The Ultimate Field Study Marathon!

What a week! There’s nothing like three field studies, three big papers and an exam to get your heart pumping the week after a vacation. This has been the most intense academic week I’ve had at DIS climaxing yesterday with a huge exam and two papers due within a 5-hour period.

The focus of this post will not be my academic experiences of the past 5 days (though at some point I’ll probably end up talking about two of the papers), but instead will be my field study marathon on Wednesday. 

As a refresher (or for any new readers), at DIS there are no scheduled classes on Wednesdays, which allows for every course to take up to two field studies over the course of the semester. Field studies can include trips to museums, going to movies or sporting events or national parks, attending lectures/talks, or any number of other things relating to the course. I’ve been on 5 or 6 at this point and have loved every one. Not only is it incredibly helpful to see how course material is applied in real life, but our trips also have helped each of my classes to build a real sense of community among students. (I really wish Dickinson would do more of these).

DIS tries to ensure that no student has two field studies at the same time, but on any given Wednesday you can have no field studies, one field study (either morning OR afternoon), or two field studies (one morning AND one afternoon). Most weeks I’ve been lucky: a couple of times I’ve had a week off and the others I’ve had only one. This week I made up for lost time: three (and a half) field studies.

The speaker's memoir

The day began when I left my house at 7:25am to go meet my Developmental Disorders class for our field study to the psychiatric hospital we visited before. I should add that when I woke up and looked out the window, 3 or 4 inches of snow had accumulated. This meant I couldn't take my bike to the station (which I knew would be a problem coming home later in the evening). Anyway, this time our class got to hear a talk from a woman who had Borderline Personality Disorder. She has since recovered and shared the story of her childhood, time in treatment, and subsequent recovery. It was very inspiring (and interesting) especially because I’ve traditionally learned about BPD as a disorder you don’t recover from.

My friend, Becca, and I then ran from the hospital to the train and took it into the city. We met with our Danish class at the Christiansborg Castle for an AWESOME tour. We got a private tour of the castle, its church, stables, and theatre, and at each stop on the tour our guide told a tiny snipit of the story of Christian the 7th, the King who occupied the castle, and the Royal Affair that took place there. 

We weren't the only ones visiting the castle... 

... adorable little kids in snow suits!!

The story of Christian the 7th was very interesting and pretty much like a made for TV movie. In a super condensed form it goes like this: 

Christian became very ill (probably with schizophrenia) just as he was crowned King (at 16 years old). A wife, a 15 year old Princess from England, was brought over for him to marry, and at the same time the Court hired a new doctor to help take care of Christian (to keep his increasingly wild/violent behavior in check). Christian and the doctor became fast friends, and as Christian continued to deteriorate, the doctor was able to push his own very liberal/progressive agenda into practice through their relationship. 

Early on, Christian's wife had their child and then became depressed. The doctor began to treat her as well and... they had an affair! The wife became pregnant (with the doctor's baby), obviously a huge scandal. I won't tell you how the whole tale ends, but luckily for you, the story was recently made into a movie (called “A Royal Affair”) that was very popular around the world. We heard the first part of the story as we toured the castle and grounds, which was such a cool way to learn about history (to actually see where the different parts of the story took place). The palace:

Inside the royal church

View of the snow falling out the church window

The riding arena where the horses (still today) are taken for daily exercise

The carriage that the current Queen uses (in a room with tons of other carriages used throughout history) 

A painting of what the 1st Christiansborg palace looked like (like most of CPH, it's burned down twice)

Shower for the horses

Our class got to go and pet the horses in the Royal fleet! They are all white stallions 

the theatre where Christian loved to attend shows

By far the most fun part of the tour was our trip into the actual castle, up a very dramatic staircase, and into the grand ball room! Because it had been snowing and they wanted to preserve the carpets, we were given blue footies to put on over our shoes. I thought it looked hilarious to be walking through such a regal building wearing blue covers on our feet. 

At the base of the giant staircase up to the Royal Ball Room hearing part of the story

Quite grand

At the top of the stairs we walked through a hallway with portraits and statues. After hearing a little more narration, we got to look around for ourselves

Two of my friends are looking at Christian the 7th's family tree. Let me say that everyone was really kind of ugly. Our guide blamed this on inbreeding that was commonplace during the time

The Royal Ballroom! Unlike the family members, it was really beautiful

Hearing the last part of the story (here you can see our blue feet again)

Liz and me (the person taking the photo cut our feet out of it, but you can imagine what it looked like)

As I mentioned, the guide left us in suspense, which made us even more excited to go back to DIS for the second part of our field study: watching the actual movie. Our teacher stopped by a bakery and brought us all pastries, tea, and coffee to enjoy as we watched. The movie was really good (and we were able to pick out things that weren't historically accurate) and I definitely recommend it.

After it ended around 5:15, a couple of us decided that we should use at least some of our 1.5 hour break before the ballet to get some work done. I still had to finalize my 8 page paper (for Thursday), start my 7 page paper (for Friday), finalize my 11 page paper (for Friday), and study for my 10-chapter exam (for Friday). However, when we made it to the study lounge to get started we weren't necessarily so productive...

a collective 20-minute power nap

We woke up in time to do about 30 minutes of work before finding dinner and heading to the Royal Theatre for the ballet. I was pretty excited (although also a bit stressed given the amount of work I knew I was going to have to do when I got home and the next day). However, when we got there, the experience made my stress (temporarily) melt away. 

You could say that we were in the nosebleed section (basically at eye level with the chandelier) 

The ballet was called La Bayadere and is apparently quite famous and highly acclaimed. The story takes place during the late 1800s when India was a British colony, and tells the tale of a British lieutenant who falls in love with a temple dander, but has already been promised to the daughter of a vice consul. The coolest part was that we went in knowing nothing about it and were able to figure out pretty much everything that happened. It is just such a neat phenomenon that just through dance and movement without any talking such a complex story can be told. When it first began I was thinking, How am I supposed to understand who these people are? but suddenly it all fell into place.

The dancing was spectacular and was especially fun for me because I felt like a knowledgeable viewer. I took ballet at Dickinson last semester (and loved it) so I actually knew the names of the various positions, jumps, and exercises that they did. Many of them were things that I had attempted, but obviously had never been able to do even remotely correctly, but still I was proud that I knew what things to look for.

We weren't allowed to take pictures, but I took a few photos of the pictures in the Danish program so you can see the costumes and colors and stage.

The show had three acts, and two of my friends and I planned to leave after the second one to be able to make it home at a somewhat reasonable hour. But as the show went on and we arrived at the second intermission, it seemed ridiculous to have even considered leaving early. My papers and studying could wait! When was the next time I would have a free ticket (or a ticket at all) to watch a show at the Danish Royal Theatre with my friends? Probably never. So I stayed (and I am very glad that I did). Some of the most spectacular dancing took place during the third act.

The show let out just around 11:30pm and I began the long, long trip home: Quick walk to the Metro. Metro to the train. Train to Herlev Station. Bus home. Walk from bus stop. I was actually quite lucky with timing and only had to wait 16 minutes for a bus (which only comes once an hour after midnight). I managed to get a bit of work done once I got home, but fell soundly asleep with music from the show playing in my head. :-)