Short Study Tour

Opening points:

• It's starting to get cold here. For those of you who wondered, my North Face fleece is once again becoming a permanent fixture of my wardrobe for the next 4ish months. I'm not sorry.
• If you want me to send you a postcard, email me or facebook me your address. If you want to send me mail, my address is:

Mia Savoca

c/o DIS, Danish Institute for Study Abroad
Vestergade 7
DK- 1456 Copenhagen K
Denmark

I spent the last three days traveling through Western Denmark with my European Trends in Communication class on the first study tour of the semester.

Day 1 Highlights: (September 3)

Visit to TV2 Østjlland: We spent a few hours touring this regional news station and interviewing one of the reporters. This station is incredibly laid back. News in Denmark, generally, is a much more casual program than news in the US.

Visit to Designit in Århus: Designit is a strategic design consultancy based out of Denmark. One of the biggest in the world, they're a very casual, creative, new-age company. Hearing one of their design managers speak and touring the facility was amazing.

Visit to Århus: After touring Designit, we spent the rest of the evening exploring the city of Århus. Try this one on for size:

Århus is the second largest city in Denmark. Copenhagen, the largest, has just over 1 million inhabitants. Århus, 2nd largest, has only abut 250,000 inhabitants. 

For a little frame-of-reference: The US has about 10 cities with populations of 1 million or more. Denmark has a total population of about 5 million, whereas the US has a total population of about 314 million. Denmark has more pigs than it has people.

That being said, though, Århus is charming and quaint. A city lined along its canals, it has been nominated to be the European capital of culture in 2017 and has one of the largest yearly culture festivals in all of Europe. We were lucky enough to see some of the festival, including music and magic acts.

Day 2 Highlights: (September 4)

ARoS Museum:

The next day, we started the day at the world famous ARoS Museum. The museum is one of the largest  art museums in Northern Europe. It's most famous feature it the glass rainbow walkway that tops the entire building and overlooks the city.

Following the museum visit, we drove through more of the beautiful Danish countryside.

Before turning in for the night in Vejle, we played a few games of Kayak Polo (yes, that's water polo in a kayak... not easy).

Wetsuits and windbreakers were provided to shield from the crazy cold water. Good thing, because of course I fell out of my kayak in a particularly intense play.

Day 3 Highlights: (September 5)

Jelling Stones:

We visited Jelling, Denmark to see the famous ancient rune stones, the Jelling stones. Erected by the first historical kings of Denmark, these rune stones have fascinating historical context. The most impressive thing about Jelling, though, was the gorgeous Danish countryside visible from the ancient manmade mounds surrounding the stones. Photos below.

Aarstiderne:

Our final stop was to Aarstiderne. Aarstiderne was perhaps my favorite part of the trip. Aarstiderne is a company that has established a virtual supermarket that hand delivers pre-ordered fully organic fruits and vegetables to its customers. We toured their farmlands and grounds (gorgeous, located oceanside) and got a presentation about their extreme sustainability and organic production. The most impressive part about the company is their transparent philosophy and open lines of communication with their customers and between all levels of employees. It was run unlike any business I've ever seen.

On our visit and tour, they started by serving us a fully organic meal. It was beautiful and delicious. Easily the best meal I've had in Denmark and probably the healthiest.

What surprised me while I was away was how much I missed Copenhagen. I've been busy missing Villanova and home, so it came as a surprise to me that I'd miss Copenhagen while I was away, too.

I do understand that I'm grasping, right now, at any form of familiarity I can hold onto. As soon as I was establishing a routine in Copenhagen, BOOM I'm being whisked away to Western Denmark. But having this small chance to miss the city did make me realize that I'm becoming attached and the routine is starting to sink in. Definitely a good thing.

Generally, it was a lovely three days in Western Denmark, but I'm glad to be back in the city getting back into the swing of things.

Until later... xoxo