Denmark Day 2

Today I felt much more normal, although it is certainly not normal for me to still be awake at 12:30am.  We started the day with breakfast of granola, fruit, lunch meat and cheese at the hotel.  We then walked to the Femern A/S building to hear a lecture on the Oresund Bridge that connects Denmark to Sweden.  This really was a fascinating presentation by a professor and an employee of the Femern company.  There are plans currently underway to build an underwater tunnel from Denmark to Germany.  They seem to have thought of everything as they are even setting the lights to get brighter as you reach the middle of the tunnel and grow dimmer as you head toward the end.  This is to help people judge how much further they have to go.  I find it hard enough to go through the little mountain tunnels from NC to Ohio, I can't imagine being in one underwater for longer. 

Afterwards, we walked along the lakes to visit a private school, Ingrid Jespersen's Privatskole, and heard from the teachers about education in Denmark.  I was thrilled to get to meet the librarian and see how they set up the library.  I discovered that a favorite Danish story for young children is Rasmus Klump, a Paddington Bear like story about a stuffed bear who goes on adventures in a boat.  Otherwise, the older children seem to read the same things as American students:  Harry Potter, Twilight, and Hunger Games.  We were very suprised to see the students outside playing in the rain and with little supervision.  It seems children are taught at a young age to be responsible and find their way to class, etc.  Imagine that!  One of my favorite quotes from the principal involving the many opportunities for artistic expression was "...all the children are very fond of being creative."  And what a creative place it was, indeed!  The musical for the older students last year was Dorian Gray set to the music of Michael Jackson's Beat It.  This year, there are plans for Alice in Wonderland meets Modanna.  What child wouldn't be motivated by that?!

After the school, we were on our own for dinner and a group of us went to check out the famous commune, Christiania.  The best part was stopping at a little art shop in a man's home and visiting with him and his brother.  Come to find out, he was from Boston but had moved here 29 years ago.  He was a very good artist and I picked up several postcards of his work.  Walking back to the hotel, my walking buddy and I were momentarily unsure of our direction and had stopped to check our map when a young man asked if we needed help.  Turns out he was walking to his bus in the same direction we were headed.  He was telling us that he was just getting off work (10:30pm) as an IT game designer for GearWorks.  We had a thoroughly intellectual discussion on the gaming world and its effects on the way children think today.  Fascinating!

All in all, today was a great success, especially in the area of connecting with the real lives of Danes.  Tomorrow we are hearing from the Danish Energy Agency about renewable energy followed by a trip into Roskilde to the Viking Ship Museum.  I am determined to find a yarn store there:)