#core course week

Before really diving into this post I really should apologize for not posting for a while. Two weeks ago was Core Course week, and so I had the week off from all of my classes except from my core course. When I came back last week and into this week, classes really came back strong with assignments and I was, well, not prepared to say the very least.

So here was my week, two weeks ago:

From the very beginning, everyone at DIS was saying that core course week comes at the perfect time for students and to be completely honest I didn’t believe them. I didn’t think that I would feel any different from core course week. And I really didn’t feel any different until actually going to Uppsala with my core course and getting way for a few days. After being in a new place, even just an hour outside of Stockholm I felt rejuvenated and ready to continue all my studies (well, kinda). But really my core course week was pretty amazing and it just confirmed that I chose the right core course for me. But let me start from the beginning so you can know why I enjoyed last week so much.

During core course week, you don’t have any other class except your core course (makes sense from the name right), so I met with only my Gender, Equality, and Sexuality in Scandinavia course all week. For Monday and Tuesday we were in Stockholm, Wednesday we had off, and then on Thursday we left to go to Uppsala for a few days. Every day (except for Wednesday) we had workshops, sessions, and activities relating to our course in different yet very important ways.

The week kicked off on Monday with watching tv shows and films all day. Rough day, I know. But in all actuality, this day was very informative as it gave us a concrete examples of queer lives in Scandinavia as all that we watched depicted different challenges and issues that queer people have faced throughout history. What I really took away from this day was the fact of using a different form of teaching for us to learn rather than assigning reading. At least for me, I have a hard time really grasping the entire picture when I just read an article so watching movies that depicted queer relationships, issues such as coming out, acceptance or AIDS, as well as a more real depiction of people’s lives helped me understand the content of what I have been reading in class.

On Tuesday we met with the Woman’s Network for fika to talk about how the organization does not only help women in Stockholm but also youth and newly arrived people. It was interesting to hear just all the different aspects and activities that the organization focuses on to help people. In the afternoon we participated in a body movement workshop and this was really interesting to say the least. During the workshop we were supposed to connect to our bodies and feel more in touch with ourselves and it was really an experience to be had.

Wednesday was then a complete free day for me as I had absolutely no plans besides studying all day in preparation for the upcoming week when I would have all my classes again. And while I did do a lot of reading, it was a very relaxing day to have in the middle of the week.

Thursday afternoon we then left for Uppsala where we met with a lot of different organizations. Right when we arrived in Uppsala we attended a workshop with RFSU, an organization dedicated to promoting positive sex and relationships through sex education. When I found out about we were doing this workshop I didn’t entirely know what to think or expect but I didn’t think that at 20 I would attend a sex education workshop or that I would enjoy it as much as I did. What this organization did was teach about sex in such a way that no one felt uncomfortable but rather well-informed and left the room knowing that we had learned something. For the rest of the day we checked into our hostel and then explored Uppsala (which I will talk more about in a later post) before having a group dinner.

Friday was probably our most scheduled day as we first met with an antidiscrimination organization in the morning to learn about what the organization in general does but also to learn more about the different types of discrimination that exist in Sweden and the laws to combat it. We then went to lunch as a group, had a bit of free time and then went on a guided tour of the University Museum.

The important thing about Friday that I have not mentioned is that it was the beginning of Pride in Uppsala but not just any Pride but Welcome Out, a Pride for those who have a more difficult time with coming out such as newly arrived people, international students, and any migrants. Because it was Welcome Out weekend it meant that we also participated in different activities and sessions being held over the weekend, starting with Friday. So Friday night we watched a documentary about how Welcome Out got started and then attended a session with RFSL, an LGBTQ+ organization that supports and fights for rights.

Saturday was the shortest day of the week with us only having one activity, a sex worker session with RFSL and then lunch before hopping on a bus and going back to Stockholm. And although it was one of the shorter days, it was also one of the more interesting with learning about sex workers and their rights, or in a way lack thereof, and to actually hear from some.

Here are some things that didn’t make the cut but were fun and great experiences:

We took a ferry from Copenhagen to Jutland, bus and all!

Went to a playground in Århus as a part of our night off

Went to Århus’ Dome of Visions by the harbor! Highly recommend!

Ate at a Michelin-starred restaurant and embarrassed ourselves by asking for ranch for our pizza

 Ate ox at the ARos Museum for dinner when we all thought it was steak

Stayed/Explored the ARos Museum for close to NINE hours!

The hotel that we stayed in was modeled after a cruise ship, so it was cramp, to say the least

Got lost several times with our small groups trying to find our hotel at the end of the night (Århus is small but confusing to navigate!)

CCW:  Kunstforeningen GL Strand

On the second day of the core course week, we went to the Kunstforeningen GL Strand. It’s a historic contemporary and modern art museum in the center of Copenhagen. The feature exhibition that we focused on were: Jesper Christiansen – Touchstone and Yazan Khalili: No One Saw the Colors.

The primary focus personally was Jesper Christiansen’s exhibition that spanned two floors. As someone who isn’t familiar with visual art history, I was excited to go to an exhibit and apply our theoretical work. 

Walking around the exhibit with our sketchbooks to create imitations of the artwork in front of us was a new experience I never had. 

Christiansen’s work is heavily inspired by the experience of reading and his influences are referenced heavily within the pieces. He uses typography and image perspective paired with curatorial sceneography to recreate the experience for the viewer.

The viewer is very much a participant in the overall effectiveness of the work as a whole. You are invited to touch the texts of inspiration and gaze upon the paintings to simulate the same mood in which they were created. 

For the second part of my core course week, the graphic design classes took a three-day tour around Western Denmark, hitting up cities such as Odense, Kolding, and Aarhus! Each day was packed from around 8am-8pm, so I’ll be sharing some highlights from each day for you. 

Day 4: Dragged my suitcase through the snow to our bus bright and early (sun wasn’t even up yet!) Our first stop was Sanderum Kirke, a church from the 1200s that has some *controversial* murals inside. We sat and sketched while enjoying the stillness around us.

After lunch and wandering the city of Odense for a little, we headed to Brandts Media Museum, where we learned about the history of printmaking in Denmark and explored a multitude of exhibits. The one that stuck out to me the most was a simplistic white room on the top floor of the museum with a glass tank housing an axolotl, and it was a commentary on the impacts sustainability will have on future generations. 

Day 5: After a yummy breakfast at our hostel, we got on the bus and headed to the city of Kolding to go to the Trapholt Kunstmuseum, a modern art museum. From there, we went to a delicious smørrebrød place for lunch before we walked to the Designskolen Kolding, a school focusing on textile and advertising design. A student there gave us a tour of the facilities and it was amazing to see the (busy) lives and thought processes of design students in Denmark.

Afterwards, we got back on the bus to head to Aarhus, Denmark’s second largest city and one of the European Capitals of Culture for 2017! Our first stop was LYNFabrikken, a co-working space in the city. There are a bunch of similar workspaces like these back in Atlanta so it wasn’t a new concept to me, but listening to the co-founder talk about the benefits of having a small network of officemates who can vouch for your abilities when new opportunities arise made me appreciate the co-working concept a lot more. They also have a cafe within the office that is open to the public, and they talked about how they designed this to be an extremely inviting, work-friendly, and chat-inducing environment. They also have a rad rooftop lounge that we braved the cold to take a peek at. 

After a really long day, we had a group dinner at this restaurant downtown and wow were we in for a treat; the food was delicious, the wine was nice, and everyone had really warmed up to each other and gotten to know one another a lot better by then. The professor for my studio, Jeanette, came along with us on the study tour, and it was wonderful chatting with her outside of class time. She even joined us for drinks at a bar during both nights on our tour, which is something that you wouldn’t find a ton of American professors casually doing.

Day 6: Our last day! We spent the whole day in Aarhus, and we first stopped by the Dansk Plakatmuseum, a museum full of vintage and contemporary Danish posters. After so many different art exhibits, it was nice to see something so consistent, and after a brief tour we sat down to sketch in our visual journals. 

Afterwards, we stopped by Aarhus Rådhus, a modernist town hall that was designed down to the most minute detail by Arne Jacobsen. Then we walked to the ARoS Museum, which is the largest modern art museum in the Nordic countries and possibly my favorite visit of the whole study tour. There are incredible exhibits here; I recommend starting from the bottom floor and working your way to the top. It’s also where you’ll find the rainbow panorama that everyone instagrams photos of. I recommend taking some photos but then doing some laps and enjoying the panorama gadget-free to experience the incredible views and tricks it plays on your eyes. 

Core Course Week is the first travel break during study abroad. Each student  spends time traveling with one class. We meet with people all over Europe, learning about the realities of our subject. It’s nice to get out of the classroom and explore!

I am taking cross cultural communications, and this week we focused on minority voices in Denmark and Sweden, and observed how different cultures interact. We specifically focused on the refugees who are crossing Europe, attempting to reach Sweden and other countries who are more accepting of refugees. Current events created a more nuanced conversation about the interactions between different cultures.    

Day 1

Image By:  The Agency for Palaces and Cultural Properties via http://www.christiansborg.dk/english/the-palace/the-riding-ground-complex/ 

Chrisitiansborg Palace is the seat of the Danish Parliament. For the first stop of core course week, we met with Marie Krarup, who is a member of the Dansk Folkeparti. DF is a conservative political party, that wants to limit the number of immigrants who can enter Denmark. They believe that non Western immigrants who come to Denmark refuse to assimilate into Danish culture, and as a result, Danishness, everything from the language to the welfare state, is being destroyed. 

After lunch, we visited DR Byen, the headquarters of the Danish national broadcasting corporation. We talked with Martin Krasnik, a reporter for DR. Krasnik takes a much more liberal stand on immigration than Krarup. He said that Denmark is in a time of transition, and it could take years for groups of people to become fully integrated. One way to help that process is for journalists to show how faceted the language is. You shouldn’t gloss over the fact that people have different beliefs. Understanding those differences is an important way to resolve conflict. 

After a long day, I stopped and got coffee! The first day of core course week was exhausting, but very interesting. It set the stage for the rest of the week, and provided a lot of food for thought. 

Day 2

We started the day meeting with the Islamic Faith Society. We talked about Muslims in Europe, and growing xenophobia. Because Danishness is such a big topic for DF, I asked the speaker what he thought it meant to be Danish. He replied, “When you are away from your country, and you miss it and wish to be home.” The question of Danishness really interests me, because who decides who is Danish? Everyone we spoke to considered themselves Danish, yet they were not always considered Danish by others.  

Lunch was traditional Danish smørrebrød and ice cream!

After lunch we went on a walking tour of Nørrebro, an area of the Copenhagen that houses a lot of immigrants. 

We finished the tour at Assistens Kirkegård, the cemetary where Hans Christian Andersen is buried. 

Day 3

We were given Wednesday off, in order to pack for the upcoming trip and get some rest. I had some business in the city, but first I stopped by Sankt Peders Bageri. This tiny bakery is famous for onsdagsnegl. The name literally means Wednesday snail, and it is derived from the spiral shape of the pastry. It was delicious -- I have a new Wednesday tradition!

Day 4

Image Via: http://www.enkivillage.com/copenhagen-to-malmo.html 

Early on Thursday we left Copenhagen and began the short journey to Malmø, Sweden. To get to Sweden, we took the Øresund Bridge, which was opened in 2000. The bridge was our first example of Danish/Swedish cross cultural communications. Both countries worked together to connect the two countries.  

We visited the Jewish synagogue in Malmø. Malmø is one of the most diverse cities in the world, yet there are a lot of tensions between different communities. The rabbi spoke of the growing conflict between the Muslim and Jewish communities. Many Jews are leaving Malmø for Stockholm or Israel, and the Jewish community in Malmø is slowly dying.  

After the synagogue, I was ready for lunch! We stopped at a little pizzeria, and I had pesto pizza with tomatoes and arugula. It was delicious.  

We visited the Feministik Initative (FI), a political party dedicated to promoting equality for all. Although Sweden is called one of the most equal countries in the world, they still see a lot of work for Sweden. They want to ensure equal pay, reduce the number of rapes in Sweden, and increase the number of men who take paternity leave. They are a very small political party, and they do not have any seats in Parliament. Rather than be discouraged about this, they viewed this as a good thing. FI can put all their cards on the table because they do not have to gain votes. They can be honest about all their policies and opinions in a way other political parties cannot. They can effect change without compromising their values.  

The Afro-Swedish Community was our final stop for the day. There is a large black population in Sweden, and yet people assume that if you are black you are not a native Swede. They coined the term Afro-Swede to address this misconception. The group aims to gain a wider understanding of Afro-Swedish history and increase diversity in literature. They formed a community to support the invisible visible minority in Sweden.  

We ate dinner at a Turkish buffet. Being in Sweden, I would not have chosen Turkish food, but it was nice to deviate from the Scandinavian meat and potatoes. 

Throughout the week, we saw signs like this in both Denmark and Sweden. Being in Europe right now, I am really seeing the refugee crisis in a way I did not back in the States. 

Day 5

Our next visit was to SVT, the Swedish national broadcaster. We talked a lot about biases in the news and fair reporting. The reporter we talked with said that Sweden has a history of unbiased reporting, they ask the same questions to everyone. What we didn’t discuss was the bias in what gets covered by the media. Who decides the stories that air, and do they only give a voice to the majority?

News anchor Lyssie! 

We hiked through a forest and down a very steep hill to get to Nimis, a huge driftwood sculpture by the sea. To get down to the water, we had to clamber down giant rocks and the sculpture itself. It was very uneven and did not feel stable, but it was worth the climb. The views were amazing, and it was really fun to hop from rock to rock and explore the sea. 

After a long hike, we needed nourishment. Fika is the traditional Swedish coffee break. It is similar to the Danish concept of hygge. Fika is tied to coffee and food, but they both are about being present and spending time with loved ones. The point is to slow down and take a break from the chaos of the day.   

Read more about fika here. 

After another long day, we celebrated with a bonfire and s’mores. 

Day 6

The picturesque hostel. 

This building is called the Turning Torso, and it is the tallest building in Scandinavia. It is found in Västra hamnen (Western Harbor). The neighborhood was constructed to be completely sustainable and ecofriendly on land that was once a brownfield site. The creators had hoped to draw people from all ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds to live in the neighborhood, but due to high rents the Western harbor is comprised mostly of the upper middle class. The houses borrow building styles from all over Europe and Northern Africa, but the add a Scandinavian flourish to the designs. It offers a different (but appealing) alternative to the traditional American suburb. Space and efficiency are prioritized to create a harmonious community. 

A bird friend for my parents! 

Today’s theme was Copenhagen Pride! We met with the Chairperson of Copenhagen Pride, an organization that has just seven volunteers to put on a week of pride events in August as well as smaller events all year. We talked about the ideology and purposes of pride, how pride celebrations are different around the world, and how pride is improving in Copenhagen to be more inclusive, involving a human rights conference, events around LGBTQIA+ culture, as well as the parties and parade. 

After lunch, my class split into four groups for a debate. We were each assigned a political party to represent at a mock meeting for Copenhagen Pride 2016, arguing for different foci, events, financial strategies, and what to avoid. My group was the Conservative Party, which we had some fun with (next year there will be a 100 DKK entrance fee, a 200 DKK flag waving license fee, and a strictly enforced dress code). It was really interesting to think from a different perspective, and argue against ideas I’d usually agree with -- in my opinion, it’s always good to practice defending your ideas. 

It’s Core Course Week!! During this week, we don’t have any of our other classes, and get to do a short study tour. We spent today learning about qualitative research and trying some out for ourselves in the center of Copenhagen. My friend Aidan and I chose to observe behaviors at a busy intersection near DIS -- it’s well known that Danes do not j-walk, or so we thought! Each pair reported back on their findings to the class after lunch, which was graciously provided for us. Tomorrow, we’re doing a theme day on Copenhagen Pride, and meeting with the chairperson for the event. On Thursday, we’ll head to Gothenburg, Sweden for two nights!