London, Paris

More Marquette Madness... James, my co-RA from McCormick took my double dog dare bet and is flying to Copenhagen on March 11-16. We are spending two days in each of Copenhagen, London, and Paris... which means we don't have much time to sleep! In true Allen adventure style, nothing is out of bounds, and if something isn't too much out of the way (or even if it is), you can bet your bippy we're going to swing by and see everything! Intended itinerary to follow...

Iraq soldiers coming home

The prime minister put forth a withdrawal plan today that will bring Danish troops home from Iraq

All Danish soldiers in Iraq will be home in August, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen announced at a press meeting today.

At a press conference this afternoon, Rasmussen said the Danish withdrawal was co-ordinated to co-incide with a British drawdown announced earlier today. The Danish battalion in Basra in southern Iraq falls under British command.

In addition, no new rotations of troops will me made, as the last unit was just recently deployed.

-CPHPOST.DK

Ask The Readers: What does the sun look like?

So here we are in another week of darkness, and I would like to ask you the readers: What does the sun look like? Post descriptions (full of imagery) in the comments.

Laundry Season: that time of the month

It comes around every month or so, and boy do we hate it... laundry season. That one time a month where your day is consumed with moving loads from one machine to the next, taking out some things as not to shrink them, hang some things to air dry... the list goes on and on. When I showed up to the laundry machine in our building to feed the beast that is the washing machine... well lets just say Denmark is way ahead in the field of washing machine technology. First of all, never worry again about planning your day around doing laundry at 2:00AM on a Friday like in the crowded dorm laundry rooms back in the US. Here in HK, a few days before that time of the month comes, just go to the machine you want reserve, insert your ID card, and a touchscreen guided system shows you the times available to reserve your machines. It is so simple, yet revolutionary. Secondly, the machine dispenses its own detergent, fabric softener, and bounce sheets... automatically, right into the machine, in just the right amount for your selected load. No more lugging that 38 gallon value sized detergent bottle up and down the hall! But the burning question here is does all this sweet technology make doing laundry any less terrible? My answer: absolutely not... To those of you that leave this task up to a loved one, show them you care by buying them a car or something... god knows they deserve it.

A word about volume...

If I'm allowed to stereotype (and this is my blog, so I can), I would have to say that of all the exchange and regular students here, Spaniards are by far the loudest people in the world. Fernando (my neighbor), is having some friends over for the week, and when you get five or six of them in a room together... it is crazy. By contrast, I have never seen a Swede, Dane, or Norwegian student with their doors open screaming at each other. For example, my Danish neighbor prefers to use the kitchen when nobody else is in there, whereas the Spaniards and Frenchmen all flock to the kitchen at the same time to cook and what seems like fight with each other. It truly is a sight to be seen/heard when they all get in the kitchen together and have all 12 burners going and pasta everywhere. Whilst I do enjoy the comedic scene, I really can identify with my Scandinavian brethren when it comes to this style of social situations. It isn't that we are cold people, we just keep to ourselves more than Spaniards stumbling into your room 3:00AM with a "new" soccer cheer (sorry guys, I've heard that one from you a million times).

Voy a ir a Madrid!

It's official... March 2 at 20:55 I depart for Madrid, Spain for a weekend with Madrileños Molly and Mallory. I will be staying at backpacker stop Cat's Hostel, and visiting all of Madrid's finest. Do they really piss in the streets and take naps every afternoon? We'll see...

Weekend Update...

Internet usage be damned, I'm back! Each week we are alloted 8GB of traffic on the internet, and apparently I went over that allowance shortly after my previous post. Streaming all those recorded Daily Shows and Colbert Reports back from the states must chew up a bunch of bandwidth... I'll be sure to be a little more conservative in that respect.

This weekend we stuck around town, and headed over to UK (the other dorm on campus). There certainly are more Danes and Swedes over in those parts, as here at HK, we consist of almost entirely international students. This weekend also marked the Chinese New Year, and Chinatown HK had enough sake and moon cakes to go around! The year of the pig promises to be a good one, I have been assured by Hai Chuan Li, AKA Joe (funny thing about Chinese people... they love to have English names to be called by, and Joe is no exception)

Well... school starts tomorrow 8:00, you know what that means! Until next time...