University of Arkansas Office of Study Abroad: 10 Habits I’m Bringing Home, Thanks Denmark #HogsAbroad

Dressing nice all the time
By Danish standards, we all dress like absolute garbage on the day-to-day basis, well at least us college sorority girls. Yoga pants, t-shirts and crewneck sweatshirts are an extremely far cry from what the Danes and pretty much all Europeans sport to class. On a daily basis, I wear black or blue jeans, a black or white tee, a sweater and a leather jacket with black booties or my trusty Addidas. At home, I wear leggings, Nike frees, an oversized KD shirt and a patagonia sweatshirt. Ok, while one is FAR more comfortable than the other, I’m definitely going to start dressing nicer when I leave the house like for class, going to the store or just general outings. Yoga pants are for yoga and the couch.
H-Y-G-G-E
“Hygge”
I talked about hygge in my last few posts I think, but I’m definitely taking this term home with me. To reiterate, hygge means like surrounding yourself with good vibes and people, general warmth/coziness with your friends. That stuff that makes you all warm and fuzzy inside–that’s hygge. Since there isn’t a word for all that in English, I’m just gonna take this one with me in my carry-on.
“Tak”
Ok, I’m pretty ashamed of myself… 4 months here and I only learned a few small words. One of those words is “tak” and it means “thank you.” That’s all. When you say it to the Danes after ordering something or checking out in English, they think its pretty funny/adorable. So its just become habit now to say tak. Plus, its just really fun to say. Tak tak tak tak tak tak. Tak.
Sandwiches. All. The. Time.
While I though everything was bigger in America, even more so in Texas, the Danes really do love their sammies–and big ones at that. I think they could eat them all day everyday if they could, I don’t blame them, they make some dank sammies. Definitely going to start making them allllllllll the time back home now when I’m too lazy to make real dinner (all the time).
Nowhere is really “too far” to walk/bike
While I don’t really have a bike to use back home or at school, I’m definitely way more conditioned to walk what I used to think was “far” and be totally okay with it. I think its because of all the travel we’ve done, we walk probably 10 km a day anywhere we went! If the states were more bike friendly I would for sure look into getting a bike but its just not the same as good ol’ DK.
Advocation for public transportation
OMG I LOVE PUBLIC TRANS. Well, I love having the option. Sometimes I wish I had my car so I could just get directly to wherever I wanted to go and waiting for the bus is a drag sometimes. I hate being on other people’s schedules. Especially when it’s raining (all the time). But in bigger cities (Barcelona, Milan, Amsterdam) the public transportation was awesome; I loved using the metro systems. It made me wish that we had better public transportation in the states. What we have (minus NY) is pretty pathetic.
Beer
Simple. I like beer now. Thanks, Denmark.
Paying with only coins
Simple, again. The coins here are worth between 0.50 and 20 kroner. So, the 20 is like a dollar bill basically; I love paying for stuff with coins, it makes it seem like its cheaper than it actually is. I think I’ll start paying in exact change now, sorry everyone in line behind me.
Being super blunt
The Danes are very forward and direct. There is very little dancing around the subject with them. Even in restaurants they’re just like “What do you want?” “Ok.” “Here it is.” Not in a mean way, they just don’t care to spend a lot of time on conversations that don’t mean anything. I’ve always been pretty blunt, but I think its rubbed off on me even more. So heads up.
Fluidity
People always ask me, “what’s the best thing about living in Denmark?” and its always super hard to describe what the best part is. The best way I can put it is in comparison to the way we live in the US. Back home, we live very compartmentalized lives. Everything we do has a specific time and place, there is order, there is structure. My days are planned out hour by hour in a very rigid way. Here, my life lacks that almost completely. Class is basically the only thing that keeps my life on track and its only once a week so the rest of my time I have to myself. I might walk to the grocery store, I might run to the pharmacy, meet up with friends, study some, grab a coffee, wander around town, it doesn’t matter. All of life flows together, there is no sense of urgency or a strict schedule. Its very refreshing, although difficult to get used to at first.. I had to learn to drop down a few gears before I got comfortable. I hope I’m able to keep this same kind of fluidity in my life back home, but I’m not holding my breath.