Copenhagen, Denmark

What a beautiful country! I found it interesting to look out the window as the plane was preparing to land and see windmills in the water. These are, I am assuming, large like those I grew up seeing in Fremont, CA. Denmark also appears to be very flat…at least that is my impression from what I saw on the plane. Although I did not get to see any sites while in Copenhagen, I enjoyed my time there. My brother, Clark served an LDS mission in Denmark so I was really looking forward to seeing this country that he called home for two years. Sunday did not work out quite like I thought it would so I did not get out to see any “landmarks” of Copenhagen. I did meet fantastic people and, dare I say, some very good looking men. Wow! (Scott, I will leave the sightseeing to you during your visit to Copenhagen in a couple of weeks.)

As we were preparing to land I thought about Clark and how he must have felt landing in Copenhagen knowing that he would be living there for two years. How would that feel? I can imagine a rush of emotion: excitement, uncertainty, scared to death, sad knowing you were so far away from family and friends. I was talking to Gitte, one of the event organizers, about missionaries and giving her a brief insight into how mission calls are given, etc. It was very interesting to talk to her about it. I can tell you that I now have a better understanding of why Clark enjoyed his mission so much. The people are so friendly and the city streets relatively clean. It looks like many families live in apartment buildings but I did see individual homes as well. Driving on the city streets I wondered if we were passing any apartments that Clark would have lived in.

We stayed at the Hilton Airport Hotel so I had a great view of the airport and heard planes coming and going throughout the day. When I got into my room I was a little taken back because there were two twin beds. I can sleep on a twin bed but these seemed a little more narrow than what I am even used to. It was like sleeping on a narrow sofa but I was so tired when I finally closed my eyes at 12:00 a.m. that I did not move at all during the night. That is a good think considering there was a narrow space between the two beds which I am sure I would have suffocated in if I had fallen off the bed. The other side of the bed also posed a problem with the bedside table and a larger glass table...certain black eye or goose egg on my head if that had been the way I had rolled off the bed.

Clark, I wonder if your fascination with cows comes from Denmark. We flew out of Roskild Airport…a small aircraft airport and there in the waiting area was a huge cow…huge plastic cow. Close by were plexi glass boxes on stands that were displaying the Denmark flags and miniature plastic cows. Black and white spotted cows. I nearly laughed out loud.

Danish is a very interesting language. Some words I can make sense of but others…forget it. You know when your typing gets out of hand and you look down and you can’t make sense of anything. That is what some Danish words look like to me. 15-26 letters long (I made that up) and looking totally incorrect. For example, svtekfdsloskafalda (not a real word) in Danish probably means something wonderful but it could also be a profanity. I must be tired because now I am just babbling.

Speaking of being tired, last night SRC had a Community Program in Copenhagen. I had not slept much on the plane flying to Copenhagen and allowed myself a 45 minute nap during the day so I would be sure to sleep last night. At the Community Program I really began to feel sleepy: eye lids heavy, a little slack jaw happening, if you know what I mean. Anyway, I closed my eyes for just two seconds and was rudely awakened as I almost fell off my stool. Seriously I began to feel myself tipping over. It was a hoot! I stood up the remainder of the program.

The Community Program was held in a place that is normally used for concerts. When I walked in I was hit in the face by the smell of cigarette smoke and alcohol. It was, for the most part, clean but I was shocked when the AV tech I was working with lit up a cigarette right before the program started. Nothing against him...just different. The Mayor of Copenhagen presented a small gift to SRC and said some very nice things welcoming SRC to the country and thanking him for coming.

I thought it would be interesting to share a picture of a pretty average AV set up for me. This was slightly different from other events in that I actually had some table space to work on. In this picture you will see my laptop, a preview monitor, DVD player and switcher off to the side and my slide index. I was at the back of the room looking down at the stage. I enjoyed this set up today…very conducive to efficient and effective AV support for SRC.

A private jet was booked at the last minute for the “in country” flights. SRC and I flew commercially to Denmark but will be on a private jet to and from Romania and Sweden. The plane is very nice and pretty quiet. I am including a picture of the plane so everyone can feel at ease that we are in a nice plane. The pilots are very friendly as well…and they speak very good English. The co-pilot is female which I think is so cool. In my next life, I want to be a pilot.

As we flew to Denmark, I was reminded of some benefits to flying commercially…I will share two: in flight movies and accessible restrooms.

Next stop, Bucharest, Romania.