light + good company

i have been busy the past few days but think things will continue to increase in craziness as the semester wears on. i can’t believe it’s almost march!!

what have i been so busy with? my very best friend from childhood, alex, came to visit copenhagen with a good friend of hers for a few days! what a surreal, fortunate opportunity. it really felt like a collision of worlds as people i knew from seattle, from goucher and from dis all met together in one place. i met them at the airport and the first day we walked around norrebro— the famous cemetery, falafel, antique shops, people-watching, catching up on each other’s lives. the second day we walked a lot! first to christiania, the very unique “free town” of copenhagen which consists of an open drug market, amazing graffiti and squatters who have lived in abandoned navy barracks since 1970. a strange place and not so fun in the mud, but definitely a worthwhile experience. unfortunately i couldn’t take any pictures because they are worried about police issues (considering that it is a famous drug market and they haven’t paid the heavy city taxes for over 30 years, i guess that’s to be expected). i think it’s pretty cool that the municipality has allowed this to exist for so long! danes can be open-minded at times (…just not when it comes to integration of immigrants). we then trekked across downtown to the western area of vesterbro. we were looking for a specific café but ended up just walking and walking and catching the train at the other end of vesterbro. yesterday we did some more walking, this time on the pedestrian shopping street around my school. it was fun to browse the shops although clearly we couldn’t afford a single thing. we had a great time— they even brought me a birthday cake from germany (they were in berlin just before copenhagen) which made for a memorable little birthday party. they continued their journey this morning— off to paris!— but we had a solid few days together.

this weekend was also fastelavn, which is sort of like a combination of mardi gras and halloween. children participate in some activities 40 days before easter. those activities include dressing up in costumes and eating candy (hence similarity to halloween) and beating a cat in a barrel. i really don’t get that last one and i’ve heard no one actually does that anymore (they use piñatas now), but there were definitely pictures of cats in barrels (as decorations) all over the city last week. we didn’t really celebrate the holiday in any way except eating the huge cream puffs pictured on my last post.

today was another fascinating wednesday of field studies. what a great idea— to actually use the resources in copenhagen and apply what we know every week!! i met up with my history of copenhagen class this morning and we walked around frederiksstadden, an area built by the great monarch christian iv (fact: all danish kings are either named christian or frederik) when he wanted to expand the city beyond its medieval walls. he built rows and rows of housing for a permanent navy. although the houses have been painted, added to and renovated, they are a pretty interesting sight. i think people still live in them and they are still owned by the navy. we then toured the citadel called kastellet, a little star-shaped fortification that was once the royal family’s designated place to flee in case of an attack. we’ve been learning all about the bastions and ramparts that were so popular in that period so it was cool to actually go stand on some! the final part of the history class this morning was a tour of one of the palaces at amalienborg. the architect eigtved designed four nearly identical rococo mansions that the royal family bought in 1749 (when their palace at christiansborg burned to the ground). we got a tour of one that is used strictly for entertaining guests and my, my…it was amazing! extremely detailed, ornate, lavish, luxurious— the pinnacle of rococo! and the ogling at architecture didn’t end there. in the afternoon i had another field study, this time with danish design class, at the kunstindrustrimuseet (museum of art and design?). how fantastic. i somehow went in the reverse chronological order but had so much fun in the functionalist and modern rooms. they had a collection of outlandish chairs and psychadelic prints from the 60s which i loved, as well as a whole room devoted to my new favorite designer of all time, poul henningson (ph). he was the first to develop a glare-free light— you know it’s a true ph if you can’t see the light bulb. i could go on and on about how amazing the chairs in that museum are, and how influential danish designers are, but i will spare you. in any case, it was a good museum!!

the past few days have made my realize how extraordinarily fortunate i am to be here. i don’t really ever forget that, but it has been especially clear to me recently. the sun has begun to stick around dramatically longer each day, which is exhilarating! so the combination of the sun, the great company and the cool stuff dis arranges for me has been amazing…

sweden and other happenings

i feel like i haven’t really had time to update this or write in my real journal lately, but i guess that’s good because it means i’ve been busy doing other things! i really like to take time to reflect and take it all in, but i suppose being wrapped up in a bundle of activities is a positive break from my normal routine.

in terms of academics, things just keep getting better (and they were good to begin with). i read parts of a really interesting report called MIPEX— the migrant integration policy index— which denmark pretty much flunked. in some areas like family reunification their policies are considered “critically unfavorable,” the worst in the eu, and borderline human rights violations. interesting considering how liberal and progressive the country is in other respects like environmentalism and gay marriage. a lawyer from the denmark institute for human rights came into class and gave us a brief lecture on this— very thought-provoking. as part of this class i met with another under-aged asylum seeker today. he is 17 and fled imprisonment in rwanda by coming to denmark. in fact, he didn’t know he was in denmark but ended up here when, in rwanda, a stranger sent by his mother gave him a bundle of papers. his goal is to become a doctor but he needs to first be granted asylum so that he can take danish classes, so that he can finish high school, apply to university, and finally med school. all danish education is free but there are no international universities, so one must speak fluent danish to benefit from this system. it makes sense but is frustrating for migrants like the one i met today who speak three or four languages fluently but have trouble with the insane language that is danish.

a major highlight this week was going to sverige-- sweden. i think i had built up my expectations a bit too high, but it was indeed really fun. i knew i would like sweden because it is the birthplace of some of my very favorite things (ikea, h&m, swedish fish, jens lekman, swedish pancakes…although i'm not sure if they are actually from sweden). malmö, just about an hour’s bus ride from copenhagen, is like a very old and somewhat smaller version of this city. copenhagen is the biggest city in denmark at 1,153,000 people; malmö is the third biggest in sweden at 260,000; they are part of the same metropolitan area called the oresund. interestingly enough, about 27% of malmö’s population was born abroad. sweden scored the highest across the board in MIPEX— immigration and integration seem to be happening much more successfully in sweden for some reason (i really don’t get why or how). another huge benefit of going to sweden for those of us living in denmark is the cost of living there is much much cheaper. it’s an ideal place for shopping! i scoured the shops looking for a colorful, unique and somehow distinctly scandinavian scarf that was below 100 swedish kroner (about $12 usd). sadly, i didn’t find one…but i had a great time looking! my friend alex and i ended the day at malmöhus castle, which houses an aquarium, natural history museum, and a modern art museum in the old castle itself. unfortunately it was the most creepy museum i’ve ever been to and we got so freaked out we left without exploring the whole thing. i can’t put a finger on what was so eerie about it but it might have had something to do with the fact that we had no clue what was going on (i.e. we don’t read swedish!). i’m pretty sure everything in the museum had to do with torture or imprisonment but have no clue if that was the intention. whatever the case it still tickles me that i managed to get to and from an entire other country in the same time it would take me to get to school for a regular day of classes!

in other news— i’ve got to be brief because it’s getting late for me!— i am now twenty one. i had a nice low-key birthday, which is just what i wanted. i went out to dinner with my host family. i’m finally feeling like i really connect with my little host brother johannes, so that’s good. i’ve eaten some delicious pastries this week. and my best friend from age four, alex, will be coming to visit copenhagen this weekend!! i think it will be a really fun weekend of walking around and exploring some different neighborhoods. i just wish it would stop snowing soon so i could show her this city in its best light. in any case, i’m looking forward to it!

the sun makes an appearance in copenhagen!

this morning i was absolutely thrilled to see the sun as i woke up! the long days of darkness were really starting to wear on me so i could not have been happier to see its shy orange corners inching out from behind the trees. my walk to the train station, although even colder than usual (and slightly damp as the snow is still a few inches thick) was invigorated with the sun. i felt like i was in a real-life gingerbread scene as i passed the rows of brick and red-tile-roofed houses all covered in snow. i suppose it looks like this every day, but for once i was able to see it with clarity. these suburbs look more literally “cookie cutter” than most in the states, but the candles lining the windows, bikes parked outside and the crazy-sounding street names somehow make them more endearing.

today my danish design class was graced with the presence of marie riegels melchior, an ethnologist who just finished her phd in danish fashion. although stylish herself, the focus of her studies were not what makes danish clothing so attractive as much as the social and political contexts and connotations associated with this now-booming industry. she gave us a brief summary of the history of the industry— from wool weavers in rural jutland to today’s hypermodern and hip designers. i learned that the fashion industry, in general, went from a unicentric system centered around paris to a polycentric system that counts copenhagen as the fifth fashion capital of the world. today in recent years the industry has had to redefine itself as most production moved to eastern europe and asia— but the knowledge base that gives rise to the designs is very much here. this isn’t really a topic i usually care very much about, but i found her lecture to be quite interesting!

the afternoon continued with a quick spin around town with two of my closest friends here, alex and kristy. we happen to all be in the same history of copenhagen class and were working on a group project (the danes love group projects!) analyzing different architectural styles around copenhagen. our professor— a really sweet older danish man named carsten— created each group a list of buildings and a map to guide us there. he’s the best. this is definitely something i’d want to be doing on my own so to receive credit for this is great! we found ourselves passing by copenhagen’s oldest (and most delicious) bakery on skt. peder’s straede on the way back to class and stopped to share a heavenly cream puff. it was the best 20 kroner i’ve ever spent!

hygge afternoons

on friday afternoon i set out to more thoroughly explore norrebro, a neighborhood just north of the old city. two friends and i took a few trains to get to the station at the northern end of norrebro, which was somewhat of an adventure in itself, and then took the main drag through town. we stumbled upon a big cemetery. the word for cemetery is danish is “kirkegaard,” which is a bit confusing because one of the famous danes, the 19th century philosopher soren kierkegaard, clearly displays the same name. kierkegaard (as well as niels bohr and h. c. andersen) is buried in that kirkegaard. it was probably the friendliest looking cemetery i’ve ever been in— there were many people running, walking, visiting, and exploring it. afterwards we warmed up at the laundromat café, which i expected to be much more simple and run-down. i had read about it before coming to denmark and thought the idea of a laundromat and a café was an interesting idea. this place was very upscale and mostly patronized by hipsters. they had a huge bookshelf with all the books arranged by color. the three of us entered and didn’t know what the seating protocol was, so we just stood in the doorway awkwardly for about a minute, until one of the people working there approached us and asked us in english (i guess she just assumed we were american because of our awkwardness?) what we wanted. i had a delicious chai latte— for 35 kroner!!!! that is almost $7! i’m still not sure if i’m willing to pay that much for a late afternoon caffeine fix, but that is what the danes demand.

this morning i had an authentic scandinavian experience—going to ikea! apparently there are only a few ikea stores in denmark, which surprises me considering how close we are to its birthplace of sweden. in any case, the place was packed. completely full parking lot— it looked like december 23. there were danes from every walk of life, but i would estimate that 90% of them were middle-class (actually, thanks to denmark’s thorough welfare system, most people qualify as “middle class”), suburban families with young children. there were probably hundreds of small, blue-eyed, blonde-haired, fair-skinned, onesie-snowsuit-wearing danish kids there, most of whom seemed to be yelling “mor” (pronounced mo-ah)— mom. the three-story complex included a vast cafeteria, where i ate delicious indian-style chickpeas served by a man that looked exactly like the 90s pop musician sisquo. i went with my host mom and the kids (ages 6 and 18 months…and -6 months) as well as my host mom’s sister and the sister’s son (age 3). needless to say there was plenty of drama on that front— having to tell them to not touch the furniture, that they couldn’t have that chair, and to stop throwing pasta at lunch. there were a few tears shed but all in all it was manageable with the three little ones. i wanted to make a few purchases because ikea always fools me into thinking i need cheap, well-designed, and generally unnecessary household items or “brugskunst” (everyday art)— but i restrained myself because i’m pretty sure it was all the same merchandise that i could get at the white marsh, maryland store.

this afternoon i thoroughly enjoyed sharing a very hygge (cozy) snack with two friends-of-a-friend who are actually danish. marie, the hostess, had us over at her cute apartment just outside the city and prepared a delightful spread of danish “dream cake,” coffee, tea, rolls, and m&ms. i had been sort of craving a tea party just the other day and was so happy to see that in reality. we had a good chat (the danish word for “chat” is “snakker,” which i find funny) about the financial crisis, school, finding jobs, immigration, the us (they visited us in baltimore last summer), design, etc. they are so sweet and i hope to meet up with them again, although they are both busy individuals with their own work and school lives.

mosque, porcelain, danes...

yesterday was quite interesting— many diverse experiences all in one day.

it began with a somewhat failed attempt to check out the famous royal copenhagen porcelain factory. my design professor asked that we go to see how the craftspeople of this very well-established landmark in danish design produce their work. apparently each blue-fluted plate goes through 30 pairs of hands to refine each and every detail. all of their work, from plates to tea sets to decorative objects, is incredibly detailed (and expensive!). i had a good time taking a look at their stuff, but the “factory outlet” that we visited was no longer a factory or a museum…interesting but not exactly the assignment. maybe sometime i will make it to their current factory further outside the city.

after that i met my “muslims in the west” classmates for a visit to the DIT mosque. DIT, which translates to the danish islam faith society, is made up of about 2000 people from all over the world. services are conducted in arabic and danish. the leaders of dit are the ones who internationalized the cartoon crisis of 2005-2006— they took the danish newspaper jylland-posten’s cartoons of the prophet mohammad to lebanon and egypt, which resulted in the danish embassies there being lit on fire… their spokesperson, a really articulate and intelligent man born and raised in denmark but of afghan descent, gave us a brief presentation about the society and about islam in general and offered to answer any questions we might have. he then took us into the mosque, which was converted from a formed wine cellar. there are no purpose-built mosques in denmark. it felt rather inappropriate for us to be there because they were in mid-prayer, crouched on the ground. we entered the room silently but had not done the ritual washing and clearly were not participating ourselves. there were no women in the room and we later found out that women do their five daily prayers in a different room than the men. after the mid-afternoon prayer they conducted a special funerary prayer. there was a coffin just sitting unattended in the back of the room, by where we were standing, which alarmed some of us. that was the closest i have ever been to a dead person. anyways, they moved it to the front of the room and we witnessed this man’s final blessing. it was a pretty strange and surreal experience, observing an ancient and holy ritual without really knowing what was going on. the spokesman/tour guide said we reminded him of deer in the headlights.

after an afternoon of homework in the DIS library— avoiding the slushy snow that keeps falling outside— i met up with some friends of a friend, three danish girls (actually one of them is icelandic) who are a bit older than me. i always worry that these meetings are going to be awkward considering we are all strangers, but they were so friendly and of course, spoke perfect english. one of them will be studying abroad at portland state university in the fall so she asked what she should know about portland and the northwest. it really reinforced the notion that this world is so small!

i missed my afternoon class today because i had a brief but scary bout of chest pain at lunch time. i think it is the combination of coffee every morning, ramen (with tons of sodium) every day for lunch, and this week’s odd schedule (i haven’t been home before 9:30 pm for three days straight, which must be a record for me!). in any case, i’m going to try to eat healthier and drink less coffee and hopefully this little issue will clear itself up…

a whirlwind of immigration studies

on wednesday my class met with the staff of “the new times,” a magazine written by and for asylum seekers in demark. comparable to “real change” in seattle, this is journalism with a purpose. check out their website— it is an awesome project. my class will be working with the staff to create their next issue, with the theme of “the asylum system from the perspective of the asylum seeker.” some of the asylum seekers live in centers for up to ten years, in limbo as their immigration papers are processed or rejected/appealed. there are a whole host of extremely specific, seemingly arbitrary requirements for them to fulfill before they are granted a residence permit in DK. and, due to the dublin convention, the first EU country in which a person is registered with the authorities remains the country they must stay until they are granted residency. this is a bit confusing and i didn’t see why it was such a big deal until we met farnam…

we were put into groups of five DIS students and one asylum seeker. we sat in a circle sharing our names, ages, etc. at first. then we dove into the deeper matters and were shocked by farnam’s story. he explained that he had turned 16 the day before. he had been living in the sandholm asylum center in copenhagen for the last seven months. farnam finished high school at age 14 and dreams of becoming an architect. he had fled iran because his parents, both teachers, were persecuted for being christian. he got separated from his family in belgium and had to fly to denmark on his own, thinking he would be reunited with them soon. i’m pretty sure they were all en route to sweden, a desired location for many due to their more lenient asylum policies but secure welfare system. in any case, farnam was caught with a false passport— the only way to escape iran— in denmark and he was thrown into jail. i believe he stayed there for 40 days—until danish authorities realized they had imprisoned an unaccompanied minor fleeing persecution in his home country. he was taken to sandholm with only a brief acknowledgement of their mistake. he learned that his family had made it to england and was told that he could join them there. due to the dublin convention, however, he would have to stay in denmark because that is where he was first documented in the EU.

he recounted this entire story in timid but completely correct english. we assumed he had studied english in iran, but he informed us that the only things he is taught at the school at sandholm are english and danish. he is looking forward to working on the new times staff to give him something to do— asylum seekers are not permitted to work, go to outside school (only the one provided, no university or technical school), or leave the center for more than a day. hearing him speak was heart-breaking. it really brought home the more ridiculous aspects of the asylum process. my group is going to go visit farnam at sandholm next saturday. later that afternoon we visited the ministry of integration—one of the first of its kind— whose policies i have mixed feelings about. integration: into what? for whom? this is certainly a hot issue in demark right now and i hope to come up with some more cogent thoughts on this matter by the end of the semester. right now i am puzzled and want to listen to both sides of the debate.

now that i have rambled at quite some length, i will keep the study tour discussion brief. we took a giant swedish bus (the windshield exclaimed that it was the “scandorama”) two hours west to hans christian andersen’s hometown of odense. there we met with a few inspirational figures from the odense integration council and started the trend of receiving copious amounts of free food and coffee from non-profits. not sure what the deal was with that, but we were continually served these fine refreshments when they were already going out of their way to host us. in any case, after touring an exhibit on anti-semitic cartoons through danish history at the mass media museum, hearing a somewhat scandalous lecture by the zany professor mehmet umet necef, and eating a delicious buffet lunch at “the ugly duckling” (another theme: buffet style eating!), we hopped back on the bus another two hours to denmark’s second-largest city, århus. i am a big fan of århus now, despite the fact that we were there just briefly and remained mostly just in one area. it was awesome. our stay there included listening to a participant in a integration mentorship program at the women’s museum, an afternoon at sondervangskolen— an elementary school where 90% of the students speak another language at home— and the absolutely wonderful art museum ARoS. their interactive digital art exhibit was honestly one of the best exhibits i’ve ever seen. our “cultural activities” included a pub night (in which the professor bought all 37 of us a beer! the girl sitting next to me seemed happy to receive mine after taking my usual three sips), a “carpark north” concert, and ice skating outdoors by arne jacobsen’s famous rådhus (city hall). it was really nice to finally get to know my classmates and to see a bit more of this lovely country! i look forward to more travels soon….

interesting classes

here is my attempt at the bit of danish i've learned so far:
hej! jeg hedder auni. jeg er tyve år gammel. jeg kommer fra seattle i USA. jeg studerer sociologi og antropologi. jeg bor hos en dansk familie i tåstrup. tåstrup ligger femten kilometres vest for københavn. jeg tager tøget fra nørreport og så går jeg fra nørreport til DIS. jeg har timer om mandagen, tirsdagen, torsdagen og fredagen. jeg vil gerne vaere "folklorist." jeg kan godt lide at gå på cafe i københavn. jeg kan osgå godt lide spiser weinerbrød. om aftenen laver jeg hjemmearbejde eller jeg hører musik og slapper af. tak-- vi ses! [please note, of course, that pronouncing this is a completely different matter. you don't pronounce most letters and those that you do are never what you'd expect]

this translates to: hi! my name is auni. i am twenty years old. i come from seattle in the USA. i am studying sociology and anthropology. i live in a host family in taastrup. taastrup is fifteen kilometers west of copenhagen. i take the train from the north station and then i walk from the north station to DIS. i have class on mondays, tuesdays, thursdays and fridays. i would like to be a folklorist. i like to go to cafes in copenhagen. i also like to eat pastries. in the evenings i do homework or listen to music and relax. thanks and see you later! [and note, of course, that pronouncing this is a completely different matter. you don't pronounce most letters and those that you do are never what you'd expect]

today we had a really interesting guest speaker in my "muslims in the west" class: abdul wahid pedersen, an imam who is ethnically danish and converted to islam. he brought up some really interesting issues in the heated conflict that is immigration/integration in denmark today. tomorrow i'll be visiting the danish ministry for integration and then meeting with the staff of the new times, a magazine produced for and by asylum-seekers in denmark. this weekend we're off to western denmark-- the second- and third-largest cities of odense and aarhus-- for a "study tour" that includes a concert and ice skating. life is good!

more castles

this weekend has been nice and just about my speed. on saturday I spent the bulk of the day—from 10:30 to 3:30—executing a “teach yourself copenhagen history” tour for my history of copenhagen class. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had been to most of the places before, so it was nice to be able to get around without getting lost and learn more about their significance. I went with two classmates of mine, alex and kristy, who are both just lovely. I was thinking about doing the tour on my own but I’m so glad I went with them! we stopped for lunch at a Mediterranean restaurant called rizraz, which I’d heard was a must-do for vegetarians in copenhagen. their all-you-can-eat lunch buffet was only 79 kroner (about $13.50), which is a really great deal for this expensive city! other memorable moments included trying to go into a church on the list but running into a funeral procession leaving it at the exact same moment and recognizing some other classmates at various locations throughout the city.

last night I made my weekly meal for the host family—tacos—which turned out better than I expected. I learned that in order to cook beans you have to soak them for a few hours first…we ended up blending the shriveled, hard kidney beans into the salsa and it wasn’t too bad.

today I bared the snow (!) and made it to frederiksborg castle, in the nearby town of hillerod. a spectacular dutch renaissance-style palace that has been reconstructed due to a fire that wiped out the original, frederiksborg didn’t disappoint. it was massive and completely filled with all kinds of treasures. the chapel there (which was not destroyed in the fire, luckily) was incredibly ornate. surrounding the walls were the coat of arms of everyone that has been knighted in the order of the elephant, including Eisenhower, nelson mandela, and denmark’s current queen. our tour guide anders was fantastic and full of random facts. besides the frigid weather, an awesome time has had by all!