I’ve been back for almost a week now, and the transition was actually easier than I thought. The worst part has been the jet lag, which I seem to be almost over at this point. But of course, there have been a few instances in which I’ve been kind of confused or overwhelmed by American culture. I waited until yesterday to brave the loudness of the mall, and American money is kind of confusing and weird. I also can’t quite get my head around why prices on things are not actually what you pay at the register because taxes aren’t added on yet. Overall, though, it’s been pretty easy to fall back into life at home.
I think this will be the last post of my adventure. I’m back in America and adjusted to life, so thank you for reading. It’s been a great semester. If I’m ever back in Denmark, this is where you’ll find me. Until then, you can keep up with my photos on my other blog or on Facebook.
Our second day in London was my favorite. In the morning, we went to Camden market, where I had never been before. It’s basically this huge market full of hippies and punk rockers and really cheap Chinese and Indian food. I wished I could have spent all my money there. It was seriously such a cool place. When it’s warm out it must be a pretty happening place.
The afternoon was just as awesome because Mariska has a friend who works in Parliament, so we got a special tour of Parliament! It was amazing. We got to see the only original part of the building (built in 1097!), a chapel that is only for members of Parliament, the lobby for which the word lobbying was created, and we went out on a terrace on the river that is also for members of Parliament only. So cool.
On our last day in London, we squeezed in a bunch of things so that we could meet friends in the afternoon. We saw Tower of London, the Globe Theater, the Tate Modern, and St. Paul’s from the outside, Tower Bridge, and Millenium Bridge. It was so warm and sunny, so it was a great day to be out walking around. We were a little sad not to have time to go into all those places, but there’s only so much you can fit into a few days.
In the afternoon we met up with our friends to go to the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, which was so much crazier than I expected it to be. It’s basically a giant Christmas market, plus an amusement park, all in Hyde Park just for December. There were tons of people, but it was a lot of fun. We also went to Harrods (also full of people) to wander around and see the Christmas stuff. It was giant and crazy, but I imagine it’s a pretty fun place to shop if you have the money. There’s even a whole section for pets!
Overall it was a fantastic trip. I absolutely love London, and it was so good to see a lot of old and new friends that I might not see otherwise. I hope that someday I’ll be able to go back and do even more.
When I left Denmark on the 18th, I was sad to leave, but also really excited to go to England! Lisa and I met up there, where we were staying with our friend Lucy for the first few days. Lucy conveniently lives pretty close to some cool things, so for the first couple of days she gave us a tour. We went to Windsor Castle briefly, and also to Oxford, where Lucy goes to school. It was awesome to get an insider tour and see some of the places where Harry Potter was filmed. This is the Harry Potter infirmary!
We also had some really great food while we were there. I love English pub food, so I was really excited to have pie, fish and chips, and mushy peas. The best thing I had was a mint and lamb pie in Oxford.
After Oxford, we went to stay with our friend Mariska for a few days, and she showed us around London. Even though I had already done a lot of the touristy things the last time, it was still a lot of fun to do them again. The London Eye is definitely worth doing more than once. It has a great view of the city.
We also went to Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, and Covent Gardens, and walked around a lot. It was really good to just wander around and enjoy the city because London is one of my favorites. And there were lots of Christmas markets, so I had a little bit of Denmark to keep me from missing Copenhagen too much :)
I just wanted to let everyone know that I am finally home and will finish updating about my travels after Christmas. I hope everyone is having a great holiday season!
I haven’t had time to update, and probably won’t until I am back in the states, but I’m having a fantastic time in London. I’ve been here before, but it’s a city I would be happy to visit over and over again. Pictures and stories when I get home. I can’t believe I’m going to be back in Massachusetts in 2 days.
Today was my last full day in Denmark. I can’t believe it at all. This semester flew by, even if there were times where it felt like time was only inching along. It is so hard to believe that tomorrow morning I’m leaving a place that I now consider my home. I will never forget this experience and the things that it taught me. Yesterday at our closing ceremony, someone mentioned that sometimes you need to leave what you know as normal to grow because you need to be forced outside your comfort zone. I completely agree with this. I have learned so much, all because I was willing to make myself uncomfortable and try things I wouldn’t have in any other situation.
So thank you to everyone at home who helped me decide to come here, and thank you to everyone here who made my experience in Denmark amazing. Vi ses, Danmark. Jeg elsker dig, og jeg skal savne dig.
Wednesday ended up being my final day of adventuring due to studying for my last final and a train worker strike, so I’m really glad I got to do all of the things I was excited about by then. My first stop was to Klampenborg, where I met up with some of my friends to go to Dyrehaven (the deer park). It’s basically this huge fenced in forest full of deer. When we first got there we were unsure of whether or not we’d really see any deer because the first area we walked through was relatively empty. But eventually we looked off the path and saw probably about 50 deer just standing around. It was amazing.
There were the larger deer, like in that picture, but there were also many smaller deer that were much less afraid of people. There was actually one that let us get about a foot away from it and it didn’t run away. We later found out that we weren’t supposed to be in that area so close to the deer, but the sign was in Danish, so we had no idea. The guy who found us was pretty understanding because the signs really were not helpful if you don’t know very much Danish.
For the afternoon, we decided to check out some Christmas markets. We had been lucky all morning with the weather, but by the time we got to Nyhavn, it started to pour. Fortunately, the Christiania Christmas market is indoors, so we hopped on the metro and only had to get wet walking from the metro stop to Christiania. I’d already bought all of my Christmas gifts, but I wished I hadn’t when I saw this market. It was a huge room filled with different vendors with all kinds of amazing things. There were really cool candles, jewelry, and clothes, among many other things. It was definitely the coolest Christmas market I’ve seen in Copenhagen.
After some shopping, we decided we wanted to be warm and dry, so we headed back to my friends’ house for dinner. It was a lot of fun to see someone else’s house and meet their host family, but also spend one last night with friends before we go. It was definitely a great way to spend one of my last days here.
I’ve gotten more than one question about housing, but I’m going to answer them all here. I can only give a definite opinion about living with a host family, because that is what I chose, but I can talk about how I came to that decision when I applied to DIS.
I love living with my host family. I think it is one of the only ways to get the real Danish experience while studying in a program full of Americans. You get to eat Danish food, learn a lot of Danish words, and feel like you are a part of a Danish family. I know people who live in kollegiums, and many of them are jealous of the culture I’ve experienced. And it does help that your host family feeds you :)
The only possible disadvantage to living with a host family is that there is usually a long commute. That sometimes makes it a little hard to stay out late in Copenhagen, or forces you to get up very, very early for a class. But at this point, I love my commute and I’m happy I have it. Maybe I missed out on some partying in the city, but it doesn’t bother me all that much.
I think where you live all really depends on what you’re looking for. If you want to get a serious cultural experience, a host family is definitely the way to go. If you’re worried about going back to living with parents and want to be with people your own age, it might be better to live in one of the other housing options. If you’re not sure, you can always have a visiting family or choose a Danish roommate. If you’re looking for a short commute, DIS housing might be the best choice. It’s a very personal decision, so it’s really up to you. These are just some things to think about.
Ok, I guess it was really only one castle and one cupcake, but you get the point. Tuesday’s adventure was to Kronborg castle in Helsingør, also known as the castle from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It wasn’t the best day to go because it was ridiculously windy and rainy, but when you have a limited number of days left in Denmark and all of them are forecasted to be rainy, you take what you can get. And it was definitely worth it. The castle was beautiful inside and out.
One of the coolest (and creepiest) parts of the castle is that you get to go into the passages underneath it. That’s where the famous statue of Holger Danske is. I think the story is that if Denmark is ever in trouble, he will wake up and come to the rescue. But other than that, it was a little scary and I kind of wished I had someone with me.
I tried to get some photos of the ocean because I haven’t really been to the coast, but at that point I was getting pelted with freezing rain and was soaking wet, so it was a little difficult. After a little while I gave up and went back to the train.
At the end of the day, I needed a reward for freezing adventure, so I went to Agnes’s cupcakes. I’ve been meaning to go there all semester, but couldn’t bring myself to spend so much money on a cupcake. But this seemed like the right time, so I got what was probably the best cupcake I’ve ever eaten. It was a good way to end a great day.
mysearchforhygge asked: what resources did you use to help you learn danish? im going to go to denmark at the end of the summer for 10 months :)
I took a Danish class through the program that I’m studying with. I’m pretty sure it’s not open to people not in the program, but I’m sure there are other Danish classes out there. I think that’s probably the best way to learn. Also, putting yourself in a lot of situations where you have to listen to people speaking Danish is always good. I’ve learned a lot more vocabulary just through listening to other people talk after I’d already learned some of the basics.
