It sounds impossible but it’s true. In only seven weeks I was able to visit Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Estonia and England.
You might be wondering, how is this possible? I’ll tell you exactly how I did it.
The study abroad program I was accepted into is called DIS, more formally known as the Danish Institute for Study Abroad. Part of what drew me to this program was the opportunity to participate in “Study Tours,” where your class travels to another country to study and explore.
My program was based in Stockholm, Sweden. What immediately drew me to the city of Stockholm was how easy it was to navigate, even without being able to understand or speak Swedish.
I enrolled into two summer sessions, each with a study tour included. The first class I took was “Gender, Equality, and Sexuality in Scandinavia.”
The class was three weeks long and on our second week, we traveled by train to Berlin with a 24-hour stop in the city of Copenhagen. I loved hopping from place to place with my class while still having a lot of downtime to enjoy the cities we visited, explore their cultures and sights surrounding us. After an amazing week, we boarded the train back to Stockholm to finish the rest of the course.
Once session two was over, my friends and I had three days to explore Stockholm to the fullest. From amazing museums to breathtaking architecture and never-ending activities, whether in the daytime or night, there was never a dull moment in Sweden.
Session three began and the course that I took was “Photography in Europe: Technology, Culture, Art.” Session three was four weeks long, and the majority of my lectures took place in a different location each day around the city.
Some days we would go to the beach, others to the top of an observation tower, as our professor believed that the best way to learn something is to start in the field.
Photography is my major and to this day that was the most impactful course I have ever taken in the subject. My professor unexpectedly canceled class on a Friday before the weekend. So, my friends and I made an impromptu decision to go on a three-day cruise to the country of Estonia.
I admit I knew nothing about the country before boarding the ship, and I believe that is why I was able to have so much fun as I had no expectations or presumptions for what I would see. Tallinn is the capital of Estonia and I highly recommend you visit if you ever get a chance to go to Europe. A highly overlooked country in EU, but one that makes up for its size with breathtaking sights, unique food and the nicest people you will ever meet.
Sadly, our cruise had to come to an end, but luckily, there was one more country planned in the itinerary to visit: England.
In our second to last week of the study abroad program, my class’s study tour took us to the amazing city of London, England. From the moment we stepped off the plane I knew that studying art in this city would be a memory I would carry for the rest of my life.
London was my favorite city to visit and the hardest to say goodbye to when the time came. Taking a class in my major there felt like I was meant to never leave. I loved the week I spent there so much that I am now looking into graduate school options there.
My advice for anyone contemplating studying abroad and who wants to get the most out of it is to say yes to everything. The best-case scenario is that you make lifelong memories doing things you never would have dreamed of if you only stayed in your host country.
It’s exhausting to go from place to place and to constantly have something on the schedule but I promise that you won’t regret it.