Sharing is caring

I like to knit, but our home has more than its fair share of scarves. Inspired by Yarnbombing.

Personal geopolitics

The tourists, diplomats, and press have come to my city. It’s hard to gauge how much the world is paying attention to COP15—and in relation, Klimaforum, where I’m working in the press department on and off for the next two weeks. When you’re right in the middle of the storm, it can be hard to see the surrounding party/fallout.

The city’s influx of people has many early impacts. The trains—both the S-tog and Metro—smell absolutely atrocious (though this may also be from all the drunken holiday festivities). There are more people than ever standing in my way—literally. For once, I’m the rude one pushing around them instead of one more aggressive commuter in a crowd. There are also more awkwardly smiling people, a pleasant surprise every time a shy outsider looks my way. What do they think as they look around? After sixteen months here, I take a lot for granted.

Last year, an MTV show about teen pregnancy featured a young couple from my hometown. It finally aired in Denmark this weekend. Andreas made a point of coordinating our schedules around it, and every time they showed a water tower or a well-known apartment complex where the couple lived (where many former co-workers from high school used to live), I would shriek and slap A on the arm. There were obligatory repeat visits to Wal-Mart, a “cookout,” and the baby was born in the same hospital that I was.

Meanwhile, in one of our three local grocery stores last week, I spotted a good friend behind a shelf of organic grains. I didn’t have to say her name. By speaking in our shared Rust Belt accent in her close proximity, her expat radar went off and she immediately turned toward us with a smile.

When I cannot sleep at night, I sometimes watch “the sleeping channel,” a TV station for children that goes off at night but continues to broadcast images of sleeping youth. It would be a lot more soothing if the young people did not constantly toss and turn, or the producer did not cut between different sleepers every thirty seconds. Once, at 2:20am, a giant green fuzzy muppet/alien/monster appeared on screen, apparently also asleep. It didn’t appear to have eyes, nor was it able to lie down properly. I’m not convinced I was even awake by then.