My School, it really does exist!

Here it is, the infamous DIS...this is the main building of my school, with only one other large building across the street. It lies on one of the original streets of Copenhagen called Vestergade and the school has been hosting study abroad students since 1959.


We even have gates to let us into the building...and when the school's not open we have to scan our IDs and enter a code and the door automatically opens for us...pretty high tech!


The door to the right and the far-off set of double doors are the entrances to the other building. This alley leads right through to a sort of short cut I found, which is great for those days I catch the "just make it in time" trains to school. :)


There's 4 floors in each building and no elevators! haha, the buildings have been there a long, long time and you can tell they were converted into the school because you have to go up stairs and cut over through some offices to go down other stairs to get to certain departments. Roughly 500 students go here from North America, Russia, and China. So, coming from the big U of M, it's funny to see the same people all the time! I was talking with someone the other day who goes to a college of 1500 students in Iowa who thought this program had way too many students, which is quite the opposite of what I was thinking. I like running into the same people though for the most part and will now have both the extremely large and the extremely small school experiences under my belt.

Classes I'm taking:

• Danish language and culture
• Producing Content for Mass Media (we make videos and write aritcles)
• Pop Culture (we've talked about music, sports, advertising, and graffiti so far)
• Copenhagen: History and Contemporary Urban Issues (we've taken ourselves on tours of Copenhagen and learned about the growth of the city from the Medieval times and on)
• Ancient Art and Archeology (it's interesting things we look at but oh, so boring!)

Well, that's about it...so now you have it...proof there is some truth to the "study" part of this semester!

Mahem in Copenhagen (Part II)

The protests were about the student house that used to exist in the Norrebro neighborhood in Copenhagen. This is what Wikipedia has to say about it:

Ungdomshuset (literally "the Youth House") was the popular name of the building formally named Folkets Hus ("House of the People") located on Jagtvej 69 in Norrebro, Copenhagen, which functioned as an underground scene venue for music and rendezvous point for varying anarchist and leftist groups from 1982 until 2007 when — after prolonged conflict — it was torn down.

Tearing it down caused huge uproars and mass riots in the streets, which are still continued on a much smaller scale as the students still protest. I think the biggest frustration people had with the city tearing it down was how quickly it happened. Danes usually are laid-back about things and the hostility in which the city tore the 2 1/2 decade-old building down stunned them. March 1st marks the one-year anniversary in which police evacuated the building, so it'll be interesting to see what happens that day!

Also, there were riots not this past weekend but the one before in both Copenhagen and my little suburb of Albertslund! They were in response to a recent assassination attempt that took place in Arhus, Denmark (northern part of the country). You may recall a certain published cartoon depicting a bomb growing out of a turban worn by the prophet Mohammed that caused a mass amount of controversy among Muslims in Denmark and anti-Danish protests in Muslim nations. Well, that article was drawn by a Dane and published in a September 2005 issue of a newspaper called Jyllands-Posten. The controversy lies in the Muslim belief that the prophet Mohammed shouldn't be depicted in print verses free speech. On Tuesday, February 12th, 3 men were apprehended in Arhus who were suspected to have a plan of murdering Kurt Westergaard, the Danish cartoonist. In response to the assassination attempt a large majority of newspapers in Denmark published the cartoon (along with other controversial ones) in thier February 13th issue, showing how they're sticking to their initial decisions to publish the cartoon. This then, sparked another bout of anti-Danish protests all over the country. I wasn't here at the time (we were on our Odense trip), but it would have been interesting to see what was happening in the city. So, big weekend.

I'm not sure of my take on it, a comment from an editor of one of the newspapers stated, "In a free society, we can discuss how public discussions should be conducted, but not if they should be conducted," which fits Denmark's demeanor. Although their personality is quiet at first, once they start talking they'll share almost anything with you; they just say it how it is. It took me some getting used to at first, as usually people back home monitor what they say a little more. So, yet again another cultural experience.

Myhem in Copenhagen!

There were student protests last night! Right across from the train station by my school there was basically a mini parade going on with a large kidnapper-type van decorated and blasting music with a bunch of students walking around it (roughly 200 students, I'd say) with politi (Danish police) following them. As I walked up, Beastie Boys "Sabotage" was playing and they were shouting something in Danish. There weren't that many people stopping to watch so I figured I'd ask my Danish teacher today. The only odd thing of this is I heard they do it every month....another thing to ask about. Updates coming later today!

More and more culture

Danish lessons for today:

We talked a lot about the hojskolen and how people go there either before or after their undergrad work is done, therefore many times Danish college students are much older than we are in the US. And also, many times students will take a year or two off to travel around the world and experience life elsewhere. Both the hojskolen and traveling are looked highly upon by employers because it means they will be well-rounded employees and have a lot of experience under their belts. We then compared it to the US in that traveling abroad is looked highly upon by employers, but only if it's affiliated with a program. Unless you're applying for a job related to your travels, companies would rather you have experience in their respective industries rather than taking a year or two off to travel on your own. That's the general impression we, as a class agreed on. It's crazy how much you realize about your own culture until your immersed in a place outside the US.

Speaking of immersion, I'm definitely being immersed in this culture. I've forgotten the value of a dollar already; I'm just so used to dividing everything by 5 now. I was talking with my mom the other day about how much groceries are and I really had a hard time relating to US dollars, weird! Also, I've been surrounded by the Danish language for the past month...I don't know if I mentioned this before but all the signs and everything are in Danish, there really isn't a lot translated into English as far as signs and such go. But, it's always exciting when I see a word I know! Slowly but surely, this difficult language is coming to me.

The diet coke is no good here...I've only had maybe three since coming here. It's in a bottle, so that's cool but other than that it doesn't have much going for it. It's pretty flat and difficult to find an ice cold one since the refrigerators are kept at the lowest setting possible (because electricity is so expensive here). Who knows, I may not want another one after living here for another 3 months!

One last thing--gas is incredibly expensive here. The gas stations show around $2 on them, which I interpreted as $2 per gallon, forgetting that Europe is on the metric system. So, that's $2 per liter....and with about 4 liters in a gallon...that adds up to about $8 per gallon. Maybe $3 isn't so bad! That's the reason public transportation and biking are so popular here along with the fact that cars are incredibly to purchase here. I'm pretty sure I mentioned this before but for refreshers, with the taxes imposed on cars here it would cost roughly $50,000 for a car that costs us $15,000 in the states...jeez!

The Traveling Band, my first weekend away

This past weekend the program took us on a tour of the third largest city in Denmark, Odense. On the way there we crossed over the second longest bridge in the world....the whole time the bridge was being built they thought it was going to be the longest but another eastern Asia country (I think it was Japan, but I'll check on that) opened a bridge up a few months before this one that is actually a little bit longer. None the less, it still took us about 15-20 minutes to cross going roughly 55 mph.


First stop, the Hans Christian Andersen museum, admiring the author for not only his writing but his paper cut-outs and sketches. Here are a few of the numerous paper cut-outs displayed.


And the scissors he used to make them all.


His pen....they had everything of his! haha


And again, one of his many sketches they had displayed throughout the museum.


Here's me and my substitute Valentine's Day date (just kidding Jordan!), he did have a rose for me though haha. This town had statues of H.C. everywhere!


This is one of the oldest roads in Denmark, still with the original stone. We had a walking tour of the city after visiting the museum.


As you can see, some of the houses are so old (dating back to the 1600s) they've sunk/moved around.


Here's yet another statue representing one of H.C.'s tales...the one about tin soldiers. The story's based on one of the tin soldiers a boy receives in a pack that only had one leg because there wasn't enough metal to make both. The other soldiers line the street around here, if you look closely you can see a couple in the background.


Here's one of the others up close.


And as a joke, the creator placed a gummy bear (or as they call them, Jelly Bear) in the mold of each...so we had to search until we found the spot in the mold. Can you see it?! :)


This used to be the edge of Odense, and fields stretched out from the other side of this lake and on. H.C.'s mom used to wash clothes here for the wealthy people of the town.


The next day we visited a Hojskolen (pronounced a lot like "high school"). A place where people go post-undergrad to figure out what they really want to do. Basically like an extension of school, people stay here usually from 6 months to a year and the average age is from early 20s to early 30s. I can't stress enough how different the take on education is different here than back in the states, it seems they're really in no rush (I guess that's the general mentality on everything though and it definitely creates a lot less stressful atmosphere but in certain aspects a more boring one too).


Behind they had a great view on a river.


And that's the view from the beach.


The group we mingled with are a group of people wanting to become actors and actresses. They have singing, dance, and drama lessons everyday and performed a clip from the show they were producing that evening.


And on Saturday we visited an open prison. This policy allows inmates the ability to roam around the prison freely; there aren't barbed wire fences lining the place and really nothing stopping them from escaping. They are charged with heavy fines and may end up going to a closed prison if they are caught trying to escape. They work the gardens and maintenance around the prison and are actually paid and taken to the grocery store because they are expected to cook for themselves and pay for their own things. The guard leading us around said that they have criminals ranging from sexual offenders to murderers in there, but there's never been a problem with insecurities within the surrounding town. It seems as though the whole idea of an open prison is based highly on trust.


This is the main building we were in and houses a museum of all the things they've found in the cells created by the prisoners. We weren't able to see the actual cells unfortunately.


And our final stop was to the Johannes Larsen Museum in Kerteminde, Denmark, an old fishing town that was cozied up along the edge of the water.


Here's one of the old windmills that stood right outside the museum we went into. Johannes Larsen was a man who owned a good chunk of land in this town and basically spent his whole life painting and doing wood carvings (that he would make ink prints out of). The area was kept amazingly in tack thanks to his daughter-in-law and has served as a museum for many years. He went against the grain and liked to paint things that were realistic and part of nature, so many of his paintings were of people, animals, and lots of water...he liked painting the river and it showed in his numerous paintings of some sort of body of water.


We got to climb up in the windmill...


And as an old Danish tradition, we took a shot of Old Danish Bitter at the end of our trip...so disgusting! Haha, it was an incredibly potent shot of alcohol! These are a couple people I met, Melanie and John, who I'm excited are going to Budapest and Vienna with me!

Metro Handoff

Here's the first project my group did in my Producing Content for Mass Media class...a simple story in pictures where two people come together, exchange something, and then part again. It's like I'm pinning this up on my cyber-fridge, we got good comments on it too! It goes pretty quicky...don't blink or you may miss it!

...and a little more on Danish culture

Here's the update on what we've been discussing in my class...

Janteloven...Axel Sandemose, a Danish native, published this in his 1933 novel, "A Refugee Crosses His Track" (there's no underline on here....I haven't forgotten my MLA citations to always underline book titles). It represents the Danish mindset but also causes controversy as many don't support what it says. The "10 commandments" of Janteloven are:

• You shall not think that you are special
• You shall not think that you are of the same standing as us
• You shall not think that you are wiser than us
• Don't fancy yourself as being better than us
• You shall not think that you know more than us
• You shall not think that you are more important than us
• You shall not think that anyone cares about you
• You shall not think that you are good at anything
• You shall not laugh at us
• You shall not think that you can teach us anything

This is a bit extreme, but as you already know by reading past posts, the Danes are very modest people. They see everyone as being on the same page and are happy with what they have and regard equality as a very high priority. Therefore, you don't see Denmark becoming a superpower or putting up a tough argument against other countries. The idea of equality is seen in everything from their taxes to their school systems. Unlike the U.S. and their strive toward education and advancing those who are bored with their level in school (like skipping grades or advanced reading/math/science/you-name-it programs), the Danes keep all students of the same grade in the same classroom no matter what level they're at. Their hope is that the more advanced students take the struggling ones under their wing and help them, teaching patience and equality among students. I like their idea of equality in theory, but I still think that if a student is bored with what their class is learning and wants to advance, they should be able to.

Believe it or not, their idea of 'not reaching for the stars' also relates to the Dane's happiness. The equation for happiness is Reality / Expectations. Danes have low expectations (words straight from my teacher's mouth), therefore bumping their happiness up according to the equation. All in all, the Danes strive for a homogenous community in which they're happy with what they have. That was basically all we talked about in my last Danish class.

New Danish word: Hyggelig (pronounced Who-ga-lee). Adjective of hygge, meaning cozy, warm, hospitable, etc. It is a great compliment to give thanks to a Dane for a Hyggelig evening, stay, or party.

And a few other things I've noticed:

1. The stoplights not only turn yellow before turning red to warn drivers to slow down, but also turn yellow before turning green to let drivers know that it is about to turn green. I'm so glad I don't have a car here! Also, they don't really wait to go in reverse...I don't know if I've mentioned this but I've almost been backed over by a bus and a car because they just throw it in reverse and go. Good thing I have cat-like reflexes :)

2. I've noticed that parents don't get too nervous while out and about with their toddlers...so it's not uncommon to see children farther than an arm's reach away from their parents when walking along the street or like the other day in Roskilde there was a toddler walking along the edge of the bridge where a 10-foot drop into the water was a couple inches to one side of the little girl. Yes, children learn by exploring but there have been too many times that I've had to hide my shocked face when seeing children in a potentially dangerous situation....haha, talk about motherly instincts coming out!

3. And talking about kids....they all have snowsuits here! They're so cute! Even though there is no snow anywhere on the ground they are in full body snowsuits and waddle around everywhere! Haha, I'd like to take a picture but I think it may be a little too creepy.

A little history lesson...

Be prepared for a whole lot of pictures from all around Copenhagen. We had to give ourselves a walking tour of Copenhagen for one of my classes, so after a 4-hour walk around I was that much the more knowledgeable…now it’s your turn!

First, we have the Library Garden. I'm not quite sure what this surrounding building is but I liked the look of it.


These trees surrounded the center fountain of the garden.


And there it is, the central fountain....I'll have to go back when it gets warmer to see water actually flow through it.


...Complete with ducks and a duck house :)


Here's the Royal Library, more commonly known as 'The Black Diamond.' It's one of their famously designed buildings the Danes can boast about, if boasting was part of their demeanor.


The building on the left in this one is the Naval Church and I can't tell you what the other ones are, but I absolutely love this picture! The sun was just starting to set as we hit this point of the tour.


Alright, here's where the history lesson starts....no more of the "I don't remember, but it looks really cool" type buildings! This is the tower on top of the Bourse building. It was Copenhagen's first mall and was at one time their stock exchange. Today, it hosts office space for many different companies. The base has four dragon heads with their tails spiraling toward the top.

This is the Amager Market Place, and hundreds of years ago used to be the water front to Copenhagen. There is a nearby island called Amager and this is the place where they would come and sell their goods every week. The people of Copenhagen used to (and we're talking a couple centuries ago) purposely put landfill in the waterfront to strengthen it enough to eventually put buildings on it. Now, the waterline is roughly 1/2 to 3/4 miles to the west of this picture.



Built in the late 1600s this building now houses the Royal Copenhagen museum and store (where Hilary and I were able to paint those plates). It was restored roughly a century and a half ago but is one of the few remaining buildings from Kind Christian IV's reign.


These are the firehouses, and I'd bet you'd never guess why...they've never stored firetrucks or any of the sort here; they're called firehouses because they survived the second great fire that struck Copenhagen in the late 1700s. Their gabled roofs set them apart from the other storefronts in this area (called Greyfriar's Square).


Here we have the Israel Plads....which I consider Copenhagen's mini-Central Park. The small lake/pond zig-zags a little bit and was part of the canals that originally surrounded Copenhagen. There were benches and walking paths around here...


...and more ducks!


This is Copenhagen's Town Hall. I am 98% sure it's town hall number 5, and is by far the biggest. With the city expanding, they needed to keep switching buildings.


Here's the present day Court House...located right around the corner from my school (I'll get pictures of that up soon!). The statement at the top translates to "With law, man will build the land," and is from the mouth of Denmark's own Hans Christian Andersen (Can you tell their pretty proud of him).


Here's the Old Market Square with the New Market Square in the distance....where the court house (building with green roof) lies in the distance. Only a street, Stroget, separates the two. My school is about a half block to the right of this picture.


And, here is the inside of the Church of Our Lady where the crowned prince and his wife got married only a couple years ago. It's funny, they have a ton of postcards (I'm pretty sure I counted 6 at the post office alone) with the Royal family's pictures on them. I think we'd be pretty hard up to find a postcard of the Bush family in the states!


Check out that organ!!


Well, that's it for today kids...not too shabby--that was all from memory!

Money, Money, Money

This is what I have to work with...it's hard taking this money seriously...along with their $1, $2, and $4 coins! The dollar is equivalent to 5 Danish kroner...so everything has to be divided by 5 when purchasing anything. So, these are basically a $10, $20, and $40 bill. And they have animals on the back of them like a chicken, lion-like animal, and a dragon getting slayed!


Also, I just want to say thank you for all the comments! I love reading what you all have to say and that you're enjoying reading this!

There's more than just the MN Vikings?!

Yesterday, Hilary, Chris, Colleen and I went to Roskilde (the former captial of Denmark) and visited the Vikings museum. It took us about an hour to get there as we traveled through the countryside by bus. It was really nice, living within Copenhagen we don't see much land...but it's true Denmark does have rolling hills too! Here's a couple remakes of Viking warrior ships we saw outside the museum.


And, look...Denmark has lakes too! Well, technically its a fjord but close enough...reminded me of home!


Roskilde had three channels that ran by it where Vikings used to block it off from attackers by setting up blockades of ships....these ships were found sunk in the fjord somewhere in the water beyond these windows. That's the actual wood they found under the water...we watched a video on a special process where specialists created a hole in the water basically (they blocked it off and pumped all the water out) and they had to dunk the wood in something so it wouldn't fall apart after being under water for so long. I'll have to check on the dates again, but I'm pretty sure these were sunk in the 1100s and weren't excavated until the late 1950s.



After watching a video and checking out the rest of the museum we came to the part that was, in my opinion, the best part--the interactive room! Check out my chainmail...no swords getting through that!


Ahoy mate! I don't think the Vikings really said that, but that didn't stop me! The chainmail was really heavy and I could feel my shoulders sinking more and more the longer I wore it!


Then, there was the dress up corner...and Chris found this great helmet!


The Vikings did the Can-Can, right?!


After the museum, we walked around and quite a ways uphill (quite the hike, I must say) to get to their Cathedral. There are old tombs in here that we really wanted to see but we got there 5 minutes after they closed, so the outside had to do....which was quite impressive in itself!


There was a cute, little town on the coast behind us...it was really a nice city and a fun afternoon excusion!


Afterward, we went to one of Chris' friends house for dinner and brownie cake...burgers and potatoes and cheetos, mmm mmm!