Welcome back to my life abroad!!
I am currently writing this weeks post at 5AM from a very deserted gate in the CPH airport awaiting my flight to Germany!! (may have overestimated the arrival time just a bit). More on my first solo flight soon!
I have really been enjoying my classes in Copenhagen and just learning all the things. Sometimes I feel guilty spending a long time on work when I am in this brand new place, but I think that’s part of my personal experience (really putting the study in study abroad!). My roommate from back home Madeline and I would always jokingly say, ‘wow how lucky are we that we just get to be in this place and learn new things all the time?!’ Kind of strange, but also so so true–I find that all of my readings and field studies make me think a bit more about what I actually enjoy to learn and what I don’t.
It’s been really easy to find differences between Denmark and back home when you are looking for them in the city, school, teachers, and people. But I think once you just embrace everything that is different in your day to day life and just find your routine it becomes just like it would be back home–going to classes, hanging out with friends, enjoying free time. It’s definitley not a perfect science and I definitley will not be finding a perfect routine anytime soon, but I think thats good and necessary and exciting–at least for someone who finds comfort in set routines.
Anyways! This past weekend I got to visit Kronborg Castle with my visiting host family, which for those who don’t know is where William Shakespeare placed his play, Hamlet, in! We went on a tour guided by Horatio, the only character to survive the play, as he took us through the drama through the castle. I remembered reading this play in high school, and as soon as Horatio began speaking it all came back to me. It was such a cool experience to be able to put a scene around such a famous play! We climbed up a tower in the castle and were able to see out to the courtyard and even to Sweden which we were so close to, my phone even switched over! In the basement of the castle we saw Hoger Danske (Holger The Dane), who is waiting in the catacombes and is supposed to wake up and defend Denmark when it’s in danger (Ole and Lene joked-but where was he during WWI & WWII?). It was SUCH a beautiful sunny day, so afterwards we went to eat at a street food hall place, where I ate some typical ‘danish’ food! I had some sort of fish meatball, danish nut bread, and a green mayo veggie puree mixture that I put on it that apparently is a very ‘danish’ thing to do (I think it tasted better before I knew what was actually in it though).
Afterwards, I went to a Danish church service because I was writing a piece for travel writing on Danes & Religion. The whole service was in Danish with a grand total of 12 people in attendance. Even though I didn’t understand what was being spoken I was able to sit and reflect silently which I really liked. Even though it is easy to see the differences in this church from home, the premises of what you get out of a mass are individual based, and so I personally found more similarities which is kind of cool to think about.
Also, I got my CPR number and immigration card, which I really don’t know what totally means but I like to think it’s kind of like I am officially a citizen of Denmark? I don’t really know but it feels important!
Travel is about to really pick up which is super exciting, updates to follow on adventures soon!
xoxo
Carly
