Hello everyone!
I've been putting off updating this for ages... but things are starting to gear up again over here and I want to make sure I get everything down.
The last few weeks I have sort of fallen into a routine. Copenhagen every morning, come home every night for dinner, occasionally go out on weekends. I go on walks, see interesting sights... but you'll see all about that when my camera arives and I go back again and take pictures. There hasnt been a whole lot to report, but there have been a few highlights that I'd love to share.
A few weekends ago on a sunday, I went to a soccer game. It was a field trip sponsored by DIS, actually part of my Danish Language/Culture class. I had heard a few things about it before I got there... that it would be between FC København, the largest and most popular team in Denmark, and Brønby, their big local rival. I heard that things would be a little heated between the fans, that fights were common... but absolutely nothing prepaired me for what the game would actually be like. Traveling to the game was simple and easy. I had directions, fans from both teams helped my find the stadium. When I made it there I was patted down outside for... something. I wrote it off as an unnecesary security measure. Soon, I made myway inside...
And was immediately hit by the most powerful crowd energy I have ever felt. The field was huge.. seating thousands and thousands of screaming fans. To my left, the FCK fans were chanting in union, hundreds of voices guided by a battery of drums. Half of the field was waving white scarves around it circles. Flags with bizzare iconography were waved. It was awe inspiring. On the other side, thousands of fans in yellow yelled back. And the tension never let up. I honestly never understood the appeal of soccer, it seemed like a slow game.. but TV does not do it justice. The fans and the energy they generate for their side were literally such a huge part of the game that I felt they were equal to any one player on the field. In one case... they literally took part. This is when I found out why I was patted down. When FCK was pushing towards the Brømby goal for the third or fourth time, around 15-20 fans in the front row lit a volley of road flares and threw them onto the field, literally forcing FCK back. Emergency staff were dispatched to the field to put out the fires. And it didn't stop there. Things were thrown, seats were burned. They even started a bonfire in one of the enterence halls. Over 40 fans were arrested for beating stadium security staff. It was chaos... but it was also one of the most entertaining sports events of my life. FCK won 2 to nothing, but its the experience, more than the side I was seated on winning, that will stick with me.
The following Monday, I had another fantastic day. First of all, I joined a choir. I never really thought I would be any good at it at all, but a friend that I made over here dragged me to a practice and I actually turned out pretty good! There are only 5 of us in all, and I'm half of the bass section. We sing gospal, jazz, and this one really depressing Danish folk song about making the most of your life. We made recordings, and I'll try to find a way of posting them up soon.
I've also been exploring the Copenhagen night life a little bit. I've been going out with friends to cozy bars and obscure pubs. There are a few clubs in Copenhagen, but their mostly for wierd forgien buisinessmen and I'm not really a club person anyway. But its very common to find bars throughout town where you can hang out with a group of friends, have a casual drink or two, and socialize in the wee hours of the morning. Everywhere has a foozball table. I mean everywhere... its the other national sport of this place and the drunken bonding ritual of choice among the Danes. Speaking of which, I have made a few Danish friends, who I've spent a little bit of time with. This last weekend, I went up north to visit them for a party they were throwing at their Folkehøjskole, or folk high school. Basically, its a place where you go right before or right after college to have independent studies in things you find interesting. There are no grades, no standards of success, its all about how much you want to put into your own education (as its expensive to go). People do it as a sort of resume builder over here. Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and I met some really cool people.
Finally, I'd like to say a little bit about yesterday, as its fresh in my mind and a few interesting things happened...
I woke up very early for another field study for my Danish class. I took the train down to the city, and took the metro (subway) to the southeastern canal seporated district of Christianshavn. With my class, we made our way north and payed a visit to a little place called Christiania, one of the strangest places in Copenhagen.
Christiania, as we learned from our tour guide, is probably one of the only successful surviving communes in the world. In the late 60s, mass numbers of squaters (mostly hippies) occupied and abandoned millitary base on the outskirts of Copenhagen. With the dismissive permission of the Danish government (who was just happy to get them out of the main city) they set up a consensus democracy seporate from Copenhagen society, declared their effective independence, and started managing themselves. They jointly occupied the entire area (which is technically still owned by the state), as a community decided who could join and live in their bizzare village, and began to construct homes and establish their own economy. They based their new hippy society on a simple legal system banning violance, firearms, and hard drugs with the threat of explusion, while freely encouraging hash dealership, with the entire community banding together to protect their members from the law. They built homes for themselves with the help of German journeyman carpenders, who routinely visited Christiania and created a series of buildings that are now protected today by various archetectual societies. Over time, it grew into a cultural center in Copenhagen, a sort of bohemian refuge for artists of all kinds, and almost every wall in Christiania is covered by a mural (of varing quality).
Of course the authorities hate it now. They pay almost no taxes but leech off the system (which in socialized, strapped for cash Denmark is a huge problem). And normal citizens have no idea what to make of it. The police have given up trying to stop the drug trade there, but It keeps hard drugs off the streets (it is Christiania policy to mob-strip discovered hard drug dealers of the clothes and then call the police to arrest the dealers for public indecency). It also keeps marijuana cordoned off into one, self regulating district intead of dispursing it throught the city. The everyday person both embraces it as "something cool" and a part of Copenhagen culture, while at the same time looking down on it as a blatent crime against society.
I heard all of this in the (somewhat pro biased) tour, and afterwords explored the area. The houses there are beautiful but strange, with intentionally ramshackle looking walls jutting out at irregular angles. The area itself is one huge park, carefully tended by the residents. Childrens playgrounds are everywhere. Its a little dirty in places, but all in all just like nothing I've ever seen before. I fully intend on visiting again and learning more about this odd but fascinating part of Copenhagen.
That about wraps it up for what I've been up to over here. Later today I'm taking a tour of Copenhagen's canals by boat, and then I'm studying hard for a test tomorrow. I'll be here in Denmark until sunday, when I leave for a week (not two as I thought) in Kosovo. I hope to update you all again soon, and I definitely will before I leave.
I hope your all doing really good over there in the States, and I hope to hear from you all soon.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
September -rest of the study tour
Hello everyone! Its been a hectic past few days... But enough about that, you'll hear soon enough. For now, back into the study tour!
Day TWO of study tour
Friday morning I struggled to wake up... not enough sleep and the lingering effects of my cold made getting up difficult. I hurried through my morning rutine, and finally made it to breakfast. It was surprisingly good concidering how spartan the hostel we were at was (basically a bunch of camp cabins built in a continuous row) breakfast was pretty good! I ate with Flemming, our bus driver. We chilled over coffee and talked Danish news. Good time that was... after breakfast we boarded the bus as a class and, as one, all fell asleep again.
When we finally arrived at our destination, we all groggily stepped out into an even larger Danish navel base. We saw a destroyer along with several corvettes... was quite an amazing sight. What wasnt, was the lecture that followed. We were brought into a war room (with a large circular table, it was awesome) and were presented with the most tedius two hour slide show I've ever seen. We now all know the logistical repair procedure of every missle tube in the Danish navy. Huzzah. We all (including our teachers) made fun of extended ranged ammunitions and economical designs until we finally arrived at our last lecture of the trip. We stopped at an army base, and had a long discussing with the army branch of the millitary police. While their job was the same, they had a very different mentality than the naval branch. These guys were just as interested in treating prisoners well, but they were a lot more aggressive in when they would accept detaining people. I guess it came with the territory. You spend your time on a terrifying warship, you don't really have to be that afraid of the people your capturing. The army branch served in afghanistan, so they clung much tighter to millitary gung ho ideology. Was a very good and enlightning lecture.
After we finished the academic portion of the day, we went over to the nearby city of Aalborg to explore. Myself and a few friends, after being very clearly ditched by our teachers, got some delicious shwarma, and wandered around for a while, before we took a class tour of the Utzon Center. This building was designed by and then later named in honor of Jørn Utzon, archetect of the sydney opera house and inhabitent of Aalborg. It was a fascinating museam, which included a small exhibit on cybernetics research, an amber making studio, and a number of other interesting exhibits. The archetecture of the place itself was fascinating... a mixture of practicality and art. For example, many of the rooms had towering, pinched top ceilings, which I later discovered were acustically designed for specific tasks. In a large showroom, they were designed for anyone in the room to hear anyone else perfectly. In the library, they were designed so that the conference area could not be heard anywhere else. All and all, I had a lot of fun!
After all of this, we went over to our hostels, picked up bikes from a rental place, and had a wonderful dinner at a little dinner on the outskirts of town. Got to know my classmates quite well, and I was surprised by how much the teachers interacted as equals with all of their students. I talked to Ulric for quite a while... I'm really starting to like our professors a whole lot. After dinner we biked to and waded into the sea. After wading into the water (and maaaaybe sampling an authentic danish bitter to warm up a little bit) we went into a woods, where we had a bonfire and spent time as a group. We cooked dough on sticks (ever had white bread on a stick? not quite as good as it sounds...) and swapped jokes for most of the night. When we finally got to bed, we pleasently discovered that the hostel we were staying out was MUCH nicer than the one before, and included modern amenities such as couches, television sets, even windows that closed all of the way. After a game of ping pong and some socializing, I went to bed and fell asleep.
Day THREE of the study tour
On saturday, we all woke up, got out of bed, and met in a small dinning room for breakfast and to pack lunches for the next day. By some miracle, I was one of the few people of the group who actually felt pretty well rested! I had a quick breakfast, packed a lunch with the available cold cuts and little poppy seed rolls, and explored the hostel a little bit more. I found and used the trampoline. Extensively. But pretty soon everyone else came out, and we set out on our first event of the day...
We were going to go biking. Our destination were some bronze age barrows, but we swung by a few other interesting places on our way, including the beach again, a historical garden, and a large forest preserve. Biking was actually really fun! The bike I had rented was reletively nice, and it was a great way to get some excercise and see the Danish countryside. We never found the tomb mounds, but we did make it to the beach. We were almost back to the hostel when it started raining, but we just took shelter in town and had coffee until the rain stopped. It was a really great way to spend three hours...
We dropped the bikes off, hopped back onto the bus, and drove to our final stop on our study tour: a botanical garden near Aalborg. We look around for around half an hour (it was beautiful... I'll try to find the name and steal someone's pictures of it off facebook) and then ate lunch and had an academic QandA session with our teachers. Completing it, we got back onto the bus for the final time, and stared the long journey back to copenhagen... It took a long while, half of the day. I spent the time watching two movies on our bus's tv system (our bus was awesome): Babel and Munch. Both depressing, intense, and very well made. When we finally got back to Copenhagen, I discovered that no trains went to and from where I was and home for three hours, so I took a long walk, found some fellow students, hit a bar a tried Fisk (a wonderfully mentholish Dane drink) before heading home, walking through the dark to the house, and crashing in my wonderful bed. It was an amazing three days, and I can't wait to find out what the long study tour to Kosovo will be like.
Next time... the week that followed! Hope to hear from everyone soon!
Day TWO of study tour
Friday morning I struggled to wake up... not enough sleep and the lingering effects of my cold made getting up difficult. I hurried through my morning rutine, and finally made it to breakfast. It was surprisingly good concidering how spartan the hostel we were at was (basically a bunch of camp cabins built in a continuous row) breakfast was pretty good! I ate with Flemming, our bus driver. We chilled over coffee and talked Danish news. Good time that was... after breakfast we boarded the bus as a class and, as one, all fell asleep again.
When we finally arrived at our destination, we all groggily stepped out into an even larger Danish navel base. We saw a destroyer along with several corvettes... was quite an amazing sight. What wasnt, was the lecture that followed. We were brought into a war room (with a large circular table, it was awesome) and were presented with the most tedius two hour slide show I've ever seen. We now all know the logistical repair procedure of every missle tube in the Danish navy. Huzzah. We all (including our teachers) made fun of extended ranged ammunitions and economical designs until we finally arrived at our last lecture of the trip. We stopped at an army base, and had a long discussing with the army branch of the millitary police. While their job was the same, they had a very different mentality than the naval branch. These guys were just as interested in treating prisoners well, but they were a lot more aggressive in when they would accept detaining people. I guess it came with the territory. You spend your time on a terrifying warship, you don't really have to be that afraid of the people your capturing. The army branch served in afghanistan, so they clung much tighter to millitary gung ho ideology. Was a very good and enlightning lecture.
After we finished the academic portion of the day, we went over to the nearby city of Aalborg to explore. Myself and a few friends, after being very clearly ditched by our teachers, got some delicious shwarma, and wandered around for a while, before we took a class tour of the Utzon Center. This building was designed by and then later named in honor of Jørn Utzon, archetect of the sydney opera house and inhabitent of Aalborg. It was a fascinating museam, which included a small exhibit on cybernetics research, an amber making studio, and a number of other interesting exhibits. The archetecture of the place itself was fascinating... a mixture of practicality and art. For example, many of the rooms had towering, pinched top ceilings, which I later discovered were acustically designed for specific tasks. In a large showroom, they were designed for anyone in the room to hear anyone else perfectly. In the library, they were designed so that the conference area could not be heard anywhere else. All and all, I had a lot of fun!
After all of this, we went over to our hostels, picked up bikes from a rental place, and had a wonderful dinner at a little dinner on the outskirts of town. Got to know my classmates quite well, and I was surprised by how much the teachers interacted as equals with all of their students. I talked to Ulric for quite a while... I'm really starting to like our professors a whole lot. After dinner we biked to and waded into the sea. After wading into the water (and maaaaybe sampling an authentic danish bitter to warm up a little bit) we went into a woods, where we had a bonfire and spent time as a group. We cooked dough on sticks (ever had white bread on a stick? not quite as good as it sounds...) and swapped jokes for most of the night. When we finally got to bed, we pleasently discovered that the hostel we were staying out was MUCH nicer than the one before, and included modern amenities such as couches, television sets, even windows that closed all of the way. After a game of ping pong and some socializing, I went to bed and fell asleep.
Day THREE of the study tour
On saturday, we all woke up, got out of bed, and met in a small dinning room for breakfast and to pack lunches for the next day. By some miracle, I was one of the few people of the group who actually felt pretty well rested! I had a quick breakfast, packed a lunch with the available cold cuts and little poppy seed rolls, and explored the hostel a little bit more. I found and used the trampoline. Extensively. But pretty soon everyone else came out, and we set out on our first event of the day...
We were going to go biking. Our destination were some bronze age barrows, but we swung by a few other interesting places on our way, including the beach again, a historical garden, and a large forest preserve. Biking was actually really fun! The bike I had rented was reletively nice, and it was a great way to get some excercise and see the Danish countryside. We never found the tomb mounds, but we did make it to the beach. We were almost back to the hostel when it started raining, but we just took shelter in town and had coffee until the rain stopped. It was a really great way to spend three hours...
We dropped the bikes off, hopped back onto the bus, and drove to our final stop on our study tour: a botanical garden near Aalborg. We look around for around half an hour (it was beautiful... I'll try to find the name and steal someone's pictures of it off facebook) and then ate lunch and had an academic QandA session with our teachers. Completing it, we got back onto the bus for the final time, and stared the long journey back to copenhagen... It took a long while, half of the day. I spent the time watching two movies on our bus's tv system (our bus was awesome): Babel and Munch. Both depressing, intense, and very well made. When we finally got back to Copenhagen, I discovered that no trains went to and from where I was and home for three hours, so I took a long walk, found some fellow students, hit a bar a tried Fisk (a wonderfully mentholish Dane drink) before heading home, walking through the dark to the house, and crashing in my wonderful bed. It was an amazing three days, and I can't wait to find out what the long study tour to Kosovo will be like.
Next time... the week that followed! Hope to hear from everyone soon!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
September 9th and12th
Hello everyone! So a whole lot to update you all on...
I got back from my study tour last night. I traveled from Copenhagen, west through Zealand, across Fyn, into Jutland, and up into the north. Its been an amazing past few days. I think its a little too late over here for me to cover it all, so I'll just do one day for now, and tell you all about the rest tomorrow. Starting from the beginning...
Thursday:
I woke up at 5:30, the only time I had available to me if I wanted to make it to my bus in time. I picked up my backpack full of clothes that I had carefully packed full of rolled clothes the night before, drank a quick bowl of cornflakes, and somehow made it to the train station in time. Lucky for me... all of DIS was heading to the university square to make the 7:15 busses, and I ran into Maggie, the other DIS student staying in Viby, at the train station. Talking to her kept me awake and focused, and I managed to make it to the bus on time. I chatted with Nikoli, Ulric, and my classmates for a little while, before bording the bus, finding a pair of open seats, and promptly falling asleep.
I woke up hours later (along with the rest of my comatose classmates) crossing the big belt bridge from Zealand (the easternmost island) into Fyn (the smaller, centeral island). The view across the water was incredible.. Now quite awake, I spent the next several hours getting to know my classmates before arriving at a naval base for our first study tour experience.
For our first study session, we met as a group with the leaders of the danish naval millitary police, the group within the millitary that is responsible for, among other things, working with detainees in the field. The meeting was fascinating. The two men we met with were in charge of the Danish Naval MPs in the Gulf of Adan, working on ships hunting pirates off the coast of somalia. They outlined their job and how they did it, along with a case of how they handled the capture, detention, and eventual drop off of 5 somali pirates who attacked a dutch ship. I was surprised to hear how big a deal treating these detainees well was to them, as well as how much they cared about following international "soft law." After, they let us see and hold the equipment and weapons that they comandeered from the pirate vessel as evidence, including boarding ladders, an RPG (without the missile of course), two AK47s and other items. We ate lunch in the nicest mess hall I'd could ever imagine existing, and we left again, heading for Arhus.
Århus is the second largest city in Denmark. Sprawling, and next to water, it is made up of long, four story complexes that roll up and down one of the few hilly regions in Denmark. We went as a class to a lecture at the University of Århus, a class on the evolution and the current nature of international law. It was interesting... the class was one third danish students, one third other international students, and one third temporary visitors from DIS. Working in a group with them was really cool! I got to talk with two Danish students and a guy from England. After class everyone (including some of the Danish students) went to another part of campus for an amazing catored dinner with wine and very high quality Danish food. Everything was amazing and I got to know a few of the Danes. Apperently, the master's program in Denmark is very common, but just a little bit easier than it is in the States.
One very festive bus ride later, we arrived at the hostel in Frederikshavn. I'm not going to lie, not the absolute best residences I've stayed at. Reminded me of the rustic cabins from my elementary school week long sleepover camp. But it was comfortable enough. After I got unpacked, I went with most of the other students on a long walk, exploring the downtown of Frederikshavn. I didn't stay out long, I was still getting over that nasty virus so after a good half an hour of walking and socializing, I went back to the hostel, got into bed, and drifted off.
Today, on the other hand, was much simpiler. I did a lot of homework, helped out around the house with cleaning and vacuming, did more homework, then did more homework. This afternoon I helped Maya (the occasional visiting daughter of the household) write a letter to a man she's trying to set up an internship with. For dinner tonight, we had home made sushi! I rolled two rolls myself, and used two types of raw fish (salmon and some white fish) and a variety of vegitables. It was a cozy evening listening to Kirn, Karen, Maya, Peter, and Maya's friend discuss... something... in particularly heated Danish while eating way too much home made sushi. A simple day, and a very comfy night.
I'll fill you all in on the rest of my trip tomorrow!
I got back from my study tour last night. I traveled from Copenhagen, west through Zealand, across Fyn, into Jutland, and up into the north. Its been an amazing past few days. I think its a little too late over here for me to cover it all, so I'll just do one day for now, and tell you all about the rest tomorrow. Starting from the beginning...
Thursday:
I woke up at 5:30, the only time I had available to me if I wanted to make it to my bus in time. I picked up my backpack full of clothes that I had carefully packed full of rolled clothes the night before, drank a quick bowl of cornflakes, and somehow made it to the train station in time. Lucky for me... all of DIS was heading to the university square to make the 7:15 busses, and I ran into Maggie, the other DIS student staying in Viby, at the train station. Talking to her kept me awake and focused, and I managed to make it to the bus on time. I chatted with Nikoli, Ulric, and my classmates for a little while, before bording the bus, finding a pair of open seats, and promptly falling asleep.
I woke up hours later (along with the rest of my comatose classmates) crossing the big belt bridge from Zealand (the easternmost island) into Fyn (the smaller, centeral island). The view across the water was incredible.. Now quite awake, I spent the next several hours getting to know my classmates before arriving at a naval base for our first study tour experience.
For our first study session, we met as a group with the leaders of the danish naval millitary police, the group within the millitary that is responsible for, among other things, working with detainees in the field. The meeting was fascinating. The two men we met with were in charge of the Danish Naval MPs in the Gulf of Adan, working on ships hunting pirates off the coast of somalia. They outlined their job and how they did it, along with a case of how they handled the capture, detention, and eventual drop off of 5 somali pirates who attacked a dutch ship. I was surprised to hear how big a deal treating these detainees well was to them, as well as how much they cared about following international "soft law." After, they let us see and hold the equipment and weapons that they comandeered from the pirate vessel as evidence, including boarding ladders, an RPG (without the missile of course), two AK47s and other items. We ate lunch in the nicest mess hall I'd could ever imagine existing, and we left again, heading for Arhus.
Århus is the second largest city in Denmark. Sprawling, and next to water, it is made up of long, four story complexes that roll up and down one of the few hilly regions in Denmark. We went as a class to a lecture at the University of Århus, a class on the evolution and the current nature of international law. It was interesting... the class was one third danish students, one third other international students, and one third temporary visitors from DIS. Working in a group with them was really cool! I got to talk with two Danish students and a guy from England. After class everyone (including some of the Danish students) went to another part of campus for an amazing catored dinner with wine and very high quality Danish food. Everything was amazing and I got to know a few of the Danes. Apperently, the master's program in Denmark is very common, but just a little bit easier than it is in the States.
One very festive bus ride later, we arrived at the hostel in Frederikshavn. I'm not going to lie, not the absolute best residences I've stayed at. Reminded me of the rustic cabins from my elementary school week long sleepover camp. But it was comfortable enough. After I got unpacked, I went with most of the other students on a long walk, exploring the downtown of Frederikshavn. I didn't stay out long, I was still getting over that nasty virus so after a good half an hour of walking and socializing, I went back to the hostel, got into bed, and drifted off.
Today, on the other hand, was much simpiler. I did a lot of homework, helped out around the house with cleaning and vacuming, did more homework, then did more homework. This afternoon I helped Maya (the occasional visiting daughter of the household) write a letter to a man she's trying to set up an internship with. For dinner tonight, we had home made sushi! I rolled two rolls myself, and used two types of raw fish (salmon and some white fish) and a variety of vegitables. It was a cozy evening listening to Kirn, Karen, Maya, Peter, and Maya's friend discuss... something... in particularly heated Danish while eating way too much home made sushi. A simple day, and a very comfy night.
I'll fill you all in on the rest of my trip tomorrow!
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
September 8th
Whoa... very interesting day. Today I was feeling much better. I slept in (as my first engagement of the day wasn't until 12:15), so I woke up feeling much better. Rode my (borrowed) bike down the road to the train station, hopped on a train, and found myself in Copenhagen.
After picking up a few more books, I found my group for today's activity... A field study at the RCT - Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims. The RCT is basically a research facility / rehabilitiation hospital, where torture victims who somehow find their way to Denmark can go for physiological and psychological treatment.
We had four speakers. The first one was more of a lawyer. He talked about the definition of torture and organized violence, how those definitions have changed over the years, and the repercussions of those changes. The second man was a researcher who worked with the post-aparthaid South African government to find and end practices of torture by the police and millitary. The third man was a millitary sociologist, who explained that our solders are basically going through identity crisises. They were normal people who were turned into warriors by the millitary, and then set loose in a peacekeeping operation where the goal is not to win like in a war, but to keep people safe. The last speaker was a woman who talked about how the facility actually cares for torture survivors that they admit. Very depressing subject matter, but very relevent to what I am studying.
After that I went back to the DIS building, talked to some friends for a while, and headed home. On the way back, I saw the most unlikely thing in the town square. Right in front of city hall, three men in full plains-indian eagle feather ceremonial regalia were playing electronically amplified flutes and woodwinds to prerecorded synth music. I asked the band what tribe they were from, and none of them spoke english! I gave them a krone and left for the train station.
A while later (my train switched tracks at the last minute and I had to wait for the next one) I came home to find Kirn (host father) teaching Peter (host brother) to drive. He was doing circles around the family's gravel parking lot, weaving between large wicker baskets and sticks planted into the ground. He'll be taking his driving test pretty soon, and it looks to me like he'll be just fine.
After dinner, I started packing everything up for my trip. I have to be up at 5:30 tomorrow morning for my trip to northern denmark, so I'll stop here. But I'll be keeping a journal up there, so I'll be sure to come back with some interesting stories!
Hope to update you all soon.
After picking up a few more books, I found my group for today's activity... A field study at the RCT - Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims. The RCT is basically a research facility / rehabilitiation hospital, where torture victims who somehow find their way to Denmark can go for physiological and psychological treatment.
We had four speakers. The first one was more of a lawyer. He talked about the definition of torture and organized violence, how those definitions have changed over the years, and the repercussions of those changes. The second man was a researcher who worked with the post-aparthaid South African government to find and end practices of torture by the police and millitary. The third man was a millitary sociologist, who explained that our solders are basically going through identity crisises. They were normal people who were turned into warriors by the millitary, and then set loose in a peacekeeping operation where the goal is not to win like in a war, but to keep people safe. The last speaker was a woman who talked about how the facility actually cares for torture survivors that they admit. Very depressing subject matter, but very relevent to what I am studying.
After that I went back to the DIS building, talked to some friends for a while, and headed home. On the way back, I saw the most unlikely thing in the town square. Right in front of city hall, three men in full plains-indian eagle feather ceremonial regalia were playing electronically amplified flutes and woodwinds to prerecorded synth music. I asked the band what tribe they were from, and none of them spoke english! I gave them a krone and left for the train station.
A while later (my train switched tracks at the last minute and I had to wait for the next one) I came home to find Kirn (host father) teaching Peter (host brother) to drive. He was doing circles around the family's gravel parking lot, weaving between large wicker baskets and sticks planted into the ground. He'll be taking his driving test pretty soon, and it looks to me like he'll be just fine.
After dinner, I started packing everything up for my trip. I have to be up at 5:30 tomorrow morning for my trip to northern denmark, so I'll stop here. But I'll be keeping a journal up there, so I'll be sure to come back with some interesting stories!
Hope to update you all soon.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Stuff Stuff Stuff
My first homework assignment. Its just a journal entry about the differences between the US and Denmark for my psychclass. If its not your cup of tea, feel free to skip. Otherwise, enjoy the mysteries of cross cultural psychology.
Two weeks I ago I left the Midwestern United States for the first time and traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark for a four month study abroad program with DIS. At the time, I had numerous expectations on what I differences I would find in American and Danish culture. Many of my beliefs were dispelled upon my arrival, others turned out to be true, and I have been constantly fascinated and surprised by unexpected cultural differences that I have encountered throughout my stay. I have spent a great deal of time trying to understand why these different ways of living exist, and I have recently decided that these differences are the result of numerous, opposing factors. To demonstrate this, I will examine three aspects of Danish culture that surprised me most during my initial impressions of Denmark
The first cultural difference that I noticed was a tendency for the Danish to place greater emphasis on avoiding waste and limiting consumption than most Americans. I discovered this first in conversation with my host family. When I was given a tour of the house, they spent a long time talking about utility conservation. They talked extensively about which doors should remain closed to conserve heat, how the larger rooms had light switches near all of the doors, so that I could cross the room with the light on and be able to turn it off behind me, and how their bathrooms used low pressure fixtures to conserve water. I drew two conclusions from this conversation that supported conservation being a high priority to this family. One, they spent a long time telling me how to use the house in a manner which would save utilities the most, which showed that it was important to them that I made an effort to conserve as well. The fact that they spent so long telling me about the efficiency of the household fixtures suggests that they took pride in how well they conserved utilities.
Now, I was aware that this was only one family, and that individuals do not always represent a culture. However, there were things that I encountered that strongly suggested that this was a belief that could be generalized to Danish culture as a whole. Boasting about how efficient their house is seems to suggest that they expect others to find conservation generally favorable, and as Danes are their most common visitors, makes it very likely that it is a part of Danish culture. This conclusion of mine has also been reinforced with observations of the way people behave in Copenhagen Denmark
If it is part of Danish culture, then why is this not also true in America America United States Denmark Europe , it is no surprise that the Danish view consumption less favorably then Americans do.
Another major difference that struck me during my stay here is how thin and, bluntly put, attractive everyone in Denmark is compared to in the United States Copenhagen Copenhagen , I began to realize that thinness was much more common in Denmark than it is in the United States , or at least the Midwest . This trend seems to extend to all regions and all age groups prior to middle and old age, where obesity levels seem to begin to coincide with what seems, to the naked eye, to be normal American levels. Danes also seem to put much more effort into their appearance as well. Personally, I found myself visually attracted to far more Danish woman then I usually am in a similar size crowd of American woman. And while I am ill equipped to critique Danish men, it seemed to me that they put far more effort into their appearance than American males. Both to double check my observation and to investigate possible reasons for this difference, I asked one of my host brother’s friends why everyone in Denmark Denmark
I have reached several conclusions for why Danes are so thin and well groomed based on these and previously mentioned observations. First, Danes are thin for two reasons. Looking good is the main way for a Dane to assert their status. Since wealth is very evenly distributed in Denmark (Jespersen 54) compared to in the US Denmark
The last and most significant set of differences that I have noticed between Danish and American culture are the rules of social contact and interpersonal relationships. I did not notice this difference during any one event, but gradually discovered it as I tried to interact with Danes. My host brother recently had a birthday party, and it took several rounds of introductions to convince any of his guests to talk to me. This was surprising, as these Danes were all slightly inebriated and had all been to America
The best theory I have to explain this mentality is that Danes place more value on relationships than Americans do. They have lived for hundreds of years in autonomous farming villages (Jespersen 41), and have always viewed family and community as a major source of success. The Danish welfare state might suggest that the Danes value contribution or adherence to a larger community. This insider-outsider mentality might extend to friendships as well, making it more difficult to break into a Dane’s social circle then most Americans are used to. While I lack hard evidence of this, there are several common behaviors that I have noticed in Danish culture that would support Danes seeing those they interact with as either total outsiders or close friends. The Danes love sarcasm, a form of humor that only works if the listener knows the speaker’s intentions. For this to be popular suggests that the Danes spend most of their time joking with people who know and understand them, suggesting close relationships. I have also experienced and heard from fellow DIS students that Danes seem more helpful, when asked for assistance, than Americans. While there could be many reasons for this, it shows a desire to help those who have managed to break the ice and engage them in conversation, which could suggest a culture that looks after its own. These experiences all suggested to me that the Danish care more about communities and relationships than the average American does.
All of these experiences are only the beginning though. I have only been here two weeks, not nearly enough time to make sound assessments of an entire culture. Material conservation, appearance, and value of relationships are only three aspects of Danish culture, and are only a small sliver of the Danish way of life. However, thinking about these three things has helped me raise questions and explore what makes Denmark
September 7, 2010
Hello everyone! Thanks to the contribution of a very special someone, I now have this way of updating you all!
Things have been going well for the past two weeks! I've been keeping a journal to myself, I'll try to get around to posting a summery of everything thats been happening so far. But until then...
Today wasn't the best day. Wasn't feeling to good last night and this morning I woke up with some pretty hardcore illness. Fell back asleep, drank plenty of water... to be honest I've feeling alright now. I spent most of the day working on makeup homework, I want to get everything done so that I can go in my short study tour without having to worry about work.
The study tour is basically a 4-5 day trip around denmark, visiting major sites that are relevent to your core field of study at DIS. Since mine is Internation Human Rights Law, were going to be going to a torture rehabilitation center tomorrow -to go with our case studies on what constitutes torture. Then, from thursday to sunday, I'm going on a bus tour of northern denmark to two universities and a naval base -to speak with sailors who captured pirates in the gulf of adan, and a few other places. Looks to be a very educational trip.
My day had one hightlight though! I partook in a little piece of danish folklore today... Kirn just finished harvesting the last of the grass seed, so we had a special harvest dessert. Long ago, a farm even as small as the one were on would have at least ten people, half men and half woman. The men would work the fields and tend the animals, while the women cooked, cleaned, and gathered. In the fall, the moment the men had finished harvesting that year's crop, it was tradition to go to the woman and demand pancakes. And if the woman refused, they would threaten to destroy that year's cabbage crop and starve the entire family for the winter. So to this day, when Danish farmers finish their harvest and shut down their combines and tractors, the women of the house still make this same dessert. Its like a puffy pancake in the shape of a donut hole, served with blackberries and powdered sugar. I tried some and, to be honest, it was delicious. Well worth a years crop of cabbage...
Right now I'm just finishing up some paperwork and getting ready for my field study tomorrow downtown. Its been a slow day, a break from two weeks worth of excitement. Its been a great stay so far, and I'll write another update as soon as I can.
Things have been going well for the past two weeks! I've been keeping a journal to myself, I'll try to get around to posting a summery of everything thats been happening so far. But until then...
Today wasn't the best day. Wasn't feeling to good last night and this morning I woke up with some pretty hardcore illness. Fell back asleep, drank plenty of water... to be honest I've feeling alright now. I spent most of the day working on makeup homework, I want to get everything done so that I can go in my short study tour without having to worry about work.
The study tour is basically a 4-5 day trip around denmark, visiting major sites that are relevent to your core field of study at DIS. Since mine is Internation Human Rights Law, were going to be going to a torture rehabilitation center tomorrow -to go with our case studies on what constitutes torture. Then, from thursday to sunday, I'm going on a bus tour of northern denmark to two universities and a naval base -to speak with sailors who captured pirates in the gulf of adan, and a few other places. Looks to be a very educational trip.
My day had one hightlight though! I partook in a little piece of danish folklore today... Kirn just finished harvesting the last of the grass seed, so we had a special harvest dessert. Long ago, a farm even as small as the one were on would have at least ten people, half men and half woman. The men would work the fields and tend the animals, while the women cooked, cleaned, and gathered. In the fall, the moment the men had finished harvesting that year's crop, it was tradition to go to the woman and demand pancakes. And if the woman refused, they would threaten to destroy that year's cabbage crop and starve the entire family for the winter. So to this day, when Danish farmers finish their harvest and shut down their combines and tractors, the women of the house still make this same dessert. Its like a puffy pancake in the shape of a donut hole, served with blackberries and powdered sugar. I tried some and, to be honest, it was delicious. Well worth a years crop of cabbage...
Right now I'm just finishing up some paperwork and getting ready for my field study tomorrow downtown. Its been a slow day, a break from two weeks worth of excitement. Its been a great stay so far, and I'll write another update as soon as I can.
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