Slå katten af tønden

Yesterday I went to a great party in the lab where I’m working and it was really funny. We dressed up with costumes; ate very spicy Indian food and drank a lot. Furthermore we played to different games: A song quiz; different challenges… But the most surprised game was a typical Danish game called "Slå Katten af tønden" (Kick the Kitty Cat).

Danish people play that game in Carnival. For playing that game you have to buy a wooden barrel and cover it with wet towels for at least 8-10h in order to make the wood more resistant to break. 

Then you have to paste a picture of a cat into the barrel and fill the barrel with candy, sweets and cookies and hang suspended it in the air.

The players line up and take turns hitting the barrel with a wooden stick until all the sweets fall out. During the first round the players only are able to hit the barrel with their no-good hand. So, for example, a right-handed person has to hit with her left hand. 

The person who breaks the barrel is the Queen. But the game continues until all the barrel brakes. The person who knocks down the last remaining part of the barrel is the King.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gGQbqNmFcU

The reason the game has such an odd name is that in the old days there used to be a live cat inside the barrel. Obviously, this was a very cruel game and nobody does that anymore, but part of the tradition has survived.

Are the Danish schedules very different from Catalonia schedules?

Last Saturday I went to IKEA because I wanted to buy a lamp for my room, which is too dark. But when I arrived at IKEA, after paying two buses (that are too much expensive!), IKEA was closed.

Odense's IKEA. 

But what is the schedule of the Danish people and the shops, restaurants or bars here? Is very different from Spain? Let’s see.

The day-to-day schedule of the Danish people isn't the same as Spanish people or people of other countries in South Europe. In general, here, people begin to work at 8-9 and they have a powerful breakfast based on bread (different types of bread); butter; jam; tea and coffee.

Bread with butter and jam

Danish have lunch between 12-13h, but they don’t eat so much. They usually eat smørrebrød; that is the typical Danish black bread and they add different ingredients to it, like vegetables (tomatoes; cucumber; avocado...), eggs, tuna, different fishes, salami, and a lot of different sauces (remoulade...). They also eat carrots, potatoes or fish (especially salmon).

One smørrebrød is formed by lettuce, eggs and tomato;
and the other is based in ham; onion and cucumbers

They rarely leave the work after 4 pm, and in this way, parents can be with their children for all the afternoon/evening. They think that the creating a family union is very important and adapt their schedules to that.

You can see that Danish people work fewer hours than people in Spain. I think that they work less hours, but actually they work more, because we waste a lot of time making small breaks, having lunch, talking... and, in my opinion, Danish people organize better their time and are concentrated in their work until having finished it. That is only my opinion and I don't know if that is really true. I promise I'm going to investigate that and write a entrance comparing the working hours between Denmark and Spain; based on scientific studies.

The hour of dinner is, as average, between 7:30-9; depending on each family and they eat more than during the lunch. I’m thinking in make some entrances about Danish dishes. So don’t worry about that.

So, that’s the general schedule of Danish people. But what about shops, bars or official buildings?

The open hours of shops depends on if they are small/local shops or big/supermarket chains. Local shops are opened from 10-18, as maximum; while the bigger ones are opened more hours. For example, LIDL and NETTO are opened from 8h to 22h every day, and FØTEX are opened from 8h to 20h every day and on Saturday/Sunday from 8h to 18h.

NETTO is a good supermarket, and it is as cheap as LIDL. I like it.

Regarding to bars, they usually open at the morning and close at 12h from Monday- Thursday (There are a lot of bars that are opened on Thursday until 3-5h); and Friday and Saturday theyopen until 3-5h. But I have to write about bars/discos. I’m thinking in making some small entrances of different good bars/discos here. What do you think? It’s a good idea?

Australian Bar (AB) is opened from Thursday to Saturday, from 22h to 5h.

Finally, the official buildings are opened very few hours and the schedule is different every day of the week. For example the “Statsforvaltningen”, which is translated as “State Administration” the day that is opened for more time is from Monday to Wednesday, which is open from 10h to 15h.

So, you know that my schedules in Barcelona are very different from the schedules I’m following here; but I’m getting used to their schedules and their eating hours.

Finally I want to share an opinion regarding to the Danish hours parties. I think they are advanced that ours and they are clever! We perfectly can go out to party at 1 am and leave the disco at 6 and have breakfast until 8; but they begin their parties at 7 into the bar and then they go out to discos, like us, until 6 am. It’s easy to see that they prolong the party some hours more than us. And, of course, I’m trying to adopt their party’s schedule. 

Skål !

Danish football players and FC Barcelona

Yesterday I was having breakfast and suddenly I saw a paper on the table with the names of all the Turkish football players that had player in Real Madrid in any moment of its history. That had me think about how many Danish football players has played with Barça along their more than 100 years of history. I only remembered two, but actually they were four. Can you recognized them?

Michael Laudrup, with Koeman, after winning
the European Cup, in 1992.
 

Thomas Christiansen

Allan Simonsen

Ronnie Kedelund

The first Danish player to play with F.C. Barcelona was Allan Simonsen, from 1979 to 1983. Simonsen was a fantastic winger and have the honor of being the first Danish player to win the Ballon D’Or. It was in 1977 and he won ahead Kevin Keegan and Michel Platini. He signed up with Barça in 1979, after some good seasons in Borussia Mönchengladbach. Although he never won “La liga” he is well-remembered by Barcelona supporters. He only won one “Copa del Rey” (1981) and one “Copa de la Liga” (1982) with Barcelona, as well as, one “Recopa de Europa”, where Barça beat Standard de Lieja 2-1 with one goal scored by Simonsen. On the summer of 1982 he left Barça because Barça bought Maradona and the argentinian player occupied his stranger place.

In that video you can see a resume of the Recopa de Europa final "FC Barcelona-Standard de Lieja", 

played in 1982. Simonsen scored a goal and gave an assist to Quini, who scored the second goal. 

Michael Laudrup was the second Danish player who wore Barcelona’s shirt. Before playing with Barça, Laudrup had played with Brøndby, Lazio and Juventus. So when he signed up with F.C. Barcelona in the summer of 1989 he was already a recognized football player. In Barcelona, Laudrup took part of one of the best teams in the history of football: The Dream Team, trained by Johan Cruyff. The Dream Team won a lot of tittles, like “La Liga” (1991-1994), “La Copa del Rey” (1990) or “Supercopa de España” (1991 and 1992); but the most remembered title he won was the European Cup, in 1991. It is the first European Cup in Barça’s history. Unfortunately, the life of that team finished in the final of European Cup against Milan FC, in 1994, where Barcelona lost 4-0. We remember Laudrup because of his assists, his famous feint called “croqueta” and because of his fantastic don’t look-passes.

In that video you can see a collection of Laudrup's passes. 

The third Danish player who played with Barcelona was Ronnie Ekelund. He played with Barça from 1992 to 1994, and, without a doubt, he is the worst of the four players and he is not much remembered by Barça fans. Ekelund was a forward that Barça bought from Brondby, where he made his debut with 15 years. Cruyff signed Ekelund after the Barcelona Olympic Games, in 1992, but he only played 33 minutes with Barcelona, against Racing de Santander (19^th March, 1994). That year Barcelona won “La Liga”.  It’s curious to know that in 1996 he signed up with Odense, the town where I’m leaving.

Ekelund goal and his later celebration was chosen like the 50 best moment on MLS cup.

The last Danish who has played with Barcelona until now is Thomas Christiansen, who played from 1992 to 1994. Christiansen was born in Copenhaguen to a Spanish mother, that’s why he played with sub-15 spanish national team and he played 2 times with the absolute Spanish national team. The Spanish national coach, Javier Clemente, called Thomas Christiansen to play with Spain, first, against Mexico, in 1993, and later, against Lithuania, where Spain won 5-0 and Christiansen scored one goal.

He began to play with FC Barcelona B in the season 1991-1992 and the thanks to the excellent games he did, he was called to play with Spain National team in 1993.  Unfortunately he never played any game with Barcelona first team, and he was loaned to Sporting de Gijón (February 1993); Osasuna (1993-1994) and Racing de Santander (1994-1995).  It’s curious to know that Christiansen played with Terrassa, another catalan team, on 1999. Nowadays, he is playing with FC Barcelona veteran team and her name has sound to be the second coach of Pep Guardiola in Bayern München.

Christiansen was interviewed by "Pere Escobar", a catalan journalist, on September 2012. 

You can listen some of her opinions and a brief review of her football career here. 

You can find more information about these football players here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Simonsen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Laudrup
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronnie_Ekelund
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Christiansen

And, of course, you can find more information about F.C. Barcelona it these pages:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Barcelona
http://www.fcbarcelona.com/

What documents you should apply in order to live in Odense?

That's a bit bureaucratic entrance, and like all this type of stuff, it isn't too much exciting. BUT is completely necessary; specially for the people who is interested in studying here soon. 

So, What documents I have had to apply since I arrived here? Let's go in order:

1. First of all, you have to apply for the residence permit. The procedure varies according to citizenship:

• Non EU citizens have to apply and obtain their residence permit before they arrive in Denmark.
• EU citizens have to apply upon you arrive in Denmark.
• Nordic citizens have not to apply, but have to bring their internordic moving certificate. 

I'm going to focus only in EU citizens because I know perfectly how it works. So, What have to do an EU citizen for applying for the residence permit?

You have to download, print and fill out this form: 

http://www.nyidanmark.dk/resources.ashx/Resources/Blanketter/Ansoegningsskemaer/2008/OD1_ansoegning_eu_opholdsdokument_statsforvaltningen.pdf

Then you have to bring a copy of your passoport or ID card, 2 passport photos and a letter of enrollment (or any document that can prove that you are in Denmark for studying) together with the form filled at "Statsforvaltningen Syddanmark", which is in the street Mogensensvej 24 C, 1, Odense C, and it is open Monday and Wednesay (10-15h); Thursday (12-16h) and Friday (10-13h). 

One advice? Bring your pass photos from your country because here is very difficult to find any place to take them. I went to a photo booth in the train station. 

2. Once you have received your residence permit (it arrives you by postal mail and it takes as maximum 2 weeks), you can apply for the CPR number.

But, what is the CPR number? CPR are the initials of "Det Centrate Person Register", which is the Danish Civil Registration System. It means, that this number is your personal identification here in Denmark (is like our ID in Catalonia or Spain). 

You need the CPR for everything here. Without CPR number you can't work in Denmark, you can't use the health care system (in case of emergency, you will be assisted anyway), you can't open a bank account, you can't enroll in the free-danish courses that pay the town hall to international students, etc...

The CPR number consists of ten digits. The first six are your date of birth, and the last four the identification number. The last number indicates your sex, so, odd digits mean male and even digits indicate female. 

For applying for the CPR number you need to bring your passport/ID card, the residence permit and the blue health insurance card (targeta sanitària) from your country to the BorgerServiceCenter, which is in the street Skulnkenborg 1 Odense C. The office is open Monday and Thursday (9-18h); Tuesday and Wednesday (9-15h); Friday (9-13h) and Saturday (10-13h). 

One advice? Try to go to the office at the first hour they are oppened because a huge line of people will be  formed few minutes.  

3. Student card: If you are going to attending courses, is not my case, you will receive a student card, which gives you a lot of advantages and discounts, but actually, if you bring with you your student card from the university in your country you can enjoy the same advantages.

4. ESN Card: The ESN is the International Exchange Erasmus Student Network. Almost each city have an ESN office and it's very useful because the ESN organize different activities (parties, trips, excursions, visits to different places, dinners...) and with that card you can take part in them. 

You can buy your ESN card for 50 DKK for one year at the ESN office on the street Campusjev 55, Odense M

                                                        

I think that are the most important documents you will have to apply when you come here to study for more than 3 months. 

Let me finish with a curiosity. Do you know what it means the letter C or M that I've written in the different addresses? I'm sure you know it. They are the initials of Center and Midt (Middle).

Actually, Odense is divided in 8 areas: Odense Center (C); Odense Midt (M); Odense Nord (N); Odense Nord-Vest (NV); Odense Vest (V); Odense Sud-Vest (SV); Odense Sud-øst (SO) and Odense Nord-øst (NO). 

Each area has something I can distinguish, but the most important areas are the Odense Center, where we can find all the attractions of the city, as well as the zoo or the hospital; the Odense Vest, because is where I live (Rasmus Rask Kollegiet), and Odense Midt, because is where the Syddansk Universitet main campus is. In Odense Nord-øst you can visit the Odense Fjord, where it is a small beach. 

I hope this information will be useful for anybody who want to come here to study or to work. It's an amazing land; you should come and just enjoy it! Next entrance will be more interesting, I promise!