My first week in Copenhagen has been nothing short of incredible. I definitely lucked out on the bus ride from the airport to my new home in the Amagerbro district, meeting a group of amazing people who I’ve pretty much spent every waking moment exploring with.
After arriving in my new home – the Outdoor LLC in Holmbladsgade – I quickly unpacked and then spent the day getting to know my new amazing roommates and the other students I would be sharing my housing with. Despite most of us being jet lagged, everyone was eager to meet new people and settle in.
Of course, our first night started at Australian Bar (better known as A bar), and ended at 7-Eleven (which by the way is sooo good here).
After settling down and catching up on a bit of sleep we decided we had to check out Christiania – a small hippie community in Copenhagen enclosed by walls lined with magical graffiti. After hanging out at the the concert they had going on we decided to grab dinner at none other than 7-Eleven (I’m telling you it’s great).
Sunday gave me a good chance to get to know more people in my Outdoor LLC during the Jumpstart team-building activity. It was a great way to break the ice and the intro summary of all our events this semester – ranging from winterbathing to kayaking to parkour – got us all so pumped for the next four months. So be ready for plenty of posts about all the cool things we get up to in the Outdoor LLC.
Our arrival workshop ran from Monday to Wednesday, giving us plenty of time to get oriented and figure out the best bike routes to class. Biking is a common way Danes get around the city and after spending the past few days on two wheels I can see why. Copenhagen is designed for cyclists, and with smooth and wide lanes, it’s fairly easy to stay safe. While the workshop differed for everyone, most of us attended an opening ceremony with a spectacular musical performance, as well as an array of different talks and events designed to help us navigate our new home and classes. Included was a facilities tour which helped us to distinguish the DIS buildings from the shops and restaurants in the city center where DIS is located. We also had ‘Living Like a Local’ talks with insights ranging from LBGTQ+ Life to Finances, Sustainability, and Fashion while living in Copenhagen.
DIS was well aware how jetlagged everyone would be so as well as organizing a whole lot of fun activities for us to get prepared, they also gave us plenty of down time to relax or check out the city. After we all had bikes, my friends and I used this time to venture out and see what Copenhagen had to offer. One of my highlights was jumping off the ‘Snail’ – a curved wooden structure near my housing complex – into the freezing ocean waters. The next day we made sure to check out the famous Nyhavn (the beautiful buildings featured above), and afterwards biked our way to the trampolines embedded near Copenhagen’s canal. Another highlight of our sightseeing day was eating our lunch near the water’s edge at Reffen, which boasts some of Copenhagen’s best street food sold out of shipping containers!
The Pursuit of Hygge 
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