The Captain and LT.

The past three days have consisted of a whirlwind of tours, museums, friends, and fun.

I just returned from my short-study tour (much HSS-Tour D love!) to Velje and Odense. We left on early Thursday morning in a dense fog and mist which stayed around for the whole tour. Despite the groggy atmosphere, we each had an enormously fun time.

Captain (Peter the Librarian) and Lt (short for lieutenant, Katherine) guided us throughout western Denmark and introduced us to the rest of this amazing country.

After crossing the big and little Bell bridges onto Funen (the island betwenn Zealand and Jutland), we stopped at an efterskole. This is a strictly danish idea of students in the 9th or 10th grade taking a year off to study art, music, travel, soccer or basketball, then moving on to highschool or techinical school or not. We were greeted by a group of very friendly students who were anxious to show us around their campus. Students live in "houses" in a style similar to Harry Potter minus the cool talking painting and passwords. They live with these kids and take classes with them. The whole idea was fascinating, and by the end of our stay, all of the DIS kids had pretty much agreed that they wished they had such an opportunity at that age.

Our next stop was at Jelling (pronounced yel-ling) to see the ancient ruinic stones and monument of Jelling. After a thorough visit to the museum, we rain across the street in the rain to touch the stones and climb the mounds. The monoliths are intriguing because it is on these massive granite stones that we find the first reference to Denmark, dating the country back over 1000 years. It also references Gorm the Old who is the Great x 29 Grandfather of Denmarks current monarch, Queen Margethe II.

After we were satisfied with our lessons in Danish history, we found ourselves at our accomodations for the night. The hostel was very clean and compact and served its purpose quite well. We had a bed, warmth, and shelter. Just what we needed. After dinner at the hostel, we made our way out to explore the night life of Vejle. Six or seven of us ended up at a perfectly charming pub on a sidestreet in Vejle and stayed there until the bartender called a cab to get us home. We had such much fun. The bartender's husband came and sat down with us and soon after many danes followed. Stories were shared, jokes were made, drinks were had and each one of us Americans felt warmly welcomed and at home.

After a long night in the hostel complete with drunken visitors yelling in the hallway at 1:30 am (no dice, I say, no dice) and middle school bed talk (you know the kind--turn off the lights, say your going to sleep, then end up talking for 2 hours), we were up, taking cold showers, eating breakfast, and finding our way to Aarstiderne.

Aarstiderne is an organic farm which delievers boxes of fresh produce and food to the doors of over 25,000 Danish households. Our tour was long, but informative and led by a beautiful dane named Christian. We ate lunch at Aarstiderne which was amazing, then departed for our next stop, Sønderborg Slot (or Castle).

Sønderborg Slot dates back to 1158 and was in use as a fortress or castle until 1920 at which time it became a state museum. After a thrilling visit to the dungeon and learning about the Danish/German Wars, WWI and WWII, we made our way to Dybbøl Bankle. This is the battlefield where Denmark was at war Prussia and where the final battle took place in April of 1864. This battle cost Denmark virutally 1/3 of its land mass to be lost to Germany.

Next, we checked in at the Hostel (which was reallllllly nice) and decided to head out to the shopping street to find dinner and drinks. My group stopped at a fun place called Maybe Not Bob, and I ended up eating the best nachos I have ever had. Y'all. They were amazing. After checking out the early nightlife, almost every person on the tour was back at the hostel and asleep. We were exhausted.

Day three included a visit to Odense, the home town of HC Anderson. Anderson wrote novels, poetry, and, most famously, fairytales. Stories like The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, The Emperor's New Clothes, and The Nightengale were penned by Anderson, along with many others. We toured the museum (yes, there are museums everywhere) of HC Anderson, walked around the town then headed back to Copenhagen.

A full, but amazingly fun three days. It was just what I needed. A break from Copenhagen with people I was comfortable with.

Here are the top memories from the trip:

(1) Lunch Ladies are Universal. At the efterskole, we ran into lunch ladies who were nice and were mean. Dependent upon the worker and the time of day--just like highschool and college.

(2) Playing Never-have-I-ever with Danes in Vejle.

(3) Sitting in the back of the bus with the cool kids. Not really. We weren't the cool kids. But we did call same seats.

(4) Learning "bad words" in Chinese. Because youthful minds always want to know.

(5) Cold Shower. Vejle Hostel. 745 am. No hot water. Bad experience.

(6) 16 year-old tour guides. So cute; so illegal.

(7) The Cueball heist. A bar, a cue ball, and a sudden urge for a souviner. Don't worry, nothing was actually stolen. Promise.

(8) Do you like Ferries? Have you ever ridden a ferry before? It was a bad joke. It was super funny. Maybe you had to be there.

(9) Kasper at Maybe Not Bob. The bartender was great!

(10) Dolly Parton was everywhere. Who knew that the blonde bombshell was as permeating as she really is. I heard her every night I was out. Crazy.

(11) We got lost in Odense. It was great. Not really.

(12) Church Hopping. You know you're a Religious Studies major when instead of shopping, eating or barhopping, you hunt down and look in every church you can during your free time.

(13) 51 points. Mike and I, random test on Danish history. We got 51/64 points. Beat that Gretchen and Liz with your 35 points.

When I finally got home, I stumble (or found by Grace) this poem. It a little long, but worth the read. Mary Oliver is amazing.


When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like measle-pox;

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through that door full of curiousity, wondering
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage and something
precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

-Mary Oliver, New Poems

This weekend, I didn't just visit.

blessings.
jon.