Is This Real Life, or...

...Am I in Disney World?
This was my the first thought that popped into my head when I arrived at the Queen's Palace on Tuesday morning.  DIS had organized an orientation for most of the day, and the morning involved a scavenger hunt that took us around the city.  We were broken up into groups of five, given a map with our destinations stops marked, and told to go!  There were five stops on the map and most of them had a DIS professor to give us a brief lesson on the historical site.  I thought I had seen the city Monday, but I was wrong!  Tuesday I saw an entire part I hadn't known was there!  It is older and more beautiful than I thought!

Our first stop, as mentioned before, was at the Queen's Palace.  After receiving an interesting history on Danish royalty we noticed a large crowd beginning to gather.  We decided to wait so we could see what everyone else was waiting for.  As it turned out, it was for the Changing of the Guards.  Every day at noon the guards (think London - big funny hats, straight posture, no smiles, and what might look like, but is definitely not toy guns) parade through the square of the castle, play instruments, and march like toy soldiers.  They continue their parade around the square and stop in front of where a current guard is.  They make some official sounding noises, do some official looking stomps and turns, and stand in an official looking formation (it would make any TDT or marching band member envious!).  Next, one guard switches places with the current guard, and the rest of them leave.  What a production to do every day!  So between the toy soldiers, the marching band music, the old and beautiful castle, and crowd with camera I questioned where my plane actually took me!

The rest of the scavenger hunt exceeded my new Disney World expectations.  There were no more parading toy soldiers, but there were rows of colorful buildings, cute wooden sail boats, another castle gardens, and quite a few characters with stories of their own (both the professors themselves and people from Danish history).  

...Are Kids People Too?
"You're not people, you're kids!"  It may (or may not) be one of my favorite quotes from the famous American film, The Little Rascals, but it is certainly not something you would hear in Denmark!  Perhaps the most surprising and biggest cultural difference I have found so far is their perspective on children.  To start, I can tell you I am currently on the train with a ten year old boy who most likely came from the city and is completely unattended!  But here, it is no big deal.  It is not uncommon to see children on their own on public transportation or even riding their bike around downtown.  In Denmark people strongly believe in en god barndom - a good childhood.  This means freedom, play, and worry free lives.  It is believed that children are competent people who can (and should) have independence and make their own decisions.  Along with this philosophy of children comes very different schooling.  Children may be in school only four hours on one day and five hours another, the hours vary based on the day, but it always seems like little compared to American schools.  In school children also have more freedom to decide what they do.  In fact, there is a kindergarden option here called a forest.  It is just what it sounds like.  The young children play in a forest!  All they do is play, eat, and sleep, but they do it all outside.  When the weather gets cold they just dress in warmer clothes and when it rains they dress in rain gear.  There is no structure to the forests, the teachers and someone called a pedagogue (kind of like a teacher) just watch them play and are there in case of accidents.  Children run activities, if they don't want to eat they don't eat, and if they want to climb a tree or use scissors they do it!  When children get older they go to an afterschool program which has a similar level of freedom and independence.  I will be working in an afterschool program once a week starting this Thursday, so I'll report more on that later.
Less to do with children's independence, but still on the topic of child care, was a very surprising fact!  First I should tell you that Danish people push babies in carriages, not strollers.  Think olden days storybook carriages, it is very cute!  You can kind of see one here, not that I didn't think your imagination could handle this, I just think they're cute (if you couldn't tell :))

Anyway, they sometimes leave these adorable babies in the adorable baby carriages unattended.  A few days before leaving for Denmark a friend's mom said to me, "Oh yeah, Denmark...isn't that where they leave their babies on their front porch?"  I thought, "WHAT??" When we got around to it I thought she meant it is so safe here that you could do that.  Turns out she was right.  They DO leave their babies on the front porch, or in the backyard, or outside of cafes, shops, restaurants....I couldn't believe it.  They leave them outside to nap because they believe the fresh air is good for them, and dress the babies warmly when it's cold.  They leave them outside of shops or cafes when they don't think the carriages should come in.  I have seen a few unattended carriages, and it's just part of the culture here.  My host parents said maybe in the 1980s there was a kidnapping. They also said a Danish woman in New York left her baby outside of a restaurant and got arrested because of it.  She couldn't believe it or understand why!
So a lot on the treatment of children, but the surprises just keep coming!  I think that in general I really like their views on children.  I love the freedom and emphasis on play.  I can't wait to see it in practice at my afterschool site.


...Am I Still in America?
If you are planning a long trip to Europe sometime soon there are a few things you may fear missing.  Maybe special foods that are only in the US, being able to understand street signs or menus, driving your own car maybe...? I don't know what things I will miss yet, but I can tell you that there are two things you do not need to worry about missing!

The first is music.  I think I've heard more American pop music since I've been in Denmark than I ever did at home.  The first song I heard when in Denmark was a Mike Posner song.  Since, I've heard it on tv, during dinner, in the morning during breakfast, in stores...everywhere!

On Friday night DIS sponsored a party for all students at the Discotek IN.  There are 800 DIS students, and while this was a pretty big discotek, it was crowded!!!  From 8-11 it was closed for us and had free admission, which was very nice.  Usually this place has a really high cover and once you get in beer, champaign and wine are free.  Friday we got in for free and got the beer, champaign, and wine for free (don't tell my mom! ;) ).  There was a DJ, a dance floor, a few bars, an area with tables, and an upstairs where you could look down.  The place was decorated with Danish flags and white balloons with the little pictures of flags on them.  I don't know if these decorations are always there, but my guess is they're not.

I went with a friend I met last week and met the girl from the airport while I was there.  We had fun dancing to the very American music!  I heard everything from N'Sync to Lady Gaga before they switched to some European tunes, which had some good songs and some bad.  Later I found the crowd dancing to Grease Lightening and then swaying to John Denver.  It was a wider range of American music than what I've heard in any club in the US!  After 11 it was open to the public, so more people came in and I got to make friends with some people from Sweden and Poland, but interestingly enough, no Danes.  It was fun getting to know people from other countries, and I'm excited to meet more!

...Am I Dreaming?