Wednesday = Field Study Day

This Wednesday, I went with my Danish Language & Culture class to Christiania, which is an "Freetown" within Copenhagen founded in 1971 by hippies at the site of ex-military barracks. These self-proclaimed anarchists do indeed pay taxes to the Danish government like everyone else, but everyone pays the same rent, regardless of living situation.

However, what Christiania is known for is Pusher Street, where hash is sold by the brick or pre-rolled joint, for your convenience. When Christiania was founded, any and all drugs were available and used, however, due to the negative consequences of heroine and cocaine, there is a strict soft-drug-only policy, which is strictly enforced, as depicted and explained by our guide below.

After the tour of Christiania, I made two stops with my adventuring buddy Kara. First, we went into a beautiful baroque church and found out that later the same evening a Confirmation celebration would be held, and we were more than welcome to come. Secondly, we stopped by a bakery and I had my first Danish danish. It was excellent.
After walking around with my roommate for a while, we decided to grab hotdogs for dinner. There are carts all around that sell hotdogs inside seedy baguettes with a mayonnaise herb concoction. We stopped by Studenterhuset, the student union, to get a beer and out of the cold to better enjoy a surprisingly delicious meal.

Kara and I did go back to the church to witness at least 200 teenagers sing and celebrate their confirmation. The lineup included: Man in the Mirror (standard Michael Jackson) Faellessalme: O kristelighed (a hymn in Danish), Halleluja (good old Cohen), and Shackels (Mary Mary). In the background of the picture is the alter, and in the upper left hand corner is a very small portion of the light show that was going on throughout the whole performance. 

All in all, this "service" exemplifies the Lutheran identity, but secular nature of the Danish people.