Why Denmark?

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.