At the Ballet

A major facet of my ongoing education on all things Danish is my formal Danish Language and Culture course my home university required me to enroll in. In addition to making the slight language barrier a bit more navigable, I am gaining cultural insights the guidebooks just don't cover. Beyond the grammar lessons, my program arranges certain cultural events like last week's trip to the ballet.

I, along with about 50 other American students, trekked to the Royal Theatre that currently houses the Royal Danish Ballet. Formerly, this was the center for the national theatre and opera as well, but they have recently acquired their own buildings. The piece we was was entitled Dans2Go which took highlights from three longer dance pieces and condensed them for the nontraditional ballet-going audience. There were also videos of interviews with the dancers and choreographers that aired before each piece to incorporate an educational element. Or, at least I assume, my Danish isn't that good, yet!

The Royal Box

We students were treated to a discussion with former principal dancer before the performance. Crowded in one of the mirror-walled rehearsal spaces, he briefly explained to us the history of the world's third oldest ballet in addition to the pieces we were to see-a traditional one from France placed in a modern context, a piece from American choreographer Jerome Robbins, and a new one from an up and coming Danish dancer and choreographer. This third one was the longest, at about an hour, and was simply stunning. It had some of the most beautiful lighting I have ever seen and its new music supported the intense and layered choreography beautifully. It was a very symbolic piece and many of my fellow students left with different interpretations. Regardless, it was a beautiful night spent in a stunning proscenium theatre that gave me a taste of Copenhagen high culture.

Swede Emotion

Hey folks! It's been a while since you've heard from me, but I'm back and better than ever!

Over the past 2 weeks, I have been traveling all around Denmark's neighbor to the north, Sweden! One weekend was a wild adventure to Stockholm with some flatmates and more recently was a trip to southern Sweden-Malmo, Lund, and Rostanga- to study sustainable development with my class.

First, the first trip. After some craziness figuring out how to get there, we finally hopped on a night train from Copenhagen to Stockholm. For those of you who don't know, night trains rock. If you've ever seen White Christmas, picture the sleeper cars but with a triple instead of double bunk. Exciting! After spending 8 hours on the train trying to sleep, we pulled into the station around 6 and began what became a 20 hour marathon exploring Stockholm. We covered a lot of ground-12 miles to be exact- and saw so many of the great sights. My personal favorite was the Palace which, in its present incarnation, is in a style similar to 18th century France. At the moment, they have an exhibit on Royal wedding dresses, many of which are gorgeous with a few plain ones thrown in for good measure.

A big difference in Stockholm was the night life. It has a full range of options, from dive bars to touristy attractions. We opted for the latter and spent about an hour at Ice Bar which is exactly as it sounds-a bar made of ice! It was beautiful to see the carvings of animals in large chunks of frozen river water and meet some other college students visiting for the weekend. After our big adventure, we crashed in our hostel and flew back to good old Kastrup where, when we were above the clouds, we were treated to some much needed sunshine and blue skies.

Descending, we entered into a brief week of normal classes before embarking on core course week. With my study abroad program, each student is enrolled in about 5 classes, one of them being our core course. Mine is Sustainable Development in Northern Europe. That means that this past week, I have been exploring different ventures and aspects of urban sustainability in Copenhagen as well as neighboring Sweden. There is so much incredible work being done on both sides of the bridge. I was fortunate enough, through my program, to gain first experiences like hiking in a Swedish national park, take tours of developing green neighborhoods, gain access to green rooftops, tour an incredibly impressive dump, and even sit around a snowy campfire with fellow students and our professor just getting to know one another.

I am so fortunate to be studying in a country that makes it so easy for me to travel and experience different cultures and look at issues from multiple vantage points. Nevertheless, I am so happy to be back in my hyggelicious Copenhagen again! I am continuing to explore the city and even just found a fun new area yesterday. Adventures abound, now if only the sunlight would follow suit!