Week 17

Personal Development

4 months later, my Erasmus journey is rapidly coming to an end. 17 weeks ago, I had no idea that I would have experienced so much in one semester in Denmark! From the coldest winter in 20 years to the amazing changes of spring and now the warm(er) summer weather, I have so many memories. Looking back at my previous blog entries, I do not know how I found time to squeeze everything in. I have shared many memories throughout the weeks, but one thing (that I’m sure you are all aware of) I never seem to forget to say is something along the lines of; ‘This week has gone so quickly.’ I am bored of writing it as much as you are bored of reading it, so just to put a spin on the quote - the whole trip has gone so quickly! I am now on day 119 of my journal and with only a few days left to go, I am sad to say, this is my last weekly blog from Copenhagen...

The past week has been quite surreal in a way. After watching my Erasmus friends leave at the end of April, and gradually others leaving throughout May, it is now my turn to pack away all my belongings from the past four months. I am very sad at having to leave Copenhagen as I have had such a great time here, and met some of the nicest people. This week, I am making time to see my friends as well as having some final visits to some of my favourite places in the city. Spending time beside the bustling canals like Nyhavn; the beautiful parks like

Rosenborg Palace Garden and Frederiksberg Park (my favourite!); and the charming cobbled side streets filled with unique shops has been great and made me realise how fortunate I am.
Now that I have been here four months, I do not describe myself as a tourist in Copenhagen - to be honest, I get a little annoyed when people think I am on holidays here - directing me where to go, and what to do. Finding somewhere in the city is no longer a challenge, and I am even starting to remember street names. That is not to say that I would be able to direct someone who was lost, but I am proud to say that I now know my way around quite well. Furthermore, I would even be inclined to say that my Danish has improved - a little. It is unfortunate that I will not have longer to practise my linguistic skills - I guess it means I will just have to come back and visit Denmark another time!

I have had a wonderful time in Denmark, but I am also very much looking forward to coming back to Northern Ireland. This is the longest length of time I have spent away from my family and friends, so I cannot wait for a good old cup of tea and a proper (McVitie’s) digestive biscuit.

Cultural Development

At the weekend, we were fortunate enough to experience the Copenhagen Carnival. It is an annual event, which started in 1982, and takes place in the city centre every Pentecost weekend. The carnival runs for three days and attracts many tourists as well as Danes. There is a special children’s carnival that runs along with the event, so many families get involved. On Saturday we went to see the parade on Strøget with lots of Brazilian dancers and Reggae, World and Electro music. The weather was beautiful on Saturday, so lots of people had come to see what was going on.

Julia, Christina, Claire and I then went to Fælledparken in Østerbro where there were nine different music stages, lots of activities and different stalls. The park is so large that even though there were many people, there was a really relaxed atmosphere and we were able to relax and lie in the sun without feeling cramped.

On our way home from the carnival, Claire and I decided to visit Den Lille Havfrue (the Little Mermaid) one last time. Of course the actual statue is visiting China until the end of October for the World Expo 2010. This year’s theme for World Expo 2010 is Better City, Better Life, so the Little Mermaid has gone to be part of the Danish experience in Shanghai. The harbour was such a different setting compared to the snow blizzard and unbearable cold we endured on our first visit. The sun was still shining at 6pm, and we were able to take our time getting pictures beside the live images of the statue in China.


I have certainly experienced a wealth of Danish culture and way of life. From Danish home life, traditions and of course food, to national holidays and major tourist attractions (and everything in between), I feel that I know more about Denmark than I do about Northern Ireland. I feel very culturally enlightened, so I am looking forward to going back to Northern Ireland and visiting some cultural treats!

Professional Development

Seeing I have completed all my work for Blaagaard/KDAS, it was nice to have a week off. I still have to return to the university to get my individual assignment and papers back from tutors, so it will be good to see some of them before I leave.

My time studying in Denmark has been really eye opening. I feel studying abroad has been very worthwhile for me, and has given me a lot of perspective on education. I feel like I have really achieved something by studying in a different country and it is hard to sum up all the knowledge and skills that I have been introduced to. I really enjoyed studying theory at the university. Being in a class with 30 other people from all over Europe has allowed me to gain insight into other education systems and ways of practise, as well as the significance of multi-cultural education. My highlight of studying in Denmark was teaching placement at a Danish school. Schooling is very different here in Denmark and I am glad I got the opportunity to see that. Not only did I gain teaching experience, I also gained a lot of new ideas that I may not have been introduced to if I had not come on Erasmus. I look forward to returning to my studies in Northern Ireland; and I hope to apply all that I have learnt from being on Erasmus for my education and teaching in Northern Ireland.

Week 16

Personal Development

After last week’s distress about the bad weather, this week the sun has finally arrived! With temperatures reaching 20°C and blue sky (most of the time), I am very excited about the fact that I am able to enjoy the good weather for the last couple of weeks - it makes such a welcomed change. So, with only one more blog to write after this one, I am hoping to spend lots of time in the beautiful parks around the city, and not much time indoors!

This week has again gone really quickly, and the realisation of leaving Copenhagen and coming back home really hit me on Wednesday, when it was time for Nicole to go home. We decided to go out for a meal on Monday night to spend time with the last few remaining students. The meal was great, and it was nice to spend time together for one of the last times. By the time Nicole left on Wednesday afternoon, it was sad to think that our journey is coming to an end, but we have had a great time together and it is exciting to be going home soon! The house looks so much emptier now, and seeing it took Nicole a few days to gradually pack her suitcase, I am not looking forward to sorting out all my clothes and things that I have collected. Fitting everything into my case might be a task…

It was one of the Austrian girls’ birthday yesterday - Christina turned 21, so Julia had organised a really great day for her. We went out for some lunch before heading to the beach - Amager Strand. Amager Strand is very close to the city centre, on the metro line, but apart from the industrial estate in the far distance and an aeroplane landing every 5 minutes, it was surprisingly peaceful. The weather was really warm and sunny yesterday which was perfect for lying on the beach and sleeping off my lunch. We decided to go for a little paddle in the sea, which was FREEZING cold, however the Austrian girls, used to diving into rivers and lakes, decided to go for a swim - I’m not going to lie - I thought they were crazy. At least Christina won’t forget her birthday in a hurry. After allowing Julia and Christina ample time to dry off and warm up, we went round to their house for some cake. The landlady the girls are living with had left out some traditional Danish decorations, so Julia and I had fun decorating the table. I made some raisin and oat cookies (not very typically Northern Irish), and Julia had made a traditional Austrian birthday cake: Bananenschnitte. The cake was so good, and I was so glad that the cookies turned out well. And no, I did not burn them.

Cultural Development

On Wednesday, Julia, Christina and I took the opportunity to visit another Royal palace outside of the city - Frederiksborg Castle. It took a 50 minute train journey to get to Hillerød, a small town in the North of the island. I have wanted to visit this palace for a long time, because I had heard the gardens are really spectacular, but wanted to wait until the weather was better, and I’m glad I did! The palace was beautiful, situated on its own island in the middle of Castle Lake. Christian IV built the castle in the 1660s, but has since been reconstructed after a fire in 1859. We took a walk around some of the Landscape garden, which has free-growing woodland, and other lakes.

We then arrived back in the Baroque garden. The Baroque garden was designed by Johan Cornelius Krieger during Frederik IV’s reign in the 1720s and recreated between 1993 and 1996. It is split up into four terraces, and in many places the paths of the garden have been narrowed to give the optical illusion that the gardens are bigger than they really are! My camera does not do the surroundings justice, but I have added a few pictures as a sample of how beautiful the gardens were.

On Tuesday night, Kirsten bought down some Æbleskiver - a Danish dessert. The word translates to fritters, but they are also known in English as Danish Pancake Balls. Æbleskiver are a favourite Danish dessert, and also very popular in the US, with Danish-American citizens. Still warm, the pastries were really good with some sugar or jam. I did not like to think about the amount of fat content in them as they were so good, and I must have eaten about four!

Professional Development

I had my final meeting with my tutor for my individual assignment on Tuesday. We spent time going through what I had done so I could fix up any points before handing it in. It also gave my tutor the opportunity to draw on some scenarios in Northern Ireland that he wanted to ask me about. We got to discuss both the education systems and initial teacher education in Denmark and Northern Ireland. I was very interested to hear some of the differences and similarities in reference to the degrees in education. I was able to tell my tutor about some of the aspects of my degree course, and it was great reflecting on my own study, and how useful I find it, as I never really get the chance to do that. I gained some final valuable insights into the Danish education system, and how things are practised, which are really useful - not just for my assignment.

The prospect of being able to complete my assignment and hand it in was enough motivation to finalise my thoughts for my conclusion. After the meeting with my tutor, I felt very encouraged. He hopes that my paper will assist in some of my research for my dissertation, and I now feel, since I have completed my project, confident that it has been of benefit to me. Even the thought of completing a very independent piece of work is not as difficult as I first thought.

Week 15

Personal Development

Week 15 has come and gone so fast. Partly due to the fact that I had my boyfriend, Ashley, over to visit again and partly because I have less than three weeks left here - so everyday counts! The weather has been very disappointing the past few days – it has rained pretty much every day and it is very cold. I am very proud to have lasted a Danish winter (with the sub zero temperatures and snow storms) without getting the cold, but I fear the ‘spring’ may be my downfall. Hopefully we can get a few good days before going home because there is so many parks I would like to visit.

Ashley arrived on Friday afternoon. We had a great weekend catching up, and visiting a couple of attractions like Amalienborg Slotsplads (the palace) and the Gefionspringvandet (the fountain above). Because he has visited before, we have done a lot of tourist things so I did not feel like that much of a tour guide this time! On Saturday afternoon, we went to Copenhagen Zoo. I like any zoo, but this one is class…really. Even though we paid a ridiculous amount of money in, it had loads of animals, and they were all available for looking at. No animals were sick, hiding, too tired to be viewed, visiting another zoo, lost or dead. It was very much worthwhile. We took lots of great pictures, but I shall only bore you with two – the first is my favourite animal – the tiger; and the second is a scary yet cute brown bear.

After the weekend, I knew I would have to get stuck back into my project work, but getting motivated is difficult – especially when shopping is another option. On Tuesday, I met up with Julia and Christina to go to the huge department store in the centre of town. Magasin du nord is home to many exciting (and expensive) brands, and we spent hours sifting through lots of yummy summer clothes – I cannot wait for the holidays! We completed our enjoyable yet tiring afternoon with a well-earned smoothie. We chatted about all the things we would like to do over the next few weeks, as they are going home at the same time as me. Hopefully we can get everything crammed in!

Cultural Development

Whilst Ashley was visiting, we thought we would hire some bikes. The city runs an initiative during the spring and summer months, in which there are bike parks located around the city. You place 20 krones into the bike and it is released from the stand. You can take the bikes whenever and wherever you wish, as long as you stay within the inner city, then return them to any of the 110 bike racks, and you get your 20 krones back – bonus! The scheme is very popular with both tourists and Danes, so it took us a very long time to find some bikes, as most of the bike parks were empty! An incredible 55% of Copenhageners use their bikes to get around the ‘green’ city, so I was really glad to get the opportunity to cycle in the city – even if it was only for a short while.

Thursday was a public holiday in Copenhagen. Kristi Himmelfartsdag (Ascension Day) celebrates the day Jesus ascended to heaven 40 days after Easter, and is a very important day for Danes. It is also a National Flag Day, so I saw many houses and churches with the Danish flag flying. Almost all shops and schools were off on Thursday, so Kirsten invited me to her church where a confirmation service was taking place. Also known as becoming a full member of the church, confirmations are commonly a ‘coming of age’ ceremony. I was surprised the service was not being held on a Sunday, but Kirsten explained it was because there were too many family and friends of the seven young people, so it would not be possible to have it with the Sunday service. I only realised the extent to which confirmation in Denmark is such a huge event whenever I arrived at church. There were so many people, taking photographs and dressed like they were going to a wedding. The service was lovely and obviously very special for all involved. The girls being confirmed had to be dressed in white, and the boys in black. Afterwards, the young people (around 13 or 14 years of age) got many gifts, and Kirsten told me that they would be going home for a big party. There is noticeable prominence and family celebration attached to confirmations in Denmark, so I was glad to be part of the service.

Professional Development

I have made time to go into university this week to work on my assignment. Getting into a routine is certainly difficult when you are trying to motivate yourself, but I am fortunate to have the opportunity to use the resources at university. With fewer distractions, and more literature and support, I got a lot of work done for my project. I feel my motivation to work independently is growing, which is a great relief!

My project is coming on quite well, and finding information from both countries is really worthwhile. The benefits of being able to compare two education systems are great. Not only am I discovering a lot of differences between Denmark and Northern Ireland, I am also discovering many similarities. It is helping me become more reflective in my own experiences and teaching methods, which I feel is an important part of being a teacher.

Most significantly, my knowledge in effective ways of practice is increasing. At the start of my project, I only had experiences from one education system, but now I am beginning to take scenarios from Denmark. I realise that this will not stop at Denmark, and I can continue to have an open mind about various methods in other countries in the future.

Week 14

Personal Development

Coming to the end of week 14, the past seven days have yet again confirmed how much I am enjoying being in Denmark, and with only a few weeks left; I want to continue benefitting from living in Copenhagen. This week has been a little slower than the last three months as we do not have timetabled class at school or university. Instead, our work is based on our individual assignments so I have been trying my best to, as my mum would say, ‘Get up and go!’ instead of staying in the house - it breaks the week up a little more!

This weekend, I spent time with a couple of girls, Sara and Anina, from my class before they returned home to Switzerland. We went for a meal and drinks together on Saturday, and it was so nice to get chatting. I felt like I was still only getting to know the girls a lot better just before they left to go home, and we all agreed that we regretted not spending time with each other at the start of our trip to Copenhagen. It gave us a good excuse, however, to plan trips to each other’s country. I am thoroughly looking forward to visiting Switzerland, and welcoming the girls to Northern Ireland. It’s great that we have the opportunities to travel now we have met people from all over Europe.

On Sunday I took advantage of the free train service which happens every first weekend of the month. I went along with four other girls who are remaining here for the rest of May to a small village called Køge. We spent the afternoon sitting in a cute coffee shop with coffee and cake, and then took a nice walk on the beach. Finding the beach was a little difficult due to the large industrial estate and port located right in the view of the beach. We spent quite a lot of time walking in those kinds of areas that have the ‘Warning – Do Not Enter!’ and ‘Restricted Area’ signs around. We were very safe though, and had a lot of fun laughing at all the strange looks we were getting from the workers, whilst trying to find where we were supposed to be. The beach was worth the wait. Even though the weather is improving, it is still not sunbathing time yet, but it was refreshing to get out of the city. I felt like a child, coming home on the train with really heavy eyes and yawning a lot, I knew I had had a good day. Cultural Development

Visiting another part of Denmark was definitely the highlight of my week, when I went to Køge on Sunday. Located south of Copenhagen, along the coast, it took us 45 minutes to get there on the train. Travelling from the built up city to the open spaces and green fields made me feel like I was back in Northern Ireland, with farms and detached houses spread across the countryside. Køge is a small town with lots of attractions for holiday makers. There are camping and caravanning sights, making it a popular spot for Danish families. It is also home to a large harbour where you can get the ferry to the island Bornholm. The harbour is natural and so one of the oldest in Denmark. Since 1288, it has been used for foreign trade. Apart from the normal ‘tourist’ things that the town offers, there is also a football team, HB Køge. Its stadium has a capacity for 10000 spectators and was founded in 1927. Without sounding too much of a football fan, the club had its biggest game to date in 1954 when they became the first team outside Copenhagen to win the Danish championship.

Yesterday, I visited school with Julia to give Gurli, one of our teachers, some flowers. She was sick on our last day, so it gave us a good excuse to go back to visit school and see some of the pupils. We were sitting in the staffroom chatting over coffee, when I heard the strangest noise. At first, I thought it was a fire alarm, but it seemed louder and more frightening than a school alarm. It sounded like a siren that you would here in a World War 2 film, and within a few seconds of it starting, I was looking around me with a puzzled look on my face. I was put a little to ease when I realised the only other person with a puzzled look on their face was the only other person not from Denmark – Julia. I looked at Gurli, and she had a little smile on her face. ‘Do not worry,’ she said, ‘that is the siren that goes off one Wednesday each year. To make sure it is working.’ Looking for a more comprehensive explanation, Julia and I glanced at each other, and then at Gurli again. I asked what the siren was for, and she explained it is for a disaster, or if a war starts, to let everyone know. I could not believe that I was actually hearing what sounded like a war siren, then to be told that is in fact what it is. Julia and I have never heard of such a thing, and we certainly do not get it Northern Ireland, so I was very amused to be able to say I have experienced such a thing. The siren lasted only a few minutes. After around 10 minutes, it went off again…perhaps it was broken somewhere and needed tweaking. I came home and ‘googled’ the siren for a bit more detail, and found out that the Air Raid Siren is tested every May to make sure it is working. The siren will be used to warn Danes of war, nuclear spills and other disasters. I was also able to find a video of someone recording the noise yesterday on YouTube, if anyone is interested?

Professional Development

We are now a week into our assignments. We have all chosen our own themes that are relevant to our own teacher education. I have learnt a lot from being in Denmark, so I wanted to incorporate this into my assignment. Although choosing a theme such as multiculturalism in school was very tempting as I have learnt a lot from studying this the past few months, and have discovered many great resources about the topic; I have decided to choose a theme that is concentrating on my main subjects – mathematics and science. I feel this will be most beneficial to my education degree, and I have already realised there is a lot to talk about in relation to teaching methods and resources, as well as the curriculum and general education systems in both Denmark and Northern Ireland. I am excited to get into my assignment, and will also be glad to get it completed!

My main concern about doing this project will be finding the correct literature for my chosen topic. Finding literature in a different country is hard enough without it being in Danish! Fortunately, we have been assigned a tutor to assist with our projects. My tutor, Lars, is a specialist in physics and chemistry and we have already met once. I ran over a plan of what I would like to cover in my assignment, and he was very helpful in pointing me in the right direction as far as literature and research is concerned.

I will meet with my tutor every week, which is a great incentive to do work! It is hard for me to find the motivation to start working each day, as sightseeing and being with friends in Copenhagen is very tempting! I find I am able to concentrate more at university, so I am trying to go in as often as I can to continue with my project.