Folkehøjskole Living!

Hej everyone! I have so much to talk about. The housing, dining, and the town of Roskilde are so new to me. But first I must make a correction to the last post. My syllabus for A Sense of Place in European Literature changed so that now we are reading German literature instead of Russian literature.

Arrival day came and went and I kept thinking to myself how this felt like the first day of college all over again. I met my roommate in the hotel where the DIS students gathered for transport to our housing locations. We were both overwhelmed with all new things we have to get used to–transport, phone plans, budgeting, etc–and I was overwhelmed by all the new students crowded in the room.

We were greeted by a gray sky and cool weather which was a nice relief from the hot and humid weather of North Carolina. Pants weather, but not quite sweater weather. I almost fell asleep on the beautiful hour-long drive to Roskilde. The landscape became greener as we drove farther from the city center of Copenhagen aka København.

So far, I’m in love with my housing. In the main building of our housing community a group of about seven smiling Højskole students met us. They showed us to our dorm building. I’m reluctant to call it a dorm because it’s so different from the dorms I’ve seen back in the U.S. The bright colors and wooden furniture remind me of an Ikea bedroom display. All the walls are corrugated metal which gives me the feeling of living in storage locker, albeit a nice cozy one(I learned that these are shipping containers). My roommate and I gawked at the size of the room. When people talk about Scandinavian minimalism, this is what I imagine. We got two beds with lamps attached to them, a desk the size of a coffee table or a foot stool, and cabinets. It looks so sleek and minimal that it gives me a calming feeling. Wait four months and we’ll see how tidy it is then.

About 16 DIS Students and 30 RoFH students live in this building with the DIS Students occupying the second floor. We all had dinner in a dining room with long rows of tables, the DIS students interspersed with the RoFH students. The Roskilde Folkehøjskole has a nice community feel. The RofH students and Sofie, our contact person, explained how Folkehøjskoles work. They are all around Denmark, some in Sweden and Norway. This Højskole that we are living in is an art school. RoFH students come here to explore the arts and develop their talents in technology such as robotics and video-making in addition to arts such as carpentry, music, dance, painting, etc., and we (DIS students) get to talk to them! I think we are also able to use their musical instruments if we ask the teachers.

I don’t want these posts to get too long, but I have so much to say. I didn’t scratch the surface of the little community around the Høskole. There’s a tattoo parlor, microbrewery, cafes, restaurants…But for now, here’s a picture of the nature trail I found across the street from our housing(As you can see, I am so in love with my housing):

Sofie has a lot planned for us this week in terms of getting-to-know-you activities. Next post will be about that stuff and DIS’s new student events.

Farvel!