Corrections and Other Things

Number one: I was dreadfully misinformed/unobservant of the fact that Danes do, in fact, lock their bikes. This truth was revealed upon having a conversation with a classmate on the subject, who, too, had believed that the Danes seemed a little too trusting to behave in such a way - until the dude she rented her bike from set her straight. IN FACT, while it looks like all of the bikes are left on the street footloose and fancy free, there are actually these super effective, ingeniously subtle padlock-esque contraptions that close around the wheel of a bicycle so that the rider a) can simply set the bike into a nifty upright bike stand on the street and b) lock the bike extremely quickly in a way that there isn't an unnecessary amount of time spent in the bike-securing process. Voila!

For someone who was never promoted to a two-wheeler (sorry, publicly outing yet again Mom and Dad), I sure seem to be spending a lot of time writing about bikes. The fact remains that while there are other things to talk about, this is the one subject that is most recurrent in casual conversation among DIS students. Things that I´ve actually been doing, not just observing or thinking about, include:

+Visiting the Louisiana Museum, Denmark´s MOMA, which required taking the regional train line along the beautiful Danish Riviera, which obviously I ADORED because TRAINS and ART are the two best things
+Paying my regards at Kronborg Palace, also known as the castle associated with the Hamlet myth, which was actually a very boring historical site even for a person who normally geeks out over such things (SHAKESPEARE WALKED THESE HALLS, FOR CHRISTS SAKE! But I digress)
+Visiting the flagship studio at Louis Poulsen, the quintessential and highly influential (apparently) Danish lighting design firm. Batesies, for reference - the cool giant lighting fixtures in the P.Gill atrium? Imitations of the PH Artichoke, the 50th anniversary of which Louis Poulsen is celebrating by releasing an edition of 50 24-carat gold plated versions of the classic design. It'll set you back €70,000, but apparently it's worth it! My professor and the LP evangelist who was leading us around kept talking about how these lighting fixtures were objects with investment value, like modern art or real estate. Okay
+ Attending a lecture by Kenneth Frampton (no relation to recording star Peter), an ancient architectural historian who teaches at Columbia University and was at the Danish Architecture Center tonight to give a talk entitle "Global Danish Architecture - Tradition and Crisis." Coincidentally, he didn´t seem to know anything about Danish architecture, eventually admitted as much, and as a result had nothing much more to say on the subject. Oh well
+Writing my first group paper. On open space edge effects in a city I've been in for a grand total of five days. Womp womp
+Looking for decent food. The count so far: one good coffee shop, one reliably delicious bakery, and one truly excellent Indian restaurant. I also ate one of the famous hotdogs from a street vendor, which, like pretty much all street food I've ever eaten, instantly made me feel sick. But it still tasted awesome.

In case you can't tell, I'm already a little overstimulated and burnt out from being in a new place in this very odd and unfamiliar academic setting. So I'm resolving to take it a little easy, or as much as I can, over the next couple of days at least, to try to settle in a little bit more. It's very strange and exhausting to try to make ever waking second "count" in a recognizably meaningful way, just because I am traveling and by definition such an experience is categorically thrilling and dizzying (and I haven't even been to Tivoli yet!). It's difficult to remind myself that I've been here for less than a week, that there's plenty of time ahead of me to make my time here what I want it to be - once I figure out what I mean by that, of course. I guess I need to accept the fact that I am resistant to blatantly touristic activities by nature and yet have been spending the majority of my time so far in places where tourists go and doing things that tourists do and this is just part of the experience - it's meant to help me get situated, contextualize the rest of my time here, yada yada. So okay then. HEY THERE CULTURE SHOCK! I now welcome you with open arms.