Rejse til Jutland

Aka, trip to Jutland. This title is supposed to be ironic. And, if you weren't a native speaker of Danish, it probably wouldn't mean anything to you. By saying it this way, Danes are implying that Jutland is a far, far away place, an "outside" place. And for those of you who are thinking, "What is Jutland"? I will elucidate. Quick geography lesson: Denmark is composed of a peninsula (sticking out of the top of Germany), called Jutland, and over 400 islands (including the one Copenhagen is on, called Zealand). So, for a Copenhagener, going to Jutland is pretty much the equivalent of a New Yorker going to Nebraska. They are on complete opposite sides of both the country, and are viewed differently. Many Copenhageners view Jutland as being provincial, backwards, and behind the times. When I told my Danish friends I went to Jutland this last weekend, their reply was, "Why?".

The answer to the question is that DIS feels that it is a good idea to get students out of Copenhagen, to see more of Denmark. And, I think its a great idea. Not only do you get to know a big chunk of people much better, but you get to see things from a different perspective. As part of my program, we got to meet people from different immigrant backgrounds, and hear their stories. This was probably the most influential part of the trip for me. It really breathed life into what we read in class, by hearing the personal stories of immigrants who came to Denmark. One of the issues that we have been focusing on is the treatment of immigrants, and the policies put forward by the state regarding asylum seekers, immigrants, etc. It was so great to get perspective from the people who were actually affected by those policies.

We had a lot of great social and cultural visits too, including (what I consider the highlight) a Carpark North concert. It was a great time, in an awesome venue, called Ridehuset. There were these huge white, cylindrical crepe structures hanging from the ceiling, as well as a ginormous disco ball. It was a great time, full of cultural opportunities (observing a bunch of Danes drinking massive amounts of beer and jumping around, singing, and dancing to the music).

The second most awesome thing we did was go to an art museum. There was an entire floor of interactive digital art which blew me away. There were various exhibits where you had to do things from running on a treadmill, to using a typewriter to getting your pulse measured by a machine and having it reflected in 300 blinking lights in the ceiling. I really enjoyed it, especially having been there once before, because I didn't feel the need to rush through all of the exhibits. I could just spend time enjoying the ones that appealed to me. At the end of the trip, we took a quiz on all things Danish, which I knew surprisingly little of. It did, however, provide me with ample facts for the random Danish fact of the day... So, without further adieu,

Random Danish Fact of the Day: Did you know that most of Copenhagen burned down in 1728 and was subsequently rebuilt? The building that DIS is housed in was among the casualties. That fire is why most of the buildings on Copenhagen don't date back any further than the 1700's.