Robyn and Joel's Blog: Chronicling our Copenhagen Adventures

Yes, we're that interesting.


Tuesday, July 22, 2008

A Birthday in London

Happy (day after your) birthday, Robyn!

Here are some paparazzi pics of the birthday girl in London, yesterday and today:








Sunday, July 20, 2008

Small Victories

This is a picture of luggage.


Why am I posting a boring picture of beaten-up luggage? Because this is no ordinary luggage. No, this luggage is, uncharacteristically, packed and ready to go one full day before it begins its trek to London, California, and Texas. Normally this luggage is empty right now; it waits expectantly for the harried piles of things its owners cram into it before rushing out the door to make their flight. However, for once this luggage is packed and closed more than seventeen hours ahead of its departure time.

It is a special day, indeed. Way to go, luggage!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Amsterdam

Well, after another night of jazz in Copenhagen, we headed to Amsterdam for 6 days (this is us on the plane, and way too close!).

We were in town so I could attend the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) annual conference. The conference was a wonderful opportunity for me to meet other organizational scholars and receive great feedback on my research project. The conference was 3 days, which left us a bit of time to explore the city...

And, explore the city we did! We love Amsterdam. The city is beautiful, even in the rain and cloudy sky. The architecture makes you feel like you are stepping back in time.We hit most of the tourist spots including Anne Frank's House and Museum and the Van Gogh Museum. Both were very impressive, but for different reasons.

As you can expect, the Anne Frank Museum is very moving. I spent a lot of time in the house, reading the excerpts from her diary, and just trying to imagine the range of emotions she felt while hiding. At the end of the exhibits and the house tour is another exhibit on human rights and freedom. It was very sobering to discover that the very horror Anne Frank and her family experienced continue in contemporary times. While I may have left the Anne Frank House and Museum, it has not left me, and perhaps, that is a good thing. This is a must see for everyone who travels to Amsterdam.



Another must-see is the Van Gogh museum. It was a well-designed exhibit, which told a wonderful narrative of not only his art but his life.

The museum was crowded, but still doable and very enjoyable. Like the Anne Frank House, you feel like you are taking a step back into history while looking at his art, but in a very different way. Again, worth fighting the crowds for a look.Perhaps our favorite part of our trip was just walking around the small side-streets and crossing the canal bridges. Amsterdam is a great walking city.

Here are just a few (trust me, there are lots more if you are interested!) pictures from our trip http://picasaweb.google.com/JoelWKrueger/AmsterdamTripJuly . Enjoy!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

A (small) taste of jazz

Copenhagen is currently in the grip of its world famous jazz festival: http://www.jazzfestival.dk/Start.aspx. Since we missed it last year--we'd just arrived in Denmark and were a bit tired and disoriented--we decided that it was time to get a taste of jazz, Danish-style. During the week of the festival, the city is literally bursting with jazz: from tiny backstreet pubs all the way up to well-known performers playing in the city's glamorous opera house, the air is thick with saxophone and shuffling rhythms.

After work on Friday we made our way to the city center to meet up with Dorothee, one of my colleagues at the Center. The plan was to grab some pizza and beer, sit in the sun in Kongens Have (Copenhagen's oldest park, right in the middle of downtown) and soak up some free jazz. The first two parts of our plan were actualized; the last part, not so much. It turns out that the free outdoor concert series we were expecting to find in Kongens Have didn't kick off until Saturday morning.

So a bit later, swollen with pizza and Carlsberg, we decided to wander around and enjoy the lovely weather and late sunlight. Eventually we did happen upon an outdoor concert not too far away, down near the water in Nyhavn ("New Harbor")--which lasted all of half a song. Or rather, the concert likely consisted of more than half a song but that's all we caught before it ended. At least it was an improvement over last year. And I managed to get a picture of both the band (including some barely conscious drunken reveler leaning on the stage, rockin' his straight from the '80's denim) and the audience. It really looks like were right in the thick of things, enjoying the jazz fest in all its improvisational glory. Oh, well. At least we tried.

Though we didn't hear much jazz, we did later get to see a guy juggling fire whilst teetering around on an extra-tall unicycle. Here are some shots of the evening: http://picasaweb.google.com/JoelWKrueger/FridayNightWDorotheeJuly

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

An extra year in Copenhagen

Today I officially resigned my position at the Center for Subjectivity Research. As of this moment, I am no longer funded by the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF).

But never fear, fans and true believers: I'm not going anywhere. For the next year, I will be funded by the DISCOS European research network: http://discos.schattauer.de/. I will then resume my DNRF fellowship next July, which will extend to July 2010. In other words, Robyn and I are extending our time in Denmark by (at least) one more year. This is possible because another postdoc at the Center accepted a prestigious full-time position in France and will be leaving soon. I am taking over the remaining year of her DISCOS fellowship, which entails my (temporarily) resigning my DNRF fellowship.

Practically speaking, nothing will really change other than the source of my funding. I will remain at the Center and continue doing what I do (and no, I still can't say precisely what that is, so don't ask). I will travel a bit more throughout Europe, participating in various DISCOS events. Robyn will remain at CBS, much to their delight. We will continue to be baffled by the Danish language and certain esoteric Danish cultural practices, as well as their insatiable enthusiasm for pickled herring. But most importantly, we get to stay in Copenhagen for a while longer. And that makes us very happy.

Those of you who've yet to come visit now have no excuse (Travis and Kelly, we're looking at you).

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