This session, I’m taking a course called European Greenspace. For the first two weeks of the course, we are more or less spending time in the Copenhagen area, exploring various green spaces. In the third week, we’re heading out on day trips to different places around Denmark. In our final week, we’ll go on a study tour to Essen, Germany, which is famous for its “greening” of old industrial landscapes — it’s even been named Europe’s green capital for 2017!
I am a big fan of urban parks. Both at home in New York and here in Copenhagen, you can often find me spending time reading or studying on a park bench or having a picnic with my friends on the grass. I’m hoping to learn more about how parks impact a city in different social, cultural, and environmental ways. As an urban studies/sustainable development major, this class is really going to complicate how I think about urban planning and green infrastructure. Not to get too nerdy on you, but basically, parks are really great for everyone because they make us healthier, happier, safer, and more adaptable to climate change. Where better to learn about these impacts than one of the healthiest, happiest, safest, and most environmentally friendly cities?
Like all DIS classes, European Greenspace has some field studies around Copenhagen — to be more specific, we have one almost every day! I’m going to write another post all about my favorites, but I’ve already been to six of Copenhagen’s most interesting, popular, and historic parks and it’s only my second day. I’m especially looking forward to our day trip up the coast of Zealand to look at coastal green space, our tour of modern parks and public spaces in Copenhagen, and our trip to Egeskov Castle outside of the city. There are only 12 people in my class, which makes it really easy to have engaging discussions about green spaces. I am so excited about the passion that my professor and my peers have shown so far, and I’m eager to learn more about the green spaces in Denmark and Essen as the session progresses.