Happy New Year!

I'm in Edinburgh. It's cold. The end.

Real Christmas in the heart of Real America

My original plans were to spend Christmas in England.  I even started preparing my dear parents for this disappointment in the early summer.  My parents are crafty though, and managed to convince me that it was my sister, not them, that wanted me to come home.

It was nice to be back home for a few days, even if it did require some marathon traveling. I was able to stock up on the American essentials (Jello, Chex Mix, cheap gummy bears, Hawaiian Punch) while playing some family board games. Let's hope that the fun was more than enough to compensate for tomorrow's travels: Columbia to St Louis by van, St. Louis to London via Chicago by air, London to Oxford by coach, Oxford to Edinburgh by train. It will be a small miracle if I manage to time my sleep cycle such that I am awake for the Edinburgh New Years.

Christmas at Cumberland Lodge

Cumberland Lodge

Cumberland Lodge on the Inside


King George III (The One We're Supposed to Hate)

Windsor Castle

More Views of Copenhagen

 

 

Last Thursday I enjoyed a few patches of blue skies as I walked off the beaten path a little.

Denmark

I came to Denmark expecting to find of people who once worshiped Oden as their god. Instead, the Danes seem to worship this man.

Hans Christian Anderson

In fact, despite being named after Oden, the town of Odense is really known as the the brithplace of Hans Christian Anderson. Hans's bust and portrait seems to be found all over the country. I was naïve enough to believe that Niels Bohr must be the most famous Dane of all time. Unfortunately, I've struggled to find a single Bohr portrait among the sea of Andersons. While Copenhagen lends its name to a major interpretation of quantum mechanics, it seems the town has not bothered to build a monument or museum to honor the feat. Children's stories apparently are a little more inspiring for sculptors and tourists.

The Little Mermaid (A H.C. Anderson story of course)

In my infinite wisdom, I failed to note that Copenhagen lies to the North of Oxford. Those who are a tad sharper than I was will immediately realize that this means Copenhagen is even colder and darker than Oxford. Luckily, Copenhagen is full of gorgeous warm churches. This church was especially pretty, but due to its poor hours, it will not be remembered for its beauty.

The-Church-Which-Was-Not-Open-When-Todd-Was-Cold

After modern theories of electronic structure, the next most Danish thing most people think of are Danishes. In this respect I was not let down. The bakeries were most excellent, and were only mildly overpriced (a major improvement over the horrendously overpriced normal food).

You Should Be Jealous

Once I had warmed up in the churches and filled up on Danishes, I was able to see some of the most important Copenhagen sights: silly little painted houses. Actually the houses are very cute, and introduce a little bit of color to the otherwise dark winter city (the sun has been setting around 3:30 pm).

Silly Little Painted Houses

After tromping around town seeing all of the stupid things Clara wanted to see, I finally directed us towards one of the real jewels of Copenhagen, Ørsted Parken. Ørsted, you'll recall, recognized that changing electric currents caused his compass needle to move. He brilliantly recognized this as an indication that electricity and magnetism are fundamentally linked. The hoodlums of Copenhagen have slightly less respect for the greatness of this discovery, but I tried my best to cover the graffiti as I paid homage.

Todd and Ørsted

Despite the cold and dark, there was one big advantage to visiting Denmark in the winter - Christmas. The Danes love Christmas festivities. Every little street in Odense and Copenhagen was decorated cheerily, in a way that seemed much more cozy and sincere than the American mega-decorations.

Danes Love Christmas

After getting bored with Copenhagen, it was time to venture outside the city a little to the Frederiksborg Castle. The 17th Century royal castle demonstrated that the old kings were really quite smart. While everyone else was worried about stupid things like getting their next meal, the kings were thinking ahead, building mansions to rake in the 21st Century tourism money.

Not the Castle. This is just a small building near the castle.

København

I've moved on to København for a few days. Aside from the fact that it is cold and there are only a few precious hours of daylight, it's quite fun. I'm staying with Masha (a friend from Caltech) in the most posh student dorms ever. On my first day in town Clara and I roamed the city on foot, checking out the city hall building, several (warm) churches, and the little mermaid. We also managed to find a traditional Danish lunch (pickled herring on rugbrød bread). I've got to run to go to a castle now, but I'll get more photos up eventually.

Photos from Odense Denmark

My Odense Host, Daniel Stolper

Good Morning from Odense

I arrived in Odense Denmark last night.  Clara and I were brilliant and didn't realize that the +45 country prefix for phone numbers actually means 0045.  Luckily we had written down our host's address, so rather than call him we just wandered to his house and knocked on his door.

Odense is a cute little town.  This morning we went to a bakery early which matched my illusions of Danish villages perfectly, down to the uber-blonde girl working there.  I'm going to continue my sightseeing, but I should have a photos to share in the next day or two.

My Turn

For the last few weeks some of my more politically minded friends have been getting excited by Obama's latest appointments. More often than not this sends me to wikipedia to figure out who the person is since I've never really heard of them. Now I think the tables are finally flipped. Steve Chu is reportedly going to be nominated to be Secretary of Energy. This is incredibly good news. He has a solid physics background and is devoted to using science (and scientists) to attack climate problems.

In more personal news, I'm flying to Copenhagen tomorrow for a brief holiday and a visit with friends. I'll try to update from Denmark.

Secret Santa

My Rhodes class had a Christmas party last night. Due to safety concerns, my generation was robbed of the excitement of chemistry sets, fortunately my secret santa managed to find a Violent Volcano kit (complete with enclosed safety glasses). It's pretty awesome!

Football (aka Rhodies Win)

I failed to post an update about the Rhodes v. Marshall football game, actually games as it turned out. There was such a great showing, that we played two 7 on 7 games simultaneously. The Rhodes Scholars were of course sportsmanlike (and quite talented I might add). I wish as much could be said for the Marshalls. Unfortunately, through some weasling, the Marshalls managed to win one game 6-4, but the Rhodies won the other game handily. Computing the point differential between the two games, it's pretty clear that the Rhodies came out as victors. Apparently this claim has made waves amongst the Marshalls, who have difficulties admitting that they're second best.

Mr Ben Carmichael (M) is stopped by Mr George Olive III (R)