Travel Break Week 1: Stockholm and Tallinn

So here come my promised recaps of my glorious 3 week travel break. The first week was my DIS "study tour", a trip with my psychology class to Stockholm and Tallinn. I found that these study trips are actually a lot of fun and have a good balance between the academic visits, cultural visits and free time.

Stockholm is a stunning city. The city is made up for four islands. It is full of character. For example, the metro stations are all unique, and look like beautifully painted caves! I wished we'd had more time in Stockholm than the 2 and a half days we spent here. I felt like it was a city that I could spend days just wandering through. There are so many nice squares, grand buildings, little alleys, cute cafes in the basements, and art. The city was especially beautiful because fall was at its peak and everywhere you looked, it was yellow, orange and red trees, piles of leaves on the ground, and crisp, fresh air. The last day during our down time I went to a huge park that was breathtakingly beautiful, it was on the water and perfect for tree climbing. With the group we went on a guided tour which was actually great and informative and showed us the main sights of the city, as well as a canal tour, a visit to the Vasa viking ship museum - a magnificent Viking ship that was about 6 stories high and covered in intricate wooden carvings, sadly this ship that was built for over 2 years only made it about 20 minutes into its journey before sinking! Our academic visits were also interesting - the Swedish education system is similar to the Danish. However, one school we visited was a Reggio Emilia school - an Italian educational movement that is becoming increasingly more popular around world - wikipedia it if you're interested. The school's facilities were amazing, though after some group discussions we were dubious of how sincere the teachers really were...

Anyway after 3 days in Stockholm, it was time to go to Tallinn, and what better way of getting there than an overnight ferry, a.k.a. cruise ship Tallink? That's right, I am getting school credit for taking a cruise! As it turns out, the ship was not what we expected - it was full of old men with tattoos and jail stories going to the Estonia vs. Turkey football match - and needless to say, they were a little too excited about the group of 20 American girls on the ship. Thankfully the 5 boys in our group made sure to stick with us and rescue us when needed. We all made it out alive, and arrived in Tallinn the next morning safe and sound!

I had been to Tallinn before with my family - my mom lived there when she was younger, and we have some family friends there. So it was great to go back to this city, I had very fond memories of it. Tallinn is an old medieval city with a big wall surrounding the old town and towers everywhere. One of the nights we even had dinner at a Medieval restaurant! The whole group seemed to fall in love with Tallinn. It was great for me too - all three days I met up with my mom's friends who showed me around and made my time there so much more special. We had a lot more free time here, but the last night did go to a jazz concert as a group - their new album is titled: Love Song to a Migratory Bird. Despite the cheesy title, the concert was very relaxing and enjoyable.

The academic visits in Tallinn were very interesting to me. The first school was an Estonian Waldorf school. I went into a classroom where they were teaching first graders how to speak Russian. Picture us in dancing in a circle with these children singing in Russian and grabbing each other's noses and ears as they learned body parts! The Estonian children were very shy but curious about us, but overall I had a great impression of the educational approach there. The next visit....not so much. It was a Russian preschool, and sadly, it seemed like more of a Soviet preschool than a Russian one. Watching the children learn English as the teacher yelled at them to speak 'LOUDER' and made them sing the same song over and over again about a "butterfly in the sky" shocked the whole group. It was very interesting to see the relationships between the Russians and Estonians in Tallinn. About 45% of the population is Russian, yet it doesn't seem like there is any integration at all. Each group sticks to their own. Samantha, a woman that showed us around and who is African but speaks Russian fluently, told us when she asks for directions she asks in English rather than Russian because if the other person is Estonian they might give her the wrong directions.

Anyway overall, this first week to my trip was fantastic. I hope to return to Stockholm someday since we were there for such a short time!

Christmas already???

I have been back in Denmark for a week now and it has been dark and cold. The sun sets at about 4:30 PM these days and it will only get darker earlier until December. It is weird to adjust to. Sometimes I wake up and it is still dark outside, and when I come home from school it is already dark. The one day that I slept in (until 10:30) I only had 6 hours of daylight! No worries though, the Danes compensate for the bleakness of the weather with their hygge-ness. I think I have had at least one hot chocolate (varme chocolade) every day since I have been back.

Although this week has been filled with actual school work (that's right I do go to school here...kind of), I have also had lots of fun! Thursday I worked at the preschool - it was so good to be back, I missed those kiddies. I learned a Danish song about a cockroach which I will have to sing for you when I am back!

Friday was J-Dag - the day Carlsberg released their Jule Bryge (Christmas brew). According to a touristy brochure called Copenhagen this week, there was supposed to be a huge event at the brewery with pixies, free beer, and lots of christmas cheer. This turned out to be a mistake though - and instead there was a staff party for the Carlsberg employees and....about 30 american students. So instead we ended up splitting off into smaller groups and going into the city. At every bar they would release the beer at a different time. So, in the end, we got our free beer and lots of christmas cheer (picture Danes dressed as pixies singing Jingle Bells on the streets which are covered in foam to look like snow). Quote from my host dad: "J Dag is more exciting to the Danes than the election is to Americans". I guess they have to find some joy in the dark winter months! Speaking of elections - it was amazing to see how much everyone in Denmark cared about this election, I was congratulated by many Danes for the outcome! Some even said they thought they should have been able to vote :)

I have also been spending a lot of time with my host family as always. Yesterday was my host farmor's birthday (grandmother - father's mother), and we had a very nice lunch and walk around the forest around their home. When they asked me what Danish I have learned in my preschool, I announced at the table "Jeg skal tysser" or - I need to pee, which got a lot of laughs. Although I am taking Danish class, I feel like I am learning a lot more Danish in the preschool - however it is 3 year old vocabulary.

I will try to write about my travels in the next week - but for now you can take a peak through my pictures!

Stockholm:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lizadadiomov/Stockholm?authkey=piK24KUq9mU#

Tallinn:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lizadadiomov/Tallinn?authkey=R9i6Y6C5MwE#

UK:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lizadadiomov/BestOfTheUK?authkey=g6MRBNp1aaQ#

Czech Republic:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lizadadiomov/CzechTrekAndPrague?authkey=i4Cjtd5CRzs#

Before I go to write my 9 page paper on Viking Art (ughh what is this "schoolwork" business all about!) I'll leave you with some pictures of my life..

Min dansk hjem - My Danish home

My preschool - Solstrålen, so beautiful, these kids are so lucky
Pretty sunset at 4:30 PM in front of my house