General Updates

So these two weeks have been pretty much consumed with work and other daily things around Copenhagen.  I have been tutoring at the Copenhagen International School on Mondays and Tuesdays. I work with a little boy named James who is in the fourth grade and needs help staying focused and getting organized.  I taught him how to plan his homework and tasks for the week and make lists, things that at least I am pretty good at, haha. It's so refreshing to be in an International school because it is set up like an American school and I know the system, unlike working in Danish schools where the whole system is, well, foreign. Also, everyone speaks English, which is a huge plus for me! But yeah, he is already getting better at allotting time for different tasks, so I think we are making progress.  James' family moved here from the West Coast five years ago and are hoping to return to the US next year, which is why James and his siblings are at the CIS. It is really interesting, though, because they went to Danish preschool and kindergarten, which is really cool and very different than American kindergarten. The kids know Danish and have had a really cool preschool experience. For example, Danish children will eat with a knife and fork and drink from glasses by the time they are 2 years old and the kindergartens take field trips at least twice a week, often just on a whim.  James' mother thinks this is hilarious, haha. 

For my photojournalism project, I have been shadowing and taking pictures of a vice principal of an inner city school here in a section of town with a lot of minorities, which is very very rare for Copenhagen.  I have gone to the school once a week for the last month and a half taking pictures of all sorts of things that Ms. Jacobsen does, including running meetings, working recess, and teaching in classrooms. Because of this, I have become sort of a teacher's aid in one of the classrooms that she works in with 9th grade students.  It is really interesting because they are doing a unit on slavery in the US and the USVI, which used to be owned by Denmark.  They like having an American perspective on slavery and race relations today.  We talk about the triangle trade and we watched La Amistad. Today when I went, they  were having their class picture taken and they had me be in it!  And now my project is done but they still want me to come with them to do a tour in Copenhagen with them in a few weeks. I love that they've adopted me into their class. 

I am having a great experience because now I am working with three very different types of students in three very different schools in three very different environments.  I am working with mentally handicapped students at Maglemosen in a pretty middle class town a little ways out side of the city.  Then there is James in the CIS, which is in the nicest/richest suburb of Copenhagen, probably in all of Denmark.  Now I am in the school in one of the harder sections of Kobenhavn working with kids from not the best family situation, etc. It is very very interesting and I am learning a ton not only about education but also about the different subcultures.  It is really neat to see how the education system reflects the culture of the people it serves. 

Last Saturday, I went to the Carlsburg Beer factory with Angela, Jessi, Tessi and Adrian, and that was really fun. We went on a tour of the factory and learned some history about the beer and you can see how it is made.  At the end of the tour, you go to this nice bar and smell all these fragrances and mark the ones you like.  Then, based on the ones you liked or disliked, you pick two beers to have. We had a great time and then went back to the kollegium to cook dinner and hang out afterwards.  

Everyone has had a lot of work so it hasn't been as exciting as it used to be around here but that's okay. I've been keeping busy with swimming and tutoring and yoga and classwork, etc. I'm done with tests now and I turn in my last midterm paper on Friday and then we are on our two week TRAVEL BREAK! I am going to Amsterdam, Paris, and Milan for the first week and then to Istanbul, Turkey for the second! Can't wait to tell you all about the cities!! I hope this finds you well at home!  :)