Learning Danish

So before I came over here I had every intention of trying to learn some Danish. After all, while in Denmark.....

However that has all come crashing around. Why? The Danish language is hard! Really hard. First of all they make sounds my mouth doesn't even know how to make. But thats not strange as I've noticed that in the all the other language as well.

But the hardest part here, is even if you start reading the language, they don't pronounce the whole word. They pronounce only part of the word and combine words and everything turns into a big melted pot of taffy. You can't pull it apart.

Want to know what i'm talking about? Go to this site
http://www.speakdanish.dk/
They have little audio links to the sentences. You have to listen to it like 10 times just to figure out they actually are saying what is written.

Crazy! So other then the basics I don't know how much I'm going to pick up. Maybe just the "Hey how you doin?"

Logan

Not much

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
- Dr. Seuss

Not much happening. Just saw this quote on my google homepage and wanted to keep it.

Sorry no picture yet. Two reasons for that
1. I lost the converter for the european outlets (sorry Cory)so i haven't wanted to use my camera too much and kill the battery. But I have a new set on the way from Ebay Honk Kong.
2. I can't access my website. Neither the network at work or at the dorm lets me access the site. All i can do is update the blog through blogger. So i may have to enlist the help of someone, tell them how to access the FTP and send them pics to move on to the site.

Other then that, we had japanese food last night. Nori, our resident Japanese guy bought a bunch of food and we all helped him cook it up.

And for the last two days i've gotten reaquainted with my old friend matlab as I write a program to sift through 100,000+ lines of raw data from compression tests.

Peace out!

Logan

Three Months Gone

Wow...so I've been gone three months today and I've now been in Denmark for three weeks! I can't believe it, time is absolutely flying.

It's wierd when I think about home. On one hand I obviously miss it. I miss home and family and real food. Just hanging out with all my friends whether it be going to a movie, chilling by the hot tub, or inviting people over to 'play' *cough* work *cough*

But at the same time, I wake up and I'm in Denmark! I'm living a dream. I've been to 11 different countries, met people from every continent on earth, tasted foods I would have never thought of eating before, it's truly unreal. I am having the time of my life and I wouldn't trade it for anything. And truthfully, this trip only makes me want more. There is so much more I want to see and do, I just need to figure out an oppurtunity to do it.

So in conclusion, I miss everybody but I'm having a great time!

Skule!

Logan

Planets Revised

So for those of you that care. My previous post was the new 'proposal' put out at the convention. However today at the vote it got voted down. As such Pluto is no longer a 'classical' planet, our we now only have 8 planets. Here is the new defintion.

For now, membership will be restricted to the eight "classical" planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Much-maligned Pluto doesn't make the grade under the new rules for a planet: "a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit."

Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune's.

Instead, it will be reclassified in a new category of "dwarf planets," similar to what long have been termed "minor planets." The definition also lays out a third class of lesser objects that orbit the sun -- "small solar system bodies," a term that will apply to numerous asteroids, comets and other natural satellites.
http://articles.news.aol.com/news/

IAESTE Getogether

So this last weekend was the Aalborg IAESTE Getogether. Basically other IAESTE students throughout Denmark are invited to come up and experience the wonder of north Denmark.

Unfortunately the turnout wasn't huge this year. There were six students from Copenhagen and two from farther south. Adding that to the four of us here in Aalborg and the organizing staff it was a group of 18 or so.

The overall plan for the weekend was good...but the weather was not. It rained all weekend, never stopped.

So Saturday we went up to the far north of Denmark. All along the coast is sand and sand dunes. We visited a lighthouse and a church that were being swallowed by the encroaching shoreline and moving sand dunes. Then we went to the northern most point called Skagen. It is this little point that juts out from the top of Denmark. And at the tip the Baltic Sea and the North Sea meet. And they actually meet, like crash goes the waves. Pretty cool.

Saturday night we visited Jomfru Ana Gade, which suffice to say is the bar street here in Aalborg, but I will have to make a post all to itself to describe Jomfru. But it was a good night.

Sunday we simply toured the historic center of Aalborg...in the rain.

All in all a good weekend. And now I know tons of people to stay with should I make a trip to Copenhagen.

Logan

My New Address

Just a quick note i now have a fixed address for the next 3.5 months. You know, for those of you sending me a birthday card ;-)

And i'll add it to the side bar as well

Logan Jones
Øster Uttrup Vej 3,2-107
9000 Aalborg, Denmark

More Planets

So as many of you might have heard, they are changing the defintion of a planet. Over the last week over 3000 astronomers have gathered at a big conference in Prague to discuss what exactly is a planet.

There were thoughts that the would drop Pluto from the planet list simple because it is too small and is thought to simply be part of the Kuiper belt, which is populated by tens of thousands of objects.

However the new definition will be as follows
-- A planet is any round object larger than 800 kilometers (nearly 500 miles) in diameter that orbits the sun and has a mass at least about one-12,000th that of Earth. Moons and asteroids will make the grade if they meet those basic tests.

So as of now there will be three new planets added to the list. Pluto's largest moon, Charon (which is almost the same size as Pluto, so they will now be known as double planets); 2003 UB313, or Xena, the farthest-known object in the solar system; and the asteroid Ceres (between Mars and Jupiter), which was a planet in the 1800s before it was demoted.

But they say that within the next couple years there could be dozens more 'planets' as more are found in the Kuiper belt. Also of note, our moon is bigger than all of these 'new' planets but because the graviational center between Earth and the Moon is in the Earth's crust it cannot count.

On a side note, i was listening to the Bear's morning show via internet radio an methinks Gillian Foote should actually read the news before reporting it. She reported that there will be new planets added and that the definition of a planet will be changed to 'anything that orbits the sun.' (she repeated this statement 5-6 times over the course of the morning) Anything that orbits the sun huh...wow we now have over 100,000 planets including every asteriod and comet that comes by every 10,000 years.

There you go. A little stray from my usual, this is what's happening in my life blog.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/008200608171025.htm

Settling Down in Denmark

Finally an update. Sorry for the long wait. I just got my computer at work today and before that I only had quick use of my roomates computer so I didn't want to take much time.

Wow who knew so much could happen in a week. But I guess that's what happens when you move to a new country, move out on your own and start a new job. So much to write. But i'll save some so this doesn't turn into an really really long one.

People
So it seems appropriate to start this off my introducing some people. Sorry no pics yet, maybe i'll do that soon.

The Other IAESTE Trainees
Ales is from the Czech Republic and is in software writing. Here is here in Aalborg for 1 year working for one of the companies who writes the software for mobile phones.

Iva is from Serbia and is also in softward writing. She is here for one year and is also working at the same company.

Dorota is from Poland and is just here for 6 weeks and is working for a Civil Engineering company here.

The Dorm
First off is my roomate, Baliz (pronounced Bailey, like the drink). He is from Hungary and just finished his high school. He saw a presentation on the college system here in Denmark and decided this was the place for him. So he will be studying computer science here for the next 2 years. We get along great. We've been playing table tennis and watching movies on his laptop (we watched Fast and the Furious: Tokoyo Drift, it was good).

The building is full of international students. The first sunday I was there we had a dinner getogether and there was 13 of us. Then this latest sunday we had a pizza making night and there was 17 of us. There was 5 Polish, two Mexicans, two Spanish guys, two cute French girls, Serbia, Czech Republic, two Chinese guys, a Japanese guy, my Hungarian roomate, Iranian, a guy from Lebanon...i think that is it for now. There are Danish people staying in the dorm as well but they never come out for the getogethers. So yeah, it's really cool meeting all these people.

The first couple days were a little hard. Everyone speaks English in the dorm, but for the first time I found it a little hard because I was the only one with English as my native language. So everyone else had something in common, english was their second language. So they felt comfortable talking to each other because if they made mistakes it was common. Where as I think some might have been nervous to speak to me as they think their english isn't the best where as mine is....well native. But everything is good now that I've gotten to know them better and have even asked me to help correct their english which always is hard for me to correct them but it's all good. Plus I'm learning more of other languages, especially some french words.


Shopping
Ok, seriously I shouldn't be allowed to go shopping.
1. I like food way too much and I want a lot of things when I go shopping
2. I don't know what things are supposed to cost!! What's a good deal? Especially when the price is doubled and converted to the Danish Kroner.
But like a good boy, i've been writing everything down and prices to eventually get the hang of it.

Cooking
So everyone knows I'm not the best cook....ok so I can barley cook at all. But what I can do is follow directions!! But...the directions are in Danish so I can't even do that. So i've mostly been eating Spaghetti, hot dogs, boiled and fried potatoes, noodles, pre-made pizzas and bacon and eggs.

So if anyone has some simple stupid proof recipes they'd like to send me I would be most obliged. Keep in mind I own a pot, one fork, one knife, a spatula, I borrow Baliz frying pan, and the oven is basically a toaster oven. So there you go. See what you can do for me.

Work
Work is good, actually really good. I have my own office and stuff. I will save the nature of my work for another post. But it's really intersting and everyone here has been really helpful and friendly.

Life in Aalborg
Denmark is another Netherlands. Everything is flat and bikes are everywhere!!!. Seriously, there are more bikes then people, and bikes are worth nothing since there are so much. Coincidentally I got a bike for nothing, it was left in the basement of our building by someone last year who couldn't sell it when they finished last year since bikes are worth nothing. So I ride to work everyday. It's all downhill on the way there, so it takes like 10 mins. About 25 mins on the way home.

The city is nice and small. Around 100,000. Hence you can bike anywhere in town in 15 minutes (unless it's uphill :-) )

We went to a couple out door movies last week which were fun. I saw Kiss Kiss Bang Bang which was a really great, witty, funny movie. And then saw the Legend of Zorro again.

Ok before this post turns outrageously long I'll end it. I will try to have smaller more frequent posts in the future.

Thanks for the comments. Took me a minute to figure out who the Ken was that was posting, had to look at the picture :-) Thanks!!

Logan

Here in Aalborg

Just a quick note. I made it to Aalborg. I got my accomodations, I'm in a dorm for a technical university. My room is definitely just a big closet. A bed/coach, a desk and a chair, tada! I share a bathroom and shower with a roommate, a guy from Hungary. And I share the kitchen with my floor.

So...living on my own...what will i eat lol

Anyways, i'm just at an internet cafe, so I won't be on much until I start work on Thursday.

Peace

Logan

Kjerag Hike

Hey guess what? I learned how to levitate!! Check it out

So i've added some more pictures from our hike to Kjerag. It was by far the most strenous hike i've done. The whole first kilometer of the hike we were mostly pulling ourselves up on chain hooked into the rock face. Then we just get to the top and we just have to decend into a valley and do it overagain on the next hill. But it was all worth it!

As you can see the main picture point is the rock wedged into the crevice. It was a little scary seeing as it was 400m straight down below that rock. The ledge i'm standing on is 1000m above sea, which didn't really seem like much till I thought 'hey that's 10 football fields' Staggering!

There was a guy doing a tightrope walk across, right behind the rock. It was a pretty windy day, and he fell once (caught by the safety rope of course) but made it on his second try. This is also a popular base jumping cliff, but far too windy on this day to try it.

All in all, we took 2hrs up and 1.5hrs back, with 3 hrs driving each way. Check out the road.

Tomorrow is my last day here and I'm sad to leave. Norway is so beautiful, the whole country seems like a post card. But i'm excited to get to Bergen, settle down in my own place and go to work.

I'll try and compile like a Best of / Worst of List from my travels and post it tomorrow. If you have any suggestions i.e. worst toiletpaper, best beer etc... let me know

Logan

August already

Time is sure flying right now. I've been gone over 9 weeks, hard to believe. Well here is my Norway update. I'm staying here with Anne, her husband Kurt, their daughter Åse and often her boyfriend Anders. If you wondering how I know Anne, well she stayed as an exchange student with my mother back when they were 18. Then her and Åse came to visit our family about 8 yrs ago. Pretty cool how they've stayed in touch.

They are such a great family. Anne's father owned a lot of land here in Jørpeland from the mountain all the way down to the sea. So just a few years ago they sold their house farther up the mountain and built their dream home right on the sea, beside their 60ft fishing boat. It is a beautiful home in beautiful surroundings. The area here is very similar to the San Juan area around Vancouver island. Lots of little islands with mountainous, treed terrain all the way down to the sea.

So what have I done here.

Well Anne and I did the hike to Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock), one of the most famous hikes in Norway. Anne hikes a lot so with her leading the way we did the 2hr hike in 1hr 10mins. I've posted pictures in the photo gallery. The scenery is simply incredible, it was breath taking hiking over top of the hill and seeing the massive fjord. Viewing the fjords you can see how myths came about. It is like the glaciers had a 1000 fingers with a 1000 long fingernails and as they retreated they desperately dug their fingernails into the land to stop themselves. It also shows you why it is so hard to travel here. You either ferry across the fjord or burrow under it. If you've got Google Earth just type in Tau Norway to see what I mean.

We took a day trip to Stavanger (1\2 hr ferry ride) for the food festival and visited the Oil Museum. Despite my lack of interest in working in the oil industry in Alberta, I found the Oil Museum here really interesting. Stavanger is the oil capital of Norway the starting point for all of the Oil Rigs out in the North Sea.

I went out on Kurt and Anne's boat and did some fishing. Didn't catch too much but it was just nice to be out on the water enjoying the sea air and the sun.

I also got to go waterskiing which was amazing! I thought I wouldn't get to go at all this year, but I actually got to go twice. Kurt's brother had a boat so I went with them one day and then the next day I got to go again with one of Anders friend. Both times I dropped my ski and tried some Slalom. I was pretty out of shape though and didn't last long before I crashed, but it was fun all the same.

Other then that just some small 1-2 hr hikes around the area (they hike a lot here and why not they literally live in the mountains). I went out with Åse and Anders on Sat night to Stavanger and met a bunch of their friends. They are often shy to speak English at first because they don't think their english is good, but it doesn't take them long to open up and start speaking. And their English is great, far better than they think, better than a lot of Canadians I know :-)

Only three more days left. I leave Friday night for Denmark and will be in Aalborg Saturday around noon. My days of travelling are about over. But not yet. Tomorrow we are going to hike to Kjerag a 1000m peak further down the Lyse fjord. It will be a full day, 2 hrs driving each way interrupted by a 5 hr return hike to the peak. But it is the tallest peak in the area so I can't wait!

Hope everyone is doing well!

Logan