Thy throne rests on mem’ries from great days of yore, When worldwide renown was valour’s reward.
I know to thy name thou art true as before. Oh, I would live and I would die in Sweden!
I leave for Spain in about 20 hours, and I am unsure about my ability to blog while there, so this may be it for the weekend. Sixty-eight degrees, mostly sunny while I am in Madrid... finally some time with Mr. Sun! The list of places I plan to go:
Museo del Prado Museo Reina Sofia Museo Thyson Plalacio Real La Almudena El Retiro El Plaza Mayor Bernabeu (estadio de futbol)
Obviously I plan on sharing churros and chocolate with my Senoritas Mal and Molly while there, along with some Tapas. I am also looking forward to testing out my Spanish from high school. I'll try to make you proud Mrs. Fischer!
I guess they have had enough of me, because they just passed a Danish law requiring immigrants to pass a test to gain citizenship. This isn't because of me, but rather a direct response to the flood of Arabs moving to Denmark and refusing to learn the language and assimilate the culture:
Starting in May, foreigners will have to pass a citizenship test to earn a Danish passport and the right to vote in parliamentary elections
The Integration Ministry unveiled a test Tuesday that any foreigner will have to pass in order to be granted citizenship.
While the test is currently being evaluated at language schools, the ministry made its 200 questions and answers available on the internet so foreigners could bone up on the test before having to take it.
A quick scan of the test revealed a mix of questions in 11 areas ranging from the Danish royalty, local geography and the economy. When the test goes into use in May, applicants will have 60 minutes to answer 35 of the standard questions as well as five problems dealing with current events.
Applicants must correctly answer 28 questions to pass the test. And while they can re-take the test as many times as they wish, the test costs DKK 600 to take.
Reactions to the citizenship test have been mixed. A number of politicians and education experts have suggested it concentrates too much on obscure historical and political details that even full-blooded Danes might have difficulty answering correctly.
Several university students, for example, struggled to pass the test when Dato newspaper administered it to them.
One student, Patrick, only managed to answer 29 questions correctly and admitted he found the test difficult.
'I learned about a lot of the things it asks in school, but I've forgotten them again,' he said.
Another student, Natalia, felt the test concentrated too much on history.
'I would like to see more questions about current events. Whether people follow major issues up for debate says more about people's actual integration,' she said.
I've got sunshine, on a cloudy sunny day! For the first time in what seems to be weeks, I awoke to a sunrise in Sonderborg. When the bright sun appeared upon my face at 7:07 AM this morning, I knew it was going to be a great day! I went for my daily jog, and took some amazing pictures of the morning sunrise. Enjoy them all at this link.
The teacher of the Month for February: Esben Holstein. Not only is his accent hilarious, his mannerisms are priceless. Kind of like a lanky, jovial Mr. Bean, he manages to keep Finance and Investment somewhat interesting (considering I've already taken this at MU.) As a matter of luck, I also have Esben for EU Integration on the same day. He has done an excelent job in explaining the EU to an outsider of the Union, and as a side note, not many people actually understand the EU, citizens included.
One interesting and slightly annoying thing about the educational system here in Denmark, is the informal setting in the classroom. I never thought I would say this, but I prefer a professor to lecture and ask questions of the students, not the other way around. All of the Danish students address the professor by their first name, and interrupt them whenever they feel they have something to say (which seems to happen a lot.) It is impossible to establish any kind of flow when the students just start talking all the time with something they think is important. I guess the raise-your-hand-till-your-arm-goes-numb- switching-arm-to-arm-leaning-on-desk- shouting-pick-me-pick-me strategy really does work!
Post Script: The attached video is hilarious. All Facebook readers follow this link for the full effect of this post.
It's 40 degrees and raining, what would you do? Well we at SDU decided to play a match on the soggy pitch of Amtsgymnasiet. The teams were divided based upon if you were Chinese or not. Since there are so many Chinese students here, they decided they wanted to take on the world in a match of football (that's soccer for all of my American readers.) We had enough for 10 man teams, and enough sludge and mud for about 500. Long story short, it helps to have an average of one foot on the Chinese players, and the internationals were just to much for the Chinese to handle. By the end of the match, everyone had fallen into the enormous mud puddle at midfield, and shared not only the same coat of mud but the same satisfaction of having represented our respective countries.
Translation... smoking may kill you. That is the warning label that is printed in huge letters on a box of cigarettes from Spain. A little less subtle than the tiny fine print in the corner of an American pack. Does it scare people? Not here in Europe! I think about 70% of the people I have met here smoke, and when I say smoke, I mean like a chimney of a French power plant. Have I become an a asmatic victim of second hand smoke? Not yet, but it isn't out of the question...
I leave for Spain in about 20 hours, and I am unsure about my ability to blog while there, so this may be it for the weekend. Sixty-eight degrees, mostly sunny while I am in Madrid... finally some time with Mr. Sun! The list of places I plan to go:
