On Blogging

With less than two weeks until I depart, I thought that I would give you a little information about myself, and about my trip. I am a twenty-one year old student from the University of Denver, majoring in anthropology and Spanish, and minoring in religious studies and political science. I am going to be studying at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad (DIS). This is an English-language study abroad program located in Copenhagen, Denmark. It is a program funded in part by the Danish Government, and is associated with the University of Copenhagen. It offers a variety of different programs, for students studying in a variety of fields, including the social sciences, architecture, biotechnology, and international business. During my stay in Denmark I will study in two of the programs. For this fall, I chose the Migration and Identity Program, which studies how culture and identity is constructed in Europe, especially in the context of immigration within the European Union. This program also includes a study tour to Lithuania. For the spring, I decided on the European Culture and History program, which includes a study tour to the Czech Republic. Over my two semesters abroad, I also plan on taking classes on Islam in the West, Gender in Scandinavia, Nordic Mythology, European Storytelling, as well as intensive Danish language courses.

There are several things I would like to accomplish in writing this blog. I want to let my friends and family know where I am, and what I am doing while I am abroad. But I also want to share with you all what it is like to live in Denmark. Denmark is a country of about 5.5 million people, with a literacy rate of 99% spread over more than four hundred islands and one peninsula. There are many things which make this country unique, which I will discuss in later posts. However, it is a country many Americans confuse with the Netherlands, and a place few Americans know much about. I will attempt to bring to you, my readers, a rough portrait of what life is like in Denmark. I want to write about what it is like to live in a country with a long-established social welfare system, a country where the constitution established a nation church, but where only 10% or so attend religious services weekly, and a country which is listed as the tenth greenest country in the world. I also want to write about what it is like to commute to school on public transportation, live in a city with over seven-hundred years of history, and in a country that has recently seen a significant change in its ethnic make-up due to immigration from Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia. Most of all, I want to write about the small and large differences in culture and customs that makes traveling to other countries fascinating and educational. What is it like to shop in a Danish supermarket, or to go to a Danish physician, or to live on a group of island between the North and Baltic Seas? I want to try to answer some of these questions for you all, so that you may yourself be tempted to visit Northern Europe, and see for yourself what life is like in another part of the world.