Visions of Eurovision

This weekend, my friend André made me inexplicably happy when he texted me to say that there was an impromptu gathering at his apartment to watch the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, a contest that serves to determine which song will be Denmark’s submission to the Eurovision Song Contest.

For my American readers, Eurovision is a song contest held every year, and each country in the European Broadcasting Union is supposed to submit an entry.  There is a contest in May when each artist performs their song, and judges and the public vote (you can’t vote for your home country).  This year, the contest will be held in Oslo, Norway.  Eurovision was once perceived as a chance to show off national pride – countries submitted their best songs and it was a great honor to win, not only for the artist and songwriters but for the whole nation!  Today, this contest has turned from a nationalist showcase of quality music to a campy skin-fest that is primarily targeted at twenty-something gay men.

Needless to say, I love Eurovision.

Since each country has to make an entry, there has to be a way to determine which song will be submitted.  In Denmark, there is a contest called the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, and a similar competition in Sweden is named Melodifestivalen.  We watched both at André’s this weekend.  It was really a dream come true for me – I followed the competitions, particularly Melodifestivalen (Sweden has fantastic music), via internet last year, but now I was actually able to watch them live on TV!  Sweden’s competition is ongoing, but the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix held all of its rounds in one go (which meant that the winner had to perform at the beginning, the semi-finals and the finals all in one night!).

I believe that the actual Eurovision contest will be held after I go back to the United States.  I’m really disappointed, especially since it’s being held in Scandinavia.  Check out the winner of the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, and note the fabulous costumes and excessive use of wind-machines.

In the west of Denmark…

After last semester’s short study tour to Germany, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this semester’s trip to other parts of Denmark.  I went along with the other students in the Migration and Identity program at DIS (I was in European Politics and Society last semester) to Odense and Århus.

Our first stop was Odense, Denmark’s third largest city.  Odense is on Funen, an island to the west of Zealand where Copenhagen is located.  On the bus ride to Odense, our professor turned on a film and was pretty intense about making us watch it, which was a change from the more lax attitude that my tour leaders adopted last semester.  I thought right away that this trip was probably going to be more rigidly structured than either of my study tours last semester, which is odd considering that our long study tour visits were to the actual bodies of the European Union.  When we arrived in Odense, we went to a presentation by the Ethnic Job Team and Odense Immigration Council in Vollsmose.  The presentation was pretty interesting, if only because all of the people speaking were from very different backgrounds (various parts of Africa and Southwest Asia, mostly).  Hearing about the work that they all do and how difficult it can be was a reminder of just how much of a struggle it is to be a non-ethnic Dane living in Denmark.

After this visit, we went to the Brandts Museum to see an exhibit called I-Lands, which was a collection of modern art depicting various types of islands – literal, metaphorical and everywhere in between.  The exhibit was interesting and our tour guide made it worthwhile.  It was actually a pretty good follow-up to the previous visit, since living in Denmark as an ethnic minority can definitely make someone feel isolated, as if on an island.

We had lunch at a restaurant called The Ugly Duckling (that was the translated name, anyways) – appropriate, considering that Hans Christian Andersen was born and raised in Odense.  I wish we had gone to see his house and all of the other HCA tourism that is available.  Lunch was a buffet that I mostly found to be unappetizing.  We actually had a buffet at every DIS-provided meal on this study tour, which made it easier to find food that I liked but was not as good – nor as warm – as most of the food that we had last semester.

After lunch, we headed to Syddansk Universitet to hear a lecture from Mehmet Ümet Necef.  His lecture was titled, “Is Denmark Really a Racist/Islamophobic/Xenophobic Society?”, and his answer to that question was a resounding “No.”  According to Necef, Denmark’s immigration laws are “not that strict.”  He made quite a few good points throughout his lecture and was a bit over-the-top and charismatic in making his claims, but the idea that Denmark has lenient immigration laws is ridiculous.  One might say that Muslims have a harder time getting into this country than Americans have getting troops out of Muslim countries!  Necef made some unfair and untrue statements about the United States (homosexual sex is not banned in any state; see Lawrence v. Texas 2003), and he was constantly comparing Denmark to the US when it was not always relevant, but overall his – albeit frustratingly lengthy – lecture was one of the more interesting parts of the trip.

After this lecture, we continued on our bus to Århus.  I was a bit upset that we didn’t get to properly see Odense – I have no pictures of the city, and we didn’t take any kind of walking tour at all.  I know that these trips are supposed to emphasize academics, but I think that tourism, culture and individual exploration are vital!  If what we’re going to study is integration and multiculturalism, it would be nice to get a better sense of the culture into which people are being integrated.  Last semester, we at least got to take a guided tour of Lübeck and had about 4 hours to explore Hamburg on our own.

In Århus, everyone was so famished that we immediately decided to head out to dinner.  My group of friends decided upon Piccolo, an Italian restaurant whose name is quite literal – our dishes were really small!  At least the prices were relatively reasonable (by Danish standards), and the white wine sauce was delicious.  We then met up with our professors at a brewery and had a night cap, and after that I went with a few new friends to a bar called Under Masken that had what I think was a Jamaican theme.  There was a huge fish tank in one of the walls!

The next day started a little too early and was a bit too packed for my liking, but it included one of our best visits of the trip.  We went to Søndervangskolen, which I guess I would call a grammar school – it’s called an “all-day-school” if you translate it from the Danish, and the students are mostly aged 8-16.  Over 3/4 of the students at this school were of a non-Danish ethnic background, which made it very interesting.  We began by hearing some of the teachers speak about their experiences at the school, and then we were split into groups and guided around by ninth graders who spoke – no surprise, Denmark! – near-perfect English.  Ninth grade here does not necessarily correspond to ninth grade in the US, but it’s more or less the same age group, except in Denmark it is always the last year of all-day school and is not part of their equivalent of high school.  Touring the school was really fun, as we got to actually interact with students and talk to them about a wide variety of things.  Even the ethnic-Danish children there were clearly from less affluent families than most of the Danes I’ve met in and around Copenhagen.  It is shattering to realize that Denmark is not as classless as it leads the world to believe (although income disparities really are much, much lower than in the United States), but it was also refreshing to see people who were not rich, white epitomes of Scandinavian “perfection.”  It was much different from visiting a gymnasium in one of the posh suburbs of Copenhagen last semester, where we talked to students who were going on a field trip – to America!

After this, we went to a huge bazaar (Bazaar Vest) where we had lunch.  It was mostly Turkish and Arab vendors, and included an unimaginable number of shops, ranging from enormous produce markets to tiny ice cream stands.  The food was not so much to my liking, and I ate fish and chips and purchased some dried fruit, but I still had a fun time with my friends.  The bazaar was cool, but nothing like I had expected – it was entirely indoors and very labyrinthine.

Our next stop was Gellerup Parken and the Brabrand Housing Association.  Here, we listened to a man talk about the plans to renovate an old neighborhood that is generally known as a ghetto (it’s so much less ghetto than almost anywhere in the United States).  To be honest, I did not really enjoy this lecture.  The man’s interest in the project was clearly genuine, and I have a great deal of interest in and respect for what he had to say, but it was presented in a rather boring way.  After we heard him speak, however, a group called Youth 4 Youth gave us a tour of the neighborhood and a presentation on their volunteer work as role models for the local youth.  This was more interesting, as the presenters were closer to my age and very passionate about helping out in their community.

After this event, we had dinner at a restaurant called Cucos – another buffet, much better than the last one but not completely delicious.  My class went to the brewery again after dinner where we had free drinks on DIS, and then we all followed our professor to a bar that was rather classy and expensive, but very lively.  Coincidentally, the security guard at that bar was one of the volunteers from Youth 4 Youth, so he got us all a 20% discount on our drinks, which made them much more affordable.

The last day in Århus started early for anyone who wanted to go ice-skating, but I decided with my friends to forego that activity and instead sleep in a bit and explore the city since we hadn’t seen much of it (by daylight, anyways).  We found out that it’s a very beautiful but not very busy city (even the bars weren’t so busy on Friday night, and it’s a major university town).  That day also involved a scheduled trip to the ARoS museum, which was a really amazing modern art museum.  In fact, I enjoyed this museum almost as much as the Centre Pompidou in Paris!  We didn’t get to go through every exhibit, but it was really interesting, and I finally got my picture taken with the enormous statue of a crouching boy – one of the major touristy photo ops for DIS students!

We had lunch after the museum – another buffet, with a weird combination of breakfast foods and lunch foods, but not really brunch foods – and then headed back to Copenhagen.  Our professor put on another movie, but we were all sleeping and talking through the whole ride home.  I wish I had seen more of Århus, as it was truly very pretty and quaint.  Last semester’s study tours had much, much more free time during the day, giving us a chance to pursue our own objectives and take in the sites, meet locals, etc.  I really preferred it that way, and I hope it will be like that when we go to Istanbul.  Still, even if it sounds really corny to say it this way, I made amazing friends on this trip and can’t wait to see them in class – and for those in the other section of the class, in Turkey!

The snow-covered kingdom

If I told you to imagine Denmark in winter, you’d probably picture lots of snow.  Lots and lots of snow.  This is Scandinavia, after all.  But you’d be severely mistaken, according to most of the locals, who tell me that they haven’t seen more than mere flurries of snow in the past 15 years (albeit the temperatures are often far below freezing and the windchill is unimaginable).  This year, however, Denmark is finally getting its fair share of snowfall, and I couldn’t be more delighted!

Where I grew up in northern Pennsylvania, four feet of snow did not even guarantee a school cancellation, but my last two years in Washington, D.C. have been mostly devoid of snow.  I was set to experience more or less the same thing with Denmark, knowing what I do about the Gulf Stream and all.  But this weekend turned out to be a series of fun adventures in the winter wonderland that this country has turned into.

On Saturday, I woke up to my friend Cheryl’s phone call at 9:00 a.m.  She asked, “Do you want to go on an adventure?  If so, meet me at Central Station in an hour.”  By 10:30, we were on our way to Roskilde – a town not far from Copenhagen that is internationally famous for its music festival.  We decided that we would go to the cathedral in Roskilde, since it’s rather famous and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  It’s my goal to see all 890 sites before I die.  The cathedral was really beautiful, especially from the outside.  The inside seemed nice, but much of it was blocked from view by interior scaffolding (I swear, it’s on every building in Europe).  Also, there was an entrance fee to see the cathedral – only the Danes are so irreligious as to charge you to go into a church.  (This is actually not true – £18 to see Westminster Abbey.)

After walking through all of the various rooms of the cathedral, Cheryl and I decided to go to the viking museum that is built on the shores of a fjord.  The museum itself is a rather hideous cement building from the late 1960s, but we went inside anyways.  We decided that the museum was rather small and, since we both come from countries where the government pays for the museums, we didn’t much feel like handing over more kroner to see a few ancient ships (especially when there are numerous ships on display outside the museum!).  Instead, we went to a restaurant made mostly of glass – it had spectacular views of the fjord – and had a rather pricey but delicious lunch.

Not wanting to go home for the day, Cheryl and I decided to walk out onto the vast, frozen fjord.  We had a bit of trouble figuring out how to safely get to the center where the ice was thickest – it was rather slushy towards the land, but eventually we found a nice frozen spot just off one of the docks.  We walked around and stomped in the snow that had accumulated on the ice.  It was so pretty and such a cool experience, being so far out from land!

On Sunday, I had another blissfully wintery day.  Cheryl invited me to go sled-riding at Frederiksberg Gardens with her, André and Annie.  I had never been to this park before, which is really regrettable since I live within reasonable walking distance, and it’s ridiculously beautiful!  I left my camera at home that day, but fully intend to go back just to get some photographs of the pretty landscape (which I will add to this blog post to make things more exciting).

When André and I got to the gardens, we waited for everyone else and watched figure skaters on an outdoor ice rink, which was really charming.  After Cheryl and Annie arrived, we broke out into a snowball fight (Americans vs. Europeans).  On our way to the hills in front of Frederiksberg Palace, we saw a tree full of pacifiers.  Apparently, little Danish children gather up all of their old pacifiers and hang them by ribbons from the Pacifier Tree, leaving notes with their offerings to declare that they are big boys and girls.  There were even huge cookies hanging in the tree – gifts for the Pacifier Tree to thank it for receiving pacifiers.  This country is so weird sometimes.

Not being able to find a proper sled, Cheryl had picked up a yoga mat at the mall.  It turns out that this is not conducive to successfully sliding downhill.  We then gathered  a variety of broken sleds that children had discarded and decided that we would deal with the potential danger of riding these second-hand sleds downhill.  Hey, in a country were a bottle of Coca Cola is over $4.00, you have to save money where you can.

Overall, this weekend was a great success.  The weather is a bit cold for my liking (and now that I seem to have lost my transportation pass, it’s about to feel a lot colder), but Denmark is so beautiful right now.  I can’t wait for our short study tour, which starts tomorrow – Odense, Århus and the Danish countryside should be beautiful in blankets of white.

Jeg er back.

It’s been about ten days since I left the United States, so I suppose it’s about time I gave an update on everything that’s been going on since my return to Copenhagen.

When I arrived in Copenhagen, I had the same feeling that I usually get when I go back to Washington, DC after winter break.  I felt at home, I felt all of the normal things that I felt when returning to school.  I was a bit sad this time, though, because most of my close DIS friends from last semester are gone now.  Walking into the DIS building and seeing it really crowded but not recognizing anyone was a really strange experience that threw me out of my comfort zone.

I’ve spent most of my time since returning either with my friends from last semester, my friends from GW, or my Danish/European friends.  Being with them now makes me kind of sad because I have bonded with them enough to consider some of them amongst my best friends, but I no longer have the comfort of telling myself that we have one more semester together, and I have to accept that Danish immigration laws are much too strict for me to realistically consider moving back here one day.  Unless we are all one day living in the same city by coincidence, this will be our last four months together until our friendships must rely on Skype and frequent flyer miles.

But I digress.  Being back in Denmark after spending several weeks in the United States has made me appreciate both countries perhaps more than I once did.  I loved the diversity that I saw in the States – it’s so weird being back in a country where everyone is white and everyone who isn’t is “otherized” (and even those who are not white are relatively homogenous within their own communities).  The amount of homelessness and poverty that I witnessed in DC was a startling reminder of the inequalities that plague America but are largely absent from Denmark.

Regardless, I have increased my respect for the United States.  The things about it that frustrate me still frustrate me more than ever (ahem, Scott Brown’s victory).  Still, the diversity in the United States is something that I appreciate.  Riding the Metro in DC and being in the ethnic minority was a refreshing experience that provided a reality check for someone who’d spent a little too much time in Denmark.  It is Denmark’s commitment to consensus and to classlessness, however, that made me realize just how much the United States frustrates me.  Also, the food is much better (and more fattening, I admit it) in the States.  Sorry Denmark, but I’m just not down with pickled herring.

I’m really looking forward to this semester, even if I don’t have much energy for meeting new friends at DIS and even if I am sad that it’s the end of my time with some of the best friends I’ve ever had.  I can’t wait to finalize my travel plans, to go on my long study tour to Istanbul, to do all of the touristy things I haven’t done yet, and to down some Tuborg with the greatest – if not most introverted and xenophobic – people in the world.

…and you thought the Scandinavian winter was harsh?

I’ve been home for winter break for a few weeks now, and it’s been pretty relaxing overall.  There were some moments, however, where I wasn’t sure if I’d even make it home for the holidays.

On my last morning in Copenhagen, I awoke to my phone ringing at about 6:00 a.m.  It was my mom: American Airlines had called my home phone number to say that my flight to JFK was cancelled due to weather in New York.  I was hoping to get a flight re-routed through Copenhagen, but I couldn’t get through to the airline’s reservation hotline, so I went to the airport to see what I could arrange (I had a connection to make at London Heathrow Airport and didn’t want to be stuck in another city if I could avoid it).

When I got to the airport, I spoke with a man at the British Airways counter since they were handling my flight to Heathrow.  He informed me that the flight was not cancelled, and that I should proceed with my British Airways flight.  Believing him, I boarded my plane hoping for the best.  A few other DIS students were on my plane, all of them connecting to either JFK, Newark or O’Hare.  None of them had been informed of cancelled flights, so I assumed it was going to be fine, just like the British Airways employee had told me.  Wrong.

When I got from the British Airways terminal to the American Airlines terminal, I found out that my flight was indeed cancelled.  The people from American Airlines said that ALL flights to New York were cancelled, so even if there had been available seats with other airlines, they couldn’t possibly get us to New York that evening.  This was not true: my friend’s flight to JFK with British Airways was delayed by three hours, but she still made it home that night.  American cancelled prematurely, I just know it.

After waiting in line for three hours, only to be told that there was no point to my waiting in line by a rather bitchy employee of American Airlines, I found out (by calling a number on a very generous woman’s cell phone and waiting on hold for 45 minutes) that the only flights I could get to the US were to Boston on Tuesday.  As it was Sunday, I was stuck for two more days.  I later found out that the nice (and gorgeous) Swedish guy behind me in line was able to get a flight to JFK on Tuesday, but since I was able to have Tom pick me up, it wasn’t a really big deal where I flew into as long as I was landing relatively close to Connecticut.  I did, however, miss my flight to Pittsburgh on Tuesday (I was supposed to fly home after spending Monday and Tuesday with Tom).  Since my itinerary had been changed previously, this was actually the second flight I had purchased to come home.

So anyways, being trapped in London was not the worst thing in the world.  It is by far my favorite European city (although I’m still eagerly anticipating Istanbul, Prague, Budapest, Stockholm, et cetera).  I took the Underground into the city on Monday and did my Christmas shopping on Oxford Street.  Still having all day to do whatever I wanted, I ventured over to Trafalgar Square to see the Christmas tree (I thought I’d been to Trafalgar Square before; I guess I had thought I was there but was at a different obelisk?), I went to Buckingham Palace even though I’d already seen it, and after dark – which was rather early, it being the solstice and everything – I went to Westminster to see Parliament lit up and reflected in the Thames.  Just as I arrived at Westminster, it began to snow (it had been snowing earlier in the day but had eased up for a while).  Seeing the snowfall in front of Parliament was absolutely beautiful, and it was also very pretty on Regent Street, where I did some browsing in stores to keep warm before deciding to go to Westminster.

Since getting back to my home town in Meadville after a day with Tom and an uncomfortable flight to Erie, I have been inundated with snow.  The only days on which I don’t think I saw snowfall were Christmas day and the day after.  In fact, the already enormous amounts of snow melted on Christmas – the one day on which everyone appreciates a white-out.  Tom arrived on the first, and from that point on it did not stop snowing for eight days.

I don’t mean that it snowed every day for eight days.  No, no – this is northwest Pennsylvania that we’re talking about.  I mean that snow literally did not stop falling from the sky for eight days, twenty-four hours a day.  It was impossible to say whether or not the roads were being properly plowed, because it just didn’t make much of a difference.  I haven’t experienced that much snow since my early childhood – I swear, there were at least five feet of snow on the ground in many places!

Tom and I didn’t do much during his visit, but we did catch up with some friends.  I felt bad that I didn’t get to see everyone I wanted, and most of the friends I did see, I did not hang out with more than once or twice.  I don’t keep in touch with very many people from high school, especially when I’m abroad, so it’s hard to get in ample time with everyone when I’m home.  In addition to hanging out with my friends, we also went shopping a lot (and not just at Wal-Mart)!

Well, now I’m back in DC, where I’ll be staying at Tom’s place until the 14th, when I fly back to Copenhagen overnight.  It’s so weird being back on the GW campus for the first time since May, especially since my visit is so transitory.  I forgot how much I love it here, and I love how well I still know the place.  Everything is just the same, and the same things amuse and frustrate me, and for that I’m really grateful.  It’s going to be damn near impossible to leave America when it’s not Meadville that I’m leaving this time, but my real home.  I love this District.

Copenhagen, a love story.

The semester at DIS has come to an end.  There are no more exams, no more field studies, no more travel plans, other than a flight to JFK on Sunday after an extended layover at Heathrow.

I can’t believe how fast it went by.  There have been plenty of stories I never shared on here but wished I would have.  There have been lots of friends with whom I made plans that never became reality.  There are lots of places I said I’d visit or revisit but never did.  I know that I’ll be back in January for another semester, but saying goodbye to friends – best friends – who I just might never see again and will almost definitely never be with in Copenhagen again… it makes me realize how ephemeral my stay here really is.

The city is beautiful right now, full of the most splendid Christmas decorations.  I have to accept that I might never see the city decorated for Christmas again.  I had a very “hygge” Christmas party at Iason’s apartment this week and went shopping in the charming Christiania Christmas market.  These are experiences that I can probably never relive.  I hope to make it back here again (and again and again) throughout my life, but I might never be able to come at this time of year.

My life in Copenhagen will never be the same.  I will come back next semester to my European friends (and some of my GW friends will be joining me!), but it will not be the same.  I will miss my DIS friends so much.  And I realize now that, once I leave for good in May, the home that I found here will never be attainable again.

I’ve contemplated not coming back to DIS next semester.  I miss Washington, DC so much, and I miss my friends and my boyfriend.  I miss feeling really challenged by my classes.  I miss being able to afford normal things, like going out to eat and going to the movies.  But I’m so glad that I’m coming back because I still have so many things to see and re-see, so many friendships to continue cultivating, so much traveling to do outside of Denmark, and so much more.

Saying goodbye is always hard, and it’s been especially difficult with my DIS friends who are not coming back here in January.  So I say to you all – see you later.

‘Tis the season

Well, I really owe my faithful readers (Ricky, you might be the only one) an update on life in the past few weeks.

On the Wednesday before actual Thanksgiving, I celebrated Thanksgiving by having a traditional dinner at my networker’s apartment, along with our friends and another DIS student.  It was a lot of fun celebrating such a specifically American holiday with Europeans.  We actually had a proper Thanksgiving dinner too – mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, sweet corn, apple pie… but we did have to make chickens, as turkeys are rather difficult to procure in Denmark, and we made gluhwein, which is not exactly a traditional Thanksgiving beverage.

On the actual Thanksgiving Thursday, I was in London, having left from Copenhagen Airport the night before.  I met up with some friends in London, and also went sightseeing.  I’d share a scene-by-scene recap of everything, but I’ve already done that for each city and it seems obnoxious at this point.  In summation, though, I stayed near the Great Portland Street tube stop, and my sightseeing was generally focused around Harry Potter/Princess Diana landmarks: Tottenham Court Road, Sloane Street, Kensington Palace, King’s Cross Station (platforms 9 & 10 under construction – problem!), the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Walk/Fountain, and Harrod’s (okay, I would have gone here anyways, but I did want to see Muhammad Al-Fayed’s ridiculously tasteless memorials to Dodi & Diana).  I also went to proper touristy places, like Westminster Abbey, the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, the British Museum, the Tower of London, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, etc.

It was all lovely.  I have always said that I wanted to live in London, and being there only made me want to do so more.  Of course, I did realize that the London I imagined – while real – is probably inaccessible to me.  Living in Kensington, shopping on Oxford Street and working in an office building on the Thames is a perfectly wonderful idea, but the reality is that I will never be able to have/afford all of those things.  Ergo, I’ve concluded that moving to London is something I would definitely do, but it’s not the most important thing in the world.

I will say, though, that London was my favorite European city.  I’m glad I chose to study in Copenhagen, and Paris and Rome were great for vacations, but in terms of living, working, going out and having an actual life, London was perfect.  It felt much safer than anywhere in France or Italy (though not quite on par with Copenhagen) – no one begged me, tried to swindle me, or anything of that sort… of course, that could be due to the CCTV cameras everywhere?  London was so picturesque and the Brits are much easier to talk to than the Danes, though still not as sociable as Americans and Australians seem to be.  I guess the colonies acquired friendship somewhere along the way.

Since being back in Copenhagen, I’ve been rather busy.  DIS isn’t so very difficult, but when you have four papers due in one week, it doesn’t matter how challenging they are; that’s still a lot of work.  I’m taking a break in order to write this.  Still, I will say that I’ve been having fun lately.

Last week, I went to my friend Elisabeth’s house and we (the two of us + DIS friends) made a big dinner and had a slumber party, which was a nice change of pace since this is my first year not living in a dorm and therefore not being surrounded by my closest friends at all hours of the day and night.

I also went to Tivoli last week to get a drink (glögg, mmm) with my friend Cheryl.  The park is now decorated for Christmas, and it’s stunningly gorgeous.  Everything seems to sparkle.  I didn’t totally understand the Danish concept of “hygge” until the holiday season came around.  The decorations in this city are absolutely gorgeous!  My favorite scene in Tivoli was a weeping willow tree near the lake in the Chinese gardens – every branch was wrapped with tiny white lights, so when the willows blow in the wind, the lights swayed back and forth.  So enchanting!

The whole city is decked out for the Christmas season.  There’s a great store on Strøget called Royal Copenhagen.  It’s one of the most expensive stores I’ve ever been in and sells extravagant hand-painted porcelain and the like, and there are tables throughout the store decorated for the holidays by Danish celebrities (who are not famous anywhere else in the world, obviously).  It’s so cozy and beautiful – the entire city is really magical at this time of year.

It’s really interesting, also, to see the differences between Danish and American Christmas.  Danes, being the atheists that they are, don’t decorate things as much with religious symbols and stars.  Rather, they use hearts, traditionally red and white and woven from paper, to decorate for Christmas.  You can see these cute little decorations in all colors and sizes and materials throughout the city – the streets in Frederiksberg near my apartment have garlands strung above them that are adorned with plastic lights made to look like these hearts.   They are also hung on the large Christmas tree in Rådhusplads.  It’s quite charming.

The only other update that I have to mention is the climate conference (if you haven’t heard about this in the news, stop reading now).  It’s interesting to see the blend of sparkly Christmas decorations and climate-oriented things everywhere (in fact, the Christmas tree in Råhusplads is bicycle powered, so while it is lit up properly at night, a group of people can peddle on public bicycles to turn the lights on at any time).  There are exhibits in virtually all of the public squares, and in Rådhusplads, there is some kind of giant white globe that is illuminated by green lights at night.  I’ve yet to figure out what a lot of the displays are, but they are mostly really unique or interesting, so Copenhagen is an exciting place to be this month.

I’m hoping to do a lot of the touristy things that I’ve missed out on before I go home for winter break, but right now, although I sometimes wish I were staying in DC, I’m just feeling lucky that I’ll be back next semester, because otherwise I’d never get to see a lot of the sites that I’ve so far missed!

You don’t know me.

Before I came to Europe, people kept warning me about all of the anti-American sentiment that was prevalent over here.  I dismissed these warnings, partially because I didn’t believe them, but also because I tend to be quite pessimistic about the United States myself.  I had no idea how offended I could feel when someone criticized my country without having a reason to do so.

Sure, my European friends will tease me and other Americans about our little quirks – spelling everything with a ‘z’ instead of an ’s’ and then calling it “zee” instead of “zed,” for example – but it was all in good fun.  I had never had actual insults directed at me or at the US until last week.

In Paris, my friend Stephanie and I were walking through the exhibits at the Centre Pompidou.  We were looking at a strange piece which seemed to be two gigantic lungs covered by blankets, breathing in and out.  A French guy who worked at the museum approached us and said “Shh, they’re sleeping!” and then proceeded to drag us through a ridiculously long conversation.  He asked us where we were from, and didn’t understand when Stephanie kept saying “the United States.”  I actually had to tell him in French the name of our country before he understood.

Even though he didn’t recognize the name of our country (the French word for United States literally translates to “united states,” and he apparently spoke at least decent English), he told us all about the lack of sophistication and education that most Americans have.  He was saying that some parts of the United States are generally okay, but there are lots of rural areas where everyone is ignorant of the rest of the world and knows nothing about foreign countries (I’m not saying these don’t exist; see my hometown for example).  He kept elaborating on this point of view until Stephanie asked him whether or not he’d ever been to the United States.  He replied that he had not, but he had watched a French documentary which told him all of these things!

I am usually the first to criticize the US for being a bit backwards, too conservative, unconcerned with foreign affairs, and generally just a misguided country.  Still, I was offended.  He may not have been totally inaccurate in much of what he was saying, but to approach someone and begin to make broad, demeaning generalizations about their country – which you have never even been to – is deeply offensive.  Not to mention hypocritical – here he was telling two Americans who were exploring his country and its culture that Americans know nothing about the rest of the world, when he himself had never traveled to our country!

A similar incident happened again this week in Copenhagen.  On Wednesday, I went on a field study with my Muslims in the West class to a Muslim private school.  One of the teachers at the school, an ethnic Dane who practices Islam, gave us a really interesting presentation on the school and what does and doesn’t work about it.  He was really friendly and gave a really unique perspective, but most of all he was very down to Earth and seemed willing to merge his religious beliefs with the reality of 21st century Denmark.  However, he brought us into a classroom of ninth graders (this is generally the highest mandatory grade in school before going to gymnasium, which is comparable to high school) where their teacher, a woman whom he described as being half-Danish and half-Polish, proceeded to tear us apart for being American.

My class lined up in front of the black board so that we were facing all of the students in the room, and this teacher went to the back of the room and said, “So we were all wondering, why did you choose to come to Denmark, of all places?”  When some of us explained our various reasons – the opportunities provided by DIS, the opportunity to travel, interest in Scandinavia, etc. – she followed up by saying something like, “I just don’t understand, because most Americans don’t seem to know anything about the rest of the world and you’re all here in another country to learn about it.”

A few people tried to explain that we DO care about learning about the world and that IS why we’re here, and it’s not so easy to say that all Americans are ignorant.  One of the DIS interns who accompanied us on our field study explained that we were all students from good universities, so it was more likely that we would come from wealthy backgrounds and therefore would know more about the world.  I, along with several other students, challenged her on this.  We tried to explain to the class that socioeconomic background had little to do with your ignorance of the world; a rich person could be just as uninformed as a poor person, and not all of us were rich just because we went to good universities.  The teacher didn’t seem to accept this though, asking, “So if I go to a poor state like Mississippi, no one will know anything about European countries, but rich states will because you have state control over education?”  She explained that Danish education was controlled at the federal level, so because the Danish government wanted students to learn about the rest of the world, all Danish students are inherently more informed than all American students.

She kept repeating over and over, “Well we learn about Barack Obama in our classrooms, but you never learn about Danish politics!  It’s not right that we know so much about the rest of the world, and you know so little about it!  All you ever study is American history and American politics, but we study that and our own history and politics!”

At this point, I was not only offended but disgusted by the fact that anyone with such a lack of rationality to her reasoning was permitted to be a school teacher in this or any country.  I raised my hand to speak and explained a couple of things:

1. It is not fair to characterize American education or ignorance by class.  I am not wealthy, but I worked hard to get a scholarship so that I could go to a good university.  My parents do not have college educations, but they still know who other world leaders are.
2. Just because Danes study the United States does not mean that they know “more about the world” than we do.  She made no statements regarding Danish knowledge of anything outside of the US and Europe.  Americans actually do know quite a bit about Latin America – do Danes?
3. In the United States, we DO actually study other countries’ history.  Perhaps not everyone had the best teachers, but the subject matter was at the very least a part of our curriculum.
4. Danes probably do know about more countries than we do, but most of those countries are in Europe, and many are the size of states in the United States (and most Americans at least know something about most of the states).  A Dane could fly for three hours and pass over six countries.  An American could fly for seven hours and still be in the United States.  It’s easier to know about more countries when they are so much smaller and more geographically accessible.
5. Whether or not it should be this way, the fact remains the United States is – at least for now – the world’s only superpower.  International organizations hinge on the actions of the United States.  Perhaps in a better world this would not be so, but it’s an unavoidable truth.  Therefore, of course Danes have to learn about Barack Obama, as he governs a tremendously powerful country.  Americans are obviously going to be less likely to study a tiny country like Denmark, because Denmark’s actions don’t have the same kind of impact on the US that the US’s actions have on Denmark.

I made sure to use the prime minister of Denmark’s name (Lars Løkke Rasmussen) so that she would know that I did in fact know about their leader.

I really am critical of Americans’ lack of knowledge about the rest of the world, but even I have my limits.  It’s really not right for anyone to approach a national of another country and begin to tell them the faults of their culture.  How can we ever foster cross-cultural understanding if everyone’s beliefs are based on misrepresentative documentaries, socioeconomic stereotypes and offensive generalizations?

I LOVE PARIS!

Normally, I try to come up with a witty title for my blog posts, but there is no point in trying to express myself this way as I write about Paris because, quite simply, it was an AMAZING city.

I have always, always wanted to go to Paris, and I love studying French.  However, I feel like Paris is such a cliché tourist destination, so I was expecting to be a little bit annoyed with it (see my feelings about Florence below).  This was totally wrong!  People do not (or should not) love Paris because of the romance built up around it in our heads – people should love Paris because it’s a fantastic city with so much to see and experience.  I spent six days in Paris and didn’t even do half of what I wanted to!

I was planning to get to Paris on Sunday afternoon, but all of the trains from Milano Centrale station were booked, so I had to [pay a ridiculous sum of money to] extend my stay in my hotel and didn’t arrive in Paris until Monday night.  Having lost two days in Paris, I was a little bit disappointed, especially since it rained a lot for my last days in Milan, so I couldn’t do much besides treat myself to dinner and watch CNN International to cheer on Nancy Pelosi as she pushed a healthcare bill through the House.

In typical Ian fashion, I was sketched out by riding the Paris Metro alone at night, so my friend Ali from GW came to meet me at Gare de Lyon to escort me to my hostel.  My hostel, St. Christopher’s, was in the 19th arrondissement, which is a rather sketchy part of Paris.  Walking down the street to the hostel, I was a bit paranoid – until I saw the gorgeous building in which I was supposed to be staying!  My hostel looked like a huge bird’s nest, lit up with different colors and built along a beautiful canal.  It was really nice inside, with a popular restaurant and bar and lots of young people hanging out.  No wonder it was rated HostelWorld.com’s best hostel in France last year.

The next morning, I woke up early and decided to start exploring the city on my own until my friend Stephanie from DIS arrived in the evening.  I went to the Louvre first, though it was closed, so I proceeded through the Jardin de Tuileries.  When I got to the Place de la Concorde, a teenage boy showed me a gold ring and asked me if it was mine, telling me he’d found it on the ground.  Being intelligent enough to know that this was a swindling technique, I told him (in French) that it was not mine.  He insisted that it was too small for his finger and tried to force it on me, but I put my hands in my pockets.  He still kept trying to drop it in a pocket or something as I darted from side to side away from him, and finally, realizing defeat, he cursed in French and spat in my direction.  When he walked away, he walked backwards so he could watch me and kept shaking his fist menacingly.  Oh mon dieu!

I sat in a café for a bit to get over having been spat on, and then proceeded to l’Arc de Triomph (which was being made to look especially patriotic and had cameras all around it, but more on that later) and then went to the Notre Dame.  I had wanted to go to the Centre Pompidou, but all of the museums were closed on Tuesday, and they were also closed the next day for Remembrance Day.  Instead, I proceeded on to the Notre Dame.  I found this terribly disappointing – after seeing the Duomo in Milan, and after having huge expectations based on one of my favorite films, I was anticipating something much more epic.

The next day with Stephanie, we went with some girls from our hostel to l’Arc de Triomph to see a Remembrance Day ceremony.  Little did I know, Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel (and more importantly, the fiercest of first ladies, Carla Bruni) were there!  Sarkozy and Merkel spoke in their native languages about the importance of Franco-German relations (somewhere my European Union professor is having a heart attack because the Franco-German motor is the keystone of his lectures).  We then went to the Eiffel Tower.  I chose not to go up because I really hate heights, and honestly, knowing how much I freak out at the tops of roller coasters and tall buildings, I don’t really regret my decision.  Instead, I went to lunch with Ali.

I made everyone go with me to the Pont de l’Alma tunnel.  Not only did the Pont de l’Alma provide stunning views of the Eiffel Tower at sunset, but I also wanted to see the liberty flame over the bridge.  This is the bridge in which Diana, Princess of Wales was in a tragic car accident.  I wanted to see the flame, which many people think is actually a monument to her as it was plastered with photos of the princess for many years.  There was writing all over the concrete barrier above the tunnel, much of it dated 2009, paying tribute to Diana.  It was really moving to be there.

That night, Stephanie and I hung out with our friend Chris, another DIS student who happened to be staying in our hostel (there were at least three in our hostel, we saw some others randomly on the streets of Paris, and I had seen several in Italy!).  We drank a considerable amount – wine is SO CHEAP in France!  Less than two euros will buy you quality wine in an actual glass bottle.  No Franzia for me!

The next day, I mostly revisited things I’d already seen for Stephanie’s benefit, and we had lunch with Stephanie’s friend.  This brought us to a really cool Jewish/gay neighborhood with great vintage shops.  That afternoon, we went to the Centre Pompidou, a modern art museum that is built inside out.  I really liked this exhibit and am glad we did it; also, we ran into Chris there and then all had dinner together afterwards.

Stephanie left the next morning, so I was on my own for most of the day.  I went to the Musée de Louvre in the morning.  Honestly, I was a little bit tired of seeing thousands and thousands of religious paintings, but it was really exciting to see some of DaVinci’s work in person, and of course I made sure to see the Venus de Milo.  I did make myself walk through almost every wing of the museum so that I didn’t feel like I’d done simply the tourist version of the Louvre and then left.  I wasn’t, however, concerned with getting my money’s worth – my Danish residence permit got me free admission!

Afterwards, I went to the Jardin du Luxembourg, which was ridiculously beautiful!  There were lots of young people sitting around the fountain and laying in the yard, enjoying the beautiful Parisian day.  I got out my journal and sat in one of the chairs and wrote, soaking up some sunshine and enjoying the pleasant atmosphere.

That night, I had dinner with Ali and a bunch of GW students who were also studying at the American University of Paris.  I didn’t know them all well, but it was really nice to be with people from my university again.  I don’t think I realized how much I missed GW until then.  Sure, I bitch about the student body when I’m there, but I do find an enormous amount of comfort in GW and in hanging out with the type of people I’m used to.

On Saturday, my friend Julia called me, and we met up in Montmartre at the Pigalle metro stop.  After taking some pictures in front of the Moulin Rouge (no Nicole Kidman sightings, sadly), we progressed to the Scare Coeur, which is really breathtaking.  It’s amazing that this church isn’t more famous than the Notre Dame, because it is absolutely beautiful, and so are the views that one gets from its stairs that ascend the highest hill in Paris.

After wandering around the charming area of Montmartre for a while, Julia and I went to the Musée d’Orsay.  This was one of the biggest highlights of Paris for me.  I took an art history class at GW during my freshman year and the focus was realism and impressionism, so I had seen almost every painting in the museum before, but to really be able to look at the brush strokes and appreciate the size of some of the works was fantastic.  I had such an appreciation for the art that I wouldn’t have had without taking that class, and the museum was just great.

That night, I had dinner with Ali again and left to go back to my hostel and start packing.  I think it’s safe to say that I miss Paris considerably, which is a little bit ridiculous if I was only there for a week.  Can you really miss something you had so briefly?  All I know is, I can’t wait to go back someday…

Ti voglio bene, Italia

I headed north from Rome on a train and got to Florence on a rainy afternoon.  Despite the bad weather, I decided to go for a walk around the city before meeting a DIS friend for dinner, but I went back to my hostel for an early bedtime.

The next morning, I woke up early for the free breakfast that my hostel was providing.  At breakfast, a guy staying in the same room in our hostel asked me if I would mind his company while I explored the city for the day.  I actually never remembered his name (awkward!), but we stayed together for most of the day.

Florence is an absolutely gorgeous city.  Walking the streets is like walking through a living museum.  All of the buildings maintain an Old World look and charm (despite the globalized brand names that adorn their gables), and there are famous buildings and iconic sculptures around every street corner.  The exterior of the Duomo is perhaps the most beautiful part of the city – the bright colors and intricate designs on this building, taken as a whole, are amazing and unlike almost anything else (it wasn’t my favorite cathedral, but I’ll get to that in a bit).

Although walking the streets of the city provided some of the most beautiful sites I had ever seen, there was still better to come.  Walking through the famous leather market, where I purchased three scarves for €10!, I ran into two people who had been staying in my hostel in Rome.  This sounds like a miraculous coincidence, but Florence is a rather small and walkable city.  They told me that they were planning to go to the Piazzale Michelangelo.  This public square tops a high hill that overlooks the city, providing the most breathtaking panoramic views of Florence.  It had rained lightly in the morning, so by the time I climbed to the top of the hill, there was a beautiful rainbow stretching across the sky, and a light mist hung over the beautiful Tuscan hills that provide a gorgeous backdrop to the colorful little city.  Florence is really like a jewel shining in Tuscany, but  I didn’t actually love my time there.  It was full of American and Asian tourists, so almost no one I saw was Italian.  Because of all the tourists, things in Florence were overpriced and sometimes tacky.  Still, the city is ridiculously gorgeous and full of interesting and uniquely beautiful sites.

After Florence, I progressed to Milan.  I was excited to be back in a more traditional, metropolitan city, but most of all, I was excited to see my friend Alessandra.  She did a foreign exchange program and studied for a semester in my high school during my senior year.  I hadn’t seen Ale since she returned to Italy at the end of 2006, so after three years of only occasional Facebook wall posts, we were past due for catching up!

Milan was a really beautiful city, which is surprising since most people complain that is too industrial and offers little to do for tourists.  I actually didn’t know what a tourist was supposed to do in Milan, so I let Ale be my guide.  She took me to all of the famous buildings, gelaterias and restaurants, but also to smaller locations and trendy bars frequented by the young Milanese.  The first place she took me was the Duomo in Milan, which is hands down the most beautiful church I have ever seen.  It’s pristine white exterior, gorgeous sculptures and enormous size make it so much more impressive and beautiful than almost any other building in the world.  I was completely underwhelmed by the Notre Dame, and I think that’s because I saw the Duomo in Milan first!

The rest of the city is relatively dull from a totally tourist perspective.  There are beautiful buildings and charming streets, particularly in and around the shopping districts.  I had a wonderful time in Milan, but probably because I was able to live a bit like a local.  Ale took me to Cova, a famous café in Milan, where we had the most delicious (and expensive) hot chocolate and chocolate cake that I’d ever tasted!  It was gorgeous little place, and eating inside at a table near ours was one of the highest paid fashion models in Italy.  I also went with Ale to dinner at some of her favorite restaurants, which were out of the way of most touristy areas and therefore had even better food at even better prices (although finding places with English-language menus was not always easy).

I’m not sure why so many people skip or gloss over Milan on their stays in Italy, but it’s definitely a beautiful city that is worth visiting!