December 7/8th

Hi everyone,

I just want to fill you all in with what has gone on in the last 36 hours since my departure.

Flight Itinerary

Seattle to Frankfurt, Germany - approximately 9 hours 45 min
Frankfurt Layover - 6 hours
Frankfurt, Germany to Copenhagen, Denmark 1 hour 50 min

The 18 hours of flights went very smooth. I met some wonderful people along the way. For instance, as I walked out of the gate, I met a UN official who was returning to his works in Sri Lanka. He had been training in Seattle for the last couple of months. He had overheard me during the flight as I was talking to another passenger about my plans for COP 15, my summer internship, and the extra curricular activities I am engaged in. He had been sitting right behind me. I gave him my Seattle U business card as we were going different terminals, and he said he would see if you could get me in touch with some UN officials at the conference.

As for the six hour layover, I met David Korn. He is an American political journalist and author, and is chief of the Washington bureau Mother Jones. His plans were parallel to mine. He had just come for Washington D.C and was schedule to leave on the same flight as me to Copenhagen. However, his stay is only for 5 days. He told me his plans for this trip had changed multiple time. He plans were dependent upon President Obama's plan which only a week or so ago became clear that he was to come to COP 15 at the end of the conference and was going to take the climate agreement talks much more seriously. As I told about my role as an official delegate for the Lijiang Green Education Center, a satellite of the Yunnan EcoNetwork, a Chinese Non-government Organization, he asked if there really was such a thing an authentic NGO within China's political system. The truth is that NGOs in China have certain Chinese characteristic that differentiate them the West such as close ties to the local government and conducting itself in a non-confrontational way. It happened that he came across an email invitation from an organization called 1SKY.ORG about an event looking for 50 Chinese youth and 50 American youth. He recommended that I get in touch with the organizer, which I have done. I am currently waiting upon a reply. :) If you want more information on this journalist and author, you can go to this web link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Corn and learn a little more. By the way, if you come across his December 8th post, I was sitting right next to him as he was typing it out at the Frankfurt Airpot.

When I arrived in Copenhagen, I met Ronja, the 23-year old host that I would be staying with for the next 13 days. She found me first as one the youngest looking one coming to baggage claim. We rode the subway from the airport to Norreport, and took Bus 5A another 4 to 5 KM to her apartment. I was drawn to the fact that there were flocks of cyclist on the side of the rode. The apartment is in Building 43 on the 5th floor. The buildings in Copenhagen usually don't go any higher than 5 stories with most of them constructed in the 1920s and 30s and do not have elevators.

I was surprised to find out that the bathroom situation. It is actually not to different from what I experienced during my internship in Lijiang with the outhouse shower. Basically the bathroom is already in close quarters with a toilet and sink. There is a curtain that can use to cover the door and by turning a small knob on the faucet to direct the water to the shower head. It is probably one of the most efficient ways of maximizing space of a single restroom.

Ronja has advised me several days in advance to my arrival that she had an extra bike I could use but needed repairing. That night we picked up the bike and went to the mini grocery store to get some supplies. I took the bike for a little stroll. I began to see how the unquestionable advantages of riding bike in this flat, city setting.

We made a nice homemade spaghetti meal and called it a night around 7 PM.