Personal Development
This week has been hectic, I didn't know that it was possible to have so many things to do in just one week. It has been really great having the feeling of being settled somewhere new and having the confidence to move about the city on your own. Each day, things that once seem strange and unfamiliar, have slowly started to reveal themselves as the familiar. I have even managed to get the hang of the clipcard situation on the trains, it has been stressing me out for the past three weeks, however finally I think I have managed it! Going shopping has been a less stressful task also, and I now know where I can get the cheapest deals, however 'cheap' is an exaggeration in this city- every item is incredibly expensive. I had to laugh at myself the other day when looking in my basket, as the brand I have been buying here is called 'budget', and every item was from that brand- such a cheapskate ( It is honestly not even that cheap!) This week there has been even more snow , which makes the city so amazing to look at and the snow carries with it an amazing sense of peacefulness amidst a vibrant and busy city centre. The rivers, ponds and lakes are all still frozen solid which is quiet an unbelievable sight. On Wednesday evening, I took a trip up Copenhagen's Rundentaarn (The Round Tower) which was built by Christian IV following the Holland Renaissance style architecture. This amazing tower has no steps and you ascend up the tower by means of a cleverly constructed slope, once at the top of the tower you are greeted by amazing views over the city. We also got the chance to visit the observatory and gained even more spectacular views, it was unfortunate the sky was cloudy as we were not able to see any stars, I will most certainly be making another visit back during my stay. This week I also made a trip to the Frederiksberg area of Copenhagen, my new favourite place to visit. There is a huge park in the area, which is covered in a blanket of snow, there are also an number of huge hills where families gather to go sledging...we have decided we are going to join the sledging sunday afternoon gathering before the snow melts! Outside the park is a small ice rink, which looks like a scene from a movie. Katie and I also decided to visit another church in Frederiksberg on Sunday, It was really great to see another side of religion in Denmark and I hope to return to this church in the following weeks.
Cultural Development
As it is the season of Lent we decided that we would make pancakes in the flat, a great success although I have to say we did drop a number on the floor! However, this week we discovered that this is not a normal Danish activity. Danish Culture however partakes in a Nordic festival- 'fastelavn' which takes place the weekend prior to the beginning of lent. The children all dress up in fancy dress costumes and they gather to beat a large wooden barrel filled with sweets. Traditionally the barrel would have been occupied by a cat (shocking, I know!) and they would have beaten the barrel with the cat instead, the cat representing evil. However, we were assured that this took place well over a hundred years ago and doesn't happen anymore! We were invited to this festival with our landlady, Kirsten and her family which took place at the old town - Ballerup (similar to the Folk and Transport museum in Cultra).
This week we also had the opportunity to make a traditional Danish meal. We met with our class at one of the Home Economics rooms in another campus in Skovlunde, We were educated about the traditional and present eating habits of Danish culture. We were split into groups to cook an number of separate courses, from Danish meatballs (Frikadeller), White cabbage salad, red cabbage salad, Danish roulade, Danish apple cake. We were told by our lecturer that most of these would have been cooked in rural families due to the ingredients being cheap and they could also grow on their farms. The evening was a great success, and the food was delicious!
Professional Development.
This week we have been continuing mostly with our Danish language lessons, and the classes have been focusing on developing our confidence in conversation. The classes are extremely interesting and I hope that with each day the language barrier will become less. We have been also working a lot on our Visual Culture presentation which looks primarily at similarities and differences between third-level education institutions for teacher training in different cultures. Within my own group we have been comparing our home institutions, with representative countries, Northern Ireland, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany. We have been using Wiki spaces and podcasts to present our work which has been incredibly useful and effective. This week we are continuing with our Multi- Cultural classrooms and Comparative Education classes along with Globalization and Professional Development, so another full week ahead.
Speak soon,
G.
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