Viva Mexico

Last monday was Presidents day, which is a holiday here, so me and Dorte decided to leave the country and head down to Mexico. Despite leaving early on friday it of course took about 3 hours just to get out of LA. As we crossed the border into Tijuana it was like driving into a completely different world. The poverty was shocking, although there is alot of poverty in LA, then it seem much worse in Mexico. We drove down to Ensenada, which is famous for a couple of things. First, Jim Morrison used to hang out there alot drinking margaritas and doing some other things/stuff... And second, Ensenada has Mexico's largest flag, as is shown in the figure to the left. Anyways after spending an hour finding our hotel in a city with virtually no street signs and street signals we went to out on the town to enjoy the carnival. Our hotel room was right next to the huge festival, thousands of drunk mexicans and americans were drinking and dancing in the streets. Seeing me and Dorte standing still a nice mexican couple in their 40's from the southern part of Baja found it as their goal to get us dancing. It was quite funny.

The next day, we walked aound in the morning saw pelicans enjoying their sun at the peer (to the right) before leaving the city for San Felipe. The nature we saw on our was amazing, especially as we entered the desert.



(A typical desert view below) We saw amazing cactuses, and desert trees against the setting of beautiful landscape. Personally I was very impressed by all the different and awsome cactuses living in the wild. (I'm standing besides one of these cactuses on the right.)

San Felipe is a small coastal town on the east side of the californian peninsular. Since the californian gulf is much warmer than the pacific its nice and warm there also in the winter. Like in Ensenada they also had a carnival, although on a much smaller scale. Again people were dancing and drinking margaritas to the sound of neverending mexican music. They seem to party all the time down there in Mexico. (Below some traditional mexican dancing is performed on stage.)
Me and Dorte joined in with the festivities. Somehow every time I had to go the bathroom or something Dorte was always surrounded by mexicans when I came back. (In the figure below Dorte enjoys the company of her new mexican biker friends??)
The next morning we spent our day lying on the beach, completely alone. Later we went to the worlds biggest cactuses which apparently live in the desert surrounding San Felipe. When driving in the desert sand our car decided it didn't want to go any further, I had to send Dorte out to push but we however luckily made it back. So after consulting a local, we decided to go for a walk in the desert. We however soon found out that it's quite hot and dry in the desert, and it's hard to find a shade. Sonn we also noticed a couple of vultures, like the ones you see in old westerns, sitting on the top of cactuses carefully watching our tierd steps. Luckily, an all-american family Jeff, Doloris, and Jeff junior came along in their enourmous jeep and asked us whether we needed a ride. They then drove us the rest of our trip through the cactus park. (Below to the left Jeff's jeep and us are tiny compared to the ginourmous cactus. These amazing cactuses are up to 20 meters tall and up to 1500 years old!)





















(An overview over the desert showing hundreds of these enourmous cactuses rising up from the desert plain. )On monday we finally drove home to LA. It was a long day where we had to wait for over 90 minutes at the border in Mexicali just to get into the US. They then of coure seemed surprised that we actually only went to Baja for travel... Again the contrast between the US and Mexico was like night and day .

(A small desert storm on the way back to LA)

Stramme balder og TV

Så har jeg endelig fået gjort noget ved snakken, og er begyndt at dyrke sport. Jeg har haft mange planer om at prøve ting af herovre, jeg aldrig har prøvet før: Jeg ville gå til linedance (man er vel i Amerika!?) og til samba percussion og jeg havde også planer om at slæbe Bjarni med til par-dans på et tidspunkt. De planer er i første om gang lagt is, for nu har jeg meldt mig ind i universitetets workout center. Jeg synes godt nok det er lyder ret kedeligt ift det andet, men det ligger rigtig dejlig tæt på og det er billigt, og udover diverse træningsmaskiner, er der Yoga Booty Ballet (?) og Jazz Funk og andre timer jeg kan deltage i.
Den store motivationsfaktor når man går i motionscenter, er nu blevet at man kan se fjernsyn når man træner!! Vi har nemlig (i første om gang...) besluttet , at vi ikke skal have et fjernsyn herovre. Sådan helt objektivt set er det jo ret meget spild af tid. Men det er uhh, det er nu godt med noget fjernsyn ind i mellem.

På mandag er det helligdag her (President's Day), så lige så snart vi er færdige i morgen kører vi mod den mexicanske halvø Baha. Jeg skal ned og drikke Margaritas og nyde solen. Vi er tilbage mandag.

Jeg håber I har det godt allesammen. Tak for alle mails og hilsner. Det er rigtig dejligt, når man er så langt hjemme fra. Jeg håber vi kan snakkes ved på skype/msn - men det er ikke helt nemt med den store tidsforskel. Weekenderne er nok bedste bud at snakke sammen på.

Hasta luego,
Dorte

An American home..

Hej Alle sammen


Når I ikke lige kan komme forbi til kaffe og se hvordan vi bor, så må man tage andre midler i brug. Der er flere der har spurgt efter billeder af lejligheden, og de kommer her samt en forklaring på forskellige vidundere i et typisk (?) amerikansk hjem.
Huset ligger i det historiske West Adams-kvarter, der er fyldt med gamle charmerende villaer i bedste Villa Villekulla stil. En del huse er dog dårligt vedligeholdt, og ligner mere spøgelseshuse end steder, man har lyst til at bo. På trods af vi bor "in the shady part of town" føles det nu meget pænt og trygt. Området er fyldt med USC studerende, der færdes i kvarteret i bil eller på cykel eller skateboard. Vores hus består at otte lejligheder. Alle er vist unge mennesker, der læser på universitetet.

Lejligheden er jo møbleret, så vi har ikke selv bestemt hvordan det ser ud. Det er nu egentlig bare meget skægt at bo i nogle ting man aldrig selv ville har valgt. I køkkenet, som er ultra lille, har vi et fantastisk lille spisearrangement med hjerteformede stole med hvide læderpuder! og glasbord. I køkkenet finder man også en anden smart ting, jeg er meget imponeret over. Der sidder en kværn i afløbet i vasken, så man smider al køkkenaffald derned (dog ikke kyllingeben og advokadosten!) og tænder for kværnen og så ryger alt affaldet ud med vandet. Det er genialt.


Stuen er også lille. Bemærk vi også her har glasborde (ikke bare ét men to.) Dem prøver jeg på at få byttet, for 3 glasborde i vores lille lejlighed er lige lidt i overkanten til min smag. Vi mangler noget på væggene, men det skal nok komme. I stuen sidder i øvrigt også aircondition og gasvarmer. Fra stuen går man ind i soveværelset. Her har jeg min lille arbejdsplads. ( - Bjarni har sit kontor på universitetet) Vores amerikanske vækkeur udmærker sig ved at man udover radio kan falde i søvn eller vågne op til junglelyde eller bølgebrus. Det benytter vi os dog ikke af. Fra soveværelset går man ud i en lille gang med et lille walk-in closet. Endelig har vi badeværelset med spejle ud over det hele og et badekar, og en vældig fin vandhane med aflange tapper i hver side, hvor der står hot & cold.
I en lejlighed med tykke lyserøde/beige væg-til-tæpper må man selvfølgelig også have en støvsuger. Jeg har allerede vedhæftet en masse billeder, men I MÅ også lige se støvsugeren. Det er nemlig sådan en super amerikansk oprejst model, som jeg ellers kun har set i film. Og så er den trådløs..
Ja, sådan bor vi altså. Selv om lejligheden er lille er der uden tvivl plads til overnattende gæster, så kom endelig :)

Mange hilsner fra Dorte

Praktikken

Heya.
Så er det vidst på høje tid og fortælle, hvad det er jeg er taget helt herover for (udover ham min gode islænding), og hvad det er jeg skal lave de næste 4 månender.
International Rescue Committee eller IRC er organisationen, hvor jeg nu slår mine praktikanter-folder. Det er en temmelig stor NGO, der arbejder i over 25 lande med nødhjælp, postkonflikt udvikling og meget andet godt. Derudover er organisationen sammen med (vistnok) 9 andre hjælpeorganisationer "ansat" af den amerikanske stat til at varetage sagsbehandlingen af nyankomne flygtninge i USA. Jeg arbejder nu i Los Angeles afdelingen, som er en ud de 24 IRC-afdelinger, der er fordelt over hele landet.
Antallet af flygtninge, der får asyl i USA stiger nu igen efter stærke restriktioner efter 9/11. LA har gennem længere tid været en af de store USA destinationer for flygtningegrupper. Det er især iranske minoriteter, der ankommer til LA, fordi der i forvejen er stort iransk/armensk samfund. (I løbet af 2007 og starten af 2008 forventer IRC i LA at tage i mod op til 3000 iransk-armenske flygtninge! Det virkelig overdrevet mange, når man er vant til de nuværende danske forhold. - Byen med opland er godt nok også indbyggermæssigt ca tre gange så stor som DK.. men alligevel.)
Nå men afdelingen, som udvider pga stigende antal flygtninge, tilbyder en række forskellige programmer, der er rettet mod at hjælpe de nyankomne. Det som jeg skal være involveret hedder Matching Grant. Programmet er i tråd med IRC filosofi om uafhængighed fra systemet så hurtigt muligt, og drejer sig om at få arbejdsmarkedsparate flygtninge i arbejde inden for de første fire måneder efter ankomst. Det foregår praktisk talt sådan at de ankommer den ene dag, og bliver indskrevet i programmet den næste! Egentlig synes jeg ikke beskæftigelses-programmer er så interessante, men det var her jeg kunne få mest kontakt med flygtinge over den længste periode. Og så var det her, de lige manglede en ekstra hånd. Det som jeg skal lave bliver at mødes med klienter for at høre, hvordan det går med deres job søgning, hjælpe dem med at søge bolig, svare på spørgsmål og sende dem det rigtige sted hen, hvis der er ting, der ikke ligger inden for IRC's rammer at hjælpe med. Desuden skal jeg også hjælpe til med at udvikle nogle workshops for de flygtninge, der er indskrevet i programmet. Det glæder jeg mig til. Endelig kommer jeg muligvis ind over noget fundraising og grant writing (evt. i forlængelse af MG programmet.)
Pga stressede sagsbehandlere og flytning af en del af afdelingen til en anden del af byen har det været ret forvirrende at starte. Det er lige med at finde hoved og hale i det hele her i starten. F.eks. når jeg skal lave job søgning i en by, der strækker sig over et område på størrelse med Sjælland! Hvor ligger tingene i forhold til hinanden og hvad indebære det job, som jeg ikke kender titlen på!?! Nu skal jo lige lære det hele, men jeg håber virkelig jeg selv kan komme på banen og prøve nogle af de ting af jeg har lært.
Vi er i øvrigt fire praktikanter i alt, så det er meget rart, selv om vi arbejder med noget forskelligt.


Mange hilsner fra Dorte - der er blevet moster igen igen!! :)

Pas på Ford'en!

Hej,

Så er det på tide med en update herovre fra. Der sker hele tiden så meget, at det er svært at finde ud af, hvor jeg lige skal starte. For det første har vi nu fået internet i lejligheden. Så nu bliver det lidt nemmere at kommunikere med Jer der hjemme.
Jeg er startet i praktik. Det er ret overvældende, fordi der er så utrolig meget, jeg skal sætte mig ind i for at forstå, hvordan det hele lige fungerer. Afdelingen i LA er ved at flytte en del af arbejdet til et nyt kontor i en anden del af byen, fordi de behandler mange flere sager end tidligere, og derfor har brug for mere plads. Derfor sidder folk også praktisk talt på nakken af hinanden i øjeblikket. Jeg synes det har været ret forvirrende at starte, fordi alle har travlt med den kommende flytning. Når jeg har lidt bedre tid og ved lidt mere, må jeg forklare hvad det præcist er, jeg skal lave de næste fire måneder. Det lyder lovende, og jeg er sikker på det kan give et godt indblik i dels hvordan dele af det amerikanske sociale system fungerer, og dels hvordan man integrere flygtninge.
Vejret har været fantastisk de sidste par dage. Jeg glemte solcremen da vi spillede beach volley i dag, så nu er jeg blevet rød. Og så er jeg begyndt at køre! For dem der ikke ved det, er jeg sådan en kylling med at køre bil, men nu bliver jeg simpelthen nød til at lære det. Så Bjarni sparker mig bagi, og så er det bare afsted. Det går godt indtil videre. Jeg har kørt til arbejde i rush hour og til stranden og rundt omkring i nabolaget med den tålmodige og meget rosende Bjarni ved siden af.

Det er alt for nu. Jeg vender snart tilbage.

kærlig hilsen Dorte

PS. Grape-frugterne er super!
(Billedet: Mit gule lyn)

Tilbage i LA

Hej & blesadur,

Ja, saa er jeg tilbage paa bloggen igen. Det var lige foer jeg havde glemt, hvordan man goer. Jeg har vaeret i LA i 2 doegn, og synes, jeg har naaet en heeelt masse allerede. For det foerste var det jo godt at se Bjarni igen! Han havde flyttet alle vores ting fra den ene lejlighed til den anden samme dag, som jeg ankom. Den nye lejlighed ligger stadig taet paa universitetet men i meget paenere omraade. Den er meget lille og meget amerikansk indrettet (den er moebleret), men der er uden tvivl potentiale til at goere det rigtig hyggeligt og hjemmeligt ikke mindst. Der er et grapefrugttrae i "baghaven" (dvs. der hvor bilerne er parkeret.) Wauw, det synes jeg er ret fantastisk. Jeg har vaeret ude og plukke een, men har ikke smagt den endnu. Fra sovevaerelset kan vi se kuplen paa en stor Scientology kirke, der paa en go' dag ligner Marmorkirken i Koebnhavn.
Vi er naermest kommet paa plads i lejligheden, og har vaeret i Ikea og koebe alt til koekkenet plus diverse andre praktiske sager vi manglede.
I dag har jeg koebt en (brugt) cykel! Ja, saadan kan det gaa, naar man bare er ude for at kigge. Det er en gul mountainbike, og jeg synes den er ret sej!! Det er plannen at cykle til og fra arbejde. Der er ikke ret langt, og en del af vejen er der cykelsti og ellers maa jeg cykle paa fortovet.

Jeg skal lade Jer vide, hvordan cykelturen til IRC gaar i morgen. Jeg passer paa, soestre!

kaerlige hilsner fra Dorte med jetlag

State of Emergency in California!

The governator Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in California due to "extreme" winter conditions. The temperature actually dropped below zero during last couple of nights, and estimated 1.1 billion dollars worth of crops were destroyed! About 70% of orange crops were destroyed, which probably will cause the orange price to rise alot, also in europe. It even snowed a little bit in some of LA's suburbes, something that hasn't happened in decades. Homeless people gathered in shelters all over LA and people were encouraged to see if their older neighbours had heaters and enough blankets.

It's amazing that these "extreme" cold weather conditions are actually conceived as a fairly nice summer weather condtitions in Iceland. Basically it was 13-14C and sunny (as always) during the day. Pretty nice eh.

Cheers
Bjarni

Good ol' Denmark

It's been a while since I've written anything, and although I should have had alot of time to write something during christmas I somehow always found other more interesting things to do...

Anyways a long story short I passed all my exams, flew to Denmark to for christmas and new year and then back to the sun a couple of days ago. I also managed to meet my parents for 2 minutes at the airport in Iceland and exchange christmas gifts. I only had 15 minutes to change planes, so my parents just explained the situation to the customs personell at the airport and like everything works in Iceland someone knew someone so they were alowed to go through the security check without a boarding pass! They met me as I came out of the plane and walked with me to the other plane.

It was very nice to be back in Denmark and see Dorte after almost 4 months of separation. I had missed her alot here in LA. We went to Jutland for christmas. Her family lives there. (The picture is taken on christmas eve, showing us with Dorte's niece and nephew. Mom, don't get any ideas!!)

We ate and ate and ate both on christmas eve and christmas day. On christmas day (and the first couple of days following christmas) danes traditionally dine a traditional "christmas lunch" for 6 hours or so. "A danish christmas lunch" main ingrediences are rye bread, herring, snaps (a 38-40% liquor) and of course of beer. It was very nice.


(A young niece of Dorte is trying to have a sip of a christmas beer during the christmas lunch. Yes, danes have long been famed for their beer and they do start drinking beer early in their life... although perhaps not this early. I think it's an unopened can.)




For new years eve me and Dorte actually managed to throw a completely mad new years party even though we were only 5 persons. We made a lush 3 course dinner for a couple of guests, and afterwards played games, celebrated the new year and danced all night long.


Anyways now I'm back to sunny California, just waiting for Dorte. The weather here is as good as always. The picture shows me and Kjong taking a quick bath in the pacific after loosing a beach volleyball match last sunday.

Cheers
Bjarni

Thanksgiving and stuff

Last few weeks I've been busy studying as always, and right now I have my finals coming up. It's also getting a bit cold, at least for LA standards, the temperature in the night is sometimes below 10C. (Which is very cold when you're used to 25C all the time.) It however feels nothing like christmas yet, and at least in the daytime it's nice and warm. The trees are also still green.

Anna (my sister) came and visited me last weekend for thanksgiving. We were invited to a thanksgiving family dinner at a distantly related relative of ours. It was actually somewhat of a cultural shock but very interesting nonetheless. The family was very "american" but also nice, the food was also very good. Anyways here's a picture of me and my sister with our distant relative Sjana.

That weekend I showed my sister around LA, the old burned out hippies in Venice beach, and the insanely rich people in Beverly Hills shopping on Rodeo Drive. We also saw Santa Monica, Hollywood and a little bit of the crazy nightlife there. We went to club where of course there were huge lines outside to make it seem hip, and where everybody had to be on the guestlist, except for VIP's, bottleservices, and so on. Once inside if you wanted to sit down you had to pay at least $500 or more.. depending on where you wanted to sit.. The best and most expensive seats were on a stage ovelooking the club. Anna was shocked by this hollywood caste society, where everybody is obsessed with looking good, being somebody, having money, and most importantly showing it! We quickly fled this place filled with "fake" people for a more normal bar. (The picture is taken from the MCB (molecular and computation biology) building, where I have my office.)

On saturday it was game day again and we took part in the big tailgating party before the game, drinking beer in the sun. Anna left that night, and USC won Notre Dame, which probably means that they will play in the national final. Now USC only has to beat the archrivals UCLA tomorrow to get to the final. (Pranks inflicted by UCLA (and USC) are quite common just before these LA rivals play. A few years ago a couple of UCLA students rented a helichopter and came down from the sky to paint Tommy Trojan (the USC icon) blue. Hence the Trojan Knights now ducktape and guard the statue it day and night just before a UCLA game.)

Finally I went and played beach volleyball a couple of weeks ago, in the middle of november! Actually for people in Iceland, I probably only have to emphasize that we actually played beach volleyball! (I doubt it has ever been played in Iceland. It's probably always too cold.) Here are some pics.

(A couple of friends of mine, MCB students and their girlfriends.)

(Me demonstrating my icelandic beach volleyball talents.)

(Santa Monica pier and mountains. People are still surfing in November.)

(One more sunset in the pacific.)

Burglary?

Last night around 4am I woke up to some strange sounds. At first I thought I could hear some noise coming from the kitchen. Tierd and confused I sat up in my bed, it must be a burglary I thought, after all I'm living in South Central. My mind panicked and was quick to imagine mercyless burglers with guns and horrifying murder scenes... however as I looked out the window I finally came to my senses. It was raining. For the first time since I came here it really rained, and boy did it rain. It was just the rain slamming the roof and windows of the house. I went back to sleep.

Good night.

Don't you know who I am? I'm important!!

Once again I found my self (yesterday) on the sunset strip trying to get into a club (Privilege) filled with wannabe's. We arrived early, but apparently not early enough. The problem was that clubs like these have several wating lines, the normal line, the guestlist line, the dinner reservation or bottleservice line, and finally the VIP line. And of course if you're a well known actor (e.g. Don Cheadle, from Hotel Rwanda) or a model you could skip all the lines. This time being on the guestlist just didn't seem to be enough. There were apparently too many VIP's. Some of my friends got in, mainly because they were with girls and therefore had a better chance, but I ended up standing in this stupid line for over 2 hours and 30 minutes. Sometimes I completely loath LA, and especially Hollywood, for its obsession with being somebody important, acting cool, and looking really good. But then again, if I would gotten in I might not have this problem. Anyways, I hate this Hollywood attitude for now. After I gave up standing in line I went to a couple of other more "normal" bars with some danish and german people, and had a nice time despite not partying with the rich and famous.

Last weekend my institute held a retreat in Laguna Beach. Laguna beach is a really nice city, just south of LA (little over an hour drive from USC). Unlike LA which most of the time looks like an enourmous slum covered in smog, this small city is propped with upscale galleries, cool restaurants, and trendy cafés. Anyways it was alot of fun and really strange lying on the beach in 27C in November! Like you can see in the picture I havn´t had much time to get tan since I came here.


Finally I wanted to post some pictures from a USC football game I went to a couple of weeks back but never got around to blog about. USC won the game of course, and there were loads of parties before and after the game. It was alot of fun, and also completely insane.

(A couple of friends of mine, we looking for the tailgating party before the game.)

(Trojan spirit before the game. The marching band is playing the USC anthem, Fight On.)

(USC Song Girls, i.e. the cheerleaders.)

(About 100.000 people cheering in the coliseum.)

(The USC student section in the stadium, going wild.)

(Finally me with a couple of chinese students at the game.)

Fight on.
Bjarni

Not dead.... yet.

Lately I've been extremely busy and havn't got round to blog therefore. I had my last midterm today, and although this day is called Dia de los muertos or "Day of the dead", I think I survived one more crazy exam. Now I finally foresee a week of doing perhaps something else than study 24-7. They really force one to study like maniacs here, actually one of the 8 PhD students I started with quit because he couldn't find enough time to study, having a family and all.

Last wednesday was halloween, it was really interesting to see all kinds of people, children and students walking around in costumes. Some students and faculty showed up to school wearing costumes. Buildings were decorated, costume parties were held etc. Sadly I had absolutely no time to take part, since I was of course studying. However, it was nice to see children and teenagers walking around in the streets after dark in my neighbourhood. Normally the streets where I live are completely void of any life after dark.... because it's dangerous to go outside after dark, of course.

While we're on the subject of how dangerous my neighbourhood is, there was a murder here close by the other day. Extremely scary! A guy on a bike was killed in a drive-by shooting! It happened in the middle of the day, outside the house of a friend of mine. It is thought to have been gang related, although the motif was not known. This is apparently how everyday life in LA is. After this happened I've become scared of walking outside in my neighbourhood, even during daytime. I find myself constantly looking over my shoulder, and looking out for spooky people.

And yes while we're on the subject of getting killed. Yesterday, on halloween of course, I woke up at 6am in the morning to the quieking sound of the firealarms in my building (which I live alone in). It turned out that the newly installed heater had turned on automatically during the night because the temperature went below 15C or so, and set fire to something in the ventilation system. This caused smoke in all the appartment. Luckily I was quick to discover the source of the smoke and turn the heater off before the whole building went down in flames.. I was shocked, things could have gone worse, much worse. Fire is especially dangerous here in LA since everything is so dry. After this I don't even feel safe inside.


But although things here can sometimes seem dire, the constant good summer weather makes up for incredibly much. It lets you tolerate much more. And no matter bad things look it's impossible not being affected by the constant summer atmosphere here. Actually this place grows on you, and like all places it has good things and bad things...

This weekend I'm going to a Laguna Beach resort (payed by the school), where I plan to lie on the beach and enjoy the sun.. :) Perhaps I'll even get a chance to learn how to surf?



Bjarni

Partying with the rich and the famous..

If you're bored in Los Angeles, then it's only your own fault. There are always some huge events happening, concerts, festivals, shows, sport games, etc. And if that doesn't satisfy you then there is always the beach and the mountains, which are great for hiking in, that is as long as you don't run into a mountain lion. (The picture was taken from one such hike, its showing downtown LA in the distance.) There are also loads of theme parks, amusement parks, museums, venice beach, hollywood, good nightlife.. and of course famous movie stars walking around. And yes last night I met my first movie star here in LA. It was academy award winner Jamie Fox, who won the oscar in 2005 for playing Ray Charles in Ray. I was partying at the Privilege on Sunset Boulevard, a typical high-profile LA club, filled with wannabe actors, models, rock stars, rappers and other very very weird people. The only reason why I got in was because I happened to know the right people, some USC students I was with had some connections.. Anyways there he was, Jamie Fox, just hanging out with some friends of his. Apparently Paris Hilton was of course also supposed to be there, but I didn't see her... Anyways this kind of stuff only happens in LA.

Cheers
Bjarni

My new carrier as an actor.

Today as I was walking towards my terrifying applied probability class, I passed Tommy Trojan (the statue that Dorte is inspecting on the right...), and I noticed it was covered in plants! Strange.. I thought and then as I looked around I noticed banners reading "Yale: Parents Weekend". Apparently I was in the middle of a "Gilmore Girls" episode shooting. I've never watched this show, but supposedly the mother and the daughter (characters in the show) were right there couple of meters away from me. It was pretty weird.. Anyways don't be surprised if you see me walking in the backround at Yale University while watching the Gilmore Girls...

Regards
Bjarni

In the ghetto

Yes I live in the ghetto. This is no joke, the yellow house on the figure is actually where I live and the car next to it is my car. The neighbourhood, which is located in South Central, is called West Adams. The racial breakdown is something like 35% blacks 45% hispanic and rest poor USC students that couldn't afford anything better.... or like me just naive foreign students that got ripped off. I'm paying like at least 200 dollars a month too much for this place.

But actually its amazing how easily you get used to living here. Although you can't go for walk after dusk, since there's a great chance of being robbed or something worse, it is actually not that bad. People are really open, they'll great you out in the street, and are very willing to engage in any conversations.... although they sometimes speak in spanish. I personally think that they appreciate all students in the neighbourhood, but this neighbourhood used to be alot worse just 10 years ago. Then no students dared to live here and gunshots in the night were a everyday event. Today this area is patroled by the campus-police (as well as the LAPD), which I think the residents here really appreciate.

Although things have improved alot in the past years, this neighbourhood is far from being safe. Almost everyday there are police helicopters flying over my house, and at least once me and Dorte woke up in the middle of the night hearing horrible screaming followed by flashing lights of what was probably the campus police. Another student, a chinese guy I met that lives nearby, also woke up last month to a gunshot and witnessed a gun-fight in his street followed by police sirens. And of course the ice-cream salesmen walking around the neighbourhood with their children melody playing aren't just selling ice-cream... I also thought it was a bit strange to hear these stupid children melodies going past my house at 10pm in the evening.

It's really not that bad living here, in some sense its only cool to be here. Its here or close by where a bunch of cool rappers and mucisians grew up. Its probably also just healthy to be exposed to the fact that alot of people have to struggle through life everyday. Not everybody is as lucky as I am, I have an education and a health insurance, something that many people here don't. Anyways, I think I'll be moving in february as soon as my lease runs out....

Have a good one.
Bjarni

USC - University of Severe Courseload?

It was not exactly an easy thing to get into USC, I mean it took time and alot of effort. I went to London to take exams, the GRE and TOEFL. I had to fill out long lists of forms, write several "statements of purpose"s, get the right recommendations from my professors. I had to apply for an US VISA, pay several hundreds of dollars and then pick my words carefully in several interviews. After we arrived it continued, we had to find a place to live, lend money, buy a car, get a social security number, californian ID, etc. But now when I've got almost everything in place, I can't help asking myself: Why the hell did I come here? The reason is that all of my classes here require a tremendous amount of work, unlike most of the classes I took in Denmark. For example, I have an algorithms class which started with an examination or a quiz on the prerequisits, which you had to pass to be able to take the class. This quiz also weighed 5% of the final grade. Each week we also get tough homework on which we must answer more than 45% correct in order to pass the class. And the funny thing is, as a PhD student, you're not allowed to get anything below a B, or you'll be kicked out of the program, let alone flunk a class. Actually that's not funny at all.. I mean, the workload here is much much greater than what one is used to in good ol' Denmark. For example some PhD students here at my institute actually have matrices to sleep on in their offices. This way they can save time by not having to go home at night!!! In my opinion that's just insane! I, hope I'll never have to resort to that... besides Dorte would probably kill me if I would.

Anyways I just wanted to get this out of the system.. Well I better go do some work again, I have three midterms coming up soon, all of which I'll have to pass in order to stay in the PhD program....

Bjarni

Fight On!

It was gameday yesterday (saturday), which is the day USC had its first homegame in football against Nebraska, and everything went suddenly CRAZY here. It was amazing. I woke up hearing my neighbours out in the street shouting "30$ parking", where people were selling parking spaces in their private parking lots to arriving USC fans (although I live about 2.5km from the stadium!). And even though the game started at 5 pm people arrived already around 11-1pm.... well because of the tailgating parties! The tailgating parties are basicly barbecues or grills where the fans bring their own tents, chairs, food and alot of beer and just enjoy life before the big game. The whole campus was just like one huge festival filled with people dressed in red and yellow, it was amazing. When you walked around campus absolute strangers offered you their own food and beer, I have never ever experienced that in Denmark or Iceland. People whom you've never met were suddenly your best friends just because you happend to be studying at the right school. It was awsome! It was impossible not to get captured by the trojan spirit and join in the whole em.. "celebration"?? Well the game hadn't started yet but people were partying like they had just won the world championship. Some of my european friends even ended up buying USC T-shirts and had instantly become hard-core USC fans! GO TROJANS! (USC students are nicknamed trojans).

Even though the stadium, The Coliseum, takes about 100.000 people it was sold out a long ago, as with almost all homegames this season! Some games are so popular that the black market ticket price is at least 2000-3000$ for crappy seats!!!!! But this is of course the game against the archrivals UCLA bruins. Anyways we didn't get tickets to this game, (although students can get pretty cheap tickets), and we therefore watched in on TV. After the game (which we of course won 28-10) there were houseparties everywhere, it was alot of fun (the picture is taken at one).

A German friend. of mine said this gameday reminded him on the World Cup in Germany this summer. I mean this was big, I've never seen anything like it. I spent almost 7 years in Copenhagen and I never really became a fan of FCK or any other team there, but after only one game here I've suddenly become a USC football fan, although I probably don't know the rules. It's simply impossible to escape the atmosphere surrounding it. Anyways, this is how it's going to be every other weekend for this semester... and that's awsome!

Go Trojans
Bjarni

Loony Los Angeles

On the 28th of July we finally left the big apple for our final destination, Los Angeles. Already on the plane we were exposed to the loony atmosphere of Los Angeles where the head sterwardess, Barbara around 50, said on the speakers "If there is anything you want just ask and we'll do it. Really anything at all.. (short pause) ..like, if you want me to dance I can dance, act, anything at all and we'll do it." Then she went on to explain all the cocktails she could make and how delicious they were using gestures and sounds like "mmmhhhm". It sounded like she was really really drunk or on drugs, and although it was very funny we were just hoping the pilot wasn't on the same stuff as well. Later on we however realized that this is just typical Los Angeles in the sense that this city is filled with crazy people, many of which originally came here with big dreams of becoming movie stars but ended up in other less demanding roles, such as for example being airline stewardesses. Even the girl sitting next to us on the plane, Andy a red-haired comics-reading girl, had moved to LA to become an actor. Perhaps she'll end up perfroming on the streets in front of the chinese theater with Freddy Kruger and Jack Sparrow, although I hope not.




We were glad to get out of the airplane alive. The weather in Los Angeles was nice when we landed, sunny and 25C, like always, much better than the humid 40C in New York. We took a taxi to the USC campus. We were shocked to see how dirty this city is. Although the freeways are huge typically 5-8 lanes in each direction they are often bumpy, littered, and of course covered with graffiti. It's obvious that this city is actually really poor. The per capita income in LA is only 20.600$ well under the average for USA as a whole. In fact more than 1/5 of the population here is below the poverty line. These are typically blacks and hispanics and these people live almost all in East LA (hispanics) or South Central LA (blacks and hispanics), and ironically thats where the USC or the "university of spoiled children" is located...

When we arrived at campus we were amazed by the stark difference between the surrounding neighborhood and campus. Unlike the surrounding neighborhood the campus was clean and very cozy. In fact USC was the cleanest and nicest university I had ever seen, completely incomparable with Copenhagen University. The picture is showing Dorte walking around on campus. Later when we then went to get dinner at the cantine we found a huge free selection of foods. Mexican, grilled brugers, pizzas, fish, meat, vegetarian, jucy tropical fruits, tofu, salads, cakes, deserts, you name it it was there. It was of course all you can eat. You people eating at August Kroghs cantine or HCØ really don't know what you're missing!! They have everything here from sushi to mexican or indian food, you name it you can find it here on USC campus. Anyways I'm hungry so I'll continue later..

Bjarni

The big USA

After more than one month here in Los Angeles things are finally calming down so that I can find time to blog. So how have things been here so far. I'm going to go back to the first days here in the big USA.


Well to sum up I have to say that this whole travel experience to the US has been a tremendous cultural shock. We entered the country on the 24th of July, almost without problems. First there was New York, the city that never sleeps. It's really a fantastic city.... that is if you look past all the garbage piling up on the sidewalk, and disregard the stupid "no alcoholic beverages in public" regulations, and of course the incredibly extensive ID checking at bars (wow do I really look younger than 21!?!). Some bars didn't even accept passports as an ID!! Anyways, the city is nontheless so big, so cool, so beatiful, so dirty, so impressive, so full of everything that you're quick to forgive the americanos for their stupid alcoholic regulations.

Daniel's family were extremely nice in offering us an great studio appartment on 16th Street in Chelsea in the middle of Manhattan. This tiny little appartment (22 square meters) had a rent of whopping 1500$, I used to pay 350$ for a bigger studio appartment in good old Amager in Copenhagen, but thats not Manhattan. Daniel invited us also to a family reunion on our second day in New York where we ate an all-american breakfast, that is pancakes with sirup, some more sirup and even more sirup and then a little sugar as well. There we met among others Daniels aunt which offered to rent us a small pool house in Beverly Hills where her sister lived. We were thrilled! Later we however found out that this small 5 bedroom poolhouse was a bit too expensive for our modest budget.


We spent five days walking around Manhattan with Daniel and his girlfriend Susanne gazing at the huge skyscrapers towering over our heads. We checked out the view from the 86th floor of the Empire State building, stared at all the colorful huge flashing billboards on Times Square, ate at cool restaurants, (ethiopian, japanese, NY deli, at orthodox kosher places (in Brooklyn)), checked out the UN building, and finally got lost in the huge Metropolitan museum when the heatwave hit (around 40C and humid). There I even found a nice picture of a close relative of mine, the famous half-ICELANDIC and half-danish Bertel Thorvaldsen, but the brother of his icelandic father was a great great great great great grandfather of mine. Here's a picture of the lad.

Susanne wrote a great blog about the trip Iceland and New York, which can be found here if you're interested. We however traveled only together for the first ten days (24. July - 2. August).

Thanks for now..