A Three Hour Tour

The title is fitting because I think that's how long it takes to travel across the entire country (maybe a little longer). We got back last weekend from our short study tours, and I had such a great time. We traveled to Odense (birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen) and Aarhus (second largest city in Denmark). My core course is Migration and Identity Conflict, so we visited a multicultural center, a school with a majority minority student body (that makes sense), and a center called Youth 4 Youth. Immigration and integration are two major topics in my class, and it was interesting to see things on the other side of Denmark. We also ventured across one of the world's longest bridges (11 miles!) on our journey. Pretty cool! Experiential learning (cliche I know) is a huge part of my study abroad program, and I think it's such a great thing! Yesterday, I went on two very different field studies for two of my classes. I started the morning at the headquarters for the Social Democrats (currently heading the government). This visit was also extremely convenient for my group project. We were assigned to the eight different political parties, and my group had the Social Democrats. Huzzah! In the afternoon, I headed to Christiania with my Danish language and culture class. Definitely look up some info about this place! It was founded in 1971, and a group of people essentially took over abandoned military barracks and buildings and started a community. It has grown, and the people have claimed squatter's rights. It is definitely an open and alternative community, and it has distinct supporters and opponents. One of the defining and most noticeable features is the infamous Pusher Street and the open drug (marijuana) sale. One of our tour guides explained that Christiana became a place to sell marijuana as a way to halt the sale of harder drugs. Even though it is illegal in Denmark, these stands are in public view. However, no pictures are allowed on this street, and there are several signals for any police sightings. I can definitely say I have never been on a field trip to a place like this before! Many of us are attempting to plan our two week travel break in April, and I'm hoping to go to Austria, Italy, France, Spain, England, and Scotland. We shall see! Sorry for the lack of pictures, but I am lazy...also, I highly doubt I will ever shake this cold so long as the morning bike rides continue. Today's ride consisted of cold, rainy, miserable conditions. Jealous? Additionally, I need to try not to teeter on my back when cars go past (and aim for the curb rather than the road.) I have this tendency to veer towards the cars as opposed to away from them, and it is not the safest option. Whoops. Photos and more interesting things to come!

Freezing in Malmo...and everywhere else.

This past week has been very busy...Sweden, host family meetup, and a frigid walking tour through Copenhagen on Sunday. We don't have class on Wednesdays (although we have field studies fairly regularly), so I went with the two other girls from Wheaton to Malmo, Sweden. The train ride was beautiful, and we were able to see St. Peter's Church, Malmohous Castle, and the old square in Malmo. Malmo is definitely a place for a day trip, but it is fairly compact, and the sights are close together. The church is the oldest building in Malmo, and it is beautiful! The castle on the other hand was a little bizarre...I put a few pictures on Facebook to convey the level of strangeness for this former prizon/castle and current museum. The exhibits range from 1920's textiles and fashion to a mirrored room with twinkling lights...normal. In between those rooms, there's a turret with two cannons in the bottom, a nokia phone in a display case, and a wall of prisoner photos. It might have helped if we had picked up the audio guides, but I doubt they really would have helped us! It's nice to know that Sweden is so close (although I'm not sure the Danes are so thrilled about that.) They have a wee bit of history. We were able to meet up with other students living with host families in our area on Saturday and toured the town/city of Roskilde. We walked through the town and down by the water, and it has some great shopping areas. It was freezing (no surprise), but we had a good time! Sunday was another adventure...I signed up to go on a walking tour of Copenhagen (with an emphasis on the life of Hans Christian Andersen/the Golden Age.) Unfortunately, it was snowing, and the wind was so bitter. I don't think my cold will ever go away if this weather keeps up! Ah well. If a cold is the only thing to complain about, I am very lucky!

On a slightly different note, I'm now on my third week in Denmark, and I have made some adjustments and learned a lot about how things work. To begin with, for a country that is so happy, efficient, successful, intelligent, etc, I can't understand why bike helmets aren't required by LAW. Bikers fly through the icy slush on the streets, and they're closer to each other than Tony Stewart's bumper is to every car in his path (a little NASCAR shoutout...) The bike lanes in the city are fairly wide, but they're still stuffed with bikes a la Danish herring in those little cans. Having already wiped out once and tensing up at the sight of every car pulling past me, I would think people would feel slightly safer with a helmet on. Most of the female cyclists also bike with some kind of high heeled shoe or boot on, so I'm sure a helmet would ruin their image or something. Along with the bikes, public transit is incredibly popular here (as it is in most of Europe). I take the train into Copenhagen every day, and we are a 7-10 minute bike ride from the station. The train ride should take about 40 minutes, but the trains have been delayed and problematic during the last week. I have yet to make it to my 8:30 am core class on time because the 7:28 train refuses to run on time. It took over an hour to make it into the city this morning, and not being in control of my commute has been a challenge. If I'm running a few minutes late at school, I may be a couple of minutes late to class, but if I miss the train, I will be very late to school! The commute means that a 10 am class really isn't that late because I need to be at the train station by 9am for the train. The days can sometimes feel very long, especially if I have class during the day and stay in the city for dinner/the evening. The same goes for the commute home. Because we live in a small town, the trains don't run every few minutes. Sometimes, there's an hour between each train, and we always manage to miss the 5:17. However, the train ride can be really relaxing, and it's a good chance to people watch. There are just some conveniences that cars and a small campus provide for, but that isn't the Danish way!!

Handball and Train Hijinx

apologize for the photo layout. I don't seem to be very gifted with that portion of the blag. Or the writing part. Ahh well. The past few days have been very busy, but they've also been a lot of fun. The photos in this post are from city hall square/the greeting of the Danish handball team. The men won the handball world cup against Serbia on Sunday night, and 15-20,000 people welcomed them back to Denmark on Monday afternoon. I was only a few rows away from the front, and it was such a cool experience. People of all ages were there to celebrate in the BITTER cold, and there were Danish flags flying everywhere. In terms of the pictures, the guy holding up the gold plate is the Danish goalie. He is tall and attractive. Shocker for Denmark. Right?! The guy with his arms raised is another favorite. I won't say how many pictures I took of him...I also threw in a crowd shot, but it doesn't depict how many people were there. The birds may seem like a random choice, but they actually stole the show. This woman walked in and out of the city hall building, and as she walked out, the birds decided to dive bomb her multiple times. Hilarious/may have induced more cheering for the team. Today was another cold day, and snow is apparently on the way...hooray. Spent some time at a cafe with friends today, and pastries are the most affordable thing in this city. Mildly problematic. I'm getting better with the trains and haven't truly missed any since the beginning, but the train we chose tonight had a mind of its own. We were only moving for a few minutes before the train lost power and came to a stop. It picked up again and continued, but it didn't make it very far before we had to exit the train and wait for another one. Tragically, our stop isn't exactly a hub, so the two minute wait for another train turned into 30+ minutes outside. I am grateful for the Vikings/their influence in creating gloves. We finally made it home, and our host mom had another delicious meal waiting for us. She really needs to open a restaurant. No new bike accidents to report....yet. Heading to Sweden for the day tomorrow, and I am really excited. Pictures to come, and I hope that you are all doing well!

Touristy

This past week has been full of orientation activities, classes, and a lot of failed attempts at public transportation. For everyone who knows my lack of timeliness, I arrived for the train 10 minutes early this morning. I sat there comfortably and waited for my 7:28 departure. At about 7:27, I noticed that most people were waiting on the other track, but my train said Copenhagen, so I wasn't too worried. I still decided to check and asked someone outside about the time for the trains. It turns out that I was sitting on the 7:55, and the 7:28 was leaving in 10ish seconds. I raced to the other side and got there just as the doors were closing. I yelled to the conductor and even banged my hands on the doors...to no avail. I made a stunning entrance to my first class of the semester, but now I know to stay on track 1!!! I'm also attaching some photos of my touristy day yesterday. We explored Copenhagen and spent a lot of time down by the canal and waterfront. Gorgeous! The Royal Palace is incredible, and the houses along the canal are as cute as all of those postcards claim. It was bitterly cold yesterday, but the lattes at each stop in our Amazing Race made up for loss of feeling in my extremities. We fit in some grocery shopping (unlike restaurant food in Copenhagen, groceries won't cost you too many kroners), stopped by the Trinity Church, and tried liver pate...not sure if I'll ever really crave it. On a random side note, if you ever need corduroy pants, don't come to Copenhagen. I wandered through the largest H&M I have ever seen and had no luck finding any. The word corduroy also doesn't translate to Danish, and it took a lot of gesturing and description to find the five pairs in the store. I guess they aren't as popular here/I am not trendy enough!

Clumsy Clara

As I said before, an accident was bound to happen. I didn't realize it would happen quite this soon...at the end of the day today, we took a bike ride through the neighborhood and out all the way to the lake near their house. I haven't ridden a bike in a long time, but I had the hang of it and everything was going smoothly. Until I hit that sheet of black ice and tried to slow down for the woman walking her dog. I flew off the bike and landed with a perfect ten (as in ten fingers on the ground and my knees buckled beneath me.) My pride/ego feel more bruised than anything else, but I am definitely blaming it on the conditions rather than the driver. I'll keep you all posted about the accidents that are sure to come. I nearly hit a car (that's right, the car didn't almost hit me), but I was able to skim past as I veered off course. In the past few days, I've sprinted to most forms of public transit with my housemates because Danish transit is efficient to say the least. We are getting the hang of it, and I remembered how to get to school from the train station. (A major accomplishment with my sense of direction.) Copenhagen is beautiful, and I plan on taking lots of pictures when I get the chance. My host mother continues to make delicious meals, and she packs our lunches! I hope this isn't too boring!

Here I am!

I'm still awake and will regret it tomorrow morning, but I'm still getting settled in/the excitement hasn't worn off. Today has been a very long day, but it got me safely to Denmark, and I'm lucky to be here. My host family (and their cat) are wonderful, and they've certainly welcomed us. Although the jetlag is a definite downside, I'm excited to be in Borup (a small town about 45 min. outside of Copenhagen). After some effort on Martin's part (our host sister's boyfriend), we managed to fit everyone's luggage into two cars. For once, I didn't have the most stuff. Incredible! We arrived in Borup, were shown our rooms, and had salmon followed by crepes for dessert! The house is beautiful, and we all have our own space. My host sister Sophie introduced us to the bikes we'll be using for part of our commute, and I'll inform you all of the accidents that are sure to happen. We finished the night by watching She's the Man (tasteful, I know.) Sorry this is so jumbled, but I'm a little all over the place at the moment. Pictures to come!

Here we go!

I'm putting together the last of my things at my wonderful friend Leah's house in New Hampshire. Her family was kind enough to host me for a couple of days before my big adventure, and now we're getting ready to leave! The last few weeks have been full of errands and packing, and it seems bizarre that at at 9pm tonight (with no delays!), I'll be heading across the pond. I really don't think I'm interesting enough for a blog, but if you choose to follow it, don't blame me for its content...I have no idea what to expect, but I'm so excited to meet my host family, housemates, and classmates!

DENMARK OR BUST!

Farvel, (the only Danish word I know)

Laurie

Thanks so much to my family and friends for all of their support!