Copenhagen Great Race!

I’m currently on the train into school for my first day of classes, so we’ll see how much of this I get through before I arrive at Kobenhavn H (the main train station in the city), but I have a lot to say so I thought I would start now. 

Fleece-lined tights=my saving grace!

Yesterday was my favorite day of orientation by far! It was my group’s turn to participate in the Copenhagen Amazing Race, which after three days of half getting familiar with the city and half being completely lost was a welcome activity. The weather could not have been more perfect (keeping in mind that it is the middle of January in Denmark); the sun was shining, there was no wind, and the cold was definitely manageable because we were running all over the place (and because I was wearing my new fleece-lined tights from Tiger—the Denmark equivalent of Target except 10 times better). 

Tromping towards the harbor in
search of checkpoint #1

The premise of the amazing race was to get us out and about, exploring and navigating our way around our new home. We were divided into groups of six and sent off with maps and a list of places to visit. My group went to the Royal Palace, the Parlament building, the Rosenborg Palace, and was supposed to go to 2 other places, but never made it. We walked miles through the city and at each check point we were greeted by a DIS Professor who would give us a mini-history lesson about the importance of the cite that we were seeing.

The first stop was the Royal Palace where the current monarch, Queen Margrethe II, resides. On the way we stopped by the famous Copenhagen Harbor, which with the late-morning sunlight reflecting off the colorful buildings and water was just spectacular! We even watched boats come in and out and stopped for lots of photos. SO beautiful and made me fall in love with the city even more.

Some of my group members in front of the harbor

The Palace itself was really interesting and was probably the site that I found the most intriguing (although not the most beautiful). Denmark is the world’s oldest constitutional monarchy, which means that we have both a monarch (currently a Queen) and a parliament/prime minister who are elected by the people. There is debate among Danes about how appropriate it is to still have a monarch. Some people claim it represents imbalance of power, doesn’t represent the will of the people, and maintains the last semblance of a “class” system in Denmark. Others (my host-father included) simply feel that it is a beautiful tradition, and that the imbalance of power doesn’t really exist since the monarch has no real power anymore. Although she/he has to sign any bill that comes into law, our professor explained that 1) The Prime Minister has an ability to override most of his/her decisions and 2) If she/he was to get in the way of blocking any legislation it would “be the end of the monarchy.”

The buildings were designed so that the giant church, the statue of the King, and then the ocean (behind where I am standing) are all in a straight line showing that there is a direct relationship between God, the King, and eternity. 

The guards in front of one of the buildings

There is not one central building in the Royal palace, and in fact, it is a giant circle of several buildings

The Professor telling us all about the monarchy and the palace

I have to say that I think there are many cool parts of the Danish monarchy. For one thing, in the early 50s the Danish people voted on a referendum and decided that they wanted to replace the old system of inheritance by which in the absence of a son to inherit the throne, a cousin/second cousin/distant male heir would inherit the throne, and instead in the absence of a son, the eldest daughter could inherit it. Then, in 2007, they voted again and decided that the eldest child (son or daughter) would be the one to inherit the throne! I'm not sure whether there are any other countries that have this system, but I think it's pretty awesome. Go Denmark! 

We learned some other pretty interesting things too (like that the current palace was only supposed to be temporary, but by the time it was done, the power of the monarch had been sort of decentralized and so the new royal palace instead became used to house parliament). 

After we were done learning, we were sent down the street to a little road-side stand where a man was selling coffees, hot chocolates, latees, and other drinks. DIS had paid for us all to receive free drinks to help keep us warm, and the hot beverage was a very welcome treat! 

The girls in my group enjoying our treat with the Palace in the background

Okay, I'm more than done with my commute (I'm now sitting in a student lounge at DIS waiting for class to begin) and Evan has just arrived to chat, eat, and plan trips so I am going to go (and that's kind of a lie because I've made him sit for about 15 minutes while I've finished this post... sorry Evan!). I will write more later after my first class...eeek! Wish me luck! I think I get my Service Learning placement.

Denmark: the perfect blend of old and new