of the fun thing instead of the oooh lets be wowed by lights and HCA. It looks completely different during the day, and better at night, I think. We rode The Dragon (completely amazing - like the best part of a roller coaster over and over again, except you feel much less safe) and The Star Flyer, which is the world's largest swing -- it takes you up and you get to see the whole city, all lit up. It was soooo incredible - I felt like I was flying.

As bad as discoteks are in Copenhagen, they're worse in Albertslund, as I found out last night. Why why why do the Danes love discos so much? It's not like they can dance! Of course, I don't mind that they can't dance, because it makes me feel sooo much better about myself.

I'll post some real stuff later, if I ever get the internet back at home.

Tivoli

I apologize for the poor quality of the video and photos of Tivoli, which is absolutely amazing.

This is my first attempt at creating any kind of video blog post thing, so don't laugh!

But, as I say in the not-so-great narration, Tivoli is pure magic.

The horror! The horror!

So, I may be in Denmark, but this doesn't mean I don't closely follow (read: stalk) many of my friends from home, especially thanks to Facebook's crack feed.

And what did I see today? Pictures of Lindsay McSomething (not McCarley, she was in Meredith's year...real churchy type...) giving birth. Well, no action shots, thank God, but her in the hospital with her husband (?)...and her baby.

I mean, I didn't think anything of it when people I knew had babies in high school and when they have them out of wedlock. People in Waxahachie either don't use condoms and birth control, or something in the water renders them ineffective, so I'm used to hearing about people having babies and getting pregnant and all those sorts of things.

But for someone I went to high school with for three years to be married and having a baby? It defies all logic. She can't be older than 22. Who the hell is responsible enough at 22 to have a husband and a child? Well, a husband, a child and a life, at least.

I fear most that this is just the beginning of an awful decade of my life, when my friends will get married and I will go to wedding after wedding, and then baby shower after baby shower and soon enough my life will consist only of searching through gift registries when I'm not sleeping.

Maybe living far away from all my friends will be a good thing, as it's usually a pretty good excuse for not going to things.

Oh, and on another unrelated note - you can either take solace or find disappointment in that I am having far less of a crazy time here than some of my friends who are abroad. Amie, for example, spent an entire day drinking then decided to get a tattoo of a dragon. Except it turned out to be a unicorn. No, I'm serious.

Adventures in food

While on my study tour, I ate better than I have pretty much the whole time I've been in Denmark. More on that in a later post, but I wanted to share some of the fun meals I tried this weekend. We had two lunches, two breakfasts and a dinner provided for us, which was really nice, and I ate out in Flensburg one night with a couple friends.

Of course, everyone thought I was strange for taking pictures of all my food, but I was only thinking of you, my readers. Well, I say readers, but I'm not sure more than one person reads this. Maybe if you all started LEAVING COMMENTS, that would be nice. Or e-mailing me. Mmmhmm, that's right, I get lonely here!

Anyway, enjoy. I did. (Mostly)

Chile Con Carne - Danish style

In Odense, we went to a restaurant decorated Italian style that was both a steakhouse and Mexican restaurant. They had preordered chile con carne for us, and it was pretty good! A lot of people were complaining that it was too spicy, but it was perfect to me. I ate one of the peppers and I'd say it was maybe a little bit hotter than a jalapeno, so not so pleasant to eat all at once, but I got over it.

And they had ICE WATER at this restaurant. You can't understand how much of a thrill it is for me to get ice water here. I miss it so much. First of all, restaurants in Denmark pretty universally charge even for tap water - about $1, and many don't have it at all, and will just sell you a bottle of water for between $2 and $3. And if you aren't lucky, they'll only have Danskvand, literally Danish water, which is like sparkling mineral water. You have to ask specifically for still water. And then again, it's not always cold. And I love ice cold water.

I still haven't made the trip out to Ikea to look for ice cube trays, which is my last hope. I can't wait to come home to all the ice cubes I could ever want, and free water at restaurants. But I digress...

Sauerfleisch and potatoes.

Wow. Well, I wanted to try something pretty authentically German, and I picked this at a restaurant in Flensburg. Sauerfleisch was described in the menu as cold pickled ribs, which didn't sound too bad, I guess. I should have known something was up when the waitress was like, "Are you sure you know what that is? And you want to order it?"

It came to the table and I was a bit in shock, a bit in dismay. The meat didn't look like ribs at all, just pork, and it was all covered with this gelatinous mess. See the close-up below, which still doesn't really capture the inherent disgustingness of how this dish looked.

But I was brave. I scraped off as much of the gelatin as I could (according to Nikki it looked like placenta and according to Chris it looked like congealed fat, maybe giving you some idea of just how adventurous I felt eating this). The meat wasn't bad, just kinda tasted like leftovers or something. And when I put mustard on it, it was better. I didn't eat more than half that pot, which I don't think i would have even if it was good - it was a ton of food! And I was very thankful for the potatoes, which were delicious.

Here we have what Charlotte called a very Danish meal, but not too Danish to scare us completely. On the left is a shrimp salad (yes, I ate the shrimp and they were pretty good. I think they're just small enough to where the texture doesn't completely freak me out like with normal shrimp), then what very much resembled jalapeno poppers except with pimiento instead of cheddar, then roast beef with horseradish and some sort of sauce and some spicy little pepper things, then marinated chicken. There were also, inexplicably, french fries.

A very common lunch would be to take the shrimp salad or the roast beef and put it on a piece of rugbrod, making it a smorrebrod (open-face sandwich). Smorrebrod, of course, can have any topping, though there are definitely traditional Danish ones. Herring is popular, as is liverpate. I haven't tried those yet, though I'm willing to try the liverpostej...maybe.

Weinerschnitzel with potatoes and vegetables with a bernaise sauce.

Yes, I ate the vegetables. The Weinerschnitzel was okay, not great, the potatoes were excellent. I was sitting by Charlotte, the study tours coordinator and Anne Mette, one of my teachers, along with of course the other students. Anyway, they thought it was hilarious that there's a chain in the States (well, I've seen it in Texas at least, I'm not sure how universal it is) called Weinerschnitzel and they sell hot dogs. I knew at some point that Weinerschnitzel didn't mean hot dogs but I had no idea what it actually was.

The other cool thing about this meal was that we ate at a local microbrewery, Hansens Braueri. I tried the dark beer, which was superb, and they had a decent pilsner, too. But you could also order something called a meter of beer, which was a very wide yardstick basically that held a bunch of beers. It was very odd to me, but pretty cool I guess.

We also had a potato soup, but I like American potato soup better - hey Mom, by the way, you should make that when I get home and stuff. And give me your recipe. And they served some bread, but not enough for us, especially because we were all starving when we got there. Emily asked the waitress for more bread while we were eating our soup and the waitress said, "Well, you know there's another meal coming," and Emily said, "yes, I know, but I want some more bread," speaking on behalf of the whole table. Well, the next course came and there was still no bread so after maybe 15 minutes, Emily stopped the waitress again to ask for more bread and the waitress got this look of horror on her face and said, "STILL?" Emily said yes, and the waitress came back with a plate of two slices.

I'm sure that last story was really a lot funnier if you were there. But "STILL?" and jokes about bread are going to be little inside jokes for us for the rest of the semester, I'm sure.

A newspaper like none I've ever encountered

Some of the old linotype printing thingamajigs at Der Nordschleswiger

On our study tour to the border region between Germany and Denmark, we visited a German newspaper in Aabenraa, Denmark and heard from its editor-in-chief about some of the history of the German minority there. Of course, when he opened it up for questions, the journalism majors in the room hogged everything and found out more about the newspaper than about the German minority.

What he had to say was really interesting, and reflects some of the differences in European and American media, something I'm learning about in my European News Media in Transition class. (For which I just spent like three hours researching Polish media. I do love that class, though)

Just a warning: this post will probably be really boring to those of you that don't care about newspapers, so you can go ahead and stop reading.

(And to clarify, we heard from Siegfried Matlok, chief editor of Der Nordschleswiger. North Schleswig is the same as South Jutland, so the paper's name is literally The North Schleswiger. )

The newspaper, started in 1946, was a weekly propaganda machine started to make the Germans seem less bad after WWII ended. [Relationships between the Germans and the Danes were very bad during this time: every German man in South Jutland was arrested, many Germans and Danes who sympathized with Hitler or helped the Nazis were killed, Danish women who were in relationships with German soldiers were killed, etc.] But in 1951, it became daily, minus Sunday, and real journalism started happening. Matlok says the paper is well-respected by the Danish media, which often quotes the paper.

With 12,000 subscribers, Der Nordschleswiger could never function how it does now with only revenue from that and ad sales (it is not sold in any stands or anything like that). Luckily, it's funded in part by the German government, and is exploring other options, like syndicating a daily newsletter with German news to over 500 Danish high schools. It also produces a three-times daily radio broadcast in German, but that costs more money than it brings in. 60 percent of funding comes in-house and 40 percent comes from the German government.

What I find significant is the real and honest dedication to news and serving the readership over making money. With every question I asked about the demographics, how the paper was trying to reach youth, if there were strategies for increasing readership, what it was doing with the Internet, I got pretty much the same answer:

They don't care too much, and spend all their time and effort on making good news.

I mean, that flabbergasted me. The readers are mostly over 50 -- and he said himself there's been a trend of too many obituaries in the past three years. But though they don't target youth in any way, the paper is attracting more younger Danes, interested in what the newspaper is writing about. He said they focus on the fundamentals - in-depth, quality journalism that often gives more background info than the profit-driven Danish newspapers can.

The paper is printed in German, obviously, and includes a two-language opinion section, but Matlok says the paper has no plans to go dual-language to increase subscription or anything like that. It isn't going out of its way to attract more Danish readers, it just does what it's been doing and if German-speaking Danes like it, great. (Of course, they would also lose funding from the German government if it was printed in Danish.)

In fact, Danish interest groups indirectly support the paper financially by buying advertising, and their ad revenue has grown 30 percent in the past five years.

And, asked about if the paper has ever censored coverage of the German government because it fears losing funding, Matlok practically scoffed. He said the paper is equally critical of Danish politics and German politics and it doesn't matter what he prints about the government.

Oh, and as far as the Internet goes, yeah it has a Web site, but they only publish some of the stories that run in the paper, and they do nothing as far as trying to push for extra Web content like videos and interactive graphics. There's not even any advertising on the site!

Everything about this is an anomaly to me. Sure, it's a special case, a specialty newspaper with a specific audience, but man, it was really nice to hear. I don't know if maybe we were just getting the idealist bullshit special, but I doubt it because why would he worry about trying to impress 25 American students who were half-asleep anyway? And don't editors love to boast about their readership and what they're doing to increase it? All I know is, this is journalism at its best, at least in principle. I would love so much to work for a publication like this, unencumbered by the stupid media conglomerates and the constant quest for profit that comes from the silly businessmen who don't really care about what they're printing. If there's a newspaper in America with an editor-in-chief saying what Matlok said, I will kill myself working until I can get a job there.

Germany!

I had so much fun on our field study to Schleswig this weekend. We went to this region of Northern Germany and Southern Denmark from Thursday-Saturday, learned some stuff during the day and had fun at night!

I took so many pictures, and I have a lot to write about, but for now I'll just throw up a few. It's hard to understand the region without knowing its history, which we got a lot of this weekend, but basically the area has been owned by both Germany (Prussia) and Denmark, and still today Germans live in Denmark and Danes live in Germany, complete with their own newspapers, schools, some shops, etc.

Gorm, aka our Sexy Beast Tour Guide for Flensborg.

A newspaper building in Flensborg. I don't know if you can see it, but the middle fresco (is that the right word?) is a printing press. The others are bugs. According to Gorm, this was a joke from the builder, who said that the fast journalists and hardest working were like bees, while others were lazy and snail like. The ant and random other bug supposedly mean that, like bugs, journalists are everywhere, finding out what's going on. I don't know if I buy it.

With my toes in the water of a strait that goes by Fyn (it was cold!).

Just for kicks, a pic of the bathroom sign used at the Duborg Skolen in Flensburg.

Grr

You know, what the hell is the point of "voltage converters" when every time I plug anything into them, whatever I've plugged in starts to smoke? I tried to charge my camera batteries, and it popped, buzzed and released a cloud of smoke, tinged with a nice chemical smell.

I'm so irritated. Guess I have to buy two new chargers (one for here and one for when I get home). Stupid European voltage!!!

Oh, and I leave tomorrow morning for Southern Jutland and Northern Germany until Saturday. (Field trip.)

The day that changed the world.

I can't believe it's been 5 years. I will never forget exactly where I was when I heard, and how that day and some of the following days unfolded. It's a day that scarred history, and to my generation, it is the biggest thing we've ever known - the worst tragedy we've seen on American soil. Ten years down the road, 20, 50, and should our country survive that long, I think even 500 years from now, this day will stand out.

Who knows what will become of the war on terror, if it will turn into the next Cold War or if it will boil down to civil wars in the Middle East? I can't imagine the next generation of kids, ones who were too young on this day or not yet born, not knowing what it was like, not feeling the wound in the soul of our country that I think is a part of America's collective unconscious.

I lived in horror that day, and sorrow, and fear, as I think many Americans did. We were all angry too, at the unseen force who could so cold-heartedly take aim at us and our way of life.

Life before 9/11 was easier. It was a time of peace, and for me, a time of innocence. I had never known war, never known what it was like to loathe the president of my country, never feared for my country's future or for my own rights.

That day, I was riding in the ol' '88 Volvo 240 DL, the sounds of K104.5 blasted through those duct-taped speakers, and I was cringing as Ludacris' "Peaches and Cream" blared (it was back in the day when I hated rap). When the song cut out in the middle, I was instantly glad - relief from those dreadful lyrics - but then the DJ's voice came on.

"A second plane has hit the towers. A second plane. It now looks like this might be an attack."

And through the day, hearing tidbits of news as I sat through Chemistry, not believing until I got home after school and saw it for myself that the towers had FALLEN, that part of the Pentagon was exploded, that another plane had aimed for the White House.

In the days afterward, Mr. Mathieson telling us all that the next attack would be on a small town just like Waxahachie - we, after all, represented another part of America that the terrorists all hated. Well, we knew it was silly, but I think everyone in the class gave at least a moment's thought to, "What if?"

I'll never forget. I will always get sick to my stomach as I see the second plane hit the tower, as I see the towers begin to crumble, the dust clouds obscuring everything in the street, people running with terror. And I just wanted to take a few minutes today to think about the people who died in those attacks, the many who may yet die from being there after the attacks, and the people who have died in wars because of those attacks.

Denmark's Difficulties, Part II

While most of Copenhagen is lovely and wonderful and everything of the sort, there are some things I've found less than fun. This is part of an ongoing "list" of things that, as an American, I find hard about being abroad.

Shoes.

Who would have thought the words would come out of my mouth? Don't get me wrong, there are many, MANY pretty shoes here -

- It's just not the same when you know you have such giant feet (American size 10) that the stores don't carry shoes in that size. I'm basing this, of course, mostly on the shoe stores in Albertslund, because the Copenhagen stores are too classy to have out a lot of shoe sizes and I'm too self-conscious to ask. But yeah, the biggest size I've seen is a 41, hard enough to find in Denmark, according to one salesperson I talked to, but I am at least a 43 or 44. Thanks Mom!! (kidding)

Not to mention that, once you find shoes you like in your size, you also have to make sure the heel (or lack thereof) is pretty wide. Why? The streets here are all like this:
or worse!

I completely regret my shoe choices in coming here. I was thinking about packing bare essentials, which for some reason to me meant bringing only sneakers, flip flops and brown and black heels. Well, I don't know, it still seems reasonable enough. But my Roos are pink, and clash with a lot, and, well, flip flops are so not-European, don't have much traction and leave my toe-sies cold. Also, many bars won't let you in if you're wearing them.

Which leaves me with heels. It's really a pain in the ass to be walking along a crowded street when, oops, my shoe is still 3 feet behind me, stuck between the cobblestones. For some reason, my brown mules get caught less than my black kitten-heeled pumps, but, umm, what if I'm wearing a black shirt? Not to mention that the heels are far less comfortable than tennis shoes.

The other day I brought this up with a couple of girls, and they're big-feets, too! So we're all on the lookout now for monster-size shoe stores.

Denmark's Difficulties, Part I

While most of Copenhagen is lovely and wonderful and everything of the sort, there are some things I've found less than fun. Mostly the troubles come from being foreign here, that is, having American expectations in a seemingly-similar but actually pretty different society. As I come across them and remember to take photo evidence supporting them, I'll post more.

Dr Pepper

I suppose I hadn't really thought about how much I would miss ready availability to Dr Pepper, otherwise known as What Runs Through My Veins. But here, the only sodas are Coke, Coke Light, Faxe Kondi, and Fanta in a limited range of flavors.

The level of domination here really surprised me. It's worse than going to school in Waxahachie - at least there you can get root beer or something.

So, imagine my surprise when one day, there in the kiosk of the train station, I saw it - like a beacon of light shining down from the heavens, it drew me to it. A bottle of Dr Pepper. Oh, I was near giddy at the thought of its smooth, sugary taste pouring into my mouth, tiny bubbles of effervescent delight tingling my tongue.




I readily paid about 17 kroner for the bottle (that's almost $3 for a half-liter, and that's the normal price at any sort of convenience outlet or restaurant) and walked to the bench to wait for the train.

Since you guys know me, you know how I feel about Dr Pepper. To refresh your memories: I can not only tell the difference instantly between Dr Pepper and off-brand imitations, I also discern between those imitations. (Dr. Thunder: acceptable if funds are severly limited, Dr. Bob: abominable and wrong.) Diet Dr Pepper does not taste more like the real thing, it tastes like Diet Dr Pepper. If anyone offers me Mr. Pibb instead of Dr Pepper, they will receive a scathing look of derision and a request for ice water instead (intensity of said look dependent on how well I know the person offering).

And so, imagine my surprise when, upon opening this bottle of real, authentic Dr Pepper and taking a sip, it tasted nothing like Dr Pepper. It didn't even taste like an imitation Dr Pepper! In disbelief, I tried it again, and again, utter disappointment reigned supreme. It was bitter, tinny-tasting, nothing like the real thing. I could barely drink it!

A second glance at the label showed a possible explanation - it proudly proclaimed "Now with less sugar!" I cringed in horror and capped the bottle, hoping maybe it would get better after it had been opened or something. (It did not.)

Later, after discussion with a fellow student who I saw had a non-drinken Dr Pepper, we read the nutrition facts and saw this imposter had only 7 grams of sugar. SEVEN! Do you know how many grams of sugar Actual Dr Pepper has? 40. I shudder to think of any other changes the bastards have made, ruining the brand's international name.

I asked some Danes how they felt about Dr Pepper, and their reaction was visceral and instant - "It tastes like SHIT," Torben said. "Absolute shit," echoed Rico. Though I tried to explain how different it tastes in America, they were unconvinced it could ever be good, and probably thought much less of me after that.

And therein lies the rub -- I would be much happier if I couldn't get Dr Pepper at all. I would just think, "Hey, this country is really missing out. Bunch of twits." But instead, I'm faced with this fake product masquerading as genuine DP. Now that I know it exists and is horrible, I see it all the time, and each time I am torn between wanting to pour it all out so no one has to drink it and between wishing it could be American.

*Note* Care packages are accepted. E-mail me or comment if you'd like my address so you can ship over a 12-pack!!

My First Castle

After careful evaluation and research consisting of one visit to one test subject, I have come to the conclusion that royal castles (and likely all the other ones, too) are Badass and can be described in no other way.

Seriously. I went to Rosenborg the other day after sort of randomly happening upon it (my CAC class participated in a focus group for a company researching American perceptions of Denmark). It's amazing. The grounds are gorgeous (didn't get many pictures of them because it was raining), the castle itself is impressive, though small for a castle, and everything in it was so intricate and fabulous and royal-looking.

Though we had to guess what most of the things were, since a guidebook was 25 kroner and we're cheap, everything was just stunning. Also, I had to pay 20 kroner just to take pictures, on top of the price of admission (40 kroner for students), but it was so completely worth it.

The classic tourist shot. This is me, Kimberly and Lauren. And yeah, I looked pretty bad that day.

I tried setting up a new thing so that I could "jump" posts and have you just click something to read more, but I guess I didn't understand it, so sorry for the long post and excessive scrolling. But it is really pretty!

An amazing piece of furniture not adequately captured by my lens. Each panel is a scene from the Bible. And the thing is enormous - like 8 feet tall.

Frederik III's Marble Room

The Royal Toilet .
(I think it's really weird there was only one bathroom in the entire castle, unless there were more they didn't show us)

A chandelier made out of amber, the national stone.
Some truly incredible decorative pieces of amber work were on display in the basement treasury.

Royal Pajamas

Wine casks used to make the Rosenborg Wine

A calendar from who knows how long ago

I think I would be too scared to even consider writing a letter at this desk, found in Christian IV's "writing closet." This room is almost intact since his time. He built the castle from 1606-1634.

See? Thrones guarded by lions. I told you it was Badass.

Yes, folks, The Crown Jewels. My pictures don't do them justice.

That giant blue stone you see on the larger crown protrudes nearly an inch from the crown, as do the other jewels on it.
I don't know what I would have to do to borrow this and its corresponding necklace, but it would probably be worth it.



Some stuff for the king. The detail on that scepter is beyond words.

some more pics from the weekend

This past weekend was pretty fun. You already heard about Saturday with the Danes, but Friday night DIS had a party at a bar called Den Glade Gris, the Happy Pig. It was packed wall-to-wall on both levels (there was also a coat check on the third floor! Groovy!) with drunk Americans thanks to happy hour prices.

The dance floors are so funny because they all have disco balls, and in fact, the places with the biggest lines on the weekend are discoteques (?sp). They think what I consider to be a bar is boring! At least, according to Ronni, who is my unofficial official expert on all things Danish, since I can't trust some of the texts I've been reading. (One said that Danish children work spare-time jobs from the age of 7. Rather shocked at this, I asked Ronni, who said kids might get paper routes and baby sitting jobs at 13, but never 7.)

Anyway, at the Happy Pig, I don't know if they were trying to save money or accomodate tall people, but they had two half-disco balls. I laughed.

At the Happy Pig:

Side note on this picture: Dude, my hair was like, in ringlets. Kinda sweet. Especially since when I plugged in my hair straightener, it started SMOKING.


This is Ronni:

He has exceptionally bad taste in American music (Incubus, Alice in Chains, Slipknot and Korn even! But then again he also likes Norwegian metal.), but some good taste in Danish music. Check out the bands "Mew" and "Kashmir" if you can. Good stuff!!

Random CPH pix.

Just a few pics from around Copenhagen, for fun.



I pass this church every day on my way to "school." I didn't have my wide-angle lens on me and I was in the plaza right across the street from it, and it's enormous, so apologies but it's in two pictures.

This is one of the "ghetto" trains in Copenhagen. You don't come across them often, usually late at night or during morning rush hour. The other trains are unbelievably nice (I'll take a pic tomorrow for comparison). So clean, like almost everything here.





Danish money. This is something around DKK 3,000, nearly US $700. (No, I don't carry this much money around, I had just gotten there and exchanged $$ and the school gave us most of that money for our bus pass and some food and stuff.)

It looks really normal to me now, but at first I was like, THIS IS PLAY MONEY, DUDE.
And I'm not used to coins being worth real money. Spending 20 kroner feels like spending a quarter, when it's really a little less than $5.


The entrance to Tivoli at night. I'm going to Tivoli 20 Sept, so expect gorgeous pictures!


Copenhagen has SO many statues, all over the place. I need to get better at just taking pictures when I wander around. But I hate seeming touristy. Although, everyone can tell I'm American, it seems.


This is Kongens Nytorv, the literal translation of which is "King's new square." It is absolutely gorgeous. Especially on a sunny day like the day this was, maybe last Wednesday or Thursday. Unbeliveably pretty.


Normally, the weather is dreary and gray. It kinda sucks! And today was chillier than normal. I hope to god there are still a few warm weeks left.

Finally hanging out with some Danes

It's hard for me to think that a week ago, I had just gotten to Copenhagen. I was exhausted, jet lagged, overwhelmed and extremely anxious.

In the past week, I've seen so much. Every day is an adventure, every day is something new and completely exciting. Everything is different, everything is cooler because I'm in Denmark.

I'm learning a new language, a new culture, a new appreciation for a way of thinking, backed up of course by actually living here. The DIS program is really about immersion as much as possible - our professors are all Danish, but speak English (with varying degrees of accents). Each class includes in some way a cultural aspect so we learn a subject as we learn about how the Danes might view the subject.

Certainly, I'm not as immersed as I might be in a family, where a student gets an instant bond and an instant way into Danish life - all access. My kollegium block is dull beyond words. There is no sense of community. I've talked to people that live here (other than the Americans) maybe five times, and always in the kitchen, and always briefly. And only one of them has been an actual Dane!! There are students from Pakistan, Romania and Poland here in my block, along with a lot of empty rooms and no sense of community.

Take the kitchen, for example. It's FILTHY. The first night I actually took a good look at the kitchen, I cleaned it. Washed all the dishes, wiped the countertops and, you know, made it a place where I wasn't afraid to eat food, with some help from Abbi. But it's about halfway there again - filthy!

"People just don't give a fuck," my new Danish friend told me. I met him and his friends from home, in Northern Jylland, yesterday and hung out with them all day and pretty much all night. It was the experience I've been looking forward to for what seems like an eternity. I got to quiz real Danes about Danish life, they answered a lot of my questions, they didn't mind me trying to pronounce Danish. At the bars, we drank Danish drinks, not American ones. (I won't pretend to love Fisherman's Friend. It's a shot of liqueur named for a lozenge and it tastes like cough syrup. It's served in a tiny, tiny glass. I believe they're called snaps here, much smaller than an American shot. I do, however, like a Danish vodka called Blå, I believe, which tastes like peppermint.)

Of course, much of what we talked about was over numerous beers and shots, so I don't remember all of it, but I certainly feel like I have some understanding of what Danish guys are like.

This particular group of five reminded me so much of my little group from home. Joking, drinking since noon, making a bet during a game of foosball that the loser had to crawl naked under the table (no one lost...complicated bet). Ummm and can I mention that some of them are SO PRETTY.

Torben, Rico, Lars

Jasper (Yess-per) and Lars

But, before you get all jealous of how tan they are, it's fake. 3/4 of Danish men go fake tanning. Finding this out sort of ruined the whole...tall blonde tan how the hell are they so attractive thing most American girls I know have about the Scandinavian region. Jasper, first of all, was hilariously drunk since like 2 p.m. (Jasper et fuld!!) I was wearing soffe shorts because, well, I'd just woken up before I met them and it was really warm outside, and he is lying on the floor and he looks at my legs and he's like "OH MY GOD YOUR LEGS ARE SO WHITE." He was just in shock at how white they were. My nickname became White Legs, sadly enough. (Rino, not yet pictured, is called Bamse, or teddy bear. How cute is that?) He was like "do you go into the sun ever? but you NEVER get tan?" I was like, thanks for rubbing it in, dude. I'm super pale.

Anyway, American pop culture is everywhere here. Snakes on a Plane opened Friday, they love Friends and know a lot of American bands. But there is a lot of Danish pride, too. A lot. And Danes can think less of Americans because, say, Americans don't even know where Denmark is, much less anything about it. We don't know Danish bands, Danish actors, Danish movies, and sometimes, even when we do read about that, we forget. The drummer of Metallica, for example, is Danish. It's both strange and not to come from the world's superpower to a small country (their population is 5.2 million). As an American, I am instantly recognized and instantly judged, whereas I have virtually no preconceptions about the Danish. They think Americans are really friendly, but also fat and sort of stupid, not very globally aware to say the least, wasteful, slutty, and a boatload of other things. But they're also really able to say that not all Americans are like that, and usually the ones they've met that are visiting or living in Denmark, aren't those kind of people.

Sorry this is such a text-heavy post. I'm having a lot of trouble with Blogger's picture feature, hence some of the enormous pictures yesterday. It's weird, for some reason I can't upload pictures directly and have them all nice and automatically sized and hosted here and all the lovely things Blogger usually does. I have to size them myself and upload them to Photobucket and then go into the html to put them in here, which is way too much work for me to do a lot of.