more of copenhagen

The last few weeks have been filled with group work, and lots of it. The second one-week class that I have been taking is Managing Communication and Political Processes. I do not know what that title means, but what the class talked about was how a company tells everyone (customers, investors, government, etc.) what they are all about. What methods they use, what mediums, etc. It also has to do with Corporate and Social Responsibility and how this aspect of business is now becoming important. It was a fairly interesting class, as I had very little prior knowledge on the subject. And speaking of no prior knowledge, my next two classes (starting on May 22nd) will be 1) Doing business in China and Japan and 2) Mergers and Acquisitions. They will be in the same, intensive format. I am particularly interested in the business in Asia class as that seems like it will be fairly relevant for the better part of my life.

So groupwork. In both classes I have had small groups (3 in one class, 5 in the other) and our grade is solely determined on group projects. That said, everyone is fairly keen on doing whatever they can to get a good grade. As I wrote in a prior email to my friend Beth, it seems to me that when otherwise normal people get put into small groups and are told to do a project, they all go completely crazy (me included). Discussing and laboring on about fairly small points, that will have no real impact on our grade, seems to be our particular specialty. If this were a club, sometimes I feel as if I would be the president. At times it is fairly comical, especially when there is a miscommunication. That said, everyone in my small groups are nice people and are bright and articulate, there is just something about small groups with people who have strong opinions that bring on situations that will be nothing if not memorable.

As a side note (and not a super relevant one at that), there is a phrase that I think about almost every day when we are meeting in our groups and have no intention of using, but can not help but think someone in some group somewhere should use.

In my little daydream scenario, after furiously driving home a point that is not liked by the other members of the group, but is obviously so good and profound that it must be used, the person simply breaks the following news to them while making intense eye contact:

"That's why it's not called showfriends, group,........... that is why it is called showbusiness."

Perhaps it is lapses in paying attention, just like this, that cause some of the miscommunications stated above.

On with more stuff I actually have been doing.

The weather has been really great the past 2 weeks and I have tried to take advantage of it and get out and see some of the city. I went to the National Museum in Copenhagen with my friend Shell and 3 of her friends to see some Danish artwork. Also, there was an exhibit by Rembrandt there which was cool only for the fact that he is an artist that I have heard of.

I also visited 2 museums on modern art (one in Louisiana, Denmark and one in Lundt, Sweden) and they were really very cool. I did not know what to expect from modern art as the only galleries I had ever been up to that point had fairly old paintings, sculptures, exhibits, etc. In them. I really found I liked them and had a good time in both. Denmark is known for its design, and this really was on display in almost everything in these museums (including the actual museum itself).

I also went to a local football match between two teams, FC København and Brøndby, that have a long history. I went to the stadium and bought a ticket outside and had a good time listening to the fans sing constantly for the entire time I was at the stadium. They were cheering and chanting and supporting their side, and I had no idea what they were talking about because it was all iDanishsh.

I have also spent a lot of time looking for internships, researching dissertation topics, planning a few trips and watching movies. I do not have a TV so movies have been a big source of my entertainment.

This next week sees one of my friends from Edinburgh, Evan, come into town for a few days and I will be getting ready for my upcoming classes. Here are some pictures from the past couple of weeks. My computer is not working right now so I do not have access to a lot of the museum pics, but I will try to put up a couple of interesting ones when I get back up and going.

I also have a beard again.