Another normal(?) week in CPH

Now that I've been here for over a month (whaaat?), I've developed certain routines. I think there's a certain point when you cross over from disbelief that you're in Europe to a feeling of normality. Even though sometimes I stand back and think "Wow, I'm in Copenhagen?!", most of the time it feels pretty normal to wake up and go about my daily activities for the day. It has definitely made the world seem smaller because I've realized that, besides older buildings and a different language, Copenhagen really isn't that different than anywhere else. People go about their daily lives--they work, eat, sleep, raise their children, and deal with relationships. It makes Europe seem less magical--but in a good way. Just more real.

This week has been relatively eventful (as most weeks seem to be). On Wednesday I visited the Danish Resistance museum with my Holocaust class, and then later that evening watched the film Le Rafle. It is a recent French film about the large round-up of Jews in Paris in 1942. I thought it was very well done--sad, but eye-opening. Films like this tend to make me cry and this one was no exception. Next weekend I'll be traveling to Hamburg to visit Neuengamme, so that'll be interesting. It's weird studying the Holocaust, because it was so awful and hard to even imagine, but at the same time weirdly fascinating. Even though it's hard to learn about what happened, I think it's really important to understand what occurred and to not brush over it like many have done in the past, so that similar atrocities are never committed again. I almost feel like we owe it to the victims to hear their stories and to not forget what happened. On that note, there was recently an interesting article (linked) about Auschwitz in the New York Times that touches on the subject of how the Holocaust is memorialized and how that is changing.

(After we visited the Danish Resistance museum, we got hot chocolate and dessert at a cafe. I love when DIS pays for things! Yes, be jealous.)

Since all Danish children had a winter holiday this past week, on Thursday (after my morning class) my host family took me to Louisiana, the modern art museum. (I just looked up why it's called Louisiana, and apparently it's because the original owner had three wives, all named Louise. Not because the Danish like the Louisiana in the U.S.) They just opened an exhibit on Picasso so I got to spend the afternoon looking at some of his art, as well other great pieces. Sometimes I think modern art can be a bit weird, but I actually really enjoyed this one! It was very well done, and it's on a beautiful location on the water. (I can tell the outside grounds are amazing when it gets warm.) When we looked over the water, the foam and snow on the edge merged together and looked very cool--a picture doesn't do justice, as usual!

Yesterday (Saturday), Jon--a friend from high school--came to visit Copenhagen, so Rachel and I showed him around the city. I think we walked about 50 miles in -5° C (maybe a bit of an exaggeration...), but he got an extensive tour! We even made it to the Little Mermaid statue, which I hadn't even been to before. For some reason it's very famous in Copenhagen, although it's not particularly exciting. Actually, everyone kept downplaying her so much and saying how small she was that she was actually bigger than I imagined! Now I can officially say I've been a true Copenhagen tourist. She looked rather cold, though, so I'm going to visit her again once the weather warms up a bit.

On Saturday night, I went with some friends to see Aziz Ansari do stand-up in Tivoli. (He's the Indian guy on Parks and Recreation! One of my new favorite tv shows!) Even though Tivoli, an amusement park in the center of the city, doesn't open until April, we got to walk through at night and see all the lights. So cool! I also got a great ab-workout because I was laughing so hard. Soooo funny. I can't WAIT until Tivoli actually opens!

I am now going to rest my tired, sore body and think of further ways to procrastinate from my homework.

Skøjte

I just had a lovely afternoon going ice skating with my host family! It was a beautiful day so I was glad to get outside and soak up the sunshine, even if it was only 2° C. (Yes I use celsius now. Deal with it.) My pride was slightly dented because I kept saying how I could ice skate well and how I've done it my whole life, and then when we got there, the rentals were all hockey skates. I've only skated with figure skates before! Although I never actually fell, I was definitely didn't look like an expert out there...but I was proud to learn a new skill without making a complete fool out of myself.

There were so many children falling everywhere and it was very adorable. They also had these little penguin things that children could hold onto while skating so they wouldn't fall down:

My host sister Carolina and I:

I also enjoyed hot chocolate and fresh chocolate chip scones after my feet hurt too much. Then we walked around the Frederiksberg Gardens. All in all, a lovely Saturday in February!

Open Prisons, Danish Reggae, and the Beatles: Western Denmark tour

[WARNING: Long blog post. Read at your own risk.]

Today is Wednesday, which means no class (best idea ever), so I can finally sit down and write about my short study tour last week! This could take awhile, so I will settle down with my favorite snack, tea and fresh bread with Nutella. (This is my favorite time of day because the sun is shining directly on me through my window and making me feel hopeful about spring.)

The Folkehøjskole: Thursday

Conveniently, there was a bus strike on Thursday morning (sarcasm), so I had to walk an extra 15 minutes to the Metro lugging my heavy bag. I was still on time, though, so all was well. We drove 3 and a half hours (across 2 bridges) until we got to Ry, a small town outside of Arhus on the mainland of Jutland. We were greeted by a delicious buffet lunch being served (can I just say that we ate like royalty this week? SUCH good food). Let me explain what a højskole is: basically, a glorified summer camp with amazing food (and alcohol). After finishing regular school, students can go to a højskole for about 6 months--it's much more normal to take a few years off before continuing to university (which I think is a wonderful idea). So, students are usually from 18-24 years old. There is a focus on figuring out who you are and less of a focus on grades and strict classes. You can choose to do art, ceramics, theater, music, journalism, or nature, just to name a few. Although you do have to pay to go, everyone is accepted and there is no worries about "getting in." They want it to be "education for life" and let students develop and love for learning on their own, without being forced into it. As a teacher-to-be, I think this is a wonderful philosophy and I wish the U.S. had an equivalent! There are about 80 højskoles all over Denmark, and there are only about 70 students there at a time. That way, you get to know everybody and form close relationships. In the afternoon, there were different activities to chose from (including juggling and African drums), so I chose to go on a walk with other Danish students to get to know them. We walked about 7 km through the countryside, and it was so beautiful! (And a little muddy...)

It was really cool to talk to students my age, and one girl I talked to had the exact same birthday as me, year and all! We even think we were born around the same time, because I was born in the afternoon in the U.S. and she was born in the evening. Weird coincidence!

After dinner, we could choose another activity to do (including guitar, hip hop, or Danish sign language), so I chose drawing. It was very "hygge" (cozy), listening to music by candlelight and drawing. I'm not the best artist but I drew a person that I was reasonably proud of! They even have a bar at the højskole, which they opened for us that night, so we all had a great time getting to know the Danes and I even went to bed at a reasonable hour (11)!

Open Prison, Art, and Danish Reggae: Friday

In the morning after breakfast, we attended the morning assembly, which they kindly did in English for us. Guess what song we sang? Let it Be. I was very happy and definitely didn't need the book with the lyrics! Then we drove to an open prison to get a tour. What is an open prison, you might ask? As you might gather, it's open so there are no fences or barbed wire surrounding it. It's where white-collar criminals are mostly sent, although there are also criminals from the closed prisons that sometimes get transfered there. They want to get the inmates ready to go back into society when they are released, so they focus on rehabilitation, not punishment. They have a single room, some prisoners can have TV and internet, they make their own food (there are even knives in the kitchen), they have tennis courts, a gym, mini golf, and even a chapel. They often get menial jobs on the property to get them used to going to work every day (which some of them have never done before), and they can get an education. There is a lot of trust built into the system, and if they are well behaved they can visit their families for a weekend every 3 weeks.

You're probably wondering why don't people try to get into prison on purpose then? Because of the Danish welfare system, you're practically guaranteed food and shelter, and you have to WANT to be homeless to not get these benefits. Therefore, no one needs to go to prison to get these necessities. This type of system would not work in the U.S., unfortunately, because Danish culture is so trusting that they're able to have prisons like this. In the U.S., the system would be taken advantage of because people would just try to escape. And the Danes must be doing something right, because the return rate to prison is only about 30%, the lowest in the world! It's still not perfect, but it's still doing a lot better than the American prison system. It's still prison though--you don't have any real freedom, and you're stuck in the same place for however many years. But even though they're punished, the inmates still have a chance to integrate back into society without ruining their entire lives. It was extremely interesting to see this in person!

In the afternoon (after an amazing traditional Danish lunch at an old inn), we went to an art museum that was in the middle of nowhere. This is because since the late 1800s, the Danes began educating the peasants and farmers and bringing them culture from the cities. This is one of the reasons why there was never a big revolution in Denmark like there was in other European countries. The museum was very interesting, and had some beautiful sculptures.

However, it was cold and rainy outside so we couldn't see a lot of them without getting wet and miserable. Oh well.

We drove to Kolding ("Kulling") next, where we were staying in a very nice hostel. Even though it was extremely cold and windy and rainy, we went out into the town to get dinner and, of course, got lost. We were very cold and wet. We ended up eating at a pizza place that put kebabs on the pizza. Interesting but delicious! That night there was a Danish reggae concert (random, I know), so we got tickets to go since there was nothing else to do. However, we got cold and lost yet again. (Seriously, it was SO WINDY. Are there hurricanes in Denmark??) The band were called Von Dü (I think they have a myspace page if you want to look them up, haha) and they were actually pretty good! Not that we could understand anything, since it was all in Danish... still, an experience!

One of my friends took a video:

Old Runes and the Beatles: Saturday

On Saturday morning, we went to Jelling ("Yelling"), which is basically the birthplace of Denmark. (also, it's a UNESCO World Heritage site which means I've been to all 3 in Denmark now!) They have an extremely old stone with runes that mention "Denmark" for the first time in recorded history. (from the 10th century!) There are also two mounds, one of which is where the first known king of Denmark (Gorm) was originally buried. It was very interesting to me (as a history major), but also very wet and cold so I was glad to get back on the bus!

After another amazing brunch, we went to Koldinghus, the castle in Kolding. It was really cool because it had burned down in 1808 and stood as a ruin until 1980, when they decided to restore it. Instead of trying to recreate what one of the old models looked like, they left the old stuff and integrated it into a new structure. It was very tastefully done and was a very beautiful melding of old and new. It now houses a museum with a variety of exhibits. While we were there, they had a Beatles exhibit, which was one of the highlights for me! They even had the original instruments the Beatles used when they were on the Ed Sullivan show. SO COOL.

In the picture you can see the exhibit and also how there is both old and new parts of the castle combined. Fascinating! We drove back to Copenhagen after Koldinghus, and I definitely listened to the Beatles on my iPod... :)

All in all, this trip gave me a much better understanding of what the Danish culture is like, and made me love Denmark even more! I loved riding on the bus and looking at all the scenery go by. It might be small, but it's a beautiful country!

Skål!

Raindrops on roses

I just got back from my short study tour on Saturday night, so I'll write a longer blog about that soon, but I just wanted to share the lovely Sunday afternoon that I had today!

In the morning, I tried out an English-speaking service for the International Church of Copenhagen--they met in a very nice church called St. Andreas Kirke, which was conveniently close to Nørreport, and I met many lovely people and shared some tea and coffee afterwards. Then I decided to explore on my own, since I need to go to some places and take notes/pictures for my Copenhagen history class. I went in search of Rosenborg Slot, which looked relatively close on the map. Instead, I wandered into the botanical gardens, which were right next to the church. They looked particularly brown and dreary, but I was trying my best to imagine how beautiful they must look in May. This just depressed me that it was only February.

After exploring for a bit (and feeling slightly puzzled as to where this large castle was supposed to be), I wondered what was in the glass houses. In my confused mind, I assumed that since it was winter they weren't open. But I saw a door open, so I decided to check it out. Best decision of my life! I walked into GREEN.

It suddenly dawned on me why they were called botanical gardens. As I walked further in, each greenhouse got significantly warmer and more tropical. The tallest one was very humid and warm and smelled like the rainforest and had very tall trees. I couldn't stop grinning (or taking pictures) because I was so happy to see green plants. In the tallest greenhouse, there was a spiral staircase you could climb to look down at all the trees.

I fell in love with this place and have decided that I will visit every Sunday to get my chlorophyll fix of the week! Here are some pictures that I couldn't resist taking:

This is what I love about Copenhagen. You can be in an old medieval city and then suddenly be in a rainforest. There are always new places to discover and it never gets boring! (Oh, and I did eventually find Rosenborg. It was a couple blocks down.)

Starting to feel like home

Happy Februar!

You're probably wondering how my life in Copenhagen is now that I've been here a few weeks (or maybe I'm just being self-assuming). In a one word answer: great!

...oh, you want more detail?

I didn't realize how hard it would be to describe my life in my blog posts when I agreed to do this. Trying to explain my life in writing really doesn't do anything justice. Now that I've officially been here two weeks, I can say that I'm starting to feel much more at home. I can manage the public transportation system pretty well now (although we won't mention that I missed my bus stop today because I was too busy talking...) and I feel like I'm starting to blend into the city now instead of being an oblivious newcomer.

The day to day routine isn't too exciting, but I will say it once so I don't have to again... wake up (far too early), make my lunch and grab something quick for breakfast, walk to the bus stop and hope I haven't missed the most recent bus, wait in the frigid cold, take the 10-15 min bus ride into the city, walk to the DIS buildings, go to class, maybe do some homework in a study room, buy a pastry at a nearby bakery and have 2 minutes of bliss, take the bus back home in the afternoon, procrastinate on the computer (some things never change), attempt to do homework, have dinner with my family, more homework, go to bed far too late.

Boring, eh? Well, not really. Since I've been here I have:

- seen Kronborg Castle and the town of Helsingor

- wandered around the biggest H&M in Europe

- been to a discotheque

- watched handball (Denmark made it to the world final and lost against France. Booo.)

- made new Danish friends

- experienced Danish nightlife and almost froze to death at 2 in the morning

- eaten weinerbrod almost every day (Danish pastries = AMAZING)

- visited Roskilde Cathedral

- gone to a Viking museum and seen 900 year-old ships

- seen the changing of the guard at the royal palace

Sunset over Roskilde

And much will be added to that list after this week! On Thursday morning I'm leaving to go on my short study tour to Western Denmark, where we'll be visiting a folkehojskole, a castle, and an open prison, among other things. I'm sure I will have much to update next week.

Until then, venlig hilsen!