Dk Diplomat Magazine March 2015 by Dk Diplomat

DK DIPLOMAT For The Modern Diplomat

March Issue - 2015

School

Reform Primary schools

What’s

Good Biggest event 2015

Event

Gallery

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Preface

Contents

Not everyone feels a connection with their cultural heritage, but many people do. Some may think traditions are archaic and no longer relevant, and that they are unnecessary during these modern times. Culture can give people a connection to certain social values, beliefs, religions and customs. It allows them to identify with others of similar mindsets and backgrounds.

Page 06 Ambassador’s View H.E. Mr. Peter Brezovsky.

Cultural heritage is made up of many things large and small. We can see it in the buildings, townscapes, and even in archaeological remains. It is preserved through books, artifacts, objects, pictures, photographs, art, and oral tradition. In case of Latvia some of their cultural heritage is preserved as handmade beautiful mittens. Mittens and gloves preserved from old times are testimony to their authors’ inventiveness who showed great skill and artistry in colour composition and shades. Gloves and best mittens were subjected to a wide social judgement, and this fact urged the authors to produce a more creative result. Best mittens were knitted to be given as presents not only on weddings where they dominated among knitted socks and other things. In the 19th century they were given to godparents and the clergyman on christening the children. After the first childbirth mittens were given to family relations. When the child was taken to the church for the first time, a pair of mittens was left in the church robing-room. When young people started to prepare for confirmation, the clergyman received a good pair of ornamented mittens. By the end of the 19th century the custom had mostly disappeared but the tradition of giving mittens as presents for various services has been preserved till out day. In this issue you will find pictures from a handmade mittens exhibition, which was held at Europa-Huset. Team of DK Diplomat”

Page 10 School reform Primary school Page 15 How to open a dansih bank account Page 16 Event Gallery

Page 21 Jantelov Page 24 What’s Good Biggest event 2015 Page 26 What’s Good City of Copenhagen Page 27 Expat Tales Interview with Diplomat

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AMBASSADOR’S VIEW DK Diplomat: Thanks for agreeing to this interview sir it’s a pleasure and a honour. Ambassador: So you’re starting a new project?

INTRO :

Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a federal republic and a landlocked country of roughly 8.5 million people in Central Europe. In 1955 Austria declared permanent neutrality, to which it still adheres. Austria has a very rich cultural heritage. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart occupies a place of his own as composer of some of the best loved European classical music while the works of Franz Schubert enjoy great popularity too. In the world of philosophy and ideas, Sigmund Freud still provokes controversy while Ludwig Wittgenstein was one of the major influences in 20th century thinking. In fine art, the paintings of Gustav Klimt are widely admired. Austria maintains significant bilateral relations with several countries. Formal bilateral relations with Denmark began 19th of december 1925. Austria has an embassy in Copenhagen and 3 honorary consulates (in Aabenraa, Aarhus and Odense).

DK: Yes we are, a service provider for embassies in Denmark called Dk A: You must want to know what ambassadors does? A: We are here to encourage relations, and we must neither do to much nor too little, because many things happens by themselves. But where we think we can encourage cause we are here off course because we know what danish people want and what austrian people want , so we are also in the role of encouraging context. That’s how I would define it. DK. How come you started this intiating of encouragement? A. well it’s probably a part of my job description, when you speak to the other ambassadors they will let you know its part of our job. Either you get instruction from the foreign ministry, either this minister have to meet with that minister of so and so, and then we’ll find out if its possible, we are here we read newspaper, we meet people like you and others. So we find out what’s in demand, and when such a demand is found, we try to convince Vienna, our foreign minister or other minister. DK. How do you find the job as an ambassador? A: To be ambassador in Denmark is a privilege, you can imagine because it’s a lovely and interesting country, and yesterday I was in Aarhus celebreating the Birthday of our honorary consul, so I also come around. My wife and I have been to

Greenland and Bornholm, so even if we live in cph, we visit the rest of the country. DK. Can you tell us what influenced you to pursue a diplomatic career? A. You have a lot of access to information, If you do it right, you know many people and you are the protector of the information you receive, and if you succeed in connecting these two elements, you can really produce resuts which would not have been resolved. F.eg. something my colleague is doing a great job at is finding out which projects are important which are not from our point of view, we have some limited funds, a budget. Next month we’ll have a film director for the youth film festival, Buster –festival. We invite him and cover the costs of flight, accomodations and so on. This is a very good example where we play a role on the sideline. When a minister arrive we have to be there, but in this case as a film festival we act on the sideline. A: We have more people getting to know Austria when we fund and get a director to meet up to the film festival. DK. When did you start your diplomatic career? A: I started as a diplomat in 1986, in the office of the legal adviser of the foreign ministry, because I studied law. And then I became real quickly attaché with my first job in Senegal which I enjoyed very much. Then I was cultural adviser in London after a short stint in Vienna. Then I became deputy of mission in Brazil. In four years where they had 3 presidents. I was there when in london they changed from Ms thatcher to Mr. John Major it was an exciting

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To be ambassador in Denmark is a privilege, you can imagine because it’s a lovely and interesting country, and yesterday I was in Aarhus celebreating the Birthday of our honorary consul, so I also come around.

time. Then I was back in Vienna as head of the unit of UNESCO and then I became counsul general in Krakow in south of Poland, in a time when we didn’t know if Poland would join the union (i.e. European Union), It was again a crucial time and I participated quite a lot in convincing Poland to join EU and now, today they are very happy because they play a big role. Poland is now one of the big players. Then i went back to Vienna and became ambassador of the international organisations in Austria, OPEC, OEC the Un family and many others, I organized many conferences then I became consul general of Austria in New York, It was a perfect preparation for ambassador in Copenhagen. Because the language english is spoken in both countries and mentality speaking people are business oriented. You know where copenhagen come from? It litterary means traders haven. A. I arrived in Cph 1 year ago. 19th august.

A: it’s a lovely and brave country, many things are possible. I just met ambassador of Iraq right before I came here, we did a wonderful interview to Politikken (danish newspaper). DK: I can imagine a job as an ambassador must be hard? A: It’s not hard but time consuming, construction workers on the road have a hard job, because they have to be out there on the road even if it rains, snow and so on. They have my full respect. A. You need a lot of energy and it’s time consuming. You must stay fit because sometimes, we have 16 hours working days. You can start work at 9 o clock and end midnight. If you want to be around in the most important functions then the work is never ending. Including weekends, many functions are during the weekends. DK: How do you think social media changed the way of communication in the embassy.

A. Completely, we are still finding out, they are more seasoned people than me. Whenever I have something to say I retweet, sometimes I have 4 retweets a day. I only post something when I have something important to say. A: The best thing about twitter is because normally you’d have to read many newspaper and go through a lot of information to get the information you need. You can just subscribe or search for the information you need. It is a very creative media. DK. Are you also on facebook? A: The embassy is on facebook, Austrian embassy on facebook. I was sceptical at first, I didn’t want to join twitter, I didn’t do it in the United states funny enough, but here my colleaugues conviced me it was a good media outlet to communicate with many other ambassadors or extending our condolences f.ex to the australian ambassador when the tragic accident occured with the air malaysian flight.

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So to answer your question it has changed, very much because now you can suddenly transport information much faster than before. Another ex. Austria became the third most peaceful country in the world according to research, Denmark number 2, Iceland number 1. I tweeted ”how do I feel being the austrian ambassador in denmark and iceland”. A funny thing to think about. A: News travel fast, it effects everybody including an ambassador in Copenhagen which is why its very wise to be a part of social media. DK. Sometimes there can be a bad environment on social media sites, wouldn’t you say? A. Right, plus you get a lot right wing fascist, racist etc. A. It is a big challenge to make sure these things are used only for good things. A. It’s a completely a new dimension, we’re not big master yet but At least 10 ambassador based in Copenhagen uses twitter. So you have some ambassadors who really try hard to use these new methods of communication. DK. How about the austrian community in Denmark? Do you have a very close contact with them? A. Yeah I just met with the president of the austrian association here in Denmark. Who is the laywer number two

of trust at the embassy, we will do some projects together and we are happy to cooperate closely, we’re a close link to them. They are not that many austrian in Denmark. We organize together something for christmas and autumn where there are hundreds in attendance normally so we hosts a few events for the community. A. The come from all the walk of life the austrians and we are very happy with our community here. DK. How different is your job description now from when you first started? A: Like you mentioned yourself, social media changed a lot and also the people, they demand more now than they did before. In the old days we were first of all, gate keepers of information, because of the lack of internet. When I was a young diplomat we received telefax, nobody uses it now, but before it was big, you could send images with it back then. The problem was with the paper, it was oily so things vanished from time to time. We started using computers in the 1990’s, it started as a writingmachine first. The foreign ministry first got a homepage in the late 90’s. One of my children study abroad and is now in Sri lanka, the internet help us communicate through Skype. Technology have changed everything including the face of diplomacy.

In the old day you were a gate keeper, so what you didn’t tell, people didn’t know, but these days information is available on the internet free for anyone to see, but we have to tell them (foreign minsitry) what information is right and what is wrong. Which information is important which is not important. We are more like managers of information now and ressources and of personal networks. Threefold management task, how do you use these beautiful premises, management of information, managers of networks. While it can be easy to meet people through the internet it’s also difficult. DK: It sounds more hectic now. A: Off course in the old days it was a cliche that the ambassador after a late breakfast reads a big newspaper then goes to public parties and compares what was written in the newspaper and then you slowly write your report, one week after things happen you can send it. These days we have same day reporting, when important regional events happen you do a same day reporting. It can be either in the early morning or the late evening. It is more fun now though because they are more different people, it’s more colourful. DK: Excellency thank you very much for taking your time to answer our questions, it has been an honor.

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SCHOOL REFORM FOLKESKOLER FOLKESKOLER Several changes happened all at once in Danish folkeskoler. The major changes were to the working hours of teachers or ‘normalisation’, beginning ‘inclusion’ (where special needs students are taught alongside students with no particular educational special needs), more focus of numeracy and literacy, longer school days, introduction of homework clubs and new ‘activity’ lessons added to the timetable.

NORMALISATION The ‘normalisation’ 8am-4pm thing in folkeskoler has meant that teachers have not been able to do their preparation properly without doing unpaid overtime. If you only have 15 minutes on a Monday for preparation because you’re teaching or in meetings, you’re not going to get a lot of prep done for Tuesday. As much as you can prepare a week (or weeks in advance), sometimes things happen in lessons that should inform your planning for the next lesson. For example, you are teaching how to solve polynomials and realise your students don’t know how to do long division. You have no long division lesson plans ready to go because it’s usually the teachers in the grades below that cover that topic, you need to think carefully about how to teach this skill to your students. If the next lesson is the next day: too bad under this new system. If you have a lot of long essays or tests to grade, you can either grade them all in one go and not have any time left over for lesson planning or you can do a handful at a time in short spurts. It’s a horrible choice. Option A: your under prepared lessons will be crap in weeks you have a lot of marking. Option B: your students will get inconsistent grades and get their work back long after they have forgotten all about it. Option C: work unpaid overtime and get it all done. If you have a lot of parent-teacher conferences in one week or a lot of ad hoc meet-

ings or you receive a large order of equipment that needs to be put into cupboards, then your planning time gets wiped out in these weeks too. The reason that teachers worldwide typically plan at home, after school hours, is that grading and lesson planning is very taxing. It can be creative, it is usually done with respect to several inter-related factors and you often need undisturbed quiet to do it. Teaching itself is exhausting. You have to keep your sense of humour and proportion up even in the face of extraordinary provocation. You have to make decent human connections with several young people. You have to run activities that will best help these individuals learn. You have to fine tune these activities on the fly. You have to ask and answer challenging questions. You have to be a performer, a professional and a person. If you think you can go from a high-impact lesson on radioactive half life with 9G where you kept them active and on-side for 90 minutes and then go to your desk and plan a lesson from scratch for 7B on the Haber process where you will have the same level of activity and engagement then you have a lot more juice than I do. What I typically like to do straight after teaching is have a nice cup of tea and zone out. I plan my lessons when I have recovered, usually after dinner or at the weekend. If it’s in the school day at all, it’s before any lessons have happened.

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In short, this thoughtless change has been disastrous for many schools and their students. It’s all very well saying that teachers are ‘normalised’ with other state employees as compensation for the changes the lock-out brought but if they are not able to provide the usual level of service without working for free, then this is nothing like compensation. This is just a way of obscuring unpaid overtime. Some teachers, it is worth mentioning, prefer this system. They like how they can say ‘done with school now!’ and can go relax when they finish their working hours. But I wonder how they manage to get everything done. How is it done? I don’t think I could do it. Not in weeks where I have to write reports or go on training and probably not in ‘ideal’ weeks where I don’t have much to do. How are they managing, these teachers who don’t mind this new system? The unions can do nothing right now because their war chests are de-

pleted. It’s not like they can threaten strike action. And so the politicians keep coming with new reforms:- inclusion for those with educational special needs, more focus on literacy and numeracy, more hours in school. Nothing particularly controversial but they have made it clear they do not want teacher input on the implementation of these changes. So, these reforms have been a load of bollocks. INCLUSION Inclusion without proper resources and training is not doing anyone any favours. The special needs students either get sent out of the lesson every 20 minutes or they get a crappy makework task to keep them busy or they have a great lesson but the other kids get short changed. Something has to give. Special needs inclusion is something that I believe in. It is the way to go for most students, I think. But you can’t just drop kids with learning difficulties or emotional disorders into

a room with 20 other children and call that ‘inclusion’. Inclusion necessarily means you are planning separate activities according to your students needs. Inclusion means you have other adults in the room to support learning. It means you have some basic understanding of the different disorders and how they make learning difficult for the student. You know, so they are ‘included’. Otherwise, it’s ‘mainstreaming’, if you want to get technical. ‘Mainstreaming’ is when you just put all the kids together in one place: the lack of special needs will rub off onto the kids with problems! TADA! Without this input of funds for training and extra members of staff and time for preparation, your special needs students are going to struggle. Your students with no particular educational disabilities are also going to have a crap time because so much teacher in-lesson-time is spent on preventing or dealing with problems relating to having one or more children in the room who can’t read or sit still or remember instructions or deal with strong emotions. NUMERACY AND LITERACY As for increased focus on numeracy and literacy, who can argue against that? If Denmark is spending so much on education, you would hope its students would be able to demonstrate basic skills, right? But if 4 hours a week with

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your math or Danish teacher isn’t raising your attainment, why would 5 hours? If students in Danish schools are not doing well with basic skills it is not because they don’t get long enough in the classroom, it is their teachers are not doing the things that will help them improve. Oh, unhelpful teacher, what will you do next? Much research has been performed and analysed to tackle the question of what helps students learn best. All I am asking, from the bottom of my heart, is that the people implementing changes in Danish schools just read it. This is about the most frustrating thing about teaching. So much time is spent talking about stuff that makes little or no difference to students’ attainment while the things that do make a difference are completely overlooked. There are several interventions and techniques that are shown to improve how well students learn. It’s not like the research is secret or hard to read. People just cannot be bothered. Increased contact hours is an overly simple solution to a complicated problem. Which is why it is doomed from the start. This has led to is greater use of private schools. More and more private schools are opening up to cope with increased demand. This has some interesting knock-on effects on the private sector. - Kelly Draper (adventuresandjapes)

If students in Danish schools are not doing well with basic skills it is not because they don’t get long enough in the classroom, it is their teachers are not doing the things that will help them improve.

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HOW TO OPEN A DANISH BANK ACCOUNT BANKING IN DENMARK uments are in order, you will get a CPR number and a temporary card on that day. Go early in the morning or you may be waiting a while for an appointment.

One of the first things you want to do when you move to Denmark is open a Danish bank account. Trying to manage all your banking needs from an international bank is not very efficient or cost effective. Many of the daily things you will need to do cannot be done if you do not have a Danish bank account. Below are a few steps on how to open a Danish bank account quickly and easily.

Now that the major hurdle is over, you just take your temporary CPR card to the bank of your choice, along with your other documents, and apply for an account. It is also advisable to have information about your previous bank and account information. A letter of referral or bank reference can go far in making a good impression on your new account manager.

The most important thing you need to have in order to open a bank account is what is known as a CPR number or Centrale Person Register number. These are national registry cards which every person in Denmark must have in order to do so many of their daily activities, including banking, medical services, housing, child care and so much more. Now it is easy to obtain a CPR card if you know what to bring with you and where to go. So a little advance planning is the key to success. Forgetting a single document can delay this process and cause you untold numbers of headaches and delays in getting established in Denmark. You will need the following documents: 1. Residence Permit 2. Passport 3. Proof of where you lived before arriving in Denmark 4. Birth certificate (also include those of any children) 5. Marriage certificate (if you are married) 6. Proof of where you are residing in Denmark at present 7. Proof of job or job offer (not always necessary but best to have) Next you take these documents to your local kommune and register at the Folkeregister office. If all your doc-

Many of the daily things you will need to do cannot be done if you do not have a Danish bank account.

The process is really quite simple once you have the CPR card. Of course, it will help if you have some money to put into your new account. You can do that as soon as you open your account. Just remember to have your sort code and routing numbers for your old bank so that you can transfer funds over quickly. If you would like to learn more about banking in Denmark, NEM accounts, CPR cards, kommunes and other factors about living and starting out in Denmark, visit www. fyidenmark.com, which includes more banking information and a list of major banks in Denmark. - Charlie Petersen

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Jantelov

A primer

Once a Danish-Norwegian wrote a satire sending up small town Scandinavia. It was called “A Fugitive Crosses his Path” and I read the first half when I could speak rudimentary Danish and can report it is about poverty and things “suddenly” happening every new paragraph. I may be one of the few people who have read even this far but everyone likes to quote the best bit. In Aksel Sandemose’s jaded vision of Scandinavian village life, anyone who tries to stand out is smacked down. There are eleven rules that, I have to admit, I have read so many times that my eyes slide off them like they are covered in bacon grease. They’re basically “You’re nothing special so who cares”

There are eleven rules that, I have to admit, I have read so many times that my eyes slide off them like they are covered in bacon grease. They’re basically “You’re nothing special so who cares”

In other countries, the same thing is known as Tall Poppy Syndrome or by the delightful analogy of crabs in a bucket pulling each other down if they try to get out. These rules have been used to justify everything about Danish society from queue jumping, to racism, to poor school performance, to ‘jokes’ where you upset your friends and back again. Practically, what Jantelov does, is make everyone in Denmark a fucking nightmare to be with in public unless you know them personally. Since the informal laws of this fictional village in a book no one has read tell the average Dane that no one is above anyone

else, this is naturally expanded to the following world-view:“No one is special, so get out of my fucking way.” You see it on the mouth breathers getting onto buses before everyone has got off: you’re nothing special so why should you be able to get out of my way so I can get on? You see it in Ikea when people stop dead in the numerous chokepoints around the store: you’re nothing special, so why would I turn my head 45 degrees to see if you are in danger of collision with me if I stop suddenly. You see it in supermarkets when people shove you aside so they can get at the bread slicer you are still using. You see it in department stores when people let heavy doors slam in your face. YOU ARE NOTHING, ME FIRST. Most of the Danes I know personally are awesome people, so I am not talking about them and I am probably not talking about you even if I haven’t met you yet. But even the Danes you regard as decent human beings can be affected by Jantelov when they make ‘jokes’ about what an asshole you are. This is fine because you can respond in kind. But they might expand it to make you remember your country is nothing special, especially if you are from the USA. If you respond in kind, they will cut you. That’s just how it is. Jantelov makes bragging very difficult. You cannot be proud of your achieve-

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There are people who resist Jante for the most part. They are ‘most people in Denmark according to themselves’. But even if they refuse to pull down other crabs, they are still in a bucket trying to get out with claws around their ankles.

ments or mention them at all, lest you make one of the other crabs in your bucket feel jealous. No great loss to the conversation. But you cannot talk about lah-di-dah ‘elitist’ stuff either, in case people feel like you’re being pretentious. So, you’re only allowed to talk about meatballs, how hard Danish is for foreigners and how difficult the word ‘hygge’ is to understand. I mentioned I was reading A Fugitive Crosses his Path at a dinner party and one of the guests looked like he was going to be aggressively sick on me. Also, you cannot brag in a job search situation either, you have to know people in Denmark who employ others and play badminton with them until they ask you personally if you want to work with them. In many parents’ evenings, it is common for the teachers to tell the parents to stop worrying, the kid is good enough and shouldn’t we care more about their social skills? Coming from a culture where the parents just want to know their kid is making progress, this seems like a bit of an undershoot. ‘Good enough’ is not the issue.  That is set by the average and the average moves with the group. Learning something new and getting better every day, how is that too elitist? There are people who resist Jante for the most part. They are ‘most people in Den-

mark according to themselves’. But even if they refuse to pull down other crabs, they are still in a bucket trying to get out with claws around their ankles. A friend of a friend was at a job interview where they were asked “How do you feel about your customers being the upper middle class of Danish people… like me?” This story is passed around with amused disbelief by Danes. Who is this person who would consider themselves above someone else AND then share it with another person? Then again, the foreigners who hear that story think it is a pretty ridiculous question to ask. Then again, it’s not ridiculous if you want to employ someone who won’t try to pull at your customers’ crab legs. Though perhaps I am not being fair. I believed I could tell the dinner party guests about reading Aksel Sandemose without making them feel sick to their stomaches at my presumption because the librarian that issued the book did so with a wary smile (he then went on to being one of my friends). There are plenty of people out there who are not threatened by intellectualism or individualism and of course there are plenty who know how to move through a crowd without inconveniencing every other person. Still, it’s got a lot to answer for. Kelly Draper (adventuresandjapes)

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WHAT’S GOOD BIGGEST EVENTS 2015!

1. Copenhagen Jazz Festival More than 250,000 people make Copenhagen Jazz Festival one of the biggest, inclusive jazz events of its kind i Europe. The city of Copenhagen becomes alive and vibrant with jazz in the streets, city squares, jazz clubs and unique concert halls when Copenhagen Jazz Festival takes place each summer. Copenhagen Jazz Festival is also one of the city’s oldest music festivals, and 2015 will mark the 37th festival.

Jazz for kids

The festival also presents different themes each of which represents an alternative approach to the voluminous program. There is no reason to leave the kids at home. You will find kids’ friendly jazz concerts around the city. When: 03/07/2015 - 12/07/2015

2. Made in Denmark Golf in world class Denmark will now a have golf tournament on the European Tour. From 2014 to 2016, a new Danish golf tournament, Made in Denmark will become part of the European Tour. Made in Denmark is from 2014 the title of the new Danish golf tournament on the European Tour. The venue for the tournament is the recently renovated BACKTEE New Course at Himmerland Golf & Spa Resort. The European Tour consists of approx. 50 annual tournaments mainly in Europe but also in Asia, Australia and Africa. Made in Denmark will bring together 156 players from around the world, including approximately 15-20 Danish European Tour players as well as wildcards. The number of participating countries is about 35 and the tournament is counting towards the Race to Dubai Ranking and the World Golf Ranking.

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3. Copenhagen Cooking Take a bite of culinary Copenhagen and the Nordic region, when food festival Copenhagen Cooking hits the city. Copenhagen Cooking is one of the biggest food festivals in Northern Europe and is an open-source festival that profiles Danish gastronomy by paying homage to the food culture, Nordic cuisine and the players on the gastronomic stage. For ten days in August, you can take a bite of the New Nordic Cuisine and the Copenhagen restaurant scene. When: 21/08/2015 - 30/08/2015 Where: Fonden Wonderful Copenhagen

4. Copenhagen Marathon The Nykredit Copenhagen Marathon course is 42,195 km through the central parts of Copenhagen. Starting by the beautiful harbor front at Islands Brygge, the runners are launched off into the historic city center around Nyhavn and Langelinie, pass attractions such as the Tivoli, the City Hall, the Little Mermaid, and the Royal Residence Amalienborg. The course continues on to the stylish Østerbro with the unofficial spectator hot spot at the Trianglen, through the multi-cultural Nørrebro and the urban hip Vesterbro. Along the entire route there is a second to none vibrant atmosphere, thousands of cheering spectators, and more than 45 spots with music, entertainment, dj’s, performers, and events. Spectators experiencing the race from the side of the streets can take a break in one of the many cafees along the course that have special marathon offers or events. When : Sunday 24 May 2015 Entry fee: Until 30 April: DKK 620,- (84 €), From 01 May: DKK 670,- (90 €) Where : Start and finish at Islands Brygge

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NØRREBRO The edgiest part of Copenhagen, a place where hipsters, students, families and immigrants from all over the world mix at cafés and galleries. Also home to some of the most trendy independent shops and restaurants in Copenhagen.

ØSTERBRO Compared to other parts of Copenhagen, Østerbro is less hectic. But it’s also the part of Copenhagen that offers most recreational areas – such as the city’s largest public park, Fælledparken – and some of the finest cafés in the city. ISLAND BRYGGE From Islands Brygge – or Bryggen – you have a great view of Copenhagen. During the warm summer months, thousands of Copenhageners go here, either to swim in the popular harbour bath or to play sports on the many open lawns along the habour.

CHRISTIANSHAVN In this quarter, cut through by pretty canals, you find a mix of top designers, stylish architects and scruffy hippies, top celebrities and working class pensioners. Home to both the world’s best restaurant and the freetown of Christiania, it’s well worth a visit.

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EXPAT TALES

INTERVIEW WITH A DIPLOMAT 1. Where are you originally from? The UK. We were living in Hampshire when we left the UK but I grew up on the North Downs in Kent.

in the backyard. Nevertheless they made us feel welcome and gave me a chance to practice my baby Danish.

2. How long have you lived here and how long are you planning to stay? We moved here in March 2013 and apart from 6 months living in Berlin between 2013 and 2014, it has been our home for two years.

Most friends I made in the early days (and who remain good friends now) were through my Danish language classes so were a mix of nationalities, most usually married to a Dane.

3. Did you bring family with you? Yes, my husband came with me. 4. How are you finding the transition to living in a foreign country? I found the transition surprisingly easy. My parents had already retired to France some years before and I knew friends would come and visit us, plus the UK is only a short flight away. I was fired up by the adventure of living in a completely new place; with new food, language and lifestyle. I couldn’t remember being as excited by an experience since starting University back in my late teens. Every day offered a new adventure and the city opened up to us. 5. Was it easy making friends and meeting people or do you mainly socialize with colleagues? Danes are notorious for already having strong groups of friends made at school and university but I found that I was able to make friends with other people in our building although we didn’t really socialise beyond the odd cup of tea or beer

6. What are the best things to do in Denmark anything to recommend to future diplomats? Walk around all the main tourist sites from the top of Strøget by the Rådhuspladen (city hall) to Nyhavn and then onto the Little Mermaid. You can do this in a day with the canal boat trip as well. It gives you a great feel of the history of the city. Explore all the little side streets off Strøget (the main walking street) to discover all the little gems of shops and cafes. Visit Torvehallerne, the fabulous covered market opened in 2011, and buy some open sandwiches to enjoy in the nearby Botanisk Haven (Botanical Gardens).

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In the summer it is great to buy some take out beers and sit along the wall in Nyhavn (New Harbour) and enjoy the sun. It gets crowded and there is a great atmosphere as people kick back and relax after work. 7. What do you enjoy most about living here? I love the freedom such a small and relatively safe city offers me and my family. I like the more laid back approach to life the Danes have. They seem to have a better work life balance than the UK and enjoy their free time. The taxes are high but you see what you get for your money - clean streets, great services like libraries and hospitals, and there is a greater respect for the environment and those around you. 8. How does the cost of living compare to home? It is a lot more expensive as there is a larger purchase tax on everything but you soon get used to what things cost and the best places to get bargains. Plus, in general, the quality of products especially food is much higher in my opinion. 9. What negatives, if any, are there to living here? The winters are very long and dark. It is OK in the run up to Christmas with all

the lights and celebration but the first few months of the year are tough. 10. If you could pick one piece of advice to anyone moving here, what would it be? Don’t misunderstand the Danes, they are a little reserved but if you make an effort, smile, try and learn the language they can be really friendly. 11. What has been the hardest aspect to your expat experience so far? I didn’t find anything especially hard about my expat experience in Denmark as most people can speak English so I never felt too isolated at the beginning. I had also chosen to move here and was ready for a new adventure. 12. What are your top 5 tips for anyone following in your footsteps? 1. Do lots of research online and in books about your new place. 2. Treat it as an adventure. 3. Once you have arrived do as much exploring on foot as your lifestyle allows. 4. Learn even some basic language and try and use it. 5. Reassess your expectations and don’t constantly compare your new country with your home country.

The winters are very long and dark. It is OK in the run up to Christmas with all the lights and celebration but the first few months of the year are tough.

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