Looks can fool ya

[photos: I've been very lazy with my camera this week, so I just copied these from the net.  Above we have the new opera house, library, and theater.  All of these are located within a mile of each other along this canal.  Can you tell which is which?]

I may have mentioned this in a previous post, but this weekend Marianne competed in the national competition for indoor rowing.  She and her team managed to get 3rd place!  It was one of the weirdest / coolest things I've ever seen.  The competition was held down at a local sports hall where they filled the gymnasium with rows of rowing machines.  The machines were hooked up to all sorts of gizmos which were connected to a giant projector showing the distance traveled by each "boat".  The event was set up like a track meet with individual and relay events in distances from 200 m sprints up to 2000 m races.  The relay events were by far the most exciting.  Every 500 m the rowers literally switched places on the machine.  This is far more complicated than just passing off a baton and has much more potential for failure.  Vibeke took several pictures, so I'll try to upload them as soon as she sends them to me.  

In other news, I found an awesome author!  The father of the girl who stayed with Vibeke and Marianne before me gave them a series of books by Karen Blixen.  The books contain several stories filled with all sorts of mystery, romance, and murder (I'm currently reading Seven Gothic Tales).  Blixen often wrote under the name Isac Dinesen, so if you see either one of those authors on the shelf, check 'em out.  Blixen is a Dane but she wrote in English, giving the syntax kind of an interesting flavor.  

This last week I also started to delve into Danish film.  The film club had its first meeting on Sunday where we watched "Idioterne" (The Idiots).  It was filmed according to dogme 95, something I knew nothing about.  It was possibly one of the strangest movies I've ever seen, but I would still recommend it to those interested.  I don't want to spoil any of the plot, but here's a synopsis.

On a more random note, the strangest thing keeps happening.  Since I've arrived, four Danish people have come up to me and asked if we knew each other.  The conversation usually goes like this:

Dane: Undskyld, Fiskar eru hryggdýr sem dvelja í vatni og anda með tálknum? 

Me: Uhhh...

Dane:  Oh, Undskyld

Me: Wait, I'm sorry I don't speak much Danish

Dane: You just looked familiar 

Me: Oh...

Dane: ...

Me: I like your...country.

(followed by immense awkwardness if this happens on the train)

[photo answer:  top to bottom = library, theatre, opera house]