...now go back east!

(continued from the last post) So, in the town of Ribe, we got to our hostel for the night and ate some dinner, which was consisted of a tortilla-wrap-buffet thing, if that makes sense. Think of Chipotle/Freebirds, except it wasn't really Mexican (though they might have thought so...there was some "chili sauce" that was pretty weak). After we were all totally stuffed, we got a short tour of the town of Ribe from Anders, since our plans with the real tour guide apparently got messed up. Since it was at night, we weren't able to take many good pictures, but we did get to see the cathedral and plenty of old-fashioned houses, as well as a flood post that had quite a high marker from the 1600's. Afterwards, we got some time on our own before bed, so some of us found a little cafe. It was pretty smoky in there, and it certainly got to me. Some people got hot chocolate, but we didn't stay there incredibly long. Eventually we just went back to the hostel and pretty much called it a night.

The next morning, we had breakfast at around 6:30 in the hostel...everyone was thrilled about that, of course! It consisted of a lot of meat and cheese, actually, which struck me as slightly strange, but there was nothing wrong with it, of course :) We left for Århus after breakfast, which was about a 2 hour bus ride. There, we went to an "alternative professional school" called Kaospilots. They train people who are at least 21 years old to be creative and innovative entrepreneurs. They don't want people younger than that because they want people who have had some time in the real world outside of high school - people who have had at least a taste of a "real-world experience." It's a three-year program where the students pursue their passions and strengths and then travel to different places and actually explore some of those opportunities, and then they hopefully start their own business once they graduate. Beyond that, though, they didn't tell us a whole lot about the actual program. Instead, our two leaders (a former student and a current student named Sara and Eleanor) led us through some exercises that were supposed to give us an idea of how things were done at Kaospilots. For example, instead of going around and just saying everyone's name, we said our name and how we were currently feeling, and then we had to say "I'm checked in." The vision they gave us was that we were checking in at an airplane ticket counter, and then we were boarding the plane after that as they "took us on a journey." Following that, Sara led us through a "dream journey," where we all found our little spot on the floor, closed our eyes, and listened to Sara give us some directions to our thoughts while some music played (almost in a hypnotic style). Essentially, the idea was to give us an idea of where we wanted to be when the middle of May rolls around and it's almost time to leave Denmark: what will we have accomplished, done, grown in, etc., and who will we have met? Personally, I didn't care a lot for thinking about these things: I felt, and feel, conflicted about trying to conjure up expectations for what I'm going to get out of a particular experience. While it's good to have a vision of some sort, it just didn't feel right to me to be predicting how the semester will end up; I feel more comfortable laying it in God's hands, cliché as it may sound.

After that, we came to a particular exercise where we were supposed to list 7 passions that we have, then 7 things that make us angry, then 7 talents that we possess. After each round, some people shared one or two of theirs, and then eventually we got into small groups with 3 people total. In these groups, we shared all of these things with each other and then used our group members to try to find one unifying element for each of those 3 categories (so we ended up with one main passion, anger, and talent). I guess I should probably share mine, after saying all that: we decided that my passion was "living in the moment," my anger was "falseness in myself and in others," and my talent was "inclusion." After taking so many personality tests over hte past few years, I definitely take such things with a grain of salt, but it is interesting nonetheless, especially since I did write them about myself. When you put such a thing on paper plus share it with others (as I did in the groups and am doing right now), it certainly provides a sense of ownership and responsibility for those things, which the psychology major in me finds very intriguing: will these things now be something that I feel like I must live up to, either for myself or others, and can that actually become a very unhealthy thing? And is that line of thinking just me being too wrapped up in myself anyway? Haha. Something to think about, if nothing else.

All in all, the Kaospilots visit was definitely one of those things where people could either "buy into it" or totally not. I was very pleased that we all seemed to buy into it very much, which just seemed to be a theme on the entire trip. What a refreshing theme, too! I have only had a handful of classes and experiences where everyone involved really seems to try and absorb the experience. There's a fine line between this positive attitude and someone who just blindly accepts whatever they hear, but I think many people can be deathly afraid of blind acceptance, either from some past fear where that hurt them or just from a pride standpoint of "this is below me." Because of this fear, we can all sometimes close off to something that might be really useful for us to hear, i.e. where we actually can tread that fine line and really gain something positive.

Following this, we ate an absolutely fantastic lunch at an Italian restaurant...mushroom tortellini, salad, then some coffee/tea, and then when we thought it was over and were all totally stuffed, some tiramisu. Then we went to an art museum...it was really incredible. They had a whole bunch of different things, and I certainly didn't have time to go everywhere. I'll post some pictures later (all I've posted on Facebook at the time of writing this is my pretty boring Ribe pictures, haha), but the most noteworthy thing was this architecture exhibit by a certain group that was formatted in the style of a comic book on the walls. It was a pretty huge exhibit - the book that you can get is 400 pages long, if that gives you an idea. I'll let you explore the website for yourself ( http://www.big.dk/ ), but suffice to say that it really captivated me for some reason, and I can't explain why - I've never really been into architecture per se.

Afterward, we went to our hostel for the night in Århus, got our rooms, and then soon after went back out to the bus to take us into town for the evening, where we had some free time to do whatever we want. Pretty much everyone on the trip was excited to find some bar(s) and drink, and we had heard about this particular dance club that our teacher recommended, haha (it ended up being the equivalent of $24 to get in, so nobody went there). Of course, I didn't exactly share in this excitement - it's not really my scene, as anyone reading this blog probably knows - but I decided that, partly out of necessity, I would go along with some people and see what this whole "going out" thing is about :) Note that it was 6pm when we were dropped off in the town, so the night was quite early, and we had eaten a big/kind of late lunch, so everyone's schedule was a little off. In any case, we found a bar (group of 7 of us, I believe) and people quickly got some beers, while I didn't get anything. They started some game that was kind of like the card game BS, but with dice (i.e., you roll some dice and say that you have some certain numbers, and the person next to you either believes you or calls your bluff. The next person has to roll higher, so no matter what they get, they'll say they have higher, and so on). Eventually it came to me and they realized that I didn't have a beer. I just said I didn't drink, and everyone was pretty cool with it - a couple of the guys actually asked me why I didn't drink and seemed genuinely interested. I did get a Sprite though, and I ordered my first beers (for some of the other guys at the table). It was a good time, and then we left for a pizza place, where we ran into another group that was drinking plenty of alcoholic apple cider. After ordering some pizzas, the other table started playing a game called "I've Never," where someone says "I've never...been to Disneyland!" for example. If you've actually done what the person has never done, you take a drink. Well, as you may be able to imagine with some drunk college kids, the topics quickly turned pretty sexual, and I wasn't the only one that didn't feel like continuing that trend, fortunately, but it was what it was. I pulled out a trump card and said that I had never had a beer, so everyone got to have a good drink to that.

We left there after a bit and went to yet another bar, where we saw basically everyone else on the trip; it was a pretty packed place with all of us there. Eventually there was some dancing in the middle once it got a little later in the night. I pretty much just sat and talked with whoever was around my table at the time, and eventually caught a taxi back to the hostel a couple of hours later. Multiple times people asked me if I was "having a good/fun time," which of course bothered me somewhat, once you hear more than three people ask you that. I don't think I looked especially somber or anything, haha, but I was certainly out of my element, so I was never totally comfortable. At the end of the night, though, I was glad that I went and was able to be a part of all this: not only was I able to get to know a lot of different people throughout the night, I was able to see how my judgments of the "going out" lifestyle stacked up with reality (of course, one instance is just one instance, but yeah). Some things definitely seemed to clash with the authenticity that people had showed at the Kaospilots visit earlier that day, but for the most part, I think it was very helpful in cooling my judgments for those who enjoy going out. Indeed, the very way I talk about "them" makes it sound very judgmental, so I think it helped me begin to be able to sympathize with that crowd as well as cement my convictions that I've been called to a different lifestyle.

The last day, we visited the Viking Ship museum in Roskilde, where they had the remains of five viking ships that had been partly reconstructed. I'm going back there in April, where apparently they will have some more ships outside that you can actually walk on - of course, it's too snowy at the present time. There's really not too much to say about that day besides that we had a really great lunch again, haha. Then we came back to Copenhagen.

I wanted to end this by thanking you for reading this, as always! I also wanted to say that I will probably be changing this up somewhat: either making it more of a "Blake's Thoughts" type of thing (I'm all about the random philosophical musings), or maybe one thing I'm thankful for each day, or maybe I will give similar updates but just not as often and not on any regular basis. This stems from the fact that I've found writing this blog to be incredibly draining and as a chore rather than pleasure, for some reason: I very much want to keep people back home updated, but if I'm being honest, I think I have been doing it out of a perceived sense of obligation, and that's not how it should be. So, we'll see! I'll continue to let you know when I update it in the future, unless I make it a short daily thing - then you can just check it every day ;-)

Go West!

Fact: I have about an hour commute to and from the school every day via train, bus, and walking. Most Danes use public transportation (along with bikes, as I'm sure you're well aware) over cars. The trains and buses are quite reliable, though this snowy weather has given them some issues. It's certainly a change from the quick-paced lifestyle of America, where we really love the convenience of cars. Indeed, though my roommates last semester were more successful with it, I failed at using the DART bus to get to campus just because the car was too easy. But I've really come to enjoy the train/bus...it's a quiet time to start/end the day, and I can get some reading in, either for class or for pleasure.

So, last Thursday, my Psychology of Happiness class of 32 students left in a bus for Western Denmark. As our leaders, we had Helle, our wonderful teacher, and we had Anders, who is the director of DIS! He said that he "didn't come as the director, but as Helle's humble servant." The other Psychology of Happiness class, which we didn't interact with until the last day, was not so lucky, and they just had a couple of DIS staff members that may or may not be involved with psychology. We left at 7:30am sharp and had about a 3 1/2 hour bus ride to the town of Esbjerg, all the way on the western shore. Here's a map of our route on the 3-day trip:


View Larger Map

In Esbjerg, we came to a high school/business school. It's kind of hard to define it in our terms, because "high school" for Danes can go until they're 20 or so. In any case, I suppose the majority of the school is geared toward those going into business. However, the particular group that we were visiting was part of a so-called "project" that some people had started. This project was located inside the school, but the kids only take certain classes within this project, and they don't really interact with the other students too much. It's only an 8-week program (this is important: that's a short amount of time! keep that in mind.) and it consists of two classes: one about psychology/future planning and one about physiology/health. One of the leaders of the project had been a former psychologist, while the other main leader certainly must have had some psychology experience - he at least had the knowledge of some elements of "positive psychology." While I won't go into the details of positive psychology here, that is indeed what my "Psychology of Happiness" class is about. In short, though, positive psychology is an effort to not just fix what's wrong in a person, but try to figure out how they can live "better lives." There are plenty of ethical concerns with this (such as...well, who determines what is good/happy? Is it even our place to try to find the "path to happiness?" Is this happiness the ultimate goal in life anyway? ...you get the idea ;-) ), but that wasn't really part of the discussion. Essentially, the students in the project have come from very difficult backgrounds, such as being victims of rape, domestic violence, drug abuse, bullying, or even "being told by their teachers that they aren't good for anything." The last one surprised me a lot, just because I think it's hard for us to imagine a teacher telling any student that explicitly, but apparently it happens. Also, teachers usually don't intervene in bullying, and they might even spur it on, whether intentionally or not. There's just not the same type of education and training that we have in the U.S. about that kind of stuff, apparently.

Before I go on, I will say that my description of this visit can't really do it justice at all - it was something that had to be experienced, at least the last part. Anyway, the leaders of the project gave us some info about the project in general. The goal of the project is to "strengthen the skills and self-esteem of the students," which is truly what these kids need, for they have somehow been communicated that they have no skills and/or that they aren't worth anything. It's important to note that they don't accept a student into the program unless he/she really wants to change, and they also have to have the parents' consent. When they interview someone for the project, they are given a set of 15 or so questions for them to describe themselves, such as what they hope to gain from the project and what they hope to improve on. They are also asked to describe their relationships with friends and family. Apparently, these questions were a very affecting part of what draws students into the program, because they have never been asked these types of questions - i.e., those that really cut to the heart of things. This was partly communicated by a couple of students who actually went up and pretty much gave their testimonies of how the project turned their lives around. They revealed some very personal things about their past and then stated how different they truly felt now. Certainly, this seems very much like testimonies given for people's lives being transformed by entering into a relationship with Christ, and my guess is that it's easy for us to probably be desensitized to these kind of testimonies, to some degree, but it was still quite affecting for everyone. Following that, we had almost two hours to talk in small groups with some of the students at the school. We got to know some of their backgrounds, talked about some of our ideas for how the school might be able to be improved even more, and just chatted about some funny cultural differences.

I am sure I've left much out of that scatter-brained description of the visit, but suffice to say that one of my classmates was left "speechless" after it and later said that it really turned some ideas she had about life on their proverbial heads. Take that for what you will.

After this, we traveled a short distance (as you can see on the handy dandy map up there!) to the town of Ribe, which is the oldest town in Denmark...

...and I'm going to have to leave you on a cliffhanger there, because I just realized that I have a paper due in 12 hours which I had pretty much (11:40am) that I had totally forgotten about. Oops. Luckily, it's a reflection on this study tour, so I'm already primed for that.

I will finish telling about my trip at a later time. Thanks for reading!

Castle Pics

Here's a few pictures from the castle:

Something is rotten (and cold) in the state of Denmark...

Random fact: Danes are very conscious about conserving energy, both for reasons of the environment and their energy bills (energy stuff is much more expensive here)! They try to use as little water as possible, especially in the shower. The preferred method of taking showers is to turn the water on to rinse your body, turn it off while you apply shampoo/soap, and then turn it back on to wash off. I’m sure I’ll welcome the American way of taking showers when I get back, just in terms of not being cold in the middle of my shower, but there is something to be said for this method – I might feel a little bit guilty when I get back.

It’s been snowing a lot the past few days, especially since yesterday afternoon. It’s not incredibly cold as it was this past Saturday (about 20ºF was the high…now just around 32ºF), but the snow presents its own difficulties…just got through helping my host mom get out of the driveway because of the snow. There’s something you don’t often have to do in Texas!

This past Saturday, I went with a big group from DIS on 2 buses to the town of Elsinore and Krønborg Castle. This town and castle were the focal point of the famous Shakespeare play, Hamlet! After having a couple of hours to roam around the town, we were to meet at the castle at 1:30 for the tour to begin. Unfortunately, I heard the meeting place wrong: I thought that we were supposed to meet back where we were let off by the buses, and that we’d take the buses over to the castle. Apparently not, though, because when 1:30 rolled around, there were no people and no buses at the place where I though there should’ve been, haha. I had just been sitting around lazily eating my sandwich and trying to bide my time until we were supposed to meet, when really I should’ve been hiking it over to the castle. It actually wasn’t more than 10-15 minutes away from the middle of town, though it looked a little farther than that. After calling one of the authorities that was on the trip, she said that the tour was about to start, so I should get there as fast as I could, and hopefully they will still be there. Well, after running/quickly walking there (in 20º weather with boots on), I got there, and it seemed that the tours had already left. I talked to the ticket person, and she said that they had left, but since I told her that I was with that group, she let me have a ticket for free (the tickets had been with the DIS people, since I had already paid online) and go try to find them! I was quite thankful for this. Then, I told the lady taking the tickets my situation, and she gave me directions to where my group probably was. And indeed, in no time at all, I found my group! Only the caboose of the group saw me, so I just blended right in and went on with the tour.

Today is Wednesday, which means I have the day off, save for any field studies that I might have scheduled for the day. Today, I don’t have any at all, but tomorrow, everyone leaves for their respective “short study tour.” Here’s how it works: at DIS, you choose a different subprogram based on whatever your major is, and you take a corresponding class (called your “core class”). With this class, you go on this upcoming short study tour and then a long study tour at the end of February/beginning of March. This means that everyone can go on these nice study tours without interfering with any classes, etc. I’m sure a lot of study abroad programs do something similar to this, but I certainly think it’s a great way of doing it.

So, for my study tour, I’m going to Western Denmark tomorrow. We meet at 7:15am in Copenhagen and then will take a bus to a place called Esbjerg (I’ve never heard of it). There, we will apparently be participating in some type of actual positive psychology “intervention” program. I will have to give you more details once I’ve done it, because I’m not sure of many of the details; all I know is that whoever we’re doing this intervention with has actually expressed their own interest in participating in this, meaning that it’s not like that episode of The Office where Michael tricks and drags Meredith to the rehab clinic (and no, I don’t think this has to do with alcohol addicts, either…). In any case, I’ll find out soon. We’ll be there for 5 ½ hours, though, so it must be pretty intense. Then, we’ll go to the old town of Ribe, where we will stay in a hostel for the night. The next day, we’ll go to the town of Århus, do some things there and stay for the night in a hostel there. The last day, we will go to Roskilde (I’m just going to let you look up all these towns, if you want :) ), where we will attend a lecture on Danish “hygge” (a feeling of (an almost spiritual) togetherness…hard to translate to English, apparently) and the Viking history, then visit the Viking museum. Since I’m already taking a Nordic Mythology class, I will be going to this museum anyway, and I have a feeling that I’ll get plenty of history, but that’s alright – I’ll really know it by May, hopefully! Afterwards we will come back to Copenhagen by about 5:30 on Saturday evening.

I plan on updating this blog again on Sunday, hopefully, so that I can tell all about the trip. In the meantime, I will appreciate your prayers as I go west!

P.S. should you want my address, here it is:

Annexgårdsparken 43

3500 Værløse

Denmark