Kristin's Blog: Short Study Tour

My short study tour was February 9-11 (Thursday-Saturday) to western Denmark with my core class, Sustainability in Europe. I woke up extremely early on Thursday morning to catch the bus that would be on its way at 7:15 sharp. We wasted no time in getting to the activities. Our first stop was to Energinet (www.energinet.dk/EN/Sider/default.aspx), which is the central energy transmission system for the country. We learned about some of Denmark's short-term and long-term energy security and goals, and we also had the opportunity to go up to the main control room, which had this huge digital display on the wall of...energy information. It was pretty sweet. The building itself was amazing, and as we were walking through it, my classmates and I turned to each other and were like, "I would love to work here." The work environment and atmosphere seemed luxurious. They unexpectedly served us a fresh buffet-style lunch. Everything about this place from the architecture to the food and the easygoingness was just so Danish!
The next stop was to the Jelling Stones, in Jelling. We learned about the Jelling Stones first in the museum, and then we went outside and looked at them. To make a really long story short, this place is a national heritage site with large stones with writing on them that Harald Bluetooth dedicated to his parents (the "Bluetooth" device is named after this historic person). It's also associated with the Vikings, as they built one of their massive, famous ships here. There are two huge mounds here as well that are thought to have been built for tombs. Then we had a mandatory "surprise social event" because it was one of the student's 21st birthday. This involved climbing to the top of one of the mounds, where we were handed small Danish flags, lyrics for the birthday song in Danish, shot glasses, and flødebolle (chocolate-covered marshmallow treats). Our teachers poured us some disgusting tasting liquor and we said "skål!"
Next we drove to the middle of nowhere, to a little hostel that was not hostel-like in the least bit, and were served an amazing dinner. Our class was getting to know each other better.
The next morning we drove 5 minutes to the Nordic Folkecenter for Renewable Energy (www.folkecenter2.dk/en/), where we spent most of the cold day outside learning about renewable energy systems such as wind turbines, solar panels, and the like. They served us lunch here, and I tell ya the food just kept getting better and better. All I remember is that it was one of the best tasting meals I have had in a while.
The next stop was the Lemvig Biogas plant (www.lemvigbiogas.com/index.htm). The people gave us a tour and broke down how the plant operates.
Then we were off to Aarhus, which is the second largest city in Denmark, where we had dinner on our own and enjoyed a bit of the nightlife there. It's a very cute city! In the morning we visited the Aarhus art museum (http://en.aros.dk/), and usually I'm not a fan of such things, but this museum was extra cool. One of the exhibitions was completely unreal, an experience that cannot be described. I will try anyways: I entered a room entirely filled with fog, so you could only see a couple feet in front of you. Different colors of light filled different sections of the room.. I'm really not sure how to explain it but it was by far the coolest room I've been in. I felt like I was floating in clouds of intense color.
Finally, our last stop was to an Ecovillage. We were told that we would be doing some volunteer work for the village, but didn't know specifics. Turns out that we moved trees. They grow trees over a part of land where they put their human waste, and they move the spot every few years, so they grow and cut down trees in a cycle. We were given a tour around the village and learned how the community works together with the environment. We ate some delicious home-made snacks and then we were on our way... back home to Copenhagen!