Vibing with nature

Yesterday we had a walk through the natural landscape of Aarhus. We were actually planning on taking a bath but it started snowing before we got to the beach. Still our hopes for taking a bath soon are high because we saw the first spring signs, snowbells. I was again mesmerised by the beautiful houses on the beach, of which I am going to take pictures at some point. I would love to leave in one of those houses, even though it's Denmark.

Now...the story with the "comforters" tree (last picture) is that someone started some sort of tradition. When babies get a bit too old for comforters they come here with their moms, put the comforter in the tree, with a message or something, and never use one again. I think it's pretty smart and non traumatic.

Friday Bar or Tipsy Friday

Every Friday, or almost, the IS/ES Master programs have their Friday Bar. The concept of FB is general as all departments have one. The FB is organised inside the school but you are allowed to drink anything. This is like a little class party on every Friday to celebrate the passing week. It surprised me at at first but now it's starting to grow on me. And this Friday we had the Fastelavn which is some sort of Danish Halloween ..I did not have a costume because I suck at that.

Genetic laws

Today I had my first class in Cultural Analyses. This is more of an anthropological class, but even so it is very interesting. I hope that I will manage to understand and create my own idea on why there are so many differences between the cultures of the world if we consider that we all have the same origins.

I decided to write something about the Scandinavian genetic law, which in my opinion says a lot about their character and the way the society is built, that is equal – homogenous. From what I understood, the Danes particularly, refuse to accept that this is how they are, maybe because it’s a proof for their lack of emotions and reactions.

The Jante law

The Jante law is an unwritten law that can be applied to the people leaving in the Northern part of Europe, mostly the Scandinavians. The basic concept of the law is: Don't think you're anyone special or that you're better than us.

The law has ten rules:

1. Don't think that you are special.

2. Don't think that you are of the same standing as us.

3. Don't think that you are smarter than us.

4. Don't fancy yourself as being better than us.

5. Don't think that you know more than us.

6. Don't think that you are more important than us.

7. Don't think that you are good at anything.

8. Don't laugh at us.

9. Don't think that anyone cares about you.

10. Don't think that you can teach us anything.

The us in the rules does not refer necessarily to how people outside the countries view the Scandivanians, but also to how they treat eachother. The law is directly related to the Lagom theory, which is actualy a swedish word that means “just the right amount”. Never more, never less…always what is requested.

The idea behind this can also be found in other parts of the world such as Australia and New Zeeleand, under the term Tall Poppy Syndrome. Someone is said to be a target of tall poppy syndrome when his or her assumption of a higher economic, social, or political position is criticized as being presumptuous, attention seeking, or without merit.

So girlish

Yesterday I had such a girlish day. I always wished I was a boy, but sometimes I get remained how fun it can actually be being a girl. I had to kill my Valentine's Day demons...and though I was a bit afraid of the atmosphere in the city I went out with Marketa. To my surprise, even though it should be celebrated, this day seems to have absolutely no relevance here. Other than some guys with flowers there was absolutely nothing organised...which of course pleased me. The weather was unbelievably nice and we wanted to go to the beach, but we ended up by drowning in shopping...and maybe we exaggerated a bit...at least I did.

The day continued in the same way...by dyeing Marketa's hair.

And we ended the night with an Erasmus party, where I was lucky to meet some of my classmates and former classmates like Christoph and Romaine.

Today it's snowing...typical Danish weather...you never know what you're going to get the next day. Fits right?!

Weekend

The moment when you acknowledge the true meaning of what weekend is, becomes a moment that will stay with you forever. From that point on everything becomes routine, so the feeling will not be present anymore.

I didn't wake up late, but I woke up later than the previous week (4 in the morning), so I really felt like I was sleeping forever. No more insomnia for me...just deep sleeping and beautiful dreams.

Working class hero in Aarhus

My first week of work in Denmark is over. Tomorrow I will finally wake up at a normal hour, not 4 o'clock in the morning, and enjoy my breakfast. I never thought I would say this, but I have to start learning more. Physical labour is ten times worse than mental labour. I would rather stay 10 hours locked in an office thinking about projects or doing whatever, than cleaning a 3-floored large building in 3 hours. I feel the stress double from all the others jobs I had till now, not only because I wake up earlier than ever, but also because you have to finish in a given time and make it shine. The good part is that I get to experience this and start to see things a bit differently. I never knew that a cleaning job could do that to me. Anyway, I will keep on doing it till May. I also solved the problem with my taxes here. They have a difficult to understand, but very helpful social system. They pay taxes according to their revenue. The more you earn the more you pay for tax. Taxes are 8%, 38% or 60%. A person who starts working for the first time or earns very little, gets only 8% (which is the mandatory health insurance) taken out of the revenue. When you reach a specific amount taken out of your revenue through taxes, you pass to the 38% and so on. Usually, people with two jobs or money both from school and a job have 60% taken. For now I am on the 8% scheme. So, I will earn from cleaning 3 hours/day almost double to what I was earning at home for sitting 8 hours/day at the office. But I swear this is 10 times more stressful and I feel 10 times more tired. Working conditions are good though and they care about employees. We have almost everything we need to make cleaning easier (or I hope we will soon have). I will see in time how this whole thing goes, especially from the employer-employee perspective.

Nightlife in Aarhus

Last night I realized that I forgot the feeling of coming home drunk by bike at 5 o’clock in the morning. There are usually two options, you either become more responsible, because you know you are drunk and by the time you get home the alcohol effect is totally gone, or you fall off the bike several times or forget the way home. Because it was Alice’s birthday, the first weekend when we were all here, the last weekend before school starts and the last weekend before me and Marketa start work…we had pretty good reasons to go out last night. Before going out, we met at the kolegium for Alice’s birthday. We ate some cake and very good Turkish breads (which I will learn how to make), we sang karaoke and drank Becherovka (a strong Czech herbal alcohol).

Aarhus on Saturday night looked the same as before holidays and probably the same as it has always looked and will look. Drunk people everywhere, there is no age limit for being drunk in the middle of the night on the street here, so the landscape is very diverse. Usually you expect a lot of violence in such a scene, but there is non here. People are talking to themselves, screaming, falling etc…but nobody is violent. The difference this time is that they seem to have a new rule about age limit in clubs. Before leaving the age limit was 18 or 21 in some clubs, but now they have 20 on Friday and 23 on Saturday both in clubs and bars. We managed to sneak in a bar when the bodyguard left for a few minutes. The atmosphere inside was a bit unexpected. This was a regular bar turned into a club and it was full of Danes. We were the only strange international people there. Though I was only with friends, the club’s vibe was bad. They were playing only old or new, but crappy, Danish pop and just a few older English songs, and there wasn't a style of music…they were playing rap after house after pop and oldies…it was chaotic. We weren't really enjoying, but the Danes seemed to be more than excited about the music. Everybody was dressed very posh, as if it was some expensive club. The girls here look just like the girls who everybody talks about some much at home. They wear a tone of make up and colourful  showing off clothing. They are eager for attention and hit on guys. They clearly come out because they want to leave with someone and they get really wasted. They seem to enjoy it, even if from the outside it looks disgusting. But, from what I understood, the habit of girls hitting on boys is very common in the Northern countries. They are usually the ones who invite out boys and buy them drinks…These are all pure observations and I might be wrong because I didn't leave here for so long. This semester I will maybe focus more on the behaviour of Danes and go out more. In my “circle of trust” things are working better and better. Yesterday something really nice happened. Because we weren't in an international, but a purely Danish environment, protection instincts came to surface and every time a guy was getting to close to one of us the others would step in and slowly rescue them. It was a very nice feeling of inner protection and trust, realizing that you can rely on the people that don’t speak the same language as you.