A Viking returns

I suppose you've noticed how quiet it has been around here. This is because I have just spent the last 5 weeks in Copenhagen without a reliable internet connection. Since I am the primary contributor to this blog (ahem... no offense, ~K) and was not in the position to post, well, things tend to get a little quiet.

OK... I admit it. There were times when I "perhaps" could have written a short post or two, but decided to use my time in other ways instead. Some might call that laziness, I choose to call it "prioritizing" or "time-management".

Anyway, I was in Copenhagen because I was doing an internship at the Danish Film Institute's archive as a part of my MA program at UEA. I am so glad that I was accepted there because it was a fantastic experience. The DFI Film Archive is top notch and probably one of the best I've been to so far (not just saying that because I'm Danish either). There was quite a difference between it and the ones I've visited in the UK, for sure; specifically in terms of their equipment, collection, and ethics. As an archivist, it would be a fantastic place to work and I hope someday I am able to do so.

Copenhagen is a wonderful city. I was staying in an apartment across from the National Museum, near Tivoli - you'd be hard-pressed to get more central than that. I borrowed/cheaply rented an apartment from the son of one of my father's former colleagues. He and four other friends from the film college in Denmark were going to move in on May 1st, but had to rent the apartment from April 1st if they wanted to hold onto it. Luckily for me, this meshed perfectly with my plans. It was a virtually empty 5-bedroom apartment with nary a light-fixture. I slept on an inflatable mattress (actually pretty damn nice... rivaling some "real beds") and read by the yellowish-green light of a flourescent sconce-light that had been laying (unattached to a wall) in the laundry "room". It was a somewhat spartan existence, but comfortable. Kristen came to visit for one week during the middle of April. A cozy time in that big apartment. It's a great place, but definitely a fixer-upper. From the kitchen window, you can see the freefall tower at Tivoli. Countless people were hoisted up there each day and then released when they least expected it. Watching this occur became my "television". Lots of noises to get used to: the screams from Tivoli, the belltower at Rådhuspladsen (city hall), the traffic on Vester Voldgade, the neighbors below and across from me, the early-morning deliveries in the courtyard, and the garbage-collectors twice a week at 7am. I slept hard before, but now I can sleep through ANYTHING! Except for the huge party the neighbors below had which lasted until 5am and resulted in a puddle of vomit in the stairwell -- this was the same day Kristen arrived.

I got up every morning (on the weekdays) around 7am and took a train to Glostrup and then a bus to the archive, a 30-minute trip. At the archive, I did all kinds of things that I won't go into here because it will likely bore you (archiving is a "special" field for a "special" kind of nerd), but basically, I tried a little (and sometimes a lot) of everything that they do during their workday. It was a very educational and fulfilling experience. For blogging purposes, let's just leave it at that. If you really want specifics, you can read the journal that I wrote. By the time I finished, it had just surpassed the minimum length for an MA dissertation: 12,000 words (about 35 pages, double-spaced).

This past week, I got 6-7 roommates and moved out into the living room. I had been staying in one of the bedrooms, but decided to move out of there before they were going to move in. If I was moving into a new apartment, I'd probably like to do so without some stranger living there. I did my best to stay out of the way and to lend a hand whenever possible. In fact my introduction to everyone was during trips up and down the stairs, helping them carry things up to the fourth floor. They seemed to be a bit taken aback by how many flights of stairs there were, something I had long-ago gotten used to! At any rate, it went from being an empty, echoing apartment to a packed, socializing lounge. A bit shocking at first, but everyone was cool and made me feel at home.

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We like Denmark. We love Copenhagen!

-RP-