Settling in

The first full week of classes was jam packed with helpful events like the book pick up where DIS organized all our textbooks for the semester, saving a ton of money and space in our cases! Later in the week came the Activities Fair where clubs and groups came from all over Copenhagen to help us get involved in the Danish community, and not to mention there was a ton of free food.

Settling back into classes was a bit of a shock after a long summer holiday, but I think all my teachers realized this and did a great job at keeping us all engaged. In Danish we learned more about the incredible history of Denmark which made the landmarks around me make so much more sense. My last class of the day – Innovation Through Design Thinking – was also a great surprise. I didn’t know what to expect, but I was a little worried about having a 3 hour class as my fourth class of the day. But it turned out that worry was completely misplaced after the hours flew by when we raced against time to design and prototype a morning routine for someone we just met.

My first class at the University of Copenhagen (known as KU in Denmark) was super interesting. The readings for my class – Philosophy of Mental Health – consisted on a few Chapters on the history of madness, from witch hunts to electric shock therapy. It was also interesting to learn more about the Danish perspective on mental health, given it’s high scores in the world happiness rankings.

Speaking of happiness, in our pursuit of Hygge a few friends and I decided to take a page from the book of the Danes and splash out on plants for our rooms. Now, I’ve never been a plant person. In fact, I’ve actively avoided plants in the past given my bad track record with letting them shrivel. But, after noticing plants spilling out the windows of all of Copenhagen’s houses, I decided abroad was the time to try new things.

Chasing a bit more happiness, on Wednesday a group of us decided to hire a car and make our way to a Møns Klint – a beautiful 6 km long stretch of cliffs along the coast of Denmark. I would 10/10 recommend! The views were incredible and the water surprisingly warm (well at least not as freezing as we thought it would be). And to top it all off we stopped at a dairy farm on the way home to soak up the sun with some fresh gelato.

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