EXCHANGE PROGRAM IN DENMARK - FALL 1991
In
the fall of 1991 my wife, daughter, son, and I spent a semester in Denmark as
part of an exchange program called Denmark's International Studies program
(DIS) in Copenhagen. In the middle
of the semester, we went with a group of students from DIS on a tour of the
former U.S.S.R. while it was falling apart. After the semester was over, my family
spent five weeks traveling around Europe, including visiting my second cousin
at a US Army base in Berlin and my grandmother's cousin and his family in
Finland. This journal introduces
some of our experiences on the trip, based on letters sent to family members in
the US, and lists additional journals that describe my impressions of other aspects
of Danish life.
OVERVIEW OF THE TRIP
Before
there were many options for studying abroad, Whittier College would send a
group of students instead of one or two to DIS. The program started when Whittier
College faculty asked the University of Copenhagen to offer an exchange
program, and it expanded to include colleges across the US. In the past, one Whittier faculty
member went along with the group as the Director, and I was able to do that in
the fall of 1991 after being on the waiting list for several years. That experience changed my life. My family came with me, and it changed my
daughter's life as well.
Before
I went to Denmark, I was a workaholic, wearing button-down shirts. While in Denmark, I picked up the Danish
attitude of "Work hard, play hard." When Americans play, they often feel
guilty. Due to the influence of the Protestant Work Ethic, they feel that it is
sinful to have fun, or at least that it is wasting time. The Danes are not cursed with that
attitude from America's Puritan founding fathers.
The
first weekend we were in Denmark, we went on a tour of western Denmark, and I
went with a group of students to a dance club. I rediscovered how much I loved dancing,
which I had not done since I was in graduate school at the University of
Washington. There I had affiliated
with the chapter of my undergraduate fraternity, which sponsored many
dances. In Denmark, I also rekindled
my love of traveling abroad. I had
always wanted to make more trips since my first trip to Europe in 1967 while a
graduate student, but hadn't had the opportunity since I was so busy teaching,
doing research, and being a parent.
In
the middle of the semester my family and I plus my younger brother went with a
group of students from DIS on a study tour of the former USSR as it was falling
apart. The tour occurred less
than two months after the fall of Communism and the independence of the three
Baltic republics: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and less than three months
before the collapse of the rest of the U.S.S.R into independent republics. I
describe that tour in a separate journal.
At
the end of the semester, I spend five weeks taking my family to major cities in
various countries around Europe. I
remember my daughter complaining, "Dad, not another cathedral. Not another museum." But being in Europe gave her a
love of traveling and the confidence to travel on her own later. When we left for Denmark, she was a
sophomore in high school reluctant to leave her friends in Whittier. But at an international school in
Copenhagen, she made friends with classmates from five different
continents. Knowing that she could
do that gave her the confidence to attend college across the country in
Connecticut, to study abroad and conduct research in Equator, and later conduct
doctoral research in Finland, have a Fulbright award in Germany, and teach at a
university in Ireland then in Germany, as well as attend conferences in various
other places.
When
I returned to Whittier from Denmark, I was rejuvenated. I reset my social age and began going to
dance clubs every week for two decades.
I became the advisor for a local fraternity, and the advisor for a club
of international students. I began
wearing foreign t-t-shirts and other clothing to my Introductory Psychology
classes, and spending a few minutes talking about other cultures. I sought other opportunities for foreign
travel, and other travelogues are the result.
GETTING ORIENTED
My
family flew to Copenhagen on August 3, 1991, after being driven to the airport
by friends who had studied abroad at DIS when they had been students at
Whittier College years ago! It was an 11-hour flight, leaving at 5:15
PM Saturday and arriving at 1:20 PM Sunday since Denmark time is 9 hours later
than LA time. On the flight, we saw the red canyons in
Utah, then flew over Wyoming and North Dakota on the way to Hudson's Bay. By the time we were over Canada, it was
dark; but over Greenland we could see beautiful snow-capped mountains poking up
out of the clouds.
We
flew there before everyone's fall semester started, so we would have time to
get settled and do some sightseeing.
Tivoli
gardens (a big amusement park, which was a model for Disneyland) closes at the
end of the summer, as does Legoland, a city made of
Lego blocks. There also is an open-air museum (like Sturbridge Village) and a
museum of Viking ships nearby.
The
campus of DIS is in Copenhagen, but DIS arranged for my family to rent a
townhouse in Lyngby, which is 20 minutes away by
train. I will describe the house in
the next section. DIS arranged for
the college students attending DIS to stay with Danish families.
The
college students attending DIS arrived on group flights August 22-23, then had
an Orientation Week from August 24-30, including a Danish language survival course
which my wife and I also took. She
and I then participated in the semester-long Danish course offered by DIS to
college students. I struggled to
keep Danish and German apart, and my wife struggled not to mix in Spanish! I
will say more about the Danish language later.
Whittier
College had wanted me to teach a class at DIS, but DIS wanted the students to
take classes from Danish instructors.
So I studied Danish, read a great deal, and
learned all that I could as I usually do.
I also acted as an advisor not only to Whittier College students, but to
other students as well, whom I would talk with at lunch at DIS.
TOWNHOUSE
IN LYNGBY
Although
Copenhagen looks different than Los Angeles, my wife, daughter, and son didn't
really experience culture shock until they saw the house. By European standards it was very nice,
but by American standards it was smaller than they were used to. It was a townhouse in a building
containing several townhouses side by side. The living room was about 9 x 15
which was fine, and the adjoining kitchen was about 7 x 10 which was okay. But
upstairs the master bedroom was small, and the other two bedrooms were tiny.
The
biggest shock was the bathroom. The
ceiling slopes in the bathroom, so that I had just enough room to sit up in the
bathtub. The tub had a European
shower, which means the shower head was on a hose with a handle so you could
aim it wherever you want. There was
a skylight, but I had to have the skylight window closed, and put my head in
the skylight, in order to stand up in front of the sink.
There
was a narrow stairway from the main floor to upstairs, and another stairway to
the basement. The basement had a
laundry room and a study, but the ceiling was too low for me to stand up in the
study. We had my son's Nintendo set
up there so we didn't have to listen to it in the rest of the house. The washing machine in the laundry took
three hours for one load.
There
was a patio door leading out to a private backyard which was about 20 feet wide
and 50 feet deep. It had a couple
of trees in the middle and flowers along the sides. (The townhouses behind our yard had no
backyards at all). There was a
small front yard.
I
was not surprised by the townhouse since I had seen a wider range of European
houses and apartments than had my wife.
It was much roomier and nicer than a downtown apartment would have been,
which typically would have been 4 flights up with no elevator! (I was in two such apartments downtown
while looking for a used computer printer).
Since I had
been in Copenhagen before in 1967, it didn't seem very foreign to me -- even
though there was another language all around me. It seemed perfectly natural to be there!
SHOPPING
IN LYNGBY
We
were zonked when we went to bed the night after we arrived, which was August 4.
But we only slept 3 hours, then were wide awake. We got up and ate breakfast, but three
hours later we couldn't keep our eyes open, so we went back to bed. It took
three days of sleeping half of the night and going back to bed mid-morning to
adjust to the time zone difference.
Monday
afternoon August 5 we walked a mile to the center of Lyngby
to buy "Net" passes at the train station. Copenhagen, like most European cities,
has excellent public transportation.
There are commuter trains, which are like subway trains, only they are
not underground except for two stations downtown. In addition, there are many buses. You could buy a monthly "Net"
pass which is good on the entire network of all trains and buses. The Net pass cost 620 DKr ($95) per
month for an adult, or half that for a child or youth. Without the pass, it cost 8 DKr to get
on the bus or train and 4 DKr for each zone you pass, which was more expensive
and a hassle.
Next
to the train station were two small supermarkets and several other stores. Food prices were higher than in LA at
that time. A block from the train
station was the main shopping street, which had sidewalk cafes and shops like
bakeries, vegetable stands, etc. It
was very reminiscent of Harvard Square (which is very European), and very
pleasant. A couple of blocks up a
side-street was a large new indoor shopping mall. Lyngby and
other northern suburbs are the nicest areas in which to live in Copenhagen.
DOWNTOWN
COPENHAGEN
On
Tuesday August 6 we rode into downtown
Copenhagen. There are two ways to
do it. One way is to catch a bus 68 which goes directly to Ra'thuspladsen
(City Hall plaza); that takes about 40 minutes, plus waiting for the bus. The
other way is to catch any of 3 buses for a 5-minute ride to the Lynbgy Station, then catching any of 3 trains for a 20-minute
ride downtown. The second way is
faster and allows more choice of where you end up downtown. First
we tried taking bus 68 all the way in, but after that we've always used the train
instead.
From
Ra'thuspladsen it's about 3 blocks east to DIS,
Denmark's International Study Program.
We walked there to see the offices and meet more of the staff. One block from DIS is the "Walking
Street," a series of streets for pedestrians only. Along the route are sidewalk cafes and
many shops plus the major department stores. Right now there
are many tourists, so it's the place where young people hang out.
Just
west of Rathuspladsen is Tivoli, the famous amusement
park which served as inspiration for Disneyland. It closes mid-September, so we plan to
go there in a week or two.
A
few blocks further west is the Copenhagen International School, where Jenn will
be going. It's 2 or 3 blocks from the Vesterport
(West port) Station, so it's easy for her to commute. The area is okay in the daytime, but she
shouldn't hang out there at night; there's a Playboy club a block away.
On
the way back from downtown, we stopped at a supermarket by the Vesterport Station.
It's now become a routine to stop at a supermarket on the way home, to
pick up a few things each trip since we have to carry all of our groceries
home.
Stores
in Denmark generally closed at 2:00 PM on Saturdays, and remained closed all
day Sunday. They opened at 9:30 AM Monday-Friday, and most closed at 6:00
PM. So if
you don't buy enough groceries for the weekend, you are generally out of luck.
(However, we did find a gas station mini-mart that stays open all day Saturday
and Sunday). It was nice that most
people didn't have to work late, but when did they do their shopping?
MY
SON'S SCHOOL
There are 4
English-speaking schools for elementary and junior high kids. Based on the
information we had available, and my telephone conversations from LA with two
of the directors, it appeared that Bjo/n
International School would best meet Daniel's needs. The school was located half-way between Lyngby and downtown, by train or bus.
There
were about 12 students per class, and the students had the same teacher all
day. There were classes at various grade levels for English-speaking students,
and other classes for Danish-speaking children. The students were from 40 different
countries, so for most of them English was their second language. The school emphasized acceptance of
diversity.
On
Wednesday August 7 we visited the school, and had an interview with the director. I thought my son would have a hard time
adjusting to all of the changes in coming here, but he did very well. It turns out that one of the teacher's
aides was a graduate of Whittier College!
MY
DAUGHTER'S SCHOOL
There
was only one English-speaking high school, called Copenhagen International
School. It was a college-prep school for children of ambassadors and
businessmen, so it was expensive.
But it had the college-prep courses that she needed. The school had
students from 70 countries, so my daughter was very excited about that.
On
Wednesday August 14, we had an interview with the headmaster of the
school. He originally was a math
teacher in Michigan. Orientation was
August 16 and classes began August 19.
BAKKEN
AMUSEMENT PARK
Although
Tivoli is the most famous amusement park in Denmark, there is an even older
amusement park called Bakken. It
was established 400 years ago. Thursday afternoon August 8 we took a 15-minute
bus ride there through beautiful green fields and forests. Bakken doesn't compare with Tivoli or
Disneyland, but my son and daughter enjoyed the rides anyway. We wanted to go then, because it closed
at the end of August. For me, the
best part of the park was the soft ice cream -- you could buy huge cones all
over the park.
FERRY
TO SWEDEN
On Sunday August 11 we took a commuter train up to Helsinore
(Elsinore). That is the home of the
castle made famous in Shakespeare's play Hamlet. We then boarded a ferry for a
25-minute ride over to Helsingborg in Sweden. The ferry was similar to a medium-sized
ferry in Seattle, and cost $5 a piece to ride.
Helsingborg
is an old town on the side of a hill, with a walking street with many
shops. Since it was Sunday,
virtually everything was closed. I
finally found a small Greek restaurant where I could buy a pita sandwich. We walked up the hill to a 400-year old
castle tower, and climbed the steps inside for a great view of the city and
harbor.
We
could read some of the Swedish signs since they were similar to Danish, but the
spelling was a little different. On
our return to Denmark, we felt like we were returning "home" as you
might when returning to the US from Canada or Mexico. After living here
a week, Denmark has become very familiar to us.
THANKSGIVING
Thanksgiving
is an American Holiday celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. On
Saturday November 30, my family went to a Thanksgiving dinner sponsored by the
International Women's Club in Copenhagen.
My wife had met some of the members through our daughter's school. They had brought the turkeys and some of
the fixings from an American military base in Germany, since they are hard to
find in Denmark!
TRAVEL
AROUND EUROPE
We
travelled around Europe by Eurail Pass. You pay a fee for a fixed number of days
and travel on trains all over Europe.
We
were in Berlin, Germany December 21-24 to visit my second cousin (grandfather's
sister's granddaughter) and her husband who was a male nurse stationed at the
US Army base in Berlin.
We
went to Amsterdam, The Netherlands, then to London where we stayed
December
26-28 at Pax Lodge, the World Center of the World
Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.
We
went to Paris, France, then to Gland near Geneva, Switzerland to visit January
1-2 with the family that my wife had stayed with in the summer of 1966 and that
I had visited in the summer of 1967.
We
then traveled to Florence and Rome, Italy; Athens, Greece; Salzburg and Vienna
Austria, and Prague, Czech Republic.
Next we went to Tampere, Finland, to visit my grandmother's
first cousin and his family, and Helsinki, Finland to visit more of his
relatives.
We
then returned to Copenhagen on January 26 for our flight back to Los Angeles
the next day.
ADDITIONAL
JOURNALS ABOUT DANISH LIFE
These
journals describe my impressions of Danish life in 1991, which may or may not
be the same three decades later.
á
Danish
Alcohol policies
á
Danish
Christmas celebrations
á
Danish
Language in comparison with English
á
Danish
Minorities at the German border
á
Danish
Prisons without walls
á
Danish
Schools that differ from the U.S.
á
Danish
Scouts that are coed or just for girls