One month later

Week 4 (15/02/16) – Cultural and Professional

As I begin writing this fourth blog, I cannot believe that today marks the end of our first month here in Copenhagen and that it has been four weeks since we said goodbye to our families in Dublin airport and made our journey across the North Sea to begin our adventures in Denmark. Keller (2016) writes that “Faith in God’s promises means not always following the expected, rational path.” Indeed, in September 2013, when I first started Stranmillis, I would never have expected that I would be here today and the thought of spending a semester of my university degree in Scandinavia would definitely have seemed like an irrational path for me to take. However, my faith in the promises of God has enabled me to embrace the past four weeks with open-mindedness and thankfulness and encourages me to eagerly anticipate what is yet to come.

As usual, we have kept ourselves busy during the past week. Having attended the First International Baptist Church every Sunday for the past four weeks, we have been able to get to know some of the international students in the congregation there quite well. Tom, a student from Boston, asked us to visit Frederiksborg Castle with him on Friday. After realising that it closed early, we went to Rosenborg Castle instead and enjoyed viewing the Danish crown jewels, walking around the gardens and attempting to take selfies with members of the military who guarded the castle. Seeing as the weather was good, we decided to visit the Round Tower after this, a must-see tourist attraction right in the heart of Copenhagen. It is unique in that it has no staircase and so after a climb up the gradual cobbled slope that makes up the interior of the tower, we were stunned by breath-taking views of Copenhagen when we got to the top. This day ended on a despondent note, however, as Hannah left us to enjoy a weekend with her mum and brother and four became three. When Emma, Naomi and I woke up to a blanket of snow the next morning, we decided to make the most of it and took a trip to the beach where we built a snowman and took photographs of each other swinging from trees; it was an eventful afternoon to say the least.

 

 

 

Classes have continued as normal this week and a field trip on Tuesday was followed by a class on the topical issue of bullying on Wednesday; this was preceded by a reading homework based on the concept of social exclusion. It was particularly insightful to connect this to the issue of bullying in schools and to learn that ‘attachment anxiety’ coupled with the need to have a sense of belonging and security within a group context are major contributing factors to bullying behaviour (Pickett and Brewer, 2004). A discussion which centred on measures to prevent bullying was also very informative and gave us the opportunity to explain the work of the Northern Ireland Anti-Bullying Forum to our lecturer and classmates.

So it has been another exciting and eventful week here in Denmark. We are feeling more and more settled as time goes on and are quickly becoming accustomed to our new surroundings and way of life. Again, I finish writing this blog feeling extremely blessed and excited about the opportunities we are yet to enjoy, one of which includes a trip to Budapest in a fortnight! But, for now, farvel!

Reference List

Keller, T. (2016) Tim Keller Wisdom, available at https://twitter.com/DailyKeller (accessed 15/02/16).

Pickett, C. and Brewer, M. (2004) ‘The Role of Exclusion in Maintaining Ingroup Inclusion’ in D. Abrams, M.A. Hogg and J.M. Marques (eds) in The Social Psychology of Inclusion and Exclusion, New York, Psychology Press.