Feelin’ Classy

I must warn you, this won’t be the most FUN or EXCITING post as it is intended to be packed full of informational material for all you prospective DIS students out there. Basically, I promised I’d talk more about all the classes I took this term, so here goes. I’ll also review all the housing options and my impressions of them (even though I only personally experienced the host family one–if you want to see some first-hand accounts of other housing options, read the other student blogs).

Classes:

Danish Language and Culture: This, in my opinion, is a must-take class if you’re doing DIS. Even if you’re not “good at languages” and, like most everybody else, will not be using Danish after our semester abroad. Taking this class really helped me understand a lot more of what was going on around me, both at home with my host family and out in the city (especially on the trains, where the announcements are all in Danish!). Don’t get me wrong–I definitely do not speak or understand Danish fluently, or even at all. But I was surprised by how much my limited knowledge has helped me to not be totally lost. Plus half of the class is culture, which is definitely helpful, especially if you are not in a host family learning about Danish customs and eating Danish food. You learn a lot about Danish history and discuss the reasons behind Danish norms that might help you understand why Danes do what they do. If all that didn’t sell you, the Danish classes also do some fun activities, such as movie days, eating traditional Danish food, and going to a Danish football game sometime during the semester. There’s also an intensive Danish I-II version if you want to focus more on the language and less on the cultural aspects.

Positive Psychology: This was my core class, so we went on a short study tour to Western Denmark and a long one to Milan. There were 4 sections of this class this semester, and we all went to different places (others went to Madrid and Scotland on their long tours). Each class had a different focus as well–mine ended up mainly being about life coaching, since that was the profession of our teacher. It was definitely an interesting focus, since we got to try out a lot of positive psychology interventions in class, and even created one ourselves and used it at the end of our long study tour. I won’t lie–getting to class at 8:30am twice a week was quite a struggle, especially when it meant leaving the house before dawn towards the end. However, when you travel as a class, you get to bond a lot, and I really enjoyed getting to know my classmates over the course of the semester. Plus our study tours, especially the one to Milan, were really fun and educational, and we got to talk to some of the most important researchers in the field right now.

European Clinical Psychology: This class is going to be a core class starting next semester, which I think will be excellent. I really enjoyed this class–it was a bit of both abnormality and clinical psych this term because there was no particular abnormality prerequisites, but I think that will be changed in the future. We did a lot of different exercises in class to learn in different ways (rather than just listening to lectures). I especially liked our field study to a social clinic for those with mental disorders, and a couple guest lectures we had from a friend of our teacher, who is a psychologist works with cancer patients. The core class won’t have the same teacher we had this semester, but she is working closely with the new teacher to revise the class (because this term was the first time DIS had it) and make it even better for next term. I provided a link above to information on the new core class, but I know that they’ll be having a long study tour to Vienna to study Freud.

Adolescence in Northern Europe: This class was also in its first semester, so there were a few kinks that I think will be worked out in the future. Despite some organizational issues, I really enjoyed this class and I think with some minor tweaks it’ll be really interesting in the future. It was a more free-form style so rather than learning in a traditional fashion we had the opportunity to help decide what we would learn about and our teacher gave us a lot of choices about how to complete our different requirements. Of course, that style is certainly not for everyone, but I thought it was a nice break from the usual lecture-style. One of my favorite parts of this class was our field studies to different youth-oriented organizations, and our learning lab, which gave us the chance to go on our own to a site of our choice.  We learned a lot more through these hands-on experiences than we would’ve by reading a textbook, and it was really cool to take advantage of the opportunities provided by our location in Europe.

Applied Psychology: This was definitely my favorite class this semester. We basically learned about different kinds of therapy, and got the chance to practice using the therapeutic techniques of all the different schools. My own school doesn’t have a class like this, so it was a great opportunity for me to learn more about what I think might be my future career. We also had some really interesting visits from a music therapist and a psychologist working with brain-injury survivors, plus our teacher talked about her own experiences as a therapist, so we had a few different perspectives on what it’s like to do therapy. The class also explored the theme of creativity in therapy, and it definitely changed the way I think about creativity in myself and others.

Turkey at the Crossroads: This was a 1-credit class to go on an optional study tour to Istanbul during the second week of travel break. It was taught by the same teacher as my Adolescence in Northern Europe class, so it was fun to get to know her a little better. The tour itself was amazing–Istanbul is a beautiful city and we got to see a lot of amazing history (and eat some delicious food!). It was also such a relief to travel with DIS the second week of travel break rather than having to organize the whole thing by myself.  Taking a class along with the trip also gave us the chance to see a different side of Istanbul, and to know what was going on around us rather than just being regular tourists.

Housing:

Host Family: Obviously my favorite option! I loved my host family this term, and I wholeheartedly recommend this option. Not only do you get to really immerse yourself in Danish culture (including home-cooked meals–OM NOM NOM), but you get to bond with a family, and have a real solid support if you have a bad day. My host family is definitely what I’m going to miss most about Denmark (I can’t believe I have to leave them so soon!). And I’ve not only had my immediate host family, but I’ve gotten to participate in family events from baptisms to birthdays, and gotten to meet lots of extended family members and friends (just read about my Danish Thanksgiving for an example). I loved coming back home after a long day at school to a hyggeligt dinner followed by tea and cookies in front of the television. Plus there’s nothing like having a host dog greet you excitedly every morning and evening. Of course, the nature and size of host families differs a lot, so be sure to be specific about your needs on the DIS Housing form. Commutes also differ greatly–mine was about an hour or so door-to-door, but I know of commutes both longer and shorter.

Kollegium: Kollegiums are kind of like the Danish version of dorms, although they are not associated with any particular school. I didn’t know that many people living in kollegiums this term, but I know of people who really loved theirs and others who were not as happy. The key to kollegiums, I think, is being willing to put yourself out there to meet the other people living on your floor because Danes are not likely to leave their doors open or do any of the things Americans usually do to make friends. However, it’s definitely possible to bond with both the Danes and Americans on a kollegium floor, and I know of several kollegium groups that got quite close over the semester. The other difference with a kollegium is you have to cook your own food, so you get a meal stipend from DIS, but my impression is that that money does not cover everything, so you may have to be prepared to spend a bit on food. As for commutes,   kollegiums tend to be within a closer range than host families (which are all over). Generally I haven’t heard of any kollegiums more than 20 min. away from DIS but I could be wrong.  A lot of kollegium people are able to take the bus or the metro (rather than the train) into DIS.

Danish Roommate: I think this is one of the less common options, so I only knew a couple people who chose it, but they were both pretty happy. Like host families, roommates vary a lot, so you could have another Dane your age, or you could be living with a single mom (for example). In general, I think it’s kind of like a host family option, but provides more independence because you make your own food and you aren’t expected to do anything more than be a respectful roommate (rather than participating in family events etc). This also means you might have to make more of an effort to get to know your roommate, if you want to become friends with them (rather than just two people who happen to live together). Danish roommates also live closer to DIS though I don’t know enough people with this option to say for sure how far out you could end up. Generally though the “roommate” thing implies apartment, which means somewhere in the city rather than outside it.

Folkehøjskole: I have heard a lot of good things about this option. Basically it’s like a boarding school for young people to go for about a year, in which they explore their interests without grades or requirements–they do it just for the love of learning. You can read more about it on the DIS website, but basically the DIS students who live at these schools have rooms at the school, and get provided breakfast and dinner (but the meals are provided on a schedule, and thus DIS students may often miss a meal or two and have to find food on their own). There is a folkehøjskole in Hillerød fairly close to my house, so I ride the bus with the DIS students there fairly often. This option is a really great way to meet Danes your age (or international students if you are in an international one) because the students have a fair amount of free time and do a lot of events together. Thus, it’s a bit more of a tight community than a kollegium, although the commute is always fairly long (none of the folkehøjskoles are located in central Copenhagen)–usually at least an hour.

DIS Residential Community / Living & Learning: These two options are basically American-only living situations (minus a Danish SRA–sort of like an RA in the U.S.) provided by DIS. Most of them are located about 5 minutes walk from DIS, although I do know of one which is slightly further away (maybe a 15-20 min. commute). Though I have never visited one, I’ve heard the housing is really nice, although it does mean that you are not automatically immersed in Danish culture, and will have to make more of an effort to meet Danes. Like the kollegium, you must pay for your own food with a DIS stipend card.

The Living and Learning Communities are mostly like DIS Residential Communities, but they are also responsible for holding events and being actively engaged in the topic of their housing (right now there is the Green House and the Culinary House). The Green House, for example, put on a sustainable party at the end of the semester.

Of course, you can also always find your own housing (some people do this if they have family in Copenhagen), but most people choose one of these options.

So that’s all folks (for tonight). More fun updates coming soon, I promise. In the meantime, don’t forget to ask me if you have any questions about the stuff above, or anything else Denmark/DIS-related.

 

Nothing But Sunshine (and Gelato): Long Study Tour

So I’m back from my long study tour, and it was AMAZING. This post is gonna be a biggy, so buckle your seatbelt and prepare to be here a while.

Saturday/Sunday (still in Copenhagen):

Saturday night I played Bingo Banko with my host family. It’s basically a nation-wide crazy televised bingo game, where anyone who wants to play can print out a bunch of cards (as many as you can keep track of) and compete for prizes. During the tv show, they play crazy games (including tattoo pictionary and beaver racing) and do silly things (asking people on the street random questions) to come up with the bingo numbers. There are tons of great prizes, from socks to refrigerators. You compete for first one row, then two rows, then a whole board, and if you get the right numbers then you have to be the first one to call in. The whole thing is super silly, and really fun. I played with Søren and Cille, and we each had 9 cards. Sadly it was not enough, and we did not win anything, but I still had a great time. The show is on every Saturday, so I’m sure we’ll try again soon!

I spent most of Sunday packing and double-checking my passport, camera, money, and other essentials. That evening Søren was nice enough to drive me to the train station, where I headed over to Allerød to spend the night at Allie’s house. It was fun to meet someone else’s host family and we played some pretty competitive Wii games with her host brother. Plus we had some leftover brownies and tea for dessert.

Monday (Day One):

Monday morning began bright and early with a pre-dawn walk to the train station. It was nice to be going with a friend, though, so if anything went wrong we’d be in the same boat. We got a random offer for a ride from a Danish guy in a big sketchy black van, but we decided to stick with the train. Luckily, all went smoothly and everybody got to the airport in time for our flight. After an hour-long bus ride and a quick stop to check in at the hotel, we were sent off on our own for Urban Awareness: Milan Edition. Team Awesome (me, Allie, Ansley, Colin, and Dylan) decided to go the low-key approach, and started out at the Parco Sempione. The park was absolutely gorgeous, especially in the beautiful weather, and we sat for a while on the grass just soaking in the Italian atmosphere. Then we continued on through the other DIS recommended spots to visit, and grabbed some cheap pizza for lunch. A great first afternoon in Italy.

best hotel ever. FREE soda and cookies in every room, refilled each day.

view from our spot in the park--Arco Della Pace

supposedly you get good luck from spinning 3 times on the "delicate parts" of the bull in the center of the Galleria

For dinner, we ate as a group at a place called Art Factory. First we got huge plates cheesy pasta with bread and little breadsticks, and everybody ate until they were full. Then it turned out we had a second course–mozzarella, tomato, and prosciutto. So yummy, but way too much to finish.

That night we had some free time, so Jenna, Allie, Ansley, and I went to a little restaurant-bar Ansley had spotted on her run earlier. Ansley and I had the most delicious margaritas, and it was lovely to just sit outside and chat for a while. We went home on the early side because we were all exhausted from the long day.

Tuesday (Day Two):

We began the day with a wonderful hotel breakfast buffet (I perfected my selection throughout the week–fresh machine-squeezed OJ, yogurt, cake, fruit, salami, proscuitto, and cheese, saving cookies for a mid-day snack) followed by our first academic visit. We heard from a researcher on subjective well-being, and it was really interesting, though it was hard to get in an academic mood with such gorgeous weather outside. Then we went to the Galleria D’Arte Moderna, which was beautiful. I mean, the art was great too but the building and gardens were gorgeous.

For our group lunch we went to a local sandwich chain (way nicer than Subway) and had paninis. I had a Fattore, which had salami, cheese, and something called aurora sauce. YUM.

At lunch, my friend Shuyao joined our trip because she’d had visa troubles that wouldn’t allow her to go to her own Scotland study tour. It was a shame for her to miss her tour, but it was fun to have her along.

That day we also got to see DaVinci’s Last Supper! Waiting to see it was pretty intense because there were a couple of airlock doors to go through, and there were guards around making sure nobody did anything wrong. As soon as we got into the room, some poor lady took a picture and one of the guards was like NOPICTURENOPICTURE and ran over to her and made her delete it. The way he was running I half-expected him to tackle her or something, but obviously that didn’t happen. The painting itself was really cool to see, even though it’s pretty faded and has had to be restored so many times. It was just crazy to be seeing something that old and that famous/influential.

Our next stop was a wine tasting at That’s Wine. Unfortunately we got lost trying to find it (a common theme of the trip) and the group was getting a bit cranky because most of us hadn’t eaten since lunchtime. Everyone was overjoyed when we finally found it, and our group completely packed the tiny little wine bar. The tasting itself was super fun, and I actually really liked all the wines we tasted. Plus we got some delicious bread, cheese, prosciutto, and salami to accompany it. After three glasses of wine, we all were desperately in need of dinner, so we tromped around as a group until we found a restaurant called Flash Pizzeria. The food turned out to be really good, and I had gnocchi and split some bruschetta with a few other people. Afterwards we got our first Italian gelato at a place near the Duomo, and it was definitely as good as the hype.

group picture in front of the Duomo

Wednesday (Day Three):

Wednesday morning we had an academic visit with Prof. Paolo Inghilleri and a couple of student researchers at University of Milan. It was a long visit, but really cool because we got to hear about real research that’s being done right now around positive psychology. We also got a tour of the University, which is in a very old hospital building. It was really beautiful, and it was hard to imagine being a student and having classes there every day.

We had lunch as a group at Original Pizza. At first only one type of pizza (pepperoni) showed up and we were pretty disappointed because it meant only one slice per person. But after a few minutes, another pizza came, and then another, and it seemed like they just kept coming and coming. I think we had four or five pizzas in all, and my favorite had gorgonzola cheese and corn. We also got dessert, either ice cream balls or Italian ice–even more delicious when it’s paid for by DIS!

After lunch we got to go individually to the Duomo, but since everybody went at about the same time it was sort of like a group activity. This was what I’d been most excited for, because I’d heard the views from the top of the Duomo were spectacular, and I was not disappointed. At one point we thought we’d seen it all, but luckily the elevator man closed the lift and told us to go down the other side. In the process of looking for the “other side” we discovered the stairs up to the very top of the roof. Moral of the story: the Duomo is HUGE, and there’s always something more to see!

We also went inside the Duomo, which was HUGE. I could’ve spent an hour just looking at all the details and exploring the place, but we wanted to get the most out of our free afternoon, so we only took a brief tour around. It was dark inside, and you weren’t supposed to take pictures anyway, so I have no pictures for you all, but I assure you it was really amazing. For dinner we had a quick bite from a food cart near the Duomo and did some shopping at a designer department store. The clothes were so wonderful but so expensive and we left quickly to avoid further temptation. That evening we had a visit at the La Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University (apparently they are located all over the world) and go to speak with a woman about the importance of meditation and peacefulness in daily life. The whole atmosphere was very calming, and it was really interesting to hear a different point of view on well-being.

After the visit we searched for an open pasticeria because Ansley really wanted an Italian Napoleon, but almost everything was closed. We ended up at a little place near our hotel, where I had a huge cannoli. Yummmm.

Thursday (Day Four):

Thursday morning’s academic visit was one of my favorites, because we were talking with Antonella Della Fave, one of the first positive psychology researchers ever, and the most important one in Italy. She and her fellow researchers talked about their work and gave us a lot of great information on how the positive psychology principles we’ve been learning about in class can be applied in practical research. Even the presentation was three hours, it went by really quickly, and I think we were all sad to be leaving at the end of it.

We had a fancy group lunch with risotto then pork with wildberry sauce and potatoes. The restaurant was dark so my pictures didn’t turn out very well, but the food was scrumptious. After lunch we got espresso courtesy of DIS. In the afternoon we visited with Dr. Morandi at Ayurvedic Point, and learned about Ayurveda as well as traditional medicine in general. It was probably my favorite visit because he talked to us about the philosophy of traditional medicine and how he approaches his Ayurvedic practice as a Western medicine-trained physician. He emphasized how Eastern and Western traditions should work together, rather than competing, and his perspective was really fascinating. I definitely want to learn more about Ayurveda and how it can be applied to a psychological context.

That night we got the evening to ourselves, so Ansley, Allie, and I took some relaxation time before going out to dinner. I took a marvelous bath (with jets!) in our hotel room, and it was great to get some time to just chill after having such a busy week. For dinner we met up with Jenna and her Italian friend she’d met a few years ago while being a camp counselor. We found a nice place with outdoor seating by the canals, and splurged a bit on fancy food and some wine to accompany it. For dessert we went back to the hotel and found a gelato place nearby, and I found my new favorite flavor–crema.

Friday (Day Five):

Our last full day in Milan began with another academic visit with Antonella’s researchers. This time it was focused more on disability and positive psychology, which was really cool because it was very different from the other research we’d heard about the rest of the tour. As a surprise at the end of the visit, we each got Kinder Bueno bars from our tour leaders. Then for Liia’s birthday they took us out to free gelato, the best gelato I had that week. It was a place called Gelatissimo, and unsurprisingly the owner was very happy to have forty customers at once.

I got Crema Catalana and Pistachio--delicious!

We had the afternoon free, so Shuyao, Jenna and I walked through the Parco Sempione (neither of them had gotten to see it the first day) to the Pinoteca di Brera, an art museum that was highly recommended by, well, everyone. I know next to nothing about art history, and the captions were all in Italian, but the paintings were mostly from the early 1800′s or the 1500′s. There was a ton of religious art and many depictions of the Virgin Mary with Jesus. I love art museums, but I’d never seen such old art before so it felt like an entirely new experience. My favorite painting depicted a young woman, relaxing in a chair while shirtless. I know nothing of the context of the painting, but she just seemed really relaxed and content, and it was a nice contrast to all the stark religious imagery.

For our last night, we had a group dinner followed by a jazz show at Blue Note Milan. Everybody got dressed up for the show, and it was fun seeing everybody all fancy (though a lady at the restaurant apparently thought we were in high school). It was dark in the restaurant so my pictures are not spectacular, but we had three wonderful courses–pasta, sausage with veggies, and flan! We also each got a glass of wine or soda to accompany the meal.

tried using the flash for the second course--not a great result (but the food was delicious!)

Shuyao didn't want her flan, so I ended up having 1 and 3/4 flans (what is the plural of flan?!)

I didn’t think the day could get any better, but it definitely did. The jazz show was simply amazing. Allie, Ansley, Jenna, and I got bar seats right on the balcony so we got a good view of the performance. The singer was Luca Jerman, accompanied by several musicians and a couple of backup singers. His very first song was “Ain’t No Sunshine” by Bill Withers, which I had just downloaded the week before, and it pretty much set the tone for the night. Everything about the performance was amazing and his voice was really incredible. Luca Jerman was also accompanied for one song by another singer, who turned out to be a really famous Italian singer who won a singing competition show followed by an Italian music award.  Apparently he was taught by Luca Jerman, which was why he showed up for the performance. Everyone in our class was buzzing about it afterwards, and it was a truly perfect way to end the trip. Plus, on the way home, Shuyao and I found Spongebob randomly painted on a wall.

Saturday (Day Six):

Saturday morning I had a perfect last breakfast, including a creme puff covered in chocolate mouse–obviously a great way to start the day. We loaded all our stuff onto the bus and departed for an afternoon at Lake Como. The lake was so beautiful, and the town was adorable. It was nice to see someplace other than Milan, which is beautiful but has a lot of cars and busy streets (stark contrast from Copenhagen).

After getting our lunch money and directions from our guide, Shuyao and I headed over to the Funiculare, a gondola-tram-thing that takes you up to the top of one of the hills surrounding the lake. When trying to find it, we first went up this tiny alleyway, thinking we were headed the right way, and we were surprised that nobody else was around. Then when we reached the top of the hill we came out onto a regular busy street, and were really confused. We asked a woman where to find the Funiculare, and she told us we had to go all the way down the hill, and it’d be right there. OOPS. Turns out what we’d thought was a cafe was actually the ticket office.

walking through the little town

We were starting to get hungry, so we decided to try to find some lunch up on top of the hill. We wandered through the streets for a bit, starting to wish we’d paid more attention to the map of the town near the Funiculare station. Finally we decided to ask for directions from a guy at a small grocery store. He pointed us to a little trattoria tucked away in a side street. The restaurant was adorable, and there were only about three options for each course. Shuyao and I decided on two different pasta dishes because we didn’t want to spend too much. What a great choice. After a long wait, the waiter brought out our pasta, and it was the best food we had all week. The ingredients were really simple, but it was all super fresh, including the pasta, and we felt like we were experiencing the real Italy.

We decided to head back down again for dessert, and we found a gelato place by the docks that looked really good. The woman there spoke only Italian, so it was a little difficult making our orders, but the gelato was delicious, as always.

We walked back into town and explored a street market there for a while, and I bought a scarf. Then we went to see the Como Duomo (haha I couldn’t resist), which was obviously much smaller than the one in Milan, but still very beautiful.

On the inside the ceilings were very detailed and and covered with gold embellishments, but I didn’t take any pictures because you’re not supposed to (though many people do anyway).

On the way to the airport, we did a positive psychology intervention where everyone filled out positive comments about everyone else in the class, including themselves. Later on everybody received a packet with all their positive comments. All the comments were so thoughtful, and it was really nice  to end the trip with a positive feeling.

We arrived in the airport way too early because of the lack of traffic, so we had about an hour to waste before we could check our bags. Ansley, Allie, and I sat at some tables and shared all our Italian purchases and ate our last few snacks leftover from the hotel breakfast. Once we finally got to check our bags, we checked out a gift store where Allie bought a souvenir and then went to find something to eat. There was only one choice for food in our terminal, but it turned out to be really good. I had a sandwich with prosciutto, cheese, and arugala, and a pastry for dessert.

My sfogliatella (lobster tail). It was (to my surprise) really delicious--my own farewell to Italy.

Unfortunately, when we got back to Copenhagen at 10pm, it turned out that some of the trains were not running. Luckily Allie and I were together so we searched for a solution. First we went from Nørreport to Central Station to figure out what was going on. All the info booths were closed, and when we tried to figure out the bus we needed, we couldn’t find the stop to meet it. In a stroke of genius, Allie ended up buying a hot dog while we figured out what to do. We asked the man at the hot dog stand if he happened to know anything about the buses/trains, and he told us that if we took the one train that was running to Hellerup, we could catch our train from there. We went for it because we had no other ideas, and fortunately he was correct. We each ended up getting home at like 12:30am, but we got there!

Told you it would be a long post. Now it’s time for me to prepare for a return to a normal schedule, homework and all. This trip was better than I ever thought it would be, but I’m so glad to be back in Copenhagen. It is so nice to be in my own room with my own bed, and I’m actually really excited to return to my normal commute tomorrow morning. It’s funny how Copenhagen has become my new home and frame of reference as I travel around–even American money is starting to look foreign!

Arrivederci and vi ses!

I Scream for Ice Cream

Blog update, as promised.

First off, my field studies on Wednesday! They were both even better than I expected. First I went to the Davids Samling Museum with my Turkey at the Crossroads class. It looked pretty small from the outside—if I hadn’t known what we were going to see I wouldn’t have even thought it was a museum—but it had a surprisingly large collection on the inside. The museum was created by a fund made by a really rich guy—C.L. David, who died in 1960—so it’s basically about what he was interested in. We split into two groups and got a guided tour, which was nice because we got to learn a lot more about the history of the museum and the art that we would’ve if we’d been browsing on our own—not least of which because most of the explanatory placards were in Danish. We looked at their Islamic art collection, some of which was from Turkey/the Ottoman Empire, but it basically from anywhere Muslims lived (i.e. much of Europe, the Middle East, and northern Africa). My personal favorite exhibit was their collection of miniatures—apparently the largest collection in the world that is open to the public. The paintings were, well, miniature, and the details in them were just amazing. The tiny figures had facial expressions and complicated patterns on their clothing. Our tour guide informed us that some of the details were done using a brush with only one hair—crazy! After the tour, Allie and I went back and spent some more time looking at the exhibit because it was just so amazing. I think most of our class definitely plans on going back to the museum sometime, especially because entrance is free!

After seeing the museum, Allie and I went off to find a library (Københavns Hovedbibliotek) that Lauren, a girl in our Positive Psychology class, had told her about. I think it might be a new favorite study place. It was really nice inside, and a lot closer to DIS than the Black Diamond(and there was free wifi). Plus there were a lot more places to sit, including some funky desk armchairs that I will have to try out next time.  I ate my lunch and we chatted for a while about various things, and then I left for my Danish Language and Culture field study while Allie got to working on our Positive Psychology paper that was due Friday.

I met my Danish class near Christianshavn metro station, and found them all already buzzing with anticipation for our tour of Christiania. Most of my class had never been there (I went there briefly for my Buddy Network dinner) and we were all excited to see the [in]famous Copenhagen landmark for ourselves. Our Danish teacher had told us we would have a very special guide that she likes because he not only has lived in Christiania for 20 years, but he does not do tours very often so he is still very excited and interested in talking about his home. She also warned us that he was very much a Christianian, so to speak, and would be “very representative” of Christiania culture. Indeed, the first thing Joker (yes that was his actual name) did when he met up with us, about 10 min. late, was take out a small tin of pot and start packing a pipe.

He actually ended up being a great tour guide, though, because he had a lot of personal knowledge about the history of Christiania and could really articulate what it was all about. I’ll only give you a brief overview, since I don’t want to spread incorrect information (you can read more on Wikipedia). Basically, Christiania was founded in the 1970′s as a place where people could be free from the rules of society and just be themselves. Joker explained that they started out without any rules, but over the years they’ve had to develop a few: no hard drugs, no violence, no guns (or bulletproof clothing), no (private) cars, and no private property (buying and selling real estate).  The rules are not always able to be enforced, especially since the government has had problems with Christiania a few times over its forty years (Christiania had its 40th birthday last Monday, and was celebrating all this week). Joker said the private cars rule has especially been difficult recently because, as he put it, many people put so much money into their cars that they feel they ought to be able to drive them where they like. Joker also cleared up a popular rumor about Christiania: they do pay their bills (water, electricity, etc.), they just do it collectively. Apparently to live in Christiania, all you need to do is pay a monthly fee, and then you pay for however you want to build your dwelling (materials, labor, etc.) Because there is no buying or selling of property, you cannot “own” a house, you merely live in it.

One of my favorite stories Joker told us was the story of how he came to live in Christiania. When he was first living there, he had no intention of staying–he just wanted a job. So he went to a cafe and asked the man he assumed was the owner for a job, and received a set of keys. After he was working there for a couple of weeks, the man he thought was the owner came to him and asked him for a job. He was really confused, but he just gave him a job and kept working there for about a year. Then somebody else came and took it from him, which he assumed was because they were in charge. It was only a few years later that he found out he had ‘owned’ the cafe for that year. Apparently the man he’d thought was the owner had given him the cafe (by giving him the keys), and thus then had to ask him for a job. The next person that came along was just becoming the next ‘owner.’ Anyway, after finding out that he’d owned a cafe for a year without knowing it, Joker decided he had to stay in Christiania.

Joker also had a really interesting take on drug use, which surprised me a little bit because of the first impression he’d made. He said that he believed in the legalization of marijuana so that it will not be “cool” for young people to smoke it. He pointed out that places where marijuana has been legalized, only the “losers” smoke, and young people are too busy living their lives to bother. He thought it was unfortunate when teens get caught up in smoking rather than getting an education and growing up, and end up reaching their thirties without having done anything with their lives, or developed the skills to start doing something.

Here are a few pictures of Christiania. Unfortunately pictures are not allowed on Pusher Street, where they sell pot openly, because although people are open about it in Christiania, it is still illegal according to the Danish government, and police do regular raids of Christiania to try to put a stop to it. Apparently there used to be a lot of kids helping the “pushers” on Pusher Street because it was an easy way to earn a lot of money. The adults in Christiania wanted to find a way to change that, but they knew that forbidding it would only make the kids more likely to do it. So instead they built an indoor skate park to give the kids something better to do, and now the average age on Pusher street has increased by about ten years. Joker said it was a great example of Christiania’s creative/collective decision-making at work. Of course, they aren’t always able to find such a perfect solution, but it’s cool that they tried to find an effective solution rather than the expected response that would probably happen if a government had been involved.

And now for the pictures…

this store has all the building materials you need to make a house, and according to Joker they'll even order something for you if they don't have what you need

some guys were brewing beer outside on this huge scaffold structure, maybe a special birthday brew?

the Christiania flag represents the 3 dots of the i's in its name--the flags were all over for the birthday celebration

The "Put and Take"--exactly what it sounds like. Joker was about to put down some flowers, but then a guy came over and was like "oh I want those" and took them from him

there was lots of graffiti and murals on the walls of buildings

the cafe Joker owned for a year

this was a "children's area".. there was a little beach and some play structures around the corner

a cool house; unfortunately I didn't hear the story Joker told about it because I was in the back of the group, but for some reason the chimney is in the shape of a frog/dragon

Gray Hall is where they have all their town meetings, and sometimes have concerts. According to Joker, a lot of famous people come there, and Bob Dylan actually requested to do a concert there.

After all the walking, I was exhausted so I went home and took a nap, then spent most of the evening working on homework. Thursday we had our first quiz in Danish, and it seemed to go pretty well. After class I still had two essays to finish for the next day, so I went home and worked on them. I was so worried about finishing everything that I actually got done early–about 9:15pm, and got to relax fo the rest of the night. Søren was out of town on business and Charlotte was at work, so Nanna made us pasta salad for dinner and she, Cille, and I had a cozy dinner in the living room in front of the TV watching Friends.

Friday morning I woke up bright and early, exhausted but excited for my last day of class before Milan. I ended up being able to grab some leftover pasta salad for my lunch instead of making a sandwich, and made it on an earlier bus so I could get to DIS with time to print out my paper before class. Even though I was out of the house before 7am (usually a bad sign) I could already tell it was going to be a great day. In the main DIS building I ran into many of my classmates, also printing out their papers and commiserating about their tough homework weeks. I found Allie and we went together to class, where we were the first ones by several minutes. It felt really good to finally turn in my paper, since we’d been working on it for about two weeks, and then at the end of class we got a really interesting presentation about The Last Supper, which we will get to see in Milan! Apparently the painting has gained a ton of popularity since The DaVinci Code (my host mom was shocked when I told her I hadn’t read it) and now it’s very difficult to get tickets to see the painting, so I’m really excited to get the opportunity (and for free!).

My day continued to increase in excellence as I ran into several of my friends when sitting in DIS between classes, and then decided not to get a pastry during lunchtime, despite my nagging hunger, so as to save money for Milan. Turns out, it was a perfect decision because in my last (and favorite) class of the day, Adolescence in Northern Europe, my teacher bought us ice cream! Most of the class was spent talking about our upcoming learning labs, an assignment in which we will go to a Danish school and direct our own project or research through our visit. We were turning in research proposals that day (my second paper of the week) and figuring out which schools we wanted to go to. I was really excited because I got into a group with my friends Lacey and Red to go to the “Free” Gymnasium (a Danish high school) which is an alternative school where the kids are really self-directed and on an equal level with teachers. We get to visit our sites in October and November, and I’m really excited to get to talk to some real Danish adolescents (aside from my host siblings). The best part of the class was when my teacher asked if we wanted to spend some of our class budget (she is very into an alternative education style, and encourages us to do what we want and is always asking us what we want to learn) on a walk through Strøget (the walking street) to observe some people or to get a treat. Of course, we all got really excited and asked if we could get ice cream. She said yes (and mentioned baking a cake at the end of the semester!), so at the end of class we all trouped down to a nearby ice cream stand. We each got to spend 35 kr. (about $7!) so we could get 3 scoops each. I was at the back of the line, so I planned my order out very carefully and got Lemoncello, Vanilla, and Kinder Surprise with whipped cream and strawberry jam (very typical Danish toppings for ice cream cone) in a waffle cone. It was SO GOOD. I made the perfect order, and it was a gorgeous sunny day–perfect for ice cream. Red, Lacey and I then walked to the train station together eating our ice cream, and managed to extend our discussion of the particulars of ice cream all the way to the station.

When I got home we had a yummy dinner and then Charlotte suggested we go out into the town because it was a special celebration night in Hillerød. We started walking and then Nanna joined us later on her bike. All the stores were open until 9:15pm–very special in Denmark–and there were sales everywhere. We walked through the “big” mall (about the size of a medium to small one in the U.S.), and Nanna ended up getting a dress and a coat. It was fun to be out around so many people, and the atmosphere was very spirited. In the square there was live music playing, and it seemed like everybody in Hillerød was out, both young and old. Charlotte and I stopped in the “Candy Bus” (Sweet Factory-style portable candy store) to get some candy to bring back to Cille, who had decided to stay home. That night we watched a Danish sketch comedy show and then Terminator 2, but I started falling asleep on the couch before the end of the movie and decided it was time for bed.

Today has been very relaxed–I was in my PJ’s until about noon–and the day has been gorgeous (record breaking temperatures for October). Søren’s parents came over for a bit and we sat outside and enjoyed some yummy raisin cake his mom made. Then Cille and I played about ten rounds of UNO, and now I am sitting outside updating you all on this week. Tomorrow I will pack for Milan, and then after dinner Søren will drive me over to the train station so I can go to Allie’s house, where I’m going to spend the night. We have to be at the airport waaaay early Monday morning, earlier than my bus runs, so Allie and I will go together. I’m super excited to go to Milan, where I will be sans laptop, and enjoying beautiful summery weather (by Copenhagen standards).

So long until next week!

I Dream of Pastries…

By popular demand (i.e. my dad made a comment ) I am writing another blog post today. Hooray! And yes there is another title about food… I did mean the warning that I gave in my “About” section about pastry rants. Many exciting things happened today including receiving our schedule for our long study tour in Milan(!), but I will be good and start where I left off last.

On Sunday my host family and I went to Holte, a town/suburb just a few train stops into town (I only know where things are based on their S-Tog stops) to see the World Biking Championships! Biking is not usually my thing, and I know nothing about bike racing, but how many people can say that they watched world championships of anything live? Well, now I can! It was actually even cooler than I expected to see the biking in person, because you really cannot tell how fast they are going on TV. Really fast. We arrived after they had been biking for about three hours already (the race lasted about five-seven), and the bicyclists were speeding up. Crazy! I cannot imagine being in shape like that. I was originally going to take some pictures but they were going so fast that even Søren’s pictures with his nice SLR came out blurry, so I figured I’d better go for a video instead, as proof that I was actually there. Unfortunately, wordpress will not allow me to upload said videos without a $60 program, so they will not be posted here. Here are a couple pictures of the fans, though.

building near where we were standing... lots of danish flags

a bunch of happy Italians were singing and generally being merry

Success! I uploaded my video onto Youtube just so I could share with you all how fast these bicyclists were going!

After about an hour of watching, we decided to head home to watch the final on TV because there was no way we could get close enough to the finish line to see it. It was a really hot day, and I was unprepared (again) wearing long pants and two layers of shirts. Luckily on the long walk back to the car we stopped at a gas station for ice cream! I got a Ben & Jerry’s (surprisingly popular here) peanut butter and cookie dough ice cream bar. Normally I wouldn’t have gone for the American choice, but peanut butter + cookie dough = my heaven so there was no other reasonable choice.

Later that night I got interviewed by a friend of my host mom’s colleague’s daughter (or something like that–neither of us can quite remember the connection) who was doing an article on being a foreign student in Denmark for a class. I was excited to get a chance to help someone out and also to reflect on my experience here so far. The interview was very simple, as my interviewer’s English was very good, and it ended up being a really nice conversation. She asked me a few questions I was unprepared for (like what I would want to bring to the Danes from the U.S.) and a lot of my answers were about food (unsurprisingly–I really think I might have a problem). She said she will send me the article when she’s done, which I’m kind of excited about. I’m curious to see how a Dane will interpret an American’s interpretations of Danishness (if that made any sense). Plus it’ll be fun just to read about myself.

As I’ve mentioned a couple times, this week is a MONSTER week homework-wise. I still think it does not compare to Carleton craziness, mostly because I am not involved in an insane number of extra-curriculars here. The procrastination fairy is apparently no stranger to Denmark though because my free time has not lead to greater productivity. Still, as always, these things must get done somehow, and so far I have done a presentation (Monday) and a midterm (today). Only two papers, a quiz, and a write-up left between me and MILANO.

Despite all the work, this week has actually been pretty good so far. Monday evening I had my Applied Psychology class, in which I was presenting about person-centered therapy. This may sound cheesy, but after my presentation and class discussions, I am even more sure about what I want to do with my life. A lot of people don’t like person-centered therapy because there are no specific techniques involved; it’s more focused on generally creating a positive relationship between the therapist and the client –if that sounds like general therapy, that’s because a lot of generalized therapy technique has been based on person-centered therapy. Anyway, after discussing it with the class, it just made sense to me and I just got this feeling like I want to do this! I mean I’m not that sure about my whole life path, but it was kind of a revelation moment for me, one of those times that makes me so appreciative to be here in Denmark doing what I’m doing. Carleton doesn’t have any classes similar to Applied Psych, so when I signed up for it I was really excited to get the opportunity to try out different therapies and get a feeling for what it’s like to counsel someone. Even though the class only meets once a week, it’s definitely the class I’ve learned the most from so far, and it really has confirmed my interest in being a therapist in the future.

Of late I’ve been reading a ton of other study abroad blogs from all my friends who are on different programs, and I have been wondering just a little if I made the right choice going to DIS. It was really good to have an experience confirming that I’m definitely doing the right program for me and that I’m really gaining some valuable insights that will stay with me long after I’ve left Denmark.

Side note: on Monday afternoon I decided my upcoming presentation required a motivational pastry (what situation doesn’t?) so I headed on over to Sankt Peders Bageri (my new favorite) for a treat. This time I decided to try their Fransk horn, partially because it looked scrumptious but mostly because I knew what it was called. It was flaky and delicious, and even came with a burnt sugar tuile. Unfortunately my appetite got the better of me and I did not think to take a picture of it in all its magnificence. I promise I will start making more of an effort to take pictures of all the great food I’m enjoying!

And now the moment I have been waiting for… our schedule for Milan! This morning in Positive Psychology we got a presentation from one of the DIS interns, Hannah, on our activities for our Milan trip next week. You can learn more by clicking the link up there but basically each core class goes on study tours in order to see how some of the concepts we’ve learned about can be applied in different real-life contexts and in different countries! We had our short study tour just a few weeks ago and next week we will be gone for our long one. I won’t bore you with all the details now (since I’ll be describing them post-real experience at the end of next week) but here are a couple of the highlights of our trip:

• Seeing DaVinci’s Last Supper
• wine tasting
• going to a jazz club
• visiting Lake Como (look out George Clooney!)

I’m super excited–so much so that I’m having trouble focusing on my homework. (Not that I was doing a great job before… ) DIS treated us to some great meals and places to stay on our short tour, so I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us in Italy! As a bonus, the weather report is showing 80 degrees and sunny all week, so I will have to break out my limited warm weather clothing selection–a great break from 50-60 degrees and cloudy in Copenhagen.

Another food note: Tonight for dinner we had Brændende kærlighed (literally “Burning Love” in Danish), which is basically mashed potatoes topped with bacon (a bit more like ham here) and carmelized onions. NOM. Not exactly the lightest or healthiest meal, but it was scrumptious. The mashed potatoes were super smooth, almost whipped and the bacon was obviously heavenly. And then, as if it could not get any better, we got American brownies that Charlotte had made for dessert. Yum yum yum (I had three of them ). Danes do not usually have brownies, and Nanna thought they were a bit too heavy, even though they were far from the densest brownies I’ve had. I’m not sure Danes could handle the intensity of store-bought American brownies.

Alas, there is no rest for the weary, and tomorrow I will have two field studies in addition to all the paper writing I will be doing. Fortunately, I think they will both be really fun. First I’m going with my Turkey at the Crossroads class to the David Samlings Museum where we will get a tour of an Islamic art exhibition. Then I’m going to Christiania with my Danish class, which will be really cool because Christiania is celebrating their 40th birthday all week long.  I’m hoping that after walking around all day I’ll have no problem sitting down and getting some serious work done–we’ll see what happens. I just keep telling myself that if I make it  through September, then I get to go to Italy. All in all, I think it’s a fair trade-off.

Party At Fakta: My Short Study Tour!

Last night I returned from my short study tour to Western Denmark, and it was AWESOME. I ate a TON of food and enjoyed myself quite thoroughly. There’s lots to tell, so if you’re planning to read this whole post, you’d better snuggle in and grab a snack because this is gonna be a long one. For that reason I will also divide it conveniently into three parts to give you some safe stopping places.

Thursday:

Thursday morning I awoke bright and early, determined not to forget any important items or to be left behind by the bus. I double-checked my bag approximately five bajillion times (I counted) and added a couple last minute items before it was finally time to go. I had an awkwardly large duffle bag with my little DIS backpack since my only other options were two backpacks or a rolling suitcase (not a good choice on cobblestones). I squeezed my way out the door and successfully onto the bus at 7:36 am. On the train, I sat a few seats down from Colin, a boy in my class who lives in the folkehojskole (another DIS living option) in Hillerød. I slept a little bit but I woke up earlier than usual because I was determined not to miss my stop, even though at this point we were scheduled to be about 30 min. early for the tour bus. As we approached Nørreport station I noticed Colin was still fast asleep. At first I assumed that he would wake up when the conductor announced our stop, but we arrived and he showed no signs of stirring. The trains do not stay long at one station, and if you miss the two minute window, you are stuck on the train until the next stop. So I knew I had to try to wake Colin, so he wouldn’t miss the bus. First I tried calling his name, but I didn’t want to shout and be rude to the Danish passengers. He didn’t budge. So I grabbed my huge bag and went over to him and shook his shoulder, which finally woke him up. It wasn’t easy though, so I think if I hadn’t woken him up he might’ve slept for another hour on the train. Time was running out to get off the train, and the door nearest Colin had a no exit sign, so I had to turn around and go through the bike compartment. As I reached the doors they were already closing, so I think I barely made it out on time. I started walking towards the stairs out of the platform and I saw Colin standing at the no exit doors trying to open them. Of course, they didn’t open. I’ll never forget the look on his face as the train started pulling away. Luckily we were still super early so he was able to get off at the next stop and catch a train back, and he even still arrived early for the bus.

As we climbed on the bus we FINALLY got our schedule for the trip. Before we’d only been given a vague idea of the itinerary, to the point where it was a bit absurd. My host family had asked me where we were going, and I could only give them a guess answer. Our schedule booklets had a full itinerary, maps for our “time on own,” pictures of everyone on the trip, and a few sudoku puzzles in the back. The bus was a double decker, and apparently brand new (the bus driver had only gotten it 14 days before the trip). We were only supposed to sit on the top level, since the bottom mostly had a table and the bathroom. Ansley, Allie, Jenna, and I sat together towards the middle of the bus and settled in for our 3 hour drive to the island of Funen (home of Hans Christian Andersen), where we would have our first academic visit. Our tour leaders Julie and Tilde (our teacher Gitte couldn’t make it) were super nice, and they gave us fruit and candies on the way. When it was determined that everyone was hungry, we also got to stop at a gas station to buy snacks. Everyone was super excited at first because we were curious what a Danish gas station would be like, but then the excitement died a bit when we just stopped at a Shell. It was still nicer than U.S. gas stations, though, and they sold hot dogs and pastries in addition to the usual array of candy, chips, and soda. I didn’t want to spend too much money, so I just chose a candy bar that looked tasty. It was called a Yankie, and it was actually perfect–caramel with chocolate/malt nougat, kind of like a Milky Way, only way better.

Our first academic visit was with Kaare Christensen, a professor at the University of Southern Denmark. You may have heard of him from his recent appearance on 60 Minutes. He wrote a brief article about possible reasons for Denmark’s consistent #1 spot in the happiest countries ratings. His conclusion was basically that Danes have low expectations so they are not surprised when things go badly, and they are pleased when life turns out better than they expected. The article and the interview are pretty tongue-in-cheek and I recommend checking them out. He also talked to us about his research on aging, which was very interesting. He discussed a few studies about the relationship between health and happiness, including one about perceived age, where health and life satisfaction were compared with how old the participants looked rather than how old they actually were. It gave us a lot to think about, and it was a nice way to begin the trip.

We next headed off to Odense, the 3rd largest city in Denmark, also located on Funen. Since we were running a bit late we only had about half an hour to grab our own lunch (we chose shawarma–cheap and delicious). We all met up at the Brandts Klædefabrik art museum, where we got all-exhibit passes and got to roam around on our own. It was just a tourist visit for our class, though we saw other DIS groups there who had an academic visit there. The Communications and Mass Media group even got to produce their own newscast in what I guess was the “media” exhibit of the museum. The first exhibit we saw was a photography show by Jacob Holdt. I did not read all of the placards, nor did we have a tour guide, but from what I gathered he was a Danish photographer who had gone to the U.S. in the sixties to take photographs of poor people. It was a pretty intense exhibit because it basically paired photos of African Americans with those of white supremacists, including members of the KKK. There were couples, families, and individuals in all kinds of situations, but most of the subjects of the photos fell into one of those two categories. Some of the captions said things like “____, a mass murderer, shows his daughter ____ how to use a gun.” (The names weren’t blanked out I just don’t remember them.) The KKK photos were especially hard for me personally. There were photos of people dressed in KKK uniforms just eating a family dinner. It kind of emphasized how all these people are just everyday people, and in many other ways they seem just the same. I’m glad we went to see it, but those photos just took me unawares. Luckily the rest of the exhibits were not nearly as emotionally charged, and so after that room it was much more relaxing. My second favorite (after the photography) was a dark room filled with fake lit-up flowers in swirly patterns around the room. The flowers made a crackling sound that almost sounded like crickets if you didn’t listen too hard, and the whole room was very peaceful. In the rest of the museum there were some other photography exhibits, the media room which had its own printing press in addition to the news studio, and some fun cloth sculptures (pictures forthcoming).

After the museum we had another two and a half hours on the bus before arriving at our hotel in Århus, the 2nd largest Danish city. On the way Julie and Tilde showed us a Danish film, Italian for Beginners, but I think most people slept instead of watching. We also got to sign up for our hostel rooms, so Allie, Ansley, Jenna, and I got a room together. Our hostel was in the middle of the woods, but it was pretty cute. We got a few minutes to settle into our room and set up our beds (we had to bring our own sheets) before heading out for dinner again. Our room was actually really nice, with two bunk beds, a little chair and table, a tv, and our own bathroom with a shower and everything. I think a lot of us were picturing a huge room with several bunk beds and a communal bathroom, so we were pretty excited to have such nice accommodations. For dinner, we all piled back on the bus again to drive into town. We ate at a super nice restaurant (which was extra special because restaurants are so expensive in Denmark). We were served a DELICIOUS salmon with creamed spinach and lemon wedges. It was super yummy, even though we didn’t get dessert.

We had to find our own way back to the hostel after dinner, so the four of us decided to go exploring around Århus a bit. We went the opposite direction from the rest of our class, found a quiet little pub where we had some drinks and chatted for a while. There were some Danes sitting at the table next to us, and after a bit they introduced themselves. Apparently they had been wondering if we were from Spain, which was quite the compliment since we were all very much American. It was a really fun evening, but we were tired from traveling all day so we left earlyish to determine how to get home. We first made a valiant effort to determine how to use the bus, but it was difficult to figure out in a strange city, and eventually we just decided to go with the cab that was sitting conveniently nearby. It ended up being pretty cheap since we weren’t too far from our hostel and we split the fare between the four of us. When we got back to our room, we figured out the tv (surprisingly tricky) and found a funny french movie to watch for a bit before we all dropped off to sleep one by one.

Friday:

Friday morning we had breakfast at the hostel, which was basically a typical Danish breakfast buffet. I had several pieces of bread with different combinations of butter, jam, and cheese. The cheese slicer was awesome–there were two blocks of cheese on a round platform with a handle attached to a slicer. When you turned the handle, it sliced the cheese and the whole thing moved down so you could slice a new layer of cheese. Basically the best thing ever, especially because I’m so bad at using Danish home cheese slicers.

Our first academic visit for the day was to KAOSpilots, an alternative entrepreneur school that emphasizes team-based education, real world testing, and process learning. It was a really cool program and it almost made me a little jealous of the students. It’s a three year education, kind of like a “bachelor’s degree” but you don’t get a diploma as such. You have to be 21-35 years old to apply, so that everyone has a certain level of maturity. The application does not require test scores or grades, but rather answers to questions about your personality, interests, and motivations. Instead of having a bland presentation with a powerpoint, we got to engage in a couple of exercises to demonstrate how their education works. First we did a dream journey, where we had to relax and close our eyes and visualize ourselves in the future. It didn’t exactly work for me because I got distracted by an inconsistency in the “story” we were being told, but it was relaxing. My favorite part of the presentation, and perhaps the whole trip, was the next exercise we did. First we had a minute and a half to write down seven things we were passionate about. Then we shared them as a group. We repeated it with things that make us angry and things that we’re good at. The angers were especially good to share because at first we were all stepping over each other shouting them out, but the presenter, Sarah, stopped us and told us to listen to each other. After that only one person spoke at a time, even though there was no raising of hands, and each anger shared was felt by the group. It was a really cool bonding experience. After making our lists, we were told to get into groups of three people with others we don’t know well, and to find themes for each list. This was really interesting because a lot of the things people wrote down were super random, like being good at making pancakes, or hating socks that fall down. But when you sat down with someone’s list and thought about it, it was really possible to come up with meaningful themes that described their list. The final step was to write down our themes in the form of a statement: “My wish is to use my passion for [passion theme] and my talent for [talent theme] to [verb] [anger theme].” The exercise felt not only really cathartic, but also productive because it was about using the themes to combat what makes us angry. Everyone came out of the presentation feeling good and with new energy for the day ahead.

Our next stop was group lunch in town at another really nice restaurant. We had pesto pasta with veggies and salad on top. Super delicious, and I cleaned my plate. It was nice to get some more veggies too because Danes are not always big on those. After lunch we got time on our own to explore Århus, so Ansley, Allie, Jenna, and I went to Den Gamle By, or The Old City. One of the other options was the ARoS art museum, which is supposed to be awesome, but we had just gone to an art museum the day before and we wanted to spend some time outside. We took a rather roundabout way getting there, which was okay because it was a gorgeous day. It has three sections–the 1800′s, 1927, and 1974. The 1800′s part is the biggest, as I think they are still building the 1927 and 1974 areas. The whole thing was really adorable, and it was nice to have some time to relax and just walk around. Dessert was on our minds basically the whole trip, so of course we found the bakery to get pastries. I got three vanilla almond cookies for only 10 kr. and they were scrumptious. Though it was only a small part, I really enjoyed the 1970′s part of the “city.” There was a poster museum which had retro Danish posters, some of which were pretty funny. There was also a music store with old tvs and record players, records, and cassette tapes. Once we’d seen everything we had some extra time so we slowly wandered back to KAOSpilot, where we were supposed to be meeting the bus. We stopped at Netto to get some snacks for the bus (I got a giant bag of banana chips) and then sat in a large square near the church and the theater to relax and munch on our food for a while.

There was only a short bus ride to our last academic visit at Camp True North, a summer camp for teens designed to raise their positivity and self-esteem. From the moment we got there it felt like returning to camp. The presenters were just as overly smiley and enthusiastic as you’d expect, and they had us do all the little claps and sayings that they have campers do. At first I was skeptical, but then they had us stand up and go around to ten different people and tell them “You look FANTASTIC today.” It was very silly, but after doing it a few times everyone was laughing and it was actually fun. After an introductory story about the need for positivity, we went to the back of the room to play Gopher. We stood in a circle and each person had a “trap” hand and a “gopher” hand. Traps were laid out flat and gophers were one finger placed in the “trap” next to you. When the “gopher caller” said “gopher,” you had to try to trap a gopher while get your own gopher to escape. I was pretty bad at the game because I just got so surprised every time that I just threw up both my arms, so my gopher escaped but I never caught another gopher. After each round, everybody who was successful did their “gopher dance” which was basically any dance you wanted. It was really silly, and I’m not sure what academic value it had, but it was a lot of fun.

After playing Gopher, we had to do a Maze activity. For this one, we were divided into two teams and each team made a grid on the floor with masking tape. The point was to find your way through the “maze” without getting beeped or buzzed by the Maze Master, who had the key to what spaces were “safe” and not. Every time you stepped on a wrong square, you got “beeped” and had to return to the beginning, and each time you didn’t follow the rules, like going back the way you came, you got “buzzed”, and your team lost a minute on your time. Most importantly, you couldn’t talk at all during the game. Our team worked together really well, and soon we fell into a system for finding our way through the maze. I thought it was really fun, because it felt really collaborative to be working with our class to solve the puzzle. When our team finished by getting everyone through the maze, the other team still hadn’t found their way through it. I’m sure it didn’t help that once we’d finished, our team sat down to watch their team struggle to the end. Their team was not working together nearly as well, and they all looked visibly frustrated. After both teams completed the maze, we got a sort of weird concluding talk about how every day should be a job interview, and the facilitator said she knew what ten people she would hire after that activity.

A lot of people left the visit complaining about the maze and the campy feel of the presentation. I personally really enjoyed myself, and it was a little frustrating to have to listen to others complain so much. My main problem with it was the fact that we didn’t get an explanation of the methods of the camp or any academic discussion of the benefits for the kids who attend. I liked the team-bonding-ness of the maze activity though, and the gopher game was fun too. On the bus to our hostel, Julie and Tilde played Little Miss Sunshine for us, which was fun because it was so familiar (and also just an excellent movie). When we arrived it was already dark at the hostel so we all went off to check out our rooms and set up our beds. This time we had rooms of six, so our group of four from the day before was joined by Randy and April. We were in a cabin with two bedrooms, a loft with two more beds, a kitchenette, and a bathroom. It was nice and spacious, and cozy in a different way than the previous hostel. Ansley and I took the loft, which was super adorable, though the ladder up to it was awkward and bringing our stuff up and down was a definite struggle bus. The kitchenette was also super cute, and it was stocked with plates, pots, and even a hot water heater, so we were disappointed that we had no food to make. Instead, dinner consisted of chicken sandwiches and soda at the hostel dining room, which was also pretty tasty, if not as exciting as our other meals. After dinner we hung out in the lounge with some other people for a while. There were two other DIS classes there that night (one Psychology and one European Politics and Society) so a group of people went “out,” but it was such a small town that we didn’t want to participate in a DIS invasion. Jenna I played a game of Go Fish with the other people in the lounge and someone even found a guestbook from the 60′s. It was pretty cool to hear about other people travelling through the same hostel fifty (wow that’s weird to say) years ago, enjoying their own European discoveries. After one round of Go Fish, I was pretty tired, so I headed off to the cabin to join Ansley and Allie who were already there. We had a nice little chat up in the loft before we all went off to sleep.

Saturday:

Saturday morning, I was a little sad that our trip was ending, but also pretty tired and ready to be home. It was weird to be going “home” but not HOME, and it didn’t help that everyone was moving in at Carleton that day. Breakfast at the hostel was perhaps even more yummy than the last one. They not only had all the same bread/jam/cheese, but also chocolate slices to put on your bread with butter. Allie had been telling me about them because her host family has them a lot, so I was quite excited to try. Sure enough, it was just as delicious as it sounds. I also had a bowl of raw oats (what Danes have instead of cereal) with yogurt for good measure. I was absolutely stuffed and could not have eaten another bite, which is saying a lot for me.

That morning our final stop was in Jelling to see the Jelling stones, some runestones carved in the late 900′s (the Viking era) by Harold Bluetooth (namesake of Bluetooth technology) and his father Gorm the Old. We first got a guided “tour” of the museum (there was only about one room) and our guide got pretty into it and acted out some pieces, so it was more entertaining than ancient history usually is for me. We also learned about the horrible things the Vikings did to their slaves, like cutting off the tip of their nose and purposefully infecting the wound with gangrene to mark slaves as different from regular people. Pretty gross and awful. Then we had a few minutes to check out the real Jelling stones outside, and climb one of the “mounds” built to mark/frame the spot. We had to hurry off to lunch because we were already running pretty late, and Julie and Tilde told us we’d only have about half an hour to get our food and eat once we reached the restaurant.

Our final lunch was a traditional danish buffet, with bread, meats, salmon, shrimp, hard-boiled eggs, sausage, cheese, and a few veggies stuck in here and there. I grabbed almost everything even though I’d had a huge breakfast. Something about being on “vacation” during this trip made me feel like I could eat anything and everything. Again I stuffed myself to bursting, but it was delicious and I regretted nothing. Back on the bus for our final 3 hour leg, Julie and Tilde played a Danish movie they’d warned us about the first day. I didn’t watch it because I was too busy doing Sudoku, reading Harry Potter, and sleeping, but I heard that basically everything bad that could happen did happen in that movie. When we were approaching Copenhagen, Julie and Tilde surprised us by bringing out cupcakes they’d gotten for Dylan’s birthday, which had been the day before. It was a nice way to round out the trip while we filled out our study tour evaluations and prepared ourselves for arrival back in Copenhagen.

In the final goodbyes and walking to the train station, vague plans were made for Tivoli, dinners, and fun things ahead. Søren was nice enough to pick me up from the train station because the bus wasn’t coming for another hour. Lots more has happened since I arrived home, but that is a topic for another post. This study tour was more fun than I ever thought it would be, and I learned and experienced more than I expected to. I am now eagerly awaiting our week-long tour to MILAN of all places, which will no doubt be even more exciting and exhausting. The rest of the weekend has been quite excellent, and a post about that is coming soon.

Final note: I was chosen to be a DIS blogger! That means that MY BLOG will be posted on the DIS website with my photo and everything. I submitted my blog on a whim, never expecting to actually make it. Now I will have to step up my writing game, and continue to be diligent about updates. And I’ll actually have readers! (Not that I don’t count you, lovely family of mine and Allie. ) Thursday all the bloggers will meet and get our pictures taken, and get advice about blog stuff. I’m excited!