DAY 6, THURSDAY, JANUARY 17th
Today was the first day of DIS classes!! Today was a pretty short day as I only had two classes. My first class, Holocaust and Genocide, didn’t start until 1:15 so I just had a slow morning at home eating breakfast and taking my time getting ready. I took the bus into the city around 12 and only got confused twice while trying to find my classroom. Class was short as our professor just introduced the course to us and we did brief introductions. One difference that has been pointed out in Danish classrooms is that the professors here aim to be on an even level with students and one way that manifests is by calling professors by their first names. I had a short break between classes in which I did my readings for my Friday classes and then I had my second class of the day, Cyberpsychology. Cyberpsychology is my “core course” so that is the class I already have met with once. This class was still some more introductory information with our first dip into what cyberpsychology is and what we will be studying. We ended class discussing the ethical dilemma of: “If your information is available publicly online is it okay for researchers to use it?” It was interesting to hear that our class’ consensus differed from what is currently being practiced in the research world. My second class ended at 5:45 so I headed home afterwards for dinner. Tonight there was another world cup handball match so my host family watched the game together after dinner. It was Denmark vs. Norway so it was a big rivalry game and it ended up being pretty exciting with Denmark winning by a few goals.
DAY 7, FRIDAY, JANUARY 18th
Day 2 of classes!! Typically at school Fridays are the most awaited days of the week but it was weird this week being in a weird schedule and without much work so it didn’t really feel like Friday. Today I also had two classes but unlike Thursday, both of my classes today were early. I had Danish Language and Culture at 8:30 AM which meant I had to catch the 7:30 bus (for reference at 7:30 it is still completely pitch black without a hint of sun). Despite the early start class was really interesting as we did some introductory language phrases and some major cultural differences that may be useful to us in every day life. One thing our professor really emphasized throughout class was that the notion of “political correctness” or “safe spaces” doesn’t exist here and they really can’t understand the importance of it in the U.S. Her opinion was that Danes see all of the poverty, poor healthcare, and inequalities in the U.S. and can’t understand why people are worried about trigger words when there are homeless people the next block over. That was an interesting perspective especially coming from a college campus where we have a lot of emphasis on safe spaces, trigger warnings, political correctness, etc. Although I understand the Danes perspectives of these topics in the U.S., coming from there I see it as individual people in college campuses or wherever can’t overthrow decades and centuries of systematic oppression, inequality, poverty, or policies but we can do our part to ensure individuals are safe & comfortable so they can thrive in our environment. We also discussed how Danes do not like small talk or unnecessary politeness (“Bless you” after sneezing for example). We learned our first couple of Danish phases but more so I learned that this language is crazy difficult to learn and the pronunciation makes no sense. It will be very challenging to learn the language but hopefully I will pick up a few things and living with a host family will help!
I had my second class of the day right after which was Criminology and Criminal Justice in Scandinavia. I’m super excited for this class because the Scandinavian justice system is starkly different from the U.S. punitive system so it will be interesting to learn about an entirely different way of managing crime and prisons. This class we also just did some introductions and learned a little more about what the class will be like. After class I went back to the studenterhuset (student coffee shop/lounge) to eat my lunch and relax. A little later in the afternoon I met up with someone I met earlier in the week and we decided to walk up the Round Tower which has a great view at the top!! Sun is hard to come by during the VERY cloudy winter so today it was a real treat having clear, blue skies (though, don’t be fooled, it was still cold). Unknowingly, we timed it right at sunset so there were some great views at the top of the tower! If you’re interested, some background info on the tower: The Round Tower, or Rundetaarn, was finished in 1642 by King Christian IV as a platform for the university observatory and for centuries was the center of Danish astronomy. Although we couldn’t get in today, there is still a functioning observatory at the top so it is thus the oldest functioning observatory in Europe. Within the tower there is a spiral ramp that you climb to the top that twists 7.5 times around a hollow core in the middle; it leads to great 365 views of the city.
Once we got down from the tower I headed to the bus stop to take the bus home. I got home just in time for dinner and after dinner we realized that I knew how to play one of my host family’s favorite card games so we ended up playing a couple rounds of that!
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