Blogging is fun, but it’s often a bit difficult. Sometimes, the sheer number of experiences can make deciding on a topic for a weekly(ish) post feel paralyzing.
Fortunately, this is not one of those times.
We just wrapped up Core Course Week, and I’ve been excited to write about it since our class met for the first time on Monday. It’s a week where you pause everything — elective classes, most DIS events, etc. For two days, your Core Course meets in Copenhagen for some hands-on learning. For three days, your Core Course will take a trip to a new city in Denmark or a neighboring country.
I’m excited to break ours down for you. 🙂
Monday | Day 1 — Copenhagen Waterfront
We kicked Core Course Week off with a bang! Just after noon, our class met at BLOX, an architecturally controversial building prominently plopped over the major road that runs parallel to the harbor on the Copenhagen side (as opposed to the Amager side).
Our professor Regitze led us on tour of Copenhagen’s harbor via harbor bus (AKA a ferry). We learned all about the revitalization of Copenhagen’s waterfront and its importance to the city’s culture and economy. We hopped off the harbor bus at the Opera House and walked to Reffen — a very popular street food market that epitomizes the renaissance of the surrounding area Refshaleøen. We ended our afternoon there, enjoying some incredible food as a class.
Day 2 | Tuesday — “Around the Sound”
For the second day of Core Course Week, Regitze took things up a notch. We met at the København H train station in the morning, and took the regional train line up to Helsingor — the home of Hamlet’s Castle.
We didn’t stay in Helsingor — actually, we got off the train and immediately took the ferry across to Helsingborg, Sweden. Regitze told us about the ongoing effort (and some failures) to develop the waterfront properties in the city. After that brief walking tour, we were set loose to find some DIS-funded lunch. Our lunch of Indian food and some espresso to follow it up was incredible. Even better (somehow) than our lunch was an impromptu visit to Kärnan, an old fortress built when Sweden was still under Danish control. The view from the top were stunning.
After picking up our jaws off the top of the Kärnan, our class took the train from Helsingborg down to Malmö. We admired the stunning Bo01 neighborhood in Malmö, a community designed with sustainability as its utmost goal. It features unique and varied architecture, high urban density, and a focus on the power and conservation of water. We also talked about how much we hate the Twisted Torso building (major bleh).
Before going back to Copenhagen, we took a quick walk through the city center of Malmö. I liked it, but I thought it was a bit sleepier and less people-friendly than Copenhagen. Given that, and the fact that we had been at it for hours, I wasn’t too bummed to take the train back across the Øresund to Copenhagen.
So there it is! The first two days of Core Course Week. This week changed my life (no joke), and if I wasn’t already sure that studying in Copenhagen with DIS was one of the best choices I’ve ever made (I was), I absolutely am now.
As always, thanks for reading. 🙂 And I’ll see you back here in the next couple days for Part 2: a trip to Aalborg.