Just like everywhere else in Europe, everything is so small and minimalist-like. The architecture is breathtaking. I’m not a specialist in building engineering nor interior design, but to me, it focuses on sustainable architecture juxtaposing the old and modern architecture. It’s beautiful.
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| Dome of visions, Aarhus |
In Denmark, everything has to be with bicycles; therefore, a highly recommended thing to do to the international student community, is to get a bike once arriving in the city of Aarhus. So I did, but instead of buying it, I decided to rent it because I was less expensive. I know how to bike, but years have passed since the last time I rode one. Thus, the obvious happened. I fell, hahaha, got scrapes on my legs and hands, and had back pains for weeks. It was such an awful fall and the worst: someone saw me! And I was so embarrassed, but he was so gentle telling me that bike falls were so much more common than I thought.
Right now, one of my favorite things to do (and I found it a smart way to save money) is cooking. Every week I try to implement new and different dishes to my diet, so going grocery shopping is always fun to me (I know, I’m weird) plus almost everything if not everything is organic and fresh, and it does not necessarily cost a lot of money as going to whole foods, for example. It is just the way Danish goods are produced here.
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| What I eat |
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| Market's goods |
Even their clothing stores and brands give these minimalist bio-organic type of feeling. What really awed me when I got here is their sense of style. Everyone is so fashionable or maybe that was my first impression since I am not used to seeing people so dressed up. During my first weeks, I was having a tourist moment, walking all over the city and I saw these two girls walking towards me and first thing comes to my mind: they are definitely celebrities. They were giving these looks and just the way they were dressed wow!
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| & other stories, Aarhus |
The Danish have worked hard to get their country at where it is now. There is technically no corruption; from my perspective, their tax, health, and education system is brilliant just as the taste of Smørrebrød, which is the Scandinavian version of Tapas. I mean who would not be happy having all these living facilities? To be honest, I wish I could Ctrl C and Ctrl V all these things to my country. To expand your cognition abilities, Denmark has been placed among the happiest countries in the world for years.
Seeing the differences from continent to continent, countries, people. Being present there, experiencing those differences. That’s not something that easy to do as people would think. How do you keep yourself from changing when everything around does? When everyday you discover something new, hygge, things that you did not even know existed, or learn to do something differently from what you used to. The world itself changes. There is this theory or hypothesis that the earth used to be one whole continent, yet there are 7 continents. I did change. I am not the same that left Panama neither the same that left the US. My levels of perception are constantly changing due to every-day experiences which help me to flourish and grow in this beautiful world.
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Electrical Engineering major Arantxa Morales is spending the Fall 2018 semester in Denmark with our U of A Exchange program at Aarhus University.
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