I cannot believe that it’s 2010 already; you know it is still difficult to refer to 2010 as “this year”, and so many times I’ve had to shred papers to rewrite the date because I wrote a fast double zero with a 9 instead of a 20 followed by a pause and then a 10.

In general I think my 2009 was a good year even though it was full of ups and downs. I appreciate all the experiences even bad experiences, because it makes me look at things from different perspectives and it makes me stronger. So how should I end this great year? Be together with my boyfriend and friends to count down new years was defiantly my first priority. Like everywhere else, it’s quite common in Denmark that friends hang out together and either go out to party or party at home.  So we decided to host a party with friends at our apartment which we just moved in at May 2009. You know just to test the quality of the apartment. I think we are quite satisfied with the result, only three glasses got broken and all the colorful stains on the floor kind of disappeared after we washed it

It was a Chinese themed cocktail party but everyone got so drunk with polish vodka which we bought in Krakow last time we were there. At that moment, it suddenly struck me that all my friends are foreigners. Hehe, it’s hard to explain, but most of my friends are foreigners or not very Danish Danes. I don’t know why maybe you can help me to understand, but I guess it might be that us as foreigners share a similarity-”not Danish”. Somehow we don’t have a superior feeling towards other people, so the barriers that separate us become lower.  Anyway, we had lots of fun.

My new year’s goal is to become a more healthy and stronger (both mentally and physically) person. What about you?

P.S Luckily due to my Chinese identity, technically I’m still in 2009, Chinese 2010 will officially start from February 14th 2010.  And my boyfriend and I will go back home to celebrate New Year with my family. We are so looking forward because going to China to celebrate New Year means lots of good food plus more great food.

Hmmm it seems like I already have set up a big challenge for my healthy new year goal. Let’s see

By Li Yuan Wu • January 6, 2010

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Last Saturday the 26th of September was Christiania’s 38 years birthday.

Some of you might know about Christiania, but for those who don’t know that much about it, here is a little general information.

Christiania is a very special place. The whole thing started from when a group of people occupied an empty military area in 1971. Then slowly the spirit of Christiania quickly developed into a hippie movement, collectivism and anarchism. The purpose was to create a place where creativity, openness and freedom was embraced. And Christiania is indeed an artsy place which is full of creativity.

There are around 850 people “legally” living at Christiania, some pursue very self sufficient and alternative lives, whereas others have completely regular jobs in the city. But that’s not really the reason why Chritiania is so famous.

The real reason is that Christiania is an open drug market located almost in the heart of Copenhagen. Christiania’s pusher street has 50 something stall and tiny shops selling all kinds of Hash or other “light drugs”.

These drugs are illegal in Denmark, and in principle they are also being sold illegally in Christiania, but even though the police go into Christiania once in a while, it seems like the drug trade there is more or less commonly accepted.

So on Saturday Rune and I went to Christiania with some of our friends to check it out.

There were really a lot of people, and it was almost too crowed to walk around. But it was also a very relaxed and happy atmosphere, and our friends even did a little clothes shopping. There are a lot of small shops that sell second hand things. In Danish we call it loppemarked. I think one of my girlfriends bought a pretty nice dress for 50kr.

So we drank some Christiania beer and jumped around, screaming at a D.A.D concert. We really had a lot of fun.

Maybe you don’t believe me, but this was only my second time in Christiania in the 7 years I have been living here in Denmark. It’s a very nice place. People are very friendly. So you can always find a lot of fun, no matter when you go there.

I can hardly imagine that a place like Christiania exists anywhere else. Tell me what do you think

By Li Yuan Wu • September 30, 2009

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I’m sorry I haven’t updated this blog in a long time, but I’ve been so busy enjoying summer here in Denmark, that it simply slipped my mind.

Out of the seven summers I’ve spent here in Denmark, this has by far been the best. That’s because all my previous summers have been spent out in “the middle of nowhere”. When I first came here I lived in a city called Haslev which is about two hours by train away from Copenhagen. Then 2 years later I moved to Holbæk, which is also about an hour away from Copenhagen. After another 3 years I moved Trekroner outside Roskilde, which is about half an hour from Copenhagen, and now this summer I’ve finally moved to Copenhagen.

Finally I’ve been able to experience the vibrant Danish summer culture, I’ve been able to see Copenhagen in a completely new way by biking around. I no longer have to worry about checking timetables, and catching the last train home when I went out to Copenhagen, because let’s face it if you want to have fun or experience something on Zealand, you have to go to Copenhagen.

Here’s a few snapshots of fun things i saw during the summer

So what have I been spending my summer on then? Well for one thing I studied, I attended Copenhagen Business School’s summer university program, where I got the chance to meet a lot of other foreigners and make more friends from all over the world. But besides academic work which did take up a large part of my time, I’ve been doing a large number of things.

First of all I worked with the web-TV show www.mydenmarktv.com as a co-host and writer. We’ve been working on it very intensely during the summer to ensure that a new and interesting episode could be posted every week, I’ve embedded episode twelve which I hosted, so feel free to check it out.

Episode #12 – MyDenmarkTV.com from MyDenmarkTV on Vimeo.

My fiancée Rune and I decided that during the summer we would try to have as many culinary experiences in Copenhagen as possible, so we spent a lot of time searching the internet for interesting restaurants and café’s in Copenhagen, we found that a really useful website for doing that is www.aok.dk, so we’ve been biking all over Copenhagen to try what the city has to offer. In august there was a actually a food festival here in Copenhagen, where many of the best restaurants such as world famous Noma offered gourmet meals at student friendly prices, moreover a lot of restaurants had special offers or menus during the food festival. We tried to book tables are many of these restaurants, but weren’t quick enough, seems there’s a lot of food crazed Danes out there.

We did get to experience a very special restaurant though called Knipps Kaj, it’s a restaurant which only exists for a few weeks every year, and serves the food outside under the bridge Knippelsbro. It’s really a magical feeling sitting there under a bridge looking at Copenhagen’s waterfront with the beautiful opera house and black diamond library, enjoying your food and wine while a guy in a kayak paddles by.

The thing about Danish summer is that it’s more or less the only period where the weather is so nice that you can spend a long time outside just enjoying the sun, so I spent a lot of time during the summer going to Copenhagen’s parks, particularly Valby parken which is right next to where I live. In my home country China parks are always very artificial, and crowded, but in Denmark its only really the famous and central parks which are crowded, if you go a bit more outside of town the parks are very peaceful and quiet. Valbyparken is one such park, and it’s actually also the second largest park in Copenhagen, with Fælledparken being the largest and most popular.

If you love flowers you will also love Valbyparken, the park actually has a large number of smaller parks and gardens inside it with flowers from all over the world, and in the heart of Valbyparken there’s a large secluded area full of roses, with hundreds of different kinds, so if you’re ever looking for a place to take a date and “seal the deal” then I warmly suggest Valbyparken.

Another great thing about Danish parks and nature in general is that there are hundreds of fruit trees that you are free to pick from as long as you don’t harm the tree. In Valbyparken I found the long road which has hundreds of Mirabelle trees, one day I brought a large basket and picked over 4 kg’s, I then went home and turned them all into delicious jam that Rune and I have been eating ever since.

So summer here in Copenhagen has been great fun. But now it’s over, autumn is starting, the temperature is dropping, and the famous Danish rainy weather is steadily making its appearance known, seen the nights will be filled with rain and thunder. However autumn also means mushroom season in Denmark, so I’ve bought a mushroom picking book, and I’m going to go as often as possible into the Danish forests to try my luck as a mushroom hunter. Furthermore bad weather and thunder means hygge, lying under the covers drinking tea or hot chocolate and watching movies, candlight dinners, and having friends over.

So instead of lamenting the passing of Danish summer I choose to say

Goodbye summer, Hello autumn!

By Li Yuan Wu • September 14, 2009

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Danish people love drinking!!!

Maybe you will say who doesn’t?! After all every nation has its own drinking culture, with different drinking customs, habits or styles. Yes, that is true, but after these years of living in Denmark, I have personally come to the conclusion that Danes are an extreme case.

Almost every possible occasion involves alcohol, sometimes even during work.  I heard that 20-30 years ago, when Denmark was a shipbuilding nation, employees working at the big ship building factories were almost forced to have beers 5 to 6 times a day, every day.

They eventually abandoned the custom because it caused so many different accidents, and the factories shut down long ago due to competition from the far east, but the beers are still a part of Danish work culture.

Of course not in the sense that people go to work every day to get pissed, more in the sense that alcohol, parties, Friday beers, that turn into Friday bars, which at university turn into Thursday, Friday and Saturday bars, are one of the primary ways of socializing with Danish people.

During my time at university here in Denmark I’ve tried following the maxim “when in Rome, do as the Romans.” And I’ve had some very fun times, I’ve met and partied with a lot of my classmates, been out dancing a lot, made new friends, and had a lot of very deep beer-induced conversations.

But when I would come to school the next day and meet these very same people, I would only receive a nod of the head or a slight smile rather than a warm welcome.

It seems as if Danes are only capable of opening up and socializing with someone who isn’t in their immediate circle of friend, if the Danish culture part of their brain is shut down by alcohol.

Luckily this doesn’t apply to all Danes, and I cherish the great friendships I’ve made with Danes during my years here, and perhaps the Danes who act like I’ve described above aren’t worth collecting as friends anyway.

Nevertheless it is frustrating that people cannot open up to you and be friendly with you if they are sober, it makes me worried about what work-life would be like here in Denmark, and it makes me understand why so many of the foreigners I’ve met here in Denmark have a very bad impression of the Danes.

Now please tell me that I’m wrong and that there’s hope yet.

By Li Yuan Wu • May 15, 2009

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I’m currently living in Trekroner- a small city near Roskilde University and 5 km outside Roskilde.  I live in a 38m2 student dorm room with my boyfriend-Rune (you will read -a lot- about him later, hehe ). Next semester we will both start studying at Copenhagen Business School which is located in Frederiksberg, not far from Nørreport, it would be nice for us to move to Copenhagen, due to the fact that Trekroner is 30km away from Copenhagen and the only transportation for us is a train that drives every half hour. In my opinion, public transportation is very expensive in Denmark. A return trip between Copenhagen and Trekroner costs me around 80 DKr or 11 Euros.

However, finding a cheap apartment in Copenhagen isn’t that easy. In Denmark we have a lot of different Apartment Agencies which own and rent out the apartments. In each agency you need to sign up for a waiting list in order to get an apartment. Unfortunately, the waiting lists for cheap apartments with an ok location are extremely long, sometimes it can take as long as 20, or 30 years to get the apartment you want. This is because a lot of people who live in the area sign up their kids when they are born, so they have a place to live when they turn 18. Furthermore there are a lot of rules which makes it easier for people already living in the general area to get any available apartments. So if you want to get a nice rental apartment in Copenhagen you usually have to know someone who knows someone, or just get lucky.

So now you will probably be wondering, what should a foreigner who just arrived or wants to move to Denmark do? Hmmm…  well don’t worry, there should be places enough for everybody. What Rune and I are doing is that, we’ve signed up for some of those waiting lists, but at the same time we contact some private people who want to rent out their apartment. That way you can get a good temporary place, while you wait. This can be done through a number of different websites such as dba.dk. However, you need to be more careful when you rent a flat from a private person. There are stories of people being cheated out of thousands of kroner in deposals for apartments which didn’t exist, so always get a contract and always use the bank.

Of course you can always buy an apartment or an “andel” which basically means an apartment sized share of the building. However that will usually cost between ½ a million to 1½ million kroner, depending on what you need.

So Rune and I are still searching, and hopefully we will be able to find somewhere to live in Copenhagen soon. It has always been my dream to live in Copenhagen and bike around in the city (but maybe not with an ugly bike helmet on. Haha )

By Li Yuan Wu • April 1, 2009

13 Comments