Hi again!
Sorry for the lack of updates lately. I’ve had some papers
and exams for class so I’ve been rather busy! So I apologize in advance because
this will probably be a long post because I have a lot to catch up on!
The weekend of February 9th-11th I went
on a short study tour for my Sustainability class. We went to Ærø island (it’s alright, I’m still
unable to pronounce that myself), which is an island off the southern coast of
Funen. The trip was amazing, especially if you’re really into sustainability
movements like me! The island is about 20 miles long, and absolutely gorgeous!
Their electricity is run completely off 6 wind turbines (and these turbines
were HUGE!). I wish I had my own picture to share with you, but unfortunately I
didn’t have my camera with me the second day of the short study tour. But, I
found a picture online to show you! To give you an idea of the size of this
wind turbine it was 100 meters high, and the small generator you see on the top
was the size of our coach bus! The rotor blades were 60m long! It was a truly
amazing sight to see! Aside from visiting the wind turbines, we went to one of
the largest solar panel fields in Denmark (also stole a picture from the
internet). Ærø used the solar panel farm for their heating. However, it only
supplied 4% of their heat throughout the winter months so the technology still
has quite a bit of developing to do. They stored the heat in this GIANT pool (I
can’t remember the dimensions anymore), and they intend to build a larger one
soon!
On the first
day of the study tour (sorry for going out of order, I was just really excited
about the wind turbines – clearly my favorite part of the trip!) we went to a
small ecovillage on southern Funen. It was wicked cool (and I have pictures of
this!). It was a small group of people that lived in a commune (sort of like
the idea my dad is always preaching about!), and they all divide up the work of
keeping up an organic farm that supplies them with a good percentage of their
food. They cook dinners together, and make goals to live sustainably. They make
the majority of their houses out of recycled material, and design them to
maximize passive heating, etc. 
The rest of
the trip was spent on Ærø, and we spent a lot of time outside. Good thing it’s
the middle of winter and freezing! The water was partially frozen, and created
this gorgeous ice structures on the beach. Also, our ferry to the island had to
plow its way through ice to make it. Several of the students in my class kept
making references to Titanic.. brrr! We also went to an organic brewery and
tasted some delicious local beer!
Alright, I’m
done with my environmental rant for the day (maybe!).
I have a few
great train stories that I can share with you all (great now, somewhat
frustrating at the time!). The first one took place at 3am. I was out with a
few of my friends, and we noticed the time and wanted to catch the 3:17 train
so we wouldn’t have to wait another hour for the next one. However, getting a
hot dog was a higher priority at the time (the hot dogs are delicious here!). While
I was standing in line I saw my watch crawling closer and closer to the
inevitable 3:17, but we were so close to having a delicious hot dog! We kept
insisting we would make it on time! Fail. We missed our train. To comfort us
during our hour wait we bought chocolate from 7-11. Crawling into bed at 5am
never felt so good!
The second is
just purely pathetic. I had already had a HORRIBLE day with trains! It normally
takes me about an hour to get into Copenhagen. I had to meet my group at 3:30 so
I left my house to take the 2:13 train. It never came so I hopped on the 2:43
train. I have to switch trains in a city called Roskilde. Normally I wait 5-10
minutes for a train there. A quick 25 minutes later a train rolls up to help me
meet my group a half hour late. It turns out my group didn’t have much work to
do. So I was only in the city for a half hour, and then started my fateful
journey home. I waited about 20 minutes for a train to Roskilde. Get to
Roskilde, and the trains to my town (Gadstrup) were apparently only running
every hour that day (instead of the usual half hour) so I waited about 45
minutes for that train. I sit down and I’m SO excited to almost be home after
the long/unproductive day of waiting for trains. My stop is the first stop and
I got up a couple minutes early to stand by the door because I was so excited
to get home! Unfortunately, I apparently don’t understand the concept of
pushing a button to open a door. I was unable to open the door and the train
left Gadstrup with me on it! Simply terrible. Off I went to unknown territory. I
hop off at the next stop (don’t worry I figured out how to open the door in
that span of time), and watched the train that I need to catch drive away. I
figured that I would probably have another half hour wait until the next train.
Wrong. I had another hour wait. At this point it was about 7pm and I was not
happy. So I called my host dad to pick me up. I decided that telling him I
slept through my stop was slightly less embarrassing then explaining that I
couldn’t open the door. Whoops.
Ok, I’m moving
away from embarrassing train stories! I got to visit the Danish Parliament
building (my professor for Environmental Policy is actually a member of the
European Parliament!) It was pretty amazing, and we even had a mock debate
about Denmark becoming a green front-runner, and all the separate groups
represented a party. Of course, I had to represent the far right party, who’s
extreme idea of a 40% flat tax rate is not popular among the Danes (that is
much too low of a tax rate!). It sounds just like America’s far right! My
professor is a part of the Social Democrats, and he attended the New Hampshire Republican
Primaries. His reaction was priceless! He was completely baffled by Ron Paul. Anyways,
the visit to the Parliament building was a great experience!
This is my
last story I promise! I went to Sweden today with my host family! It was really
fun! I guess a lot of Danish people like to shop there because it’s cheaper
than in Denmark. The city, Malmo, is fairly similar to Copenhagen, but some of
the buildings and the architecture reminded me of Boston as well! Made me think
of all my Boston family! It was quite amusing to watch my 15-year-old host
sister obsess over picking out shoes for her confirmation (which is a really
big deal here apparently). They learned pretty quickly that I’m not much of a
shopper. But, I have officially been to Sweden! I guess if I got really lost on
the trains in Copenhagen I could wind up in Sweden so that may not be my only
visit!
Well, thanks
for reading (if you lasted this long)! Next weekend I’m going to Amsterdam for
a week with my sustainability class! I’m really excited! I’ll be doing some
really great things that I’ll have to update you about it when I return
(hopefully quicker than this time)!
Oh, in other news my host dad informed me that Maine caught the one of the largest lobsters in the world (I haven't verified this information) - so yayy Maine!! It must have been pretty important if the news reached Denmark (or there isn't anything exciting going on in Denmark)!
