Final Reflections

Less than a week ago, I returned home from my semester in Copenhagen. Between saying emotional goodbyes and getting over the usual jet lag, I finally feel ready to begin my last blog post and reflect on the incredible adventures I’ve had over the past year.

Everyone had told me that studying abroad would change my life. That it would be among the best experiences of my life. I can’t say that I didn’t believe all those people, but I definitely had absolutely no idea just how right they would be. Now looking back at the roller coaster that was the past academic year of 2017-2018, I can say without a doubt that I am no longer the person I was before this journey. After spending 3.5 months in Tanzania and 4 months in Denmark, I have a whole new outlook on life as well as some truly  incredible friends across the globe. So where do I go from here?

That question of ‘Now what?’ has been rattling around in my head for the past week. I’ve taken notes on baboons with syphilis, took selfies with elephants, eaten crepes under the Eiffel Tower and mastered biking in Copenhagen; it’s been a year packed with new  adventures around every turn! So now coming home and knowing that I don’t have those same types of experiences awaiting me this summer or next semester definitely feels weird. While part of me is certainly happy to slow down my pace and have a chance to reflect and enjoy familiar surroundings, I also already miss the excitement and change that came with living abroad. I know it’s just a matter of time before I’ll be back, Denmark or Tanzania- definitely, or maybe even somewhere new!

However as I still have my senior year at Dickinson College to finish first, those plans have to wait. For now, I can only reflect on the lessons I have learned during this past year, the most significant of which being the importance of leaving your comfort zone. Those who know me well, know that until you get to really know me, I tend to be an introverted, quiet person who doesn’t often like to make huge life changes. While I am always down to try something new, I usually like to keep things small and simple- two words that are certainly at odds with living in not one, but two different countries other than the US during the past year. These experiences have been a huge step outside of my comfort zone and have forced me to adapt and become increasingly independent. I now know that I can thrive in a developing nation and that deciphering a foreign transit system is no big deal. That lizards living in the bathroom are not the end of the world (but actually kinda cool) and neither is biking daily in the rain. I took a leap of faith when I decided to spend my junior year abroad and believed that this would be a life-changing adventure and I don’t regret a single second of it.

This is not to say that this past year has been easy. It’s been a roller coaster of emotion with frequent high and lows. For every incredible experience I’ve had, there have also been times of extreme loneliness when all I wanted was to be home. Worst of all has been the number of friends who have passed away this year, many of whose memorials I have been unable to attend. My heart grieves for my friends and communities who have felt these losses too. Yet despite the tragedy and challenges, I have become a strong person, more equipped to deal with the obstacles life throws at me.

In hindsight, the best advice I can give any of you is to travel. Experiencing new cultures, trying new food, making new friends- in my opinion, this is the best way to push yourself outside of your comfort zone as you never can anticipate what’s in store. The world is an adventure just waiting for you.

For those of you who have stuck with my blog to the end, thank you! Writing has been such a fantastic outlet for me this past semester, allowing me to share and reflect upon my experiences in both Tanzania and Denmark. I hope you have enjoyed reading my ramblings!

To all my abroad friends: You are all the most wonderful people and I am so blessed that I had the opportunity to get to know you all. All my SFS classmates, I miss you guys so much and hope we can have some sort of reunion this summer! All my Copenhagen friends, thank you so much for letting my play ultimate with you all (since let’s be real, that’s where I made pretty much all of my friends) and making me feel like a real part of the team, I already miss you guys! All y’all better keep in touch!!

I’ll finally finish this off in the best way I know how- please enjoy some of my favorite pictures from my absolutely incredible adventures this past year 🙂

 

New Home, New Experiences

I apologize for the lack of posts recently; it’s been a busy couple weeks here with Easter break and the beginning of all the final projects etc. before exams start!

I realized that I haven’t yet written about my host family here in Copenhagen. They are an incredibly significant aspect of my life here and an specific interaction I had with them last week, perfectly illustrates what it is like to living at a home stay.

At my home stay, I live with Bjarne and Linda, my host parents, their dog, Molly, and another DIS student, Kadie. Both of Bjarne and Linda’s children are grown up and living in Copenhagen with their own young children (who occasionally come over to visit their grandparents!). Generally, dinner time is the part of the day that we are all together and it often turns into quite a long affair with us all sitting at the table for at least an hour talking. Bjarne and Linda are both fantastic cooks and I rarely ever dislike what is being served for dinner. Often the food we eat isn’t too dissimilar to dishes in the US, yet occasionally they’ll surprise us with something outside of the norm. Last week that came in the form of snails.

Now, I don’t mean the delicious cinnamon rolls, which Danes nickname snails. I mean actual marine creatures that live in little shells. I have never before in my life eaten snails and honestly did not expect Denmark to be the place where I first tried them. But I definitely wasn’t going to miss out on the opportunity (or listen to Bjarne and Linda tease me about being too scared to try the snails). To my utter surprise, the snails were kinda delicious. They tasted a bit like spicy sausage with garlic and I had fun the rest of the meal fishing the meat out of the shells.

Experiences like these are at the core of why I chose to live with a host family during my four months here in Denmark. There is absolutely no way I would have ever bought snails myself if I was living in a residential community in Copenhagen with other DIS students. I wouldn’t have even known that snails were considered a meal in Denmark. Beyond that, I doubt I would have found half of the places in Copenhagen that I have explored with the advice of my host parents and I can’t stress enough how incredibly nice it’s been having an actual home to go back to every night and not just a dorm room. I am so very thankful for my host family and everything that they have done for me this past semester. I know that I am going to miss them once I go home!

**All of the above pictures were taken by my host mom Linda. After I made an offhanded comment that there was no way my parents would ever believe that I had actually eaten snails, she told me to go upstairs in the middle of dinner to get my phone just so she could take pictures of me as proof 😀

Social House

This past week, I had one of the most interesting field studies thus far this semester. With my Danish Language and Culture course, we visited the Social House, a safe injection site for drug addicts here in Copenhagen. At first I was a bit shocked and uncomfortable to be there, yet the longer we spoke to one of the staff about the program, the more is began to make sense.

The Social House is located in Vesterbro, an area of Copenhagen that use to be overrun with drugs and prostitution. These safe injection sites, of which the Social House is one of a few, exist predominantly to get drug addicts off the streets. Registered anonymously, individuals who go to the Social House must bring their own drugs, but are provided with clean supplies, are monitored and are given medical assistance to prevent harm due to overdosing. Counseling and treatment programs are available if requested, however staff members are careful not to pressure individuals into utilizing these services for fear of scaring them off. The overarching philosophy is that this is the life that these individuals find themselves in so it is now most important to give them the highest quality of life possible as opposed to judging them for their choices.

What I found to be most interesting is that this entire program is paid for by the Danish welfare state. So a small piece of the taxes every individual working in Denmark pays, goes towards funding this safe injection site. There is absolutely no way a program such as this would occurred and be paid by the people in the US. Yet here it is viewed as the responsibility of everyone to take care of all of those in society and therefore there is little controversy surrounding the Social House and its source of funding. I later asked my host parents if they had any issue with their taxes funding a program such as this, of which they would likely never receive any benefit as opposed to the vast majority of the benefits of the Danish welfare state (including free healthcare, etc.). As they explained to me, they are receiving a major benefit from the existence of the Social House and have no issue with having some of their tax money being spent on its existence. By providing a safe injection site for drug addicts, you are getting them off the streets so that the city is cleaner and nicer for the average person to enjoy.

It had honestly never crossed my mind to consider that a program such as the Social House could possibly be successful and even lead to a positive impact on an entire city. This field study was an incredibly eye-opening opportunity for me and definitely one of the best I have been on during my semester here.

Friday Finds: Botanical Garden

Spring has finally arrived in Copenhagen! With temperatures in the 50s and multiple days of sun in a row, I finally have had the opportunity to explore some of the gardens and parks in Copenhagen. First on my list was the Copenhagen Botanical Garden!

The Botanical Gardens are located right near Nørreport Station in the middle of the city, yet despite the faint hum of vehicles in the background, you can almost imagine that you are entirely outside of the city. There are a multitude of paths that you can wander along through flowerings plants and a small pond filled with ducks; on a sunny day, like the one when I was there, it’s almost absurdly picturesque.

Located at the top of a small hill, in the middle of the Botanical Gardens, there are quite a few greenhouses, the largest of which you can walk through. Though the tropical heat is a bit intense, you can take a winding staircase up to a balcony around the top of the greenhouse, providing a birds eye view of the massive palm trees that fill the greenhouse.

 

Exploring the Botanical Gardens and laying out in the sun was the perfect way to spend my afternoon this week and I’d definitely recommend it to anyone looking to take advantage of this beautiful spring weather.

A Weekend on the Beach

Life at DIS often seems to exist in a bubble. You go to classes and live with students who are all American students and it is sometimes difficult to interact with Danes. Thankfully, since I’ve been playing ultimate frisbee here with the Copenhagen Hucks, I’ve had plenty of opportunities to break out of the DIS bubble!

This past weekend, I spent the weekend in Vig, a town in northern Zealand (the island on which Copenhagen is located) for frisbee camp. Now that the weather is finally getting nicer, we are starting to practice outdoors again so this camp served as a great start to the season! All 32 of us spent the weekend in a huge cabin just a 5 minute walk from the beach (which made for some fantastic artsy beach pictures!).

All weekend was a blurred mix of frisbee games, walks on the beach (and even a quick swim!), and DoubleAgurk (a Danish? card game that’s weirdly addicting). As only one of three DIS students on the trip, I was very out of my bubble. It was a great experience spending time with both Danes as well as the many individuals who live in Denmark but come from all over the world.

One of my goals coming into this semester was to truly experience Denmark as a Dane and not just an American tourist. Between biking to the train station everyday and wearing all black outfits regularly, I feel like I’ve slowly started to accomplish living as a Dane. Yet it wasn’t until this past weekend that I really felt like I belonged here. To have been able to spend an entire weekend hanging out playing a sport that I love with an incredible group of people who always made me feel welcome as part of the team was simply incredible. I would absolutely encourage anyone studying abroad with DIS to break out of the bubble, join a club that you’re passionate about, and get to know the Danes! I promise that you won’t regret it!

100% worth it despite the freezing water

Friday Finds: The Donut Shop

After hearing about it for weeks from my classmates, I finally sought out The Donut Shop after my field study this past Wednesday. I’m not usually one for donuts, however this shop was pretty incredible!

Located just one side street away from DIS, The Donut Shop is housed in the basement of a building, giving it a cozy feel. There were plenty of comfy couches and free wifi to make for a relaxing break or a new setting to keep studying. But most importantly, the donuts are delicious! I got a warm nutella creme donut, which was similar to a boston creme but obviously with nutella. It was brought out hot with whipped cream and caramel sauce and looked much more like a huge dessert than a simple donut, but I absolutely enjoyed it!

I guess I should have named this feature, Foodie Friday, since I keep featuring food but I’ve just keep finding fantastic food in and around Copenhagen! I’m definitely getting spoiled from being here and am loving it!

Possibly The Best Study Tour Ever…

I was lucky enough to have the chance to spend the entire past week in Iceland and oh my god, it might have been the best trip I’ve taken so far this semester! Together with my Glaciers & Human Impacts course, I spent 6 days exploring the culture and geology of a country unlike any I had been to before.

View across the harbor in Reykjavik

Over the course of our time in Iceland, my professor did an excellent job of balancing both the cultural and academic portions of our trip. We spent three days in the capital city of Reykjavik and three days out travelling the countryside.

While in Reykjavik, we visited a museum dedicated to the first Viking settlements in Iceland as well as taking a tour of the city. Extremely small by Copenhagen standards, we were able to easily walk through the entire city in a fairly short amount of time, yet there was still much to explore. Our tour of Reykjavik was one that we actually gave ourselves; pairs of students were responsible for presenting different monuments or buildings around the city which not only gave the tour a more relaxed feel, but gave us all the ability to throw in some fun facts as well! The food in Reykjavik, while expensive, was absolutely delicious…especially the Icelandic ice cream we got one night! Without a doubt though, my favorite part of being in the city was our trip to the pool. So I know you must be thinking, ‘what’s so exciting about a pool?’ and for that matter, ‘why go to a pool of all places in Iceland?’. Going to the pool is surprisingly a big part of life in Iceland, in particular Reykjavik. Almost all pools are located outside and heated by Iceland’s abundant geothermal power (Fun fact: 4% of the geothermal power Iceland produces is used to heat swimming pools!) to ensure that they are comfortable and warm, even when the air temperature is near freezing. The hour we spent lounging in the hot pools on the last morning of our study tour was the most relaxed I’ve felt in a long while…especially after indulging my inner-child and taking more than a few trips down the huge water slide!

Reykjavik has some incredible street art too!

Though I loved spending time exploring Reykjavik, the days which we spent outside the city were the ones that I enjoyed the most! With the tour company, Into the Glacier, we drove along the southern coast of Iceland watching from our windows as we drove past volcanos, glaciers, waterfalls, lava fields, and outwash plains. Over the course of three days, we visited a geothermal power plant and natural geothermal hot spring, saw the northern lights, walked on a glacier, explored the rift zone between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, as well as braving a blizzard whiteout  to go into a tunnel inside of a glacier. All of these experiences were beyond incredible and often left us all speechless.

Yet it all hit home for me when we visited Jökulsárlón, a glacial lagoon fed with meltwater from Vatnajökull, the largest glacier in Iceland. The lagoon is truly stunningly beautiful with clear blue water dotted with icebergs and the occasional seal. However, the only reason for the lagoon’s existence is due to the retreat of Vatnajökull; as the glacier moved back, it depresses and carves out the land which is then filled with the glacial meltwater. Over the past couple weeks, both in class here in Copenhagen as well as in lectures in Iceland, we have discussed climate models predicting the likely changes in glacial volume and size. The future is grim; even if fossil fuel emissions were to completely stop today, the climate would continue to warm to the extent that within the next ~200 years, the Icelandic glaciers will be almost completely gone with only some ice caps remaining on the highest peaks. While walking around Jökulsárlón, I was suddenly aware that I was witnessing the beginning of the end of the Iceland glaciers. Even if we, as a global population, are able to make serious changes to how we are overexploiting the Earth, I may have just this past week seen something that will not be around for my grandchildren to enjoy. Despite these sobering thoughts, experiencing the glaciers of Iceland has only renewed my desire to protect the incredible environment that we live in. Iceland, I’ll be back!

Couldn’t have picked a better crew to spend a week in Iceland with!

Friday Finds: Black Diamond

Honestly, the fact that I haven’t written about this place yet is mildly astonishing since it’s become one of my favorite places here in Copenhagen, but better late than never!

Unlike my mom thought when I first mentioned it, the Black Diamond is not the name of a tattoo parlor, but of Copenhagen’s Royal Library. Located only about a 10 min walk from DIS, the Black Diamond is easily my favorite place to study as it is open to the public and located right on the bank of a canal. Though it connects to the older part of the building from which, you have a great view of Christainsborg Tower, the real highlight of the library is the floor to ceiling glass windows which overlook the canal. There are plenty of different types of study spaces ranging from silent rooms to more noisy group area as well as a cafe and restaurant within the library. I would absolutely recommend the Black Diamond to all current and future DIS students; I promise it worth the extra walk to study there instead of in the DIS facilities!

Check out their website here for more information!

New part of the building from the outside

My favorite view from the inside

City of Light

Officially have a new favorite place in Europe: Paris! Despite being a bit under the weather this past weekend, I spent an absolutely fantastic couple days in the city of light.

Anyone who knows me well will know that this trip is one I’ve been planning with my best friend, Cat, since we both decided to apply to study abroad in Copenhagen. For some unexplainable reason, Paris has always held a special allure for us and we decided it would be the perfect place to celebrate our 21st birthdays. Now I don’t turn 21 until after the semester is over and even Cat doesn’t turn 21 for over another month still, but when you’re in Europe where 21 is just another number, we felt like we had to do something extra special! So Paris it was 🙂

In the short span of less than 48 hours, we managed to see an incredible number of sites and walk quite a bit through the city. We walked along the Seine, shopped on the Champs-Élysées, saw the Arc de Triomphe- and that was all just the first evening! On Saturday we visited a small, local market at which I was able to order food in french (those years of french class were finally put to use!) and spent a good bit of time at Shakespeare and Company, an absolutely fantastic little bookstore in the center of Paris. We continued by visiting Notre Dame and of course waiting in line to see the Eiffel Tower! The 2hrs+ of waiting and the 700+ stairs we had to climb were more than worth it to see the view from the top. We finished the night with probably the most cliched, touristy thing to do in Paris- we ate crepes as we watched the Eiffel Tower sparkle and it was amazing!

To anyone looking for a place to travel, 15/10 would recommend Paris. So far in my semester here, Paris is the first city that I felt as if I did not have enough time in the city and desperately wanted more as we were on the train back to the airport. Though I doubt it’ll be during this semester, I already can’t wait to go back to Paris!

Seine at night

I know I’m such a nerd, but this bookstore was incredible

I really don’t think this needs a caption

View from the 2nd floor

Eiffel Tower & my best friend ft. crepes- it doesn’t get better than this 🙂

Glaciers in the Distance

As this is the last week of classes before my long study tour, much of this week is focused on Iceland! So it seemed like as good of a time as any to give a bit of an overview of my core course: Environmental Science in the Arctic, Glaciers and Human Impact: Icelandic Climate Change Case Study.

Thus far in the semester we have spent most of our time dedicated to exploring climate theory and in particular, how it relates to glaciers. Periods of time in the past, such as the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum and the Eemian interglacial, have provided examples of how climate processes have changed in the past as well as how we can study their effects now in the present. Though I had considered myself to have a fairly good understanding of the factors of climate change before taking this course, I have learned a great deal more than what I thought I knew! For example, changes in Milankovitch forcings, which refer to the changes in orbit, tilt, and ‘wobble’ of the Earth in space, can be used to predict when ice ages will be experienced. Changes in forcings which result in cold summers in the northern hemisphere are vital to producing an ice ages, despite the commonly existing belief that colder winters are more important. We can use this knowledge to predict the timing of coming ice ages. I, at least, think it’s all very interesting!

We are now moving on to discussing Iceland itself, both its glaciers and history. Iceland is quite different in the sense that it was created due to the opening of the Atlantic Ocean in the atlantic rift zone between the north american and eurasian tectonic plates. It is therefore covered not only by glaciers (about 11% of the country) but also many volcanos and strong geothermal activity. Additionally, Iceland was only first inhabited in about 870AD, much later than the majority of Europe. This combination of factors makes me extremely excited to visit next week…and don’t worry I will be sure to share all the highlights once I’m back home!

This course wasn’t an obvious choice as I am a biology major with an ecological focus, not an environmental science major. However, I strongly believe that all of these fields must become strongly interdisciplinary in order to continue to make an impact in the future. If I want to research wildlife so that I can better conserve species, I need to have a strong understanding of climate change as well. Climate change is a global phenomenon that will not cease to affect all of us any time soon, but instead, if policies do not change soon, will only continue to worsen conditions around the world. Both climate change and its effects, which are often far reaching, will be, in my opinion, one of the most significant threats to wildlife conservation in the coming future. By taking this course, whether I decide to study wildlife on the glaciers of Iceland or in the bush lands of Tanzania, I am gaining knowledge on the current progression of our climate system. Though it is easy to become depressed when almost every class we cover material relating to how our climate is currently in unsustainable spiral, I am confident in the knowledge that I will be able to use this information in the future to make a positive change of some degree to the environment. And I do believe, that if we all educate ourselves on the intricacies of the climate system that we are currently altering, it is possible to use this knowledge to combat the harm that has already been done.

As we hit about the half-way point of the semester, I am looking forward to where this course will continue to take me both in the concepts we will discuss and the places we will travel (Iceland!!!).