from the attic

The time for fun (and not just work) has started last Friday, when I met Jesper in London for a relaxing week-end in two. We had a nice time, especially yesterday when we spent almost the whole day in the Royal Botanical Gardens, walking around and looking at weird plants, and just enjoying the nice rare sunny and warm day. We also saw some of the main attractions, like the Natural History Museum and the Tower of London, and we walked along Thames and gazed at the Parliament, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey (however, only from the exterior).

But this nice visiting time has been tainted by the tiredness we accumulated. The main problem was the accommodation. I will start by saying that if you go to London, don’t ever stay at the Euro Lodge Clapham Hotel. It is just awful! They charge you a lot of money (we paid 134 pounds for two nights) and give you almost nothing in return.

For starters, the room was just awful. It was very small and the bathroom utilities were so squeezed together that you barely had room to stand in front of the mirror with the door closed. But the small space wouldn’t have been such a big problem. The main issue was the smell in the room – it was immediately obvious that they painted recently. So we wanted to open the window and get some fresh air – operation that failed. We went back to the reception and asked for help. Some Russian guy finally came (he was very friendly though) and after using some tools he managed to open the window. The problem was that they were so impatient with the job that they closed the window before the paint got dry… Next, the room was placed on the ground floor, right next to a path that some used to get out of the hotel – there were even some armchairs in front of the window – luckily nobody used them. This obviously meant we couldn’t just have the window open and the curtains drawn (which were dirty of paint) to let the air come through…

And not to get started on their joke of a breakfast, which can be summarized as follows: toast with gem, milk with cornflakes, orange juice that tasted mainly like water and tea and coffee that we didn’t dear trying…

As you might tell, I am very pissed because on the accommodation we had. Luckily the time we spent outside the hotel made everything much better. Now I am looking forward to the couple of days we will spend together in Oxford, after which we will head towards Edinburgh!

Now that I am done with the exam, I got to learn some new facts and information about Denmark and in particular about culture consumption. This was my topic for the oral exam and I read a bunch of newspaper articles from last year and I skimmed three reports on some research done on how much Danes use culture. I found the topic quite interesting and I decided to share with you the text I prepared for the exam (translated to English… of course).

The Opera House in Copenhagen

Last year it was the Ministry of Culture’s 50 years anniversary and therefore was an increased focused in media on culture consumption and state support. Since the Ministry of Culture has been established, it has been a clear goal that the state support should make it possible for everybody to experience culture.

It is important to make the distinction between fine culture, like ballet, opera and tether, and popular culture, such as the cinema, TV and museums. It has always been the case that those with a long education use fine culture more, while those with short education or unskilled use the popular culture more. A part of the goal has been to decrease the difference between the two groups.

The goal hasn’t been reached, but it doesn’t mean that nothing has changed either. Even though it’s not thanks to the Ministry, there are more today that use culture and the difference between the social classes is smaller. This is because many more have got an education the last 50 years, and therefore the group of major consumers of culture has grown. The boundary between fine and popular culture has also been broken down for those with high education, which today use fine and popular culture in equal amounts and are the largest consumers of all types of culture.

But there is still a big difference between the social classes in the consumption of fine culture. For example 26% of post-graduates have been to the opera during the last year, while only 6% of craftsmen and 9% of unskilled workers have done the same. But almost everybody watches drama series and movies on TV and the difference is also less pronounced in the case of libraries and museums.

Researchers are, nevertheless, worried that the social differences will increase in the future, and they point to the danish politicians who, during the last 10 years, have moved from focusing on equality to seeing culture as a engine for tourism and economical growth in the cities.

It has been 2 years since I was convinced by a friend to attend a 5km run. I went there with no proper training and I finished in a bit under 40mins. I can’t remember exactly, but I think I was quite exhausted at the end, even though I walked a considerable amount of the total distance. However, something happened that day, something that made me keep on running and keep on attending these runs. It might be because there are quite a few runs organized every year in Aarhus, out of which some are especially for women. And the women runs are totally different than the rest: you get a nice t-shirt and a goody bag with all sorts of stuff inside. I think the reason for it is that women tend to care more about how they look and therefore there are a lot of sponsors for such runs, such as fitness magazines and other companies that benefit from women wanting a slimmer body.

Well, after my first run, I started training. Last year I used to run twice a week around the University park with two more girls and it was really fun. Unfortunately, we didn’t keep doing it after the winter passed and so this year hasn’t been particularly good with regard to training. Jesper and I managed to run sometimes early in the morning, but that didn’t really work.

Anyhow, yesterday I attended another run, the second one this year. And I realized that during these last 2 years, I’ve been part of 10 runs, quite a big number I would say. So I decided to make a summary of my results and see how my speed per km has been changing. I have to say though that I haven’t managed to run 5km in less than 30mins – a goal which I’ve set for myself a long time ago. The fastest time I ever had was 30mins and 34secs. But maybe, one day, I will reach that goal and I will start approaching the next one: 25mins. Who knows?

And since it’s an overview, here’s a list with all my posts about running:

• A Promising Week-end
• Keep on Running
• Bike, Run, Bike
• AFD Kvindeløb
• DHL Relay
• Festuge & Marselisløbet
• Smuk ’11
• Oops!…I Did It Again
• Back on Track