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!!