Tag Archives: Whitman College

A Swedish Meatball (aka me)

Core Course Week

A unique experience that DIS provides to its students.

A chance to spend a week with your home-skillet classmates expanding upon your learning.

Prostitution and Sex Trade

Hi Team, so brief note if you are actually reading this to choose/get pumped for your off-campus studies: DIS has two weeks set aside for travel with your core course to gain an international viewpoint of your focus. ~~You also get a week off for personal travel.~~ The first week included a few days of all day learning (but you probs get good food so get over it) followed by a short trip to a far part of Denmark or Sweden. I spent my travels in Malmö and Göteborg, Sweden. This is my story… (cue the end of Law and Order: SVU’s theme song)

OKAY LET”S GO!!!!!! Honestly I think I may have had one of the easiest weeks. It is in part because my teacher is so amazing. Like seriously amazing. I may be in love with her. She also saved me and three others from a burning elevator. We call her mom, because of how much she cares. The other part is because I am doing what I love here. It doesn’t feel like work. Anyways we had a chill week. A few movies were watched, a few lectures were given, and we went to a sex workers’ film festival (I am for real. This is a thing here in Copenhagen. I believe it was at Huset (The House) but it was incredible. Also they are have a punk feminist porn festival in October and I am FREAKING OUT. YESSSS). We were given a day off to pack our bags, and then we were off on our bus to Sweden.

Pro Packing Tips

You are going for three days, calm down, one suitcase and one backpack ONLY
Bring a blanket on the bus. You have NO IDEA how many people were freeeeeezing because the air doesn’t go off (hint there were 49 people, while I snuggled in a blanket and slept).
iPod so you don’t have to use your phone (less data in Sweden+kills battery+no wifi on the bus)
EARPLUGS: if you have my luck your randomly assigned roommate will snore loudly. You also be paired with her again the next night.

NOT SO FUN FACT: Sweden’s policy on prostitution is shit (#sorrywhitman). There is no other word for what I faced. I was 1. incredibly shocked, 2. horribly angry, and 3. baffled. There are so many issues I want to tackle right now but that would take this post in a way different direction than I had planned so let’s just briefly mention that Sweden doesn’t know the difference between sex work and sex trafficking. (also I had a lecture yesterday from the person we didn’t get to see on the trip because she fell of a bike or something and i wanted to puke and also die.)

Rambles of the trip: Buy milk and en kanalsnegl at 7-11 only to leave your milk there and remember too late to go back, find the missing bus, travel to Malmö ft. nap, lecture, lunch,

Honest to god Swedish Meatballs!

explore, sex shop (I bought a boob mug), thrift shopping, mall ft. froyo, lecture, hostel, exploration, expensive af dinner (note everything closed at like 20.00 go get dinner early), complained with crew about food, took a hilarious photo,

PURE GOLD

went to the grocery store hostel, by a loaf of bread and chuck of brie because why not, go upstairs, have a picnic with friends, take part in a bread fight, sleep it off. Wake up at an unreasonable time, breakfast (more bread and cheese tgod), hop the bus, join the entire class on a group 3 hour nap on the drive to Göteborg, lecture with the cops (my fav obvi), lunch!!!!!!! at the VIP table with mom because we are her favs (getting trapped in an elevator has its perks), wait was this the day we got froyo??, OHNO! wait we got cute food at the cutest place it was idyllic and gave me hot chocolate and this really yummy chocolate coconut thing bar of goodness with a baby marshmallow and a strawberry, back on the good ol bus for another lecture??, hostel, OMG Liseberg was SO COOL I HAVEN’T BEEN ON A ROLLER COASTER IN 700 YEARS AND IT WAS SUCH A COOL AMUSEMENT PARK

Proof of Happiness. Thanks, Olivia.

(also good ice cream), hostel, convince everyone to go to the gay bdsm club/ dance club/ strip club that you looked up only to walk there and realize it was sketch with straight bouncers who told it was basically only men (COULD WE PLEASE HAVE LESBIAN PLACES OR AT LEAST MIXED VENUES) and then a drug deal happened so we busted that popsicle stand, I mind you have not eaten and it is now 3.00, hostel, bed. Wake up at another ungodly hour, sleep, take a ferry across to the land of the Danes, go to Louisiana ~~the art museum not the state~~, where we toured the art

LOOK ART

Is this the same rock on a shiny mirror thing that Whitman has??

and had a delicious lunch–I ate raw fish among other things, but then I broke a dish on my way inside and I will never return out of shame. The End.

Safe in Christiania.

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I visited Christiania on August 28 with a few of my friends. (For those of you who do not, Christiania is a self-proclaimed autonomous neighborhood in the borough of Christianshavn within Copenhagen. Since its opening, it has been famous for its open cannabis trade, taking place on what is known as Pusher Street.) Since my visit there, a shooting has taken place.

“On 31 August 2016, a person believed to be carrying the days earnings from cannabis sales suddenly pulled a gun during a routine arrest and shot two police officers and a civilian. The injuries of one of the officers who was shot in the head were life-threatening, while the injuries of the other victims were less serious. Police sealed off the entire neighborhood and located the perpetrator in Kastrup a few hours later. During a brief shootout with Politiets Aktionsstyrke (a special intervention police unit) he was seriously wounded and later died from his injuries in the hospital.The perpetrator, a 25-year-old Danish citizen, was well-known to the police for violence and involvement in cannabis sale. Police officers very rarely receive life-threatening injuries during encounters with criminals (the last police officer to be killed by a criminal in Denmark was in 1995) and the incident was widely condemned. In a communal meeting consisting of Christiania residents it was decided that the stalls in Pusher Street (by far the site of the largest cannabis sale in Denmark) should be removed, which happened the following day, September 2. Local residents also urged people who were friends of the neighborhood to help by not buying cannabis in Christiania.”

Though this is unfortunately a common instance in America, the same cannot be said in Denmark. Because of this I wanted to explicitly state that I am okay and safe. I also don’t want this post to be a message to anyone thinking about visiting or studying abroad here that I think you should avoid Christiania… and maybe I should say this, and maybe that is what Whitman would say to do, but I won’t be doing that. Regardless of what has happened, I feel safe here in Denmark. I feel more safe here than I have ever felt at home. Hell, just the other day I was mentioning to my housemates that I may just live in the library when I return because I hate that the walk back to our house doesn’t have street lights, and I panic every time I try coming home. I have never felt that here. And though Pusher Street has been dismantled and I am unsure of its reappearance, I will gladly return. I don’t want you to give up on visiting because of this incident. I mean, come on folks, we are all somehow still managing in America and that is approximately 8554875156876513576871768737367676165787652158778554.2% more dangerous than Christiania as a whole. The rest of this post will be photos of how beautiful my friends and I found our visit to be.

My finger is only in the picture to make the lighting adjust so you could read the sign. I do know how to take a photo, I chose not to do it well.

The view from above over the main area thing with music and food and merch.

I have been told that I am a better door than a window. This house is entirely made of windows. I think we would complete each other.

I may have written my name on this bridge as to solidify my existence in the world, but I will deny that if questioned.

Art.

Much Artistic Art

Aww, I think the fishy licks you!

Much art, Such WOw.

i HAD TO POST BOTH VERSIONS LOOK AT HER FACE WHEN SHE REALIZED SHE WAS JUMPING INTO MY PHOTO

might tattoo this on my body, nbd

This may be my favorite pieces I found. Look how beautifully done it is. Just think you would probably have a harsher punishment for creating this stunning piece than Brock Turner did for raping an unconscious woman. THANKS SOCIETY.

WELL IF THIS DOESNT ENTICE MY GENDER STUDIES MIND I DONT KNOW WHAT WILL

Two Weeks of Adventure in a Single Post!

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Guess who’s back??! Did ya miss me? I know, I’m sure I miss all of you too. ~~Except you Eric, I hate you.~~ I must say though, that I have replaced you all with Freja. I mean COME ON, LOOK AT HER! What can I tell you… I feel as if I have lived in my home for months rather than two weeks. It’s so odd. I’m also getting used to living with men–even more odd. I did have my first experience of falling in a toilet because the seat was up Thanks Valdemar. I still have a fear of my shower because it drains really slowly and I’m not sure if there is a hidden button that drains the water of if it allows a drop of water a minute to sneak down the pipes, but I always return to a waterless shower so I guess it works??

School: I haven’t died yet. Okay, let’s be real, this school probably has the most work of all the study abroad options (my old roommate is literally swimming with the fishes and has a pool in front of their dorm on the beach… K.) I’m reading a lot–nothing compared to Whitman–but it is actually SUPER INTERESTING. Pro tip#1: take a gender studies class You. Will. Never. Have. The. Options. They. Have. Here. At. Whitman. Pro tip#2: Never take a class solely to impress a girl. Like if they, hypothetically, are really interested in prison structures and basically live at the local penitentiary and on your first date they have an interview for a grant to tour prisons around the world, one of which is, in theory, in the location of your study abroad program and they were, I don’t know, in contact with a professor at your school who taught something like Criminology and Criminal Justice in Scandinavia, and you think “I should take this because she’s interested in it, and we can keep in touch by talking about this common interest…etc.” Don’t. Just don’t do it. Pro tip#3: Switch out of the class if it doesn’t feel right, this experience for you, and only you.

So I switched out of a class (obviously not connected to the hypothetical situation mentioned above), and took another gender class. Current classes include: Danish: Language and Culture, Prostitution and Sex Trade, Gender and Sexuality in Scandinavia, Psychology of Human Sexuality, and Pornography in Scandinavia. The last created quite a stir in my family (my dad’s side are Trump supporters, and I think that says it all). I may have retaliated, just a bit. It felt good, REMEMBER these experiences are for you

I have a pretty great queer community here. Look at us at at a gay cafe, Oscars– get their cider it’s A++. I’ve gone to a lesbian bar, Vela–the ONLY lesbian bar because women’s sexuality is often ignored even here. I’ve also went to G*A*Y* which I’m not sure if it’s actually called gay or Gee-Ayy-Why?? ~~Will update when I find out for sure, but it’s a dance club~~ BUT WE ALSO DO NON-PARTY/DRINKING THINGS. WHICH DOESN’T REALLY HAPPEN OFTEN BECAUSE THERE AREN’T SPACES FOR THAT IN THE US. e.g. We get dinner together and make gay jokes together and travel together and watch The L Word together like the gays that we are.

Okay we’ve gotten to the point where I’m going to run onto a new post–we knew I wouldn’t keep with my goal of a single post. The next will be immediately posted about my visit to Christiania ft. Street Art that I may tattoo on my body.

P.S. I fell off of my bike the other day ~~because I am not a Dane who has ridden a bike since the age of 1~~ and it was quite a show. I managed to ride my bike into a pole, fell off into a bush, and then down a concrete hill. I was 99% sure I broke my knee so that’s cool. It was to the point that I slid down three flights of stairs on my butt. Yay.

P.P.S Tinder is A+ here even if there are some weirdos

Out of the Closet, Into the Street.

DIS Copenhagen, Denmark

Tag Archives: Whitman College

A Swedish Meatball (aka me)

Safe in Christiania.

Two Weeks of Adventure in a Single Post!