Excursioning Part 2

A quick update on some places I've been recently.

-a week and a half ago I visited Frederksborg slot, which is a Renaissance palace that contains lots of portraits of Danish royalty, and has beautiful baroque gardens.

-My Food Industry class took us on two more field trips! The first was at the old Stock Exchange in town, where we listened to a lecture about Danish Chamber of Commerce. (www.danskerhverv.dk) A boring lecture is a boring lecture, but at least it was in a beautiful building and included free coffee. Also, you know you live in Copenhagen when you think nothing of biking across town amidst the old stone buildings in the rain.

-The next field trip we went on was to a company that sells enzymes, cultures, etc. This was actually fairly interesting, as the company was an important part of the food industry, but sold its products to other companies that needed their products for retail (ie, yogurts, other chemical things for other products). (www.chr-hansen.com)

-Yesterday was epic. My Nordic Mythology class took us on an excursion to Skane, which is the Southern part of Sweden that is next to Denmark. We first went to Alenas Stenar, which is a Vikibg burial site, where a large group of stones are arranged in the shape of a ship on a field overlooking the sea. The next stop was to a Viking graveyard, where there were multiple stones in a meadow in multiple formations. The last stop (in between a lunch break and massive amounts of driving in the middle of beautiful nowhere) was a Runic stone monument. In the middle of farmland there is a knoll with stones cirlcing a tree. Two of them had runic engravings, another had a picture engraved.

As for me, I'm doing ok. Went out a bit more this week, had pleasant conversations, and am always entertained when having a conversation and I realize each of us are from a different continent. I also just moved this morning to a kollegium (dorm) in the city outskirts. My roommate Semra is from Turkey and she's REALLY nice and makes yummy bread rolls. I think the next three months will be fantastic.

Halfway there!

Today marks my official halfway point in my epic trip to Europe. I have been out of California for 2 1/2 months. I have 2 1/2 more months to go. Things are getting better. My Food Industry class is amazing, Danish class isn't awful. Today I start a class on Nordic mythology. Busy Lizzy=Happy Lizzy.

I'm also moving on Sunday to a Kollegium (building with dorm style apartments) because my landlord sold the apartment I was living in. I am so relieved to be living in a building with other students, because as nice as my apartment and roommates were, it was not a healthy living situation for my mentality.

On a random note, my dad reads my blog, and he just corrected me on a couple of facts: My grandfather (his father) did not combat in WWII. He was in the Engineer Corps, stationed in Korea, not the Philippines, and his unit was almost sent to Japan, but wasn't because the atomic bombs were dropped.

5770

Rosh Hashanah is a time for t'shuvah, for return, and so, every year I return to think about where I was the year before. Freshman year I was new and lost. Sophomore year I was a Rescuer. Last year I was a Leader. This year I am... what? a traveler? a stranger? the exchange student who hangs around Chabad every week and is now fairly close with the Rebbetzin?

In answer to people's questions of what Rosh Hashanah is like in Denmark, this is what I did: Spent every chag meal at Chabad, as I tend to do, including helping the Rabbi chop frozen chickens the night before (yuck). The first day I went to the Progressive shul, and while it was nice to be in a Progressive Jewish space again, there was too much missing from the service. The second day I went to the Great Synagogue, which I hadn´t been in since I was there with the Sunshines. It was nice to sit with the girls I knew in the women's balcony, and quite the wake up call to hear the shofar blown inside such a beautiful building. However, the Hazan reads every word, delighting me that I had only shown up for Musaf. After lunch, everyone at Chabad walked to a nearby park for Tashlich. This part was the weirdest, because even though I bike around Copenhagen in shul clothes, I'm not visibly Jewish. Ever. So now, I'm walking with a group of frum Jews in the streets of Copenhagen to stand next to a body of water to throw bread in it. Beautiful to participate in a community, but I think I'll do tashlich by myself in the lakes, which are the canals that intersect the city.

Instead of wishing the generic good wishes for the new year, I'll share a story I enjoy:

A person was walking in the forest, and was very lost. Soon, they approached a stranger and called out, 'Friend! Can you help me find the way out of this forest? I am lost and cannot find my way out!' The stranger replied, 'Brother, I am lost as well and can only tell you this: Do not go the way I have gone, because that is not the way. But maybe we can find our way out together.'

In the year 5770, may we all find friends to help find our way through life. L'shana tova.

Kopenhagen Fur

I never thought I would have so much fun at a fur factory. My class took us on a field trip to Kopenhagen Fur, a cooperative that deals in furs. So like Danish Crown, KF is collectively owned by farmers. The building that we visited houses the skinned animals and auctions off the skins to various countries, mostly China, who then process the fur into clothing etc, or sell the furs to other companies.

Once inside the warehouse, we are greeted by rows and rows of dead mink. We also saw rows of fox, chinchilla, lynx, rabbit, seal, and sable fur. Chinchilla fur feels AMAZINGLY soft. For the others... it was creepy seeing dead fox skins. And seriously, after feeling chinchilla, I don't know why anyone would want to wear anything else. They also brought us to a room where we could try on fur coats and wraps. A picture of me in a tye dye shirt and fur coat should be available soon ;-)

The mink are farmed, mostly in Denmark, and die in gas chambers. After being skinned, the bodies are processed into bioenergy, and the cleaned and stretched skins are ready for sale. The foxes are both farmed and hunted. Don't quite remember how the other skins are aquired, but obviously, the seals are hunted.

So, why am I of all people writing an enthusiastic report about FUR? Not gonna lie, the fur coats were cozy and warm. And I am not especially opposed to farming mink for the purpose of fur. What does bother me, however, is hunting animals. For example, most seal species are endangered, or at least very close to being so. Seals belong in the ocean, not in my closet. The foxes.... for me, wearing a fox would be like eating a cat. They're too personable, too furry and cute. I think wearing one is creepy. But chinchilla and mink... I feel as long as they're farmed, it's kind of ok. Not to say I'm going to go out and buy a fancy fur coat.

Environmentally? Well, the mink is raised in Denmark. It lives off of offals from meat production. The furs are shipped to China, where they're processed into clothing etc for cheap, and are then transported to other parts of the world for wear. Do you really need something that's traveled all of the world like this? On the other hand, fake furs have become a popular replacement. But the fake fur is made from synthetic, petroleum materials. OIL. Oil which people are fighting wars over. Oil which can be used to fly a plane to take me home. Oil which the earth is running out of and which humanity doesn't know how to live without.

Websites!
http://www.kopenhagenfur.com/corporate/about+kopenhagen+fur
(general information on Kopenhagen Fur)

http://www.kopenhagenfur.com/corporate/about+kopenhagen+fur/fur+farming
(information on fur farming)

http://www.furisdead.com/
(I couldn't resist including a PETA link. I generally agree with their goals, but their stances are so radical and ridiculous. To my enviros: I'm sorry if being in CPH has made me more Conservative in not being totally against fur, but I feel most things can be acceptable through moderation.)

Excursioning

I'm in the thick of the semester, meaning I actually have homework to do. I also managed to not pass my August Danish course, so decided to retake it (a decision I'm very much enjoying, because not only do I actually sound smart in class, but the people in this new class are way cooler).

I have had time for a couple excursions, though. So:

-A friend I'd made at a hostel in July came to visit during their travels, so we went to southern Zealand (the island that Copenhagen is on) to see the ruins of a Viking fortress. Nothing like standing in the middle of nowhere with the wind in your hair and ancient fortresses surrounding you....

-Saturday my friend Kati and I visited Odense, a city on the island of Funen. There was a model Danish village there, and we took pics of silly poses with the model "peasants" in the houses.

-Odense is known for being the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen. I have officially stood in his house.

-in the HC Andersen museum is a library that contains books and stories of all the languages his stories have been translated in. ("Thumbelina" in Hebrew is "Etzbaonit")

A hallmark of living in a country whose food I hate? I am actually very upset when the British foods store sells out of Kraft Mac & Cheese.

Language Barrier

Even though most people here speak perfect English, the fact that I do not speak Danish interrupts my life in the following ways:

-Amnesty Int'l won't let be volunteer because they work in Danish
-I cannot buy packaged foods because I have no idea how to prepare them
-Have no idea what's going on in with student life because most of the fliers are in Danish
-menus are... challenging
-when helping with children's activities at Chabad, being attacked by a swarm of small children asking me things in Danish.

Things I enjoy doing in Copenhagen

-biking around the city, crossing the canals and looking at the old buildings
-wandering the cobblestone streets of the City Center
-going to Int'l night at the Studenhouse and meeting people
-hanging out at Chabad all day Saturdays
-sitting on the balcony atop my apt overlooking a beautiful skyline
-going on museum excursions
-guiltily eating polser (street hot dogs topped with ketchup, mustard, sweet mustard, remoulade, fried onions, fresh onions, and pickles)
-eating at the vegan restaraunt in Christiana to make up for the polser
-talking to my friends at home

Danish Crown

My first official class started on Tuesday, entitled "The Food Industry". Those who know me know I'm beyond obsessed with eating food and thinking about food and wondering about the environmental impact of my food. Thus, this class was made for me. On Thursday, we drove all the way to Jutland (the part of Denmark attached to Germany, 3 1/2 hours to the other side of the country from Copenhagen) to visit a pig slaughterhouse run by the company Danish Crown.

I apologize for the following gruesomeness, but I assure you it is worse in real life. The pigs come from all over Denmark, and are killed by first being knocked unconscious in CO2 chambers. Then a worker jabs their neck with a knife and blood runs down into a tube, so the pigs die of bloodloss. After being cleaned, robots suck away what is inside their intestines, and other robots cut away their organs and intestines (called pluck). Another machine cuts off their heads. Yes I saw all of this in full detail from a window. The rest of the process is not so disturbing, because the pigs then are frozen before being cut up for shipping, and once frozen, they look unreal. The entire pig is used, as different cuts are sent to different countries, pluck is turned into cat food (can I make my cat vegetarian?), and leftover pig fat is turned into biomass to run the factory.

Ok, so why have I spoiled your dinner? Because we need to know where our food comes from and what is its impact on the environment. I am not a semi vegetarian because I believe animals shouldn't die, though I think way more die than need be (a pointed glare at people who eat meat at least once a day). I want to know about what happens before the pigs enter the slaughterhouse. Is their effluence contaminating the drinking water? Where does their feedstuff come from? What is the impact of growing and processing the feedstuff? And why must everything be transported everywhere? Some farmers ship their pigs to Germany to feed only to return to Denmark, only to be shipped somewhere else in the world, as 90% of the pigs that are slaughtered are exported.

Aside from the usual bs of "data and knowledge are lacking" and putting focus on other parts of the food chain, the website admits to some important things:
-"Greenhouse gas emissions are generally lower for the production of 1 kg of vegetables in comparison with 1 kg of meat." (any environmentalist worth their weight in kale knows this)
-a majority of ghg (greenhouse gas) emissions come from feedstuffs production and manure, NOT transportation and electricity
-the amount of ghg emissions from producing one pork chop equals drinking 4 cups of coffee
-many other tidbits defending Danish Crown's production of meat

However energy efficient Danish Crown claims to be, what if we just didn't eat meat? What if the energy and resources invested into producing animal feed went into feeding humans? What if slaughterhouses just didn't exist? What if meat was raised locally and fed from food scraps and compost, converting unusable biomass into biomass we could eat, and thereby not wasting biomass we can eat? One may argue that then there wouldn't be any jobs, and, I kid you not, our tour guide said, "The U.S. doesn't need robots. They have Mexicans." But in Denmark, most of the jobs are done by robots, and the jobs that are done by humans, technology is researching how to replace them anyway. So, jobs wouldn't exactly be lost.

As much as I would love those reading this to severely reduce their consumption of meat (I can't ask you to completely abandon it), at the very least, I encourage you to peruse the Danish Crown website.
For climate change "policy": http://www.danishcrown.com/page21810.aspx
To visit the "virtual slaughterhouse": http://www.danishcrown.com/page22686.aspx
And of course, the Danish Crown main webpage: www.danishcrown.com

Dachau

I know this may sound silly, but I did not realize how much WWII history there would be in Europe. Every city I've been to has a memorial. Every tour I've been on points out a site where something significant happened, or where a building was damaged. In America, we hear and learn about the war consistently. My grandfather fought in the Philippines. I have known survivors. But the aftermath is not so continuously in our face.
On the walking tour in Amsterdam, I made a friend, and for lack of other things to do, decided to follow him to Munich. It was exciting, taking a night train on Saturday, arriving at 7 am and checking into the hostel. But then I saw the fliers for the tour. I felt like I wasn't prepared for it, and I was worried about its effect on me, and if it would still be appropriate to have fun after visiting it. So at first I declined, and went on the walking tour with Dan. Halfway through, I realized Munich was just another pretty European city, and that somehow fate brought me to an opportunity, so I joined the next tour.
I still don't know how to describe how I felt. If anything it was surreal, that after a week of partying, here I was at a horrific place with people I didn't know. But the camp itself is hauntingly beautiful. Yes, we hear the stories and we know the atrocities. But being at the place itself, it's hard to apply the pictures to what you see. All the original barracks were destroyed, and the ones that remain are models. But it's too sanitized. How can I possibly imagine what went on if all I see is grass and sky? Only in the crematorium did I actually freak out, envisioning the bodies hanging in front of the ovens, staring at the place that would burn them once they died.
I didn't freak out in Anne Frank's house, because there it focused on her life, honoring her in the most beautiful way possible. And every time I learn a lesson about the tragedies of the Jewish people, it merely causes me to think of the future, and that the point of learning these is that am yisrael chai, the Jewish people live. That my people are free enough that I can go drinking at a biergarten in Munich with an Australian without fear of my life, knowing that when I'm older I will continue these traditions with a family of my own.
However optimistic I may be, I can say this with certainty: I NEVER want to go back to a death camp.