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!

shopping, gardens, design

danish design at its finest.




this friday was a bit more exciting than last friday, but of course my night has ended early again. that’s my way of living life, no matter where i am: go to bed early, get up early! i’m going to try to branch out and trying the nightlife a bit, but i’m much too tired for that tonight…

this afternoon i met up with “dis network” buddy. the network is intended to link young danes with DIS students, since a common complaint is that the “island program” makes it difficult to meet people who are not american. at any rate, my partner in this is, like me, 20 years old and studying sociology. i think we’re going to get along swimmingly. we met for coffee and intended to go to this really hygge (rough translation: cozy) coffee shop but it was too full for us to sit down. so we headed to baresso, a chain equivalent to the starbucks of denmark. i thoroughly enjoyed my 30 dkk “varm chokolade.” actually, it was probably the strangest but best hot chocolate i’ve ever had...but for about $6 it had better be! i was handed two glasses: one with only whipped cream in it, and the other with warm milk and a stir-stick. as i stirred the second glass it turned brown. i guess a chunk of chocolate was stuck onto the end of the plastic stick, and then i stirred to make my own hot chocolate. strange but delicious.

after the coffee stop we (four of us total: two DIS kids and two danes) ventured onto the longest pedestrian shopping street in the world (not sure how much of a claim to fame that is…), stroget (pronounced straw-ugh). sorry about all the parenthetical comments there. in any case, i’d walked down it many times before but never dared to venture into any stores because they were clearly light-years out of my price range. it was an absolute pleasure to check them out. we saw cutting-edge danish design right in front of us. whether it was the rigorous precision of the designer furniture store illums bolighus—my personal favorite—or chic and completely impossible-looking clothes in the many boutiques, it was such a treat to actually go in and interact with all these valuable objects. danish design is awesome because the relationship with the beholder really is something unique. i was surprised at the cheery salespeople, who didn’t even mind my taking pictures in the stores and were not pretentious in the least.

oh, and before this little adventure i went to the statens museum for kunst, or state art museum, briefly with my friend caroline. it is free, about 15 minutes by foot from dis, and overwhelmingly gigantic. we did a quick walk-through of the main rooms, including their exhibits on frames as art and one on national identity, but i will definitely need to return with either more time or a more precise idea of what i want to see.

yesterday i had the pleasure of exploring some gardens in the area. my first stop was orsteds parken, a lovely lake and walkable public garden less than 10 minutes on foot from DIS. after witnessing lots of seagulls and ducks walking on a frozen pond, i moved on to the botanical garden, just a few minutes up the road. this was awesome. i had a good time in their greenhouses, which you can enter for free and walk through atop a balcony. the humidity felt great! i am really looking forward to returning here in the spring and picnicking on the benches. the final park of the day, just across the street from the botanical garden, was the king’s gardens at rosenborg castle. these were equally impressive in that they were immense and immaculately taken care of. again, probably more pleasant when it’s above freezing, but still quite nice for a stroll.

and on wednesday, i made it to the little mermaid statue that gets so much attention (i found it kind of underwhelming). i took an optional bus tour, which was a bit longer than it could have been, but it was nice to meet some more people. wednesdays are wonderful because we do not have classes. i love all my classes, but it is unspeakably awesome to be able to stay up late tuesday night, sleep in wednesday, then have the day to explore and recharge before the second half of the week begins. it’s also great to take care of business and errands considering most shops/offices are closed on the weekends…

here are some shots of my closet (see anything out of the ordinary?) and my host brother johannes:

exhilaration/exhaustion

(note that someone wrote "2-pac" on the base of this sculpture...)



you know you’re in europe when your feet hurt. my feet hurt. of the approximately 14 hours i was out today, i spent:
-4 wandering around copenhagen discovering new lovely side-streets, shops, and the new-to-me neighborhoods of nørrebro (more colorful, somewhat immigrant-influenced area) and østerbro (traditional and more posh area). on foot, wearing my I’m-pretending-to-be-danish boots. ouch!
-2.5 eating dinner at a café with friends…paid for by DIS!
-2.5 commuting to/from my suburb on the futuristic-looking s-trains
-1.5 leading my danish design class about ole thyssen’s philosophy of form (a presentation on the second day of class!? really?)
-1.5 hearing about the cartoon affair in denmark (clearly didn’t cover all of it!)
-1.5 reading about the history of denmark and copenhagen for class
the day’s activities were both exhausting and exhilarating, as any good day studying abroad should be!

some high points of the day included a few great conversations with classmates and other acquaintances and delicious food. although meeting both fellow students and danes has been a little difficult with my schedule and living situation, i’m feeling more confident about it now. DIS students can choose to live either in host families in the suburbs or apartments/dorms that are usually closer to the city. even though the hour+ commute can be annoying at times, it is so worth it to live with the host family and actually get to know first-hand what danish culture is like. plus my host parents are very friendly and knowledgeable, and their kids are adorable. in any case, a lot of the students living together in dorms (“kollegiums”) or apartments seem to go out together and really know each other well, whereas us host family kids tend to see each other for classes and eat our packed lunches together but then stay out of the loop for nightlife. or maybe that’s just me, i’m not sure. in any case, it was really nice to partake in long conversations with a few different people today. everyone i’ve met seems really interesting in one way or another, and it is really refreshing to be able to get to know people who would never find themselves at goucher. i’ve also enjoyed talking with some of the other goucher students here, who i didn’t know back at school.

i signed up for the dis network, where we are matched up with young danes who want to practice english or learn more about life in america. i have been in touch with my “networker,” amalie, today and i am so excited to meet her. we seem very similar—both 20-year-old sociology students—but she seems hilarious! we’re going to meet up for [ridiculously overpriced] coffee this week and go to a discount performance of the royal danish ballet’s romeo and juliet next week!! going to the acclaimed danish ballet and actually getting to know danes are definitely two of my top goals for this semester, so i’m very happy about doing both so soon.

a final note about today would have to be the food. in my wanderings this afternoon i finally made it to the bakery by sankt petri (saint peter), a church built in the 15th century! i’ve heard this place is excellent and i must say i agree. besides the giant golden pretzel hanging over the door, i was drawn by the décor. i intended to order a traditional danish pastry called a weinerbrød (simply “a danish” to us) with the basic danish phrase i learned this week, but i ended up ordering a chocolate croissant in english…everyone speaks english, which is convenient but also too easy for us foreigners. nonetheless, it was delicious and well worth the 12 kroner i paid for it.

for dinner DIS arranged “café nights” for all students taking danish. i met my ten or so classmates at café svanen (swan) and had a very odd scandinavian variation on quesadillas. while they seemed to be lacking cheese, they were pretty tasty. the best part of this meal was that DIS paid for it, so what would have put me back about 175 kr was essentially free. at the end of the evening one of the program assistants, or former students now interning at DIS, came up and spoke with us. i asked where he was from and he said seattle. i explained i was from shoreline and asked where he lived specifically. richmond beach, he said. imagine my surprise at traveling to denmark and finding someone from not only the same state, same city but also the same exact neighborhood! although we hadn’t met because he attended lakeside, the nearby private school, we do have some mutual friends. it was an odd but happy coincidence that perhaps will happen again?!

castles, etc.

hej! things are going well here, just winding down from another relatively busy few days. i can’t believe i’ve only been here a week— it feels like so much longer because they’ve kept us busy doing and seeing so much.

i only have classes four days a week to give us time to travel and do field studies with our classes every wednesday. this is awesome. however, my classes always start at 8:30 am— which means i leave the house at 7! not so cool. in any case, this will be the first week with the regular schedule of classes and field study, and i’m really looking forward to having more of a routine here.


on friday afternoon i meandered to the queen’s palace at amalienborg, which we had already seen briefly on the scavenger hunt, with two friends from goucher. little did we realize that they do a changing of the guard ceremony at that time…we just walked through the courtyard of the four rococo palaces and found a good two dozen guards in the full uniform of fuzzy hats and long, blue coats. they proceeded to march around the courtyard to a drum and flute tune, yell commands, move their guns around, and do some ceremony with swords. i wish i knew more of the story behind this, but in any case it was pretty awesome that we randomly saw it in an hour-long break between classes. after that trek i headed back to my host family’s home and spent the evening watching movies with them.



the royal palaces just keep coming here. on saturday i went on the optional school-sponsored trip to helsingør (or elsinore, in english). the town is about 45 minutes north of copenhagen on the northern end of the island of zealand. it is denmark’s closest point to sweden and home of the famous kronborg castle, home of shakespeare’s hamlet. we wandered around the old town for a while, which was very charming and small. of course the drizzly winter weather meant that it was a bit tough to enjoy the outdoors, but at least the crowd was limited to other DIS students and a surprisingly large amount of locals. there are benefits to traveling at this time! i had my first falafel in this country, where the recent influx of middle eastern immigrants has brought with it a wave of delicious food such as falafel. it was only 15 DKK (like $3) for an entire meal, while many of my classmates spent upwards of 50 DKK.



after the afternoon in town we hopped back in our very conspicuous tourist buses and went on a tour of the castle. it was gloomy and eerie in the mist, especially when we went to the underground chambers which used to serve as barracks for the danish army. the tour guide was a really interesting older lady who gave us personal details as well (such as her being able to walk across the ice to sweden as a little girl, which she can’t do any more because of global warming, and the fact that she studied abroad in portugal when she was our age). the castle itself was clearly once a place of splendor but had seen its share of destruction by the swedes. the ballroom was amazing—apparently once the place of europe’s best parties— and had a display of textile designs done by students at the local art school.

today i took a walking “alternative copenhagen” tour, which was alright. nothing mind-blowing, but it was nice to hear what a copenhagener had to say about the area. of course a sunday in january might not have been an ideal time considering everything is closed on sunday and the drizzle seemed mighty cold after two hours of walking around outside, but again the tourists were entirely absent. i look forward to exploring the cafes, restaurants, etc. later in my stay here, especially in the funkier districts of vesterbro (once more of a sketchy area known for its prostitutes and junkies) and nørrebro (mostly an immigrant community).

for now, however, i have some serious homework to do. i am giving a presentation to my danish design class on tuesday and need to study up before then!

confidence and classes

(note the small children in onesie snowsuits in this one, in the square by my school DIS)




day four? i am still figuring things out— like the best use of my three-hour break between classes and the fastest way to get to the train station— but i'm feeling a lot more confident than i did when i first arrived. i know that i'd rather wander around and explore the city on my own than cautiously stay at school with some acquaintances. the orientation activities and act of getting to know new classmates reminds me a lot of the beginning of college, but i definitely feel more sure of myself, where i'm going, and what i enjoy than when i did this two and half years ago. and instead of diving head-first into a jumble of activities and extracurriculars like i usually do, i think i'm going to take advantage of my ample free time this semester and try to relax, explore, and try new things. i have gotten lost several times here, but i've now adopted the attitude of being lost with a purpose: being lost in a foreign city is a great way to explore it. i'm going to embrace that and try to get to know the side-streets on my own. in general my navigation and map-reading skills have been improving rapidly since i've been here!

i ventured north, past my usual train station nørreport, this afternoon. i think i made it to "the lakes" that once served as a sort of moat around the old city (but they could be giant ponds that just weren't on the map...i'm not quite sure.) it was really pleasant and i wish i could have stayed longer, but without gloves or a hat i was beginning to shake a little. citywalking will just get even better as denmark becomes warmer and the days get longer this spring. on my way back i found rizraz, a veggie mediterranean restaurant that i'd heard about, which was a pleasant surprise.

i think classes will be really good. i had my core course, cross-cultural encounters (relating to migration) in a european context, this morning. the professor is a young danish man who is completely fluent and really funny in english. i was surprised and impressed that he knew pretty much everyone's name by the end of class! in contrast to goucher and most american universities, many of the instructors here actually hold full-time jobs in their respective fields and just come to teach a class or two here. they are generally not professors who hold phds but experts in the "real world" application of knowledge. i think that it's a good system. i also had my history of copenhagen class, which seems like it will be a real treat. i've never taken an urban studies class but i would have liked to if goucher offered them. we will be learning about the morphology of the city from its beginnings as a medieval merchant's town to today's cosmopolitan capital. i can't wait! i also took danish this afternoon, which also seems like it will be unique, refreshing and challenging. i'm still completely boggled as to how to pronounce anything in danish, but hopefully i will conquer this by the time the semester is over. i like to practice in the 20-minute walk to and from the train station every day, although this probably makes me look a little crazy as i mutter to myself.

DIS (still not 100% sure if it’s denmark’s international study program or danish institute for study, because i swear i’ve seen both!), is awesome. they have been doing it for 50 years so they've really got their stuff together. we got free soup on our scavenger hunt, free bags at orientation, free entrance to a club tomorrow night...of course our tuition pays for it but they put the money to good use (and lord knows money can be tight here...i'm still in shock over some prices!) their facilities are amazing. dis owns a few buildings in the heart of the old city, literally a few minutes' walk from the biggest squares and grandest palaces, which makes it a real pleasure to walk around between classes. the buildings themselves can be kind of labyrinth-like but are really quite charming. i think they were built around 1790, in the neoclassical style, like much of the area around us.