The rain in Spain may fall mainly on the plain, but in Denmark it isn't quite that picky. I remembered to bring my umbrella and I still feel like I'm soaked.
The IT intern took all the IT workers out to eat tonight on DIS's dollar. We went to a place called Chili's, which serves amazing burgers. Between the drink, the burger/fries, and chicken wings I guess I cost DIS over $25... tuition dollar at work. It was a half-pound bacon cheeseburger and quite amazing.
Absolutely pouring by the time we got out of there. On the way back to DIS there was a guy standing in Gammeltorv in the pouring rain dressed in a much too large clown suit. He had the monster shoes, red nose and all. The clown had handcuffed himself to a sign and was blaring out strings of horrible sounds from an old tuba. Due to the rain there was nobody else around in the square, just this one lone clown, handcuffed to a sign, blowing notes in a tuba. Quite the sight. :)
All final tests done. One final paper to get turned in by Friday afternoon.
My flight is leaving Copenhagen 3:35pm on Saturday. Arrive at OHare 5:30pm, leave OHare 8:00pm. Arrival at Minneapolis 9:24pm Lindbergh Terminal. Flight to Minneapolis is United Airlines 597. I would just hop on the train when I got home, but somebody forgot to build it I think. Maybe I could hop on the bus... er, I think they forgot to get that running too.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Sunday, May 13, 2007
2 finals, 2 papers left
The end of school for the year is in sight. Always a nice feeling. To think that I only have one more year left! I better get a lot of learning done.
It will be sad to leave Copenhagen. If I ever come back, it probably won't be for a long time. It will be nice to be home again too though.
So much to get done before I leave. Things to see, people to say goodbye to, maybe some souvenirs to buy, school to finish, etc. I need to somehow fit an entire room of "stuff" into 2 suitcases.
Hej hej
It will be sad to leave Copenhagen. If I ever come back, it probably won't be for a long time. It will be nice to be home again too though.
So much to get done before I leave. Things to see, people to say goodbye to, maybe some souvenirs to buy, school to finish, etc. I need to somehow fit an entire room of "stuff" into 2 suitcases.
Hej hej
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Uff Da
Well, got that out of the way. I got a B+ on the danish oral final, which I am very satisfied with. It had three parts:
- Prepared presentation (tell about yourself)
- Interview (teacher plays the character of a student, and you ask questions to find out about this person. then after you find out, you tell what you know)
- Conversation (given a starting point of what I did over Easter vacation, it is supposed to be a 5-6 minute free conversation)
I did well on the first two, and 'ok' on the last part. The conversation is definitely the hardest, and I didn't understand all of her questions. There is another person in the room who is the grader. She said I had a good command of the language, and had good use of inversion and subordinate phrases. I guess thats good.
In Danish, sometimes you flip the subject and verb in the sentence. For example, "On the weekend, I play chess". In Danish, you would literally say "On the weekend, play I chess." That is only if "On the weekend" is there. It would still be "I play chess on the weekend."
I weekenden, skal jeg skak med min far. Min far spille skak men ikke saerlig godt. :)
- Prepared presentation (tell about yourself)
- Interview (teacher plays the character of a student, and you ask questions to find out about this person. then after you find out, you tell what you know)
- Conversation (given a starting point of what I did over Easter vacation, it is supposed to be a 5-6 minute free conversation)
I did well on the first two, and 'ok' on the last part. The conversation is definitely the hardest, and I didn't understand all of her questions. There is another person in the room who is the grader. She said I had a good command of the language, and had good use of inversion and subordinate phrases. I guess thats good.
In Danish, sometimes you flip the subject and verb in the sentence. For example, "On the weekend, I play chess". In Danish, you would literally say "On the weekend, play I chess." That is only if "On the weekend" is there. It would still be "I play chess on the weekend."
I weekenden, skal jeg skak med min far. Min far spille skak men ikke saerlig godt. :)
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Friday, April 27, 2007
Bought a bike
I bought a bike. I'd take a picture for you, but it is dark out. I would say tomorrow, but I'll probably forget.
It is a decent used bike I bought from a shop. The guy told me 800kr ($133). I asked if that was negotiable and he said maybe. I left and looked at a different place, but they only had new bikes and the cheapest was 1300kr. I asked the front desk receptionist at DIS if she thought 800kr was negotiable (and maybe how negotiable). She thought it might be able to be brought down 50-100 kroner at some places, but at others probably not.
I went back and ended up paying 790 kr. He threw in a new lock and changed the front tire (it wasn't in very good shape). The bike has a 3 month warranty, so if it has any problems I can bring it back and they'll fix it for free.
It is 3-speeds. The gear system is different than a US bike. The chain doesn't move, but rather it is an enclosed system (of gears I guess). Turning the pedals backwards puts on the brakes like it would on a kids bike. I like that. :) It is a more mountain bike frame with thick tires. Most Danes ride "city bikes" with thin tires, etc.
Hopefully I can sell it before I leave for close to what I paid. Otherwise I guess it is a birthday present to myself! It is much too nice out to sit on a bus for 30 minutes each day.
It is a decent used bike I bought from a shop. The guy told me 800kr ($133). I asked if that was negotiable and he said maybe. I left and looked at a different place, but they only had new bikes and the cheapest was 1300kr. I asked the front desk receptionist at DIS if she thought 800kr was negotiable (and maybe how negotiable). She thought it might be able to be brought down 50-100 kroner at some places, but at others probably not.
I went back and ended up paying 790 kr. He threw in a new lock and changed the front tire (it wasn't in very good shape). The bike has a 3 month warranty, so if it has any problems I can bring it back and they'll fix it for free.
It is 3-speeds. The gear system is different than a US bike. The chain doesn't move, but rather it is an enclosed system (of gears I guess). Turning the pedals backwards puts on the brakes like it would on a kids bike. I like that. :) It is a more mountain bike frame with thick tires. Most Danes ride "city bikes" with thin tires, etc.
Hopefully I can sell it before I leave for close to what I paid. Otherwise I guess it is a birthday present to myself! It is much too nice out to sit on a bus for 30 minutes each day.
DIS show off week
DIS has been entertaining a group of administrators and professors from a bunch of US universities this past week. I guess they are trying to sell them on the quality of the DIS program. These people have been sitting in on classes, etc.
It was kind of entertaining to see them going through some of the same things we did when we got here. Just today, I saw:
- A lady almost getting run over by a bike.
- A guy taking pictures of a taxi. (All taxis in Denmark are Mercedes)
- A guy showing up late to class because he had problems figuring out the public transportation.
They all seem unconfident and uncomfortable, which is humorous to me for some reason. :)
It was kind of entertaining to see them going through some of the same things we did when we got here. Just today, I saw:
- A lady almost getting run over by a bike.
- A guy taking pictures of a taxi. (All taxis in Denmark are Mercedes)
- A guy showing up late to class because he had problems figuring out the public transportation.
They all seem unconfident and uncomfortable, which is humorous to me for some reason. :)
Health Care
I'll move the topic from tabloid-friendly royalty babies to something a bit more substantive. :) Susanne sent me this email:
I was just in that park they filmed in yesterday. I saw some people filming, but it wasn't the ABC people. (Danish TV I think)
Denmark has won those surveys before about being the happiest people.
As far as health care, it is taxed and run by the county. There used to be 13 of these in Denmark, but this year (or maybe last year) they restructured this to 5. So, about a million people in each county. Health care is about 75% of the county's spending. You can choose which hospital/clinic you go to, and the government publishes "average wait" for each hospital. Danes don't just pay into a giant national pot, but to a more local level.
Different areas in Denmark might be slightly different in what they offer. Our history professor said his daughter in Copenhagen got "top of the line" braces for the 7 years she had to wear them. In western Denmark, they might cover braces but not the leading edge expensive variety. Overall the quality of Danish public hospitals and health care is very good.
Denmark also has a couple private hospitals. They always have some private business competing against the public entities, because then you can tell if the public entities are less efficient than a private company would be. My politics professor says that if the public entities aren't competitive, then you can just sell them and everyone is better off. So to keep the public services, they have to be competitive. The hospitals also compete across the county borders, since people have a free choice which hospital to go to.
Denmark does the same with buses, trains, schools, etc. There is a large national rail services, but also a few private companies that run some routes.
Denmark pays $2,743 per capita for health care (2003). US payed $5,711 per person in 2003. Canada spent $2,998 a person . So overall we really pay twice as much for our health care, and still have tens of millions of people who can't afford it and don't have any. Maybe the higher taxes aren't too bad. :)
Denmark was just named the "Happiest Country on Earth"!
Was watching a morning news show ABC's Good Morning America and they interviewed some happy person who was in charge of the survey to find the happiest country. She said that Denmark is the happiest country because the people have such low expectations of everything. Said don't get her wrong, they aren't pessimistic. To the Danes pleasure in life is a gift. They are a satisfied people.
They are modest.
Showed the crown prince and his family and various places in Copenhagen. Interviewed a Dane who had a broken leg and was unable to go to work. He was happy because he knew that he would be taken care of by the government and its good health care system and that he could go to where ever and get the cash that he would need because he couldn't work. As an aside, the interview did mention how
much the Danes have to pay in taxes for health care.
Find the video here: www.ABCNews.com/GMA
I was just in that park they filmed in yesterday. I saw some people filming, but it wasn't the ABC people. (Danish TV I think)
Denmark has won those surveys before about being the happiest people.
As far as health care, it is taxed and run by the county. There used to be 13 of these in Denmark, but this year (or maybe last year) they restructured this to 5. So, about a million people in each county. Health care is about 75% of the county's spending. You can choose which hospital/clinic you go to, and the government publishes "average wait" for each hospital. Danes don't just pay into a giant national pot, but to a more local level.
Different areas in Denmark might be slightly different in what they offer. Our history professor said his daughter in Copenhagen got "top of the line" braces for the 7 years she had to wear them. In western Denmark, they might cover braces but not the leading edge expensive variety. Overall the quality of Danish public hospitals and health care is very good.
Denmark also has a couple private hospitals. They always have some private business competing against the public entities, because then you can tell if the public entities are less efficient than a private company would be. My politics professor says that if the public entities aren't competitive, then you can just sell them and everyone is better off. So to keep the public services, they have to be competitive. The hospitals also compete across the county borders, since people have a free choice which hospital to go to.
Denmark does the same with buses, trains, schools, etc. There is a large national rail services, but also a few private companies that run some routes.
Denmark pays $2,743 per capita for health care (2003). US payed $5,711 per person in 2003. Canada spent $2,998 a person . So overall we really pay twice as much for our health care, and still have tens of millions of people who can't afford it and don't have any. Maybe the higher taxes aren't too bad. :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
