31.1.10 – Esrum Abbey

Today was a lot of fun! I went on my first day trip organized by DIS. We all met up at 11:45 in the city to head over the Esrum Abbey. Esrum Abbey is located in the north of Zealand (not to far from Hillerod, the town that I live in). It was built around 1140 as a monastery. Not too much is known about the functioning of the location except as its primary purpose for prayer and some basic farming. Most of the abbey burnt down a couple of time around 1200. Additionally a lot of the bricks that constructed the original building were taken and used to construct other properties in the kingdom. Therefore, only a small portion of the original abbey remains.

When we arrived at the Abbey, we were given a short tour of the place – again it isn’t very large anymore. The woman who was showing us around and telling us a little bit about its history meant well, however her presentation was subpar to say the least. Also it was difficult to read anything on our own, since almost all of the plaques were written solely in Danish.

After our short tour, we went back outside and began to prepare for the best part of the day. We were going to try our sport at a variety of medieval games that had been stimulated around the abbey. To begin, we had to form teams of 5 or 6 people and design and make a shield with our coat of arms, a flag, and a battle cry. Our team consisted of my, SarahAnn, Peter, Philip, and unfortunately I cannot remember the last guy’s name. Peter offered that he could draw an elephant, and we all quickly agreed that it sounded like a fine crest symbol for our team. However, we had difficulty coming up with a name including the word elephant, so we altered it to be the “Mighty Mammoth”.

After some time of decorating our shields and flags we were allowed to head out to a variety of activities that were placed outside the abbey. These “events” included weight lifting, knock the pin, jousting, launching a trebuchet, archery, carrying a battering ram, and a javelin throw to name a few. We had to see how many tasks we could complete within an hour and a half. We started at archery. We each got three arrows. Unfortunately out of the 5 of us, so 15 arrows, only 3 hit the target. It is much more difficult than it appears. We then went over to do some of the other tasks including the pin knocking, weight lifting, climbing the back of a ladder, and carrying a battering ram. These tasks were not all that difficult for our team, especially because at least one of the guys succeeded at the tasks rather quickly. Out of the one I mentioned so far, I think I performed best at the pin knocking thing, but who really knows. We then continued on our quest with javelin throwing and balancing on a log. Then the next two activities were what I thought to be the most fun.

One: we got a chance to mock joust. Where you sat on a wooden horse, which was then propelled forward by the remainder of your teammates. You then had to hit a wooden cutout of a man and see how many times you could “spin him around”. It was fun to give it a try, however it was at this task that one of our teammates got branded. In an effort to force our wooden, cutout of an opponent to spin a few more times, one of the guys threw the jousting pole and in doing so it broke in half.

After our teammate recovered from branding (getting a painted emblem placed on his forehead) we headed over to the trebuchet. The task wasn’t too challenging but we definitely had to work as a team because pulling the cradle piece down so that we could load our ammunition (a head of cabbage) required a lot of strength. However we completed this without a problem. We probably launched our cabbage about 60 meters or so (it also smashed pretty nicely once it hit the ground).

The last event that we had to complete was the sword fighting. Me and SarahAnn left this challenge to the boys, mainly because we decided from watching just a single match that the guys who was teaching and fighting in the sword was kind of scary. It was definitely entertaining to watch though, especially because the boys tried their hardest not to give up. This included getting body slammed on the frozen ground a couple of times and being pinned down in the snow.

Once all of the teams concluded their rounds, we all headed inside to try some of the Abbey Ale while the total points for the challenge were being tallied. The Abbey itself does not make the beer, however it does so in conjunction with a larger manufacturer in Copenhagen. It was okay, not great. After about 20 minutes, the winners were announced. To our delight the “Mighty Mammoth” team (that was us if you forgot) were victorious and blew by our competition by more than 100 points! (FYI we also got bonus for being spirited and cheering our battle cry throughout the events – not that they were needed.) As a prize, we were given a collected of jars of honey, a collect of spices, and bottle of ale to distribute amongst us.

Shortly after this announcement, we were told to finish up our beers and snacks because we had to be o our way out of the medieval times and back to the present. (I will mention that I had to finish by beer rather quickly and it was a large bottle that that usual, so I did feel a little woozy once on the bus, but it passed rather quickly.) Once back in town, I headed to the train station to make my way home. Unfortunately the rest of the evening was less exciting due to the list of homework that I have to complete for tomorrow; I am certain it will get done though.

30.1.10 – Teach Yourself Copenhagen History, Part 2

Today I took my time waking up. It is the weekend after all. Plus last night my host family had some friends over for dinner, and they were still here when I got at 12:30. So I joined then all at the kitchen table. They probably didn’t head home until about 1:00-1:30, so that meant going to bed around 2:00, which meant I was definitely going to sleep in. Thankfully when I woke up I noticed that the sun was beginning to shine through. It meant that it was going to be a pretty day outside! I then got myself ready to head into Copenhagen because I was planning on trying to finish my sight seeing for my history assignment today.

When I got on the bus to head into town I ran into a few of the students that live at the Folkehøjskole down the street from my home. They were all headed over to Sweden for a good part of the day. They did invite me to join them if I wanted to, however it was little too last minute for me. However, all the people that I have met who are staying at the location seem really nice. I think I am definitely going to try to catch up with them again and try to hangout with them over the weekends a little – which would definitely be nicer because they are SO much closer to my home.

Once I arrived in town I started to visit different locations for the day. I began with the market on Stroget. It was interesting to learn more about the “square”. Primarily that the unusual shape of the square signifies that it used to be one of the two major market places in Medieval Copenhagen. I then made my way over to the King’s Square and then back over to the New Harbor. While I had been to the New Harbor (Nyhavn) before, the sun was shining just perfectly on all the colorful townhouses on the harbor. It was gorgeous.

I then made my way over to Christiansborg Castle, home to the government in Copenhagen. I had been to this location before, however I also visited a few other sights in that same area. Including a little courtyard, which is bordered by the National Archives, Library, and military archives. It was a very pretty little courtyard, and I cannot wait to visit this place once it becomes warmer outside (I must admit that I was getting cold at this point, mainly in my feet. Because there was still snow on the ground my shoes started to get wet and my feet were forever frozen).

I then made my way over to the Royal Library, aka the Black Diamond. I went ahead and walked inside just to check it out. It is a very modern building that sits right on the harbor. When you are inside of it, it almost looks like it is sitting on the water because the windows lean out to the water giving the appearance that you are over the water rather than next to it. It is very interesting too how they have linked this newer building with the old one that sits and connects right too it.

My next stop was the Riding Complex to Christianborg, this lended a very pretty view of Christiansborg castle from the opposite side. There were not many people over in this area probably because there wasn’t much around it but it was still a pretty place to check out. This part of the castle is the only part still standing from the “old” castle (prior to the one that currently stands at this location); part of it is also still used as a stable. I didn’t explore that much, but I am sure I will go back to check it out more later.

My last two places that I had to visit consisted of another church (which was once the first hospital in Copenhagen), just the exterior, and the most beautiful square in Copenhagen – Greyfriars Square. It was just very idyllic and is lined with restaurants on the ground floor. It was pretty quiet there – again it was cold outside and it was getting late on a Saturday, so people were beginning to head home. Cool Fact: this square used to be home to a church/monastery most of which has been destroyed. However in two of the restaurants that surround the square sit on remnants of the cellar of the old monastery. This is too cool to know and not go back to, so I am positive that I will go visit one if not both of those locations.

After all of that, I had finally completed my assignment (at the least the first part, since I still have a few questions to answer and type up). At this point I could no longer feel my feet and was getting tired, so I decided to simply head home.

Once I got home, I decided to try to work on a little bit of homework and then just relax for the rest of the evening. Fortunately my host sister, Caroline, was also home for the evening. So we got some time to just hang out. (Everyone else had other plans, so it was just us.) We ordered pizza for dinner, watched the worst movie I have seen in a long time, and then watched some regular TV. That was pretty much it for today. I am going to head to bed at a decent hour – which will have to be soon since it is already past midnight here – because I am headed to a local Abbey tomorrow with a group of students from DIS and have to be in town by 11:45am. I am really excited about it!

Random Observances and Notes from Today:

1. Saw what I believe to be a 4 or 5 year old drinking Red Bull.

2. Saw a woman cross country skiing down by the harbor.

3. I have heard about this one but this is the first time I witnessed it. Saw a baby lying in their stroller outside a café in the cold while their mother was inside purchasing something. This is a very cultural thing, where it is a mutual trust between all people in the city that the baby will be perfectly fine. Don’t worry the children are always bundled up and usually napping, so they probably have no idea what it going on. It was definitely interesting to see.

4. Lastly, I definitely enjoying going to this 15 sights for my assignment however I must visit them all again when the weather gets nicer and I find the time. I did appreciate it though because it makes me aware of all the history that is around me everyday when I walk to class, walk to the station or wonder around town.

29.1.10 – Its Friday!

Thank goodness I was able to sleep in this morning (at least a little bit). I didn’t wake up until about 9, and then I got to take my time getting up and doing some random things at home. I then caught the bus at about noon to head into the city for two classes this afternoon.

First, I had my Danish class. We simply went over some more of the common phrases that we had already learned. Then we added some more to our vocabulary. I am still finding it very hard with pronunciation. However, now that I have some homework and phrases to work on, I can ask my Danish family for some help. I think they have been eager to help me because almost every evening they asked if I had Danish today. I have had to say “no” but now I can say yes, and “I need help” J. Danish, while a hard language, is simply a fun class. Our professor is really easy going and wants to make sure that we say things properly and hopefully understand (at least what we are saying).

My second class was my leadership across cultures. This one was very easy today because we were working in groups for our presentations this coming Tuesday. I had started to organize some of our interview notes (which took me all of 5-10 minutes this morning), which in class allowed us to wait to see if our instructor had anything to add, which she didn’t. It is only a 5 minutes presentation for a group of 4 people. I don’t think we have anything to worry about. Plus, I am not entirely sure if it is even graded. (This is a class where our actual instructor is away on business and we have a substitute for the first couple of weeks, so I don’t know if she will be grading us cause she isn’t our actual teacher.) Regardless, I think it will be fine nonetheless.

After classes, I hung around DIS for a little bit doing random work and things. Then I headed over to Keops Kollegium where my friends (from Elon) Emily and Kelli are living. I just hung out with Emily for a little while, and then around 7:30 we went down to gather everyone for dinner.

When we tallied the head count we had about 20 people ready to go out to dinner. We had a feeling this may be a problem but we headed out anyways in search of a restaurant where we could fit everyone. Just so you know, it was snowing at this time and there were already a couple inches on the ground. It felt like walking through a mini blizzard. We did finally make it over to a little restaurant that a few people had been to before, however there was no way it had room for 20 people. It was at that point that we decided to split up into two groups. The group I ended up with went over to an Italian restaurant and had a nice dinner all together. I got a glass of wine (to relax a little from the week) and then risotto. It apparently was what I wanted since I finished everything on the plate.

After the restaurant we headed back to their Kollegium with a stop at the 7/11 for some drink along the way. I chose not to get anything because I decided that I was going to head home shortly. They were all getting up to go to a town in Sweden for the day. They invited me to go along, however I am going to try to explore some more of the sites that I need to see for my history project, as well as enjoy Copenhagen a little more. I think I may also try to check out some of the stores. There is a huge sale period going on here right now. I don’t know when exactly it ends but I think someone told me at the end of January, and since that is in only 2 days I figured I should try to snatch a deal while I still can if I find something that I like.

28.1.10 – Teach Yourself Copenhagen History, Part 1

Today was a long day. It definitely had some highs and lows. To begin with I was up at 6:30 this morning because I had to catch the bus at 7:15. This was all after being up very late talking to Tory (however while I was tired today it was worth it to get to talk to him for a long time). I then had my first two classes today, where nothing too extraordinary happened. However, in my second class there was this really annoying banging noise that must have been going on in one of the nearby rooms, which was very frustrating and made it rather hard to hear to hear the professor. He was also trying to get through a lot on information and talking rather quickly. (This is all in my history of Copenhagen class today.) The exciting thing is that we did finally reach the point in our beginning where we have acknowledged Copenhagen to exist as a “town”. I guess that means our course is legitimate now.

After history, the exciting part of my day began. Background: for my history class, our first assignment is to go around to 15 different sites in the “medieval” city of Copenhagen and learn more about the areas and history on our own while we are there. We do have a packet and some questions that we have to answer at each location, however it is mostly about exploring and learning “to read” the city. Today, I made it a goal for myself to try to get to about 6 of the 15 sites. (I made it to 7, so I was happy with myself. It did take a little while though, about 2.5 hours.) The first place I went to was the Israel Square and Orstedsparken. It was really pretty blanketed in all of the snow. The square used to be used as a market, however now it is simply an open square. Then the park was very pretty. The really neat thing about it is that it is the site of where one of the old ramparts (wall) of the city used to stand back in the middle ages. You can tell by the shape of the lake and a sharp incline from the side of the lake, that this is what use to exist here. This is definitely a place I will want to visit again.

The next few locations were not quite as exciting primarily because I had been there before or simply pass them everyday on my way to DIS. One was a corner the train station, which was the location of the old North gate to the city. Then I walked back over to the King’s garden and Rosenborg Slot. It was pretty to walk around and simply try to take it all in of what this place was and why it is here. I did learn from some of my materials though, that Rosenborg is the oldest royal garden in Denmark though, which is pretty neat. I still have yet to go into the castle to see the crown jewels and other pieces in of Danish history, but I think I may save that for when someone comes and visits me (mom) and hopefully the gardens will be a little prettier to walk around at that point too.

After the castle, I went over to the Round Tower. Now I had been here before, but I had only gone into the church. However, since this was an assignment, DIS gave us money to pay and walk up to the observation deck at the top of the tower. It was really neat to see some of the history that had been preserved even after several fires had occurred to this facility. And by no means do I recall that much from my astronomy class, however it is was definitely cool to be at one of the oldest observatories. It also happened to be a pretty nice day out today. The sun was shining and the sky was pretty. So I also got some good pictures from the observation deck overlooking the city. It was a great view and I definitely got to see more than what I knew what around me every single day. I always think it is great to see a city “from the top” because you get a better idea of where things are in relation to each, even more so than can be determined from a map.

After the tower, I started to head back to a few of the sites that were really close to DIS. This included the square only a few blocks away, which used to be home to the old market and city hall. I then walked down to the Court House, over to the new city hall as well as the Copenhagen Cathedral. It was all very pretty. But the best part about all of this is that I can remember the things I learned and appreciate these structures that I walk past every single day a little bit more. I think I am beginning to realize how lucky I am to study in such a city with history and meaning around every corner.

By this time, I had been out in the cold for about 2.5 hours and even though it was sunny out, I was getting cold (and hungry). So I headed back to DIS and eat lunch and tried to work on some homework. However I was lacking all motivation to do anything. I think my short four hours of sleep was finally catching up with me. After attempting to get something done, I headed off to my last class for the day – International Marketing. It was good (and not a problem that I didn’t do the entirety of the reading) and went by quickly, which is especially nice for a class at the end of the day.

After that though, I went to a information session for an organization called DIS Ambassadors. The basis of the program is that DIS visit local high schools or primary schools and talk about major social, political, cultural differences, etc between the US and Copenhagen. Some of the topics that we may talk about do sound really interesting and I hope I get a chance to participate at least once throughout the semester. However, the trips are planned during the school week while classes are occurring, and I already have time conflict with the first three they have scheduled.

Once that was over, I headed up to the train station to go home. I am hoping to get to bed early tonight, however I don’t have class until 1:15 tomorrow so I do have some time to sleep in anyways J

27.1.10 – Øregaard Gymnasium

Today was the first “field study” day that we had at DIS. We have field study days every Wednesday as part of our “experiential” and learning outside of the classroom experience. I actually had two different ones today. My first one was actually part of a group project for my Leadership Across Cultures class where we had to interview a staff member at DIS and ask then questions concerning the organizational structure of DIS. We will then apply it to how this reflects on the culture of the institution as a whole. Clearly that field study wasn’t quite as exciting.

For my second one, I went to a local Gymnasium (~high school) with my Danish class. We met with a class of Danish students there and simply got to talk to them about the differences between their education systems from ours. However the conversation also diverged to comparing our cultures in general and social activities as well. They did seem surprised by several things in our culture – mainly the drinking age, smoking restrictions at school, and other school regulations in the US.

Danish culture is definitely more relax than ours, and that apparently occurs in the classroom as well. I am excited though because we will be meeting up with these Danish students a few times throughout the semester to do different activities. Hopefully it will be a fun way to meet a few more Danish contacts during this semester.

After the gymnasium we were free to go our respective ways. I, once again, headed back to DIS to waste about an hour, until I had a speaker to attend. There are these climate seminars that DIS is hosting throughout the semester to talk about environmental issues. The first one was this evening. It was a panel of 4 individuals recounting and giving their perspectives on what happened with the COP15 climate summit that occurred in Copenhagen in December. It was definitely interesting to hear some of their opinions, especially since most of the reports about the summit have presented negative results. However these individuals who spoke this evening said that while major steps had not been taken, the summit did show a slightly more united front about environmental issues than has been expressed in the past, seen by the number of nations that attending the conference. It was also just nice to hear more about it because I had not heard the extent to how encompassing the conference was. Following the speakers, they also had a small reception for attendants, which included fruit, cheese, and wine! It was a nice little snack before my train ride home. (Plus a glass of wine was nice and relaxing after a long day of walking around in the cold.)

I then got home just in time for dinner, Chinese food. And since then I have simply been sitting on the couch watching TV with my host family for a little while. However, tomorrow is a long day so I think I am going to get myself to bed.