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