Short study tour, long entry

So this is a week late, because I've been terribly busy, but my short study tour was too much fun not to tell you all about it.

On Thursday, I spent much of Valentine's Day on a bus headed to our short study tour. Basically, DIS took everyone on a tour of somewhere else in Denmark (or Germany or Sweden for some students) Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The majority of the students went to Western Denmark. My group went to Aalborg and Skagen overnight and we also stopped in Århus on the way home.

The first place we stopped was Egmont Højskole. I believe I explained what a højskole is earlier because I live in one, but it's a place where Danes can go and take classes after completing high school. They're taught by college professors but they don't get grades. It's mainly a chance for them to learn about themselves and figure out what they would like to do with their lives. It's a really interesting institution. Some are specialized; the one I live in is for journalism and the arts.

Egmont Højskole started out as a place for handicapped and disabled Danes to go. Now, it's about integration of disabled and non-disabled Danes. Approximately 70 students have disabilities and 20 do not. Many of the students who do not are personal assistants toward the ones who do. They have every part of that building equipped so that anyone with any handicap can do anything. They even have sailboats and sewing machines made so one person can use it by his or herself. There were three people who gave us the tour. One was not handicapped, but one of the other men had what I think was cerebral palsy. He was confined to a chair and had difficulty controlling his limbs. The third man translated what he was saying because we couldn't understand him. We later asked one of the teachers, who admitted that they couldn't tell if he was speaking Danish or English, to give an idea of how muddled his speech was.

That night, we arrived in Aalborg. We all went out to dinner with the group and then went to a few bars. We went to the first one because they gave everyone a free beer. Then, our teacher announced that DIS was going to buy us beer as well and that it was much bigger. I wish I'd known I could substitute something else, because I really don't like beer and this one was about the size of my head. But, I drank it like a champ. We went on to one more bar, which was practically empty except for five or six of us. After that, three of us decided we wanted to head back. We weren't sure where the bus stop was (and it had stopped running anyway, which we were also unaware of) and we asked a nice couple who were going in that direction as well. They offered us a ride in their cab and wouldn't let us give them any money for it. We thanked them profusely and told them we hoped someone was as nice to them when they visit the United States this summer.

The next day, we left the hostel to visit Råbjerg Mile, which is the largest migrating sand dune in Northern Europe and moves at a speed of 15 m/ 50 feet a year, which destroys all the vegetation underneath the sand. So far, it has moved 1,500 m/ 1 mile eastward. It will eventually go from the coast of Skagerrak in the West to the coast of Kattegat in the East. The sand dunes were incredibly fun to run around in but we couldn't stay there very long because we had to move on. But, I managed not to destroy my camera like I did in the sand dunes I visited in Israel, which was exciting. In addition, I got to use the beach setting on it.

We drove on a little further and visited the Sandy Church, which is an old church that is now partially buried in sand. Then, we went to the beaches of Grenen, which is about 3 km north of Skagen, the very northernmost tip of Denmark where the Skagerrak and Kattegat seas meet. I discovered my new boots were in fact waterproof when I ran into the water to stand in both seas. Apparently, you're supposed to drink Gammel Dansk (Old Dane) when you're there, so our teachers took out a bottle and handed out shot glasses. It's pretty disgusting but it kept us all warm for a moment. It has a lot of spices in it - I think our teacher said 59. But it tastes like really gross cough syrup.

Lastly, we visited the Skagen Art Museum and the Refugium. The museum featured work mainly from between 1870-1930 by Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, German and English artists and actually showed a lot about the history and how life was in Skagen. The Klitgården Refugium has been around for a very long time. Now, it's used by artists who pay to stay there so they can relax and just worry about their work. All meals are provided for however long they stay and it's right by the beach, so they have amazing views when the weather cooperates.

On Saturday, we began the trip back to Copenhagen. We drove from Skagen to stop in Århus to go to ARoS - Åarhus Kunstmuseum (Art Museum). This one featured mainly modern art, but had some older pieces as well. The bottom floor was filled with actual rooms as art, which is not something I would've thought of, but was really cool. You walked into the rooms and they all had different lighting and sometimes you couldn't tell where the walls actually were. There was one little room where you went out onto a ledge kind of thing and all around you for mirrors which made it look like it'd be a really far drop if you fell. There were a lot of other interesting pieces, such as "Boy," a giant statue of a boy, a painting with a man shoving a cucumber into someone else's backside and a projected image of an airplane flying in circles. I saw it was attached to a string, but I didn't notice anything else the first time. Then I read the sign which talked about how man could master machines and manipulate them, but it was no substitute for natural sexual potency. The string was attached to a man's penis as he was lying comatose on a table in the middle of a field. There was also a display of a horse that was slaughtered and put into a lot of jars. It was made in the 1970's as a protest to Vietnam. Basically, some guy slaughtered this horse while his friend sang some sacrificial song and now it's art. I'm not so sure I agree with that and I'm pretty sure most of us threw up a little after seeing it, but it was definitely interesting.

Then we drove three or four more hours and finally got back to København, where I took the train and the bus and got home about an hour and a half later. I thought it was an awesome trip. It was nice to have a break from classes and I'm very excited for my week-long study tour in march.