“Short Study Tour” is a term DIS uses to talk about a three day trip your core class goes on in September. I know I am a little late to the party with posting, but I still think it is worth talking about. We spent Monday and Tuesday of the week in Copenhagen learning about local initiatives with producing honey, coffee, and mushrooms. Denmark is definitely at the forefront of the sustainable food movement and I can’t wait to see where they go from here.

Man was it a bust few days and by the end of it I was completely exhausted. We started out the study tour by heading to a farming commune which was honestly my favorite part of the whole trip. I loved learning about their way of life and values they all share. Next we headed up to a bio dynamic farm in norther Zealand. It was really cool to learn all about how the farm works and how it’s unique position close to ocean makes the soil some of the most fertile in all of Denmark. We were treated to an incredible lunch afterwards using only food produced on the farm. It was roasted fennel bulb on mashed potatoes with a tahini dressing. We were also treated to baked apples with nuts for dessert. Overall a wonderful afternoon.

We then made our way to danish folk high school which are these schools set up around Denmark aimed at education people holistically instead of just teaching a subject. We got to interact with the students there and it was so nice to meet students that are as passionate about climate change and the environment as we are.

The next morning was by far the hardest. We started the day by going to the Danish Crown Slaughterhouse. This if you know me was not fun for me at all and I actually almost changed my entire core course because I did not want to go on this visit. Danish Crown is an industrial slaughterhouse and they slaughter over 100,000 pigs per day. I was horrified and ultimately did not get much out of the visit because it was so stressful for me, but I think my classmates learned a lot. We then headed to hike up a small hill where we were able to reflect on the visit and see some of the beautiful landscape of western Denmark. Our next stop was a local farm that only kills around 12 pigs a year. I was still upset that these pigs were going to be eaten, but was comforted in that fact that I knew they were well taken care of and seemed happy.

That night we spent our evening in Aarhus exploring the area and eating a tiny restaurant where our class filled the entire place. It was wonderful and a nice way to get to know my classmates better. The next morning we went to the art museum which was SO cool, I do not always like museums, but this one was different. There were so many things to see and it was nice to wander on my own for a little after having to be surrounded by people for so many days. The we went on a walking food tour to some hot spots in the city that stood out to our tour guide. The final adventure was taking the ferry home and it was a great way to re-center outselves before returning back to our various homes.

I learned a lot in those three days traveling and was excited to see a different part of Denmark that not everyone gets to see.