It's been almost a week since I left America for my semester adventure in Copenhagen, and I must say the city continues to impress me, despite how bitterly cold it has been here. It may not be as cold as it is at home right now, but you experience it differently here. In Cleveland, we complain about how cold it is, but we really only feel the cold when we're walking to and from our car, or perhaps when we run out to get the paper in the mornings. Copenhagen is a walking city, and that means I walk in whatever the weather may be, and right now, that weather is cold, cold, cold. At least we've had some sun, so the cold is bearable and the city is as beautiful as it could be in January.
Orientation was great. I feel more comfortable taking public transportation - how often do you get half an hour of time set aside to read or listen to music? - and I've learned that Copenhagen is a lot more compact than I originally expected.
One thing I really like about all the classes I've had so far is that the professors seem to care about creating engaging discussion with contradictory viewpoints. Not a single one intends to simply lecture us, or to create the kind of "discussion" where we all just nod our heads and agree, or conversely just disagree. We're all expected to have our own opinions and back them up with some sort of evidence or reason.
Take the question we started off with in my "Critical Thinking in a European Context" class: What does it mean to think? We heard all sorts of explanations, and I would encourage you, dear reader, to consider the question yourself. Is it to analyze the hows and whys of an event or being, or is it merely a deliberate action? Admittedly, our class did get bogged down in the semantics of whether or not thinking requires rationality and therefore what irrational thought might be, but even then, talking about logic and rationality as they relate to thought is another worthy discussion.
However, I am a political science major, not a philosopher, so I don't have a pithy statement on thought, nor do I intend to prattle on for pages on end meditating or discussion what thought might or might not be, so here's another question we were asked, in my "Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism" class: What was the single most important event for terrorism in the past 40 years or so? I considered the Mumbai Siege or the Brevik Case in Norway, but I, along with pretty much everyone else in my class, answered that 9/11 is most deserving of the title. Fair enough, and I would expect a similar response from most of my readers. What about 9/12, though, the day America responded and developed the War on Terror, which to this day shapes foreign policy across the globe? What about 9/10, the day before we all clearly saw terrorism as the chief threat to America's existence (or at least thought of it as such)? Again, there is no clear answer here, but these are the kind of questions I love that we're asking in class.
In my other two classes, we've debated if hollow-point bullets are illegal or immoral and under what circumstances they might be a solid ethical choice of ammunition (if you smell a possible gun control article in the future, you're right - I will likely offer my thoughts in the next week), as well as what makes Scandinavian Crime Fiction so wildly popular. In the interests of time and space, I won't go into detail on these two topics. The point is, I like all of my courses so far than I ever have before, which is high praise considering the quality of my classes at my home college. Engaging discussion is what keeps learning interesting for me, and it has never felt so present than it does here. I can tell it is going to be a fantastic semester.
Cheers!
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