8th Stop - Copenhagen

After a wonderful closing night to the JCI European Conference in Aarhus, I set off with Erik and Valérie for Copenhagen around noon. I dropped them off at the airport for their flight back to Nice and managed to get myself a map of Copenhagen to figure out what to do next.

Jacob had introduced me to two friends of his, Malene and Susanne, members of JCI Copenhagen International, whom had offered to host me a night or two (thanks Jacob!). Now I just needed to get in touch with them. Malene apparently wasn’t receiving my SMS messages because I had the wrong number! Thank you Facebook--I sent a message to Malene before I left Aarhus with my number and she ended up calling me!

I planned to meet her at her place around 8 pm which meant I had a good 2 hours to kill and what better way to kill time than on the internet... I found parking in the center of the town and set off to look for an internet cafe. On the main drag, I spotted a Burger King and thought, they must surely have it. WiFi? No. Well, how about their nextdoor neighbor, MacDonalds? WiFi? Of course. What a shame, I was really looking forward to eating at BK for the first time in 6 years (does not exist in France because of some tainted beef scandal 20 years ago).

It was getting late, so I headed over to Malene’s. She hadn’t eaten so we went back out, this time to the Hard Rock Café. I know what you’re thinking, you’re in Denmark and all you can do is go into McD, BK, and the Hard Rock Café! You’re right, I’ve had prouder moments. Nevertheless, Malene had a great burger and I lopped up my Carlsberg with joy while we talked.

The next day, a work day. Kicked off the morning with a run along the waterfront. That was beautiful, a nice clash of urban industrial landscape, dunes, sea, and windmills. Later that evening, I met up with Susanne, Pouline, Jason, Jalena, and JCI Denmark’s National President, Peter Mangaard, at Tivoli, Europe’s oldest urban amusement park, to celebrate Bie’s birthday. Dinner and rides, swings, slides, and laughing--we felt like kids again!

One more day in Demark, time to visit a little. I picked up Hélène and we met up with Jacob, Delphine, and Virginie in a beautiful area called Nyhavn with tasty treats at quaint Danish restaurants, a large canal lined with sailboats, and a cool breeze. Herring and beer, yummy.

Later that night, I organized an informal meeting of translators, called a powwow, and invited members of JCI Copenhagen to discuss Corporate Social Responsibility. we had a nice dinner and discussion about values and implementing them in business. Thanks to everyone who came out for this meeting and to everyone who donated some change to purchase 2 bednets! I went to the home of my new host, Susanne, for the night. Susanne is currently looking for work in international product management, product marketing, project management or strategy/business development, preferably at a Danish company with international subsidiaries. She has a MSc in International Marketing and Spanish. If you know anyone who knows someone who is hiring in Copenhagen, please let me know!

Big thanks again to Malene and Susanne for hosting me during my stay, to Bie for letting me tag along at her birthday party, to everyone at the powwow and to Jacob for putting me in touch with Malene and Susanne!

Next stop: Amsterdam!

4th Stop - Prague

After finishing up a translation on Monday morning, I hit the road again for Prague. As I got closer to the city center, I felt more and more lost. For some reason, I decided not to follow my printed out directions. Big mistake. An hour or so later and a spin through a parking garage by accident, I ended up getting pulled over.

Apparently, I turned down the wrong road. As I was following the patrol car, I must have missed the sign. Fortunately, I didn’t have a Czech money on me for the “fee” and the policeman let me off with a warning.

I met up with Milan Condak, another Wordfast Trainer from the Czech Republic and we talked about training and the future of Wordfast. Milan also showed me some machine translation software that works with Wordfast called PC Translator. Thanks Milan for traveling 8 hours for our meeting; it was a pleasure meeting you and I wish you lots of success for the future.

Milan and I parted ways and I went on to the Corporate Social Responsibility Powwow I had planned via ProZ.com. Generally, a powwow is an informal gathering of translators to network, share experiences and have fun. During this powwow, we talked about values and how to transform them into concrete actions via your business. I also invited local members of JCI Prague to talk about what they are doing in the community to create positive change and network with the translators in attendance. A special thanks to Ewen, Anthony and Adeline for joining us and sharing with us what you’ve been doing in JCI Prague. Thanks as well to Pavel for helping with the organization of this powwow. Pavel is going to be organizing a ProZ.com International Conference in Prague in early October and I know he is going to do a great job! I hope I can make a special detour for it... Finally, a tremendous thanks to the everyone in attendance. Together, we all chipped in a raised enough money to purchase 5 bednets!

During the rest of my stay in Prague, I mostly visited with Marika, Ewen, and Adeline. I learned that there is no tolerance for drinking and driving in the Czech Republic (0.0%) despite being the country with the highest consumption of beer per capita in Europe (the world?). Marika also showed me a really cool video on YouTube of a Spartakaida in 1985. Imagine 240,000 people coming together in a stadium with enough room for 6 soccer fields and performing a synchronized dance routine... if you don’t believe me, check it out for yourself!

Thanks again Ewen and Marika for hosting me in Prague! I bought 2 bednets in your name which will help protect two families from malaria for the next 5 years. Looking forward to a weekend in Prague next time ;-)

Next stop: Berlin!