Here's to the Night, Tomorrow's going to come to soon

A little reference to the Eve 6 song right there...

So i've been neglecting the blog. There are so many things I should have written about in the days leading up to my departure. For instance my final weekend here which consisted of a good night with all my Kollegium friends on Friday, a traditional Danish Christmas party with the football team on Saturday and Ice Skating in the center on Sunday.

And I never did post about my work...but i'll do that when i get home.

So today is rushed. The only reason i'm even writing this, is because i'm waiting for a CD to burn on the computer so I can have a copy of the work i've done. As usual, i've left everything to the last minute...

So here's the plan, stan. I leave here in 5hrs, take a train/bus to Aarhus. Hop a plane and go to London. Sleep over in the wonderful Stansted airport, get up the next morning and board a plane to Iceland. There I will meet Nori and we will pick up our rental car and tour Iceland for 4 days. Hopefully seeing the waterfalls and geysers and the Northern Lights. Then Tues I hop back on a plane to London, spend 24hrs in London with Sergi and then hop on a plane to Calgary.Then I jump on one more plane and be back in E-town at 5pm Wednesday!

So I also want to post about just how awesome all my friends are here...but I don't want to rush it in two minutes. So I will post later, but needless to say I had just a really great night for my last night here. You guys are rock, I'm going to miss you all!

And the CD has just popped out, gotta run!

Logan

Coming Home to Murder City

I was all ready today, to come in and write a nice happy post about all the good times being had in our Kollegium kitchen, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Today I logged onto my Google New Canada, and look what I read.

Weekend sees five stabbings in Edmonton

and

Edmonton's murder rate rooted in demographics: experts

which states that

Their deaths came the week after Statistics Canada released a study showing Edmonton had the highest murder rate among major Canadian cities.

The Alberta capital, with 4.29 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2005, surpassed Winnipeg's rate of 3.72.

And after this weekend, Edmonton is on pace to break last year's record of 44 victims.

Unbelievable! I don't know...i'm not even sure what to write. It's disgusting really. Really makes me look forward to coming home. "Hey everyone, I'm moving back home to the murder capital of Canada."

And the majority of the stabbings are happening outside of the bars, and the majority are stabbings. We could say that the problem is Whyte Ave, and it's large concentration of bars in a small area, leads to a higher probability of problems occurring. But I don't think so.

Here in Aalborg we have Jomfru Ana Gade, effectively known as 'the street.' 26 bars, packed along a pedestrian street that is maybe 4m wide by 5om long. And every weekend it is packed, literally like sardines with people in the bars and partying on the streets (no open alcohol laws). And I haven't once seen or heard of any major problems (granted I can't read the news....but you would think word would travel if something did happen).

No the problem is the society. Starting with our embarrassing justice system, Teen Gets four Years for Rolston Murder. Three out of the four 'teens' who bludgeoned another kid to death get two year conditional sentences to be served in the community??? Big punishment! That ought a put the fear into people who are thinking of murdering someone.

And lastly, in my little tirade, what happened to a the fist fight. Now I'm not condoning violence, but tempers rise (especially with alcohol it seems) but in the old days this would lead to a fist fight. Somebody would go home a little bruised and battered, but the conflict was settled and everyone moved on...alive! But now days, a conflict isn't settled until someone is dead. And it seems a fight doesn't end until someone ends it with a knife.

Bahh, I'm disgusted. That's all I am going to write.

What to write about.....

So as most of you know... my 'chillin like a villain' time in Europe is quickly coming to an end. And I'm at a loss of what I should write on here.

14 days from today I leave my home (yes, I call it my home) here in Aalborg. Then I've got one more excursion with five days in Iceland with Nori. Then Dec 6th I board the plane for home...well Calgary and then find a way back to Edmonton from Calgary on the evening of the 6th.

There are lots of topics that have been running through my head, but I can't seem to find the will to actually write them. Things I would 'like' to post about in the next couple weeks.
- An overview of my work here. What did I actually do. 'Hopefully' complete with pretty pictures and maybe a movie or two...if I can ever get a working simulation
- Leaving my friends here
- Hi-lights of my 6 month adventure abroad
- My future plans...I guess I need to actually have some plans before I can do that one ;-)

Yeah...maybe some other stuff.. we'll see. I think right now I'm just in a funk. Work is just plain tiring. I want to get my model working before I leave, but for the past week I've been running simulation after simulation with the end result either being ERROR TERMINATION or my model explodes. I'm getting very frustrated sitting in front of this computer ALL DAY. Couple that with the fact that there is no more football, so I have nothing to burn all this energy I accumulate sitting in a desk (people who know me, know that me, going without sports for an extended period of time is a bad thing).

And of course, as much I try not to think about leaving here, it's in the back of my mind and it's sad. Lastly, I think I've seen the sun for all of a couple hours over the last couple weeks. It is forever cloudy here :-(

Thats it....oh look another ERROR TERMINATION.....what a surprise.

The Arrival of Christmas Beer

So November the 3rd, 8:59pm. What is that? Well that is the exact time that the breweries here in Denmark release the famed Christmas Beer.

There are three major parties in Denmark. The Aalborg festival in the spring, New Years and....the release of the Christmas Beer.

So of course I had to go downtown and see what all the big fuss is about. Well it was actually pretty cool. The whole street was decorated, Christmas trees everywhere with ornaments and decorations. Some of the bars even brought in snow (from where I don't know). A lot of the people had on green and red Santa hats along with flashing red led lights all over the place.

And of course it was packed, the whole street, with people. Everyone having a good ol time. I gotta admit, it seemed a little strange to me, to see such a big party over the release of a type of beer. But I guess it's more tradition than anything.

Oh and as for the beer....in my opinion it's nothing special. A little bit sweeter then a regular beer, but overall not the greatest taste.

I tried in vain to download these funny commercials Tuborg has on their website about the Christmas beer, but they are embedded inside of a shockwave object so I couldn't retrieve them, or find them on YouTube. But you should navigate here. They have a funny little intro, then you can click Film and Downloads and then Film. They have three short little videos, two of them shows you a fun little Christmas Beer dance you can do with your friends :-D

In other news, football is now done. We lost our playoff game on the weekend and are now out. We were missing some key players for the game, but overall we were simply outplayed by a better team. But we had a great run, and I had the most fun I've had playing football in a long time. The team played so well together and moved the ball and worked hard all the time. It was great to be a part of.

Well that's all for now. Yay for the weekend!

Logan

Weather and Halloween

Ahhhh Halloween, how much fun you are! So it's no secret, I have lots of fun at Halloween. Costumes rock, maybe it's the 12 year old that is still largely a part of me. So I was feeling a little disappointed, because they do not celebrate Halloween much here in Denmark, just the little kids. No chance to dress up this year????

But luckily on last Thursday I was informed of a Halloween party at one of the other Kollegiums. Of course that didn't give me much time to prepare a costume, actually no time. But being the creative guy that I am, I put the following costume together in 35 mins, using some socks, string, and pieces of my wooded coat hanger I promptly broke.

Guess who I am? If you guessed Wolverine, you get a GOLD STAR! So either way that was fun, I got to dress up, life is good!

I was going to write and complain about the weather. You see, Denmark has been kind to me. All I heard about coming here was how much it rained. But surprisingly, August, September and the first half of October were...pretty good!! Well that changed because it has rained pretty much solid for the last two weeks. It sucked! RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN! I guess Denmark wouldn't let me get away without experiencing it.

That is until yesterday....because I woke up to SNOW!!!! That's right, SNOW! Now unfortunately it was no, wake up in Edmonton with a 0.3m of snow (down with the British units), but it was big fat snowflakes nonetheless! Of course they melted as soon as they touched down due to the +2 degree weather. But it was cool to see the white stuff again. I hear Edmonton has quite a bit already....

Well thats it. Today the sun is back. Oh how I missed thee.

Irrigation of the land with seawater desalinated by fusion power is ancient. It's called 'rain'.
- Michael McClary

Wii Trailer

Had to post it!

Pictures!

Finally! For some reason, I can finally access my webpage from back at the dorm. So i used Baly's computer and uploaded a bunch of pictures. More to come for sure. Check them out
http://www.uncasvet.com/cgi-bin/emAlbum.cgi

What a wicktacular weekend!

(FYI: Wicktacular is my combination of wicked and spectacular. Pretty sweet eh?)

So after a couple of...not so exciting weeks here in Aalborg, this weekend rocked!

This weekend was the football clubs 'Activities Weekend.' So saturday morning we boarded the bus to a little place called Grimstead 45 mins out of town. We ended up at Grinstead hall. There was about 30 of us, about 18 guys and around 12 girls. For the couple hours of the afternoon they rented a 'clown' of sorts. He had us doing all sort of crazy stuff like throwing a bean bag between our legs, over our head and then a partner catching it in their shorts. Then he had us doing some acrobatic routines of balancing on each other... some of them were definitely awkward positions, but that made it all the more funny. And finally he brought out a whole bunch of trick stuff to try. Like juggling, unicycles, spinning a plate on a stick etc... Good stuff!

After that we split up into 6 teams and played a mini tournament in three sports. The first was blind ball, where we were blind folded and crawled around on the floor rolling a big ball that had bells inside to jingle and listen for. The second game was velcro ball. The ball was made of velcro and we wore jersey's that had a velcro patch on the chest and on the butt. So you couldn't catch with your hands. That was cool. And finally the last game was hockey. Some teams thought our team wasn't exactly fair, seeing as they had the lone 'Canadian' on their team :-D So as expected our team went undefeated in hockey and won the overall tournament!! This allowed us first pick of the 'chores' for the weekend. So we chose to set the table for dinner. Piece of cake! Much better then the after dinner clean up another team got.

After that we walked 1km out into the bush to this cool cabin. It had like 5 rooms with bunkbeds everywhere, a big hall and a big kitchen. And after that we just partied the night away! My FIRST party with DANISH people. Hard to believe huh, i've been here almost 3 months, but my kollegium is all international students so i don't get to interact that much with the danish.

We played a lot of card games which were cool. For those who know hoe-down, i played a similar game called Star Wars, same sort of game. LUKE, I AM YOUR FATHER! ------- COOOOOOOOOOONECT!! Hahahaha....i'll have to show it you all when i get home.

Then came the only hard part. I went to bed around 4am (others were later) and we had to be up by 9am. Why? Well we had to clean up, eat breakfast and catch the bus back to Aalborg so we could play our football game!!!! Yep, we had an important match Sunday.

There are two teams here at the University. I played most of my time witht the Series 2 team, we finished middle of the pack and now our season is over. But the series 1 team finished first in their division, the fifth division. As such, they are now in a playoffs against the other 31 teams from all of northern Denmark that finished first in division 5. So it's simply one loss and your out, 5 games to win it all!

Well I've been called up to play for the Series 1 team, quite an honor. So Sunday was our first big match. We were all a little tired from the night before, but surprisingly it didn't affect us. I opened the scoring about 10 minutes in, and we quickly built a 2-0 lead. But they came back in the second to tie it up, before we finished them off 4-2! So we're moving on!!! Next Sunday we are travelling about 2hrs north to play another team!

By now your thinking, that is a sweet weekend! Well it wasn't finished.



I decided to bring my long tradition of pumpkin carving to the kollegium. Most there have never carved a pumpkin! So friday, Baly, Liis and I took the shopping cart to the store and bought five pumpkins. So sunday night we carved them!

It went really well, everyone had a great time, and we had some really cool designs. While we were doing the carving I baked the pumpkin seeds for people to try which was also a big hit. And as per usual when i seem to be doing carving, a pumpkin 'innards' fight broke out. So the after clean up of the kitchen....and the hallway....and the stairwell... took a little while. But a great time! I will post pictures of our pumpkins soon!

thats it, thanks again for the comments! It makes my day to come to the site and see people have commented. Lets me know i'm not talking to myself :-D

Logan 'Master Pumpkin Carver' Jones

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Ok, so i don't consider myself a video game geek. The last system I bought was the good ol N64 but then university started and that was about it.

But that hasn't stopped me from getting excited about the new Nintendo Wii! On one hand, you never want to get too excited because nothing ever lives up the hype and yet it's hard to help it, especially when you read articles like this, that virtually says it does indeed live up to the hype. For those of you who haven't heard much about it, the whole point of the wii is to change gaming. The control senses where it is and hence you use the movement of the controller to play the game.

So instead of hitting A to hit the tennis ball, you actually swing your arm like a tennis racket. Or you can yield the wii-mote like a sword and sword fight, or swing it in boxing, or hold it like a steering wheel and turn when racing. The possibilites are endless.

I gotta admit when I watch the demo's, the thrill of 'actually' throwing the winning touchdown will far surpass the old button mashing of the past. Leave it to good ol Nintendo to re-shape video gaming.

And of course it helps that the wii will cost less than half the PS3. So all this has me excited! I'm hoping i can get one preordered and by the time i get home on the 6th, there will be one waiting for me :-)

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Logan

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

So it was a weekend of ups and downs.

Friday was a good day. It was my roomate Baly's birthday so Nori and I went out and bought him a birthday cake, candles and a cheese grater as a present (he didn't have one). So Friday night we celebrated his birthday and had a really good time. Then we heard about a party at the international kollegium so off we went and had a good time there. However that walk home was nearly an hour, as such I was home pretty late. Usually not a problem but I had a football game the next morning.

As such the football game was pretty disappointing. We lost to a team we should not have lost against, and I just seemed a step behind the play all day. Frustrating. To top it off, I got taken down on a breakaway and somehow my thumb got caught on something and wrenched the wrong way. So I ended up ripping off part of the nail on my thumb and now I cannot really bend it or hold anything (it'll be fine in a couple days I figure). More frustration!

Sunday was just overall boring. Couple that with the fact that while I ate my noodles and hotdogs I was thinking of everyone back in Canada sitting down to turkey and stuffing and potatoes and gravy and pumpkin pie. *Sigh* I could really use some homemade Megan Pumpkin Pie. (for those of you not Canadian, this weekend is Thanksgiving where we sit down for a big feast and give Thanks to everything in our life)
http://www.twilightbridge.com/hobbies/festivals/thanksgiving/history.htm

But nevertheless I am of course Thankfull
I am thankfull for my parents, my family, my friends. I contribute who I am and where I am today to them. I'm thankfull I have had an oppurtunity to travel the world, experience culture, meet people from other countries and gain new friends. I'm thankfull I have a job here that is interesting and will further help me in my field. And I'm thankfull that this is only the beginning, there is so much more in life I'm looking forward to.

So HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE! I hope your having a wonderfull time!

If winter is slumber and spring is birth, and summer is life, then autumn rounds out to be reflection. It's a time of year when the leaves are down and the harvest is in and the perennials are gone. Mother Earth just closed up the drapes on another year and it's time to reflect on what's come before.

Mitchell Burgess, Northern Exposure, Thanksgiving, 1992

(and now I'm looking forward to Christmas turkey just that much more!!! )

Logan

I need the Oilers!

Well that is a good way to start the season! Good ol fashioned whoopin of our biggest rivals. Only one problem,

I DIDN'T GET TO WATCH IT!

i've searched the internet hi and dry to see if anyone is streaming NHL games. No luck. Even the CFL has signed a deal so that I can watch their games, either live for $9.95 or anytime for $6.95. Too bad the Eskimo's suck too much to bother paying. Anyways...

So if ANYONE know if ANYWAY i can watch the games, it would be most appreciated. Maybe, somebody has TVO and can record the game on their computer and then we can exchange them through a network. That would be grand!!! Not everygame of course. But i'd like to see one, once in awhile!

GO OILERS!!

A Visit from Home

So it was a good weekend. After a missed ferry ride and a missed train ride, my parents finally arrive at 12:15am Friday night (Saturday morning). The bed and breakfast I found turned out to be really nice. The hosts were great and at 325Kr a night, it's a steal compared to the hotels around here.

Saturday morning they came and watched my football game. It was against the undefeated team (the same that beat us 16-0 the first time) but overall it was a good game. We lost 4-2 but it was well played and I ended up scoring twice. My mom also tried out the new SLR camera on some action shots of me playing!

Saturday afternoon I showed them around the metropolis of Aalborg. It rained intermittently throughout the day so we basically just toured the downtown core and some of the parks.

Sunday we took the train to Copenhagen. Unfortunately there were limited seats and we got stuck in the smoking cabin. It was disgusting. After 5hrs my eyes were watering and everything smelled. This is where Europe lacks far behind Canada and USA, with their smoking laws and prices. Bahhhhh

Copenhagen was a nice city although it also rained intermittently all day. Trying to see a big city like Copenhagen in one day isn't ideal. There's so much to see, it can lead to frustration trying to fit everything in while dealing with early closing time and monday closing times. But we took a boat tour through the canals, climbed the 440 stairs to the top of an old church and visited the Hans Christian Anderson museum. So all in all it was a great weekend. Now my parents are back in Canada and back to work after their 24 day excursion through Europe.

Thats all for now!

Logan

Oktoberfest!?!?

So I'm usually not the most spontatneos guy. Maybe it is the engineer in me, but I like to have a plan. When, where and how I'm going?

But Wednesday evening, Alvaro came up and said 'Come on Logan, let's go to Munich for Oktoberfest' Why Not!

So saturday morning we rented a Volkswagen Pasat and took off, 1300 km to Munich! For all those that have heard rumors about the Autobahn in Germany and no speed limit...I can no attest first hand how true it is! There is three lanes, the slow lanes is usually around 120-140km/hr, the middle lane 140 - 160, and the fast lane...wow! I swear there were some cars passing us at atleast 220, maybe 240km/hr.

12hrs later at 10pm we arrived in Munich. After that long in the car I was having some doubts whether or not the trip was worth it. That feeling didn't take long to leave, as we rode the train into the center we met a group of middle aged Germans and we sang songs the whole ride in. And they gave each one of us some official souviners, so great!

Unfortunately by the time we got into Oktoberfest it was 11pm and the stop letting people into the beer tents. So that was a bit of a downer, but we rode some roller coasters, ate some bratwurst and headed into the center. We eventually took the 4am U-bahn back to the car, but we missed our stop and had to wait another hour until we finally got home....home being sleeping in the car. That was a great sleep!

So you have to be at the beer tents before 11am or you won't have a seat...well we didn't make it. So it took us over an hour to finally grab a seat as someone else was leaving. Let the fun begin!. We spent the next 6hrs drinking 1 litre beers, eating roasted chicken and meeting people. We said Prost with the young, the old, Germans, italians, hungarians. All day we looked for people dressed in the traditional dress and got our pictures taken with them.

By 5pm we went out and tried to ride some more roller coasters....which was quite the experience given our state. However, I played one of the games and shot a perfect 12 for 12 with the BeBe gun, and won a nice little prize.

Eventually by 8pm we were back in another beer hall as the band was beginning. For the next four hours we proceeded to dance on top of the tables, more Prost with the locals, met some cute German girls :-), tons more pictures with everyone. Simply a great great time!

Tons of more, smaller, funny stories. But I can't write them all. Hopefully I'll get some pictures up here soon but i'll add a couple samples (i took like 200 haha)

The ride home was tiring...there was an accident on the autobahn so we were parked for 2.5hrs...little setback. So it was a one day trip, drive saturday, party sunday and back home by monday night! Crazy!

Happy Birthday to Me

Post is a little late, due to the events taking place in the post above :-)

So my first birthday away from home was pretty good! Actually it got stretched over three days!

Wednesday night, as usual, we went to the Student House for student night. We stayed until after midnight so they sang me Happy Birthday when the clock struck midnight!

Thursday was still my birthday and Humbert's last day at the Kollegium before going back to Barcelona. So we convinved the bar in the kollegium to open up for a 'special occasion.' So we had another party and I got another Happy Birthday song. It was good times, but sad to see yet another leave the Kollegium.

Friday, my Japanese friend Nori, said he would make Sushi for my birthday! Well word got around and soon we had 20 people who wanted to eat Japanese sushi. So Nori and Alvaro, Sergi, Iva, Kenny and myself helped prepare in the evening and we all ate Sushi friday night. Villa brought be by a birthday cake as well, so I got yet another Happy Birthday song. A lot of fun!

Thanks to all those that sent me their best wishes either via this site or through e-mail. It is much appreciated. Unfortunately my phone didn't ring all day....but thats ok.

23 yrs old...where did the time go!

My Phone Number

Hey, just wanted to say I now have a phone at work. The number is
(+45) 96 35 9946 forty five is the country code.

I'm usually at work from 8:30am - 4pm or there abouts.
Thats 12:30am - 8am for those of you back in Alberta.

Just thought i'd post that...has nothing to do with the fact my birthday is in two days and someone might want to call me...for some reason or another....that's Thursday the 21st....of September.

Logan

Boat Races, Goodbyes and Goals!

Wow, so that was a packed weekend! I'll try to keep this post short.

Friday - What a day to leave my camera at home! So I got to witness the Danish boat races. Unfortunately I can't describe it. For one, I missed the opening and two, the commentary was in Danish. But it sorta looked like capture the flag...with kegs as the flag. And it took place in the 4ft deep lake in the middle of university. There were rafts made out of beer cans and duct tape as well as regular inflatable rafts. Oh and there were people dressed up as pirates!! Thats about all I can say..wish i had my camera!

Friday was also Mexico's Independance Day and turns out there are a lot of Mexicans in Aalborg! And of course since Aalborg isn't that big, any word of a party and we're all there. So some 200 odd people crammed into this dorm's common room and we shouted Viva la Mexico all night! Good times!

Friday was also the last day for the two French Girls! They were two of the people I've gotten to know the best over the past six weeks. We had a lot of good times, I taught them some 'Canadian' english and they taught me a teeny bit of French. It's wierd. When I say goodbye to friends at home, it's not too bad cause I know for sure I will see them again. But I don't know if I will ever see these two again, so it makes it harder. But I like to think that sometime, someday, either I will be in France or they will be in Canada. So I say, until next time.

Saturday - Finally a soccer game gone right! We were playing a good team near the top of the division, but luckily for me, their weakness was a slow defence. I ended up getting four breakaways in the game. I scored one, put one off the post and the other two were partially stopped but then finished for goal by two of my teamates. We ended up winning 4-3 and I got the 'Man of the Match' which was pretty cool, FREE BEER!

Thats about it. THe rest of the weekend was pretty boring! I wonder how the Chili Peppers' concert was Sun? Anybody go?

Logan

Where's my George Foreman?

Ok, so Megan got me going on this idea that acquiring a George Foreman would be perfect! All I have in the dorm here is a junky stove and a either a 'small' oven or a 'large' toaster oven depending on your view. So a George Foreman grill would be grand! I could nicely grill my steaks and my chicken breasts. Get some good ol grilled veggies on there, life would be good. So I set out on my quest to find one....not so easy.

So immediately I checked my good friend EBAY. Unfortunately, to ship a George Foreman from North America isn't exactly cost friendly. So i switched to EBAY UK. Great! They got tons of them...except for some reason everyone in the UK will only ship to the UK. Son of a gun!

Next I try Amazon UK. They ship books and movies all over Europe and for cheap shipping prices to. Whoops

Large electrical items are televisions that exceed a certain size restriction and can only be delivered to mainland UK

Where else to look... ah hah! Ebay Germany!! One problem, all of the pages are in German...who'd a thunk? Well luckily Google Translator has come to the rescue. So thats where i am now. Watching prices on EBAY Germany using Google Translator. But it's still hard to find ones that are willing to ship all the way across one border to Denmark!

I'll keep you updated. Meanwhile if anyone else knows a distributor of the George Foreman Grill here in Europe, pass it my way!

Logan

Robbie and Jessica's Wedding

- 47 hours of travel
- 6 connections in airports
- 6689.30 km (in a straight line)
- 7hrs worth of delays
- 7 movies watched
- 1 bag lost in transit
- 8hrs time change
---------------------------
Being at Robbie and Jessica's Wedding = Priceless


You know it is always a special time when one of your best friends get married. But it's really special when it's two of you best friends getting married to each other. Such was the case this weekend. The wedding of Rob Woitas and Jessica Spinks. I've known Robbie since junior high when we played soccer together however we didn't become really good friends until high school. That is because in junior high I went to another school, St. Lukes, and that is where I met Jessica. It always amazes me how fast we became friends. All we had in common was that we shared the same hour long bus ride home, but that was enough. She was one of those friends that would always let me know what she thought, even if it wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear but what I needed to hear. And I'll always cherish that.

It wasn't until after high school that Damien and I helped bring the two together. A night at the pool hall and the start of something special. The rest is history.

The wedding went off without a hitch and was a lot of fun. I'm sure I'll be remembered for my enthusiastic singing of the birdy song since the band wasn't able to play it. I also think I dropped Kyley a couple of times trying a flip on the dance floor...whoops. All in all an amazing weekend!!! But I never want to do that much travel in that short of time span again :-)

Here's to you Robbie and Jessica!

Welcome to European Soccer

Well I made a good first impression at my first European soccer game..... I got red carded out of the game. But more on that later.

So there is definitely some differences playing soccer...or I guess I should say football. Obviously the level here is higher. Playing in the third highest division back in Edmonton corresponds to about the 3rd lowest division here in Denmark.

But the game is...well rougher. There is a lot more clutching and grabbing, little tugs on the jersey all that stuff. Same with when you have the ball, they will literally go through you to get the ball, everyone fights very hard for the ball. Even worse is trying to win a 50-50 ball. They won't hesitate to lower a shoulder, give a push, anything to gain the advantage. So all this sort of stuff frustrates me, but I guess I have to get used to it. The ref's let it all go....well not all of it.

So my first game went about as bad as a game can go, without me breaking something *knock on wood* It started off pretty close, my job was the usual to 'stretch' the defence with some speed and it was working but no goals. Unfortunately there team had the same plan but they had one guy who killed us. Scored 4 breakaway goals in the first 30 mins. So I went back on defence to cover him. It sorta worked until the end of the first.

Second half, about 10mins in, I was trying to get the ball from a guy and he threw a pretty wicked elbow and caught me in the lip, so I gave him a little one handed shove as I went for the ball. Well that was it! He red carded both of us. Wasn't deserved, but what can you do.

After that the flood gates opened and the final score was 15-0...or something, i lost track. There one guy scored 10 goals i think. I haven't been beat like that...well ever. Brutal!

So that it. Gotta sit out a couple games now. Oh well

Logan

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