FRIENDS!!! And LEGOLAND!!!

(Note: This post has been edited to include things about my classes!)

The past three days have been SPECTACULAR!!! Like, completely amazing.

Thursday, I woke up and went to class where all we did was talk about stereotypes of the Roma minority. It was really interesting. Roma (also known as Gypsy) are Europe's oldest minority by a lot. They've been discriminated against for a very long time and were one of the targets of the holocaust... Then, after class I went and bought my BOOTS!!! Yay boots.

Not the best picture of boots, but you get the idea :)

Then I went to my other class... which wasn't as interesting. Its a tough class for me (Language, Ideology, and Society) its really interesting...but I don't have much of a base in sociolingustics so a lot of the theories are way over my head. So far, what I've gathered is there is no such thing as a language because all the edges are blurred and you can't tell where one language ends and another begins... but we use FUNCTIONS of different languages... but then aren't you dividing languages up? I'm rather confused. But its interesting and fits very well with my other classes. After class, I stayed at KU and did some reading until...

I went to pick up Amanda, Zoe, James and Ryan from the airport!!! Yay friends!!!

I took then to their hostel and then I took them on a mini-walking tour of Copenhagen hitting the important sights (King's Gardens, Nyhavn, Royal Residences, Mermaid...) and then we went and got china boxes for dinenr :) It was SO GOOD to see them again. We ended up at a quiet little bar, sitting outside just catching up on everything for a couple hours before we called it a night- we were all rather tired...

The next day, I had class so they were on their own. They went to a couple museums... and I had two AMAZING classes. In the first one, Ethnic Conflict in Modern States, we did small group learning. We split into groups based on regions of interest, and were told to propose a solution to the ethnic conflict there. Our group was 3 american students, a danish student, a Lithuanian student and one who grew up here but is from Sri Lanka. Our region was Iraq. That whole situation is rather complicated. First, someone in the group proposed that we divide the country up into zones to keep the different groups apart. We decided that goes back too close to when colonial powers drew borders everywhere and that, no matter what, a group would feel that they got the short end of the stick and get even more angry. The oil situation also made things complicated, of course. So, we decided that was out. Then, I started thinking about my new favorite theory: the theory of imagined communities. It basically says that all of our groups are simply social constructs. Much like race doesn't exsit because it is a label developed by people. Imagined Communities just says that about every group ever. It says things like languages create borders to the groups and then you create 'admission criteria.' It says nationality is all a social construct, and the construction of the past builds a connected and unifed past. Things like that. So, we, as a group, decided that that was the theory we were going to go with. We decided that first we have to give them back a security force. Then, we have to start with schooling and use that to create a national identity instead of a divicive religious identity: so get them to call themselved Iraqis instead of "shia" or "Kurd" or "Shite." We proposed schooling, a national museum emphasizing a communal past, a national anthem and pledge of allegiance... things like that. And made sure to mention that we need to utilize non-hostile Iraqis to implement these things and build the economy back up. Anyway... it was lots of fun talking about this... Even if it is an EXTREMELY optimistic proposal. We are all still in school... What did you expect?

Anyway, then I ran over to my next class, one of my favorites: Migrants, Minorities and Multiculturalism. We had a guest speaker who works for the Danish Institute for Human Rights and helped create the Migrant Integration Policy Index. We had read parts of it for class, and it was really interesting. It breaks policy down into six core groups: Family Reunification, Access to Nationality, Long Term Residence, Labor Market Access, Political Participation and Anti-Discrimination. It talks about the pros and cons of the policies in the EU countries and about what the outcomes of different policies are. She told us about the purpose of it and why they picked the core issues and how they did research. She talked about how she feels Canada, while not perfect, has the best immigration/integration policy in the world and said how she is going to move there. She talked about how it is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to become a danish citizen, even if you are a second generation immigrant who has grown up here and lived here for your entire life... And then at the end asked for questions. My professor then asked her a leading question, taking the VERY conservative viewpoint on the 24 year rule (You must be 24 years in order to qualify for family/spousal reunification. Its stated purpose is to limit forced marriages coming into the country. Whether it actually does that or not is debated...) She was SO passionate about her answer. It was great to watch. She talked about how that is the ONLY law prohibiting forced marriages and they don't do anything else about it other than say its very bad... And talked about how it was a giant violation of human rights, since in order to feel at home in a place, you need family. They argued for a bit and we all learned a lot. One really interesting thing she mentioned was that there are ~90 national institutes for human rights. The United States does not have one... These are institutes connected (kinda) to the government, who give advice on most laws that go through parliment. Why don't we have one?

After class, I went and met up with friends and we went over to Christiania. It was their birthday, 37th, so everything was crowded and there was music everywhere. But it was lots of fun. AND I bought an AWESOME winter hat!!! I also want this BEAUTIFUL silk embrodered bag thats pink and brown with flowers... but its over 60$... And I just can't do it. but the hat. its awesome.

Its wool with fleece lining... SO WARM!

Christiania is super cool, so relaxed. but, I can only spend so much time there. So we left and went back to their hostel to hang out for an hour before heading out to bars. We went to Scottish Pub with decent live music... But it was loud and we wanted to chat, so we went back to the quiet bar from the day before and stayed until 12:30, just sitting around chatting. It was a good time. Then I went and gathered my things, bid them farewell for another 3 weeks, and headed to my bus.

After getting a whopping 4 hours of sleep, I was up again! For LEGO LAND. There are 100 pictures of legoland up on photobucket. I suggest you go there. It was a 3 hour bus ride (that I slept on, of course) and then Kara and I wandered around and looked at everything. The lego things were awesome. They MOVED! Haha. After a while we got hungry... and roasted bread over the fire!!!

That's what they do here instead of marshmellows: bread. It was actually very tasty. I'm going to definatly bring this tradition back. What USUALLY happens is you take the stick out and put a hotdog in. Genious!

We also ate fish and chips and were suprised by how not-greasy it all was and how they gave you a salad with your meal :) After that we went on rides (2. wow. :P) and got on the bus and now I'm home. But... I have many pictures! here are some highlights!

My favorite. The detail was AMAZING.

Mini Nyhavn!!!

Mini Statue of Liberty!

Heh... I'm the treasure!!!

Me and Indy!

Vikings fight the vicious water-breathing dragon!

Look! I'm in the water!!!

AHH!!! SAVE ME THE SHARK GOT ME!!!

He played the piano and his head turned... And he was made of legos!

Just not a good day. First the shark... then the lion :P

Mann's Chinese Theater.

Detail in Beverly Hills: Notice the shooting in the backgroud? Bad legos!

The sign said this is a traditional Japanese city. There were rice paddies and a beach on the sides of it. (See photobucket.)

SHARK!!! A real one this time...

Lego man... Pretending the mow the lawn.

Me and my new friend, Mr. Lego.

Detail in Amsterdam!

AMSTERDAM! I'm going there!

And the Royal Residences. I've BEEN there! This one is a lot smaller.

So... It was a great few days. But now I must sleep. I've been neglecting that... Have a great night everyone!!!

One more random thing.

These random things keep popping into my head!

Okay. So the other day I met with a group to talk about a group project thing. We went to Baresso, which is a coffee-shop chain. They're all over the place. I got hot chocolate (I've been on a hot-chocolate kick... And am starting to learn to not even think about the prices since I enjoy myself much more. So I can't tell you that the cheapest hot chocolate I've found is 7$. Okay. So I can. I calculate after I pay though...) So I order it and they give me the receipt and tell me where to wait for my order to be up. But my receipt... The very first thing it says is !!!TOURIST!!! right at the top. Its a button on their register like, when you order. It just means that you speak english... But still. I know I'm in Denmark and should speak Danish... But I'm only here for 4 months. But I'm not really a tourist either. So I was kind of taken aback by the whole thing. Then, when my order was up I thought they were calling more order, but I wasn't sure and there were two people blocking my way... But they said it a couple of times, then the girl who was calling my order (in Danish) looked rather confused and looked to her coworker... Who laughed at pointed at the !!!TOURIST!!! and then called it in english... Then I knew it was mine and went and got it. It was... interesting.

The hot chocolate was VERY good though. They give you warm milk with a stick that has a piece of chocolate on the end of it and you just stir it around until it melts and then its DELICIOUS. Not quite 7$ delicious... but thats okay. (The yesterday I bought 8$ hot chocolate. So this 7$ stuff is cheap! Haha.)

Oh, and I'm on my own for travel again. Things... just didn't work out. She was very nice, nothing against her. We just had different views of where we wanted to go... YOU, however, have the opportunity to travel with me though!!!

Date Balls, Baby Rabbits and Swimming!

Hi everyone! I've kinda fallen into a routine, which is nice, but doesn't really give me much to talk about (or take pictures of) Since Monday... 3 things of note have happened.

1) DATE BALLS:
Monday I had a cooking class! We made fish and salads and date balls. I was.... rather worried about this whole thing as I'm not a fan of fish and date balls sounded rather disgusting. It, however, turned out very well! We had white fish in seasame seeds and curry... and we had salmon with ginger, lemon grass and chilies. Both were FANTASTIC. So much so, that for dinner tonight I am making the salmon again. Hopefully it turns out... Anyway. For dessert, we made date balls. As in, balls made out of dates. I thought this would be disgusting as I don't much like dates... They're just almonds, dates and cocoa powder thrown in a food processor then coated in coconut. But I tasted them... and they were SOOOO good. Like brownies! Only... healthy!!! It was amazing. And thus, I felt like sharing.

2) BABY RABBITS:
Amanda and her friend Anna both have rabbits, and they've been trying to get Amanda's rabbit to have babies. And, yesterday, Pia found baby rabbits outside! So, now there are baby rabbits! Amanda is SO excited about them, you should see her talk about them and when she came to tell me it was so cute! Anyway, these rabbits are half the size of your hand, naked and blind. And will continue to be naked and blind for about 8 weeks. OH! there are 5 of them. Amanda is keeping 1, to name Minnie. Anna gets one, and another one of her friends gets one... and the others are being sold to the pet store.

3) Last night I watched TV with Pia and she asked me what I was doing today, I said I had no idea, so she invited me to go swimming with her. Of COURSE I didn't turn her down. I like swimming! So, this morning we hop on the bikes... the pool ends up being a 20 minute bike ride away. It was flat though (it IS Denmark..) and not hard. And good bike riding weather. We get there and use some free tickets... And then things get interesting. Now... I don't think many of you have been swimming in Denmark... but their locker room customs are... very different. There are two rooms... one with lockers and one with showers. Only, you put all of your clothes in the locker and you don't put your swim suit on until after you're all showered... So... its very different from at home where you either go to a stall and change... or you quickly change as fast as possible to minimize naked time... Or you change under a towel. After swimming (which was great. I miss swimming...) I tried to shower with my swimsuit ON and people looked at me funny... Oh well. I guess I learned that when in Denmark you do like the Danes...

Other random thing: I think I am going to go buy a pair of boots tomorrow. they were... I think 70$? They were very cute- black with zippers and buttons. They had a little heel and went up to midcalf? I think they will go well with my skinny jeans and my scarf! Now... I should just buy that dress and a shirt... heh :)

Random things I forgot to tell you about.

Random thing #1: CHOCOLATE.
How could I have forgotten!!! This is an important thing. So. Friday. We took a Tivoli break to go to the store to buy chocolate. We went to Irma (the fancy grocery store) and pursed their chocolate selection. Gabi, whose family comes directly from Europe, tells me her family's favorite kind is Valrhona. So we each get one... i grab the 85% African chocolate... She grabs the 70% South American chocolate. It is very good. (Wikipedia says the world's finest!) I like the african better... It had a nuttier flavor while the South American had more of a flowery flavor. I look forward to trying more of these fancy European chocolates. And coming back an even WORSE chocolate snob. I mean, I already would only eat lindt and ghihardelli...

Random thing #2: Drunk Norwegian.
So. Kara and I were going to head to a bar last night. I think I told you about this? I don't remember. But, anyway, she missed her bus, so I had to wait 10 minutes for her. No big deal. Copenhagen is safe and I was in Town Hall Square. I wander around for a bit and I hear some english! Very odd... so I listen in. Its two guys... And they're talking in the middle of the square... The one is explaining to the other, with hand guestures: "Boxers are THIS long and then breifs come down to here. But boxer briefs are tight and come down to here..." I'm very confused as to why this is necessary... especially in the middle of a busy square... and in english? Whatever. SO... I found her bus stop and it had a bench by it. Some other people were sitting on the (large) bench, so I sit and watch everyone walk by. I kinda see a guy looking kinda drunk walk by, but keep watching the bright lights and the busses (Town Hall Square is the main bus... area) Then, the drunk guy is in front of me. Not close... But in front of me and he says something in (presumably) danish. I just respond with my normal, "Nej. Nej tak. Nej Dansk." (No. No thanks. No danish.) He looks confused and keeps talking so I just say (in english...) "I don't know danish!" And then he stops. Takes a step backward and looks at me funny. "Danish? Danish... I'm NORWEGIAN!" (with the emphasis.) he continues, "I'm from NORWAY. Its a BEAUTIFUL country! You should visit and see the FIJORDS!!!!" With his voice getting louder and more emphasized on the capital words, of course. So I tell him, "Yes. I plan on visiting." He just ignores it and asks where I'm from. I say "America." And his eyes get wide and he says, "AMERICA?! This is a big night for me, you're from... AMERICA?!" I say yes and he wanders off, and gets his friend, to whom he kinda shouts, "She's from AMERICA!" His friend looks entirely unamused and says something in ...danish?... before wandering towards the crosswalk. The crazy guy looks at me and tells me that he has to go with his friend... then leaves. Never to be seen again. He didn't try anything. Nothing was taken. No space was violated. Nothing bad happened. It was just... interesting??? And I was sitting next to other people... So no idea why he picked me. But... good story none the less.

OH! Other news: I *may* have found a travel buddy! Which is FANTASTIC. We're working details out tomorrow. I may have to change my destinations... But I'm okay with that. She wants to do Scandinavian countries (Stockholm, Oslo, Tallin, Helsinki...) But I want to do northern European (Amsterdam, Berlin...) So... we'll work out... something. I'll still be in London for the weekend though. :) Her study tour ends there. So we'll just meet in london. It'll be good.

Also: I went shopping... My pants are all too big because of this no-dryers-because-electricity-is-too-expensive thing... My pants fit after I dry them... So its just bad. I went to H&M... And bought a belt (so I can keep wearing other pants), a scarf (a nice European one!), and a new pair of jeans (which just happen to be skinny jeans since thats all anyone wears... in case I want to fit in one day or something.) It all came to just under 100$. Not too shabby!

Have a good day everyone!!!

Weekend.

Hi! Happy beginning of the work-week everyone! First off, I would like to wish my mom a lovely first day of school! Hope you have a good semester!

Now, for my weekend! I had a fairly boring weekend, I just stayed home for most of it. Today I woke up and showered, then Amanda and I played a number of games together. She just came to my room and looked like she wanted to do something, which I liked. Her English is becoming really good! And its coming to her quicker now too- though I wonder if it is a little bit because she isn't as shy now as she used to be? Her English teacher has asked me to come to her class on Monday the 29th, which I'd love to do, but I have class until 1 and he wants me to get there at 12:30... There is an express bus I can take right to her school, or I can take the metro to the train and be there pretty fast too, but I can't get there much before 1:30 and I think her school is over at 2? We'll work it out though. Anyway, after we played MANY games, I had to clean my room... And Amanda asked if she could help! So we cleaned my room. I think she mostly wanted to spend time with me? I don't know. Then I let her use my internet cord for her computer so she could try that out. So I did some reading while she played games until lunch (at 2:30...) It was a good morning :) After that, I came down to do research... a little on Poles in Lithuania... really interesting. Poland and Lithuania used to be one country, then they broke apart, only to have Poland invade the part of Lithuania that Vilnius is in... Then Russia came and helped Lithuania kick Poland out... And they succeeded... But Then Poland came right back. So, needless to say, there's a large Polish minority in that area. After I did a bit of that, I had to do research on a Danish Political party for one of my classes because we're having a debate on Tuesday... Only, all the websites with information about the political parties are, well, in Danish. And, since I don't know Danish... that makes research awfully hard... We'll keep trying some other time. After that I called my papa (Hi Dad!!!) and headed up to spend some time with Pia and Amanda. We watched a Danish TV show... I don't really know what was going on. People were angry, someone got cheated on, someone lost all of their money and a guy ended up in Africa. It was in Danish. And, now I'm down in my room again.

Yesterday was even less exciting, if that's possible... I woke up late (noon!!!) and the house was EMPTY. I was rather confused, so I just sat in my room and read for... 6 hours? Homework. I did get all but 2 readings done for the week, so that's nice :) I also tried to start booking my travel break... But that proved to be rather difficult... I'll be in Lithuania. And I found a 10$ flight from Riga, Latvia to London... And I know EuroLines busses has a 20$ bus to take me from Vilnius to Riga... But I couldn't figure out how to buy tickets for the bus and I didn't want to buy the flight unless I knew I could get there in time... So then I got frustrated and gave up. By the way, if any of you are free for the week of Oct 20-25 and would like to visit Brussels, Amsterdam and Berlin... Let me know! I would *LOVE* to have you as a travel buddy! Otherwise, I'll be travelling alone. Without a cellphone or a computer since I'm only bringing 1 backpack for 3 weeks... Travelling light. Anyway. After that, Amanda came downstairs and had me set up her brand new computer and told me dinner was on the stove. So I set up the computer and went and ate before doing more homework, talking to Mikes and my Mom and heading out to go to the bar with Kara. Only, neither of us knew where the good bars were... So we ended up at the student house. And then came home at 11:30. I had a really good drink though! Sommersby... its apple cider. But cold, and in a bottle.

Now, FRIDAY. Friday was good. Friday was TIVOLI! And its the reason I went backwards- I was saving the best for last :)


Tivoli Gardens is an amusement park RIGHT in the middle of downtown Copenhagen! It was built during a war to keep peoples' spirits up. AND its its last week open. So admission and a all-rides pass was only 100 kr (20$!!!) And it was *SO* worth it. I had a blast! I went with Kara and Gabi and we tried to go on all the rides. It was lots of fun. The best ride there were the swings:


Yes, they're swings. Just like the classic swings that spin you around so you go up... Only these swings are 83 meters up in the air! You get a GREAT view of the city :) Basically amazing. Other notable things about Tivoli before I just give you pictures... Tivoli is great. The food is even really good! Denmark has really high health standards, so the burger I had that was FABULOUS. You can buy cotton candy there too... but its bigger than your head. In fact, its TWICE as big as your head. I didn't buy any. Also, every food stand sells beer. And then, if you don't want to wait in line at the food stand, you can just go to the tent thats selling beer. At the amusement park. And no one cares. Its partially because, while people drink a lot, no one gets 'publicly drunk' to the point where they're disruptive. Probably lots of other reasons too... But thats for another time. Now, pictures.

In the fun house! This was spinning like a hamster wheel. The whole fun house was AMAZING. AND built inside the roller coaster! It had fun lights and moving bridges and spinning things... Great fun.

The ROLLER COASTER. It is the oldest operating wooden roller coaster. Its so old that this guy sits in the middle of each of the trains with a brake so you don't go down the hills too fast.

Okay. So. Its a small world? No. This is the ride where you sit in a treasure box and it tells you all of HC Anderson's stories while you go past beautiful puppets reinacting each story.

This food stand was IN a landrover! It was pretty cool.

In China Town. By the big roller coaster. It was a good roller coaster. A bit short, but good. Loved how tacky China Town was. There was even a fake great wall. And the food stands, which were named "Asian Station" sold hamburgers and hotdogs... which we thought was rather funny.

LOOK! Its me and Hans Christian Anderson! Okay. So this isn't in Tivoli... Its right across the street by my bus stop. But still...

Carousel! I rode the GIRAFFE. It was really tall.

Creepy statue by the front of Tivoli... Nothing says 'WELCOME TO TIVOLI' like this creepy face...

Castle thing in Tivoli... It lights up at night!

Me on the octopus/squid ride thing. Yay for children's rides :)

Kara and Gabi on the octopus/squid (we couldn't decide) ride!

Entrance to China Town. haha :)

And thats about all I have for you for this weekend. This week, I have a presentation, a debate, another presentation and I have a guest lecturer and friends are coming to visit(!!!) and tomorrow is cooking class... And then on Saturday... LEGOLAND!!! Why? Because legos were invented here and they have a HUGE legoland and *I* am very excited. You'll get pictures on Sunday, no worries :)

**PS: as always: there are more pictures on my photobucket. I took over 50 pictures. I think there are 15 here? I didn't count. So, there are lots more.

National Museum and Red Cross Asylum Center!!!

Today was a busy, but amazing day! I might have to keep it pretty short since I have some intense reading left to do tonight... but I'll try to keep it good. OH! And no pictures. I didn't feel like taking pictures in the museum and there wasn't really much to take pictures of at the asylum center...

First thing today I met up with 5 of my friends and we went to complete and assignment about the National Museum (its free!) First we spent an hour wandering through the enormous Denmark pre-history exhibit that went through the stone age, bronze age and iron age. It was really interesting seeing how technology evolved and how long people have been wearing necklaces and combing their hair for... OH! and there were BOG PEOPLE! Meaning, these people were sacrificed into bogs... then perfectly preserved for... until now. They were really cool... kinda creepy, but really cool. Then we headed to the Greenland exhibit... which was just a ton of stuff shoved into glass boxes with lots of fur clothes (including fur underwear?!) And a little bit on eskimos. Part of our assignment asked "what does the Greenland exihibit lead you to believe about Greenland? How does this differ from the way Denmark is portrayed in the pre-history exibit?" To which we answered, "Denmark seems to be very rich and strong with a long history while Greenland is portrayed as simply being a cold home to eskimos." Which... was pretty much how they were presented... despite the unfair representation... Then we headed up to the classical greek antiquities room... I found the toys room first... which lead to the modern Danish history bit which I thought was REALLY cool, but one of the girls I was with didn't like it and just hurried her way to the greek exhibit which I was pretty uninterested in... So I'll be going back to look at the modern history room... And most of the other rooms since we left after that to find lunch.

We couldn't find a good, not busy, cheap lunch place, so we ate at Spicy Sandwich, which... was good, just not amazing. They got whole pizzas for 40 kr! AND the pizzas were good. It was a pretty sweet deal. And then two of us met up with another classmate and headed over to the meeting place for the asylum.

We took the metro there, ended up there an hour early and went to a park across the street and sat there and chatted for a bit before going and meeting the rest of the class.

So. We went to the Danish Red Cross Asylum center. Basically, when people started trying to come here as refugees, the Danish government asked the red cross to find a way to give them food and shelter while their applications for asylum were being processed. The Red Cross got some money to do this and have been doing this ever since. Now, I could go on for a bit about the history of Danish immigration and current immigration and asylum laws, but I will spare you the pain. If you're interested... e-mail me or we can discuss it when I get back- my whole class is focused on this theme. To start with, we had a short mini-lecture giving us a history of the organization and she explained why they were there and everything they do. They house many asylum seekers and they feed them, they provide activites for kids and teens and classes for anyone over 17 (because they are not eligable for public school when they turn 17.) They can do job training classes or take classes in danish or english, they can take classes on integration... Lots of things. It was interesting to learn that, while seeking asylum, you cannot hold a job. Keep that in mind. Anyway, we learned about their newspaper that they publish (in english: www.newtimes.dk) That the asylum seekers publish. Then we split our class in half for the really interesting part. There were two people currently living in the center who agreed to come talk to us- One from Algeria and one from Sri Lanka.

My group talked to the one from Sri Lanka. He came here with his wife, and the two of them have been living in the center for a year and a half waiting for a response to their application. The two of them had a child 10 days ago! (The baby girl is NOT a danish citizen because Denmark doesn't do the where you're born you're a citizen thing- they do whatever your parents are, you are, thing.) Anyway, His story was he was a freelance investigative journalist who spoke both languages in Sri Lanka. Theres a civil war there and he would go between the two sides and get facts and give them to the media... which the government didn't like... So the government started following/threatening his group of journalists and he paid a guy to take him and his wife to Switzerland (90% of asylum seekers pay a person to take them out of the country: human traffiking...) Problem being, these people they pay usually leave or ditch them or get caught along the way and the Dublin agreement says that the first place you're registered is where you have to stay... So he landed in Denmark and an official asked him why he was here... and now he has to stay. He thinks that the government won't decide on his case because they want the war in Sri Lanka to be finished so they can just send him home...

The other guy had a really interesting story... He has been living in the Asylum center for 9? years!!! He applied for asylum because he was in the army, but didn't agree with the government or what he was fighting for... but being a deserter gets you killed or tortured in Nigeria... So he simply can't go back.... but being a deserter isn't reason thats accepted to get you asylum... so he was rejected. Now, policy says, when you're rejected you must leave... but in practice this doesn't happen. He appealed the rejection 7 years ago and is still waiting for a response...

We also learned about the problem with Iraqi refugees... The problem is, they've all been rejected but Iraq wouldn't take them back. So... they've been stuck in political limbo for 9? years... over 350 of them! They just live in these centers and can't go anywhere else. Just today or yesterday, an agreement was signed though between Iraq and Denmark where Denmark is now paying Iraq (yes, Denmark does have the second highest amount of troops in Iraq...) to take back their refugees... And then they're paying the refugees to leave too and giving them money to start businesses or whatever (Copenhagen Syndrome: We want you to be successful and happy... just not here!) One guy in particular who has a PHD from a university in Bahgdad has been here for a VERY long time and is very scared to go back because he worked for the previous government... the one the present government hates... So that could be dangerous for him.

But anyway... it was REALLY interesting. We all got business cards and pleas from the people there to come volunteer and since I don't think SheZone will give me enough hours for my class... I just might take them up on the offer! I think that would be so interesting...

So... after all that, a few of us went to a cafe for a debreif which was good. I love talking about these things with a small group thats genuinely interested AND (important AND) informed. Our professor stuck around too, which was good. Then I checked the time and BOLTED it was 4:45... it takes me ATLEAST 40 minutes to get home... and I was making dinner for my host family!!!

I managed to make it home by 5:20 (super fast! I made a bus that I didn't think I would...) and then just started cooking. I made marinated chicken and potatoes with olive oil and thyme. It was all very good and everyone really liked it... even though we didn't eat until 7 (Michael's bed time... whoops...)

And now I'm posting this, sending some quick e-mails and doing many, MANY pages of reading until (probably) very early in the morning... Whoops!

OH! Friday I'm going to Tivoli!!! Whos excited? I'M EXCITED!!!

Classes!

This is just a quick update about my classes!

Cross-Cultural Encounters in a European Context: Really good class! We just got back from our study tour focusing on identity in the border region... Its all really interesting and the professor is GREAT. I'm really looking forward to our trip to Lithuania! Now that we've studied the border region, we're going to move onto learning about lots of different minorities all across Europe and I'm really excited.

Ethnic Conflict in Modern States: Its an interesting class... But the readings are a little heavy... and we're still a bit unsure about what our midterm is... But there are some really nice locals in the class that I'm starting to talk to a bit!

Language, Society and Ideology: Basically, a sociolinguistics course. But its interesting hearing all the different sociolinguistic theories. I disagree with a lot of the theories, but its all interesting. I'm kinda worried about the final project and hope I don't actually have to do field research...

Migrants, Minorities, and Multiculturalism: Super amazing! I love the professor even though he paces like a mad-man. He tells funny stories and gets distracted a lot but we learn a lot. We're just finishing up with learning about Denmark's imigration rules and how the conservative turn of the government in 2001 is affecting immigration and we're learning all about the Danish People's Party, which is the third biggest party right now, despite being completely xenophobic...

Service Learning Seminar: Probably my favorite class. I only have it once a week, every other week, but its always fun. We've learned about cultural intelligence, multiple intelligences theories, and intercultural communication and how societies and their cultures differ and how to work with that and the class is always hands on and its great. I don't start volunteering until the 4th though (Because I'm working with Muslim girls and September is Ramadan...)

They're is QUITE a bit of overlap between all of them... and what I've studied before... but I don't mind because they fit in perfectly with EVERYTHING I'm studying and I find it all really interesting... And with the overlap I get more perspectives and a deeper understanding of the situations... So its good :) People ask me how I can handle all the repetition and I see it all as a good thing.

Other random side note: I'm sure you've all heard about how Denmark is so Liberal and everything is ALL ABOUT equality and women are treated as equals... right? Well, its all true for the most part... but I've been finding some issues with the women's rights thing... So... Denmark has the highest percentage of women in the workforce or something, right? Its mostly because of the (basically) required daycare from age 1-6... Most of the women work in nurseries and schools... So. This girl I know visited her host sister's bording school... And found out they only taught cooking, child rearing and equestrian... The host sister is 19... and basically going to school to learn how to be the perfect rich, 50's house wife? And then it seems like the women still do most of the cooking and cleaning... So... while they may be liberalized (to the extent they don't wear bras when its warm... even with decently see-through shirts...) when they're outside of the house and have all of the same rights as men, I feel like in the private sector... they're still a few years behind... If you know more than me about this subject, please tell me? Aaand... I fully intend on talking to a female dane about this issue when I get the chance...

Finally! The long awaited post!

HI! So. I got back from my study tour on Sunday! Study tour was good. Many hours on bus with people who have colds have me a cold... so breathing is a little tough... and I'm way tired, but good otherwise :)

So. Where to start??? Thursday. We had to catch the bus at 8 AM sharp, so I got there at 7:30, went to 7-11 (the only place open...) and bought myself some snails (a type of danish... like a cinnamon roll :) ) They were two for 10 kr... So a really good deal :) I ate them and listened to my news podcast while waiting for everyone to show up. (Note on news podcast: I was feeling really disconnected from news since the news here is (obviously) all in danish... so now I have BBC, the Economist and NPR news programs all on my iPod... I listen to them instead of music most of the time.) Eventually, everyone got there, and we were off! One girl was still a little drunk from the night before and telling some pretty embarrasing stories from the night before about how she didn't know how she got home and such really loudly... which kept everyone awake until the movie started. We decided to start our lovely day with a bright and uplifting movie called "the downfall." Well... its title was in German but thats what it translated to. It told the story of Hitler's last days. It was pretty good, but it was dark so I couldn't see it really well and the subtitles were TEENY and it was really early... But I got the main idea. We watched it because our lecture on Monday night talked about the problem of how Germany went from zero pride about their country, to trying to rectify what they did through education and monuments and apologies, to now some people are trying to victimize the Germans. This movie was really controvercial because it shows the 'human' side of Hitler, only mentions concentration camps or anything once or twice and basically shows Germans as the victims of the war. It was interesting. Not a good movie for 8 in the morning though...

Our destination for the first day was supposted to be a ferry, a palace then the A. P. Moller Skolen ( a school for the Danish Minority in Germany.) However... our bus driver got lost repeadedly and we missed our ferry and never got to the palace because we were running so late... And then we were late to the school too. It was all very bad. Anyway: the school was AMAZING. I think they said it cost a WHOLE LOT OF MONEY? It was all a private donation... But it had art by that guy who put waterfalls on the Brooklyn Bridge (hes a famous danish artist...) and it had state of the art sound in the gym AND auditorium... It had BEAUTIFUL wood floors and smart boards in EVERY class room. I forgot my camera when we went there... but I took some pictures from others on facebook...

That's my professor in that picture! She's super awesome and SO nice!

Yeah. That's the school. And two of my classmates. Isn't it BEAUTIFUL? And see the orbs on the top? Yeah... thats the art. It was really nice. It was the 8 planets and the sun but it was all mirrored and amazing. The boxes on the top left are classrooms and student lounges and things and at the top of the stairs is the library which just chills in the middle of the school, its not in a room or anything. I loved how open it all was.

Anyway. We listened to a lecture there by Jorgen Kuhl which was really good. He wrote a book we read for class, is a leading scholar on border regions... and is the headmaster of the school. He helped plan it and you could tell. He looked like a kid in a candy store! The lecture was a bit repetitive... but thats okay.

After this, the bus got lost again. We estimate we spent an extra 2-3 hours on that bus at the very least because he was so clueless. But, eventually we made it back to DK, where we stayed the night in Aabrenaa. It was a cute little coastal town on a fjord (i've seen like 3 or 4 fjords now. They're really not that amazing.) We were supposed to do a scavenger hunt there... but we got there late (of course) and didn't get to it. Instead, we just went to dinner at this really nice restuarant with a name that translates to "Under the Sail." because the whole restaurant was under a sail! It was really good... Especially the brownie and pastacio ice cream we got for dessert...

After the meal we all went seprate ways... Some went back to the hostel... some went to the beach... me and a couple others wandered around the (little & deserted) town in the dark. Eventually, we found a bar, which was empty ( it was 9. Danes do go out until 11) but they played funny music (Limp Biscuit, Bob Marley and Aqua... back to back???) We got drinks and were off. My little group split up, with half going back to the hostel and me and my new friend Kara heading to the beach... we ended up walking along this creepy peir into the middle of fjord that was pitch black. And taking crazy pictures there (with Kara's camera... But I stole them from facebook, so you're in luck!)

Me, by a random statue by the Aabrenaa Town Hall...

The pier... Fun story about the pier. Kara and I were taking pictures and talking about how creepy the pier was when I look up and see a shadowy figure walking down the pier towards us. Super creepy. Just a classmate though. We could only walk half way down before we got a little freaked out.

Me and Kara! Her flash was super bright, I had to look away.

After that we went back to the hostel and sat with a big group of our classmates. I don't have much of anything in common with them, but most of them are really nice and it was good to get to know them and their names. I eventually moved and talked to the other group (the one I'm a little closer to) and found out two of the girls I was rooming with went and jumped off the end of the pier... into basically the Baltic... with their clothes on so the walk back was freezing.

The next day we got up and headed back to Germany. (We didn't get lost this time because our bus driver was fired and we got a new one. Yes, he was that bad.) We went to Flensburg and the Duborg Skolen! Probably my favorite day of study tour, by the way. Flensburg is a really cute German town... that used to be Danish. But then Denmark lost a giant battle to Germany and lost all of their industrialized land and their second biggest port (after Copenhagen, of course.) This included Flensburg. Which, during WWII, happened to be the Nazi naval base and was bombed incessantly by the English... So the whole town has basically been rebuilt. There are pictures of Flensburg around... but I don't remember which they are... so you're out of luck... Sorry! At the Duborg Skolen (the other Danish secondary school in Germany) We met with a bunch of students and got tours of their school. Their school was really nice... but old. We asked them about how they identified: with the German majority or the Danish minority or somewhere inbetween. The answer I got? "Almost German." I had to write a reflection paper on their response... that was fun...

The school! Its pretty. And made to look like a castle!

A nifty piece of art... I think donated by the Queen???

After that we had lunch break... Buying food in a small German town where few people speak english is QUITE the adventure. But we got it. Yum yum, cheap fast-food... At a German fastfood place though! None of this McDonalds or whatever. After that... more bus...

We took the bus to Sonderborg, DK. Its a nice old town with a castle! But first, we had to sit through a boring lecture by this guy. He had interesting things to say, but SO unemotional and dry... So I don't remember anything of it. It was in an awesome building though! More about it later. On the way we stopped at an old palace! It was pretty. had a beautiful church...

So... Its was the palace of a Danish Duke... then people found out he supported Germany, so they kicked him out... And then Germany took over anyway and they had royalty there (I think...) but then in 1920 people voted and the land became Danish again and the Palace became state property... So now its an insane asylum/mental institution.

The BEAUTIFUL Baroque church attached to the insane asylum!

Following the boring lecture, we went to our new hostel. yay. The hostel served us a tasty dinner... and we were off to our ghost tour at the Castle! We didn't see any ghosts (duh...) but it was interesting. Basically this creepy lady:

(this room WAS pitch black... camera just had a BRIGHT flash...)

she took us around the castle and told us scary stories and historical stories and such. But... the castle was a museum. So it was basically walking through the museum at night...

The castle...

The crypt where like 17 kids are buried...

The thing where kids were baptized? But they only put new (holy) water in it once a year... so it was basically a germ pool and it killed a bunch of kids...

The only entrance to the dungeon. People had to hang in the dungeon so they didn't escape... But they weren't HUNG as in killed... They died, but that wasn't the intent.

After this, we did like the Danish... and went to the bar. Its name was "maybe not bob" I had a tequila sunrise. It was tasty. We hung out for an hour or so... then tried to find a dance club... We found one, but it was closed until 11... So we went to a Mexican bar (in Denmark...) and I had a Mudslide... Fun story about this mudslide. I go up the the bartender and say, "A mudslide." he says okay, I look away for a minute to talk to someone, turn back around and he's given me a pack of cigarettes... I look at him and say " I DON'T want these!" Show him the menu and point to the mudslide... Which he them gives me 5 kr discount on. Anyway. We hung out there for a while (with our professor :) ) and then headed over to Buddy Holly: Bar and Dancing. The bouncers ask us where we're from and they let us in free... And then we find out its a gay bar. But our whole class is there. So we stay. And it was fun. We left at 1... And went back to hostel and slept a lot.

The last day of study tour was tough. I had started to come down with my cold so I wasn't feeling so hot and we had 2 lectures. The first one was good (though I think I may have accidentally nodded off a couple times... Apperently colds make me slightly... prone to falling asleep at inopportune moments... like really interesting lectures.) It was a member of the German minority in Denmark who had been travelling with us. He talked about how he identifies and how he reconciles his German past with WWII and such. It was really good. Then we had lunch... But all the cafes were closed??? So we went to the fast-food stand. I had a kebob pita. It wasn't amazing. We met back up and had an architectural tour of the building (its name is 'The Alsion Complex") we had spent part of yesterday and all of today in. It was an AMAZING building. It had an area for companies to have offices so they could all collaborate, it had a clean room (so they could do research on nano technology), it had what will be the concert hall with the best acoustics for a year (until a new one in Hamburg is built) and then that was all attached to the University... like... in the same building. And it had art by the waterfall guy too. The tour was interesting... But all in danish and it all had to be translated... So it was a little awkward...

The only picture I got of the building...

After that we had another lecture. This was a guy who works in the government as a part of the German Minority party. He was a little sick, but he was good. He talked about some really interesting things :) My problem: I started off really well... then started to fade (sleepy wise) and did everything I could to stay awake. I was taking notes on interesting things he said... then I'd forget what I was writing in the middle of a word... And then I started to just fall asleep in the middle of words... it was bad. Eventually my teacher had to wake me up... Super embarassing. But as soon as the lecture was over, the whole class just started laughing at me... Which I didn't really mind. It was funny and I don't really care. Apperently, they'd all been watching me instead of the lecturer... And, one of my friends told me, at one point I had completely slumped forward and my professor and another guy who was travelling with us both looked at me, then at eachother and just started cracking up laughing. I was glad they weren't angry... But it seems like everyone knew I could not controll this... And I got a good bit of sleep the night before too!!! I don't know what was up...

But yeah. After that, we made the 5 hour drive home. I made it back to my house and promptly went to bed and slept until noon. Woke up and did a bunch of homework and went back to bed. Okay. here are some more random pictures from the trip. Random meaning that I don't remember what they're of or they didn't fit elsewhere...

I think this is Sonderborg? I know its in Denmark because of the flags hanging on the street...

This was when we were on the Odense Bridge... the second longest in Denmark!

I think this is Aabrenaa... And that would be fjord in the back :)

Crappy picture, BEAUTIFUL light house!!!

Sonderborg, at sunset!

Sign by a drawbridge in Sonderborg: Stop for blink!

These guys randomly 'fought' in the streets of Sonderborg while we were buying lunch...

Old windmill by the battlefield where Denmark lost to Germany...

Sonderborg... And sailboats!!

Battlefields! With destroyed German fortifications!

Sonderborg... but it reminds me of Nyhavn.

Pretty, typical street in Sonderborg.

Anyway, Monday was pretty good. I had class (including a ridiculous 20 question test that we got 35 minutes for despite deep, multilevel answers being required for each question...) and then I had another class... And then I met up with Gabi and we ate lunch in her Kolligium before going to cooking class!!! Cooking class was good... Its more a cook in large group with supervision and I kinda feel like it was a waste of my money... but it will be good to have good meals and get some good danish recipies... Then I came home... at like... 11 PM (shoulda been like, 10:30, but the busses never run when I need them to...) And then I went to bed.

Today I got up, fought to get my internet to work and then skype'd Mikes :) Then went to my least favorite class... then my favorite class... then I had a meeting with my Cross-Cultural prof to talk about how the class was going (I'm class rep... one of two :) ) and then I went to my other favorite class where we discusses intercultural communication and cultural styles and things and then did a role-play where we each had a different cultural trait and we had to work with other people to build an awesome marshmallow/spagetti/ apple tower... We were in two groups... it was a competition. We won.

The top is above the guy in the orange shirt's head... its a white marshmallow... can you see it?

After that, I came home and played games (connect 4, war, speed, 500, guess who...) with Amanda for a couple hours before coming down here and writing this lovely blog for you fine folks. Have a lovely day, and I hope you enjoyed! I'll probably get another update up for you before the weeks over since tomorrow should be interesting: National Museum and the Red Cross Asylum Center (where the people waiting to be granted asylum are held...) Then, much homework, of course.