Jett's Study Abroad Experience
Spring 2023
Spring 2023
This week was super eventful, productive, and honestly just fun. As the title points out, assessment season has really been hitting this week as students are scrambling to get the formative assessments done, which essentially means that everyone is trying to finish their drafts for the summative assessments that must be submitted at the end of the semester. While assessments aren't fun, I can't help but laugh a little because of the scramble that every student seems to do before they have to submit an assessment. The day that a formative was due, the library was packed, and attendance was at an all-time low in class due to people waiting till the last minute to do their assignments and then needing to cram right before its due so they can get it done on time. While I completely understand waiting till the last minute to get things done, I felt that these assessments are easy if you give yourself sufficient time to complete them. As a matter of fact, I'm currently trying to finish all of my assessments a month early so I can travel for all of April and May, and I still feel that I am ahead of everyone else and perfectly on track to getting mine all done early and in good quality. But anyways, that's the not fun part of this blog and I'm sure everyone is wondering about the other part of the title hinting towards a trip to Denmark. I'll just start of by saying that this trip went immeasurably better and has moved Denmark to being one of my favorite places I have ever seen. While I can't say that I would want to live there, it is one of the most picturesque and tranquil cities I have ever been lucky enough to visit. So, that being said, I am going to break this trip down to a day-by-day like the last one. Again, I went on this trip with a friend, so I wasn't by myself on this trip either, but there really wasn't a single moment where things didn't go well. Day 1: On this day, we arrived at Copenhagen airport (Københavns Lufthavn) at about 2 pm (or about 14:00 by European standards). Since Copenhagen is part of the EU, we needed to go through customs, and this being my first time going through a customs checkpoint, I got my first stamp in my passport. After getting through the "border" we were free to roam around the country, so our first order of business was getting to our hotel. This was fairly easy since public transport is pretty accessible in Copenhagen, as there is not only a bus system, but also an underground system like London. Once we navigated through the underground to the west side of Copenhagen and had become sufficiently confused by the pronunciations of Danish words, we came out the train station and were very surprised when we realized that the Danish drive on the right side of the road. We found this out when we almost got hit when we looked the wrong before crossing the road since we were so used to looking the opposite direction in the UK when crossing the road. After dropping our stuff off in the hotel room, we went for a walk to look for a restaurant. We didn't end up finding anything too special to eat, but we did learn that more people ride bikes than in cars in Denmark, and that it is very cold in March. For the rest of the night though, we just walked around and then headed back to get a good night of sleep since we knew the next days would be super busy. Day 2: On day 2 we walked 24 km, which translates to almost 15 miles. We did so much that the only way I can really describe everything we did is by making a list. So, we did the following: 1: Found some Danish Pastries for breakfast 2: Walked around Kastellet, which is a fortress facing Sweden on the coastline 3: Saw a statue of a mermaid that inspired the Little Mermaid 4: Toured Rosenborg Castle (One of my favorite Castles I have seen in Europe) 5: Went to Nyhavn, which is the picturesque colorful buildings 6: Saw the changing of the guards at Amelienborg 7: Went and sat in Frederiks Kirke (Marble Church) 8: Met up with a friend at a Cafe, and had a delicious Danish brunch 9: Walked to Grundtvig's Kirke (Church) and listened to the organ play. After we did everything, we went back and pretty much went to sleep since we were so tired from walking and being cold. We also learned that walking shoes are very good for this city since we got pretty bad blisters. But overall, this day was absolutely amazing. The pictures I am attaching are of Nyhavn, Rosenborg Castle, the mermaid statue, and a picture that I took of the flag that was at Kastellet. Day 3: This day was not actually spent in Copenhagen, as we took a 40-minute train ride up to Hillerød so that we could tour Frederiksborg Castle (the biggest renaissance castle in Scandinavia). This castle was absolutely beautiful, and also felt like an endless maze as we walked around the inside. While this sounds like I'm complaining, its actually quite the opposite, as we were wandering from room to room with our heads looking up at the beautiful murals on the ceilings and gorgeous tapestries that hung on the walls that were woven all over Scandinavia. After we left the castle, we then walked through the town in search of cinnamon rolls (or Kanelsnegles) as the signs in the Cafe/bakeries would say. We found them super easily as we never realized that cinnamon rolls are one of the best things to eat in Denmark. The interesting part was that they tasted a little different, as they are much thinner and chewier, and are of course made with much better ingredients. Needless to say, that Kanelsnegle was the easily the best thing that I ate in Denmark. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it though... After the bakery, we decided to head home and go for a walk before we went and had dinner. On this walk we ended up walking through a huge cemetery and finding a lake/canal thing where it felt like everyone was hanging out to spend their Saturday night as the sun was setting. It was so beautiful, and the perfect way to end our couple of day in Denmark. The pictures I am including here are of Frederiksborg Castle. Day 4: Unfortunately, there is not a ton to say about this day since our flight left at about noon, but we did go to a local bakery and have one more really Danish pastry, of which I got a dark chocolate croissant. The last thing that I will talk about for this trip though was my first experience of being somewhere where the first language is not English. While English is also an official language of Denmark and most people there are able to speak it alongside Danish, most people default to speaking Danish. This would be very interesting when people would try to talk to us, and they would start speaking in Danish. They, of course, switch to English pretty quick when they heard us say "sorry, what was that again?", but the feeling of having no idea what they are saying is kind of scary and also really cool. This experience really started to make me feel like I am seeing the rest of the world for the first time in a different way that I have ever been exposed to. Now that I'm stepping out of my comfort zone though, it's off to Malta next weekend where the official language is Maltese (majority Arabic, with mixes of English and Italian). So, needless to say, next weekend should be awesome too!
1 Comment
kitsmom
3/12/2023 02:47:46 pm
Such vivid colors. You look very bundled up. Was it really that cold??
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July 2023
While I attend the University of Hawaii at Manoa, I was born in Littleton Colorado and grew up in a rural area. When I moved out to Hawaii for school, I quickly found my groove in Shidler College of Business as a triple major studying Marketing, International Business, and Quantitative Economics, and I was later chosen to be one of the Shidler Global Leaders. This and several other scholarships, including the Johnson Scholarship, gave me the amazing opportunity to go spend a semester abroad in the United Kingdom.
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