Anyway, the tour is lead by Carsten, one of the Architecture & Design program professors, and he is an expert on Danish history and architecture and lots of other stuff.  He’s full of info, and he’s been one of our tour guides.  We did a short scavenger hunt where we wandered and explored Ribe on our own, and we sketched in the Ribe Cathedral, which is quite a magnificent structure considering the size of the town.

The best part of the trip, though, is when we were all sitting at dinner in the Mongolian Barbeque.  (Yes, we ate at a Chinese place in Denmark.  Apparently it’s pretty popular because it was very crowded tonight!)  At the end of the meal (which was 150 kr for the buffet, AKA almost $30, yikes!), we were waiting for the check.  We patiently hung out for awhile, and eventually our intern on the trip, John, raises his hand to get the waiter’s attention.  He has his hand up for quite awhile, and the waiters just seem to be avoiding us.  They’re not making eye contact, even though they’ve walked by multiple times.  John’s had his hand up for awhile, and just as we’re getting antsy and frustrated, Carsten breaks out with:

You know, this reminds me of a famous battle in Danish history…

Everyone starts cracking up.  Only our professor could get away with saying this and have it be funny, and  completely genuine at the same time.  Carsten goes on to explain that there was a battle back in the 1200’s where someone (I didn’t catch the name) had to hold his hand up to win the battle.  Someone else apparently helped him keep his hand up high so they could win, and they did win.  I tried googling it and found a Biblical reference, but nothing about Danish history, so I don’t know what the exact details are.

I keep getting spam comments on my blog, and it’s really annoying but I haven’t bothered to fix it yet by installing one of those nice spam comment blocker plug-ins.

Oh!  That reminds me.  I had more problems getting my Service Learning class volunteer assignment, and this week I finally found out that I’ll be working with Studenterhuset, apparently helping develop a new or updated website for them.  I’m gonna haveta dust off those web design skills.  I hope I can work with PHP (and preferably Wordpress), because I really don’t want to have to deal with too much newness.  I also imagine a project that involves web design taking a lot more than 4-6 hours a week, but we’ll see!  This would be good experience for me; I was actually hoping to do something with design development – something where I can contribute my own unique skills.  Then again, I’m a little disappointed that I’m not working on an integration project, just because studying immigration in Denmark has opened up a whole new world of interesting topics for me.

In conclusion (AKA tl;dr), Ribe was great, my professor is funny, and I’m conflicted about my volunteer position.  Sarah is conflicted about what she wants; nothing is new. 

• My camera is broken.  :(:(:(  I have no clue how it happened, but I charged the battery one day and it just didn’t turn on.  This is especially problematic because I’m leaving for Istanbul in a week and I absolutely NEED my camera (or a camera) on that trip.  I’ll be taking it to a specialty/repair place tomorrow and will decide then if I should buy a new one or get it fixed.  More updates on this to come.
• I finally met the members of Teufelskerle the other night, and learned about another group in Copenhagen called Ratterne (The Rats).  These are the two local knallertbanderne, or moped gangs, and they share a clubhouse in the Nørrebro area.  I met some of the guys at a bar in downtown Copenhagen called Din Nye Ven (meaning: Your New Friend).  They were super friendly and welcoming, and I’m hoping to stop by the clubhouse before my trip to Istanbul.
• I’ve been working/volunteering as a bartender at a local university bar called Studenterhuset (The Student House), and it is a blast!  I have met some really cool people, both international and Danish, and somehow working is fun.  You’re allowed to drink on the job, so it’s basically being part of the party, but you sell people drinks as you dance to silly music and hang out.  Wednesdays are the “International Cafe Night,” and definitely the best evening to work or visit.  I’ve done 3 nights so far, which allows me to get the extra-cheap “house” discounts on drinks and such.  But I still have to pick up my house card.
• I’ve been procrastinating heavily on my homework, so this week I really need to catch up with reading, research, and writing for my classes.  No big surprise there!  For the first few weeks, I was too overwhelmed with the challenge of meeting people and making friends to do work.  For the last few weeks, I’ve been so relieved to have a social life that I haven’t had time to do work either!  So I really need to get out of this phase and into “I’m a student” mode.

I have big plans for the week, but I’ll try to update this more regularly with events and stories and happenings and let you know how things go.  The highlight for this week, though, is the RUMOUR SAID FIRE concert I’m going to Wednesday at Bremen at 8pm.  This Danish band was introduced to my language class by our teacher, Nina, and I fell in love with their laid-back style.  David, a friend from my Danish class, is going with me to the concert.  Here’s a YouTube video of them playing The Balcony.  (I plan on learning this song on ukulele and doing my own video soon!)

But the other day, I had a breakthrough – I actually understood not just the words, but the meaning, and even some of the humor, in a conversation.  It was a bit of a strange conversation, too.  I was seated in the bicycle car of the S-train, and a woman came in with her bike at one of the downtown stops.  I was prepared for yet another mundane trip, and pulled out my phone to play Snake Xenzia.  (Remember that game?  It’s on the older Nokia phones, and I hadn’t played it in ages!  But my phone here has it and I enjoy challenging myself to be the “Snake Master,” or beat my high score.)  But as the woman sat down, an older man came up next to her and started speaking about the bike to her.  I think he was complimenting her on it, and discussing the type of bike it was.  After that, he asked to sit down next to a man a few seats away from me, and they had the following dialogue…

Older man: “Er du dansk?”  (‘Are you Danish?’)
Younger man: “Nej.”
Older man: “Hvor kommer du fra?….” (‘Where are you from?’ After this, he clearly said something along the lines of ‘wait, don’t tell me, I’ll guess,’ and proceeded.)
“Kroatien?”
“Slovakiet?”
“Montenegro?”
“Tjekkiet?”
(And so on.  It was very amusing and cute the way the older man was guessing, and a bunch of people on the train were giggling at the exchange.)
Younger man: “Jeg kommer fra Jugoslavien.” (I come from Yugoslavia.)
Older man: “Ahhh, Jugoslavien!  Hvad hedder du?” (Ohh, what is your name?)
Younger man: “Samir.”
Older man: “Samir…Sa…S-a-m-i-r?” (An affirming nod.)  “Er du Muslim?”

Okay, now this surprised me.  You meet a guy and guess where he’s from and 3 minutes later ask if he’s Muslim?  My Danish eavesdropping skills kind of ended after the guy said that he was Christian, not Muslim, and they proceeded to have a conversation that involved references to Jesus and Mohammed and the woman with the bike looking very uncomfortable at whatever the old man was saying.

One of my biggest motivations to learn more Danish is having the ability to eavesdrop on many more future conversations.  Maybe someday I’ll even be able to have my own Danish conversations with strange old men on the train!  Oh, the high aspirations I have.

Today was a Monday, and a wearing one at that.  It started off long, and slow, and long…but fortunately ended wonderfully.  Before I go into the details, a few general updates:

• I dropped Biology of Marine Mammals, only to be told that IU requires me to take 5 3-credit courses and it would have to be replaced by another class.  This is annoying, considering I don’t really need the credits and I’m just studying in Denmark for fun, but I complied after some resistance…
• And I’ve added a course called Political Rhetoric, in which we will create a Danish political campaign and write a speech and create campaigning materials to “sell” our ideas.  This should be fun.  I’m actually kind of excited about it.  This will also be my only class with a written final exam – all my other courses just have projects or papers to turn in.
• Our short program study tour for the Migration & Identity program is this Thursday-Saturday.  We’ll be going to Odense and Århus, and visiting different immigration and integration-related locations in both cities.  We also get to see the other two main ‘chunks’ of Denmark, which has three main pieces – Fyn and Sjælland are the islands, and Jylland is the mainland that borders Germany.  Odense is on Fyn, and Århus is in Jylland.  (Århus and Odense are also the second and third largest cities in Denmark, next to København.)
• Criminology is so far my favorite class.  I’ve always had a fascination with crime and law, and how they tie into morality and normality and accepted behavior.  I don’t think I ever realized how fascinated I am with criminology.  Maybe I’ve found my future field of study in this topic?  That’s how excited I am about it.
• I got my Service Learning assignment today!  I was paired with an organization called Sjakket, which runs an after-school program for kids in the Nørrebro (North bridge) area.  I have no idea what I’ll be doing with them, but I just sent off an email to the head of the center this evening, and I hope I hear back soon.  I really can’t wait to get started.

Now for more about my fantastiske Monday.  This evening after class, there were about 5 things I could have done.  (1) A group of people from my Danish class went to see country music at a bar, which I was tempted to attend for the lulz (Danish…country music?) and the company.  (2) The Couchsurfing group in Copenhagen had a pancake night in Christiania, and I’ve been wanting to actually meet some young Danes in Denmark.  (Don’t get me wrong, my host family is awesome, but young, mobile travelers would be nice to get to know as well.)  (3) Studenterhuset (Student House), a student-organized bar and café near DIS, is having a week-long “Insomnia Tour” for students to get to know the local bars, and they had some activity this evening.  (Also would have been a good way to meet young Danes.)  Finally, (4) my host dad had band practice tonight (he plays trumpet!) that I’ve been wanting to attend, and (5) my host sister has a weekly Monday night English class that she invited me to.

In the end, I went with option (5), and I’m happy I did!  Maria’s after-school English teacher was delightful, and we had a nice conversation about the differences between US and Danish education.  She had Maria and I play a homemade version of “Chutes and Ladders” with questions prompting discussion in English.  It was actually really entertaining, and we had lots of laughs over prompts like “Describe what a snowflake looks like.”  Henrietta (Maria’s teacher) invited me to come back and talk to her classes on a day I’m free, and I have to say I’m pretty excited to do it.  I guess they’d probably ask me questions about school and life in the US, and hopefully I’d get to learn a little from them.

One of the biggest differences we discussed was the lack of controversy over sex education in Danish schools, and the more modern attitudes towards sex and marriage.  For example, many families in Copenhagen would allow a 17-year-old, high school aged daughter to have her boyfriend sleep over for the night.  There is almost no expectation for people to marry before having sex (and there hasn’t been for 20 years), and it is common practice to have children before marriage.  Of course, abstinence-only education is unheard of, and condoms are readily available to teens.

It would be my first instinct to point the finger at religion for the differences between Denmark and the US, but if I did that, I would be stumped when the topic changes from sex to drug policy.  In Denmark, there has been a recent trend toward more regressive drug policies, with harsher punishment for possession and dealing and no differentiation between cannabis and hard drugs. In a country where religion plays a minor role, irrationality is certainly prevalent.  There is little discussion of cannabis legalization even in the major left-leaning newspaper (that would be Politiken, from what I’m told), and though there is little evidence that major police action against cannabis dealers and users is successfully curbing sale and use.

I still have much to learn about these issues; these are just my first reactions based on things that I’ve discussed with Danes and things that have been discussed in my classes. One final thought, though.  It makes me feel a little bit warm inside when one of the parties with parliamentary (Folketing) representation in Denmark, the Red-Green Alliance (Enhedslisten), has the following as one of their party’s objectives:

• Unite left-wing cooperation and left-wing representation in the struggle against capitalism.

They might only have 4 seats in the Folketing out of 179, but…a party that talks about the “struggle against capitalism” has more than 0!

Wednesdays are field study days, and thus we have no lectures, just trips with our courses.  Today at 1pm my core course, Migration & Identity, is meeting with people from a magazine called New Times, published to for asylum seekers to educate and inform about refugees and their experiences in Denmark.  After that, we’ll visit Sandholm Asylum Center, where asylum seekers are kept who applications were rejected but cannot return to their home country for fear of persecution or other danger.  I’m sure I’ll have much more to say on the subject once I get back this evening, but here’s a link to an Al Jazeera article from last  year about the plight of asylum seekers in Denmark.

Last night, I went out with a group of friends from my Danish class.  We had a Danish Café Night where our teacher took us out for beer and sandwiches, and we all decided to go to a bar near DIS called Den Glade Gris (The Happy Pig) for 10 DKK shots (10 for 100 DKK).  I had a great time with them!  I think of all my classes, Danish will be the best; we have a really funny group of people all of whom I like a lot.

Today was a gorgeous day with sunshine and beautiful weather.  Chilly, but definitely bearable, and the sunshine and clear skies made up for the cold.  I decided to spend the day wandering around Copenhagen on my own.  Sometimes I really like being by myself – I have the opportunity to observe, think, and reflect more carefully than I would were I with a companion.  Don’t get me wrong – I love exploring with others – it’s just that sometimes I also really like my alone time.

Anyway, today was a happy (Danish!) day overall.  I had no class (my Tuesday classes were either canceled or don’t start for a few weeks), so I had lots of time to lose myself in the city.  Near the end of the day, I walked to the Rundetårn (Round Tower) and walked up to the top to watch the sunrise/see the view.  I came home, and had a delicious meal of mashed potatoes and beef stroganoff with my host family.  We drank tea, watched the handball game, and now I’m in my room staying up too late and contemplating getting an orange from the kitchen to snack on.

I put up my map of Europe and a map of Copenhagen in my room.  I haven’t yet gotten to play my ukulele for my host family; I keep forgetting to pull it out and play Paparazzi for them.  I recently found out that Maria loves Gwen Stefani, which is awesome.  I told her about how I like to make pancake art and we decided we have to make pancakes together soon.  (Maybe we’ll do it this weekend?)

I have not seen a truly fat person since I arrived in Denmark.  I mean, there are chubby people, and probably even overweight people, but I don’t believe I have seen anything close to the size of people I see weekly (if not daily) in the US.  It’s surprising, because the food doesn’t seem to be that much healthier than what I eat at home.  There aren’t too many vegetables, and there is lots of meat and potatoes and carrots.  The differences (between American/Danish nutrition) I’ve noticed that seem significant are:

• In Denmark, people eat three meals a day and do not snack in between.  If they do snack, they have fresh fruit and nothing else.
• In the US, I feel like eating on the go has become normal, but in Denmark, my host family finds the time to sit down and have a meal together every single night.  Mealtimes are a chance to catch up with family, relax, and without any distractions really engage with each other.  If not with family, Danes use meals as a time to catch up with friends.  If a family member comes home late, the rest of the family sits with him to eat.  It’s not really about the food – the meal is an excuse to spend quality time together.
• My host family eats at home all the time.  They make their own breakfast, bring their lunches, and have dinner at home.  Eating out is a big luxury.  I’m not sure how all the restaurants here survive.
• Dessert is a luxury to be enjoyed on holidays.  My family here doesn’t have ice cream or cakes or cookies in the house.  (As far as I’ve seen.)  Families might eat food higher in fat and lower in fiber, but any added calories in the meals are made up for by the fact that dessert likely consists of a piece of fruit or a cup of hot tea.

I love the food my host mom makes.  She is such an awesome cook that I’m a little intimidated to make something of my own.  What if my family doesn’t like it?  I’m still trying to finding something to cook…I’d like to do Thai yellow curry, but I kind of think something Mexican or Mexican-influenced would be more appropriate.  We’ll see!  I’ll definitely update here when I finally prepare dinner on my own.

The food here is so good and I eat so much that I’m a bit worried about gaining the weight that I lost back, so I’ll have to be conscious of that over the next few weeks and months.  I was okay a few days ago, on the weekend, but of course I’d like to continue losing while I’m here, if possible.  On that note, I haven’t yet decided if I’m going to join a gym while I’m here.  DIS has a special deal with a group of gyms called “Fitness World.”

This post is too long already.  Next time I’ll share some fun and short stories about my host family and classes and Denmark in general.

1. Cross-Cultural Encounters A – This is my core course in relation to the “Migration & Identity” track.  We have a short study tour to Århus and Odense (in Denmark), and a long study tour to Istanbul!  We’ll be talking about really important and controversial issues that are at the forefront of Danish politics right now, and hearing from politicians from different spheres of the current debate about immigration, integration, multiculturalism, etc.  This class will be a blast.  I’m also excited to meet people that actually care about politics and current events and are informed, which I know will happen more likely in this class than in, for example, Danish language.
2. Gender & Sexuality in Scandinavia – Woo!  The first country to legalized porn was wonderful liberal Denmark.  I’ve always wanted to take a class on gender and sexuality, but nothing appealed to me in the States at IU, so I’m hoping this class will be enlightening and fun.
3. Danish Language & Culture – I’ve already had two classes with my teacher, Nina, and she’s great!  I really like her teaching style, and she’s been bubbly and warm and casual.  Plus, I love how Danish sounds and I’m really hoping to speak at least a little by the time I leave.

Those are my classes for today (and every Monday/Thursday).  I start at 8.30, and finish at 13.00, so this will be, in some ways, my easiest day yet in Copenhagen.

My Tuesday/Friday classes are (again starting at 8.30)

1. Biology of Marine Mammals – Not sure yet what this one will be like, but I think we take a field trip to the zoo and get to go behind-the-scenes to see dolphins and whales and seals and stuff.
2. Criminology & Criminal Justice – This class will be great!  Denmark has a very different philosophy of imprisonment and criminal justice than the US.  More of a rehabilitation aspect to prison, and they don’t have the prison industrial complex like the US.  I’m sure we’ll be discussing the differences between the US and Denmark a lot, and I also think this will tie into the immigration theme of my core course.  Incarceration is much higher in the Muslim/immigrant population in Denmark, so I’m sure we’ll discuss why that is and analogs with the US (such as the higher rate of incarceration of minorities, namely black/Hispanic, in America).

I have a third and fourth course that only fall on Tuesdays…

1. Russia: Past and Present – This falls directly after my other Tuesday classes, ending at 13.00.  It’s a study tour, so it culminates in a week-long trip to Russia…I think it’s St. Petersburg but they haven’t specifically told us.
2. Service-Learning Seminar - I’m being paired with an organization in Denmark to volunteer 4 hours a week.  This is exciting, and I’m hoping to be paired with an integration and immigration-related program so it will tie back into my program’s theme.  I’m also hoping I’ll get some valuable Danish work experience that will contribute to me getting a job in the non-profit sector, either in the US or abroad.

If this sounds awesome (it does), I haven’t even mentioned my books yet.  Discussions of those are yet to come.

At the same time, though, I’m growing to love København every bit as much as I thought I would.  My host family is wonderful; they have been incredibly welcoming and warm and funny and kind.  DIS is a great program and I have few complaints in that regard.  I am thrilled at the prospect of all my classes.  Basically, I have a lot to look forward to, and though at times I feel lonely, I do know it will only get better.

I’ll keep this quick and post some highlights from the past few days:

• I arrived Søndag.  Got off the plane with a nauseating migraine, took meds, went home with family and fell asleep at 7pm.  Woke up at 6 the next morning feeling great, though, and pretty much over the jetlag.
• Mandag rode the S-tog (train) into København.  (I’m living somewhat outside the city in a small town called Solrød Strand, which has the longest shopping center in Denmark.  I think that’s what my host family said, anyway.)  DIS had a welcome ceremony.  A wind quintet played Mozart and Carl Nielsen.  Got a giant IKEA bag full of books for the semester, a Piccell phone, and transportation pass.  Danish crash course in the afternoon included a trip to the grocery store to find gulerødder (carrots) and kartofeler (potatoes, a Danish staple).  Showed off for my host family at dinner.
• Tirsdag we had an introduction to Danish culture in the morning, which involved lots of stereotypes about how Danes and Americans differ.  Way too many generalizations there.  “Danes drink a lot, Danes are blunt and do things Americans would see as politically incorrect, Danes use sarcasm and irony more than Americans…” etc.  Danes are going to have a wide range of personalities and humor and drinking style just like Americans.
• It’s not as cold as everyone keeps saying it is here!  Even the Danes were complaining about the cold, and I was comfortable all day.
• Tirsdag afternoon brought another Danish crash course class.  We watched two Danish bands, Rumour Said Fire and Alphabeats.  (Lulz @ the tambourine guy in Alphabeats video.)  Apparently singing in Danish is really difficult, so Danes just write songs in English most of the time.  I talked to my host sister about music and she told me Aqua is Danish.  Yep, that’s right, “Barbie Girl” was written by Danes.  HOW COULD YOU NOT LOVE THIS COUNTRY?
• Today, Onsdag, we went on a scavenger hunt in the city and saw lots of places.  I took photos which I will post on Flickr soon.  It was pretty chilly – I really want to see an opera in the Opera House when it’s warm enough to ride the boat buses.  The queen’s birthday is on April 16, and I definitely want to go down and see the celebration at the Royal Palace (Amalienborg).
• After the scavenger hunt, we went back to DIS and had our program orientation.  My program is called Migration & Identity, and my core course is Cross-Cultural Encounters A.
• Went to the Tiger store with a friend from my core class, Samantha.  “Tiger” is kind of like the Danish dollar store, except it’s a joke referring to things that cost 10 kroner, or a 10-er, or, in Danish, “ti-er.”  The Danish word for the animal tiger is pronounced almost the same way, “ti-er,” so that pun is why they call the 10 kroner store “Tiger.”
• On my way home, I wandered into a few other shops.  One employee asked me to take his picture, so I did.
• There are lots of cute Danish boys.
• I’m planning on visiting Teufelskerle (the knallert banden, moped gang) tomorrow night around 7pm.
• I’m about to literally fall asleep typing.  It’s 10:45 and I felt like going to bed at 9pm but I forced myself to finish this blog post!  Tomorrow I’ll add my photos from today.

(The photo here is of the gym at my old high school – Eoban and I visited it a few days ago.  I thought the nostalgia induced was somewhat appropriate for this post.)

So here I go, delving into the sphere of the blog, and I must admit it’s with more than a little trepidation.  How will I choose on what to reflect?  How will I keep my posts short, sweet, to-the-point, and engaging, while not spending hours of time perfecting my writing?  Will anyone read what I have to say?  Right now, I don’t have answers to these questions, so I’m hoping they will come as I continue to write and post and reflect.

If you manage to jaunt over to my new Flickr page (Eoban even convinced me to get a Pro account), you will see that all of my recent photos have been taken with my new Sigma 10-20mm f/4.0-5.6 ultra wide angle lens.  I purchased it off Craigslist from a guy in Carlsbad, and couldn’t be more pleased with it.  It distorts images more than I expected, but I’m glad that it gives me a wider range of options with the kinds of photos I can take – and I think the distortion can even have an artistic quality.  (Like here.)

I am getting really, really, really excited for Denmark.  I’ve been getting emails from the instructors of my classes welcoming us to København, even though I haven’t yet arrived.  My courses, by the way, are as follows:

• Cross-Cultural Encounters (the focus course for my program – Migration & Identity)
• Gender and Sexuality in Scandinavia
• Crime and Criminology
• Biology of Marine Mammals
• Danish Language and Cultural
• Russia Past & Present (this is a one-credit course combined with a week-long study tour in Russia)
• Service-Learning Seminar (a one-credit course that pairs each student with a local service organization)

My classes start at 8:30am daily, which means my mornings will begin before 7.  (I have a 30-60 minute commute each morning.)  This will take some getting used to for me, since I fairly regularly got up after noon last semester at IU.  But ‘m glad for the change in my schedule.  This way, I’ll get my classes over with in the morning and have the whole afternoon each day free.

Tomorrow (or rather, later today!), I must say goodbye to Eoban.

After my classes end, Eoban plans to come out to Europe so that we can trek about the countryside of France, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Italy, and England together.  Well, we’re not sure we’ll make it to all those places, but we’re going to try and see as much as we can in our 1-2 months.

Anyway, the title of the post refers to my joy at being able to spend my last week in the US with Eoban.  We’ve been tourists in San Diego for the past five days, cramming in lots of activities including a day hiking in Anza Borrego State Park with my mom and dad and an afternoon hanging out with Eoban’s friend Trent in Orange County.

Today, the two of us drove up and down the Coast Highway and shopped around for a gift for my Danish host family.  My family seems wonderful, and I can’t wait to meet Bo, Jutta, Tenna, and Maria.  (They have such beautiful names!)  We’ve been exchanging a few emails back and forth, and they live in a town called Solrød Strand, which means “red sun beach.”  They’re just a few blocks from the shore.  Eoban helped me pick out what I think will be a perfect present for my hosts, and I hope they like it.

We might go down to Balboa Park again for free museum Tuesday tomorrow.  We ended up canceling our previously planned trip to Ensenada (in Mexico) because it seemed too stressful with me leaving so soon.  I’m trying to find relaxing and interesting things to do for the rest of Eoban’s trip.  Mostly, I’m cherishing the time I get to spend with him and my family before I leave.