Making a Splash...

Part 10—Real Danes: Art and Family

Tuesday was my only technical class day this week because my class ventured deeper into Denmark on our study tour on Wednesday through Friday. So, after class on Tuesday, I headed to the Statens Museum for Kunst, the national art gallery, to take a look around. It wasn’t bad as art museums go, at least in my opinion. I didn’t really have much in the way of preconceptions about Danish art going into it, so I feel like I got a taste of something new. Throughout my entire tour of the museum, however, I felt like I was being watched and/or followed by the museum attendants (guards? I’m not really sure what the proper term for them is, but you know the people who wander around the exhibits and yell at unruly patrons) way more than was necessary and way more than the other people there. It was really kind of disconcerting and rather uncomfortable. It was almost as if they expected me to try to grab a painting and run, or maybe they thought I looked like the type that would try to sneak a flash photo or something, Heaven forbid. I’m slightly concerned that my run-in with the American Embassy has put me on some kind of world-wide watch list—especially if I have my camera out, as that is clearly my weapon of choice. I guess I’ll have to watch out…

Anyway, after a lovely afternoon of art (and paranoia), I ventured by Metro to the suburbs of Copenhagen, where I met the mother of my Danish Visiting Family. She walked me from the station to her family’s home for dinner. We chatted and she showed my around their home, which is one of five apartments in what was once a very large home in the historic suburb/section of Copenhagen. As Danish houses go, I am told that theirs is rather on the large side, particularly for its location in the city, although by American standards it was far from huge. It was a very nice home and still had a lot of the original architectural details, which were really cool. I really like the family. The parents, Hanne and Bjark, have three girls aged 9, 12, and 15. I only got to meet the younger two, but that was still fun. They are both learning English in school, although the 9 year old only started this year. The Twelve year old was really shy about using English, but she could understand our English conversation for the most part (far better than I could understand their Danish ones, I’m absolutely sure) and I got her to talk to me a little bit. She showed me her English text book, and that was kind of cool to see. But anyway, we ate dinner and I quite enjoyed getting a taste both of good cooking and real Danish life.

Part 11—Odense and Århus

Wednesday morning, bright and early at 6:15, my class met and loaded onto our chartered bus for our study tour to Odense and Århus. Overall, I thought the trip was a lot of fun. I enjoyed getting the chance to actually get to know the people in my class, since there were a lot of people I hadn’t gotten to know just sitting in class. Our First stop was in Odense, which is on the island of Funen and was the birthplace and childhood home of Hans Christian Andersen. We started off with a lecture at an Immigrant clinic and then took a walking tour of Odense. Even though it’s Denmark’s 3^rd largest city, apparently, it really isn’t that big and it has a much more homey feeling to it with quaint little streets and an H. C. Andersen Museum. I’ll post pictures.

After the tour, lunch and a trip to the museum, we then hopped back on the bus and continued on to Århus, which is in Jutland. We checked into our hotel, which was creatively called Cab-Inn as a tribute to its rooms’ resemblance to ship or train sleeping cabins. (At least that’s what I’m guessing given the oh-so-spacious nature of our rooms, which had two smaller-than-twin beds and a fold down bunk bed as well as an unbelievably tiny bathroom that I think pictures will describe better than I can. Really though, when the hotel’s slogan is “Sleep in cheap luxury,” how much can you really expect? Anyway, after checking in we had some down time during which time I’m pretty sure every single person on the trip watched the episode of friends that was on television, as we were all excited to find an American program on Danish TV. We then ate dinner at a café behind the hotel, which was pretty good. They fancy desert that everyone got was also fun, particularly because we had to guess at what exactly everything was. We then rounded out the first day with a trip to the ARoS modern art museum, which I think was one of the most fun art museums I’ve been too, and you all know my thoughts on modern art. The entire bottom floor was a series of 9 rather creepy rooms connected by dark hallways and each containing some weirdly-lit, optical illusion-y display, one of which was the coolest mirror room ever. It was fun, if only because it was kind of creepy and cool.

Alrighty, moving on to day two! We began the day with a series of lectures and tours at the Århus Infectious Disease Clinic and research facility. It was interesting for the most part, but you probably don’t care, so I’ll conclude by reiterating my previous request for all of you to please not get AIDS. We then had a scavenger hunt in the city, which was not very well planned out for the one hour timeframe, but still gave me the opportunity to see some interesting sites like the Viking “museum” that was in the basement of a large bank and the two guys in a kennel in the middle of the shopping street. (They were protesting something but I was too distracted by the fact that they were in a kennel to figure out exactly what they were protesting.) Once that was over, we had the rest of the evening free to explore the city and the Australia festival that was happening that night. (I don’t know what it is about Danish festivals, but they all seem to be about other countries…) I didn’t find this festival nearly as eventful as the Carnival, but I did have a rather awkward encounter with an African man, who was clearly drunk, and approached me as he left the concert area, talking to me and the two girls with me, repeatedly shaking my hand. That was interesting and only slightly intimidating…

The third and final day was completely free of academic visits, leaving us time of other educational/fun activities. Like the Steno Science and Medical History Museum, which had interesting exhibits like a giant fuzzy uterus that you could climb inside and take a nap in. We also enjoyed the Sculpture by the Sea exhibit, which was, believe it or not, by the sea. It was a nice day, so , in addition to the lovely sculpture (One of which was a whale-icoptor! It was cool.), there was a great view of the coastline. I highly recommend it. We then rounded out our trip with a lovely canoeing expedition, which, as some of you may know, concluded with me falling into the lovely Danish lake. Whoops. My canoeing partner and I (neither of us had any real idea of what we were doing…she is afraid of water and my only canoeing experiences have been in rivers which have distinct currents to push you in roughly the right direction.) finally made it back to the docking area and were climbing out. As I got up however, the boat started moving backwards, depositing me in the lake, camera and all, left clinging onto the edge until I was pulled out. It was ridiculous. Seriously, who falls into the lake when they are canoeing in Denmark? Apparently I do.

Part 12—Sweden

Saturday, I ventured to Malmö, Sweden. That was a fun time, despite the fact that most of the shops were closed. We still found the Turning Torso Building, which is definitely one of the coolest buildings I’ve ever seen, especially up close. (I will have pictures of that too.) We also found this Walmart-like store called Maxi on our way to the Torso, which was the first of its kind that I had encountered on my journey. It was fun to explore as they had lots of junk and everything was cheaper in Sweden than in Denmark. They also had a book section, in which I found a Swedish copy of the 7^th Harry Potter book for 30 Swedish Krona (which are more than 7 to the dollar). This seem suspicious as all of the other Swedish HP books were about 100 or 150 Krona, but I figured that would make a cool Swedish souvenir for like $4. So, Now I can officially say that I have been to Sweden outside of the Stockholm airport. Other than that, there really weren’t any major mishaps or exciting encounters to relay to you. So I think I will conclude here.

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