Medieval Ribe

Hello all!

So this week went by fairly quickly, with few assignments and a lot of fun at practicum.

There is this little boy Tobey, who understands English, and therefore he is the child with whom I have been spending most of my time.  He loves me and he was having me follow a very  specific running course and playing with me for a lot of the day.  There is also a girl who understands a bit of French, so I was able to use that as well.  However cool that is, we discussed today that while home languages such as English or French or German, in another girl's case are sometimes able to be used in the school, any Arabic or other Middle Eastern languages are not, even by the Muslim paedagog at my site.  It is an interesting difference, and today in class we learned that sometimes if a teacher speaks one of those languages, they will be asked to speak Danish only, while I am allowed to speak Danish, English, and French to the children.

So it was a fun day on Thursday.

Friday I went to class then boarded the bus with only 7 other students, to Ribe, Denmark, in Southwest Jutland.  It began as a Viking market around the year 710, so it is celebrating its 1300th anniversary as a town this year. It is very small and very quaint and beautiful, with its half timbered houses and cobblestone streets surrounding the Cathedral from 1134.  I loved it there.

The first day we had a scavenger hunt, visited a medieval monastery, and the cathedral, and sort of saw a bird phenomenon known as "The Black Sun," where all the starlings in the area gather to practice for migration.  It was pretty cool.  The monastery and cathedral were both beautiful places, and the day could not have been better!  We climbed 290 steps up to the top of the cathedral where we got a breathtaking view of the town and the surrounding areas. We even did some analytical sketching of the inside of the cathedral to really get a feel for the details of the architecture, which is something I have never done, but I really enjoyed it and it gave me new perspective.

All in all, it was a great weekend. 
I found out today that I will be able to see Les Mis and Avenue Q in London, and we get to take a Bollywood dance class, among our other visits to the Freud museum and various community centers, playgrounds, and schools.

I am sooo excited!