Reflection on the best 4 months a girl could wish for ...

Abbie
May 26, 2018
4 min read

In some ways it feels like just yesterday that I was standing nervous and excited in the Fargo airport getting ready to leave and in other ways it feels like years ago. I remember sitting at my kitchen table over christmas break and writing my first post - filled with goals and ideas and hopes for this upcoming semester. It turned out better than I could've ever dreamed.

I loved Copenhagen. I still love Copenhagen.

I've been putting off writing this post for a number of reasons. For one thing it seems once I start writing about take aways and reflection the semester really is over. :(. And I simply can't find a way to organize my thoughts clearly or seem to find the write words to sum up a whole four months of adventure and learning and time abroad. So instead of pretending that I am composed with 3 neat reflections I am recording my jumbled honest take aways.

The whole country seems relaxed in a way that I have never felt in the United States. I have images of friends walking through parks together, moms pushing walking their toddlers around the lakes in February, and slowly walking through the grocery store with headphones in listening to a podcast. These are all images that are so normal they are easy to miss or look over but came to be the part of my time abroad I will hold dearest in my memories. After these four months I am still my busy and ambitious self - but also someone who cares less about making small talk or running from indoor space to indoor space. Gimme a bike, cup of coffee, and a book and I can pretend I am back sitting in the Jaegesberg Dryhavn.
Finding a balance with school will take time but is something not to be forgotten about either. One of the reasons I chose Copenhagen and DIS was because of the courses I could take and the emphasis that they put on experiential learning! While I feel like I write and talk a lot about activities I did outside of school I also cannot stress enough how amazing my Women & Leadership class was - how guest speakers I had repeatedly blew me away and made my excited about topics I didn't even know existed - and that the long study tour (again cliche oops) did change my life. So make sure your to do list is filled with sights around the city and around Denmark but don't forget to really listen and engage with the speakers and enjoy those Wednesday field trips!
It seems cliche when I read other posts about Copenhagen that talk about it being a city where the main sights can be seen in a day but that you could spend weeks exploring the individual streets and neighborhoods. But here I am - and I'm gonna say the same damn thing. I do love Nyhavn and Kronberg and the Louisiana - but more than anything I want to go back to an afternoon biking around Norborro or by the beach in the suburb my host family lived in. Copenhagen is a place I was never bored and where there was always something to see or do. I was there four months and still left with a to do list I will have to go back to finish one day.
I went so many places and saw so many things. The ability to travel to other countries and other cities from Copenhagen was a gift that I am not used to having being in the midwest. While I truly enjoyed every single country and city I was able to visit one takeaway I have is to be intentional about how often you travel. While being in Copenhagen does mean that traveling to other places is easier it also means weekends away from Denmark. By the end of the semester I wished for weekend and week longer that I could spend in the city!
When you are in a place for many months like I was in Copenhagen it was easy to find a routine. Finding that routine was important and made the place feel like home I felt myself feeling guilt about not always discovering more or going to new places or trying new foods. But in some ways looking back I'm realizing that having favorite places and normal places is part of the abroad experience! You aren't living in the city to be a tourist the entire time but to have favorites and make it home. My go to's by the end was Pauluden, the Bowl Market, any place in Meatpacking, and The Living Room (!!!).
Meeting Danes is hard! Part of the reason that I loved them was because they were more relaxed and kept to themselves but that also means that it was harder to meet and become friends with Danish people. Having a visiting host family was such a beautiful part of my abroad experience because I was able to create such great relationships with Danes! But meeting more Danes and becoming friends with them when you are only there for a few months is a challenge - but one to tackle.