Last week was our "Core Course Week" in Denmark, which means I spent the week focusing on humanitarian aid, human rights, and armed conflict.
Super early Thursday morning, I arrived in Copenhagen for a three-day study tour across Denmark. Copenhagen is a vastly different city than any city in America, but it is especially different when you're walking down a main street street in the city center, camera bag in one hand, suitcase in the other, and there is nobody else awake. Before 8 AM, the city is practically a ghost town.
We arrived in the city center to see the nicest bus I've ever been on. Rather than the typical coach bus, with rows of seats and maybe little tray tables, the bus was organized more like a nice train, with seats in groups of four on either side of a table with cupholders, an anti-slip mat...fantastic for writing or playing several rounds of Hearts. But I'll get to that later. The bus also had overhead bins and reading lights, and a small kitchenette area in the back that appeared to have a tap for Heineken or the beer of your choice, although we didn't get the chance to use this feature. All the bus needed was a wi-fi hotspot to be absolutely perfect, but even without it, I have no complaints whatsoever.
Our main focus was Somalian piracy, and we talked to both the Danish Military Police and one of the legal advisors to the Danish Navy. I had never really thought about it before, but I guess the navy can't just shoot the pirates and sink their skiffs. Instead, the pirares are treated like criminals, which means they have a right to a fair trial, a decent prison cell, etc. The biggest difference was the culture clash - many of these pirates, who are in their mid-20s, have never used a toothbrush or a modern toilet before, so their detention on a Danish warship is as much a learning experience as it is a jail sentence. It is kind of sad to consider that for many of them, their cell is a nicer place to live than they've had for years, if not their entire life.
There were some fun moments to the Somalian piracy talks too. We got to tour a Danish warship (Danish NCOs apparently watch Game of Thrones during their downtime) and hold some confiscated weapons from the pirates. All those first-person shooters finally paid off - I was one of the few who knew the correct direction to point an RPG.
One of the real highlights of the weekend for me was a trip to ARoS, the museum of modern art in Århus. There were some really strange galleries, but my favorite feature was a work called "Your Rainbow Panorama" which is an enclosed balcony on the top of ARoS with floor to ceiling glass across the entire visible spectrum. Even though I am afraid of heights, I couldn't stop taking pictures.
There were lots of fun moments in the trip. We went bowling on Friday evening, and even though I haven't bowled in years I bowled at least three strikes and several spares. These were not all in one game - we had the lanes for two hours and just kept going. By the third game, my arm was tired and most people in my group weren't very competitive any more, so it just became bowling for fun. One of our professors, at one point, walked up to bowl, spun around, threw the ball backwards down the lane, and bowled a strike, which quickly became the trick to pull off. I couldn't do it nearly as well, but I bowled a "backwards seven" twice, so I was pretty proud of myself.
I taught a couple of girls in our group how to play Hearts, which we ended up playing for hours on end while riding the bus home on Saturday. I became infamous for trading away all of my clubs (which one player called "puppies' feet") or diamonds so I could drop the queen of spades in the first few hands, but I wound up getting stuck with her a few times and sank into third place. Both of our new players managed to shoot the moon (or "run it" as we say in my family), which was a further humiliation, but everyone had a lot of fun.
Unfortunately, this week we all seem to have at least three papers and a presentation due, or a test somewhere, so I do not know when we will get to play Hearts again, but this was a trip I will never forget.
Cheers!
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| Back of the very fancy bus |
Our main focus was Somalian piracy, and we talked to both the Danish Military Police and one of the legal advisors to the Danish Navy. I had never really thought about it before, but I guess the navy can't just shoot the pirates and sink their skiffs. Instead, the pirares are treated like criminals, which means they have a right to a fair trial, a decent prison cell, etc. The biggest difference was the culture clash - many of these pirates, who are in their mid-20s, have never used a toothbrush or a modern toilet before, so their detention on a Danish warship is as much a learning experience as it is a jail sentence. It is kind of sad to consider that for many of them, their cell is a nicer place to live than they've had for years, if not their entire life.
There were some fun moments to the Somalian piracy talks too. We got to tour a Danish warship (Danish NCOs apparently watch Game of Thrones during their downtime) and hold some confiscated weapons from the pirates. All those first-person shooters finally paid off - I was one of the few who knew the correct direction to point an RPG.
 |
| This is going to get me on an FBI watchlist or something |
One of the real highlights of the weekend for me was a trip to ARoS, the museum of modern art in Århus. There were some really strange galleries, but my favorite feature was a work called "Your Rainbow Panorama" which is an enclosed balcony on the top of ARoS with floor to ceiling glass across the entire visible spectrum. Even though I am afraid of heights, I couldn't stop taking pictures.
 |
| The view from the stairs |
I taught a couple of girls in our group how to play Hearts, which we ended up playing for hours on end while riding the bus home on Saturday. I became infamous for trading away all of my clubs (which one player called "puppies' feet") or diamonds so I could drop the queen of spades in the first few hands, but I wound up getting stuck with her a few times and sank into third place. Both of our new players managed to shoot the moon (or "run it" as we say in my family), which was a further humiliation, but everyone had a lot of fun.
Unfortunately, this week we all seem to have at least three papers and a presentation due, or a test somewhere, so I do not know when we will get to play Hearts again, but this was a trip I will never forget.
Cheers!
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