Memoirs of Århus: Har du haft en god weekend?

Ja tak =))

The weekend came a lot sooner because there was no Danish class on Friday, what we had was a tour of a Folk High School in Denmark. "A stay at a Folk High School is... not part of a formal education, but rather an element of the individuals personal development and general education" .. taken from here. Education in a Folk High School is not compulsory and the view is that all there are interested in the learning.. whatever it is they want to learn.

Here's a photo of the jolly teacher who was also tour guide to my group.

And here's what I actually feel about the place: It seems a very alternative place to the traditional formal education that generally most would opt for. But we only had a guided tour and no interaction with any students there, so I do not have a full picture of the type of people who go there. Also, the folk high schools are very much autonomous in how they want to run their school and the teaching methods to employ, all of which I do not feel comfortable about. There was a method called the "Walk and Talk" where you line up in pairs and start talking with your neighbour about something you find interesting, then switch partners every ten minutes.

Here's the kicker: Apparently theres a lot of group discussions among peers to "gain enlightenment" and the teacher told us that students "owe a responsibility" to other students because if they do not show up, there will be "less energy in the room". It was indeed very enlightening for me, in the sense of "Thanks, but I think I will stick with Aarhus University.." Anyway, the tour ended with a group singing a Danish song for everybody (because their teacher tour guide is the school's music teacher). Which was pretty all right, considering I had a lesson in Danish Politics, for the third time. Whoopdee doo. More insight on the Proportional Representation system and "weak coalition" governments!

Party!!!

This is what usually makes a good party...

I was asked to bring stuff to mix the alcohol with. So being the obedient Singaporean, I brought a 2L bottle of coke and 1.5L of orange juice. By the end of the party, my coke was untouched, and more than half of my orange juice was still standing. But all the alcohol was raped, including my bottle of white wine. Ho Ho.

We met this random Dane at the kollegiet. After some alcohol, and cross-cultural learning of alcohol-drinking songs (If you know of any from Singapore, pls share) and suddenly he showed us some circus stunt. The photos speak the truth. Man.

Legoland

Managed to wake up for this trip the next morning. The fact that I paid big money for it helped, too.