Friday, May 31, 2013

Distortion Day 1

Wednesday was a relatively relaxing day until it was time to get distorted. Class was uneventful in the morning, and it seemed to fly by. We were going to have Taco Tuesday last night, but by the time we got to the store we were too late and the store was already closed. Taco Wednesday would work all the same, so for lunch/dinner we made scrumptious homemade tacos. We decided to ditch the shells and just have a taco salad with corn chips, but it was good all the same. You really can't go wrong with homemade guacamole.

Now it was time to get distorted. There is an annual music festival in Copenhagen called Distortion. This "party-tsunami" is basically a giant party in the streets of Copenhagen. Thousands of people come from all over to dance and drink in the streets while listening to DJs on every corner. Distortion runs from Wednesday until Saturday and is in a different part of Copenhagen every night, which is probably a good thing considering the amount of trash that accumulates after just one night. Following the street parties are after parties at various bars throughout the area, but it usually costs a lot of money to get in. It is still just as fun to hang out in the streets, so we decided to skip the after parties, especially since we have school the next day.

Among other outrageous adventures, we danced, we drank, we met people in costumes, we met some interesting English fellows, and we went home dazed. I'm not sure how to describe the night in any other way, but let's just say it was distorted.




Thursday, May 30, 2013

Love is in the Air

In class we talked about how one's background and country of birth dictates many of your life experiences. We completed an online simulator of what our life would be like if our country of birth was determined using a lottery. I would highly recommend checking out this website and spinning the lottery of life to see how your circumstances might have been different if you were born in a different country. 
http://thelotteryoflife.co.uk/

After class we went to get lunch at Flottenheimer, an amazing cafe with a student discount. It had free wireless Internet which was called "Love is in the Air" and there was a great, modern feel to the place. I had a pesto chicken salad with olive tapenade, carrots, and tomatoes. I practically licked the plate it was so good! I will definitely be back here whether it is to grab a bite to eat or to study with a cup of coffee.

I'm slowly getting more and more behind on sleep. Between biking at least 6 miles a day, walking around Copenhagen, late nights of homework, and going out with friends, one of these days I'm going to just lie down on the side of the road to take a nap. Not to mention, the past few days my eyes have been very red, and it looks like I may have developed conjunctivitis, aka pink eye. Either that or my eyes are super dry, itchy, pussing, and crusty for no reason. I might have allergies or it could be from the lack of sleep, but either way it isn't pleasant. I stopped wearing contacts and have been rinsing out my eyes as best as possible, but it was time to give my eyes rest and take a nice long, much needed nap. 

I woke up to a loud banging on my door and at least 15 text messages. Lindsay, Natalie, and I had made plans to go on a bike ride and then to a coffee shop while Natalie was in a meeting. For once I was happy to be woken up so I didn't sleep the day away.

After biking around and having no luck finding a coffee shop with wireless Internet, we found a place called The Living Room. This might be my new favorite spot in Copenhagen. It is a little coffee shop and cafe with an upstairs section that has bars stools and a counter. After finding no seating at the counter, Lindsay and I trekked to the dark and mysterious downstairs room. We found a large open room with big comfy chairs of all different shapes and sizes. It had a very warm, welcoming atmosphere, and we sat down to blog and journal while waiting for Natalie. 

After our phones and computers were drained of their power and our hands were cramped up from writing, we decided to head home. 

Now that we didn't have to stay up and write a paper until the crack of dawn, it was a relaxing night of dinner and laundry. I really don't like doing laundry. It is such a hassle to drag all your clothes to the laundry room, which is 3 flights upstairs in my case. Then you have to wait for a washing machine to be available, or drag all your clothes back downstairs. Once a machine is available, you have to wait for your load to be done and pray that no one will take your laundry out of the washer to make room for their clothes. After too many hours of running up and down the stairs to check the status of our laundry, the dryers still weren't working and left our clothes soaking wet. Good thing the directions on the washing machine were in English, just kidding they couldn't make it that easy on us. Luckily we found some directions on the wall that told us to dump out the water from the dryer that accumulates in a water container. After reading the directions and checking the container, we found that it was completely full. No wonder our clothes were soaking wet!

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

En God Barndom

After staying up past 1am, I made the final edits on a paper that was due the next morning at 9am. Nothing like procrastinating until the last few hours. It is by no means perfect, you can tell I did it at the last minute, and my arguments aren't always fully supported, but this is what I came up with.


En god barndom is an empowering model that provides general parameters for a fulfilling childhood; however, it is unrealistic to expect these principles to be appropriate and applicable in every community and every culture. Displaced, migrant, refugee, asylum-seeking, and exploited children come from a variety of countries and backgrounds, not all of which are necessarily governed by a democratic system. Many of these children aren’t born and raised with the same basic rights and freedoms as those in the Nordic countries, so imposing the principles and views of en god barndom on these children could potentially cause distress and anxiety in these children when attempting to adapt to a new culture.

When working with people who have different backgrounds and experiences than your own, it is important to demonstrate an acceptance and an ability to interact despite cultural differences, in other words, being culturally competent. Part of being culturally competent is recognizing differences and working with people at whatever level they are at. Even in the United States there is great variation from city to city, town to town. The experiences and backgrounds of my classmates is a perfect example of how even in one country there is great diversity. Children on the move all have a unique and different story to tell, which would make it difficult to apply one universal developmental philosophy while still respecting individual experiences.

If principles of en god barndom were implemented starting from birth or a very young age, children would be able to adapt and develop under this philosophy. Oftentimes, children on the move are transitioning into a new country at an age where it would be difficult to adapt to changes in a developmental philosophy. Children who are raised with more restrictions on individual freedom would have a difficult time adapting to a culture where they now had the opportunity to dictate their own play time, and the idea of leisure time may be a foreign concept. If a child is coming from an upbringing with little structure or parental support, the child may understand his or her own freedoms, but struggle with the democracy component of this philosophy when participating in the greater community. In a country where adults are hardly free from over-control and over-supervision by the government, how can we work towards emancipation and relieving children of similar controls when the same adults don’t have these freedoms? If en god barndom was universally adopted, these background differences might not cause as much of a problem; however, it is unrealistic to transition into using this philosophy universally due to our vast differences in cultures. It is not a matter of whether it should be implemented, but whether it can be implemented.

It isn’t realistic to implement en god barndom as a universal model in the childcare system not only because of the barriers in cultural differences, but also because not all nations are as financially secure as the Nordic countries, or their priorities aren’t in the same order. Countries like the United States may have the funding, but still choose to place less priority on our educational system and therefore limit the amount of funding that is necessary to provide high standards in childcare that would equate to the en god barndom philosophy. In the article “Fishing Naked,” it is mentioned that Nordic scholars don’t understand why people would put up with mediocre childcare centers. In a large country like the United States that is arguably losing sight of the people’s voices, it appears that there is little that can be done to improve the standard of childcare without personal adverse effects. Other countries that are not financially secure do not have the luxury of implementing these principles because they don’t have the resources to provide childcare centers like Gadevang.

Through simple observation, you can clearly see the joy and happiness expressed by the children at Gadevang. Not only are children provided the opportunity to play the games they want and do the things they want to do, but they also have unconditional support when it is needed. It was inspiring to watch a little girl leading her crying friend into the classroom to seek additional support. It is these life lessons of compassion for others and asking for help that you can’t learn in a book, but instead learn through a philosophy similar to en god barndom.

All countries should strive for implementing principles of a good childhood while recognizing that the definition of a "good childhood" is subjective and varies from person to person. The five components of en god barndom may work for the Nordic countries, but these principles are not universal which is why it is important to work with the child to recognize how their childhood can be improved on an individual level.

Søernes Sejlklub


Our tummies were grumbling after the Rosenborg Castle tour, so we went to search for some lunch. After indecisive searching, we came across a little grab-and-go shop that was all homemade. And there was a student discount which made it even better! I got a roast beef, parmesan cheese, and sun dried tomato salad.

Lindsay and Natalie are in a different volunteer group to complete the field work requirement for our class, so we soon parted and I was off to Søernes Sejlklub. Søernes Sejlklub is a sailing club that offers boys and girls ages 8 to 16 alternative outdoor activities. The sailing club aims to bridge the gap between neighborhoods and Copenhagen's beautiful lakes.


A small group of students from class met at the main offices in Søpavillonen, a white building on the waterfront of Copenhagen's lakes. Without any prior description of what we might be doing, I walked around the building with Allie wondering what was in store for us. After walking a circle around the building we finally found one of the staff members who gave us a tour of the pavilion. Still unsure exactly what our plan was for the day, we were led into the shed and started grabbing kayaks. I was expecting to go over safety procedures or organize supply closets, but instead we spent the remainder of the afternoon kayaking around the lakes. We went through a tunnel to the other part of the lake and then around an island. It wasn't as warm as previously in the day, I just had to make sure I didn't capsize into the freezing water.

After our kayaking adventure, we barbecued at the waterfront and enjoyed the evening. We were in charge of forming burgers out of the ground beef and preparing the salad. Most of the burgers weren't perfect ovals and the salad was thrown together, but we must have done something right because everything was delicious and we all left incredibly full. Even though it was only 5 hours, I was already experiencing separation anxiety and I went to hang out with Natalie and Lindsay. Once again we went on an adventure around the block in search of a midnight snack.



Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Rosenborg Castle

Copenhagen is a lot like Burlington in that the weather channel says it is going to be sunny and beautiful when it is really cloudy and rainy or when there is supposed to be thunder and lightning it ends up being sunny and beautiful. We were anticipating another rainy day to stay inside, but instead we got a beautiful, sunny day. Starting our day at 9am, we biked to the city center to make another quick shopping trip. Not quite sure how to spend our day, we decided to be tourists and visit the King's Garden and Rosenborg Castle. The King's Garden is a park around the castle where many children come to play and students come to study or take a break between classes. It was still relatively early, but there were already people starting to enjoy the beautiful weather by lying outside.

 One of the lions at the front of the castle has a tongue that is on a hinge. There is a rumor that the son of Christian IV - who was quite the partier - had a spare key hidden in the mouth of the lion. Many of the tourists come and take a picture with their hand in the lion's mouth looking for the spare key, I was no exception.

After walking around the outside of the building, we decided to take the tour and have a look on the inside. It was a self-guided tour where you could use a NeoReader to scan a barcode and read about the various artifacts. One of the most interesting architectural components of the building was an audio channel in the floor. Christian IV put an audio channel in the floor of the Winter Room after enlarging Rosenborg in 1613-1615. The audio channel is a hole in the ground that could play "hidden" music for the royal chapel.

Not only did we learn a lot about the castle and some of the history of Denmark, but we also had a lot of fun doing so. Natalie found her boyfriend - a bust of Frederik III - and Lindsay met another friend. We even found a room full of mirrors that we weren't sure what to make of. Not to mention, Lindsay almost walked straight into a glass wall without realizing that it was there.

  A room formally known as "The Secret" is the lowest of Christian IV's three toilets. The drain led to the moat which surrounds the Palace. During drier periods there was poor water circulation in the moat, resulting in an unpleasant smell.



A beautiful artifact in the Treasury was Christian IV's crown. This crown was made during 1595-1596 by Dirich Fyring. It is gold with enamel, table-cut stones and pearls, and weighs 2895 grams (6.38 pounds). The crown was last used at Frederik III's coronation in 1648. Before having it modernized for the coronation, he had to redeem the crown from a banker in Hamburg because Christian IV had pawned it when he was having financial problems.

 Everything in the Palace was beautiful, detailed, and intricate. Rosenborg Palace is another sightseeing location where you could spend countless hours without getting the chance to see everything or learn all the history there is to learn.










Rainy Sunday Afternoon


By the time I woke up, half the day was gone and the rain and gloom had taken over the previously sunny sky. We met up with a group from our building to take a tour of the Carlsberg brewery. The tour took us through the stable of horses that are often used for tours around the city. We were then led through various exhibits about the history of beer, the world's largest collection of beer bottles, and the history of Carlsberg. The tour ended at the bar where we are able to sample some of their products. 
 Carlsberg, which was founded in 1847 by J.C. Jacobsen, was at the time just outside Copenhagen. The Carlsberg logo was drawn for the Carlsberg pilsner in 1904 by Thorvald Bindesbøll. In 1904, Carlsberg became the first Danish brewery to be appointed a supplier to the Royal Danish Court.

At the end of the tour we had lunch at the brewery. There is nothing like sausage, potato salad, a good beer, and good friends.