Travel Break Week #1 (Part a): Brussels, Belgium!

The next two weeks were spent locked in my room, the library or any other quiet study room either studying for midterms, writing papers or trying to get out the majority of my law school applications, so there isn’t really anything interesting to report about the first 2 weeks of October.

October 15th - October 19th

Midterms behind us, our 3 week travel break had officially started. The first week of it was spent with DIS for our long study tour in our European Politics and Society groups.

So, early Sunday morning, we all showed up to Frue Plads (a square by DIS where all the tour buses pick us and other tourists up) and boarded the bus to make the long 12 hour trip to Brussels, Belgium, the capital of the EU. The majority of this trip was spent visiting EU institutions, so that’s why we are all dressed up in all the pictures. The bus trip on the Autoban was pretty uneventful, except that I will never again forget to appreciate a bed, because dear goodness is it uncomfortable to sleep upright for hours. (LEFT: Whitney and me on the bus while cruising the Autoban)

Anyways, our first day in Brussels started off with a briefing by an Economic/Trade Officer, Tamera Bowcutt, at the US Mission to the EU. Especially since 9/11, the US has realized the necessity in its relationship with the EU, so they work pretty hard at developing and implementing policy in this institution. The talk was given by a US foreign officer who had been sent to Brussels on her first assignment, which is pretty rare. Her job was pretty interesting; she works to negotiate between parties concerning issues ranging from agriculture policies, the packing industry, to chemical levels in products. She said that a foreign officer is a generalist by nature and that “policy is being made my people who don’t know what they’re talking about.” That was really comforting. But in all reality, she works at the communication between parties, such as the military, the FAA, or scientists, so field knowledge isn’t really that necessary. (LEFT: Me, Emily and Whitney outside the US Mission to the EU building with the chocolate gift for our speaker)

After the briefing, we went to the Atomium, which is probably best just shown in the pictures. It was built for the International Exhibition of Brussels in 1958. It was then used for the Brussels World’s Fair, which was the first major world exposition after the war, so it is touted as one of the most representative international events of the 50’s. Now, I suppose it’s just a national landmark. We ate lunch at the restaurant in one of the top balls (Restarant De L’Atomium), which gave us a pretty impressive view of Brussels. We also went on a guided tour of it after lunch, which consisted mainly of seeing how it was built and the cultural period of the 50’s. (RIGHT TOP: The Atomium / LEFT: Me, Kevin and Laura waiting in line all dressed up :) / RIGHT BOTTOM: my lunch; it was a lot more appetizing than it looks)

After the Atomium, we then went onto the European Policy Centre and listened to a talk by Policy Analyst Guillaume Durand on the European Constitution. Recently, the EU Constitution was rejected by the member states, but to keep from boring you on more academic talks, basically, the Constitution’s text was unclear, the common person knows little about the EU, each county is having a national identity/sovereignty crisis, and overall there is negative view on European politics. Basically, the EU is in a period of reflection and with the upcoming French and German elections, political change might make the situation easier.

The rest of the evening, was spent wandering around Brussels on our own looking for food and sightseeing. After visiting many chocolate shops (Belgium chocolates!) we went around looking for food and stumbled on this street that was lined with restaurants. Yet, restaurants were not the only thing that it was lined with…every restaurant was only about the size of a hole in the wall, but each one had someone standing outside of it yelling, coaxing, bargaining and convincing anything that moved to eat at their restaurant. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I was bothered or completely amused the whole time, but after having sized up many different offers, we decided to stop and eat at the restaurant that offered us 8 euro meals, free champagne and a husband for any single girls among us (haha). (TOP RIGHT: chocolate, chocolate everywhere! / TOP LEFT: Restaurant street with all the hagglers / BOTTOM RIGHT: made a deal, found our restaurant, gained one husband for Emily :) / BOTTOM LEFT: our 'free' champaign!)

After our meal, which was delicious, we went wandering around looking for the Grand Place. We were told that the Grand Place was one of the most beautiful squares in the world. Obviously curious, with map in hand, we were determined to find it. After getting lost, we thought we had found it and we were severely disappointed. It seemed like it was just a cross of a few busy streets and some shops. Obviously, the Belgians’ definition of ‘beautiful’ was very different than ours. So, we walked around some more, visiting more chocolate shops, when we turned the corner and all of a sudden stumbled upon the real Grand Place. Apparently, we hadn’t found it before and now, we all stopped in awe…now, I haven’t visited all the squares in the world, but this one was beautiful. To experience its gravity…it was just amazing. We eventually just sat down in the middle of it and stared up for about an hour. Breathtaking. (LEFT: Beautiful Grand Place at night / RIGHT TOP: hard to see, but Whitney and Emily sitting on the ground in awe / RIGHT BOTTOM: Grand Place by day)

The next day, we went on a guided tour of Brussels, which turned out to be quite a beautiful city. It’s a little disorganized, especially with the implementation of new EU buildings in the middle of such an old city. We also spent a lot of time sampling Belgium’s trademark foods. Belgium has 2 national languages: French + Flemish and they for the most part speak English pretty well. I tried out my French at some of the restaurants, but most of them just responded to my attempts in English. :( (TOP RIGHT & LEFT: Random shots of Brussels / LEFT MIDDLE: Belgian Waffles! / RIGHT BOTTOM: Mussels in Brussels!)

Our group was also split into groups of about 4-5, where we interviewed EU political actors. We interviewed a Save the Children lobbyist organization, which works for child advocacy rights across Europe. For such a noble organization, its office was small, understaffed and underfunded, but the people worked hard fighting for children’s rights. It was an inspirational look at a socially conscience political organization. (LEFT: European Commission Building)

Sorry, this is getting really long…so, I will wrap up here. The rest of our time in Brussels was spent visiting the European Parliament, meeting with Dan Jørgensen, a Socialist Group Member in the European Parliament from Denmark and listening to a talk by the Danish Ambassador who works as the Permanent Representation of Denmark to the EU. Overall, a great practical look at the EU that we had been learning about in class. (RIGHT: European Parliament / LEFT: Me inside the European Parliament)

Love and Blessings,
Christine

(If you look closely, the 'cooler ranch' Doritos actually say 'Cool American'...found in gas station in Germany on the way to Brussels. A good description of its owner. :) )

Sweden, Danish Birthdays & Futbol!!!

Goddag all and undskyld (sorry!) for being gone for so long. I’m going to try to give you an idea of what I’ve been doing for the past few months and hopefully make up for my long absence. :

September 30-October 1st

Well, the weekend after my Bornholm bike trip, I received an email from one of the girls that I had met at Bornholm asking some of us if we wanted to go to Sweden. It still strikes me as humorous to say, ‘hey do you want to go to Sweden for the day?’ I realize that this is the same (distance-wise) as saying, ‘hey do you want to go to Indiana for the day?” but really, Sweden sounds more exotic to us Americans. :) (LEFT: streets of Malmö)

So, we hopped on a train and 45 minutes later, we stepped out of the train station and there was Sweden! We had ended up in Malmö, which is on the southern tip of Sweden and directly east of Copenhagen across the Baltic Sea. The train ride across is on the world’s longest suspension bridge, which was an EU project to bolster cross border travel after the Schengen Agreement legally opened its member states’ borders. (RIGHT: Musicians on Malmö streets; yea, he was definitely playing Bob Dylan :) )

Anyways, as you can see from the pictures, Malmö isn’t too different than Denmark, mainly because we only ventured far enough to just hit the shopping areas. They say Swedish shopping is cheaper than Denmark’s (which really isn’t that hard to do), but after exchanging money and getting hit with international ATM fees, it’s all about the same. We spent the afternoon in Malmo, wandering around, and eventually came back home with proud smiles saying that we had stepped foot on Sweden. (LEFT: Us Americans walking in Sweden!)

That night, Anna and I went out for sushi (I know, I know :) ) and to a movie to celebrate her 14th birthday. Her actual birthday was the next day, but I thought we could have some girl celebration before the entire Jørgensen family came in the next day. With only bikes and trains, it amazes me with what ease Denmark’s youth is able to travel around to friends or into the city. I’ve said before that the youth’s maturity is striking and I believe a lot of that has to do with their independence and parents’ trust in their independent mobility since Denmark’s streets are relatively safe.

The next day, I woke up to find little Danish flags all over the house and decorating the yard and driveway. The Danish flag is the symbol of ‘celebration’ here, so whenever there is any sort of party, usually Danish flags are put up for decoration, especially in the case of birthdays. (For example, on the Queen’s birthday, hundreds of little kids fill Amalienborg’s (royal palace) courtyard waving little Danish flags as the Queen waves from a balcony…cute, huh?) (Danish Flag decor around the house)

It’s tradition to have birthday breakfast with the birthday girl/boy which includes the normal coffee, break, cheese, jam, but also lots and lots of Danishes! I’m not sure if I have mentioned this before, but the ‘Danish’ pastry in Denmark is not actually called a Danish, but called a ‘weinerbrød,’ which is roughly translated as ‘vienna bread.’ Apparently, the irony of eating a Danish in Denmark is something that I failed to recognize until someone pointed it out to me. Well, regardless, they are DELICIOUS! :) Whatever weight I have lost by biking and eating smaller portions here, I’ve firmly put back on by my consumption of Danishes…oops, sorry weinerbrød. (LEFT: Mmmmm yummy Danishes/weinerbrød)

So, anyways, the rest of the day was spent waiting for the filtering of Jørgensen family to arrive from all over Denmark. Most of them live in Zealand (the island that CPH is on) but about 1 hour away. Most of them are older and do not speak English very well, so I spent most of the time just quietly observing the chatting and present giving. Lise (my host mother) cooked up a wonderful Danish meal of lamb, carrots, potatoes, creamed spinach, bread, and other various sides. I did not take a picture of it, because I felt a little bit like a stranger to this family gathering as it already was, so whipping out my camera in the middle of the meal might just have confirmed my tourist status. ;) Well, I can tell you without showing you that the meal was delicious. (LEFT: Lykkke (host mom's best friend), Lise (host mom) and Anna's aunt at birthday party)

Afterwards, we took a walk around the Hellerup neighborhood. For October 1st, it was a gorgeous, sunny day, and we were lucky that the neighborhood fall festival was happening behind the museum that is right behind my host family’s house on the same day. Local artisans came out with handmade jewelry, handbags, or little knickknacks to sell them in little stands, and while Anna and I had a great time perusing, the older members of the family and the men were less than interested and took off to take a walk around the park. After we had gotten our fill of homemade apple cider and apple cookies, we took a walk around the park to do the æble (apple) scavenger hunt that the community had made for everyone. (By ‘everyone’ I mean for children probably under the age of 7, but Anna and I pretended that it was for all ages.) So, we whipped around the park, Anna rapidly translating the Danish clues into English and with my superior apple knowledge skills, we turned in our answers. All in all, I believe we won, but no one ever contacted us to give us our prize. I can’t imagine why. :)

Then, we all met back at the house for cake and presents. The Danish birthday song is this complex 4 verse song that has you “hurrah-ing” often and speaks a lot of chocolate. (I’m sure that to someone who can actually speak Danish, this is not a ‘complex’ song, but in comparison to the American ‘happy birthday’ song that has 6 words in it, it’s complex…) (LEFT: Birthday cake/ RIGHT: Anna blowing out her candles; next to her is her grandfather and her older brother Anders is in the blue shirt. Til lykke med fødselsdagen, Anna!)

So, then after cake and coffee, I left the party a little bit early, because DIS was taking us to a futbol (soccer) game! It was a game between FCK (Futbol Club København) and Brøndby, which are the two biggest regional rivals in Denmark. We were forewarned about how rowdy these games could get and that we really have no equivalent to it in America, and for the most part, I would have to say they were right. In a stadium that fits 40,000, which considering that that’s about 0.8% of the total Danish population, it was crazy. Flares being set off, garbage being thrown on the field, singing, screaming, dancing, and drunken revelry all resulted in, well a European soccer game experience. To a certain extent, I felt like I was at an extremely rowdy, uncontrolled big American university football game. Well, the game went well…FCK won (woo hoo!...we were told to be FCK fans) and only about 150 people were arrested after the game by the intimidating looking Danish police that were surrounding the field. (And by ‘only’ I mean that that’s a lot. When I came home that night, my host mother met with me a concerned look, because apparently the arrests had been all over the nightly news…oh Denmark.) (TOP LEFT: Outside the National Stadium / MIDDLE & BOTTOM LEFT: Fans and field / TOP RIGHT: Long line to get in / MIDDLE RIGHT: Crazy Brøndby fans lighting flares :) / BOTTOM RIGHT: Emily, me, Jenna and Kristin enjoying our first European futbol game!)

::sigh:: So, it was a good weekend, Sweden, Danish birthday cake, and lots of futbol rowdiness. :)

Love and Blessings,

Christine

It's Just My Bike and Me

Well, I know that I’m still 2 weeks behind, but here’s my attempt at catching up…

First off, I would like to introduce you to something very close to me…here is my bike (LEFT), which I’ve lovingly named “The Bane of My Existence.” ;) As I have said before, the Danes especially like their bikes and since cars and gas are so expensive here, it is more efficient to have a bike. They have even mastered the fashionable wearing of rain suits so they do not get soaked (as I do) when on their bikes in the rain. I, on the other hand, have not ridden a bike in probably a decade and although they say you never forget how, they leave out that you forget how to master riding a bike. Basically, I have a love/hate relationship with my bike. It gets me places, but I constantly fall off it, because I do not know how to stop. I’m ok if there’s no one around me, but the minute a car or another bike comes near me, I get very wobbly and unstable. It's especially hard with my big backpack weighing me down. I cannot even tell you how many sympathetic (or pity) looks Iget from the people as I squeal when my bike tips over on me. Basically, the bike’s seat is too high for me, but my host family was so gracious to lend me one, so I’m not complaining. ;) The Danes also have these bells on their bikes that they forcibly ring every time you’re in their way. This ‘ring’ will haunt me forever as being the indication of my inferior bike riding skills. ::sigh:: (TOP RIGHT: The Jørgensen bike garage / BOTTOM LEFT: view of their backyard on another beautiful day, view from bike garage)

BUT anyways, the reason I bring all this up is because two weekends ago, I went on (of all things!) a biking trip to Bornholm. As a DIS sponsored trip, we took an overnight (7 hours) ferry (where, yes, we all slept on the floor) to the little island of Bornholm, which is east of Denmark, north of Poland and smack in the middle of the Baltic Sea. So, to give you a visual, around 120 American students descended on this little island that is home to less than 1% of the Danish population and biked around it for two days. It was glorious. We rode along the northern edge of the island and with the breathtaking blue water to my right and rolling countryside hills to my left, I flew down the hills and huffed and puffed up them. We were really fortunate to have perfect weather and everywhere we went, I could not get over all the water. Obviously, I’ve seen coastal waters before, but with the wind in my face and the smell of saltwater, it was different. I tried to close my eyes a couple of times to really soak it all in, but that quickly ended when I almost got hit by a bus. (TOP RIGHT: on the bus to the ferry with Jenna, Nutella in hand...nutrition for the ride :) / TOP LEFT: sleeping on the Bornholm ferry / BOTTOM LEFT: sunrise greeting us as we arrived at our hostel at 7AM after ferry ride... and then went right to the biking / MIDDLE RIGHT: view off hostel balcony / BOTTOM RIGHT: Bornholm bikers...that's not me, if you're wondering; I was taking the picture)

The rest of the weekend was spent at ancient castle ruins, waterfalls, enjoying freshly smoked herring (the Bornholm specialty), hiking down slippery rocks, or falling asleep on the little beaches that sprinkle the coast. Just splendid. (LEFT: some cliff we decided would be fun to walk down...yes, we almost died...it's a lot steeper than it looks / RIGHT: castle ruins that overlooked the sea...we fell asleep on that big patchy green area soaking up that sun)

Now, I must explain something to you…there’s this cultural tradition in the Danish culture called Hygge. I'm not sure if tradition is the right word, because it's a natural daily thing. It is poorly translated as “cozy,” but to try to describe it, it is basically anytime when people gather, light candles, wrap themselves in blankets, drink some coffee or hot chocolate, dim the lights, sit close to keep each other warm, and talk for hours with the only purpose of enjoying each other’s company. Apparently, when the winter months near, Denmark has only a few hours of daylight, so this is something they do to counter the darkness. We talked a lot about this in our Danish language/culture class, so on our last night in Bornholm, we walked around, rating the “hygge-ness” of all the restaurants and selectively picked one to “hygge” in. I loved it. :) (LEFT: Tired but happy bikers off the cliff on the side of the ruins...see how it looks out and over the sea? I wish my words weren't impeding describing its vastness / RIGHT: Last night in Bornholm at some good quality hygge!)

Well, unfortunately, the weekend had to end, and then the first week of tests and papers came crashing down on me. All in all, I made it through, but not without getting my head around the complexity of the different international law lenses, or understanding how the EU’s integration of new member states has fostered a larger (or at least more legal) immigration across Europe. The migration often occurs from the poorer states to the richer ones (obviously), creating an unfortunate brain drain in many of those countries. I think I'm going to write my final paper on this dilemma, so I'll let you know when I solve all the EU's immigration problems. :) I also had to write a paper on Danish culture, after keeping a “cultural diary” everyday and interviewing my host father and sister. I really do appreciate being able to speak English with my family, because we have been able to talk about a lot of social and political issues that are quite relevant today and slightly more complex in content than rudimentary language might allow. (LEFT: Water, water everywhere...where I fell asleep with the seashells and waves...sorry that it doesn't really apply to this paragraph)

Overall, I have found that the “welfare safety net” that Denmark’s government provides has penetrated nearly every facet of their lives. Having basic necessities paid for them (such as medical and education) enables the Danes to focus on things they find more important to foster, such as their family and friendships. It also motivates them to not work at the amount that other countries do since in a strictly economic sense, it is not beneficial for them to make more money since so much of it will be taken away in taxes. Taxes also becomes an issue when it comes to immigration, because it detracts educated immigrants from coming here to work. This often leaves the current immigrants stuck at the bottom rung of the socio-economic ladder. In what used to be such a homogenous society until 30 years ago, it is easy to pick out the new immigrants and if a small population of them commits crime, it is easy for them to be stereotyped against on a whole. It’s interesting to watch this seemingly advanced and comfortable society deal with integration problems that seem almost elementary in kind; at least to someone from a 'melting pot' homeland. Yet, this is only due to that they have never had to deal with it before the 70’s. The majority of immigrants are Muslim, so this clash is highly a cultural/religious one. Many Danes view the Muslim immigrants as highly clan-focused where the Danish culture puts their highest value on independence and equality and rarely attend to religious view. It’s one side of spectrum against another. The Danes have been very used to a relatively enclosed life for a long time, so this wave of immigrants, new culture and religion, and their limited involvement in the EU h avereally left them a little bewildered.

Ok, that was my academic talk of the day; I hope it wasn’t too dry. I will soon write again to talk about my trip to Sweden last weekend! I leave for our 3 week travel break in a week, so I hope to get it up before then, but if I don’t, I apologize. I hope this finds you all well and please keep sending me emails, for I love to read them. I miss and love you all!

Blessings,
Christine

Prison, the Danish Navy, Fish, and Fairy Tales!

Hej!

I apologize once again for the delay in getting this up. I haven’t have had access to a computer for the past couple of weekends and these law school applications have been tying me up! Excuses aside, I hope you are all doing well and that you find this at least semi-entertaining!

Before I start, I will include a couple of pictures of the DIS building. These pictures are from the top balcony, looking down into the school’s courtyard. As you can see, it is a beautiful day in Copenhagen. Apparently, these blue skies and 70 degrees are quite unusual, and about every Danish person I know has found every opportunity to tell me that this will soon end and it will become dreary, rainy, and dark. Hmmm, that sounds familiar…:)

So, since I’m weeks behind, I will dedicate this time for the things that I did last week/weekend. First, I must clear up some erroneous information that I posted last time. Denmark is not made up of 3 islands…it’s made up of 406! I was a little off, but there are 3 main islands, on which I actually spent most of last weekend. Last week was my program’s first study tour to Western Denmark. We started traveling west to Korsør which houses Denmark’s only naval base. Denmark’s navy used to be the second largest in Europe, behind England, but it isn’t anymore. Denmark used to own a large part of northern Europe also, but it has slowly shrunk in size. We toured around the naval base and discussed Denmark’s military involvement across the globe, which for such a small country is pretty significant in number. Other than that, I can’t really remember much that was extremely significant other than the ships were huge and I cannot believe sailors don’t get so claustrophobic in such tight quarters. Apparently, there are only about 4 women that are in the Danish Navy, so if I run out of money while I’m here, I might sign up for it. :) (LEFT ABOVE: Naval ship we toured / RIGHT ABOVE: View off top of ship (in the background is the 2nd longest suspension bridge in the world, Dad :) / LEFT BOTTOM: Those pink things are jelly fish that were in the water next to the naval ships!)

We then traveled to the farthest west coast on the farthest west island of Jutland where we spent the night on sand dunes and looking at the stars. Well, we actually stayed in a hostel, but spent most of the time outside. The rest of the weekend was spent learning the EU fishery policies that have been implemented in Denmark and visiting the fishing port, which once again, used to be the largest in Europe but now exports and imports more oil and windmill blades. Denmark is completely self-sufficient when it comes to providing energy for itself, which even though it is a small country in comparison with the United States is still pretty impressive. Anyways, sorry, I know this is getting very educational sounding. I’ll just finish up by saying that our last stop was on the center island of Funen in the city of Odense where we visited Hans Christian Anderson’s home and the official H.C. Anderson museum. Sadly, I can’t really say that I’ve read any of his fairytales, except for The Little Mermaid and The Princess and the Pea, both of which I only read/saw Disney versions. To be honest, I’m glad about that, because I hear that the real version of The Little Mermaid ends with Ariel dying and Eric marrying the big octopus woman. Apparently H.C. Anderson had quite an eccentric life, but regardless, he’s quite celebrated across this little island. (LEFT ABOVE: Port city Hvide Sande where we stayed the first night / RIGHT ABOVE: Cement sculptures on the beach of fishing port city Esbjerg (symbolize pure and innocent person's meeting with nature...) / BOTTOM LEFT: windmill blades; that little object on the bottom left corner of the picture is bigger than a person... / BOTTOM RIGHT: H.C. Anderson's home)

We also visited quite a few grand and beautiful churches while on the tour, but I will leave those descriptions to the pictures. (LEFT: Odense Church where the only Danish Saint is buried under the church / BELOW: Church in Yelling dating back to the 1200's; outside lies a rock that is "the birth certificate of Denmark.")

Although it was nice to have a break from the city life, I was glad to get back to Copenhagen last weekend. Western Denmark has its own beauty, but it is a lot more rural and more industrial with visible smokestacks and factories than the quaint feeling of Copenhagen. Apparently, the people, especially in Jutland, are very different than those in Copenhagen. That is what I hear from the city folk, so DIS decided that it would be a good idea if we went up to someone in Western Denmark and talked to them about how they felt about the differences. Yea, can you imagine how awkward that was? That’s like going up to someone in the farmlands of America and asking them what they feel the difference is between them living there and people living in New York City. Ok, maybe it isn’t that extreme, but still, a couple of us Americans going up to a salesman in a trendy clothing store to ask him about the differing lifestyles was still extremely strange. Apart from a lot of embarrassing questions and answers, we basically got out of him that people are very regional in Denmark and typically do not leave where they grew up or where there family is. For a child to move across the country (which remember, Denmark is only about 5 hours from coast or coast) is very traumatic on a family. (LEFT: Local Danes in Odense)

Last Sunday night, I had dinner in Svanemøllen, the town just south of where I’m living. I was visiting Kristine, a Danish student who actually studied abroad at Case last year and lived with one of my tennis teammates. Over pizza (yup…very Danish ;) ), we reminisced about Case and discussed Danish life. I think we both concluded that we both miss Case and its people, but do appreciate Danish life. One thing we did talk about was this concept of the Janteloven Laws. It’s a list of 10 “Commandments” that enforce a collective mentality of people not considering themselves better than their fellows. For example, the first one is “Thou shalt not believe thou art something.” While it is not as prevalently spoken about as it was in the past, it still is highly reflective in their principles of social equality (welfare), educational systems (all education, even through university is paid for), and even in their extraordinary efforts to save their Jewish population during World War II by clandestinely ferrying them all but 550 (out of 6000) to Sweden. Coming from a country of such competition and independent thinking, this has been something to adjust to. Danes seem initially to be cold and emotionless, but once you get to know them, they are some of the most generous and friendly people. It’s easy to see why now.

Ok, this is getting a little long, but I will end with clearing up why I have “prison” up in the title of this entry. Well, last week, I found myself in a prison in Jyderup, which is a town about an hour and half northwest of Copenhagen. Don’t worry, Mom and Dad, DIS bailed me out in time to make class…:) Just kidding. I’m taking a class on Criminology in Scandinavia and we visited an open prison for a field study. If you don’t recognize the term “open prison,” it’s probably because you have no idea what it is, because I sure didn’t. About 80% of the prisoners in Denmark serve at one time or another in an “open prison,” which is a prison where the inmates are given free access to roam the grounds and leave the prison, if they really wanted to, during the day. When it comes to a year from the end of their term, they are allowed to leave the prison to find a job or go to school for 8 hours a day as long as they are back by curfew. They can work inside the prison as well and are paid even if they don’t work so that they can buy food in the prison grocery store and cook for themselves in kitchens where they are given full access to all normal appliances, including all sizes of knives. Their rooms and living rooms look a lot like my dorm room from sophomore year in college, except they have their own bathroom, where I had to share one with 5 other girls. The most shocking of all is that the inmates at this prison are not just minor felons; they were murderers, rapists, and serious drug offenders. On average, criminals with serious convictions will not serve longer than 2/3 of their sentence which is usually around 8 years. You might think this is ridiculous, because when I first learned about it, I thought it was. Their perspective differs a great deal from ours in that they want to first rehabilitate the prisoners. They believe that going to prison alone is enough punishment in itself. A major difference is that Denmark needs people in their workforce and they are hoping and helping the inmates to adjust back to societal life to fill in that gap. Their theory is: who would you rather have back on the streets? Someone who has had constant contact with their family and loved ones and has been working consistently or someone who has been left festering solitarily in their cell and going to 'crime school' in prison? Is this method working? Well, recidivism rates are still relatively high, but on the whole, this country is a lot less violent than most. Unfortunately, there is not enough tangible data to accurately answer if it’s really working. We’ve had a lot of debates on this issue, and there are a still a lot of questions and concerns that I am still struggling with, but for the sake of not putting you all to sleep, I will leave it at that and maybe talk to some of you about it later. It’s definitely a different society here. (There are no pictures as we weren’t allowed to bring cameras…understandably.)

Well, excuse the academic lecture, but my classes here have really created a lot of discussion between my host family, me, and the people I have been meeting. American and Danish, I’ve spent time dining, shopping (of which I can afford nothing…it’s all very expensive), biking, and talking with many and have curiously enjoyed almost feeling like a freshmen again in this new school, new city, and new culture. (RIGHT: Anna and I fooling around while shopping!)

As I always say, TAK (thank you) for all the emails and love you have been sending me. I really do miss you all and honestly cannot believe it’s already been a month since I arrived here! Time flies, I guess, but I’m still loving it here regardless of being overcharged for my coffee and tripping over all the cobblestone. I still have to remind myself every once in awhile that I’m in Denmark, in Europe, many many miles away from home. I’m definitely getting into a groove though…one of less falling off my bike and more soaking everything in.

Love and blessings,
Christine