Positive Psychology section C goes to Jutland

Hi all! So yesterday I got back from a short study tour with my Positive Psychology class. I had a wonderful time and it was nice to be able to get to know some of the people in my Psychology class better. I didn’t really know that many people in the class before, so it was great to get closer to my classmates. When we go to Milan in three weeks it should be really fun!

We departed for Jutland (Western Denmark) at 9:15 on Thursday. After a 2-ish hour drive we arrived in Odense, which is on the next island over, called Funen. We went to the University of Southern Denmark and listened to Kaare Christensen. A few years ago, there was a study done that looked at who in the world is the happiest and Denmark won. America is number 21. Check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ToXXFQEbE8.  Kaare is featured toward the beginning. We talked about the difference between happiness and satisfaction are and some of the research he is doing in the field.

We got a quick bite to eat and then we were off to Arhus. We settled at our hostel, which was very nice. I roomed with my friends Ansley, Caitlin, and Allie. We had our own t.v. and bathroom, which was not what I was expecting when I heard we were staying in hostels. That night we had a wonderful dinner of salmon, creamed spinach, and potatoes. Later that night, we walked around town. We met a Russian guy and a Danish guy. They thought my friends and I were from Spain. I thought it was a compliment, seeing that we didn’t stand out as “American”.

The next day, we went to KaosPilot, which is an alternative school that’s main focus is on entrepreneurship. This school you must be 21 to enter and it helps you to prepare for your future career. In this lesson, we learned to figure out what our strengths were and how we were to use them to help solve what we most hated in life. It was pretty interesting. I had never thought about using my strengths to help eradicate what I dislike in life.  

After that, we had free time in Aarhus. My friends and I went to Dem Gamel By( The Old City). We got some bakery treats, which were pretty good. The Old town reminded me of Lancaster, Pennsylvania and the Amish.


 Wish we had time to go to the Art Museum, where this cool rainbow thing was, but we didn’t have time. Plus, we were kind of museum-ed out.


That night we went to another hostel. This place we stayed in cabins. It was very, charming. This night we just hung out and played cards. 

The next day, we went to Jelling Denmark and got to hear about the famous Jelling Stones and how Bluetooth, the king of Denmark at the time (this was probably around 500 A.D. or something) wrote the name “Denmark” down on this famous stone. It was interesting, I guess, but the museum left much to be desired. It was small. I had pictured it being a bit larger. Soon, we left and made a 3 and half hour journey back to Copenhagen. It is nice that Denmark is so small. A 3 and a half hours drive west for me would only take me to the middle of Pennsylvania.

Now, I am just working on homework/ this blog. I finally went to church and had a great time! I went with two other girls from DIS who I didn’t know, but it was great. We went to Copenhagen Christian Church. I met a lot of people from everywhere- Denmark, Germany, Nigeria, China. I will definitely be back.

I lost my transportation pass last night, which really sucks. This is what I use to get back and forth on the train. Hopefully someone found it and will turn it in, but I probably shouldn’t get my hopes up. Until then, I will just have to buy individual tickets for each ride I do.

That’s all for now!

~Jenna