With just two weeks of class left, the semester is winding down already, and I am about to depart on my last week-long adventure to Scotland, with the Misc-famous Chris Brown! This adventure begins the last month of my semester here in Copenhagen, which is turning out to be a little more bittersweet than I would have expected. Mostly because I really didn’t think I would miss being abroad, but I can feel myself beginning to miss it as I…
It’s been a busy couple of months, but it’s finally the last week of classes here. My last class is on Friday, and then I’m free for a whole month before the exam session begins. Even though it’s been a long time, this semester seems to have flown by. In less than two months I’ll be going back to the States, leaving Edinburgh – the city which has become my home. It feels weird, being around students who are only…
Almost two months into my stay in Copenhagen and it feels like home. I suppose that halfway through the semester it should feel like home, but as I’ve said before, I doubted that I would ever feel comfortable so far away from what I have called home. Finding a routine took a lot of work, but it puts everything into perspective when you do normal activities, such as grocery shopping or the weekly ritual of cinnamon rolls on Wednesdays. A…
If you’re looking for a happy-go-lucky, sugarcoated story of what it is like to live abroad, keep moving. If you want to know how I really feel about my time abroad so far, keep reading. This is not my first time traveling abroad. My father is a missionary to Haiti and I have gone with him three times so far. (It’s an amazing experience, but an entirely different story.) This is, however, the very first time in my life that…
It wasn’t really until I was forced to rest in the hospital last weekend as I recovered from getting my appendix out that I stopped to think about what a wild ride this semester has been so far. As I lay semi-asleep in that mercifully silent hospital room, reveling in the thought that I wouldn’t have to pay a dime for the entire operation and eternally grateful that my doctors and nurses spoke such flawless English, I was dumbfounded to…
I’m really surprised to realize that I’ve already been in Denmark for a whole month. It’s been feeling a lot like my first month at Vassar did — meeting so many new people at once, needing to learn how to navigate new buildings and spaces from the get-go, and feeling like each day has surely lasted more than twenty-four hours. With all the newness, though, it’s been comforting to be taking classes that are so similar to Vassar classes, in…
One week ago, I was squeezing the last of my sweaters into my suitcases, double and triple-checking the weight of my luggage, and trying to figure out which Danish cell phone plan to buy, in final preparation for a semester studying at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad (DIS) in Copenhagen, Denmark. Very suddenly I was in the car with my family, driving to the airport – a drive that I had been picturing over and over again in my…
When I visit a foreign country, I’m always pleasantly surprised when I find out that I will be there to take part in an exciting national event. I was lucky enough to be in Copenhagen to experience two such important cultural events celebrated in Denmark. The first was Culture Night (Kulturnatten), which took place on October 11th. The second was J-Day (J-Dag), which takes place on the first Friday of November, this year falling on November 1st. Culture Night is…
Before I left for Denmark, one of the main goals I had for my study-abroad experience was to meet as many Danes as possible. I wanted to experience the Danish culture and get a sense of what real life in the country was all about. When I first arrived, achieving this goal seemed like a bit of a challenge, since I was living with and going to school with Americans. However, in the last month-and-a-half, I have slowly been branching out, trying my hardest to interact with…
This semester, I am living and studying in Copenhagen, Denmark. Having never lived or spent much time in a big city, moving to Copenhagen has been a series of huge adjustments, filled with new learning experiences every day. So far, my favorite part of living in Copenhagen is the ardent bike culture here. Fighting with Amsterdam for the title of “Most Bicycle-Friendly City in the World,” biking is a dominating feature of life in Copenhagen. Everywhere you turn, there are…