This blogging thing. I need to get better at it. I said in the beginning that I’d try to post 2-3 times a week and I haven’t really stuck to that. But I’ve been busy. (And that’s a good thing!) But from now on, I will attempt to flood your Facebook feed with my words. Also, DIS (my school) has chosen me as an “official” blogger for its website. So I can’t let them down either. Plus, if I do a good job, I can win money. Money=Pastries.
This weekend (Thursday-Saturday), my core class, European Memory and Identity, went on a study tour to Western Denmark. Sealand is the island Copenhagen is on, so we had to cross a couple of massive bridges to reach Jutland. Jutland (which is still Denmark) borders Germany and has many more farms and little villages compared to Copenhagen and it’s numerous suburbs.
Side note: Did you known that Denmark has 16.3 million pigs, but only a population of 5.4 million people?
Springfield, Denmark?
Back to my study tour
Thursday: We had to meet our coach bus at 7:45 am, which meant I had to wake up at 5:30 (way to early, even for me!). Then we stayed at a Højskole until Friday morning. This might seem like a strange concept to you, but I loved it! A Højskole is a Danish Folk High School. If you are 18 years old and older (seriously, even 80), you can come stay at one of the 70 schools in Denmark. You need not pass an exam to get in, you have no homework when you are there, no tests, no nothing!! You pick a subject that you love and do it because you love it. The school we stayed at has journalism, music, theater, art and outdoor adventures. I would definitely pick outdoors adventures. The school was right on a lake, so the students in this class kayak,canoe and climb things all day long. The students eat, sleep, study and live together for four months and become family. The reason many people come to Folk High School is because they are not sure what they want to do with their lives yet and want to “find themselves.” When they aren’t in the classroom (which is a lot), they spend a lot of time in the Café (bar) run by themselves. On Thursday night, the students had an Open-Mic night in the Café and we got to watch. Many of the jokes were in Danish, so I didn’t really get it, but some students sang English songs which were amazing. The students in the Folk High School were so nice and wanted to learn about Americans, so we talked and laughed for hours. I miss them!
Founded in 1892! Whoa.
The Danes love costumes almost as much as I do!
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Friday: Today we spent the morning at an Open Prison. This deserves an entire blog post because it was completely mind-blowing. Stay tuned (hopefully tomorrow). This is a must read!
After the prison, we headed to Kolding, which is a mid-sized city in Jutland. We stopped here along the way.
Skamlingsbanken: Dedicated to the Danish citizens who fought for Slesvig and Holstein, which the Prussians stole from the Danes. The Danes lost 1/3rd of their land because of this. Those Prussians…
Next, we dropped our stuff off at a hostel (my first hostel ever!) and headed to dinner and a concert in town. At first, I was unsure about The Storm concert because it was a Danish band that I had never heard of before, but they were awesome and all the music was in English.
Dinner first. The cheapest food I have seen in Denmark. (25 DKK or $5). Couldn’t pass it up….nom nom nom.
A Storm’s a brewin! Catch phrase of the weekend.
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Saturday: First, we headed to The Jelling Stone. The stone was engraved in 940 says, “Harold King ordered the making of these sepulchral monuments for Gorm his father and Tyra his mother, the Harold who conquered Denmark and all Norway, and converted the Danes to Christianity.” The stone is really important because it was the first time “Denmark” was written in history and Harold did in fact, Christian the Danes.
After visiting this stone, we went to a castle in Kolding and then came back to good ole Copenhagen. In between all of our activities, we had loads and loads of food. Every place we ate was a buffet. I gained at least five pounds, but I enjoyed every pound. So who cares!
Hej Hej,
Hannah