Many people ask, why Denmark? To be honest, I never really considered Denmark when I first began thinking of study abroad options in high school. I always thought Australia or New Zealand. When my sister studied abroad in New Zealand, I didn’t want to just follow in her footsteps (and my family also spent a month there in a camper van the summer before, so I got to see the entire BEAUTIFUL country - might as well choose something new.) These are the reasons why I chose Copenhagen, Denmark:
- Denmark is not a typical study abroad destination, which makes it even more attractive
- I get credit for the classes I am taking, which is awesome because I can still graduate on time as if I was still on campus (so I guess it’s safe to say I beat the system - if you are an Environmental Science major at UD, studying abroad for a semester is possible)
- Denmark is in Europe so it will be easy (and cheaper) to travel to different countries. I love the DIS slogan - “Copenhagen as your home, Europe as your classroom”
- DIS offers amazing study tours and adventure trips (I’m headed to Romania for a week to hike the Transylvanian Trail!!)
- All Danes are environmentally conscious, sustainable, and awesome. They even have bike highways... how cool is that?
- They are also the happiest people in the world. I checked. Online. (Hot Rod quote - Shona you’ll understand)
On June 2nd, while trying to find the Croton Summer Fest online, my mom randomly stumbled upon a Danish Festival in Croton-on-Hudson, NY which turned out to be only 5 minutes away from the other Fest. How ironic. Of course we had to go, and it was pretty cool - they had an info booth, live music, meatballs, danishes, Carlsberg, trinkets, and hoola hoops.
A few days ago, I started teaching myself Beginner’s Danish (thanks to Kendra for the book.) So far from Lesson 1, I know how to say:
“Hej. Jeg hedder Lindsey. Jeg kommer fra Amerika. Jeg læser på D.I.S. Hvad hedder du? Det er hyggeligt at møde jer. Jeg taler kun lidt dansk.”
Translation:
“Hi. My name is Lindsey. I come from America. I study at D.I.S. What is your name? It is nice to meet you. I speak only a little Danish.”
I’ll work on it...
The same day, I received my Pre-Departure packet from DIS, which includes a handbook, arrival procedures, travel guide of DIS optional study tours and adventure trips, a luggage tag, emergency cards, and a handy-dandy map of Copenhagen.
This trip is becoming more real every day, and even though I’m beyond excited to get there, I’m also a little nervous. I still have 1 month and 15 days until I leave, and then another 4 weeks until the program actually starts, but it’s going to fly by. Hopefully I’ll be fully prepared for this awesome experience by then.
