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Yesterday I got back from my trip to western Denmark! It was a really great trip and I had a lot of fun. I got to visit an IVF clinic, the medicine department of a Danish hospital, and a general practitioner's office. I also got to visit a castle, take a walking tour of the town where Hans Christian Andersen grew up, and visit a Danish high school in Germany (we took a casual morning trip across the border, nbd). The academic visits were all really informative and interesting, and the cultural visits were a lot of fun. One night we also got to drink wine and make s'mores at a bonfire, and another we had some drinks at a jazz house and listened to some music. All in all, it was definitely a success.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was the bus rides to each of the places we were going. There was a lot of time spent on the bus-probably at least 3 hours each day- and it was so nice to just stare out the window and take everything in. Honestly, it doesn't seem like there's much of anything going on in western Denmark. However, it is an absolutely beautiful place. Looking at the landscape made me realize the way that this experience is positively informing the way I view my own culture. I don't mean that my experiences in Denmark have made me grateful that I don't live here (although the food, weather, and cost of living leave a little something to be desired), but that the more I learn about Danish culture, the more I want to learn about US culture. Learning so much about the healthcare system here and the history of this country makes me want to do the same in regards to the US. While traveling through western Denmark, I thought that a lot of the landscape must look similar to that of the farms in middle America and it inspired me to want to take a cross-country trip in the US one day. It's important for me to connect what I'm doing here to my life at home, so that I can take what I learn and the experiences I have with me in the future while also feeling connected to home in the present.

Now I'm so excited to go to Berlin and Poznan in just over a month, as I have a feeling that trip might be even better. I'm also counting down the days until España! Only 3 more weeks, I can't wait! I'm also going on a cruise to Oslo with my dorm for the weekend in two weeks which I'm really excited about. Copenhagen is a wonderful place, but it was really refreshing to get away for a couple days and I think that all the traveling I do will be the most memorable part of this experience.

Unfortunately, I think I ate my weight in candy, bread, and pastries this week. After a lecture on the Danish healthcare system this morning, I had the rest of the day off so I decided to get it together. I went out and bought a blender, new kale, blueberries, and new peanut butter and am fully prepared for a breakfast smoothie tomorrow! I even tracked down a health food store and got some ground flax. I also went to check out the gym and attended a free spin class so I could see what it was like. In all honesty, I wasn't a big fan-the class was repetitive, I didn't understand a word the instructor said, the bikes were weird (you pretty much need cycling shoes here which is a bummer because I don't want to pay for them), and the music was mostly really old/cheesy American pop. I miss my badass hip hop spin at Brown! I'm definitely going to have to think about whether I really want to invest in a gym membership right now, but regardless, I think I'm back on track to not gaining seventeen million pounds this semester.

I'm not sure what this weekend will have in store for me since many of my friends are away on the trips for their classes until Saturday afternoon, but hopefully I'll have time time to relax and explore!

#study abroad #copenhagen #denmark #western denmark #castle #hans christian andersen #dis

Study Tour of Western Denmark_Day 2_Recap

Day 2 of the study tour - after a late night - started bright and early at breakfast where I taught everyone to make sandwiches for lunch from the meats, cheeses, and breads that are typical for breakfast not only in Denmark, but in most of Europe. (I learned to do this from previous trips.) We went back to the Aalborg Harbor front, walked around, and then went to the Utzon Center which was the last building to be designed by Jørn Utzon who designed the famous Sydney Opera House. The built form was meant to represent/house the sails of the ships passing thru the harbor front of Aalborg. It was a pretty cool place and you can definitely see the resemblance between his two pieces.

Then we departed for the Enghøj Church towards Ebeltoft. For the trip, our professor/tour guide, Rasmus, bought us all Fastelavn pastries in honor of the Danish Halloween that was happening in a few days. The church itself I am completely in awe of and words do not do the space justice, so I will just redirect you all to my photoset of the Enghøj Church.

We then went to the cute little town of Ebeltoft. We started at a medieval church and then walked around the streets. A few of us actually got separated from the rest of the group because we were taking pictures and fell behind. But we had Toby, our other professor with us and he took us on a detour to the supermarket to buy chips and snacks for the sketch book review we would have later that evening. We walked all the way to the hostel we were staying at and then had the best meal I had had in Denmark up until that point. It wasn't anything spectacular or traditional in terms of eating Danish foods, but it was certainly the most well-rounded and fresh and filling.

Day 3, which I haven't posted pictures for yet, started with our departure for Århus to the city hall (I re-blogged someone else's photoset for that). It was designed by Arne Jacobsen, who is an iconic architect in general, but like architectural royalty in Denmark. It is one of the most important pieces of modernist architecture in all of Scandinavia. The bell tower, which we climbed, was not a part of the original structure, but the people of Århus wanted it, so he added it. When we climbed to the top, it was another 13 story climb on top of the 5 floors we had already climbed, but it was completely worth the view. We were able to see the whole harbor and then some.

One of the buildings that is pretty hard to miss from that high was the ARoS museum of art.The building was inspired by Dante's Inferno with hell in the basement and swirling up thru all 7 levels to the famous Rainbow Panorama room (pics to come). There were a ton of modern art exhibits taking place as well as the Munch exhibit (German impressionist artist who made 'Scream'). When we were done there, we went back to Kolding to visit the Trapholt Museum which had a ton of modern art pieces, paintings, a gallery of royal portraits, and a giant wall sculpture which has openings for framed and controlled views of the landscape. Then we went home, and I uploaded all my pictures and videos to realize that I took over 800, and accidentally filmed the videos I took in high quality so each one is over 100MB...oops. But thanks for reading, I know it's a lot and not super detailed, but you get the picture. Speaking of which, those posts are next so get ready!

#Western Denmark #Study Tour #study abroad #Aalborg Harbor #Utzon Center #Enhøj Church #Ebeltoft #Århus #Arne Jacobsen #modern art #ARoS Museum #Trapholt Museum

Sorry for the delay

Hey everyone! Sorry about not posting anything in a while, February has been a busy month. The first week was core course week so I went on a tour of Western Denmark with a group of students in the Architecture and Design department, and then this past week has been spent catching up on work for my first project that was due last night at 10pm. There is a lot for me to tell and while I'll try not to overwhelm you all with a million posts, I have the afternoon off from design and am using it to complete all the things I haven't had time to do: like this and my laundry.

I tried to keep you all informed of my travels when I got back with some pictures that I took while on tour. (By the way, I took 835 pictures over a period of 3 days....my bad. But what can I say, I have so much fun taking pictures and I love my camera.)

Day 1 of our tour started with a 3 hr bus ride where they gave us a peek into Danish film culture with the raw movie Nordkraft. It was literally the most intense and real movie I've ever seen about the drug trade in Denmark and the famous Christiania. I recommend it, but be warned that the Danes are very blunt and things that are censored at home are not censored here. Our first destination was to the city of Kolding to the Koldinghus museum. It is an adaptive reuse project of an old castle ruin that was burned down on accident (like Copenhagen tends to do every couple of hundred years lol) when the Spanish soldiers living in it got too cold one January in 1808. It sat in ruins until an Architecture couple renovated the space in the 80's. The space is absolutely gorgeous and the engineering and connections within the space were inspired by trees - the weight of the new installation is carried by giant columns as the walls of the existing structure were not strong enough.

The next place we went in Kolding was to Nicolai Plads which had the most awesome children's museum I've ever seen. It was three stories of fun and stimulating things for the kids to do including: dress up, face painting, climbing ropes, tree house forts, a wood shop with real tools, a theater, and a fairytale land of pink trees and a see thru floor. Needless to say, not only are Danish children adorable little nuggets in snowsuits, but they have comparatively better childhoods than any of us had.

Day 1 continued with another 3 hr bus ride to Aalborg. We visited Nordkraft which is an old electricity plant converted to a giant community center. It's got a basketball court on the 4th floor, a rock wall from floors 5-7, 3 theaters, offices, a health center, a bar/club, a bunch of restaurants, and other cool things. It's really an awesome project and you should google it because I did not take nearly as many pictures as I should've while there. By the end of the day we were all tired from the traveling and all the stairs we had to climb (19 flights). After dinner we went out to the bar street Jomfru Ane Gade which is said to be the most famous street in all of Denmark. It is a short street with about 30 restaurant/bars along the whole stretch and is famous for its cheap drinks and happy hours. We had a great time there because we didn't have to pay covers or coat checks!

Day 2 will be covered in the next post. Happy reading!

#Western Denmark #Study tour #Kolding #Aalborg #Nordkraft #study abroad