Why Denmark?

So I realized there may be some people reading this who know nothing about my program so I thought I should give a quick explanation. First of all, why Copenhagen? Well, to put it bluntly, I wanted to be in Europe and I don't speak any other languages but I wanted something a bit more different. (So why not pick one of the hardest languages to learn, that makes sense right?) In truth, I had never considered Denmark but as soon as I saw the pamphlet I couldn't imagine myself anywhere else. My program is called DIS which stands for the Danish Institute for Study Abroad. Each student picks a "core" program that includes a class that meets twice a week and a short and long-term study tour (so in my case Sweden and Turkey). DIS is big, nearly1000 American students (something that I definitely wasn't prepared for). But it's well organized and I had great classes to choose from. (I should also mention that I dropped the Plant class and am now taking a course entitled "The History of Copenhagen" which sounds a lot more interesting!) I was also really excited to actually live in a city, especially a beautiful historic city like Copenhagen.

Now, where am I living? I live in a really great location, I can see the "Round Tower" - a Copenhagen landmark right from my window and am one of the few people who can actually walk to class. Why such a good gig? Because I live in a residential community called the "Green House." Basically we do fun, environment-related activities. Once a week, we get a box from a CSA and one person is in charge of cooking dinner for the rest of the house. Our first family dinner is tonight. I'm definitely grateful that I have a home base to come back to each night and I really like everyone I'm living with. Here's a picture of my floor! I really feel like I lucked out in terms of my housing.


A lot of people come abroad to hang out with other Americans and travel across Europe which, don't get me wrong, sounds great. But by the time I leave, I want to make sure that I really get to know Denmark and Copenhagen. Even in the short time I've been here, I'm finding out it's a whole lot more complicated than I thought. Such a little country, so much to do!

One a side note, we were told by real Danes that the best chocolate croissant is found at the 7/11. I wish I were kidding. So of course we had to try it. It was good, but nothing to brag about. Denmark should stick to the Vienna Bread I guess (that's what they call Danishes).