Art Exhibit

This is an art exhibit that was going on at the Danish Design center. There were lots of interactive displays and architecture exhibits.

Awesome model of the Royal Playhouse

Kim (our RA) in the paper 'car washers'

Swings in the art exhibit

Swans

Last week, one of my classes went on a trip to a more industrial area of Copenhagen. What I though was interesting was there were swans in the harbor. I have never seen swans any place other than lakes so seeing them in the ocean was surprising.

Factory behind lots of sailboats

an awesome crane on the pier

swan eating sea grass

Swan keeping its foot out of the water for some odd reason

Socialized Library Cards?

My trip to the equivalent of the Social Security Office was a while ago but I forgot to write about it. Since I will be here for an extended period of time, I am required to get a CPR number. With this number I get free medical insurance, can sign up for a bank account, and can get a job. I have spent many hours in the Social Security Office in Modesto, thanks to my dad misplacing my social security card, and each time it was not a pleasant experience. Well I walked into the office (they call it a commune) and the interior is very well designed. There were a row of people to help direct me to where I needed to go. I explained and showed them my passport, visa, and forms that were all ready filled out. The lady handed me a number and told me to wait. I sat down in the waiting area with only two other people waiting. There was free coffee and tea for those who were waiting, welcome to socialized medicine. I only waiting for about five minutes before my number was called. Then a lady entered in my information into a computer, picked my doctor based on where I live. I was in and out in 10 to 15 minutes! This card is also my library card to check out books from any library in Denmark which I find a little weird . . . this is what the card looks like.

The End of Bicycle Week

I decided to have bicycle week go out in style, literally it is about Scandinavian fashion not being inhibited by riding a bike to work. When walking through the streets during a weekday you see business men in three piece suit and women is skirts and high heels riding their bikes to work. I don't have good picture to show this so I borrowed some from a blog devoted to Chic Cycling, you can check it out yourself if you want to see more at http://www.copenhagencyclechic.com/

Bicycle Week - Day 6

Bicycle, Bicycle, Bicycle,
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike . . .

-Queen

people put covers on their seats to keep them dry when it rains. this is a fancy cover but most people use a plastic bag.

One that has been painted with zebra stripes

Colorful spokes and fenders

This bicycle is fuzzy with horns as handles

Bikes that have gotten tangles in a sudden gust of wind

Bicycle Week - Day 5

Some more bike pictures

a smiling basket :)

an odd shaped bicycle

someone likes the color teal . . .

Bicycle Week - Day 4

The biking culture of Copenhagen is not related to environmental reasons (when surveyed only 1% say they bike for environmental reasons). Since the 1960's the city would take away a few hundred parking spaces away each year so that it made it harder and harder to find parking. This encouraged people to find a more convenient form of transportation thus creating this strong biking community.

Funny bike that the rider sits on a strap that goes from the handlebars to the back. There is a small leather seat near the back of the strap . . . i have not tried to ride one.

beach bum?

parking at the beach

Bicycle Week - Day 3

Christiania Bikes
There are these type of bikes called Christiania bikes that are named the "hippie" commune I have previously mentioned. They are for putting your children in and they can move around and play while you ride to your destination. They are quite popular, so much so that the crowned prince takes his kids to school every morning in one of these bikes. I have seen a variety of items inside these carts: infants in car seats, adults, multiple children, groceries, dogs, and other bicycles as seen in the second picture. They also have different amenities inside them. I have seen seats with seat belts, some have covers to protect them from the rain and wind, and some are just wooden boxes.

Christiania Bike

a bicycle carrying a bicycle

Comparison of size of a Christiania bike to the size of a car

Bicycle Week - Day 2

Even though it may look like the Danes don't lock their bikes they actually do. You rarely see a bike locked to a bike stand etc. instead they have these nifty locks on their back tire which prevents you from being able to ride away with the bike. It is attached to the body of the bike and then a bar goes between the spokes of the tire. This makes it possible to lock your bike anywhere you want to stop without having to find a bike stand or sign to chain it to.

close-up of the kind of lock I am describing

if you look close you can see each bike has one of these locks

Bicycle Week - Day 1

This is the start of a week of posts dedicated to displaying the bike culture of Copenhagen. This city prides itself as being one of the most bike-able cities in the world. They have free bikes for tourists to ride on. About half of the people living in the city commute to work on bike and one-third from the suburbs.

The bicycle parking lot

bicycles parked everywhere

REALLY parked anywhere

bicycle parked in the middle of the sidewalk

Photo Shoot

So as I walked to class this morning, I saw random lights and fans set up on the street corner on my way to class. When I came home from class, they were shooting a fashion ad. They were leaping through the intersection with fans blowing her skirt. The background was the oldest square on the city. It seemed like a lot of inconvenience for the traffic trying to get home at 5pm.
Then Kellene went to get something in studio and they had set up a rain machine and were taking pictures at 9pm. It was quite a sight to see only 30ft away from our front door.

turning around for another go at the shot

leaping through the intersection

All the lights and fans set up. The photographer was in the third story window.

fake rain at 9pm

All of their equipment

Wandering on Wednesday

I went exploring again on my bicycle and this is what I found . . .

View of Amager Strand

Guy practicing kite surfing on the ground

Kastrup Søbad
(a bathing structure)

Boats in the Harbor

Tietgenkollegiet
(a danish dorm)

inside of Tietgenkollegiet

Day 3 of Western Denmark - Trapholt Museum and Kolding

The final and third day . . . It started with a trip to the Trapholt Museum on the outskirts of Kolding. This was the highlight of my trip. I had studied this museum for a case study awhile back but there wasn't much information about it so I was thrilled to see the daylighting strategies for myself. It is a furniture and modern art museum. Then we went and wandered around Kolding for a bit and had lunch as a group at a cute cafe. There were these two boys that kept getting up to get more æbleskivers (danish pancakes) from the buffet line and each time they would wait at the back of the line of loud Americans and go through the whole line to get to them at the end. Their mother finally came and told them to just cut at the end of the table to get them. It was so cute that they were trying to be polite; you could tell they were getting anxious waiting so long to get their pancakes. Then we went to a castle that had been turned into a museum. There was a mix of very old brick construction with new steel and wood around it. Afterwards we drove three hours back to Copenhagen, what a long weekend.

Trapholt Museum

Funky red couch

Marcel Breuer

Amazing natural daylight strategies

Skylights

Cool Blue House in Kolding

Crazy neon lights on the side of a building
(the city of Kolding has named itself the design capital of Denmark)

the combination of the old and new

the courtyard of Koldinghus

Chapel in the Koldinghus

intense dragon carving on top of an antique desk