We woke up to snow on our last full day in Copenhagen, Denmark. Again, we had a breakfast buffet at the hotel which is more than satisfactory. Chocolate crepes were a definite hit. We then headed to our first class of the day which was taught by Sarah B and Sarah V. We learned and discussed topics concerning controversy in the Olympics. During the lesson we covered gender issues, performance enhancers, racial controversies, and religious controversies. We then split into small groups to further discuss and come up with a solution to handle each situation.
We then gathered as a group and walked a few blocks to the National Museum. We began as a group by exploring the museum by ourselves; did you know that Denmark got all of its Iron from a meteor that crashed nearly 6000 years ago? This meteor weighed nearly 58 tons and helped Denmark trade iron for nearly 1000 years. It took 14 sleds and 175 dogs to move this meteor to where it could be melted down, and the natives referred to it as “Heavenly Iron”. An hour later we had the option to go on a guided to throughout the museum where our guide was a specialist in prehistory. We learned about Denmark’s Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Viking age. For all you Minnesota Vikings fans out there, did you know that Vikings never actually wore horns on their helmets? It was a myth started by an artist who portrayed the Vikings as raiders and the image ended up sticking.
After the trip we traveled as a group to a restaurant named, RizRaz for lunch. While waiting in the restaurant we got to know everyone on the trip along with a special talent or fun fact about themselves. We have a very talented group, one student can even balance objects on his nose! We were then served an all vegetarian buffet, while at first we were a bit skeptical to try some of the food, it turned out to be marvelous!
After Lunch we walked back to the hotel for a quick change of clothes to get ready for ice skating in downtown Copenhagen. It was a long walk that was 4 kilometers round trip but it was definitely worth the walk. We had our fair share of falls on the ice but everyone enjoyed themselves and nobody got hurt. We then headed back to the hotel and had a few hours of free time.
At the end of the night we had another class led by Connor and Dalton. We learned about Olympic site selection and even got to purpose our own city to host the Olympics.
Kirsten Jensen and Ethan Stordahl