Bering Express

Goodbye Paris!

After more than 7 months in beautiful Paris, I am now fully moved back to Copenhagen. For the first time in more than 8 months I am in Denmark without plans for another trip to Paris.

Living in Paris has been a great experience and I have really enjoyed being able to get to know the city. Any future visits will be very different, since I now have the city “under my skin”.

Some of the things that will stay with me:

• The metro experience – even though it is often crowded, the Parisian metro is very effective. Moreover, compared to Copenhagen, the Parisians are a lot more used to the “metro ballet” and are much better at getting out of each other’s way and being polite to each other (or perhaps this was my experience because I primarily used line 3 to Levallois-Perret in the morning, with the business crowd)
• It may be a cliché at this point, but the French culture around food is great. I am no gourmet, but it is easy to tell that the food in the supermarket and in the restaurants is better quality than what we are used to in Denmark. As an added bonus, the French take more time to eat, making it a much more pleasant experience (if you have the time). The neighbourhood I worked in (Levallois-Perret) is full of little interesting restaurants, I would need at least another year to know my way around all of them.
• The size and life of Paris: it always seemed like there a million people right outside my front door, since I have been lucky enough to live very centrally in Paris. It has been fun to get a little lost in the crowds in central Paris. I must have started to look French, since the tourists eventually started asking me for directions…
• The French language: when people ask if I speak French now, I usually reply that I have improved. I can follow a normal business conversation in French and I can participate in a social one, but there is still a long way to go before I am fluent. I do plan to keep on practicing though; I’ve picked up a lot from newspapers, radio and casual conversations, now I need to work on my grammar.

It is great to be back with all my friends and my family in Copenhagen, in my own apartment. I am currently catching up on my deficit of black bread and liver paté (Blå Stryhns!), digging out caps, gloves and scarves from moving boxes to cope with the cold weather and getting my bicycle back in shape for the daily commute. The plan for this spring: to catch up with as many friends as possible and perhaps even make a few new ones along the way.

4. maj 1945

På vej hjem fra arbejde blev jeg netop passeret af en lang kolonne af militærkøretøjer, udsmykket med danske og amerikanske flag, som en del af fejringen af befrielsen i 1945. Det fik mig til at komme i tanke om at jeg har noget aktuelt liggende fra familiearkiverne. Min morfar var i København d. 4. maj 1945, på bogholderkursus og havde kameraet med under armen. Derfor ligger vi inde med en lille samling farvebilleder af marcherende modstandsfolk i genkendelige omgivelser. Jeg har lagt billederne på Flickr, og forsøgt at geotagge så godt som muligt. Jeg kan genkende både Rådhuspladsen og Vesterbrogade, men der er flere af billederne jeg ikke ved hvor er taget. Skriv en kommentar på billedet hvis du kan genkende en placering.

Ikke helt som Steve

Jeg har stadig problemer med at løfte armene over hovedet, efter weekendens flytning til 4. sal. Men nu er det overstået, og alt er godt. Jeg havde egentlig håbet på at kunne efterligne dette herlige billede af Steve Jobs fra 1982, når jeg var flyttet ind. Den hårdtarbejdende ungkarl med en kop te og stereoanlægget. Men nu er det her jo Danmark, ikke Silicon Valley, det er 2008, ikke 1982. Så da jeg begyndte at nævne, at mine jordiske ejendele udgør indholdet af 12 flyttekasser, et skrivebord og et par reoler, begyndte planen at falde fra hinanden. Pludselig begyndte der at dukke møbler op fra venner og familie. En sofa, en lænestol, en midlertidig seng, et spisebord, et klædeskab og to barstole (!). Så nu er min nye lejlighed næsten fuldt møbleret, og i stedet for at sidde på gulvet og filosofere over IT-branchens fremtid som Steve, sidder jeg i en blød lænestol og surfer på en 20 megabit internetforbindelse. Satans!