Hi all!

Yes, it’s been quite a while! Good to be back. I’m planning on getting back to my old level of activity here in the blogosphere, starting, immediately.

This post is about the Summer School at the School of Exercise and Sport Science that I attended last week. It was held at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. It was fantastic!

The school started (for me) with a 17-hour day of travel, that took me across several time zones, and resulted in my arriving in Copenhagen Sunday the 22nd. Two days after I left!!!

The first day was marked by torrential downpours, which I think are relatively normal in Copenhagen. I made it to a restaurant for some lunch – a salmon club sandwich! – and a large Carlsberg beer.

I was staying at the DGI-Byen Hostel, on Hans Christian Andersen Ave. It was a great hostel, and my three roommates were hilarious – two from Taiwan, and one from Spain.

Only one of my roommates was around in the afternoon, so he and I decided to head out to try to find the University in time for the check-in. After a little negotiating of bus stops, and talking to a couple of the incredibly helpful bus drivers, we managed to find the right bus, and get to the school. That night we had a short orientation, and then a nice dinner at the University.

Each day consisted of two presentations by experts in the field (sport sociology) with group discussions of those afterward, lunch, two student presentations (mostly PhD theses, but some masters-level work, like mine), a brief coffee break, a workshop by one of the experts, and then a short break before dinner during which you could do whatever you want, or meet with one of the experts for one-on-one supervision and discussion.

We had talks, and the opportunity to meet with (and to talk informally with) Gertrud Pfister, Laila Ottesen, Annette Hofmann, Reinhard Stelter, Anne-Marie Elbe, Jim Denison, Fabien Ohl, Pirkko Markula, Holly Thorpe, and Lone Thing. All incredibly knowledgeable experts in the field!

The discussions by the experts, and the work of the students, was all amazing. It was such an incredible experience to meet 29 other students from all over the world who are passionate and excited about their work in sport sociology. Our conversations were enlightening, to say the least!

I’m really grateful to have had the opportunity to attend such a great event, and to have met so many wonderful people. If you’re interested in attending next year, I highly encourage you to try! If you want any information about it, let me know, and I’ll be happy to help as much as I can!