The sun is actually shining. As I write, there are warm rays of sunlight coming through the window — so much so that I’m sitting in a t-shirt. That rarely happens here. The sun rises around 7:10am now, and sets closer to 5:30pm. It’s like we suddenly moved south.

Yesterday I had a field study visit to Gadevang Skole (School), about an hour north of Copenhagen proper in a town of the same name. It is a “forest kindergarten” serving children ages 2-20. More than a school, it reminds me of a kibbutz-style community center with aspects of education. Children are treated as participants of society and learn to be independent actors (for the littlest ones this means dressing/undress oneself, asking for help after trying things on your own). This is keeping in line with the Danish/Nordic value of en god barndom (a good childhood life).

The two most memorable things I observed/learned at Gadevang:
1. Children can play outside unsupervised. They are trusted to be responsible and return to the school house when asked. Part of the uniqueness of a forest school is that it is situated in a forest. There are no fences or walls enclosing the property, and children may run and play where ever their heart’s desire. When asked how far into the forest the kids can go, the “Mother” (Principal) responded, “They can disappear into the forest.”
2. Playtime is extremely important to a child and her development. Especially when very young (2-4 yrs old), your friends are constantly changing. In order to not disrupt children’s social relationships and keep playtime consistent, any parent may take any child home from school. For example, if I am playing with Emily when my mom comes to pick me up at the end of the day, she can decide to take Emily home with us. Then, Emily’s mom comes to pick up Emily, but Emily is not at school because she is at home with me. Emily’s mom checks the sign-out book, sees that Sophie’s mom took Emily, and calmly goes to get Emily at Sophie’s house. A strikingly different situation than that in the U.S., no?

After this field study, I went to my Danish class to listen to three “cultural ambassadors” talk about their search for identity in Denmark and within Danish culture. Hannah grew up in the Schleswig-Holstein region (Danish/Germany border region in Southern Jutland) in Northern Germany, attended a Danish minority school, spent some time in Canada and self-identifies as both German and Danish. Sara moved from Baghdad, Iraq to Denmark when she was 13 years old with her family. Now she speaks Danish fluently and says she is from Arhus, Denmark where she goes to university. She has a Danish boyfriend. Jamo’s parents are from Somalia but moved to Denmark before 1990. He was born in Copenhagen, and says he is from Somalia. He would be called a second generation immigrant by “purist” Danes. Who is he? He is Jamo. Period. The biggest take away from this lecture was that identity is personal, and you can be whomever, whatever you’d like. Your experiences make you you, and no one can say otherwise. It is important to know who you are and hold onto what is important to you, be that language, culture or traditions, clothing, stories, whatever. Therefore, pulling from a comment made by Chris, another Bowdoin student, our venturing to Starbucks this morning for better coffee is our way of holding onto our American identities. But I will continue to embrace the Danish trends in fashion and add another black sweater to my pile of clothing as well as mini-mid-ankle height black booties.

The end of this week marks the beginning of our first travel week. I will be jetting off to Brussels to visit various European Union Institutions and NATO, a chocolate factory, and taste some of the 800 varieties of beer. “Don’t try them all,” was the advice we got from our professor. Following Brussels, we will cross into The Netherlands, stay at the Hague and have a day in Amsterdam. I’m staying the weekend in order to see more of the Dutch capital city.