At long last...Castles!

Hi All,

My roommate AJ (a fellow Fulbrighter and NC State-grad) had a high-school friend named Kenny come and visit him for the past week and a half. On Monday, Kenny and I decided to take a popular Copenhagen day-trip that I hadn't gotten around to doing yet: taking the train to the Danish city of Helsingør and taking the 20 minute ferry ride across the Øresund to the Swedish city of Helsingborg. Helsingborg and Helsingør are at the top of the map below, Copenhagen (København) is at the bottom. The train ride takes about an hour.

Helsingør is most famous as the location of Kronborg Castle, the setting of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Shakespeare changed the name of the town to Elsinore. So, after five and a half months, I was about to see my first European castle. Here are some photos from the trip...

The Gates of Kronborg. To get it out of the way, this picture was taken around 11 am. The sun is pretty much a stranger in Denmark from November to April.

The castle has been rebuilt several times, and its current form is a Renaissance/Enlightenment version

The original purpose of the castle was to guard the straits between Denmark and Sweden, and to force merchants to pay dues to the Danish Crown

To enter, or not to enter, that is the question. And the answer is no. The interior is closed Mondays. Ouch.

This video will give you an idea of why mid-February is the WORST time to visit Helsingør.

It's hard to see, but that's me!

After the twenty minute ferry-ride to Sweden, we had a delicious Scandinavian lunch of roast beef, garlic potatoes and fresh tomatoes. We then went across the street to check out the ancient Church of St. Mary

Stations of the cross on a 14th century North German altar screen. Rad.

Frescoes!

What a troublemaker...

Sweden has its own castle, which is actually located smack in the middle of the city of Helsingborg. Not to be confused with the Danish city of Helsingør just across the straight.

Statue of David. A bit different take than Michelangelo...

The "Swedish" castle was actually built by the Danes, as they ruled southern Sweden for about 1000 years. Take that, Swedes!

View of Helsingborg

Helsingborg's town hall

On the ferry back to Denmark

Kronborg from the ferry

Before getting back on the train to Copenhagen, we stopped at Denmark's oldest pastry shop. I had an UNBELIEVABLE piece of cake/danish thing, and promptly forgot its name. At least I have reason to return...

The Dark Side of "Finding Yourself"

Hi All,

I apologize for the long gap between posts; my excuse is that...well...there's not really much going on right now. My new classes are just getting underway and the weather (cold and snowy, kinda like most of the U.S., apparently) makes me eager to stay home where it's warm. I'm pretty excited, however, about the new research project I'll be starting on Denmark's efforts to adapt their power grid to increased wind energy and electric car usage.

While on the phone with Mom the other day, I remarked how I am one of the younger students in my Masters program. Most of the Danish and international students are in their mid-to-late twenties, and some are much older. In talking with Danes about this, I found out that in addition to graduating high school later (usually at 19), many Danes take some time off after that to travel or work before heading to college. As a result, it seems (and may be completely wrong) that Danes often have a better sense of their career (and life) goals by the time they start at university. I think that this is rarely the case for the average U.S. college freshman, and would also venture to guess that their are a fair amount of graduating seniors who still have no idea what they want to do for the long term. As a result, one's twenties become somewhat of a "find yourself" period where people bounce between jobs (or lack thereof) and often cities looking for something that fits.

You're probably thinking that this entry is a way for me to vent some angst about going through the situation I just described (and you're partly right), but I have a larger point, too. While this soul-searching period may sound like a trying but ultimately beneficial step in growing up, there is reason to believe that if done in a certain fashion, and particularly during certain times, it can actually do more harm than good. Unfortunately, this happens to be one of those times.

I read a pretty sobering article in The Atlantic today about the consequences of prolonged high-unemployment rates on society, particularly young people and men. While the economy is apparently growing again, unemployment remains at around 10 percent, and some projections have it staying their for another four years. The unemployment rate for young people is even worse. According to Pew survey cited in the article, the percentage of people ages 16 to 26 participating in the workforce fell ten percent over the last decade, to 56%. Unfortunately, this isn't entirely explained by increased enrollment in college. Job offers to graduating college seniors fell by 20% last year, and I can tell you that, anecdotally, I staggering amount of my friends have left school with no job prospects and no success after months of searching. The Atlantic article points out that their are real consequences to long periods of unemployment when your young. Kids who graduate during a recession are still making less money than their peers who didn't decades later. One stat says that the average gap in total earnings over a lifetime is $100,000. A hundred grand.

So, now that my generation knows we're screwed, we should probably get started on blaming somebody. Obviously there are tons of good candidates: Banks, politicians, terrorists, the Chinese. Unfortunately, at least according to several sociologists, some of the responsibility lies in the way that people my age think and behave. Translation: as my parents have told me for years, we're spoiled. Didn't get your dream job out of college? Just move in with your parents and chill out for awhile. No need to think long-term, being a twenty-something is about enjoying yourself. We have a sense that we're all exceptional and that things will not only work out, they will work out without us having to undergo any of the pain or suffering related to, you know, hard work. As much as I hate for my generation to be generalized, I have to say that there might be some truth to this. I can even see some of that mindset in myself.

It'd be nice if there was an easy solution, but looking for easy solutions is what got us in trouble in the first place. And by "us" I don't just mean young people. Rather than bemoan the turns of fate that thrust us into the job market during the worst economy in 30 years, the twenty-somethings need to take the best job that we can find, however undesirable, live independently, but within our means, and save for the future. If we're lucky, our learned resiliency and resourcefulness will benefit us down the road. And if worse comes to worse, we can always blame our parents for how we turned out.

A Feel-Good Film

With Christmas season long gone and football season set to wrap up on Sunday (despite the 12:30 am start time, I WILL be tuning in), I think it's time to reflect on the next important epoch of this new year: Oscar season.

I thoroughly enjoyed "Up In The Air" and "Avatar," but perhaps my favorite recent movie is one that is highly unlikely to garner a golden statuette, much less a nomination nod: "Goodbye Solo." From North Carolinian Ramin Bahrani, "Goodbye Solo" is the story of a Senegalese cab-driver named Solo and the friendship he strikes up with an old man named William whom he picks up one night on the streets of Winston-Salem. The first time they meet, William tells Solo he will pay him $1000 to pick him up in one week's time and drive him to Blowing Rock, high in the Great Smokies, and leave him there.

The movie's portrayal of an immigrant's life in my home state got me thinking about all the immigrants I have seen in Europe. In Copenhagen, a lot of the non-native population is Middle Eastern. I get my hair cut by an Iraqi Kurd. My local fast food of choice is falafel with chili wrapped in pita bread from one of the zillions of corner shops named Pizza, Kebab or Burger Grille and run by Turks. It's impossible to go to the laundromat or grocery store without passing a woman in a headscarf.

As in many other Western European countries, the immigrant population creates a degree of discomfort among the locals when their deeply-avowed sense of tolerance rubs up against their deeply-ingrained sense of cultural unity. The ideological core of their welfare state is based on a "contract" whereby the people adhere to certain values (like civil liberties and democracy), perform certain tasks (work, pay taxes) and, though it's less commonly acknowledged, embrace Danish culture and national identity. In return, the government guarantees (and often pays for) things like health care, education, and retirement.

Whether or not that system is best is another debate, but as it pertains to immigrants the problem arises when "New Danes," as the preferred nomenclature calls them, get the governmental benefits without buying into the values, particularly the thorny one of Danish cultural identity. This leads to the political rise of ultra-nationalist parties like the Danish People's Party. An election poster a few blocks from my apartment featuring party leader Pia Kjærsgaard's face has been adorned with a Hitler mustache, showing how some feel about the group's policies. The fact that they have gained seats in parliament in every election for the past ten years shows their resonance.

In many ways, this situation makes me appreciate the American outlook. I know the general sentiment right now is that our country is in a funk. We're deep in debt, people can't find work and the political system is incapable of providing solutions. At a time when the future looks pretty bleak, one can take heart in the fact that as a nation of immigrants, I believe we do a very good (but certainly not perfect) job of adapting our culture to outside influences rather than forcing others to conform. In a world that is inevitably becoming more fluid, more transnational and more multicultural, I think this gives us a big advantage. If you're still feeling glum, I suggested watching "Goodbye Solo." It definitely put a smile on my face.