Jack Barkhurst - Blog Abroad

I'm now on my third week of study abroad in Scandinavia, and this past week I took on my first adventure outside of Denmark – to Gothenburg, Sweden! The program I'm on has a week in February called “Core Course Week,” and for my core course, European Urban Experience, we traveled as a class to the second largest city in Sweden, and a major port for Scandinavia. 

Before leaving for Sweden, however, we did two tours of the north and south harbor communities of Copenhagen, known as Nordhavnen and Sydhavnen, to get a feel for how they were developed. We learned about how these communities were built in human-scale and tend to have more interactive ground levels, which create a welcoming feeling and sense of safety.  A major issue we learned about within harbor communities in Copenhagen is the lack of affordable housing. In fact, a majority of Copenhageners cannot afford to live in harbor communities, and the affordable housing units that do exist have 40+ year waitlists. These insights were great to look into as we could later compare them to the harbor communities of Gothenburg: Lindholmen and Älvstaden. 

After a day of rest on Wednesday, we got up bright and early on Thursday to catch a 3.5-hour train ride to Sweden. It went over a stretch of sea between Copenhagen and Malmö which was surreal to see. Once we arrived in Gothenburg, we dropped off our bags at the hotel and then went to a restaurant for lunch called Taverna Averna. We got Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, and cucumbers, paid for by DIS, which provides almost all of our meals while on our study tours, so we were very well taken care of!

We had our first tour in the historic Haga neighborhood of Gothenburg which was characterized by the 'county-governor style' residential buildings, with one brick floor on the bottom and two wooden floors on top. Historically, they had height restrictions for wooden buildings to reduce fire risk, so they used brick on the bottom to allow for an extra level to be built. 

The next day we had breakfast in the hotel, and our professor Bettina, promised us that the Swedish hotel breakfast was top tier, and I can assure you that she definitely wasn't lying. There were three counters that were spread with all kinds of breads, butter, cheeses, jams, as well as smoothies, chia seed pudding, waffles, crepes, sausages, eggs, potatoes, pastries, and so much more. I left the breakfast buffet very full. On this day, it began to snow in Gothenburg, and it was very interesting to see how they prioritized clearing snow from different transit methods more quickly. For example, they cleared the tram lines and roads first in Gothenburg and then the pedestrian and bike paths last, whereas in Copenhagen, the bike paths are prioritized much before the roads and sidewalks are.

After our journey through the snow, we took a ferry through the almost-frozen river towards our next tour of the harbor communities Lindholmen and Älvstaden. We noticed similar patterns to Copenhagen, with the human-scale areas feeling more enjoyable. When we approached the massive 74-floor Karla tower, it made us feel smaller and it provided less for those passing through on the ground floors. 

After that tour, we received a public housing talk from Framtiden. They’re a company created for the public good and own about a third of the housing units in the city, but make relatively low profits, just enough to keep the company going. They're facing similar issues of affordable housing with long waitlists, but what sets them apart is that they intervene to help schools with low performance, work to improve safety in crime-ridden areas, and clean up trash in the city, all at their own expense. It’s a very different model from what we have in the US, where profit is maximized over the well-being of people. 

Later that day, we had dinner at Boule Bar, where we had a three-course meal. The appetizer was ground celeriac, caviar, and seaweed pearls, which weren’t the tastiest, but fancier than anything I’ve ever eaten. Then we had steak and potatoes for our main course, and served lemon cream dessert on the court to play a Boule tournament. Boule is a popular game in Sweden (similar to bocce ball), where you throw a green target ball, called “the Jack” (also my name). The goal is to try to throw your team’s metal balls as close to this “Jack." My team got 1 to 10 points in the first round, and then we made our redemption in the second round with 11 to 5. 

Saturday was our last day in Gothenburg, and we went to the Museum of Design and Craft. It was very interactive, and my favorite part was the collective room where you could add a piece of string to help create one of the design pieces, which was on this tree-like wooden frame. There was also a doomsday prepping exhibit that showcased bunker designs and had a table with disasters around the world. A lot of the highlighted disasters on the table were in the US, most recently including the insurrection at the Capitol.

After the museum, we had lunch at the food hall, and it was an open-faced avocado-shrimp sandwich, which was very tasty. I learned how to play the card game Presidents at this lunch, which was a lot of fun. Then we got back on the train to Copenhagen, and just like that... my first study tour is now complete.

I’m so grateful for this opportunity to study for my degree in Europe, it’s changed my perspective on a lot of things, and I still have so much left to experience and learn. I’m missing home a lot right now – my family, my friends, the warmth of the desert sun, and the green chile, but don’t worry too much about me. I’m very safe and hygge here.