Not a trip taken for leisure--though fun times were expected to be had. My classmates and I found out that this trip was planned and funded by our professors and the School of Education (or "Hogskolan i Larande"). We were responsible only for meal money. The trip to Copenhagen would include three of the four professors who run our course, and we 20 students who make up the Interculture Teacher class.
We left at 1 p.m. (or 1300 in Europe) and drove south for about three hours, until we hit the Swedish coast. Our bus docked onto a huge ferry that transported us for about twenty minutes across a canal. On the other side of the canal, we found ourselves in Denmark. Off to the North, as our teacher pointed out some spires not far away, is the castle where Shakespeare's play Hamlet is said to have taken place.
CopenhagenWe drive another 45 minutes and are in the heart of Copenhagen (or KØBENHAVN in Danish). All of us eat at a Turkish restraunt, and then Dr. Hans Christen Øster (our professor of philosophy and religion in education) takes us on an impromtu tour of downtown Copenhagen, where he went to University. We end our night in DanHostel, the largest hostel in Denmark, with a friendly game of poker with Mentos as chips. (Sarah from Sweden ended up with all the Mentos, much to the dismay of myself and Rodger from Holland.)
Early the next morning, we all wake to begin our fun-filled, educational day in Denmark. Initially at 7 am I'm not very thrilled about life, but watching the sunrise over Copenhagen quickly changes my mood.
Our first stop is at the Natalie Zahles school. This is an entire school system from primary school to high school and then a teacher college with a number of different buildings all located within one city block. The school, founded in 1853, was the first educational institution exclusively for women. More than 100 years later in 1967 men were admitted and the school has been open to all students who can afford it ever since.
Natalie Zahles school
Central ParkAfter everyone re-grouped at the bus, we headed west on a main avenue in Copenhagen. The farther west we travelled, the greater the difference in the landscape became. Pretty soon store signs were exclusively in Arabic, and as we took a right and parked the bus, Hans Christian, our religious education professor, explained to us we were in the Muslim sector of Copenhagen, and our next site to be seen was a mosque.
As we, a group of 23, removed our shoes and entered the mosque, a man led us into a large room with carpet bearing diagonal lines running from one side of the room to the other. Hans Christian and the tour guide then explained to us a brief history of the Islamic faith, and then showed the group how a traditional prayer service in a Muslim mosque would be conducted.
Directly after this, a man, who's name I never caught, gave us a presentation about the multicultural challenges of being both Danish and Muslim. Copenhagen is home to about 120,000 Muslims and with the world's Islamaphobia, dispelling stereotypes and upholding traditional cultures has been an "interesting journey." It was very educational, and after learning about the Islamic faith in World History class at SDSU, and then watching major news networks "educate" the masses about the Muslim world, it was a great experience to sit down and talk honestly with someone about cultural and religious stereotypes, misunderstandings, and differences between two very contrasting worlds.
After the eye opening Islamic seminar, we were cut loose on the town and given from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. to explore Copenhagen. My friend, Ingebor, from Holland, and I walked around talking pictures, window shopping at Versace, and ended up eating at a resteraunt called "The American Pizza Buffet."
At 8:00 the class attended a big band swing concert featuring Bob Metzger and the Denmark Big Band. It was pretty much awesome.
The next morning the group checked out the motel and off we went to a private Arabic school system, much like the Natalie Zahles school, except instead of a Christian-based education, this school has a Muslim-oriented education system.
After getting a chance to to observe some class rooms in action, I have to say the aspect I was most intereste in was the language education. I got a chance to speak with two ninth-grade girls, one from Lebanon, the other from Syria, and they could carry on a conversation in Danish, Arabic, English, and French. Amazing.
As obvious as it may sound, it was amazing to see the two different schools and look at the plethora of differences between them, while at the same time notice that all the children had one thing in common: people who care about them. Whether Arabic Muslim or Danish Christian, there were teachers who believed in them and, regardless of religion or subject matter, both schools have the central goal to prepare the youth of today for, hopefully, a future with tolerance and understanding.
After grabbing some lunch at a Kebob resteraunt, we had one more stop to go, the Little Mermaid statue, as made famous by Copenhagen native Hans Christen Anderson.
It was an amazing trip. Not only did our class build relationships with each other through comradery and mutual experiences, but I got to see Copenhagen and the way children are being taught on the other side of the world.
