Blog take one!

Hej! This is "hi" in Danish ;)

Soo.... I have decided to start a blog. I'm starting a bit later than most people would in my situation (I've already been abroad for 3 weeks) but that fits nicely with everything else in my life, which is also late.

This is a picture of my friend Meghan, who has graciously let me into her room to use her internet, because mine is NOT WORKING and has been NOT WORKING for a WEEK now. Anyway, we are working on getting that fixed (the wall aaaand the wireless router) so it should be remedied later this week :)

I will work on putting up pictures of my everyday life this week, so whoever is reading this can see my room, my kollegium (which is the type of dorm where I live), and so on. I live in an international kollegium, which is an apartment style dorm for international students. My roommate and a few of my neighbors are also from the states, doing the same program I am (Danish Institute for Study Abroad, or DIS). 

Even though I've already been here a while, I am still adjusting to daily life (I like to take my time with things),  but things are gradually falling into place. I'm finally comfortable taking the train every day to class, and next on my list is bike, then bus ;). I have also learned to take the train/metro to the Royal Danish Academy of Music, where I have finally started taking trumpet lessons. At RDAM I will be switching off taking lessons with two different teachers, Nikolaj Viltoft and Jonas Wiik, who both play in the Royal Danish Opera. Nikolaj is Danish, and Jonas is Swedish. They both seem very nice and I am excited to learn from them!

I went on my first study tour this past week, which was AWESOME and got me really excited for being in the Child Diversity and Development program. The girls (and one boy) in my class are really nice, and I can already tell that my teacher (who is Danish), has some really interesting material planned for us this semester. We are not only learning about Children with Special Needs (the title of our core course), but we are also learning about the Danish Education System, the Danish view on Special Needs, Scandinavian philosophy on criminals, and much much more! We had the opportunity to visit several really interesting places on our tour, including a Danish boarding school (here's the address if you're interested http://www.ringekostskole.dk/), a Danish prison and a modern art museum. I have some pictures of the other places...

Happy Pigs at the Heartha Levefaellsskab! I'm pretty sure all the food they cook here is vegetarian ;)

My future home...

Another house at Heartha Levefaellesskab, a residential community based on the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner. Here they have a units for adults with special needs as well as anyone else who wants to live in the community. They practice "reverse integration," which means that instead of trying to integrate the disabled into normal society, the "able" people choose how much they want to be involved in the lives of the disabled.

Here's the web address in case you're interested. http://www.hertha.dk/

One of the fields at Heartha Levefaellesskrab. They grow all organic vegetables here, as well as bio-dynamically grown produce. They also milk their own cows and have other activities for the residents such as a weavery and a kitchen to cook their own food!

These are images from Odense, the charming town in which the famous story teller Hans Christian Andersen was born and lived for many years. We also walked past the river in which his mother washed clothes of the wealthier families of the town in, which Hans would pass every day on his way to the library.

Also in Odense is the "Tinderbox," a sort of play museum for kids to experience a story of Hans Christian  Andersen and act it out in play and artwork. My class did a pretty good job of becoming children again as we put on costumes and experienced the music and set for the original "Little Mermaid" story!

Mermaids!

Okay, well I think that's all I have time for tonight. I will work on trying to make up for lost time the rest of this week! Stay posted for when I get my internet back...

PEACE and BLESSINGS.

~Liliana