So I am really excited about living here, because I have made a couple of really good friends and I feel like I am going to have the time of my life in my program at school. The program I decided on is Child Diversity and Development, Children in a Multicultural Context. I chose this program because it is essentially the makings of my major that I am designing at Whittier. Yesterday we had our orientation for the seminars, and I was pretty excited, but then I heard more about the practicum which is even more exciting, but I will get back to that in a minute.
After that orientation, we, my friends Amanda, Julia and I, walked to Julia's dorm which is located on part of the København Universitet campus, and it is also very near some gorgeous lakes and buildings. We helped Julia go grocery shopping and we dropped off our GIANT Ikea bags full of textbooks at her place so we could go walk around and do some shopping. Because I still haven't figured out this whole weather thing, nor do I believe I will ever, I wore my high-ish heeled waterproofed leather boots, which are not so good for feet that already have blisters and an ever-present stress fracture, but are especially not good on cobblestones. And the streets of the city of Copenhagen are almost entirely composed of cobblestones, so I was suffering. Luckily, I was able to find some cute flats for 100 kroner or a little less than $20. Then we were able to continue our adventure relatively pain free.
We walked along the pedestrian street, Strøget, where there are tons of shops and restaurants. We found the Danish equivalent of the 99c store, Tiger, where we all grabbed some necessities, then we walked and walked until we found a bench. We probably made it on Danish TV, because there was a group of about 20 guys in black and white soccer gear, singing and yelling for the Rosenborg football club, a Norwegian team. This was quite entertaining and pretty much made our afternoon.
But back to academics. Today we all found out more about working in a Danish school and where we would be placed. The Danish system is all child-centered learning, so when the child is ready to learn the alphabet, they are taught the alphabet, but before they approach the teachers, they work on social interaction and daily habits. So my experience will most likely be A LOT of playing. Though I'm nervous about the language barrier, we will learn how to communicate with the children without saying a word, which is very cool and exciting to me.
I found out I will be working in a Danish Vuggestue/Børnehave or Nursery/Preschool, with children aged 0-6. The school is apparently ethnically and socio-economically diverse, so I am very excited to see how the system works there.
So, a very busy past couple of days, but I'm finally excited and feeling like I'm supposed to be here.
Next time, I'll tell you all about my host family some more, and about my first real classes in Copenhagen once I have had them all.
Hej hej!
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