Fact 2: Denmark is windy

I'm coming up on two full weeks in Denmark and I am beginning to settle in.  I'm living in a small apartment (and I mean small: one room, bathroom, stovetop, minifridge) located about a ten minute walk from my university campus.  The town I'm in, Roskilde (pronounced gutteral "r"- oss-kill-duh) is a smallish place located on one of Denmark's many fjords.  It's also a 20 minute train ride from downtown Copenhagen so the big city is accessible if I want it.

My academic curriculum consists of 3 classes that meet at most twice a week, plus a large, semester-long research project.  Right now, it looks like I will be working with a student from India on a project to determine the best way to implement small-scale wind and solar hybrid power stations in rural parts of the developing world.  Should be pretty interesting.  I'm hoping to work with some Danish companies that already produce wind turbines on how they can adapt their technology to impoverished rural areas.  Denmark is pretty much ground-zero for wind power expertise.  The first thing I saw as my plane descended on Copenhagen airport was a line of turbines in the Oresund Sound and I can see a wind turbine every time I walk from my apartment to class.

It's really no surprise, however, because the wind blows here literally all the time.  It's not bad in and of itself, but it is often accompanied by overcast skies and some light rain.  My first weekend in Copenhagen was warm and nice, but I'm starting to worry that it might have been the last good weather until spring.

Once I get a bike, which will hopefully be next week, I plan to do some long riding up and down the fjord.  Roskilde fjord was one of the points from which the Vikings embarked on their voyages around Europe and there are supposed to be cool historical sites all around here.  Additionally, I've discovered that there is a Saturday basketball league organized by the university so I won't have to wait until I'm back in the States to hoop.  Woo-hoo!

Until next time...