People in our block

We had a party in the kitchen on Friday and I got to meet a lot of the people who live in the block here. Magnus, a Danish guy from the west coast of Jutland, is studying at Roskilde University about 30 minutes west of Copenhagen. Hans is from southern Jutland and also studying here in Copenhagen. A Norwegian girl, Suzanne (I think that was the spelling) from Oslo is here studying at the Copenhagen Business School. Her boyfriend (Tony, from London) is living here currently. I guess they met while she was studying in Thailand and he was traveling there. Sofie (from Copenhagen area I think) is studying Danish. I guy I met earlier, Rognas, is studying software/IT at Roskilde. He's from Lithuania.

There were a number of other Danes at the party I didn't get a chance to talk to much.

Other people living on the floor (who didn't come to the party) include 2 brothers from Africa. I don't really see them and it doesn't sound like anybody else sees much of them either. Nobody really knows them. There are 2 Chinese couples I think. They are always cooking late at night when I go in there. The Danes haven't really gotten to know them very well either they said. Then there are two people from Romania living on my floor. The girl (can't think of her name right now) has been studying here for 4 years (computers, information systems). Her brother, who is older, lives here now too and he is working. They live in different rooms I think, just on the same floor. She said she was working too, at the airport.

About Romania

I talked to the guy for awhile at the party and his sister for awhile this evening. Their names are hard enough for me to remember and pronounce, much less spell, so sorry for the lack of names. He is a "transit worker" with a moving company. I think he drives truck around when people move. He really likes it, because he is getting a very good wage here in Denmark and he gets a chance to see the whole country. He can work for 5 hours in Denmark and earn the wage it would take someone at home 24 hours to make.

Romania is a new member of the EU as of January 1, 2007. As such, there is free movement of people, goods, money, etc in and out of Romania. They said that basically an entire generation of young people have left Romania. There is no future in trying to stay and work/live in Romania compared to what they can earn in Spain, France, Italy (and Denmark/Sweden, etc). She says that the politicians say this is a good thing, because these young people will send money back to Romania and maybe come back themselves and it will help the country grow. Unfortunately, as money comes back the prices for things have been going up dramatically. Her mother sometimes works 7am-9pm and is really only earning enough money for her apartment and food. Not enough money to save. Her comment was that younger people like to have a little extra spending money too, and it is just impossible in Romania with those wages and the increasing cost of living. So the young people are being forced out, rather than necessarily choosing to leave.

They are both from the Transylvania region in Romania, where the dracula castle is. Dracula was a book, but it drew on connections from a Transylvania/Romania ruler who had a habit of killing lots of people by impaling them on a sharp pole. They both say it is a very beautiful area and I get the impression that they'd certainly be living in Romania if they could. There just isn't any future or means for a future in living there. The Dracula Castle is actually owned by an heir to an old "Germanic" dynasty in Romania, and he is trying to sell it currently. The Romanians had kicked this dynasty out of Romania, but they did end up keeping their property. Now a big issue is if he can sell it to whoever he wants for the highest price. She said it had been decided that he had to offer it to the community for a price they could pay, but it is currently in the EU court system.

About Lithuania

Rognas is a really tall guy. He must be well at least 6'6"...I don't know. Much taller than me. I get the impression they follow the NBA quite a bit, because when I mentioned I was from Minnesota he immediately placed that with the Timberwolves. He is here studying and gets a free education in the Danish system, although that isn't the reason he's here. Says Lithuania was the biggest country in Europe, but by the late 1700s had become part of Russia. They became there own country again after WWI.

They have their own language and culture, but people swear in Russian. He was unaware that Canada/Minnesota/etc had sent so many furs back for hats in Europe. Thought that was just Russia.

Thats about all I can remember...conversation was a few days ago.



I'm pretty sure I was younger than everyone there. Most Danish students are older than those in the US. They finish gymnasium one year later than we finish high school (they are roughly comparable). Then is is common for a student to take a year or so off and work some, travel, or spend some time at a folk high school (like an American college campus kind of... they take classes and live with people... no grades or credit). After that they'll work towards a Masters degree or something like that. School is paid for and students get a living subsidy. It isn't much, but enough to cover the minimum basics of a place to live and food. This can last a maximum of one year longer than the offical length of your degree program. So if your masters is supposed to take 5 years, then the student aid will have a maximum of 6 years. There is some room for error if students need to choose a different line of study, if they get very sick, or something like that.

My Danish teacher says that Danish students have a much higher dropout rate than in the US. I think you can explain that pretty well based on the price we have to pay. If you have already spend $20,000, you have a lot of incentive to finish. With a high minimum wage in Denmark, there maybe isn't as much of a discrepancy in wages between someone with a college degree and someone without one?

Our room is always the "American" room, although there has never been guys in here before (always girls). They never really met the last people who lived here. The American girls just didn't really interact with them at all. I get the impression that most of the people in the block haven't been here an extremely long time.

The Romanians and the British guy definitely are the most outgoing people. Danish people are quiet reserved. From what we talked about in Danish class, it is kind of goes along with the ideas of equality. They don't want to draw attention that you aren't equal (as far as knowing people, how things work, etc). Also a little bit with the Jante Law...it could be viewed as trying to be better than somebody else by showing off all the "people you know".

Anyways, just my impression. The Danes invited me to their Thursday food club.