Zack and Elva in Copenhagen!

A Letter From Over The Seas

Hello, UNC Greensboro! This is Zack Weaver, English Major and student far afield in Copenhagen, Denmark. The seasons here are beginning to turn, changing the weather from warm to cold before my very eyes. (No snow yet, though.) I am accompanied in my travels by my Lloyd Honors dragon Elva, and a better companion one could never hope to have. She’s been most accommodating to being stuffed into breast pockets and hauled around for sightseeing and photo ops.

Demonstrated here

I suspect she enjoys the attention though. It’s not every day that a dragon can sightsee without unwanted hysterical attention!

Elva and I have been getting along wonderfully. She’s been coming along with me on all my classes’ cultural activities. We’ve been getting a lot of mileage on these travels. We’ve been to Fredericksborg, the Peder Skram (a retired Danish frigate), Viking museums around Denmark, Viking graveyards and runic stones in Sweden, and even up to London with the professors Hodgkins’ class.  She’s been quite the well-traveled dragon!

My University

We arrived in Copenhagen on July 28^th, a month early, owing to a pre-semester Danish course. It was with no small apprehension (not schoolwork nervousness, that came later!) but rather stemming from the simple task of finding my residence and figuring out basics like transit and food.  Researching on the internet is one thing, but on the grounds of a foreign country was another. There’s no really good way to be prepared. Fortunately I adapted fairly quickly, finding food with the help of dormmates and figuring out the transit system with the assistance of University people.

(A side note: we were told about the five stages of coping with being in a foreign nation, and how this would be a gradual process. I actually went through them all on Day One and was fairly comfortable after that, odd logistical issue aside.)

I am living with a roommate; his name is Mingjia, and he hails from China. He is studying Computer Programming at the University of Copenhagen, and will be here for two years. We’ve gotten along wonderfully, and have had some cultural exchanges.

My first cultural visit was the Round Tower in the Norreport district. It was from here that Tycho Brahe made some of his observations back in the late 1500s. Amusingly enough, there are unicycle races in the Round Tower every now and again. Apparently they usually proceed with little in the way of havoc, but accidents do happen….

The aptly-named Round Tower

One of my excursions was to the battleship Peder Skram, named after one of Denmark’s great naval commanders. It was retired, along with all of Denmark’s armed vessels (currently the only vessels are unarmed ones). It is remarkably well-kept, balancing historical authenticity with museum aspects. It was an immersive and informative experience. If you’re in the area during the summer I highly recommend it!

A dragon in a power magazine?  What could go wrong?

I am taking two culture courses here: Course in Danish Culture and Nordic Mythology. Both are fascinating and equally gripping! Both have cultural excursions included, and we’ve been to such places as Fredericksborg, a Viking graveyard in Sweden, Nordic museums, and a trip to the renowned Louisiana Art Gallery. (At the last one I made an accidental statement on a flat metal outdoor ground-level art piece by skidding across it on my rear. Email me for the full story if interested!) All have been wonderful experiences, and I’ve come away from each with a deeper appreciation for Denmark and its history.

It’s truly humbling to stand on the very spot that Nordic people did millennia ago. The amusing thing is that the runic stones pictured here hold no magic or ancient secrets. These are memorials, but others are just saying “Sven bought a new boat”. Nothing truly profound, but it does make you wonder about who these people referred to were. It also makes me cry a little on the inside at how little we know about these people, since so little has survived (both because of time’s ravages and early Christian influence).

 

One of the great highlights so far was going to London with the Professors Hodgkins’ class. After a month of reading British texts we spent a week in the great English city. We stayed in a picture-perfect hostel, Palmer’s Lodge, in a quiet part of London. The sights we saw were many, and to talk about all of them would be an article in of itself. So I’ve included some pictures instead.

Not what you'd want to see at the top of a cathedral...

 

One of the several lovely cathedrals I saw

How we got around.  These things are loud!

All the world's a .... (Shakespeare's Globe Theater)

I could spend hours here, wandering through Keats' small garden and on the Heath

And on the way back to Copenhagen!  The Colonies say hello, England!

Much fun was had by all, and I was honestly sad to leave after it. I’d even grown used to the cramped sleeping space! (I’ll certainly miss croissants for breakfast!) Truly when one is tired of London, one is tired of life. –Dr. Samuel Johnson

And I am now in my last month stretch. It’s been the time of my life, for sure. And I’m not done yet! I’ll be going to Finland soon for a week. Hopefully snow dogs and Aurora Borealis are in store! There’s still much to be seen and done. Here’s to a wonderful finale and good fortune on our finals.

To any prospective international students: do it, trust me. Whatever apprehensions you may have, I promise that they will fade away like dew in the sun once you see your country emerge from the clouds. It truly has been the once-in-a-lifetime experience I was told it would be. It will be lonely at times, and surviving your own cooking is interesting, but I have no regrets about coming.

See you all in the spring!

Kind Regards (as they say here in Denmark),

Zack Weaver

University of Copenhagen

Copenhagen, Denmark

November 2015