Living Danish

so many bikes!

I've now been in Denmark for over a month- so crazy! Life for me here is definitely a little slower-paced than life at Bucknell (although Danes are definitely in a hurry at times- just look at the bike lanes!); it seems like a different lifetime back when my days and nights were filled past the brim with classes, meetings with professors, various other meetings, giving tours, running club soccer, coaching soccer, intramural games, squeezing in meals, friends, and homework when I had the chance. At Bucknell, I think that sometimes we forget to breathe, and to actually experience life, instead of just making it from one thing to the next.

my train station

Things are different over in Denmark. While I still feel like I'm pretty busy, it's in a different way. I spend about 2 hours commuting into Copenhagen for classes, which is a lot more than the 5-12 minute walk I faced at Bucknell. But, I've grown to love the bus and train ride; it's a great chance to see so many different kinds of people (more about that later), and, it's given me time for one of my passions that is pushed aside while at Bucknell- reading. For fun. My nook has been amazing; it's a device I was whole-heartedly against in the beginning, but it is a traveler's/commuter's best friend.

Aside from the commute, I fill my days with the occasional run with Milo (it's still really cold...), talking and skyping with people from home, trying to figure out what to do with my summer/life (still a work in progress), more reading, watching Danish television and trying to understand the occasional word or two, watching Friends and other American shows, exploring Copenhagen, homework every now and then, and above all, hygge and hanging out with my host family. So, I definitely still feel like my days are full; but it is in a much more fulfilling way. It will be interesting going back into the Bucknell culture in fall. I can't say I'm too excited.

so hyggelich! CDC class,

hot drinks after a cold field study!

There are so many aspects of Danish life that I want to bring home to America. Hygge definitely tops the list; the silly no candle rules at Bucknell will put a slight damper in the plan, but I will work around that. In Denmark, much more so than America, I think people leave work at work, and at home, they are more focused on spending quality time together. This is another concept that I want to bring back home; however, it is very counter-cultural, both at college and in the "real world", so it will be interesting to try to do, if it even is possible at a place like Bucknell. Related to that is the idea of quality time, and the importance of spending time together. It seems like it is the norm, rather than the exception, to have long family dinners together most nights, and dinner parties with friends and family can last for hours without even leaving the table.

Denmark is also very flat, and I don't just mean geographically. The overall structure of society is flat, unlike the hierarchical nature of pretty much everything in American society, from schools and institutions to the corporate world, and everything in between. In Denmark, you call teachers by their first names in school at all levels, and the boss of a company is above the employees in position title only. It's a cool concept, the way they live out democracy and equality, from children to adults, in all areas of life (albeit, there are issues in terms of this equality translating across all races, but that would be another post in itself).

beautiful Nyhavn

I still have almost 3 months left here, but at this point, I don't know if it's a "still" or an "only". Time has been flying by, and if I think about the semester in terms of travels and trips, it seems even shorter. I have just over a week until long study tour to London, and then just a few weeks until travel break, and then just a few weeks until finals- or so it seems, even if the math doesn't add up. It's scary how fast time can fly; I feel like I am just beginning to get a taste of Danish life. But, at the same time, there are people at home that I am really looking forward to seeing again, and I have Nicaragua to look forward to as well. Needless to say, these next three months, I'm sure, will be full of more experience of Danish life and culture, and I am excited to really grow to appreciate this small country for all it is, and to be able to bring it home with me.

Time to study for that Danish test, for a few minutes at least...Hej hej!

Hallo, Deutschland!

After taking German for four years and one semester, I finally traveled to Germany, Frankfurt to be specific, to see my cousins this past weekend! I had a great time seeing the city, which is located right on the Main River (full name: Frankfurt am Main, or Frankfurt on the Main). It was a weekend full of:

1. Family
           I stayed with my cousins (well, if you want to be technical about it, my cousins-once-removed and second cousins, I believe) in Frankfurt. Prior to this weekend, the summer of 2001 was the last time I saw

with Erica in Frankfurt!

them all, and my strongest memories of that visit out by Pittsburgh is soccer by the wave pool and mayonnaise on french fries (Germans eat some strange things). I did see my 24 year old cousin, Simon, and his girlfriend, Erica, this past November out in Pittsburgh, so luckily I had a familiar face to meet me at the airport :) It was really great getting to see Ralph, Conny, Simon, Erica, and Dominic (Patrick, my 25 year old cousin, was in the US- ironic.) and to spend time with them and see where they live, since the only times I've seen them have been in the US. A HUGE thanks to them for hosting me!!!

2. German!
           Okay, so I did not speak in German the whole weekend; it was actually almost the opposite, I am

America in a nutshell-

native American holding a parrot?

not proud to say. I did, however, speak more German than I have in the past 3.5 years, outside of my one semester of German at Bucknell.

Kloster Eberbach

 At least I'm honest! It just so happens that my cousins are virtually fluent in English (Ralph still has his American passport), so it was just easier to communicate in English. I did go on a tour of Kloster Eberbach (a monastery nearish Frankfurt, where part of "Der Name Der Rose" was filmed) that was all in German, and understood a decent amount of what the tour guide was saying- she luckily spoke very clearly and pretty slowly. We later watched the movie, also in German...not sure if it got lost in translation (it was late and understanding German takes a LOT of focus still) or what, but it was pretty strange. Also, Erica made sure to try to intentionally speak German to me, so I did get to practice conversing a little bit!

3. Local History
          I guess this one goes without saying, since Europe as a whole is much older than America, but I

Hessen Museum

saw a lot of history over the long weekend! On Saturday we drove up to the Rhein River and saw the Lorely (see legend: Lorely), which was cool because way back when in German class I had

The Lorely!

to memorize a famous poem about her! It was really foggy so you couldn't see too much from the top of the little mountain/cliff overlooking the river, so that was the only downside- but, better than rain! We also went to Kloster Eberbach, as I already mentioned. On Sunday we drove to Saalburg, which is an old Roman fort near the wall that used to divide Rome from Germany, which was ironic, since in one of my classes on Friday we had talked about this same divide. Then we went to the Freilichtmuseum, or a real reconstruction of a Hessen village...we didn't actually go in to the main part, because it was closing, but there was a small village square with cute shops, so we walked around of a little bit. I loved all the buildings, very picturesque!

4. Frankfurt's Past and Present

Frankfurt Dom

          Frankfurt has a lot of historic buildings still, although a lot were

Main Tower, we were up there!

destroyed in WWII. It's a really cool city, with an interesting combination of really historic buildings, such as the Dom (Frankfurt's cathedral), the Römer (the city hall), the old Oper Haus (opera house), Goethe's house (famous German writer), and more. But then there is also the modern Frankfurt skyline, with a lot of skyscrapers- maybe not as many as New York City, but they are all unique, with really interesting architecture. I went to the top of the Main Tower with Simon, where we got a great view of the city (and the weatherman filming a segment!). There is also a new shopping center/mall that is SO interesting- it has a hole going through the building!

5. Clouds and Cold
         I think I brought the cold, grey Copenhagen weather with me to Frankfurt, because it was cold and cloudy over the weekend (nothing I'm not used to though!). I'm glad it didn't rain though, and it was at least a few degrees warmer than Denmark!

6. German Food
        I saved (one of the) best parts for last- the food! I had so much delicious German (and Frankfurt) food while I was there. Before the trip, I had only ever had "real" German food on middle school field

Apple wine! taken by

Erica on her phone :)

trips to the local German restaurant, but that did not compare to this! Friday night when I landed, Conny had made German potato balls and rouladen (I think that's what it's called), which was a delicious welcome to Germany. We had dinner on Saturday at a very traditional, old Frankfurt restaurant. Frankfurt is famous for it's Apfelwein, served in a Bembel (the city even has a tower that looks like an apple wine glass!), which I loved! We all ordered different dishes, and I tried a little bit of everything (see pictures on Facebook for more details)- I'm not sure of all of the names, but it was all

Bratwurst with Simon

SO GOOD! Sunday night we went to the restaurant where Simon works, which has Frankfurt and Austrian food, and I got to try a few different appetizers, which were all really good, and had traditional apfelstrudel for dessert- yum!! At night we walked around Frankfurt and got a drink at one of the bars, so I had a glass of German Riesling, which was great. Then on Monday Simon and I went to the restaurant where Erica works, and I had more hot chocolate (I forgot to mention how often I drank that!), and really good chicken tortelloni- not that German, but still great! And, of course, I ended the trip by having a traditional German bratwurst :)

So, that was my trip in a nutshell. Germany was beautiful, I definitely hope to go back sooner than later,
and preferably when it's a little warmer...a boat trip on the Rhein would be nice! There are many cities I would like to see, especially since I actually learned about a lot of places in my German class (more than I can say for other places I've gone- Budapest, for example), which makes traveling to those places more meaningful. Thanks so much to the Millers and Erica for hosting me!!

Tschüs!

Frankfurt Skyline

"Do Sports and School (not drugs)"

The post title comes from the motto on the back of the tshirts for the basketball camp for kids at my neighborhood pool, good old Westmoreland. In case you couldn't tell from that, this post is just a little summary about, you guessed it, sports and school so far! And, I know what you're thinking- 2 posts in 2 days?! Haha well, I figure after being so good about updates during the first few weeks here, I need to get back into the rhythm of posting.

SCHOOL

Classes are good, for the most part. I am taking Children in a Multicultural Context and the practicum that accompanies that course (my forest kindergarten observation), which are both really interesting. Then there is Environmental History of Europe, taught by a VERY charismatic, animated, and intelligent man named Peter- it's been pretty broad and theoretical so far, but I'm enjoying that class a lot. I'm in Danish Language and Culture, which I like, since I want to try to learn some Danish (but as mentioned previously, it is NOT easy!) I feel like I don't necessarily respond that well to the style of that class, but so far, so good. And, I even have my own private Danish tutor at home- my host brother Mads! He's been teaching me a few words/phrases each day. Finally, there is Developmental Disorders...it's probably (definitely) my least favorite class so far; it's pretty boring right now, but hopefully it will get better.

I just found out (-funny that I can go abroad without even knowing this. I also went abroad without having a valid ISIC, or International Student ID Card. Good work, Bucknell?) that grades abroad don't transfer. I guess I should have figured that, because or else going abroad would probably be a big boost to people's GPAs, but for me it wouldn't have mattered much. The official policy is that credits, not grades, transfer, so my GPA isn't affected. I just need to get a "C" in each class to have the credits count.

This is a new concept to me! Never in my life have I gotten a C in a class, and I definitely don't plan on getting one here, but after spending the past many years of my life in institutions where the exact letter grade plays a role in determining my future, it is a foreign concept that grades don't matter. I guess that is a good thing- in theory, my effort should now be determined by own desire to learn and grow, since I'm pretty sure I could get a C with my eyes closed (more or less), but it will be interesting to work in this system throughout the semester.

PRACTICUM

dancing with 2 of the girls (one of the few clear pictures)

is so great. I've only been there twice, but I LOVE it! The kids are beyond cute. I just got back from my second observation, and it was just as good as the first. Today we actually spent a lot of the day (or, the time I was there, from 9:15-2:30) inside, because the head pedagogue was sick, so there were less adults. It was a little rainy too, so I was okay with that. After putting my coat and bag in the adult coat room, I began walking through one of the rooms with rugs to play games on, tables to draw or play on, etc, and little Nora (left in the picture) came running up to me and gave me a huge hug, remembering me from 2 weeks prior, which was cool. She grabbed my hand and pulled me eagerly to one of the kids' coatrooms, where there were three other girls and a stereo- DANCE PARTY! We all danced together in the room for probably 30 minutes, with other children going in and out of the room freely. We danced in circles, and played a "follow the leader"esque game- lots of fun, and as I said, the kids were adorable. I brought my camera in (my expensive DSLR camera) for the kids to play with, and they passed it responsibly from person to person, although I kept my hand under it just in case, haha. They took tons of pictures, unfortunately, they are blurry for the most part (5 year olds and my camera settings/focus were not getting along), but there is one above.

After dancing, we played an old school memory card game with faded pictures of baby animals, colored a bit, and then had lunch. We watched some Danish kids movie that I couldn't really follow, but involved three kids who played practical jokes on a teacher and tried to outsmart bullies...something with

two girls drew my portrait for me :)

 money, in an apartment building- yeah, clearly I couldn't understand it. Although I will say that my Danish is getting SLIGHTLY better, thanks to time and Mads most likely, and it is definitely getting easier to communicate with the kids. Probably also because they've learned how limited my Danish is, and try to be more nonverbal. Anyway, after the movie we got suited up and went outside for playtime and snacktime, and the kids ran around for a while. There was also a delivery of tree branches and wood, dropped off inside the fence by a big bulldozer/earthmoving type machine, which fascinated the kids. And then, there was some casual woodstacking- you know, totally standard. A few of the pedagogues carried branches from the pile and put them into the little wood shed thing for shorter pieces, and in a stack against the barn type building, for bigger pieces. The 3-6 year olds helped, of course :)

Overall, another good day at the practicum- I'm definitely excited to get to know the kids better and experience a little taste of the Danish childhood I have come to love and envy.

SPORTS

As mentioned previously, I play for a soccer (fodbold) team here, a mix of DIS students and Danes, which is really cool! Although I couldn't play in our intersquad scrimmage this past weekend, I did play in our friendly the weekend before, and it was great! Although, as mentioned, we were on a frozen field that probably wasn't the safest surface I've ever played on, it was great to run around and kick the ball again, with people who have grown up playing the game. Most of the DIS students play on their Division III teams of various levels, and the Danes are good as well, so it's pretty competitive. DEFINITELY makes me wish that I was playing D3. Oh well. I played outside right midfield the whole game, which became my regular position for my club team in high school, so it was just like the good old days...except the whole different country, different language, different teammates, etc. The only bad thing about soccer is the commute- it's about an hour and 15 minutes away by bus, train, metro, and walking, and practices are LATE on Wednesdays. Oh well!

Aside from soccer, I have been running every now and then as well. Many people here joined a gym; there's a really nice one near DIS, but I have never paid for gym membership in my life, and I still can't wrap my mind around doing that when I can just put on some sneakers and run outside. The cold, wind, rain, and especially darkness are a slight deterrent to this, although the weather has actually been pretty good (especially compared to CT!), and even the darkness is improving daily. On my free Wednesdays (we occasionally have field studies for a class, I haven't yet though) I've been taking Milo for a short run around the area, which is fun, and occasionally I bring my running stuff to school and run after class. My shins have been bothering me a little though, so it hasn't been too frequent (mom, it's not a big deal, don't freak out).

A Weekend (and then some) of Adventures

Last Thursday, all DIS students departed for what's called a "Short Study Tour to Western Denmark". A cool part about DIS is the travel that is integrated into the program; for this tour, all students with their core class (mine is "Children in a Multicultural Context") for 3 days to 2 different cities in "western" Denmark. In addition to this short trip, classes also go on a longer, 6 day trip in March to somewhere in Europe- I will be going to London :) Ironically, on this short tour to Western Denmark, the cities that were not actually that far west, but it was a great trip none the less. I'll try to keep this relatively short and just talk about the highlights, but if you know me, I'm not very good at that.

THURSDAY

Odense :)

We departed bright and early (7:15 am, meaning I left my house at 6:30!) from downtown Copenhagen. My host dad, Henrik, drove me to the train station, because there had been rumors of a bus strike. We went first to Odense (google map it if you want to know where it is more specifically), but it is on the island of Denmark to the west of Copenhagen. Our class, which is 26 girls and 1 boy, broke into two groups to go see two different schools- I went to the H.C. Anderson Skolen (in case you didn't know, HC Anderson is Danish!).

This school was amazing! Odense is a very multicultural area of Denmark, which is a fairly homogenous country, although immigration is increasing. The school was in an area known as a "ghetto", although

Kids at HC Anderson Skolen :)

nothing like the ghettos of an American city. The majority of the students are not ethnically Danish, however, and many come from rough home lives. This school was started 10 years ago, and goes from grades 0-8, or roughly ages 6 or 7-15 or 16, which is typical for the Danish public school system. However, in the beginning, the school was only for grades 0-3, and the teachers really worked to establish a positive, supportive culture for the school. Rather than try to change an environment pre-existing, they chose to build it, starting with the youngest students. 

And this method seemed to pay off! The school had such a warm, empowering feel to it. Many of the students came from difficult homes, and the school really tried to fill some of these gaps. Teachers in

She sang for us!

Denmark go by their first names, which I think creates a really cool environment to begin with. At this school, teachers seemed to be really passionate about the mission of this school to help students to succeed, and they had really great relationships with the students. We got to go into some classrooms and  talk to students, and we met one girl who even sang for us, with a little encouragement (and peer pressure) from her friends. Going to the school was definitely my highlight of Thursday.

After our school visits, we had lunch at a cultural house (all communities here have one, so cool!) in Vollsmose, another very ethnic area, and then got a tour of the community from volunteers from their program Unge 2 Unge (youth 2 youth), a group who tries to help the youth of the area by providing opportunities for recreation, leadership, etc. Then we had an acting workshop lead by a guy from Uganda, which was cool, although I am definitely not an actress. To end the day, we went to dinner at a Turkish buffet, headed to a cafe for hot chocolate, coffee, and hygge, and then went back to our hostel.

FRIDAY

After a delicious breakfast at the hostel, complete with fresh bread, Danish chocolate slices to go on top,

Interactive playground/memory game

jam, cheese, hot chocolate, and a few vegetables, we headed to our school visit of the day, the Rosengard Skole. It had this AMAZING playground that wrapped around the entire school, with different areas specialized for different age groups, including a section for their special needs students, but all the students were free to go anywhere. They also had some computerized areas of the playground, with interactive/online learning games kids could play. During each school day, kids got multiple breaks to play outside, but since each classroom had a door that went right outside, teachers are allowed to let their students play whenever they felt it was needed.

The headmaster gave us a tour of the school, which was having a "celebrate culture" week. The classrooms were all bright and cheery, with student art and pictures displayed throughout the hallways and rooms. We got to see special needs section of the school, where they have extra help and support for students when/if they can't be in a regular classroom.

in character at the Tinderbox!

The afternoon was SO FUN! We got to go to the Tinderbox, which is an interactive theater workshop for kids where they can bring H.C. Anderson tales for life (we were in his hometown, after all!).

The Tinderbox

So of course, we got to be kids for the day, and got to experience the Little Mermaid set to music in the incredible theater, before painting and playing dress up. It was awesome! Then we drove to Næstved, got dinner and went bowling at the NICEST bowling alley I've ever seen, and spent the night at another hostel. It was really cool talking to the girls I was sharing a room with and getting to know them better.

SATURDAY
We spent the day in Næstved and went to the town museum, which was interesting, although not super

Lunch with friends in Næstved 

 exciting. Lunch was great though, at a very cozy little Danish restaurant- so hygge :) Then we drove to the Vordingborg Castle...or at least, the remnants of it! Haha, there wasn't actually a castle there, which was unexpected, but it was pretty interesting anyways. Overall, it was a very good trip though, and I'm glad I got to know my classmates better. Can't wait for London!

SUNDAY
It was great to be home again after the trip. I slept in until 11, had

Mads and I with Christian IV,

Denmark's most famous king!

breakfast with Mads, and then Henrik proposed that we should take a trip to see some of the local area. I, of course, was all in favor of this plan, so the three of us got in the car and

Little Mermaid!

headed to nearby Roskilde, a very cute and historic town by the water. We went and saw the Domkirke, the huge cathedral where all of the Danish kings and queens are buried, which was really cool! After walking around for a little bit on the quaint little streets, we got back in the car and drove around downtown Copenhagen. Henrik took me to see the Little Mermaid statue, a MUST if you are in Copenhagen, and then we got some pizza, and went home to hang out.

All in all, it was a good weekend/study tour, and it was really cool to see some more parts of Denmark. I definitely want to travel and see more cities/famous sites of Denmark while I am here :)