A Year In Denmark

One year spent studying and traveling. One world to do it all in. 

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Viktor and Noa playing with my snapchat filters!

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My host mom and I at Central Copenhagen station! 

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Arriving in Denmark

Getting to Copenhagen went smoothly. I had a stellar flight and while I waited to board the plane I met one DIS student and as I took my seat on the plane I met another! It was wonderful to already begin creating my support system in Denmark. I will say that three days later I don’t necessarily talk to all the people I met in the first couple days, but I am glad that as I continue to meet more people they are all open to making friends!

My host mom, Ellen, picked me up at the airport and introduced me to Denmark’s train system for the first time. The trains here are so luxurious compared to the grimy, carpet stained DC metro back home. I will say that the biggest shock was that the trains don’t always translate the stops into English so you definitely have to know where you are going and pay extra attention to the signs at each stop. Luckily I was with my host mom so I didn’t have to worry so much about that. I live in Tåstrup, which is a suburb right outside the central part of the city and it’s own charm, so I was excited when we took some time to explore the local shopping centre after dropping off my luggage. On my second day Ellen took me into the city and showed me how to get to DIS and a few other fun places like the Queen’s castle in Amalienborg and Nyhavn, which is where the iconic scene of colorful houses in front of the canal is located.

In my homestay I’ve got Ellen who has two grown up kids, Tobias and Elizabeth, who are married and no longer living with her. Then there is her friend Annika who lives here with her two small kids, Viktor (five) and Noa (two), who have been so much fun to play with this week! Since the kids are so young they don’t know English yet, so communicating with them is challenging. Viktor knows how to say a few of the basic numbers in English, so when he figured out that I couldn’t understand his Danish he graciously switched over to counting in English. The kids are incredibly smart and intuitive because I can just point at random objects around the house or animals on TV and Viktor says the Danish word for it with Noa chiming in when he can. Ellen and Annika are so funny and great to chat, especially when the kids go to sleep and the girl-talk starts! And the food here is superb! Ellen shares my love for Monk and we’ve been watching that together for the last few nights! And then there is Oscar, the bright orange cuddly cat with a mild resemblance to Garfield, who consoles me when I miss my Chihuahua, Jack Russell Terrier mix, Lucky.

Even though classes haven’t started, so I don’t quite know how my schedule will play out, I feel like I’ve already found a rhythm here and I am excited to see what the next weeks will bring!

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This past summer I spent two months interning at the Consumers’ Association of Ireland. This video includes interviews of my colleagues and I as we highlight some of the major functions of the company. I primarily conducted research and wrote articles for the CAI’s monthly magazine, Consumer Choice.

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 This about sums up why I chose Denmark! 

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Why Denmark?

I am a terrible biker. I am relentlessly apologetic. And I love J-Walking. 

All in all I don’t fit into the Danish norms that I have been reading about in The Year of Living Danishly, Xenophobe’s Guide to the Danes or even in the DIS Student Handbook! But I learned all of this after I bought my plane ticket, so I’m already fully committed to a very interesting year. 

Initially I was drawn to how easy it is to transfer credits back to my home university (University of Maryland, College Park, Go TERPS!), which is the only way I could actually study abroad for an entire year. Then there was the shiny allure of the DIS catalogue. People say don't judge a book by its cover, but I was most definitely judging the whole program based on the catalogue. I thought: If my life could be even half as awesome as the pictures or course descriptions then I would be forever happy.

That was before freshman year. Early sophomore year I realized that traveling the world is one of those things that becomes more difficult when you’re older and have actual “adult” responsibilities. And studying abroad is one of the few things that people regret not doing in college. So once I made going to Denmark for a year my goal everything fell into place. I decided to officially double major in Psychology and English, and then rearranged my course schedule, but it was refreshing having something to work towards. I was undecided (and still am) about what I want to do after college, but having a year in Copenhagen to look forward to gave me purpose and I worked harder as a result.

I’ve done a lot of studying abroad to prepare me for this coming year. So far I have done three short-term study abroad trips in New York, Silicon Valley, California, and Southeast Asia (specifically to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam). And I just finished up two months of interning in Dublin, Ireland. At this point I’ve gotten over my fear of flying (being on 9 different flights in the span of 14 days does that to a person) and I’m relatively confident in my ability to navigate through customs. But I’m still terrified. I’ve never been away from my family for this long. And I only know a few words in Danish that I learned from obsessively watching Rita, Hjørdis and The Killing on Netflix (highly recommend watching them in that order if you plan on going to Denmark or just like good TV), so I’ll need to learn one of the world’s most difficult languages...Thankfully DIS has a class for that!

Despite my fear I am so excited to go to Copenhagen. As a psychology major I am curious to see how this small country in Northern Europe has been consistently voted the happiest country in the world. As an English major I want to see the amusement park that inspired Walt Disney, the birthplace of Hans Christian Anderson and the source of some of literature’s strongest heroines.

As of now my excitement for this year will be what helps me prevail over these minor setbacks:

I’ll become a better biker. 

I’ll try to apologize less often, or not #sorrynotsorry 

And I’ll go over to Ireland or Italy to get my J-Walking fix. 

All in all I could fit into Danish norms. And even if I don’t, I look forward to learning them all soon, so Denmark here I come!