COPENHAGEN - “Today is going to be the most exciting day of the whole conference,” Brian told me this morning, after I got off the phone with my mom, the birthday girl. Dubbed “Real Deal Day,” an estimated 5,000 climate demonstrations staged for today, 12/12/09, around the world are asking for only one thing — a real deal to come out of the Copenhagen climate negotiations.
COPENHAGEN – I had heard from friends who studied abroad in Copenhagen that traveling by bike is “the only way to see the city,” but I was totally unprepared for the number of bikes that they have here. The wall of every building is lined with bikes, and the racks in city squares and below subway platforms are mind-boggling.
COPENHAGEN -- Unfortunately, I opted to watch four Hollywood Blockbusters in place of the inside of my eyelids on my eight-hour overnight flight—not that the screaming baby sitting in front of me, crawling into my seat, would have let me sleep even if I had wanted to. The Delta-Northwest 747 finally arrived at the Amsterdam airport at 8 a.m. this morning, on schedule for me to stand in the 45-minute customs line.
COPENHAGEN -- It took 20 minutes to get from the Kongens Nytorv plaza to the Bella Center -- the equivalent of five subway stops (plus the additional two stops it took for me to realize that I was going the wrong way on the M1 train towards Vanlose instead of towards Vestamager, which meant getting off two stops later and back on the M1 going the correct direction -- more on how I can't read or pronounce anything Danish later).
DETROIT -- I leave today for the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark -- after I take a final exam and turn in two final papers (not to mention the two papers I have to write while I'm gone, and the two exams I take on Dec. 18, the day after I return!).