I have officially been in Copenhagen for 13 days. Crazy!! It's finally sinking in that I actually live here.
The thing about studying abroad is you spend hours upon hours researching and talking to other students about their semester abroad, all in hopes of setting yourself up to have the experience of a life time. But in reality, there is only so much you can know and expect before it begins. The whole thing is quite ~ambiguous~ until you arrive. You don’t know the people you’ll meet, the places you’ll go and the adventures you’ll have.
But I can truly say my experience has already exceeded my expectations. Here is a conglomeration of random thoughts/reflections about my first couple weeks (and some pictures, too!).
CLASSES:
I started classes last Thursday, so I’ve only had two of each class. So far so good! I think they're all going to be very interesting. I'm especially excited about my Anthropology of Food and Travel Writing classes. Yesterday in Anthropology of Food, we did a blind taste test. We tasted Salmon Smørrebrod (salmon with cream spread on rye), Leverpostej (liver paste and beets on rye), pickled herring smørrebrod (pickled herring with butter and herbs on rye) and black licorice. I wasn’t a big fan of the leverpostej or black licorice, but the other two were delicious. Tomorrow in my Travel Writing class we are taking a “field trip” and spending the class talking to strangers in the streets to get practice interviewing people and prepare for our first big writing assignment.
HOUSING:
As I have mentioned before, I am living in the Outdoor Living & Learning Community. We live in the East Amager district of Copenhagen, a cute little neighborhood about 2 miles away from the city center. I live in a triple room with my roommates Tywla, who is also from Minnesota, and Ali, from San Francisco, CA. We share an apartment with 5 other girls and 3 guys. My housemate Lyla and I were saying that we feel like we won the lottery with our housing situation because we all get along so well and our apartment has such good vibes.
COPENHAGEN:
I love Copenhagen. I discovered a couple years ago when I studied abroad in Madrid that I am definitely a city gal. As much as I love (and need!!) the outdoors, I enjoy the hustle and bustle and accessibility that comes along with living in a city. I am loving the change of pace from living and going to school in a small town in North Carolina (and by small, I mean REALLY small) to living and studying in a city. Copenhagen’s size is also very manageable. I love that I can get everywhere by bike or public transportation. There's both a metro and bus stop within a couple minutes of my house. We can also walk a block to the grocery store. It’s the best.
There are some noticeable cultural differences I’ve observed in my first couple weeks here. The first thing I'd like to talk about is babies. Danish babies wear full winter jumpsuits 24/7 and it’s the absolute cutest thing. I’ve also seen basket type strollers that have 3 or 4 babies piled into them at once. Also, the cutest thing. Another thing I’ve both heard and seen is when parents go into a store, they oftentimes leave their baby outside, especially if it’s sunny. This blows my mind because it’s so different from back home. Parents would never do that in the United States and if they did, someone would call the police. I guess it speaks to the trusting and safe culture here in Denmark!
My second big cultural observation has to do with strangers. People don’t smile at each other in passing. Back home in Minnesota, strangers tend to smile at each other and say hello on the streets, so this is something I’ve had to get used to here. My Cross-Cultural Communication professor told my class, “Danish people always say, if a stranger smiles at you on the street it means he’s either crazy, drunk or American.” I thought it was funny (and true!).
All in all, I am really happy to be here. I can't wait to see what crazy adventures are to come.
Cheers to my new home!
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