PCD takes over Western Denmark

~My Tour Companions~

Hello fellow Americans-

    You are about to be very jealous of my life, if you aren't already. I just had the most amazing weekend, best yet during my time in Denmark- thanks to my fellow PCD students who are just too freakin' amazing and a three day bus trip.     

     

DAY ONE...Titled 'Educational, yet Fun!' - The first day of our Study Tour to Western Denmark put us in a town called Odense- The Center of Denmark. It is on an Island in between the one Copenhagen in located on and the mainland, Jutland. To get here we traveled over what used to be the longest bridge in the world- until, Japan built something longer. It was a beautiful site. Here in Odense, we made some educational visits... We first went to a Multicultural school located in what is considered a 'Danish Ghetto' - by far the nicest 'ghetto' i've ever seen. The school had mainly all Immigrant children in attendance, consisting of Vietnamese, Turkish, Somalian, and Lebanese background. Here at the school they emphasize the importance of learning the Danish language and have specially trained Language Pedagogues to assist the children. As you can see from this pic, my favorite part of this visit was the playground. I'm the girl in the striped dress who looks a little too big for her car- but Oh, So much Fun!! We also visited the Odense Culture House. This is a community center for adults with mental and physical disabilities. Here they can get a job

 doing something they love, while learning important life skills to survive in everyday society. There is a whole art studio- refer to picture- and the paintings were amazing. I am so impressed at the concentration and determination these people have, and so much talent! There was also a whole music studio- The band played for us and they have already released 4 albums. Incredible! They also have a full working kitchen and diner, computers, a movie theater, and a fabric looming room. The whole place was filled with amazing equipment- I just wanted to stay and play!! Denmark is an amazing country that does so much for it's people- esp. putting so much effort into the children and their disabled. Its such a refreshing thing to see.

DAY TWO...Titled "Peace and Serenity"- Odense is also the hometown of the one and only...drum rollllll please.....Hans Christian Andersen, who happens to be one of the many loves of my life. Amazing Fairy Tale author and a Master of Oragami. Anyone who knows me well knows about my love for fairy tales- and Bed time stories ;-) Hans is famous for tales such as The Little Mermaid, The Emperors New Clothes and Thumbelina, but he has written hundreds! We visited the Tinderbox, which is the children's museum for Hans as well as the 'Adult' Museum. The children's museum was soooo much better, mainly because we got to dress up. At the Tinderbox- children get to pick out their own fairy tale outfit and act out their own fairy tale in an indoor Imaginary Land. PCD students know how to have fun- so, of course we dressed up! I had the prettiest pink dress and signed the guest book as Princess Victoria...only thing that was missing was a Tiara. After spending some time with Hans we took the Bus to a Contemporary Scandinavian Art and Design museum. The Art was interesting, but the best part was the Activity Room- where I was able to utilize my Arts and Crafts skills and make some beautiful jewlery. The next thing I am going to tell you about is my favorite part of the whole trip. There is not even a word to describe what i saw and felt at our next destination. We drove to our next hostel, which happened to be on in the middle of nowhere, in the woods on the largest lake in Denmark.

   This picture captures everything about the place, i felt so relaxed and perfectly content while here- as well as completely amazed at all around me. We watched the sunset and had a wonderful dinner while Jan, one of our intructors, serenaded us with his music. After dinner we went BOWLING!!! I hadn't been bowling in quite sometime- DIS bought us pitchers of beer and we had an hour to make the most of our time. My bowling team, AKA 'Sticky Vicki and The

 Transparent Funk' consisted of Sticky Vicki using Pink The Stink as my weapon of choice, Mo Shizzle using The Green Machine and Luscious Luke throwing it down with The Ebony Queen.We also had Professor X helping us out- which consisted of a combined effort between the 3 of us, since we lacked a fourth player. Let's just say- we got real funky and totally kicked some bowling ass. Team DIS THE SHIT couldn't even compete, sorry boys.  Once we arrived back at camp-Jan had let my friends borrow his guitar for the night, which we took full advantage of. We spent the first part of our evening sitting on the the long dock above- drinking wine and listening to Maury and Kevin play guitar. It was quite the perfect gathering. We then went to hang out with some Business kids who were also at the hostel with us. They were staying in these awesome cabins, so we were able to all hang out inside....again listening to Maury play some amazing tunes on the guitar. I wish this day could have lasted forever- it will be forever burned into my memory bank- in The Most Amazing Experiences section.

Well- Day Three will be under a "Be Continued" section. I've been bloggin' for far too long and I'm also awaiting the arrival of my Day Three Pictures. I went a little over board with my picture taking causing my camera to die before Day Three started- therefore I borrowed a friends camera- Thanks Miki. As soon as I get the pics I will update you again on the rest of my journey. Until then- hope all is well and best regards.

The World is such a beautiful place.

Perfectly Content,

   Vicki