Denmark days 3-5

That I haven't written here in the last few days is probably a good sign — it means I'm not so utterly jet-lagged, bored, lonely, and homesick. The jet-lag hasn't gone all the way away, though — I haven't slept through the night yet (it's 3am right now) — and the others will probably stay. I feel like I've been here a very long time, and that I am very far away. An, as M, one of the graduate students hosting me, points out: it's Berkeley, not Aarhus, that people go to; there are many more people in the math department there.

In any case, I've been very mathematically productive, and I'll start meeting people and networking and talking about Chern-Simons Theory. I haven't been having great food. Dinners for three nights consisted of finishing off the lentils-and-rice mixture, and lunches have either been at the cafeteria or a sandwich. Last night and tonight are variations on beans-with-broccoli, and then I leave for Strasbourg. When I return from there, I will find the fish shop, and then perhaps I will be gastronomically happier.

On Saturday I went to the ARoS modern art museum, which was very cool. The museum building is quite large, and gives the impression that they have room to extend their collection, which is probably a good thing. As it is, you can see every work in one visit, but you're pretty art-ed out by the end. The museum's earliest works are from the 18th century, but it doesn't really start until 19th century, and it doesn't take off until the mid 20th. There are some amazing works — original Warhols, a horse cut into 162 pieces, an entire room filled with mobiles — and many, like the horse, are fairly disturbing.

On Sunday I walked through Risskov, a forested area on the north side of town. The path leads to a small beach, where a few kids were playing (entirely unsupervised, which seems to be normal here, and in the US in the "good old days" but not any more there). The coolest part was that floating everywhere are beautiful little jelly fish. In the forest I also saw some very large neon orange slugs.

Monday's class right now is a fast-and-furious overview of Lie Groups, a theory I know quite well (most of lecture were questions I had on my qual). I should go talk to the instructor tomorrow and find out what the class will do in the months after I return to Berkeley.

It seems that this blog has switched from Food Blog to Travel Blog. Oh, well. It will switch back in good time.