I am finally done traveling (atleast for the rest of the semester), so I will be enjoying my last three weeks in Denmark… actually in Denmark. I had a relaxing week of readjusting, and a jam packed weekend full of trying to explore Copenhagen more! Highlights for the week include family dinner, a day of festivals, a field study with a UN diplomat, and go boating!
Family Dinner
For the first time in what felt like months, everyone on the floor was actually here for family dinner this week! It was really nice to all get together after being busy constantly and actually hang out in the way we were able to at the beginning of the semester. Plus, it was someone’s birthday, so we decorated the living room in Danish flags (traditional for birthdays), and sang a really loud and long Danish happy birthday song. Unfortunately, none of the American’s actually knew the song so it was a lot of mumble-yelling and not a lot of actual birthday wishing. Regardless, it was cool to get to see a little bit more of Danish culture that I hadn’t yet experienced!!
UN Speaker
On Wednesday, I had a really cool field study in Gender Perspectives on Human Rights. We had a former UN diplomat for Australia come in and speak to us about her life working in the UN Headquarters in NYC. It was incredibly interesting to hear what a day in the life really was for her during that time, and it gave me really good insight into a career field that I am considering going into. Plus, we got donuts from The Donut Shop, which I’ve been wanting to try but haven’t had a chance to yet. So, essentially I got career advice and donuts – the best of both worlds.
Go Boating
Ever since the first week of the semester, Olivia has been telling the entire floor about ~the~ best Copenhagen summer activity, Go Boating! It hasn’t been warm enough to try it until this weekend, and boy did it not disappoint! Go Boating is a company that rents tiny motorized boats with tables on them, and people then can boat through the harbors of Copenhagen for a few hours. It is essentially a time to eat, drink, and have fun while looking at Copenhagen from a different perspective. Although it started to rain in the middle of our experience, and we had some close calls with running into the walls of the canal, it was still a great time.
Day of Festivals
Saturday was full of different festivals going on around the city (facebook events is my best friend to find things like this). I decided to go with a few friends to the Sakura festival, a Japanese culture festival surrounded by the cherry blossoms (over 200 trees!) right next to the Little Mermaid statue. There were a ton of booths selling food and products, and there was a stand where we could make origami paper cranes! A tiny Danish woman taught us how to make them and chatted with us, and it was just an overall wholesome experience. After, we decided to head over to the Nørrebro 48 hour festival, which ended up not really being a festival and instead was just a freestyle rap contest (which I was still really happy to see). We grabbed falafel and sat and listened to them and hung out.
That is all for this week! Sunday was spent doing homework and preparing for the week ahead, which is the first of two weeks of finals. I have quite a lot due, so I will be trying to balance keeping up with all of that with also making sure that I see everything that I want to with the limited time I have left in Copenhagen. The end is so so near and it is so so sad. Until next week, hej hej
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Maya is a senior International Studies major, spending the spring 2018 semester in Denmark through DIS Study Abroad in Scandinavia.
Read more from Maya at travelingpapaya.wordpress.com
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