Semester Abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark

"To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself."

Søren Kierkegaard

I used to ride past this waterfront, called Nyhavn (NU-HOWN), on my bike almost every day!

Overview:

In the fall of 2018, I spent a semester abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark. My main goal for my semester abroad was to immerse myself in a new culture. I have always been interested in learning about and traveling to other countries, and I had wanted to study abroad ever since I was in high school. Before I went to Denmark, I had never been out of the U.S. before (except to Vancouver B.C.). The experience of studying abroad was valuable to me because I gained a much stronger global perspective and developed a strong sense of independence.

Personal importance of task:

I had wanted to study abroad ever since my junior year of high school, but I initially I feared I would not be able to make it happen for several reasons. At the same time, I felt discouraged because I had seen so many of my friends go abroad while I remained at home. However, one morning in October of 2017, I was walking along the lake with my mom in Kirkland and she was telling me about her own study abroad experience. When I told her I was feeling discouraged, she said “Don’t overthink it. Just make it happen.” From that moment on, I never looked back. One reason studying abroad was personally fulfilling was because I finally made a dream that I’d had since I was 16 come true. When I found out I was going to be living in a Danish folkehøjskole (FOLE-KEH-HOI-SKOL-EH), a special type of boarding school for young adults in Denmark, I immediately jumped on the opportunity to immerse myself in Danish culture when I arrived.

At SeaTac airport, right before I boarded my first flight out of the United States!

My folkehøjskole, Grundtvigs Højskole, in Hillerød, Denmark.

Tasks accomplished:

Lived in a Danish folkehøjskole (“folk high school”) and formed close relationships with local students.
Maintained a budget and learned to estimate the value of Danish kroner prices in American dollars without using a currency converter.
Communicated with the locals on public transportation by using basic phrases in Danish, such as “excuse me”, “sorry”, “What is your name?”, and “I’m sorry, I do not speak much Danish.”
Traveled to 6 other countries (Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Italy, the Netherlands, and the U.K.) during my free time. Some of those trips I did solo.
Learned proper biking commuter etiquette in Copenhagen
Always managed to find my way home in the aftermath of multiple disasters with public transportation. :)

Riding my bike home from class in Copenhagen. Biking is a huge deal in Denmark, so the bike lanes were usually crowded.

The train that I would take from Copenhagen to my folkehøjskole in Hillerød. This train is called the "S-train" and I could take my bike on it.

Leadership competencies gained:

Other Perspectives

During my 4 1/2 months abroad, I became accustomed to the social norms in Denmark. Though some of those norms seemed a bit strange to me at first, I quickly became used to them and I began to compare them to social norms in the U.S. For instance, I learned that there is a very large level of trust in Danish society. There is so much trust that mothers will even leave their babies outside in their carriages while getting coffee! The level of trust that I witnessed in Denmark was not something that I was used to in the United States. Seeing that cultural difference made me reflect on the social norms I had grown up with in the U.S., and it made me start to ask questions about why certain aspects of American culture are the way that they are.

Problem Solving

I had several unexpected difficulties come up during my semester abroad, from public transportation disasters to injuries from riding my bike. I had some of those difficulties come up during my first few weeks abroad, as I was also adjusting to culture shock. Nonetheless, as confused as I was at first in my new country, I managed to solve every problem that came up by finding the right resources to utilize. I also learned how to not be afraid to talk to locals when I needed help with something.

Nonverbal Communication

Though I can speak a little bit of Danish, I still cannot understand the vast majority of what locals are saying when they are having conversations with one another. Because of that, I ended up doing a lot of guessing—guessing what the locals were saying, guessing what was being announced on the trains and busses, and guessing what ingredients were being listed in Danish on the food labels—-to name a few scenarios. The most common nonverbal interaction I had with locals was when I rode the trains. Just by observing someone’s body language, I could tell if they needed me to move my bike or scoot over in my seat. If anything, I always tried to communicate with locals on the train nonverbally if I could because I always felt incredibly embarrassed to tell them “Undskyld, jeg taler lidt Dansk” (“Sorry, I only speak a little Danish”), even though the locals never got angry with me for politely asking them to speak English. Most importantly, I learned that verbal communication is not always necessary to get certain messages across.

Functioning Independently

I did not go to Denmark with anyone that I knew, and I did not know anyone in Denmark before I arrived there. Even though I quickly got to know people when I arrived, I still did quite a bit of exploring and traveling on my own. To give one example of how I learned to function independently, when I did my first ever solo day trip to a small town in Sweden a few hours away from Copenhagen, I was so worried that something would go badly with it and I would be left all on my own in a foreign country. During that day trip, there actually was a problem with the train and I got stranded in the tiny town of Hässleholm, Sweden, for about an hour. After talking to someone at the train station there, I was able to eventually get on another train to the town I was going to. As nerve wracking as it was to be stuck in a small town in Sweden on my own, I was able to function very well on my own without getting too freaked out. Looking back on it now, I actually think that particular experience was really fun.

Riding the train across southern Sweden

Positive Attitude

I will not lie, there were certainly moments during my semester abroad where I felt tired and frustrated. Perhaps one of the most miserable experiences that happened to me while I was abroad was when I was stuck in an airport in arctic Norway for 6 hours due to a snowstorm. There was hardly any food at that airport and all of it was overpriced—I paid $25 for chips, a salad, and a water bottle. I was eventually able to get my flight changed. I was flying to London and it took me a total of 22 hours to get there. I was so cranky and miserable when I was stuck in that arctic airport, but I also tried to remember the positive things about it. I thought about how it would be a great story to post on my blog or to tell my kids one day. Because of my changed flight, I also had the chance to have layovers in 2 new cities: Oslo and Stockholm. One other thing that was great about that experience was when my airline gave me a free hotel room to spend the night in when I was in Stockholm. It was a 4-star hotel and it had the most delicious complimentary breakfast that I had ever been to. Being abroad taught me how to see the positives in “negative” situations that came up, because I knew that the whole experience of being abroad was ultimately a positive one.

Some knäkebröd I had at the complimentary breakfast when I was stuck in Stockholm.

Lessons learned and future oriented statement:

Ever since I studied abroad, I have not viewed the world in the same way as I did before I left. I now place an even greater value on learning about other cultures. I learned about the different perspectives of the Danes by getting to know so many of them at the folkehøjskole. I also pushed myself out of my comfort zone a lot by getting to know the Danish students. At first, I was a bit nervous to approach them because I could not hold a sophisticated conversation in Danish with them, but I soon realized that none of them minded speaking English to me and that most of them were eager to get to know the Americans. I also learned the importance of having a diverse body of international students on campus by going abroad. It motivated me to begin working more with international students on campus. I hope to continue to work with people from other countries in the future. I also discovered that blogging and making videos is something that I really like to do, and I hope to improve on it and continue it in the future.