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.
No comments:
Post a Comment