Category: Semester Programs

Submitted by Margaret McCaughey on the 2015 spring semester DIS (Denmark’s International Study Program) program in Copenhagen, Denmark…

On Wednesday,  I had two class field trips. First, my Stolen Childhoods: Migrant & Refugee Children class went to a school called Gadevang Asyl. It is a child care center, preschool, kindergarden, Skolefritisdsordning and a club near the forest in Hillerod, about an hour from the city center. All the “teachers” are called Aunties and the children have lots of freedom! Their motto is “A lazy Auntie is a good Auntie.” One of the most surprising things was that any parent can take home any child without planning it in advance. A mother could come to pick up her four year old daughter just to find out that she had been signed out by another child’s Mom. They also had this awesome swing:

Next, was a trip to the Copenhagen Medical Museum with my Epidemiology: Danish Case Studies class. We had a guided tour which was really interesting. There were siamese twin fetuses that had been preserved in a glass box and a dress made out of pills, to show the amount of medications a woman with multiple diseases takes in her lifetime:

Submitted by Stephen Harris on the 2015 spring semester study abroad program in Rome, Italy…

I spent a fair bit of my Sunday yesterday walking around the city of Rome. I visited the Pantheon, the Piazza Navona and the Trevi Fountain. Even with these incredible sights before me, it only took an hour or so of walking for me to regret not taking a cab home.

Roman architecture seems to be a spectacular mess. The streets form a type of patchwork, each one housing its own creative jumble of loose stone and cracked pavement. Each alleyway and main street curves, too, so subtly that you don’t even realize you’ve been turned around before you’re already lost. It’s nothing like the efficient, grid-like system we see in American cities.

But because of that, every street is a bit of a marvel. You can walk in almost total silence from the cars and mopeds, take six or seven wrong turns, and suddenly find yourself in front of a temple fused with the walls. One time, on my way to buy textbooks in the northern part of the city, I stumbled upon a street that only had art galleries. After going in one of them, I had a pleasant discussion with a lady who invited me to an exhibition that her gallery is having this Thursday.

I know in the cityscape, you never know where you’re going to end up when you just follow your feet, but in Rome this idea was part of the design. You can spend the day completely lost and still get a day stock full of historic sights, looming architecture, and good pizza.

 

Submitted by Margaret McCaughey on the 2015 spring semester DIS (Denmark’s International Study Program) program in Copenhagen, Denmark…

This week was core course which includes a three day class trip to another part of Denmark. My Positive Psychology class took a four hour bus ride early Thursday morning to the True North Efterskole in Juelsminde. It’s a boarding school for 10th graders. They stay for only that one year before they start “gymnasium” (high school). It was very cool! We ate lunch in their cafeteria (meatballs, salad, and tzatziki) and it was amazing, way better than anything I’ve had at UD dining halls. The whole philosophy of the school centered on positive psychology. The directors, a couple from Colorado drilled “success gems” into the students like “change your brain, to change your mind, to tell your brain to change your life” and an excerpt from a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox:

One ship sails East,
And another West,
By the self-same winds that blow,
‘Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales,
That tells the way we go.

In general, the school seemed very liberal, but they also had a lot of rules. They had to lock up their lap tops and phones at 8 pm, mandatory exercise class at 6 am, and no sex.

Saturday, we went to ARoS: Aarhus Museum of Modern Art. It was incredible, definitely the coolest museum I have ever been to. Almost all the exhibits involved multiple senses. My favorite was a room filled with a circle of speakers- you could stand in the middle and listen to an opera piece come together, because each speaker played a different harmony.

The top floor was a round rainbow walkway, which is what the museum is known for.

Before heading back, we made a stop at the Queen’s beautiful summer residence, and had a delicious lunch!

Sunday began with a trip to Den Gamle By “The Old Town” which was the world’s first open-air museum of urban history and culture when it was founded in 1909. We went into the little shops and exhibits that depicted what Danish towns looked like in Hans Christian Anderson’s time. We also went into the Commemorative Apartment from 1950 which is used today to assist people with dementia recover lost memories. It was all very cool!

Afterwards, we had a great lunch of smoked salmon, roast beef, and ham sandwiches. Then we headed to Bofaellesskabet Horsager- a cohousing community (faelleskab). It was very neat! The family we met had two  small children and their own apartment. The community has a shared building with a large kitchen, dinning area, play room, and living room. It’s great for families with children because they can play together and the parents don’t have to worry about their safety. I would definitely live somewhere like that!

For our last visit of the day, we went to Roza’s family’s house. She is our  study tour leader and so great. Her parents immigrated from Iraq and she was born in Syria. They made us tons of cakes and tea and had lots of stories about what they endured being immigrants. So generous of them to do all that and literally fill their house with college students.

That night, we headed to a hostel in Skanderborg. It was beautiful, basically a ranch right on the water. We had pork and potatoes for dinner and gathered around a bonfire that night for snobroed (bread baked on a stick over a fire) and marshmallows that did not nearly turn out as well as roasted marshmallows in the U.S. because of the clear lack of chemicals.

 

 

Submitted by Stephen Harris on the 2015 spring semester study abroad program in Rome, Italy…

My first impression of Rome was one of a city that lived at constant breakneck speed, where every Italian citizen had places to go and people to see. However, I think that was just the American in me, prioritizing efficiency above all else. The more interactions I have with Italians, the more I’m convinced that they could give a hoot about things running smoothly.

Schedules, especially with buses and train, are more like a loose approximations of when the drivers feel like getting there. Stores open and close at no set time and under no set schedule, sometimes opening later and closing early or just not opening at all that day. Sometimes Italian vendors don’t even give back exact change, estimating that the jumble of coins they grabbed from the register will do the job just fine.

It’s not just my area, either. The entire city has two sections of “Quiet Hours”: one that runs 11pm-7am, and another from1pm-4pm. The latter is a time for Italians to go get lunch and nap, and during this time, they close down their stores. It’s a city run by people who seem to prefer “winging” it over working a schedule out for, well, anything.

And I love it. If this is what the European mentality looks like, then it’s one I’ve had since I grew up in Bucktown, Pennsylvania.

 

Submitted by Nina Freiberger on the 2015 spring semester DIS (Denmark’s International Study Program) program in Copenhagen, Denmark…

This past week was Core Course week at DIS. This is when we spend a whole school week focusing on our main class. My core course is positive psychology, so we focused on what makes Denmark such a happy country. On Monday, we discussed how Denmark is a welfare state. In Denmark, the government covers many financial burdens, that we face in America. In Denmark, healthcare, maternity leave, and college are covered by the government. Additionally, the Danes rank highest in happiness, and are known for being very trusting, and say that they feel safer than most people in other countries. We discussed how these factors improve the overall well being of Danes. On Wednesday, we took a walking tour of Copenhagen and our tour guide pointed out ways that the Danish government has tried to make Denmark a more pleasant country to live in. One interesting thing she pointed out, were the many bike lanes in Denmark. Many people bike, as opposed to driving in Denmark, so to make it easier to get around, specific bike lanes, with new traffic lights were installed to make it safer and easier for bikers. From Thursday to Saturday, we traveled to Western Denmark. There we visited a number of interesting museums as well as a school and a community living center. We focused on how each of these places improved the wellbeing of the people who lived and went there. It was an unbelievably interesting trip and I am so happy that I got to see a bit more of Denmark.

Submitted by Nina Freiberger on the 2015 spring semester DIS (Denmark’s International Study Program) program in Copenhagen, Denmark…

This week was really great! I had my first field trip, and took my first trip on my own. On Tuesday,  a friend and I went to a town called Lund, Sweden. It was an unbelievably, adorable town with a surprising amount to do. We went to two different museums and two different churches. We spent the whole day there and just took a train home when we got tired. It was much easier than we thought to get there so we are now hoping to take more trips to Sweden on Tuesdays if we can.

On Wednesday, I had my first field trip for my History of Sexuality in Europe Class. We went on a walking tour of Copenhagen with special attention to areas that were significant to LGBT history and places that held significance to sexual rights issues. My favorite stop was City Hall, which was a beautiful building, and holds special significance since it was the site of the first gay marriage. This week is my core course week, and I will be traveling to Western Denmark with my class, I am so excited!

Submitted by Margaret McCaughey on the 2015 spring semester DIS (Denmark’s International Study Program) program in Copenhagen, Denmark…

The past 10 days I’ve faced the unending problem of too much to do and too little time. The first full week of classes did not mean any less excitement. On Monday and Tuesday, my earliest classes were cancelled, which means that they were rescheduled for another day at night. It’s a whole new view on education. Instead of rejoicing when a professor is sick and has to cancel class, I felt like I should be disappointed that I wouldn’t be getting the scheduled class time that I signed up for.

Tuesday after class, Alexandra, Lauren, and Mackenzie (2 girls from UD in my Human Trafficking class) and I went to check out the Royal (Black Diamond) Library and stumbled upon some sweet trampolines right along the side walk.

At DIS, we have no classes on Wednesdays. They are reserved for class trips, but since I don’t have any scheduled for two weeks, I have a wonderful day off right in the middle of the week. Nicole and I went into a 9^th grade class at a local public school. There were more DIS students than Danish students, but it worked out perfectly because we were able to sit and talk in small groups for an hour and a half and surprisingly, we didn’t run out of topics. We covered differences between Danish and American school systems, family life, sports, transportation, foods, social settings, expectations and so much more. Most surprising for me was the fact that we were able to walk right into the school without being stopped by anyone asking our names or purpose. There was no sign of any form of security; very different from schools in America.

 

Submitted by Nina Freiberger on the 2015 spring semester DIS (Denmark’s International Study Program) program in Copenhagen, Denmark…

I just finished my first week of classes and they were amazing! All of my teachers are unbelievably passionate and knowledgeable. I am excited for the many field trips I have coming up. Next Wednesday for my History of Sexuality in Europe class, I have a walking tour of Copenhagen. My Sociology of the Family class comes with a trip to Blue Planet, an aquarium, and my core course comes with a week long study tour to Budapest. When we don’t have a field trip, we just have off on Wednesdays, so one of my RA’s took me to the Botanical Gardens, and Nyhavn, which if you’ve ever seen a picture of Copenhagen is probably what you saw. It’s a beautiful canal with many colorful buildings on the side. All in all, it was a great first week of classes, and I am excited to see what more is to come!

 

 

Submitted by Stephen Harris on the 2015 spring semester study abroad program in Rome, Italy…

When I first came to Rome, I thought I’d found the most Italian city out there. Cobblestone paths, swerving streets, drivers blasting past at breakneck speeds without breaking for anything–it was all a lot to take in.

 But Rome was still a city, albeit an exotic flavor of one. Venice was a whole new dish.

 For one, there were no cars at all. Boats were the main source of transportation, from the waterbuses that transported you from island to island to the motorboats that drifted among the canals. The architecture had that same cramped, packed in style I’d come to see so much of in Rome, but even tighter than usual. 

 

The whole city is a marvel though. After returning to Rome with these sights in mind, I’m starting to get a firmer grasp on what makes these places “Italian” at their heart. All in all, I recommend traveling there as soon as you can. Grab an espresso shot, eat a kebab, and stop by an art gallery. It’s well worth the effort.

 

Submitted by Margaret McCaughey on the 2015 spring semester DIS (Denmark’s International Study Program) program in Copenhagen, Denmark…

My first day in Copenhagen running on about 1.5 hours of sleep could not have been more incredible. I was so lucky to have been placed in a family that communicated with me a lot even before I got there through email and even Facetime! But, I must say they are even greater in person. My host mother Vibeke (V) is A TALKER, but I do not mind at all. I love hearing all about how they do things in Denmark and in their household. She is an excellent cook and we discussed everything from the differences in the U.S. and Denmark in terms of grocery stores (we visited one to pick up some stuff for dinner- traditional Danish meatballs and sausages with gravy and a red cabbage salad with figs and pomegranate seeds), learning languages, the education system, healthcare, the social welfare system, and go green incentives. My host father has been incredibly helpful with anything whether that be a Danish phone, the wifi, or renting bikes. I also enjoy his view on the Danish way! Sebastian my 9 year old host brother is so cute and energetic.

This semester I will be taking 5 classes. My core course which includes a short study tour to Western Denmark and a long study tour to Budapest is Positive Psychology. For my electives, I am taking Epidemiology, Public Health, Human Trafficking, and Migrant & Refugee Children. After the first days, they all seem like they will be interesting. All of the professors are very relaxed and approachable. They ask us to call them by their first names and state that they want the class to be an open dialogue. Participation is 15-30% of the grade in all of the classes.

The pictures I have included are from a scavenger hunt around the city that all the DIS students participated in on the third day of orientation. In groups of five, we visited the royal palace (Amalienborg), Church of Our Lady (Vor Frue kirke), the Danish Parliament (Christiansborg), and the Playhouse (Skuespilhuset). At each place we met a DIS faculty member and they gave us a little sch-peal about the area with some added history bonus. I never thought I would be as comfortable as I am around my family  and in the city after only a few days. They’re great and I feel like I could ask them anything. All in all, it’s been a great couple of days. I can’t believe a week has already flown by!