Study Abroad Saturday: Anna Claire Beasley

I sat in the window seat of Baresso Coffee Shop, at the corner of Støget and Skoubogade, with my cortado and carrot scone. Like most mornings, I woke up around 6 a.m. (the sun rises ridiculously early) and, after working on homework for a few hours, I biked the thirty minutes from my flat in Ørestad, a suburb on the edge of Copenhagen, to get coffee and journal. I watched as the city woke up and cyclists replaced the street cleaners. Fathers came into the shop to sit and drink their morning coffee as their babies slept in their carriages, and women in long, pleated chiffon skirts bustled to work or school on bikes or foot. 
​Around 8:30 a.m. it was time to hop on my bike and make the two minute ride to my classroom, strategically positioned in the heart of the city. After parking my bike at one of the hundreds of public bike racks, I swiped my ID and entered the building.

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This summer, I studied abroad with DISAbroad, an affiliate program in Scandinavia for American students; The program has locations in both Stockholm, Sweden and Copenhagen, Denmark. From May until July, I took courses during sessions 1 and 2 at their location in Copenhagen. The program offers a variety of diverse and interesting topics, making it really difficult to pick a course—I wish I could’ve taken them all! After much debate, I settled on two courses: Human Trafficking in a Global Context and Prostitution and the Sex Trade.

I went into the program thinking that I was already a well-rounded thinker, but through both of my courses I learned an entirely new way of thinking and asking questions by becoming okay with not having a precise answer. In my human trafficking course, we talked a lot about the economics of trafficking, why trafficking exists, and what laws are in place to combat it. We watched a handful of documentaries and, due to our small class size, held many discussions about states’ rights and human rights. In my prostitution course, our lectures were highly interactive and never once did my professor tell us what to think. Instead, she asked hard questions that provoked deeper thinking on our part—I don’t think a single person left that class thinking the same way they did on entering.

What was especially unique about the course Prostituion and the Sex Trade is that our professor brought in multiple speakers— sex workers (male and female), anti-prostitution advocates, clients—to tell us their opinions and allow us to ask questions. Not only that, but DIS incorporates “study tours” into all of their session two classes. For my class, that meant spending five days in Amsterdam with our professor. We toured the Red Light District, met with a client, visited the Anne Frank Museum, went on a canal tour, toured an old brothel, and met with the Not For Sale coordinator for Amsterdam. 

Aside from the beauty of the city and its interesting history, our study tour to Amsterdam was a purposeful decision on the part of our professor and program. The city is one of the most progressive in the world, giving us an immersive experience into a first-world culture few of us have been in before.
The Amsterdam Red Light District, De Wallen, is host to what are called “window brothels.” The brothels get their name from the unique glass doors (‘windows’) the sex workers stand behind while they solicit sexual services. Prospective clients can come up to the window and the sex workers can choose to either open the door and discuss prices/services or ignore the person/turn them away. After hours of sitting on the canal and observing the nightlife of De Wallen, I was surprised to see sex workers turn people away exponentially more often than they let them in.

Back in Denmark, I did my best to experience as much of Danish culture as I could. I went sailing along the east coast and spent the night on the deck of the boat. I took a swim in the North Sea and took a ferry to a Danish island in the middle of the Baltic Sea and biked up and down the coast side. I explored castle ruins, drank lots of coffee, ate way too many pastries, and rode my bike every single day. 
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Back in Denmark, I did my best to experience as much of Danish culture as I could. I went sailing along the east coast and spent the night on the deck of the boat. I took a swim in the North Sea and took a ferry to a Danish island in the middle of the Baltic Sea and biked up and down the coast side. I explored castle ruins, drank lots of coffee, ate way too many pastries, and rode my bike every single day. 

By the end of my time in Denmark, my thinking had shifted completely—for the better. There were some days when I was touring Red Light Districts in Amsterdam and Copenhagen that I wondered how a small-town girl came to be sitting on the canal in Amsterdam’s infamous Red Light District, watching sex workers.
At the end of it all, though, what made my time abroad so amazing was learning deeper compassion, having an openness to learn, and being willing to change. During my study abroad experience, I heard stories of survivors of human trafficking, met with two sex workers, multiple health promoters, anti-trafficking groups and even a sex client. Through listening and being willing to actually hear what was being said—while still trying to recognize my own innate bias—I left Denmark a better student (and listener) than I was when I first arrived.


​Anna Claire Beasley 
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