Unskyld...

Well it seems I have failed again at this blogging thing but I never promised anything spectacular. Here’s a quick run through of what I’ve been up to lately.

For this semester’s short study tour I found myself heading to Odense and Svendborg, Denmark. Odense is famous for being the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen and therefore devotes itself to his existence. We went to his museum and did a walking tour revolving around his life. On the way to Svendborg we stopped at one of Denmark’s open prisons. The prison system here is rather different than the US system. No one ever gets a full life sentence and in some establishments (as in the case of this prison) prisoners can come and go as they please either working or going to school during the day as long as they are back by lock-in at night. I believe this was my favorite aspect of the tour and was a nice example of different cultural perspectives on punishment and rehabilitation in the prison system. I’m pretty Svendborg is only known for being a cute town on the island of Funen. We did a sort of scavenger hunt around the town and it was all right but nothing extensive. And I managed to make some new great new friends! (We even had a taco party together a few weeks ago.)

Recently, my Danish class took a trip to Roskilde, which is south of Copenhagen to go to the Roskilde Cathedral. It’s the burial place of the royal family and has been around for a longgggg time. The oldest and original church (which no longer exists) dated back to 960. While there we also had some fastelavnsboller aka delicious pastries for the holiday, Fastelavn. It’s a sort of cross between Mardi Gras and Halloween. In the middle ages, black cats were put into barrels and people beat the hell out of them…to rid their town of the evil spirits that inhabited the cats. Now people beat fake barrels filled with candy and fruit (piñata style) and kids often go around dressed in costumes and ask for candy. Young people put on costumes and get really, really drunk. When in Rome…


For my Photojournalism class we had to choose a subject at work to photograph in the beginning of the semester and photograph them multiple times for our final project. I chose to do the head pizza guy in my little town and it has turned out to be a lot of fun. While the assignments are sometimes tricky and I end up hanging around for a few hours trying to get the good shots, I’ve made friends with everyone who works there. This is interesting as most of them don’t speak any English and my Danish is somewhat weak. Also, they like to feed me every time I’m there which means I get to try some different things on their menu and they refuse to let me pay. Hopefully the end result will earn me a good grade!


The past few days have been filled with midterms and paper writing. Spring break is approaching which means a lot of last minute cramming. Though I learned from last semester that it’s best to get as much as possible done before break because when you come back afterward it tends to be 10 times as busy. So far I think I’m enjoying this semester a little bit better in the class aspect. While I enjoyed my classes last semester, I think I’m having more fun now. I think it also has a lot to do with my comfort level and not being under the stress of being in a new place and school. If anything I’m concerned how it will be when I’m back in the US and have to finish my final year at AU. I’m not really sure how I will handle it.


Well to wrap up, I have approximately 10 more days until spring travel break begins. For the first week I’m off to Prague and Cesky Krumlov with my European Culture and History class. My other tentative travel plans involve Amsterdam and Brussels.

All my love….Oh yeah...we also managed to see one of the largest taxidermy collections in Denmark while on our short study tour...