From Coast to Coast

Well, since the last blog I have been all the way across the great Denmark. As a part of the DIS program we have short and long study tours built into our (ridiculously expensive) tuition. This past weekend was my short study tour where we went to Jutland (the big one) and visited a General Practitioner and the Regional Board of Health. After all of the studying, we were rewarded with trips to museums and delicious food!

The drive there was quite spectacular, vastly different from driving the plains of west Texas. There were rolling hills with lush grass and endless coastline. We also crossed the worlds 2nd largest bridge, only surpassed by that tricky one in Japan I think. The first night we stayed in a folk high school. These are curious little institutions. After high school, some Danes choose to attend a folk high school where they take courses on all sorts of interesting subjects, but are not tested over them! These originated in the days when democracy was first spreading its wings over tiny Denmark. It was known that in order for democracy to succeed, the people had to be educated. Therefore, these folk high schools were created to educate the commoners so that they could be informed and participating citizens. I think this is an interesting concept and that it illustrates how Danes seek knowledge not just to be competitive in the job market, but for the simple pursuit of having knowledge. The students were really friendly and you could see how close they were. They attend classes, cook, eat, clean, laugh and play together. They welcomed us with delicious food and Beatles songs. It felt like time stopped while we were there. Set in the picturesque country side, all of the words problems seemed unreal.

We attended several museums, including one in Ribe the Viking Town, but the most interesting to me was the Trapholt Art Museum. It might be my new favorite place. It is actually part furniture museum as well, because the Danes are known for their chair design you know. We saw works from the designers who created the signiture IKEA look and learned their history. The most interesting exhibit, however, was entitled "Fair Fashion" which provided insight on how wasteful our obessession with clothes is. They also displayed inventions from Danes that were aimed at making the world a better place. The most interesting of these was a straw that people in third world countries can use to suck up water, and the straw eliminates 90% of contaminates including viruses such as AIDS. Amazing, right?

That night we ate at this fancy restuarant by the beach, by far the nicest restuarant I've ever been to in my life. It was a welcome break from trail mix and rice. My group leader, a very nice Dane named Andreas, then hung out at the hostel with us playing Apples to Apples and taught us cool phrases to say when speaking to our Danish friends. Sadly I have forgotten all of them. :)

I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again. I LOVE IT HERE. I think it is going to be really hard moving back, and if it wasn't for my family I probably wouldn't.

Oh yes and here is a link to all of my pictures. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/KeeleyLane173/Denmark02#