Study Abroad in Denmark at the University of Copenhagen

As an undergraduate in college, I spent a semester at the University of Copenhagen, in Denmark. With one year of college completed, the experience abroad offered something a bit more exciting than my state college, and I was anxious to experience a new culture. Denmark offered an opportunity to travel far away from the US, it took over ten hours to get there, and yet language was not an issue. Everyone in Denmark spoke English fluently. The country is safe, easy to travel to and from and the educational opportunities were excellent. I was most impressed with the Danish language course which had the American students speaking some basic Danish phrases in no time. My arrangements were originally to stay with a family. However, the family I ended up with was an older single woman who was housing two American students, me and another girl. The women was lovely and well meaning, but provided more supervision and structure than I as used to with my own parents, and at age 20, I as unhappy with a curfew. I left the home, as did the other girl, and went to live in the dormitory. I found at least a dozen other American students in the dorms that had also checked out of their family situations and in to the dorms for similar reasons. We all felt bad and uncomfortable moving, but in the end it made for a more enjoyable stay. Students considering a stay abroad should give considerable thought to the living situation they choose.

Once settled in to the dorm, the focus for all of us was getting to know Copenhagen and the local social scene. The Danes were used to American students and could easily pick us out of the crowd. The American students all arrived with brightly colored down jackets in anticipation of the cold Danish weather. The Danish tended to wear more wool and natural fabrics and colors. It's a smart, friendly country and with English so well spoken, there is no barrier communicating. My experience was that I felt at home in Copenhagen very quickly. I arrived in January and the weather was frigid, I was happy for my down jacket. The Danes walk everywhere and the city is easy to get around but the cold weather does take some getting use to, as did the drastic change in the amount of daylight hours from season to season. While there is only about five hours of daylight in the winter, there is as much as 18 hours of daylight in the middle of summer. For this reason, I choose to extend my trip through the summer months to really enjoy this wonderful city in the light and in the warmer weather.

While the educational opportunities at the University of Copenhagen were great, that was not the major focus for most of the student I came to know. The professors seemed to understand the need of the foreign students to travel and socialize, so they were not particularly demanding. The courses for my college were all considered pass/fail, so grades were not an issue or a stress. This is may be different at other programs or universities. Many of us took advantage of the spring break to use the train passes and travel throughout Europe, which is so easy and accessible. As a student willing to eat cheap and sleep on the train, it's an amazing opportunity to see the world. Unlike most adult or family travel, there were no hotels to book or itineraries to follow. The element of flexibility is what makes student travel so unique. With the support of the agency that sponsors and organizes these semester abroad programs, there is a built in security blanket which makes the experience less scary than it might seem otherwise, and offers parents peace of mind.