Updates from ~~Abroad~~

Living the most typical study abroad experience in Copenhagen, Denmark

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Bergen was magic

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Beautiful cinnamon roll ("onsdagssnegle" in Danish- literally "Wednesday snail") from Sankt Peders Stræde, Copenhagen oldest bakery!

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What I Packed for Study Abroad

I’m almost a month in to my semester abroad, and I’ve kind of come to realize that I’ve packed really well? I write this as I re-organize my tornado of a room (aka avoiding writing an essay), so I thought I’d put the list out of what I brought with me!

What I packed in:

- One mid-sized backpack (Herschel Pop-Quiz, 17.5"(H) x 11.75"(W) x 6"(D))

-One small black tote

-One Samsonite suitcase (29 inches, I think)

Shoes:

-Plastic Flip Flops

-Birkenstocks

-Black Nike sneakers

-Low black suede boots

-Low blue lace-up boots

-Black Flats

-Low chelsea rain boots

Coats:

-1 lightweight Field Jacket

-1 Packable down coat

-1 rain coat

Clothes:

-Socks, Bras, Underwear (about 3 weeks of underwear, 4 bras, 1 bathing suit, 2 weeks of socks, including 3 p camping socks)

-Pants (1 p. leggings, 3 pairs of jeans: 1 light, 1 dark, 1 black)

-PJs (2 pairs of pants, 1 pair shorts, 3 shirts)

-Sweaters (2 pullovers, 1 light cardigan, 1 heavy cardigan)

-Sweatshirts (1 zip up, 1 heavy pullover, 1 light pullover)

-3 button downs (2 flannel, one chambray)

-8 long sleeves, 12 short sleeves, 3 tank tops

-5 dresses, 1 jump suit

-1 p. shorts

-1 scarf, 1 p gloves, 1 knit hat, 1 baseball cap

-Sunglasses, regular glasses, jewelry

-Toiletries

-1 full size each of shampoo and conditioner

-3 reusable travel bottles

-Makeup

-Comb, retainers, razor, tweezers, nail clippers

-Medications

-1 full size deodorant, 1 bottle moisturizer, 1 bottle lotion, 1 bar of soap

-Misc.

-School supplies (1 3 subject notebook, 1 folder, pencils, pens)

-Wallet, passport

-1 crossbody bag, 1 packable nylon grocery bag, 1 mesh laundry bag, 1 canvas weekender/duffel

-1 travel towel

-1 book, 1 notebook

-1 water bottle

-portable phone charger, phone cord, 2 adapters, laptop charger

-1 travel lock

-Pics of family & friends

And i think that’s it! Sounds like a lot when it’s all written out, but I’m living pretty minimally compared to my peers. So far, it’s working really well, and I had a much better time handling just one suitcase in the airport and on the way to our apartment. I didn’t even go overweight! The plus of bringing all of this disposable stuff (the laundry bag, full size toiletries, lots of tampons and pads, lots of underwear) is that I’ll have a lot of excess room on the way back. It’s good, cos I anticipate accumulating quite a bit of stuff here! That duffel may have to be packed full on the way home...

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Booking things and airbnb

Before I forget to do it, I want to start off with an anecdote. This week, before one of my classes started, I overheard a girl in my class speaking to the teacher...”I’m not going to be here on thursday, my mom booked all my flights and she got the dates I told her wrong.” What’s sad about this quote is that i hear garbage like that all the time. I totally get that it sucks to have 5 day weeks when you just want to be traveling. But first of all, your mom booked your flights? i’m just as horribly scared/inexperienced at booking travel as everyone else, but my parents would never do that for me, and I’m sure nobody else’s would either. Second, you’re going to blame the fact that you booked a flight during class on your mother? Third of all, why on earth would you directly tell that to the professor???

Anyway, on the subject of booking travel (which is all consuming, and awful and stressful and anxiety-attack inducing but also exciting and adult-y), I finally finalllly have some stuff booked. I’ve got a little of thanksgiving done (Budapest-->Prague--> Vienna), which was slightly horrifying because my card got rejected for one of the flights, but ya know, things worked out after a lot of stress sweat. Basically we only have flights booked for into budapest, and out of vienna, but the in-between doesn’t seem so hard. Booking travel is kind of surprising. For example, the order that would make much more sense is prague--> vienna--> budapest, but there are no direct flights in and out of prague to copenhagen....

Secondly, I just booked a flight to Bergen, Norway, for a weekend coming up! 3 friends and I are very very excited to pretend to be nature-y and check out what looks to be a stunning (google it), quaint, “little” town. We don’t have any concrete plans for what to do there yet, but we know we’re going to hike a little and look around. This also brings me to the last topic of the day, which is Airbnb. I don’t have all that much to say, except that it’s a lil confusing and sad to get rejected just cause we’re first time users. But we think we found a good one, and it was relatively cheap! The girl from the beginning of this post once said in class “I was trying to book an Airbnb but the listings kept changing, so I gave up and just booked hotels”....

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Y'all, I knew I was gonna love this fashion class

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Hamlet's Castle was incredible & this was my favorite day in Denmark by far

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Good good Wednesday's with no class :)

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Duolingo, Hotdogs, and travel planning

Anybody who’s come into contact with me in the past 9 months or so has heard the annoying buzz of my daily Duolingo reminders, or the weird, throaty echoes of a woman speaking Danish to me from my computer. From about November on, I knew Denmark was my best shot for study abroad, so I started casually using the app to try and learn a few words. In July, I finished it. Upon arriving to Denmark, I was shocked to find out how actually useful it was. I know...kind of a lot? i can read signs, I can read labels on food, and the first week of my Danish class (yes, i’m still taking intro Danish...I’ll get back to you on if that’s a good idea) has been a breeze. So I guess what I’m getting at, is that Danish is a silly language, but it’s very fun to learn. And duolingo was so easy, and really worth the effort?

My second learning experience of the past week has been about Danish food. I have not tried much of it. First of all, I’m being subjected to my own cooking for almost every meal (have I talked about how expensive Denmark is yet??) which is painful, and remarkably un-Danish. Yesterday, I sucked it up and got my first hotdog in like 4 years....don’t even ask me what was on top of it (wikipedia says ketchup, mustard, remoulade, pickles, raw and fried onions)...but it was incredible. Truly incredible. It’s all part of the “feeling Danish” goal that’s plagued my study abroad experience so far. 

Lastly, the thing that’s been the most shocking to me so far about my study abroad experience is the pressure. I don’t mean to say that I’m not having a great time, or that I’m not incredibly lucky to be here. I am very happy. But there’s this (silent? unpredictable?) stress to be doing so much already. I’ve only been here for 10 days, but throughout the halls of school there are people discussing the elaborate trips they’ve already booked, the nights out they’ve half-remembered, and their plans to complete everything there is to do in Copenhagen. Believe me, I’m not rushing to book a booze cruise on the canal, but I’m feeling a little behind.

To end things on a happier note, I cooked something besides pasta today! A poor execution of eggs in a basket with peppers, cheese, and tomato. Yay for adulthood....kind of. 

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Today my flatmates and I went to Freetown Christiania with our LLC coordinator. Christiania is an independent neighborhood in an area of Copenhagen called Christianshavn. It’s regarded as a hippie commune, where artists and activists gather and live/gather/protest/create, and pictures are forbidden (above is a picture from the main stage of the queerhouse, where pictures are ok, and a picture of the water as we exited Christianaia). The area was originally a military base, but graffiti and anti-violence signs now cover the cement and brick walls. It’s an incredible corner of Copenhagen.....like walking into a different world

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Danes aren’t stressed, but I kinda am!

Denmark is supposedly the happiest country on Earth. Earlier today, my Danish professor let us in on the secret to Danish happiness: low expectations, separation of work and home, and hygge. This impressive combo seems easy to achieve, but having been here for 6 days, I’m not quite there yet. For one, low expectations are nearly unimaginable for your everyday Study Abroad Kid. The pressure here (that is, in a school of all Americans who are spending the semester here) to be traveling every weekend, taking the coolest instagrams, going out every night, and making an army of friends already, is giant. It’s also weird to reject the “I have to study for more hours than everybody else” attitude that’s so prevalent on American campuses. In terms of separation of work and home….I’ve always been pretty ok at that. Never do work in my dorm, don’t pull all nighters, etc. But when school is LITERALLY across the street? We’ll see how it goes. There’s also the consideration that my classes here…actually interest me??? (yay for fashion class!) And lastly there’s hygge. It’s a Danish word that doesn’t literally translate into English, but the closest I can get is “comfort/enjoying life/being with friends and family”. Living in an apartment with 13 other DIS students who all cook/complain/hang together is going to help a lot. I’m not isolated, nor am I stuck with an old Danish couple who I can’t communicate with. Considering that I’ve been spending afternoons drinking coffee with friends or having beers in the park, I think the hygge part is going pretty well :)

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Round Tower Church

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