Trip to Germany

Hi all! Some of you may remember me as that guy who posted one time about the crazy double yolked eggs. Thats right, after months of hibernation I am finally making my SECOND POST!! It wasn't really an option, I recently took a trip to Germany for work and was asked to take some pictures while I was there. Nichole and I had been to Germany before, but I was going to Munich which we hadn't seen. I fell for the trap and took pictures like I was supposed to. When Nichole saw all of the pictures that I took she decided that I could write a blog post about my trip. I have protested and procrastinated for a few weeks now (my trip started January 22nd) but eventually she won (was there ever an doubt?).

I didn't actually make it to Munich while I was gone but instead spent my time in Freising, which is just outside Munich. I spent two full days at work and was able to spend a little time wandering around the town to see what all was there. It was a small town with a pretty typical town center and main street.



There were several churches scattered through the town. The biggest seemed to be the one located up on a hill in the middle of the town. I went up the hill to get a closer look.


While on the hill I got a view of the city. It was nice to be up high and to be able to get a nice panoramic overview of the area.


I also took some walks through the town. While walking around I stumbled into some park areas that reminded me a lot of Denmark. Here we have a lot of areas that are very 'foresty' on the outskirts of the towns, in central Copenhagen there are some large parks that are nice to walk through too.


It was a good trip. I got a lot done and I got to see a nice small German town. Originally we had planned for Nichole to come with me but when we found the time for the trip and checked the ticket prices we were amazed by how expensive they were. At the time tickets to Freising were around $800 (4000DKK for our Danish readers). Too much for a short trip!

Seeing Friends a Second Time

Last Monday I got to see Marianne, Viggo and Nis again. Nis had some stuff to do in the city and so I spent the afternoon with Marianne and little Viggo. We walked around RAINY Copenhagen and ate lunch. We ate at the top of Magasin which is a big department store. They had a great little children's area. Viggo had fun :)


Last night we had Kelli and Mads over as Kelli is visiting Denmark right now, and they happened to be in Lyngby for their nephews Christening. We had fun talking about Denmark and the things we have and she has started to get use to that are different here. There is something so comfortable about spending time with other Americans living in Denmark or in Kelli's case, getting ready to move to Denmark.

Just a sunset from the other evening

Danes Love US Politics

Sometimes I think Michael and I are both wearing big signs saying, "We are American, please talk politics with us"! Lately, especially at the gym, people keep talking to us about the latest news with the primaries, caucuses, debates and endorsements. Generally we both keep out of political discussions, but talking about it with Danes, somehow seems less confrontational and less stressful. It has been incredibly fascinating to hear how much the Danes are keeping up with everything and how interested they are in the events and issues. Even yesterday I was at IKEA and helped a lady wrap some of her glassware. She asked where I was from right away and then proceeded to tell me she had been keeping up with the presidential elections and was surprised to hear that we get to vote while living abroad. Apparently Danes are not allowed to vote in their elections if they are not living in Denmark. I believe they can make a trip back and vote early, but they must vote inside of Denmark. I am very excited to be spending the rest of the election season here in Denmark. I'm anxious to hear the insights and opinions from our friends and other Danes about our political race. Not that I am going to take any of their opinions or thought into consideration when it comes time to cast my ballot, but it is really amazing to hear what an outsider thinks is best for the US of A.

It is really great for us being over here right now. We are not slammed with political ads on the tv and papers the way I know we would be if we were in the states. We do however, see stuff in the Danish paper and news (CNN, BBC, and Danish News) Daily about the election. It is great because we can get the information we need and want when we want it. This is the first time either of us have ever started following the race so early on.

Besides the current events going on now, we constantly are hearing stuff about our two most recent presidents. From the time we moved here 5.5 years ago, until now, when Danes or other nationalities besides Americans, Canadians and Mexicans find out we are from Texas, 9 out of 10 times the first thing out of their mouth is... "Oh, Bush!" and it is usually pronounced more like "Boosh". By now, it has gotten pretty old but we still give a little bitty smile and say, "Yes". Not all, but the vast majority of Danes we have spoken with LOVE LOVE LOVE Bill Clinton. He visited Denmark in 1997 and was the first American president to do so. I suppose this is where a lot of their enthusiasm from him comes from. There is a checker at one of the grocery stores I go to. The first time he talked to us and realized we were American he asked us, "Do you know who my idol is?" and we said, "who?" and he said, with the most proud voice and face, "William Jefferson Clinton". Needless to say, Danes are almost always shocked to hear that many Americans do not share their enthusiasm for the man.

We are all registered to vote now from abroad. The process was quite easy and painless. We will receive our ballots in the mail and we will mail them back as absentee ballots. Our votes will be counted in the Texas vote since it was our most recent (and only) state of residence. If anyone else is wondering how to get all registed from abroad you can find all the informtion at this website: www.overseasvotefoundation.org.

Universal Heath Care in Denmark

Health care is not an issue I particularly enjoy talking about because it seems currently, it can be a touchy subject. But today, I got my renewal private insurance card and decided that I am going to suck it up and vocalize my thoughts on the Danish Health Care System.

One of the advantages to paying the ridiculous high taxes in Denmark is the universal heath care system. It is a nice change to see everyone in a country taken care of medically. Imagine a place where if you require some huge surgery, you won't pay a dime. Or if you need to be admitted to the hospital for weeks, you will never incur any costs. I think back to 1999-2002 when my brother, Joe, underwent multiple surgeries, was in and out of the hospitals on practically a monthly basis, and even spent a little over a month at the Mayo Clinic in AZ. The amount of money that boy racked up was unimaginable. Our family was blessed to have so many friends, family, strangers and even a miraculous generosity of a hospital, that my family didn't suffer financially the way I am sure many many others could have, and do on a daily basis. I think of all that and I can't imagine how wonderful it WOULD have been if that money was never racked up in the first place. Then of think of all the people in the states that aren't fortunate enough to have insurance in one form or another and am thankful that my brother DID at least have insurance. But what if he didn't?

Fortunately, here in Denmark, that is never a question.

But, when I think, "What if Joe had lived in Denmark in 1999 when he got sick", would it have been any better financially? Without a doubt, yes, but in that, I'm not positive he would have gotten the same care that he NEEDED to survive when he needed it. Would he have gone on a waiting list to wait for surgery and would that wait have been too long?

We have read in papers and discussed in depth with some of our Danish friends and even our Danish teacher about the problems of the hospitals being overcrowded and many times patients in the hospitals are left in the hallways because there are no rooms for them. There have been pictures in the newspapers of hallways lined with hospital beds. I met a Canadian girl about 6 months ago who had recently been to the hospital. She told me how she was surprised that she waited about 7-8 hours in the waiting room. Apparently this is common, my guess is that it is because everybody is able to go to the emergency room, so, naturally, there are more people there! Makes sense in my mind!

We know people personally that have had a family member diagnosed with cancer and put on a waiting list to get treatment. By the time their name came up, 2 or 3 months later, the cancer had progressed too much for the chemo and radiation to do anything. This is unfortunately a common problem in the system and that scares me!! Actually, scares isn't strong enough...that terrifies...horrifies me! What if, God forbid, Michael or I are diagnosed with the big "C"? Without our US health insurance allowing us to hop on a plane for immediate treatment back home, would we be left to sit and wait for that call?

BUT....Private Health Care is becoming more and more available over here. Many companies are starting to provide it to their employees. Since Texas Instruments is such an amazing company, and always seems to be very forward thinking we are fortunate to have private health insurance though TI. If we have an emergency, we will go to a private hospital, if something horrible happens to one of us, I can rest assured, we will be taken care of in a timely manner and that makes me....my hubby...and our moms (I'm sure) much happier. :)

Denmark's Health Care system is without a doubt, wonderful. It would be amazing to raise children in an environment where as a parent you weren't stressed about having some kind of insurance and having the comfort of a safety net, knowing that no matter what happens, you and your children will be treated. Those hefty taxes certainly could pay off if a woman had a baby in Denmark and was faced with multiple complications. Our "normal" health insurance card also works as travel health insurance. If we make our way to say, Ghana in Africa, and we get sick, we are covered in Ghana with our "Yellow Card". I think that is AWESOME. Another cool thing is that if you came to visit us here, and got sick in Denmark you also would be covered by the Danish Health Care system. Not because of associate to us, but simply because you are on Danish soil. Pretty cool huh?

In short, this is my opinion of Danish Health Care (*not to be confused with my opinions on universal heath care) as a foreigner:

It seems that there is a particular group of people this system is good for. They are the people that aren't healthy, but aren't severely ill. If you want a mole removed, you'll have to wait months. If you get cancer, you'll have to wait months. But I think, if you break a leg, or get appendicitis, they will put you in a cast or remove your appendix pretty quick.

Back to Joe.
I am thankful that Joe lived in the states when he got sick. At this point I don't have complete faith in the "normal" Danish Health Care system. Perhaps I've heard WAY too many bad stories and it has made me skeptical. However, I hope we never get the opportunity to form a first hand opinion.

Now, dental and vision.... Thats a WHOLE different story for another day.

_________________
Footnote:
* Universal Health Care is VERY VERY good.

Wet Day in Copenhagen

Yesterday I went to the city. Much to my happiness, the clouds have been disappearing a couple hours a day for the past few days. But of course, the one day I decide to go spend the day in the city, this is what the weather looked like:

Nice, Real Nice. (said with ample amounts of sarcasm)

I have been wanting to go to the "Danish Resistance Museum" for the past 5 years, and finally I made my way there. After my high school band was invited to Russia to help celebrate "Victory Day" I became absolutely fascinated by WWII mostly on the European front. I have over the years learned a lot about Denmark at this time. Denmark was occupied by German forces during the war. I have found the rescuing of the Jewish people in Denmark to be one of the most amazing stories I have read from WWII. So I was disappointed that there was only a small 6 ft case with artifacts from the rescuing of the Jews and hardly anything written about this. There was an extensive amount about the underground press and the different resistance groups which I found quite interesting. I spent about 2 hours in the museum learning even more than I had previously. It was a very well done museum, but when I left I didn't have a sense of satisfaction that I usually get when I leave a great museum. Perhaps it wasn't fair to this little museum because deep down I think I was judging it against the other INCREDIBLE WWII museums I have been to. All in all I'm glad I went and it made for an enriching day. If someone were to ask me if it was worth the time to pay it a visit, I would unfortunately have to say no. Which is too bad because I had high hopes for this museum. When we went to Jutland for the first time in 2002 we visited some German Bunkers that line the coast. We were able to go inside some of the bunkers where they had information and pictures and other stuff about them. That was really cool and that I would say is YES worth paying those a visit.

Pretty window at "The Danish Resistance Museum"

German Bucker on the Coast of Denmark in Jutland in 2002

Back at the beginning of January there was a HORRIBLE incident of a 19 year old boy that was stabbed to death at the entrance to Strøget. This is right at at some of the the big sites in Denmark like the Royal Theatre, Kongens Nytorv, and Nyhavn. I've talked about this street numerous times. It is the huge pedestrian street that stretches through Copenhagen. Anton was on his way to the Metro at about 6am when 3 others come up to him and wanted his hat. He said, no and a fight started. Then the worst happened. One of the guys took out a knife and stabbed him repeatedly. It was so sad to read about and hear about all of this. The place where he was stabbed has since been covered in flowers, candles, beer bottles, and letters to Anton. I knew I would walk past it today as I had a few places to go on Strøget. Ugg, SO SAD! And to think, it all started because some stupid kids wanted his hat!

Confessions of a C.F. Husband

Yesterday afternoon I found myself on a random blog out there in cyberspace and before I knew it a couple hours had passed and I was still reading it.

This blog is called, Confessions of a C.F. Husband and if you are looking for an incredible and inspirational read, this is for you!


Tricia has Cystic Fibrosis and while waiting to get on a list for a double lung transplant they got the news that she was pregnant. This was very hard on Tricia's body and the baby, Gwyneth Rose, was born on January 8th at an itty bitty 1 pound 6 ounces! Tricia and Gwyneth Rose have been and are still are fighting for their lives.

The thing about this story and this young couples journey is the amazing strength, courage and faith that this husband and the whole family has. There was one post that addressed not to feel sad for them as this is not a sad thing.... I was in awe reading it.

This link will pull up all of the posts from January. I suggest scrolling all the way to the bottom of the page and read upwards. This will put the posts in chronological order. If you cry easily, I suggest having a box of Kleenex near!

http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html

DTU/TTU Program

I have made reference to this program numerous times on this blog. When I started the blog the main people that read it, all knew what this program is and so I never felt the need to explain it. 2.5 years later, I find, it would be a good idea to explain it again plus it will give me a page to reference back to later. :)

Back in 2001 Texas Tech University (TTU) and Denmark Technical University(DTU) here in Lyngby developed a concept for a duel Electrical Engineering Masters Degree Program funded by Texas Instruments. The idea was that the TTU students would move to Denmark for 15 months where they would take classes at DTU and do research for their Masters Thesis at the Texas Instruments branch in Lyngby. The DTU students would spend 1 year divided between Lubbock and Dallas doing the same thing. At the end of the 15 months or the 1 year the students would receive a masters degree in Electrical Engineering from both universities. In 2001 while Michael was finishing his Bachelors degree Dr. Chao approached him to tell him about this program and the vision and told Michael he was interested in having him be the first student. Obviously he said yes. There was a lot of odds and ends to get the program running and at times we didn't think it would happen but a year later in 2002 everything was set in stone and we only had about 2 months to get ready to move to Denmark.

That was 5.5 years ago and now, there have been 13 students that have done this exchange, 7 of which have already completed it and 6 that are currently in the program. The program has branched out and now some of the students coming to Denmark will do their research at the Texas Instruments in Germany outside of Munich.

There are some articles online about the program as well.
The first link is an article Michael wrote upon our departure from Denmark in 2002 for DTU.
The second is an Article from the Tech Newspaper about Michael and Klaus too.
The third link is about the program, but has a picture of us on there.

An American in Denmark (Written by Michael)
Going Abroad Studing with Advantages
DTU Sets New Standard


We came as the first and got A LOT of special treatment and help from the professor in Denmark that helped set the program. Because of that, one of our motivations for wanting to come back to Denmark was to be here to help out with the new students as they came. A payback to the program if you will. Though I was never a student in the program, I feel great pride in it and want to help out where I can, perhaps because it gave me the experience of a lifetime to live abroad. So, last night we had all the guys that have been part of the program that are in Denmark right now over for beer and food to help welcome the two newest students that arrived only about a week ago. Plus it's always nice to have a house full of Texans and some of our favorite Danes! As it turns out Michael was one of the new students Physics Lab T.A'.s his first year at Tech. That made Michel feel nice and old ;)

The Guys

Jens Skovgaard Olsen, Bryant Heath, David Tiprigan , Michael Pate,
Jason Slay, Klaus Krogsgaard, Christian Toft Bjerreskov

A Couple Other Program Pictures

June 2007

January 2007

False Spring

Remember our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree?

http://mnp8.blogspot.com/2007/11/jul-i-lygby.html

Well he use to sit on our balcony and we drug him inside and decorated him. Two days before Christmas, after he had been in our warm flat since the day after Thanksgiving, we noticed that he was starting to bud. We were a little nervous because we both have VERY bad allergies and when spring comes around we are both knocked on our asses from all the blooming around us. We had decided that the day after Christmas we would promptly move him back outside to his home on the balcony. The day after Christmas came and we looked at him and just didn't have the heart to move him back outside as one of the buds had bloomed into a pretty new set of pine needles. As of now, he is still inside and occasionally we say, maybe he should go outside, but then we'll go over and look at him and one of us will say something like, "He is so cute" and then we just can't put him out in the cold. Amazingly, neither of our allergies have been bothered in the slightest because of him. Maybe this is a sign that we desperately need another puppy as we have now adopted a tree. I guess he needs a name now.... Hmmm.. Any suggestions?

The bright green pines are the new growth

Gloomy Days in Denmark

My Dearest Sun and Blue Sky,
I miss you guys.
Why do you spend your short hours alive in the sky, hiding behind thick clouds?
Why don't you ever show your bright shining faces to me?
My melatonin levels are suffering since you have left.
I'm so sorry I grew up saying summer was my least favorite season.
I take it back...
I didn't mean it...
I was young...
and naive...
Please come back soon.
I'm waiting for you...
Nichole :o)

This is pretty much what it looked like for all of the few hours of daytime today, and the day before and the day before and the day before and the day before and the day before and the day before and the day before.........................

Dr. Pate's Little Chip

This morning I had an email from Michael from work with a link to a video he found on Youtube of the chip he and his team designed while we were in Dallas. At work and at home it was called, "Boston" but in the real world it is known "TAS5162". I thought Michaels dad Scot and his stepdad Wayne would particularly find this interesting. As will Jens, Klaus and Flemming I'm sure. As for everyone else, well maybe you'll find it interesting to! But probably not ;0)

When people ask Michael what he designs at Texas Instruments (after he tells them no, he doesn't make calculators) he gives this answer, "I make chips for stereos that make them loud". But I know what he really wants to say is this: