Quick question, can I do core course week over again? Because WOW it was so much fun and I would relive last week in a heartbeat. I am in the sustainable development in Northern Europe core course here at DIS and for core course week my class traveled to western Denmark. For anyone unaware, core course week is a week of class where you ONLY meet with your core course in order to dive deeper into your course material and begin to tackle the big overarching questions within your core course’s topic. The week is split up between time spent utilizing Copenhagen as your classroom and time spent on a trip outside of Copenhagen with your core course. Here’s a day by day run down of my crazy BUSY but amazing core course week.
MONDAY
We started the week discussing the first main topic of core course week: biodiversity. After the discussion, my class and I got on our bikes and rode to Amager which is a protected natural area within Copenhagen. Amager is able to pose the question of development vs. preservation REALLY well as it is a protected area pretty much surrounded by construction on all sides.
TUESDAY
We started our final day in Copenhagen discussing the second main topic of core course week: energy. Our co-teacher for the week, Carlos, gave us a presentation on energy policy in Denmark. After the presentation, my class and I headed on our bikes to Refshaleøen in order to see the wind turbines up close and personal. For those who haven’t seen my previous blog post yet, spoiler alert, we climbed up the wind turbine!!!!!
WEDNESDAY
My teacher gave us the day off in order to do some much-needed laundry and to also relax a bit before the craziness of our weekend trip to western Denmark began. Having Wednesday off was great as my butt was still SO SORE from all the bike riding we had done the two previous days.
THURSDAY
Thursday officially marked the beginning of the second half of core course week. My class and I met at Frue Plads (right by DIS) at 7 am, yes this was very painful to get up for, in order to get on our bus and get the journey started. Our first stop was to Energinet which is the Danish national transmission system operator for electricity and natural gas. The Vice President of Associated Activities at the company then gave us a presentation about how Energinet was working towards completing ambitious green energy goals. The entire presentation was incredibly informative and I felt I was thoroughly prepared for the presentation due to the energy lecture given by our co-teacher Carlos on Danish energy policy on Tuesday (shout out to Carlos).
After the presentation at Energinet, my class and I boarded the bus again towards our next destination: the city of Esbjerg. Once we arrived at Esbjerg, we were given a tour of the city by a local. The city was full of dichotomies and sustainable development dilemmas. The first being that Esbjerg, a very industrial city, is almost directly across from a national park and protected UNESCO habitat which felt almost wrong. Another contrast within Esbjerg was that even though the city has a huge wind turbine industry, there is a lot of non-renewable energy occurring there as well such as a coal power plant and the utilization of oil rigs.
After leaving Esbjerg, we were all pretty much exhausted and drove to the oldest town in Denmark called Ribe where we were going to stay for the next two nights. Dinner was on DIS that night and MAN it was SO GOOD. The restaurant we ate at was the cutest little house and had SUCH hygge vibes. Not only was the restaurant adorable, but the food was also DELICIOUS. After dinner, my class and I had free time so we all decided to go to one of the three bars in Ribe (hahah) to hang out and relax after a long day.
FRIDAY
Today we woke up pretty early and after a quick breakfast at the hotel, we were off. Our first stop of the day was to the Vadehavet National Park in order to further our discussions about biodiversity. The national park was GORGEOUS. I truly felt so lucky I was able to visit this magnificent place. The national park was teeming with life and biodiversity even though that life wasn’t for the most part visible upon first glance. Our guide was able to display why the area needs to be protected due to its importance to the ecosystem around it and the fragility of the land by having us dig into the sand (gently of course) in order to find aquatic life. SO COOL.
Searching for life under the sand… 
…Seeing what we found under the sand. 
Here’s me having a little TOO much fun. 
After visiting the national park, my class and I went to Vester Vedsted Vingård for lunch. I had no idea what I was in for because WOW the lunch we had here was maybe the best I have ever had in my ENTIRE life. The restaurant was family-owned and around 80% of what they served was locally grown and organic. The family also own a sustainable vineyard (that produces no waste YAY) and was nice enough to give us a wine tasting while everyone was devouring our meals. I don’t think I have ever been more satisfied in my entire life.
After everyone woke up from their food comas, we arrived back in Ribe in order to get a tour of the gorgeous city by a local. The tour was a great way to really get a feel and learn about Denmark’s oldest city. And what better way to receive a tour than by a local??! After the lovely tour, we had free time to grab dinner and do anything else we wanted to do. Everyone separately ended up eating dinner at the same restaurant which was pretty hilarious if you ask me.
SATURDAY
AKA the last day of core course week BOOOO. After another early start, my class and I drove back to Esbjerg in order to catch the Ferry over to the island of Fanø. Fun fact, the entirety of Fanø is part of the national park my class and I visited earlier. Once we arrived in Fanø, we met the mayor of the island for a fascinating talk about sustainability, politics, and life on the island. Listening to the Mayor of Fanø was, in my opinion, the best part of the trip and was an amazing way to wrap up core course week. Our whole trip was spent learning about the different perspectives and opinions within the broader idea of sustainable development and the mayor’s talk complemented this perfectly as she discussed her experience trying to work around these differing opinions. I think her talk really highlighted the necessity of compromise within the idea of sustainable development and how everyone needs to work together in order to come up with effective solutions.
After listening to the mayor, we were driven to a different part of the island for lunch (ANOTHER AMAZING MEAL) and a wrap-up discussion. Before starting our four hour drive back to Copenhagen, my class and I had free time to roam around the island which I am so glad we got to do.
The whole trip was planned perfectly and really depicted how difficult and apparent the question of how to tackle sustainable development. Each trip we did in western Denmark complemented and built upon each other incredibly well and really depicted the many perspectives involved in trying to solve problems regarding sustainable development.
If you couldn’t tell, I had such an AMAZING time during core course week and last week got me even more excited for our long study tour (than I already was) taking place in March where we will go to Hamburg and Berlin!
CopenHANGIN' in Denmark 