I cannot believe it’s been two weeks since I arrived here in Copenhagen (edit* 4 weeks oops/really should have posted this sooner). I’ve been feeling great because I finally have somewhat of a routine established, and it’s amazing to be in the swing of things. I’ve caught myself a few times referring to our house as home, and nothing makes me happier to say that. I’ve grown comfortable with our little side street and the stores, restaurants, and coffee (also ice cream) shops surrounding it. After being out for a long day, it’s nice that I find myself wanting to come home at the end of the day.
My one big downer of the week is I found out that unfortunately, I didn’t get the position of the ~official DIS Student Blogger~ position. There were a lot of people applying so sadly it was really competitive this year. I keep finding myself trying to come up with reasons why I didn’t get the position- did I not write as much as I should have? was it because I didn’t go into as much detail as I should have with my first post? Were there just better bloggers in my program? It did hurt at first just because I could just picture myself taking that position, but hey that’s life I guess. Thinking about the grand scheme of things and my experience abroad, not getting this position is minuscule. It is probably for the best because now I can post on my own schedule, not feel the pressure of creating content, and not having to worry about not being up to DIS standard. Nevertheless, I will still keep up this blog (that was always the intention!) *UPDATE* considering the fact that it is now almost week 5 and I’m just getting my second official post up now makes me feel like not getting this position was probably for the best.
This past week was really fun, Wednesday I ended up not having a field study so I had the whole day off! My friends and I went Go-Boating in the canals within Copenhagen. I was just surprised how inexpensive it was and how easy it was to just take one out. Thankfully we had our friend, Sean helping us out with steering our boat. We were able to get out of the city center which was nice for a change in scenery. We ended up boating by Christiania where (to our surprise) there was a lot of nude beaches which was sort of funny experiencing, but that’s the culture here! They’re very open here in Copenhagen. After about two hours of drifting around, eating cheese and drinking wine we finally docked, boat still intact (thank god!)
We’ve been trying to take advantage of the warm weather here (while it lasts). There is a huge canal about a ten minute walk from where I live where people here go swimming often. At Island Brygge there is a jumping off point designed by *the* Bjarke Ingels which is about 17 feet high! It was definitely terrifying, but I knew I had to do it. (I have a video, but wordpress is being annoying and won’t let me upload it so hopefully I can figure it out soon)
There is also a little street food festival in Copenhagen called Reffen and It’s one of my favorite spots here. It’s located right by the water and each food vendor is located in a shipping container. I know I probably should have gotten something that was more authentically Danish, but instead I went with my heart and got Indian food (which was a good decision considering that was some of the best Indian food I’ve ever had). They make the naan right in front of you, so right after you order you get your main course and then you move to another window and there’s a man who hands you a hot fresh order of naan to go right on top of your dish. After I got my food I was wandering around trying to find where my friends found a spot. It was such a beautiful moment because the sun was setting, it was warm out but a cool warm, and people all around me were laughing and just having a good time. People either brought foldable chairs or sat down on picnic benches. There is also a small skate part within Reffen so it was cool seeing everyone try to skateboard as well.
My first *out of the country* trip was to Malmö which is in Sweden! I went with my friends Griffin and Erin and we took a train over there. Malmö is great because it’s only a 45 minute train ride from Copenhagen. We traveled across the Øresund Bridge (finished in 1999) which connects Denmark and Sweden. I just recently learned that bridges around Denmark were a very recent development (in the last 20 years!) so people heavily relied on ferries to get around to different parts before then.
Malmö was great! In hindsight we should have done more research before arriving there, but we just figured we would just kinda figure it out on the spot. We ended up only spending a few hours in Malmö, but it was very beautiful nonetheless!
Two words: WEDNESDAY. SNAILS.
or onsdagssnegle as you would say in Danish! These cinnamon rolls are only 20DDK only on Wednesdays! We always end up getting lucky and every time we walk in, there’s a new, hot, fresh batch coming out of the oven. Honestly, onsdagssnegle is worth every. single. calorie. Probably the best cinnamon roll I’ve ever had.
My friends and I got to also take a trip to Tivoli which is only about a 10 minutes walk from where I live. Tivoli or Tivoli Gardens is an amusement park, but in many ways it is different than what an amusement park in the US looks like. I think many parents dread bringing their kids to big amusement parks like Six Flags, Disney World, etc. because it’s loud, crowded, not clean, and overall not the best atmosphere. Tivoli is different in the way that it caters to both the adult and the child. I’ve been told by multiple people that Tivoli has some of the best restaurants/eating spots in Copenhagen (of course these places are rather pricey, but hey what isn’t expensive here in Cope). A lot of effort is put in the appearance of the park with its beautiful hedges and gardens on the inside. The architecture inside is impressive as well. We decided to splurge on a day pass for rides (which was actually the best bang for our buck). They had all kinds of rides there which was awesome. I think one of my favorites rides was a drop one called The Golden Tower which is approximately 206 feet tall! I’ve never been on a drop ride so tall before in my life. The best part was the view at the top of it, you can see everything, I wish I was able to pull my phone out and take a picture.
*LITTLE THINGS I’VE (and friends) NOTICED ABOUT LIVING IN DENMARK*
*you MUST put a divider AFTER your groceries at the grocery store (or in our case Netto) or you WILL get a dirty look
*Danes don’t really say please, they say thanks very often (tak!) so instead of saying “I’ll have this please” you would say “Can/may I have this? thanks”. In the US we may view saying this as rude, but here it is not.
*Here they rarely use cash and mostly use card. All credit cards have a scanning aspect where you can just hold your card up to the payment machine and you do not need to sign. If you insert your card or swipe it (and are from the US) you have to sign every time you make a purchase with it. Especially in grocery stores/coffee shops Danes like things to move very quickly so they get annoyed if you hold up the line to sign your receipt (it also makes you look painfully American). A lot of us who don’t have that feature uploaded our cards to Apple Pay so we can just make purchases by scanning our phones.
*If you want an iced coffee here you will most likely have to order an iced latte instead (a lot of places do have specialty milk, I’ve been trying to get into oat milk!)
*everything. is. expensive.
*7/11 here is UNREAL. Normally in the US I would very rarely be in a 7/11 unless I wanted a slurpy, but in Denmark they LOVE 7/11. You will see one on every street corner. When you walk into a 7/11 here you will immediately notice that they have products that they wouldn’t in the US: chia seed pudding, freshly baked croissants and pastries, yummy sandwiches with awesome bread, a coffee machine that will make you any style of coffee that you want (cappuccino, latte etc.) and the food is actually GOOD and looks like it would come out of a café. 10/10 chance you will definitely catch me here at 8am on a Monday or Thursday to get my morning coffee before class
*people dress VERY NICELY here and you will get looks if you go outside in a sweatshirt
*metro/public transportation is based on the trust system. I’ve maybe one one train so far without paying (mostly because it was one of the first days and I couldn’t figure out the app) but police do come and check every once in awhile and you will get fined up to 300USD
*they don’t sell stick deodorant here! (good thing I brought extra)
*Danes are generally very friendly!! Americans talk a lot louder than Danes do, especially in restaurants/outdoor bars
*on the metro Danes like to line up alongside train doors to let other people out before filing on
*biking/scootering follow strict traffic laws (it’s like driving a car). The Danish cops will pull you over even if you’re just on a scooter (learned that the hard way- sorry mom and dad!)
*Danes are VERY on time and will get annoyed even if you are a few minutes late (especially Danish profs)
*In America, we greet each other oftentimes by asking ‘how are you?’. Sometimes while passing on the street we say it very quickly, just expecting someone to say “good!” and move on. Here in Denmark “how are you?” is taken very literally and people will go into how they’re actually feeling and how their life is going.
*trust is HUGE common theme with Danes (I actually may use this as a topic idea for my final research paper for my Danish class). It is very normal for parents to leave their children in strollers outside while they go into a store or even eat dinner or get coffee!! This was incredibly shocking to see. I asked my Danish professor about this (she has two young kids herself) and she responded very nonchalantly “oh yeah we like to have our kids get fresh air” and then went into talking about how there aren’t many child abduction cases here (or maybe it’s not in the news as much) so it’s not much of a concern to Danes.
So that’s a quick overview of my life lately! Sorry I haven’t been posting as often, but I absolutely love it here !!! I feel so lucky to be given this opportunity to do this
Will post soon on my LLC weekend and my short core course study trip!
laur
costabile in copenhagen 