Approaching The Present

Woofta. I realize the lengthy time between this post and the last has been tough for all my readers, so the only way I can somehow justify their pain is by writing one brilliant post (This is not the one). There are quite a few things I have done since my last post, but none of them have seemed significant enough to post on a blog about enlightenment (Or am I enlightened  by everything that comes into my daily life? I will leave that question for some other time). Anyways, I will give you some sort of synopsis of my enlightenment in Copenhagen.

I am studying with a school called Danish Institute for Studyabroad (DIS) and one of their marketing taglines is "Copenhagen as your home, Europe as your classroom." Therefore, the school integrates Field Studies, Short Study Tour, and Long Study Tour into our programs throughout the semester. Basically, I have school for two weeks at a time, four days a week. Every third week there is some sort of travel (not necessarily a break from homework though) and Wednesdays are reserved for Field Studies.

In the past few weeks, my Danish Language and Culture (DLC) class has had a few field studies where we go out into the city and experiment with experiencial learning. So far, I believe this type of learning works very well. First, we went out on a cafe night where we sat and enjoyed a little bit of Danish hyggeligt with our classmates, learning about each others lives and discussing our experiences in Denmark. Next, we went to a hippie free town experiment called Christiania. Lead through by one of the founders of Christiania, we traversed the frozen pathways, looking at unerwhelming buildings with surprisingly interesting stories. Just the night before this field study, I had been involved in a discussion at my host family's dinner table regarding the state of Christiania today. The guide of the free town was much more optimistic about Christiania than the dinner table conversationalists. Finally, my DLC class went to a Royal Danish Ballet called dans-2-go and it was quite the experience filled with intrigue, awkwardness, superior skill, boredom, and a wonderfully decorated building. None of these field studies were of huge significance to me.

Figure 1.

About a month ago, I visited Western Denmark or Jutland while on a so called Short Study Tour put together by DIS. This is the portion of Denmark that "juts" out of Germany in a peninsular form. I don't believe that is a real translation, but I think it works pretty well for our purposes. Travelling with my core course of Human Health and Disease Section C and with another core course HHD Section A, our group totaled 30 students in all. The trip was filled with the second largest Danish city called Aarhus which has a beautiful canal to see at night (Figure 1) and a few other interesting things such as the Aros Modern Art Museum. Modern art is not very impressive in my opinion, but anyone that knows me, knows that I usually appreciate the old more than the new in terms of culture. We also visited a little town where a few important things happened for Denmark called Jelling. My favorite part about Jelling was the museum tour guide named Mike (Figure 2). Although I loved this Short Study Tour, the largest impacts on my enlightenment experience have come elsewhere.

Figure 2.

One of the best things I have been doing in the past couple of weeks is developing a relationship with an immigrant who sits at the entrance of the nearest Metro station to my apartment. He is a Spanish man who immigrated to Denmark in order to find work as a delivery truck driver. Although my ability to understand him is very limited, I have enjoyed the over two total hours I have spent sitting, laughing, talking, misinterpretting, and smiling with him. Everytime I pass him as I go to and from my destinations, he gives me a huge smile and a big thumbs up. From what I understand, his situation involves a misunderstanding with the police--he can barely speak English clearly much less Danish--which has resulted in confiscation of his bag that contained his passport. He sits up against the cold, stone wall everyday with a hat sitting near his outstretched feet collecting his lunch and dinner money for the day. Due to his lost identifying documents, no one will hire him as a driver.  From what I understood during our last conversation, however, this Spanish immigrant is getting his passport soon and will be on his way to Norway! Thank the Lord that he has no children who are dependent on him through this troubling time. This is a significant experience.

In the near future, another post shall come regarding my time in Stockholm and Tallinn.

Two Weeks

"Come on, John! Why all these strange posts? I want to hear about your time in Denmark!"

Okay, okay. I will fight those philosophical and theological thoughts that pervade my brain every time I write and give you some information about Denmark.

Two weeks have passed by since I first heard the Danish language spoken. Two weeks have passed by since I sat next to a woman, Krista, on a 9 hour flight to Amsterdam who happened to be a former study abroad adviser at Univ. of Nebraska--Omaha. Two weeks have passed by since I could drive my '96 Toyota Avalon for six minutes one way so that I could rent a movie. Now, I walk for two minutes and get to metro which takes me anywhere I really need to go. Two weeks have passed by since I have hugged my family and friends. Yet, I have come to know my host family and new friends, and our relations improve every single day. Don't worry, my new relationships will never replace the ones already created. Two weeks have passed by since I was worried about if I had packed enough for my trip. My only fears now include if I am doing enough homework to get good grades and if I will be ruining my bank account throughout these five months (Yes, some things never change).

In these past two weeks, I have had each of my classes three times. My favorite class so far is Human Health and Disease which is taught in a hospital (Bispebjerg) by Danish MDs (Peter and Rahim). My other classes are Medical Ethics, Danish Language and Culture (taught by Bianca), Complexity of Cancer--taught by Oncologists, and Sustainable by Design, which is made of mostly architecture students. I do not have class on Wednesdays, but Professors are allowed to schedule Field Studies on that day.

Some of the freshest experiences I have had in the past two weeks involve my host mom's cooking, trying to find a sports bar to watch Denmark beat Croatia in the Handball World Cup semifinal, playing a friendly soccer match with Danes in 26 degree weather, going to Hillsong church, and having a conversation with a few Danish people.

Blogging

Since this is the fist blog I have ever created, I have no training. But this also means I have not obtained any knowledge that can hold back my creative genes, courtesy of Eric and Joann (my parents), from being accessed. Although this may not be recommended by most blogging experts and it definitely not the best way to condition someone into checking  my blog more often, I am going to shotgun post for now. By shotgun post, I mean I am going to post many times at once! Yes, I did make up a new term, but hey, I think my English training can be slightly pushed aside for now too--sorry, Mom. Wait. Let's build on that thought. How did any literary technique become something we taught in school anyways? Authors broke through the bounds of what they were taught to do in order to achieve something so intelligent that society hasn't forgotten. Alright, back the point of the paragraph. For the purpose of making blogging fun, I will only use the thoughuts that come to my head, my creative genes and my experiences in Denmark to create posts. Hope you enjoy it!

Change

It turns out that procrastination even pervades the tasks you intend on being fun. Maybe I am not having fun? Shoot. I have already compartmentalized this blog as something I have to do rather than something I want to do. Well, that means I have to make this fun. Mark this in your calendars everybody! After one post, the vision that was associated with A Danish Enlightenment has officially been changed. Instead of being a factual and probably mundane articulation of my experiences in Denmark, A Danish Enlightenment will consist of my thoughts at the moment I am writing. If you think about it, the original name for the blog is more fitting for the new vision (Coincidence? Nej ("No" in Danish), I don't believe in coincidences). I will share my thoughts which are inevitably enlightened by Denmark, thus A Danish Enlightenment will be born.

P.S. I hope the one word catch phase got you all as it did many Americans in some election recently.

Arrival

The air is cool. The clouds are thick. The buildings are creative. Today is the start of all things Copenhagen for six months. After a nine hour flight to and a seven hour layover in Amsterdam, I arrived in the city yesterday around 7:30 PM. My host mom, Lene, and I traveled back to the airport today for Danish Institute of Studyabroad (DIS) check-in. She was gracious enough to show me where the Institute is located. We walked home from there only to see some of the most famous sites in Copehagen, Parlaiment (shown below) and the Stock Exchange.