With three activities down, I can assure you that the Outdoor LLC is 100% living up to expectations.

One of the things I’ve learned in the short time being here is that Danes prioritize putting time aside for friends, family, and relaxing. One of the most amazing things about being in the Outdoor LLC is having a few hours a week set aside where we get to take a break from our busy week and enjoy the outdoors with our LLC family.

Kayaking through the canals of Copenhagen was our first well chosen activity, giving us a unique and beautiful perspective on the city. As we paddled in our pairs along the water, we were given the opportunity to admire all of Copenhagen’s unique architecture, with every building having its own unique style and story. Through talking with our guide, I also learned more about what it was like to live as a Dane and got some great local food recommendations as we passed the various establishments.

Our second activity as a community was exploring the Amager Savannah on bicycle. After gathering as a group at a beautiful outdoor area about 30 minutes from our home, we began our cycle along the water’s edge. However, about an hour into our trip, rough winds started pounding. But after almost getting knocked off our bikes multiple times and barely travelling faster than a crawling toddler, we finally made it home by around 9:30 pm.

With only a day to recover, we soon had to start getting ready for out Outdoor LLC weekend retreat. We met Benjamin, our coordinator, bright and early Saturday morning. We then got sorted into small groups with each one receiving an envelope containing a transportation card, a map, some coordinates, and a deadline to reach our final destination of 4 pm.

After a day of struggling to find the right trains and hiking we finally made it to our destination. We set up camp using a pile of tarps by tying them to trees, started a bonfire, and lit up stoves to cook our dinner. You would think Dal would be kinda hard to mess up, given all you really have to do is mix veggies and lentils in a pot. But of course, my group’s pot ended up having an acidic/gaseous aftertaste so bad we decided against eating it for our future stomachs’ sakes. Luckily Benjamin brought along some chocolate, marshmallows, and not Graham crackers, but rather bananas, for a new take on the classical American smores.

Sitting around the campfire with my new living crew really did bring me one step closer to truly understanding Danish Hygge.

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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Yesterday marked the first day of classes and got me so excited for the rest of the semester. My day started at 8:30am with Psychopharmacology and a crash course in chemical signal transduction and receptors. There was a lot of material to take in but it definitely makes me feel better knowing that my semester abroad will still be full of interesting intellectual stimulation. Straight after, I made my way to Danish class where our teacher helped us better understand our initial impressions of the Danish culture and become acquainted with a few new Danish words. My last class of the day was Thinking Lab: From Kant and Nietzsche to Surveillance after 9/11. One of the things I loved about this class was the passion my teacher showed for learning  and the emphasis he put on being able to learn for the sake of learning rather than to get the best grades, which I felt was something often missing at my home institution. 

Straight after classes finished for the day a few friends and I hit up Tivoli – a beautiful amusement park and garden in the heart of Copenhagen. It was a great way to relax before my core course class social where we all got to bond outside the classroom over drinks and nibbles.

On Friday DIS organized an amazing event called the Sustainable Boutique where previous students donated leftover clothing, appliances, and everything else that didn’t fit into their suitcases. I scored big time picking up a hair straightener, hair dryer, a warm jacket, a pair of jean, and a few sweaters. It’s also great to know that anything I need to leave behind will be going to a good home in the future.

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.

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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).

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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!

Packing light

I wish I could claim this is some kind of quest for minimalism, but really I’m just too stingy to splash out for the extra baggage allowance. I mean one bag for a semester wouldn’t be too bad, but my single bag isn’t just for my semester abroad. It’s covering me for 8 months, 4 continents, and 4 vastly different seasons. Which means the space left for Copenhagen clothing could fit into hand luggage. So sorry in advance if I’m wearing the same outfit in every single photo I post.

Google mapping my housing

I was super excited to find out I’ll be living in the Outdoor LCC and equally stoked to find it was in a pretty cool location (based on the satellite image from google maps).

Crossfit (maybe)

So a while back I signed up for a competition for two free months membership at a Copenhagen crossfit gym and ended up getting it! But I also had to accept to a whole lot of Danish terms and conditions that weren’t processed too well by google translate so I’ll let you know how that turns out.

Learning Danish! (not really)

Despite constantly hearing that almost everyone speaks English, I thought I should give learning the language a shot. My first idea was to head to Netflix and find a Danish series (with English subtitles, of course), which ended up with me binge watching a hilarious show called “Rita”. But I’ll be honest, the only word I understood throughout the entire show was Hej. After that fun failure I decided to put my faith in Duolingo, and it turns out that if you want to learn how to talk about turtles drinking milk that’s the place to go. So after officially learning roughly five words I think I’m ready to start my Danish Language and Culture class!