Sweden Is what I was need'en

This past weekend I had the most amazing experience of traveling to Sweden and doing some really cool nature/adventure type activities. Kylie (friend from Gettysburg, homestay sister) and I signed up for this trip a couple weeks back as a cool way to see Sweden. Closer to the trip I found that a couple of other friends I had made were also going (My friends Kiera and Kelsey- so many K's haha) which made the trip even better.
On Saturday morning we set out nice and early to meet our bus to Sweden and our bus driver turned out to be the funniest sweet old guy, just an A+ bus driver. Anyway, we set out for Sweden and went straight to our first stop- canoeing down the Rönne river.

 It was a bit of a cloudy, misty morning but it was okay, it was still a pretty ride down the river. During the trip, my friend Kiera's boat had a little run in with a high speed kayaker and this man was not very happy about a scratch on his very expensive kayak. It was a bit of an embarrassing awkward experience for the 3 in that canoe but it wasn't so much their fault. Also during our trip the canoe rental people showed up on the side of the river and tossed us ice cream! They were really delicious "ice cream boats" with a  little viking logo on the package (that seems to be common among many products in Scandinavia).
After Canoeing we traveled to our hostel with delightful commentary from Renee(bus driver): "look to your left. Were you just there? yeeeeesss". The hostel was an absolutely adorable little place run by and absolutely adorable little Swedish couple. They served us soup with a smile, and after we were all warmed up from the soup we went on our next adventure- hiking!
We hiked to a place called Nimis. It is mind-boggling driftwood structure of unruly towers and tunnels that meanders from the forested cliff-side to the water's edge.

It was created by Lars Vilks, who was actually there that day, working on a new tower! When he first started building the Swedish authorities sued him because he was building on a nature reserve and in response Vilks declared the one square kilometer surrounding Nimis to be its own independent nation: Ladonia. It was a place that I had never heard of and would have never seen if it weren't for this trip and I so glad I did get the opportunity to see it and climb through it because it was really something special. As I climbed to the very top  I was about to pee my pants because of its height and how it swayed in the wind, but once at the top... what a view... and what an accomplishment!

 It was no easy task when I say it is an unruly structure I mean it; pieces of wood were nailed together at all odd angles and it was a jungle gym to climb to the top! The structure was beautiful but so was the rocky shoreline and so I took the opportunity to get a cheesy sorority symbol picture :)









And the hike Back began, and as the hike there was scary because of the steep decline, the hike back was was grueling uphill climb. But, we made it back eventually and headed home for a barbque at out hostel with wine, grilled meats, and a bonfire!

Day two, we continued with our hiking adventures. At the nature reserve we did some Orienteering. Set out with a compass, a map, and instructions of our tasks, we hiked to several different locations. Some of our tasks included tying knots, building the highest rock tower, estimating distances from the light house, and a big wooden puzzle. The orienteering side to the day was a competition and believe it or not my team came in FIRST PLACE! our prize: lots of candy! (haribo for everyone!)




The other activity for the day was by far the best of the entire trip: rappelling. I was harness and strapped on my helmet and we all hiked up to some cliffs by the shore. The first cliff side was the warm up... but even the "bunny hill" was looking a little scary to me. But, of course I did it, because I'm no wimp and I wouldn't miss this experience for anything! And so after shuffling across to the belayer, getting hooked in, the rope put in my hand, leaning back and walking down, my concensus: IT WAS SOOO COOL!!!!

  Now my only thought was: bring on the big one! so I ran up to the bigger cliff prepared for the real deal, only to have my enthusiasm falter when I reached the top and saw just how high up we were.
 Remember I'm no wimp and I live for the experience so I hooked right up again and headed down again. On my way down, honestly I was a little scared because of how much greater a climb it was and the rocks were a bit slippery from a little rain; but I took the time to look out around me as I climbed down and it was just exhilarating. After my thrilling runs down the cliff I sat down and just took in the view, and it's one I will not forget, and neither will I forget the amazing feeling of rappelling down that cliff.

   

So that's, it the trips over, the fat lady has sung and we board the bus. maybe 20 min later, on the speaker comes Renee " yeeeeeess, why are you all sleeping? it's not over yet!" Our tour leaders announced our little surprise, a last stop at a quaint Swedish cafe that serves coffee and cakes: HEAVEN! This. place. was. ADORABLE! At Flickorna Lundgren we were served delicious heart shaped pastries with custard inside and coffee. And that's not all, next they came out with an amazing raspberry cake, and OH MY LORD was that good!!!! What was especially great was the owner told us the story of the cafe. It was started by 6 women during the depression to make some money and offer people a little joy. Now it is owned by one of the woman's family and they get thousands of visitors each summer. It was complete with garden, green house, goats, and goodies.

Now finally the trip was over and so ends one of the best weekends of my life.

No Flash Photography

Today my Danish class had a field study to the community of Christiania. Christiania is a self proclaimed autonomous neighborhood of Copenhagen that was founded by hippies, bohemians and the homeless in 1971, who squatted on an old military area. It's residents don't pay for their houses, they only pay a monthly rent of a little over 1,000 dkr which is only around $200.
Christiania may best be explained as a group of people who don't give a shit what the normal thing to do is. They live an alternative life-style: there are no cars, some apartments have no toilet, and the whole place looks run down... oh and they all light up a lot because weed is "legal". I put that in quotes because all though Christianians think of themselves as self governing in a concensus democracy, the rules they make for themselves aren't real laws, they are technically still under the Danish government. Police conduct drug raids sometimes but there are scouts around the entrances to warn the dealers of approaching cops. The people of Christiania see smoking weed as harmless and maybe it is, but it still is technically illegal. The marijuana dealing all takes place on pusher street and the most important rule of pusher street is NO PHOTOS. Photos are evidence, and so a naive tourist will promptly be threatened if they stroll through with their HD Nikon swinging from their neck. My class was warned of this and so none of us had cameras or phones out as we walked through. So as long as your not snapping away, pusher street is perfectly safe. Out tour guide directed us all into a small stand of one of the dealers to show us all the different product he had and how its all out in the open so nothing happens "under the table" and no hard drugs are being sold. There are actually no hard drugs at all in Christiania which is unexpected by looking at the place, its people, and it's reputation. But the residents themselves took the initiative to drive hard drugs out and sent their junkie community members to rehab years ago.
Christinania over all is a very artsy, free-spirited, and tight-knit community. Though it surely hasn't become one of my favorite places in Denmark it does have it's own sort of charm. I loved the art everywhere, on all the buildings and walls, and the people are very accepting because they look at people for who they are and not what they have. Christiania is definitely a unique place in the world and if you visit and think so too, you can show you believe in them by wearing the 3 yellow dots as symbol of your support for Christiania.

Parking Lot Party

This Saturday evening I had the privilege to join my host family and all their neighbors at a neighborhood party. First we went out to what seemed like an old landing strip in an abandoned military base, sounds sketchy but it was just a place that had open space. Here we made kites from sheets of plastic and wooden sticks. The Children as well as the adults were having a great time, and even heavy rain on and off didn't stop these people from enjoying each others company, having fun crafting. It was a very light competition of whose kite would fly the best, unfortunately Morten's (and my) kite didn't end up functioning too well, but it was fun working together with my host brother and the neighbors to make this kite.

After we went home to dry off and warm up for a little, we headed down the street to where they had a tent set up with tables in a sort of parking lot area. As we approached I could hear people talking and laughing and my nose was met with the scent of mouthwatering food being grilled. Kirsten introduced me and everyone seemed so pleased to have me there.
I sat there for hours through potatoes and sausage and numerous desserts including the delicious cinnamon rolls Kirsten made, and I listened to the people laugh and speak jovially to each other in danish with intermittent English to keep me in the loop.

 All the neighbors sitting around me made sure I felt included, they talked to me and asked me questions about my stay. Two of the men were talking about football (soccer) clubs and I said I used to play and one of the men said that maybe I could play on his daughter's team that plays in the next town over, because they were short on players and would love to have anyone come play. I'm hoping he will give Kirsten the contact information for me to try and join them for a game or two. I also was asked to show off the minimal Danish I know so far, and even though I'm sure it was rough pronunciation, they were really glad to hear me put effort into learning their language and maybe got a chuckle out of it too.
It was a really enjoyable night and I felt so comfortable with those people, I really felt immersed in danish culture and thought all of the neighbors were some of the nicest people I've ever met.
And apparently I must have made a good impression too because today Kirsten tells me that one of the couples at the party asked her for DIS contact info because they want to get a student like me next semester. What a compliment!
This is why I wanted to stay with a host family, if I stayed in a dorm I would have missed out on this special time spent with the Danes. It is these sort of things, where I really get to interact with danish people, that I was looking for.

Short Study Tour : Day 3

And the Saga continues…



On our final day we visited another castle- Egeskov Slot. Adequately more castle like. It had the beautiful castle which we could walk through, with furnished rooms. It also had mazes, gardens, and a bunch of other activities. Sadly, we didn’t have too much time there so I didn’t get to see everything. But we did enjoy  wonderful picnic lunch on a the lawn over-looking the castle, talk about lunch with a  view.

Next we went to our most interesting academic stop, and that was at an IVF clinic in Odense. Here we got to see their facilities and watch some of the procedures they do. We watched as a lab tech. performed a demonstration of an ICSI  procedure, which is an insemination process. It was an amazing moment to watch. An infertility clinic like this is still under the public healthcare system so it is free for most people.

After a long ride home, watching Fight Club, it was time to say goodbye to my classmates who had become my friends, but it wasn’t for too long because our busy week wasn’t over yet. We met the next day to come together and discuss out trip and then we had a normal class period.
After this awesome trip, I am so excited to go on long study tour I November to Berlin and Poznan. And I'm so happy that our group of students (which was my class section and one other class section) got along so great, no clique-ness - everyone got along and we all really had a lot of fun together.

Short Study Tour : Day 2

On our second day we started out the day academically, with our visit to a vascular surgeon in Sønderborg. He spoke about his theory of working by love and remembering the human behind the patient.
After our visit with him, we visited the Trapholt Art Museum. Here there was the summer house of Arne Jacobsen, a famous Danish designer who created the egg chair. Jacobsen is most famous for his chair designs.

We ate a buffet lunch at the museum, and I unknowingly tried liver pate for the first time, and believe it or not I actually liked it. Am I a Dane now or what? My host mom says it's not a true Danish holiday meal without liver pate.
Next we went to SønderborgSlot (slot means castle), which was disappointingly not very castle like from the outside. On the inside it was transformed into a whole museum, making it one of  the biggest museums in Denmark. We were lead on a tour through the museum by an old man who was obviously knowledgeable but not the best at keeping everyone's attention, it got a bit boring. There were some cool things though, I saw some old fire fighter paraphernalia and an organ from the 1600s. We actually got to listen to the organ a bit, it's amazing that it still work today.

After the castle we made a quick stop at dybbøls battle fields. The battle of dybbøls was the most devastating battle for Denmark because they lost 40% of their country to Germany, which the regained later.

The hostel we stayed in that night was hilarious, it had animals like goats and bunnies and chinchillas (in pens). AND it had playground things including two big trampolines which we all tried out later that night. We finished out the night with a beer tasting a t a local brewery. We got to try 3 beers: a pilsner, a wheat beer, and a darker beer with lots of malt and a slight licorice flavor (that one was my fav).

The only problem was that they were serving tastings in full glasses, before the meal… and we hadn't eaten in a while so it was starting to hit all of us a little too quickly. but we ate  (and had more beer) and the food made it better. It was a really great time, we are all crossing out fingers for another beer tasting when we go on tour to Germany.

Short Study Tour : Day 1

One thing that makes DIS such a wonderful program are the study tours they arrange for the students to go on. Each core course goes on a short (3 days) and long (1 week) study tour where we travel to various places as a class and go on both academic and cultural visits, and all of this included in our tuition- the hostels, the transportation, most of the food… it's all planned out and paid for already by DIS just for us. So already it sounds like a sweet deal, and it only gets sweater now that I've been on one tour already. The tour was an amazing time, I saw such beautiful places, learned a lot, and really bonded with my classmates.

As the title says this blog is about short study tour. For this trip we went to western Denmark, to Odense (on the Island of Funen) and Sønderborg (in southern Jutland).

Our adventure began bright and early as we loaded onto a tour bus at 8am. After a 2 hour bus ride, we arrived in Odense and started the day off at a ropes course.

 Here we all suited up into out harnesses and ascended into the trees for a series of obstacles including swings, right ropes and zip lines… which all turned out to be a lot more difficult a task than I thought. You may be thinking, Hayley that's dangerous to be climbing up in the trees! were you wearing a helmet? you could get hurt! the answer is no, no helmets involved… a helmet is a rare sight in Denmark even with the massive bike traffic all around… and yes you can get hurt, and people did. Most of us were waiting inside, finished without turn on the courses, when one of our leaders got a text from a student saying "help. 2 girls stuck in tree." It turned out that there was a mis-communication about whether a zip line was clear or not and a girl was still on the zip line when the next girl took off. They collided in the middle of the zip line and were then stuck there. Then to make matters worse when the man who worked there came with a ladder, one of the girls fell off the ladder while trying to get down. AND this whole time it had started to rain. Man am I glad I was already safe and sound off the course. Emergencies aside, it was a really fun time.

Next we  switched to our academic focus and went to hear from a General Practitioner. In Denmark there is socialized medicine. In their free health care system everyone has a GP, and the GP is who they go to for just about everything that’s wrong with them. Specialists like cardiologists, pulmonologists and even pediatricians only see the patient if it is a more complex case. A patient is referred to the specialist only by their GP, in this way the GP is a sort of gatekeeper to the health system. Free health care isn't free in every sense of the word,  Danes paid sky high taxes, roughly 30-50% of their income, and the richer people pay a higher percent of taxes. It may seem outrageous but pretty much all Danes are in agreement about paying high taxes to get free healthcare.

After our lovely GP visit, we went to our hostel and then were on our own for dinner. Most of us went out exploring Odense, I saw the childhood home of Hans Christian Anderson, and then we went to dinner. After words we all ended up at a free jazz night recommended for us at a local bar, which was quite enjoyable.

And so ends day one of Short Study tour…. read on to the next post my friends…

Stick with me now!

I haven't posted in a little while and I know that it must be driving my Mommom crazy, that she hasn't had anything to read from me in a week. Honestly, it's been a pretty ordinary week with classes and such, nothing remarkable. BUT next week is my short study tour with my core course. We will be traveling to Odense and SØnderborg from Monday to Wednesday and then continuing core course week activities at home in Copenhagen for the end of the week. Lots of cool things planned for me, so look for some blogs about my fun times next week. Besides that I will just share with you a photo of the amazingly yummy pastry I had the other day! WienerbrØd mmmmm!