Copenhagen

For those of you that don't know exactly what I am doing in the EU, it's essentially urban camping. Zemmer was a great break away from the sleeping bag on bunks eating from a tupperware with a fork and spoon combination called the "hobo-tool". Now this urban camping is also coupled with the occasional fancy dinner and I have managed to stretch my funds in order to do as much as physically possible in each destination. I work about 25 hours a week between online research, setting up appointments and visiting hospitals and factories interviewing patients and doctors to understand the process of getting the mechanical components involved in prosthetics from the factory and into the patients hands or on their feet/lackthereof. The funding and such seems to be the biggest topic of not only my own excursion but also the funding means and needs of the active patients in each area.
I arrived in Copenhagen last night and was greeted by some of my coworkers in the Galapagos at the main station. It was about an 12 hour train ride in which I didn't have a seat for the majority of the trip, but it was a good enough deal that I couldn't complain too much. Maria, one of my housemates of last summer has set me up with my own apartment in the bottom of her building with a foosball table and everything. The kitchen is nice, and I expect to use it often to escape the high restaurant prices.
This morning, to start the day, I went with Micheal Sorensen to participate in a extremely weird university tradition started by his close friends. They call themselves the "Mobile Bathing Club". They start each and every morning early with a swim at some random place in the Copenhagen area. Last week was the palace fountain, but luckily this morning it was taken at the main harbor which is a little more normal. It is summer, and the water was too cold to spend more than a couple seconds in (very silly tradition), I don't even want to think about how they manage when ice is over the water and snow is on the ground in January. They all start every day with one shot of vodka and a jump into the frigid water followed immediately by hot water and homemade cake. This all starts everyday at 7 for those that can make it, and has a certain tradition about it. Then they dress in the public bathrooms and go their separate ways to work or class. It was the strangest way to jump-start the day, but I was more awake at 7 in the morning than I have ever been. Micheal and I went around town and he showed me some tourist spots, and I figured out how to get to all the work related places that I have to visit. Tomorrow will be the first round of Copenhagen interviews.
Unfortunately I can not do the most touristy thing possible in Copenhagen, visit The Little Mermaid Statue. From what I've heard and read is that people from all over the world have traveled to see it, but unfortunately a member of the Hell's Angels blew a large part of it recently with a hand grenade. Too bad. In the heart of the city is a large hippie/Hell's Angels community that the police has simply given up controlling and has allowed them to try a communal living hippie heaven experiment on 45 hectares south of the main station. They are self governing and self sufficient, but have recently been making violent protests across the city so I expect the city to step in during election time. Maria has informed me of all the Copenhagen gossip. Its dinner time here, so I will let you digest a very exciting 12 hours that I have been in Denmark. Tschuss