(1 month ago)
Today is Thursday. Tomorrow is Friday. And then comes Saturday; the day I’ve been waiting for since 8th grade. As a brace-faced middle-schooler, my brother Jake studied abroad in Australia and ever since then, I’ve been counting down the days until I got my chance to go somewhere exotic. Well folks, the time is here, and I chose the most exotic place I could think of….Copenhagen, Denmark. (A blonde hair, blue-eyed sea of faces…so exotic!)
When I first started my search for the perfect study abroad experience, Copenhagen was not on the radar. I was set on London. I was going to drink tea like nobody’s business, and I was going to steal William from Kate. But, then I came across this little big city in Scandanavia and fell in love. From my intense Wikipedia research and many travel books, København (yes, I just spoke Danish) seems like the absolute right place for me.
For the next four months, I will be living with a host family and studying at the Danish Institute of Study Abroad (http://www.dis.dk/). At DIS, located in the heart of Copenhagen, I’ll be taking classes with American students while being taught by Danish professors, who will be speaking English, except when I take my Danish language class. Confusing, right?
My core program at school is called European History and Culture so no Journalism classes for me this semester (but secretly I like History more than Journalism anyway….shhhhh). I will be taking a French history class with whom I’ll be traveling to France for a week. I am also in four other classes, but I’ll wait to tell you about them when I know more.
DIS is a really cool program because it is focused on the students becoming culturally integrated into the Danish way of life. On Wednesdays, we sadly don’t wear pink, but we do have the day off of school. The day off from school, I think, means field trip days with my different classes. So is that technically a day off or not? I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter because I love field trips more than anything (James J. Hill House, 5th grade anybody?) These field trips are centered on getting to know Copenhagen better, thus trips to the Carlsberg Brewery and Hans Christian Anderson House, etc.
Another really cool thing DIS does is help you make friends with the Danes. I signed up for the DIS Buddy Network, which means I am in a group of 20 Americans and 10 Danes. I’ll be hanging out with this group and doing sweet things all on the tab of DIS. (I am most likely paying for this, but it’s more fun to pretend that I’m not ).
In addition to hanging out with my new buddies in the network, I plan on meeting Danes by joining a handball team. Handball in Denmark is like Monday ni
ght football in the US. It’s a pretty big deal. Handball is a 7-on-7 contact sport. That’s all I know. But the only thing I love more than playing sports is playing contact sports, so write my name down! Plus, I hear Danish pastries taste like angels, rainbows and love all in a single bite. I’ll need some physical activity.
Here are my top 5 favorite things I am excited about for the upcoming 4 months:
1) 17 day travel break
2) Margi Miller coming to visit in October
3) I’ve emailed my host mother and she seems awesome
4) 32 degree winters…basically summer compared to what I’m used to
5) Tall, gorgeous Scandanavian men
Once again, today is Thursday. Only two more nights in my beloved Becker. I have much to pack and I’m finally feeling a little stressed and sad that I’m leaving, but I’m sure as soon as I touch down in Denmark, all worries will be forgotten with that first bite of a pastry.
I hope you’ll enjoy reading about my Danish adventures. I am going to try to post 2-3 times a week (I’ll put a link on my Facebook page) and will definitely include lots of pictures. Please leave comments and ask questions in the “Ask me anything” section because I’d love to hear from all my friends and family back in Merica.
Hej Hej Minnesota, Hej København! (Goodbye Minnesota, Hello Copenhagen)
Hannah