Copenhagen - Part 3

Monday, February 12, 2007

Another cold day in Copenhagen. Still, the walk to work wasn't bad. Another day passed without me having access to the N drive, where all the documents are kept. We did put pressure on the HR folks to get whatever form is needed over to the computer people so they would give me the access I need. We have been promised that it "should" happen "tomorrow". We shall see. In the meantime, my hands are kind of tied. I did manage to get my WHO badge today, something that AFRO never bothered to give me all the times I have gone there. John was anxious for me to start on something before he left on a trip, so I managed to get some of the documents already in existence to translate them into WHO format.

One thing I do not understand is how they are going to pay for this meeting. First, nearly all the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Republics cannot afford to travel their own people to the meeting, so WHO must pay for it. This includes airfare, hotel, and maybe per diem. With all those people, plus the costs of actually holding the meeting at this hotel in Dubrovnik, Croatia, they have set aside around $80K. Yeah, good luck with that!

I also read the blog of this guy I sort of know. I had not followed his blog in months, thinking he had abandoned it. My mistake! He just moved it. It was a devastating look at a relationship from its flowery this-is-THE-ONE-for-me start to the crash and burn a few months later. It only lasted the last half of 2006, but the turmoil would have made you believe it was much longer. I found it interesting that people talk about how cautious they are, yet throw that caution to the wind when a cute face, hot bod, and good sex are introduced into the equation. Reading his situation made me realize that my own moaning and groaning about my personal life is kind of stupid. The things I have gone through have not nearly been as wrenching as what this guy went through. I wouldn't trade places with him for anything.

On my walk home, I decided to find this Thai place that was supposed to be a block or two past my hotel. I found it, and it was closed. Not sure if that is just a Monday thing or something more permanent. I settled for this Italian father-son joint next door to the closed Thai restaurant and ordered the lasagna with a salad and coke light (no 'diet' for Europeans!). It was a pretty good meal, and reasonably priced too.

I got my laundry from the front desk, and it arrived at 7pm on the dot, just as they said it would. Not a minute early, not a minute late. I had a phone call from Leo to touch base between his two trips. Other than that, I read until I fell asleep.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

I was greeted by rain this morning. Not light snow, but cold, drizzly rain. Having not packed by raincoat, I had to make do with my usual attire of leather coat, scarf, gloves, and this ear muff-headband I bought a few years ago from Lands End. It seemed vaguely appropriate to be walking in such weather given the 6th anniversary of my father's suicide.

Don't worry, I am simply noting it. I am not going to rehash it since I did that last year. I doubt that a year will ever go by where I won't think of it on this day. And I am pretty sure that unless some miracle happens, Valentine's Day is permanently ruined (not that I have ever had a sweetheart on that day mean to torment the single and set up straight men for disappointing their women).

I got to work and managed to while away the morning putting together the agenda for this conference. They already have files set up to track who has responded and who has not to the invitation, so there is nothing to do on that end for now. Work on those documents must wait until I'm (wait for it) given access to the N drive.

I went home and the rain had stopped, but it was misting, which is always an odd effect. I stopped by a place on the way home for dinner, and it was nice. I still am lost when it comes to reading a menu in Danish. The restaurant owner had a fixed price 3 course meal with soup and meat and chocolate. That was all he could tell me. Turns out the soup was this thick concoction with a piece of fish in it. I have no idea what it was, but it tasted pretty good. Then the meat came out and it was a filet mignon! I had prepared myself for just about anything, and was determined to eat whatever was put on my plate. Luckily, it wasn't nasty. It was delicious! They had mashed potatoes formed into this erect rectangle, and doused with gravy. Very interesting presentation, and pretty good too.

Afterward, I had to get more money, because everything here is so expensive that I money just flows out of my wallet. I could use my credit card more, but there is a surcharge for doing that, and for meals, I figure why pay extra? They are expensive enough as it is.

The rest of the night, I was online chatting. Ran into Daniel, Billy, Benson, and Surabhi. It has been a long while since I talked to Surabhi. She is doing well and has applied to the Peace Corps. She wants to get into international development work. More USAID stuff like outreach, education, infrastructure than health per se. She is also still with her man, Paul, and it seems pretty serious. I don't know how things will turn out if she does go overseas for 27 months of Peace Corps. Maybe she will find something of shorter duration. She is in a period of change, though, and that can be exciting and frightening. It reminded me that I must visit her when I get back.

Otherwise, I spent the evening finishing the biography of Augustus, which was excellent.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Oh good, another Valentine's Day without a valentine in sight. Any wonder I call it VD? J My one concession was wearing a red shirt today. I did not want to be too bah humbug. The flower shops on the way to work were bursting with all kinds of flowers, especially roses and tulips, all from the Netherlands.

The good news is that I FINALLY got access to the N drive at work! I am now able to access all the documents I need to access, and I had a flurry of activity as a result. I can't overdo it though, or they will get spoiled. It won't take too much effort to look good around here.

The computers were shut down at 5pm, so I left at 4:45pm with Jim Zingeser to walk back to the hotel. I don't know if he was pushing me or vice versa, but my legs HURT by the time we got to my hotel. His journey was only half over too. I went to the room and relaxed a bit until I decided to get something to eat. I went back to that Italian joint from the other night and ordered a pizza. The Thai place was open next to it, so I am unsure what days that place is open. They do have some of my favorite dishes, though, so I will have to try it out.
I came back to the hotel after dinner and chatted online for a while. Then I read, watched the discovery channel, and went to sleep.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Another fairly mundane day at the office. It turns out that the Regional Advisor on immunization thinks we need less 'sharing' and more 'lecturing' from the regional office to the countries on what they ought to be doing. It should be interesting to see how this comes out when we meet on Monday to discuss.
I found out how to best change my return date to Atlanta and still be able to see Berlin. I will need to push back my return to Wednesday, March 28 and take that Monday and Tuesday as annual leave. Then I will have the whole weekend in Berlin. The ticket I found on a discount airline that flies out of Copenhagen has a flight in the evenings to and from Berlin. I will leave Friday evening for Berlin, and return on Tuesday evening. That will give me 4 full days in Berlin, which should be sufficient to see everything. Delta has a flight out that Wednesday to Atlanta, so I should be able to change my ticket without any problem or added expense.

The 'low cost' carriers aren't as low cost when you factor in taxes and fees. To select the seat of my choice, they charged me around $20 for each flight! You are also prohibited from bringing any food on the aircraft. Luckily, it is just four days, so I can survive on the low weight limit too. It is still cheaper than most US tickets would cost. Now I just have to wait and see if my friend Mike can join me in Berlin or not. I hope he can, because not only would it be more fun, but he also speaks fluent German.

I have noticed some interesting things in my week or so in Copenhagen. First, it is not as cold as I feared. I was expected something closer to single digits in temperature, and the temp has been fairly consistent by staying in the low to mid 30s. Now, if you look at the temp in centigrade, then it is single digits, but I think in Fahrenheit, not Celsius J

The second thing I have noticed is the lack of people of color. There is not a single person of color in this office, although I have spied a couple of Africans in the canteen at lunch. Counting the people I have seen here at WHO, I have seen maybe 4 black people the entire time! And 5 Asians. They are so rare, I can count them. I suppose this is a legacy of the colonization where Denmark focused mostly on Scandanavia while other European powers went trolling in Africa and Asia. It is very strange to be in a society that is so homogenous on the outside.