240 Days in Denmark

Half way through: what I’m proud of, what I’m grateful for, and what I wish I had done differently

On my third day in Copenhagen I wrote a letter to myself:

I want to explore outside of Copenhagen with my bike, name my bike, and produce something I’m proud of. I want to learn how to cook and say yes to every plan and eat dessert whenever possible.

There were lots of “I hope to”s and “I can’t wait for”s, and I just in case I had forgotten my own handwriting I signed the letter “from Finley.” Everyone in my housing community was required to write these on the third day of orientation, after which our orientation leaders collected them and promised to send them back to us half way through the semester. Hearing this only seventy-two hours into my Copenhagen adventure, Half way through sounded a lot like a far-off myth that would never actually be realized. But when I came into my apartment three days ago, there was my letter, sitting on the table in the kitchen like a bright red sign screaming “hello! You’ve been here eight weeks already!”

Needless to say, I wasn’t ready.

I finally summed up the courage to tear open the seal yesterday, only to be surprised how much my mindset has changed since August. My original goals for the semester felt distant but more important than ever, and, perhaps more pressing, the fact that I have been in Copenhagen for eight weeks means that I only have eight weeks LEFT. To avoid wild panic and make the most of my time here, I decided to revisit the reflection platform: what am I proud of so far, what am I most grateful for, and what do I wish I had done differently. Check out my conclusions below (with pictures)!

What I’m proud of:

1 Keeping a journal

**My polaroids from the week with a cappuccino from Coffee Roastery, a coffee shop right across the street from DIS**

Self care looks different on everyone; for me it looks like a Thursday afternoon, huddled in a coffee shop, writing in my journal with my green pen and reflecting on the past few days. Eight weeks in I have managed to record every day- all 85 pages of my journal are filled, and I’m already moving on a second book. The daily commitment was challenging but the reward is significant.

2 Buying the flight

**Amelia and I in front of the Reichstag building in Berlin**

It was stressful for me to take the plunge and buy plane tickets (especially when the semester really started to amp up!), but I’m so glad I did it! My flatmates and I travelled to Berlin on a whim during our the second weekend in Denmark, and while I hate the words “spontaneous” and “airplanes” together, it proved to be one of the most fun weekends. So just do it! Buy the flight, don’t check a bag, and always bring a camera.

3 Taking advantage of the study tours

**My core course travelled to Aller, a Danish publishing company, during our Core Course week**

“Don’t you go to a fake school!?” My Danish flatmate asked me after I said I had had a long week. Technically, yes, DIS is not affiliated with a university in Copenhagen, but it is so much more than that. My classes are well-rounded and extend far beyond the bounds of the classroom; take our visit to Aller, one of the most successful Danish publishing companies, during our Core Course week for example. Here, we explored the past, present, and future of the publishing industry, and upon leaving I felt so inspired by Aller that I designed a thesis for my home university around these ideas. DIS has so much to offer the dedicated academic if you just keep your mind open.

What I’m most grateful for:

1 Coffee time

I think I may have single-handedly fueled the Danish coffee industry in September. Coffee brings me so much joy but has slowly drained my bank account… eventually the only way I would allow myself to buy coffee was if I held off on buying wine later in the week. But sacrifices must be made to save the things we love! And I really, really love Copenhagen cappuccinos (with oat milk please).

2 Nimbusparken 32

**Colby, Brynn, and Cynthia during our Monday Night Dinner**

I seriously lucked out in the housing department. Every member of Nimbus 32 has a special place in my heart, especially on Monday night when we all get together to clean the apartment and make dinner together. It is hygge to the max!

3 Dorte

Dorte is my wonderful core course professor who (we’re pretty sure) also doubles as an undercover superhero. She the inspiring, radiant, fascinating mascot of my time at DIS and I am so grateful for how much I have learned from her (both in the classroom and as a superhero).

What I wish I had done differently

1 Set a budget

Copenhagen is astronomically expensive for a JV money-saver like myself, and it took me until well into September to develop context for my spending habits. The whole idea of managing an entire semester’s financial plan made me nervous, but I can assure you that the answer is not to ignore it until it goes away (which was my original intent). I recommend downloading some budgeting apps (I’m using “TrabeePocket”) and just planning ahead.

2 Resisted the routine

I was so eager to insert myself into a familiar Danish routine, but after a few weeks I realized I was a little too set in my ways. There is certainly something to be said about finding your favorite coffee shop and familiar route, but it wasn’t until my friends came to visit (pictured above) that I noticed how much of Copenhagen I still have to explore! Next time I’m going to take the long way home.

3 Packed less clothes

I can’t believe I’m saying this after I was so proud of my packing skills but… I wish I had packed less. I brought so many sweaters and way too many shoes for warm weather, and I realized too late that I want my style to be more Danish. I don’t have the room or the funds, but in retrospect I should have packed less, saved money on the overweight baggage, and embraced the Copenhagen street-style scene.

Irish and Czech Fuji Film

As my favorite Danish proverb says: another Friday, another Fuji Film blog post! Or maybe that’s just what I say. Either way, it is time for my fuji film to get the spotlight it deserves.

My polaroid watched a medley of landscapes pass before its lens this week—everything from the sea, the countryside, and the magnificent interior of the Shelbourne hotel. How did I find myself in all of these places, might you ask? Through the wonderful DIS Study tour arrangement; once again, the program exceeded all expectation and organized the most incredible week-long international field trip.

It all began when I arrived with my Core Class, New Media and Changing Communities, in Dublin on Saturday morning. Dublin is becoming an increasingly popular place for tech companies to call home because of the low tax rates, already attracting companies such as Google, Amazon Web Services, and Facebook. Our time in Ireland was split between academic visits and cultural immersion, the latter of which included an excursion to the mythic Cliffs of Moher on the west coast.

The class woke up before dawn on Sunday to make the drive from Dublin to Limerick, then on to the Cliffs of Moher, and back again. It was a tough wakeup, but watching the sun rise on the lush Irish landscape was unlike anything I had ever seen before (similar to my experience in Norway!). We enjoyed blue skies and a cool breeze until around lunchtime when we arrived at the cliffs:

The darkened atmosphere painted a moody backdrop for the cliffs to present themselves and my camera and I had a field day.

I wrote in my journal later that night about how the green moss cascaded down the rocky cliffs with a poetic ease, exploding in a cacophony of white spray and force with the angry seas below. In retrospect, perhaps that is what makes this place so endearing; that there is a narrative in the landscape that unfolds if you open yourself up to it. The grass, flattened by the wind, rippled across the terrain like veins on a heart. It radiates so much passion but so much peace. We are so small in the face of nature.

My instagram-filter accomplice and all-around partner in crime, Silke Thompson is pictured above. As I’m sure you can tell from this photo (and luckily for me), Silke is always ready for a photoshoot, rain or shine, concrete or dirt!

We returned from the Cliffs of Moher late Sunday evening and began our study tour with full force on Monday morning. Our first visit was with Google, where they clarified their professional skills, explained the advantages and frustrations of working with the tech industry, and shared their best career advice. I could probably fill an entire post with the lessons I learned from visiting these companies, but for now I will just this: I was shocked by how many different hats each employee has to fashion, and I realized that to succeed in an industry its not enough to be smart. Every “googler” that we spoke to had an incredible tenacity to learn and experiment (in other words, it doesn’t matter what they know as much as how they can innovate with the tools they are given). It was inspiring and altogether heartening to know that creativity and engagement was valued above all else.

Later that afternoon, my class trekked across Dublin to Trinity College where we ate lunch, went on a walking tour of the city, and saw the Book of Kells. I study Art History at home, so when I finally got to the dimly-lit room housing the Book of Kells, I could hardly contain the fireworks going off in my head.

On the eighth day of October in 2019, I, along with fifteen of my classmates, had my “I am in love with Ireland” moment. Between our visit to Brand & Retail Design and Amazon Web Services we all convened at the Shelbourne Hotel for afternoon tea (in the Constitution Room where the Irish constitution was ratified in 1922!). Towers of tiny sandwiches, pastries, and desserts sent me into the food coma of the century.

I bid farewell to Ireland and their delicious foods on Thursday, only to say hello to Prague and their delicious desserts on Friday. I’m in the Czech Republic to meet up with friends from my home university, stay tuned for more stories and photos!

Fuji Film Friday Round 2

Since I posted my last fuji film update last Friday, my little polaroid and I have been to another country (see previous post for more info) and all over Copenhagen! October is usually a packed month for traveling among DIS students, so my roommate and I have made a conscious decision to try and pack as much exploring into the weekdays in Copenhagen. So far we’ve found a delicious ramen place, used the new metro line, and…. Stayed in. Its expensive to explore, but we’re trying to make it work! Anywho, take a look below for my time in Norway (I could hardly a-fjord the trip, but it was so worth it! Haha!):

Literally four hours after our plane landed at 2 in the morning, Alex, Isabelle, and I were at the bus station in Bergen, Norway, preparing for our 12 hour fjord tour. Yes, you read that correctly! We spent 12 whole hours exploring Hardanger fjord (including a few hours on the bus) and Vøringsfossen waterfall. Pictured above is Alex and Isabelle on our fjord cruise when the wind started to pick up. The temperature wasn’t too bad (maybe around 55 degrees), but the wind was brutal! Even so, we stuck out it out for these views:

This fjord tour was especially magical because of our timing. Most companies stop offering fjord tours in October because the weather is so nasty, and because this was the last weekend in September, we were one of only a few people on the boat. The wind was painful, but the isolated quietness of the area was amplified by our vacant tour boat.

Later that night I wrote in my journal, and underneath the picture (above) I wrote “words simply cannot do this scene justice. The contrast! The drama! The character! Hardangerfjord, you’ve outdone yourself!” Maybe the dramatic character in this case is me, but it still shows how awe-struck I felt after standing in front of this landscape. Looking up at the cliffs with the deep blues and rich greens was truly profound.

See the smudges on the left of this polaroid? Thats how you know it is authentic. I loved going on this tour because it gave me a chance to reconnect with my camera in a way that I haven’t in a long time (I took over 1,000 photographs!). Walking against the wind on the deck of the boat, camera pressed against my forehead, I knew I had entered the creative zone. My camera was but an extension of myself, and all I knew was the world through my viewfinder.

Midway through our tour we took an excursion to Vøringsfossen waterfall. Again, I felt like I could feel the earths forces moving in front of me. After we departed the waterfall the rest of the day was a blur— Alex, Isabelle, and I were running on less than three hours of sleep, and as the weather turned sour we retired to the seating area of the boat and took a nap. We finally made it back to Bergen around 8, and explored the city before heading back to our air bnb for some much needed sleep.

On Sunday, our first and final day in Bergen, we walked through the city’s winding street. We agreed that the steep hills and quirky vibe felt like San Francisco (er.. I’ve actually never been there, maybe what I mean is “a quirky vibe that I think would exist in San Francisco). I love this tree, it looks like someone gave it a bad haircut on the bottom half and tried to dress it up with colorful flags.

Of course we couldn’t leave Bergen without getting a picture of the classic triangle-shop-house-things. We walked around the area after we took photos, but everything was pretty expensive (fortunately the pastries were within our budget!).

Okay, so I know what you must be thinking: really? McDonalds? You went all the way to Denmark only to go all the way to Norway only to get McDonalds!?

Trust me, I’m the last person you would find at a McDonalds in America, but Alex and Isabelle convinced me to try the ~Norwegian~ McDonalds because “they have veggie burgers! And veggie nuggets! It is the only place that they offer it and we have to try it!”

So right before we had to leave for our flight we walked into the classiest McDonalds I have ever seen and ordered a McVeg, Veggie nuggets, and sweet potato fries. What a decadent fast-food meal! I’m only half kidding. We ate the feast on the metro to the airport and decided that the veggie burger was a solid 8/10; it had just the right amount of crispy with surprisingly fresh toppings. The veggie nuggets were a 7/10 (mostly because they just couldn’t compare to the veggie burger). Eating the nuggets we were shocked— we could actually see vegetables in the nuggets (in other words, these nuggets weren’t just made of any old veggie mush, these were real vegetables!). Obviously the sweet potato fries were a big crowd pleaser. Overall, the experience was better than I could have ever expected. If you ever find yourself in Norway, be sure to check it out!

On Wednesday I walked around the park outside of the Botanical gardens (about a ten minute walk from DIS). Nature is trying to hold on to the last days of sunshine before fall moves in, and even while I was taking this picture there were raindrops falling from the sky. I feel so much pressure to take in the city while I can; every time I tour the city I am shocked by how beautiful it is and how much there is still to explore.

My wonderful roommate Cynthia met me at a packed ramen restaurant around the meatpacking district in Vesterbro on Thursday night. Somehow we were able to find a seat, but not before ordering from this bizarre menu! First we decided what we wanted, then we pushed the button with the image of it on the machine, then it spit out a ticket that we took to the counter and paid. How fun! The machine kept lighting up in a bunch of different colors and the ramen itself was unreal.

Obviously I am not sticking to my one-polaroid-a-day goal, but I’m cool with it. How can I possibly hold back when there is so much to capture everyday!? Thank you for following along, see you next Friday! Spoiler alert: two more countries are on the horizon.

“There is No(r)way we’ve only been here for 36 hours…”

Indeed, it felt impossible that I had only been in Norway for thirty-six hours as I dragged my feet across the Bergen airport on Sunday night. And yet. And yet! It was true: my trusty travelers, Alex and Isabelle, and I had packed in a twelve hour fjord cruise, a waterfall excursion, an arduous hike, and three dinners in just two days.

It all started in the beginning of September when Isabelle, Alex, and I sat huddled around a table in Alex’s flat: “Should we just do it!? I mean, twelve hours through a fjord, what’s not to love, right?” I exclaimed. “Lets just do it!”

And did it we did. Three weeks later we landed in Bergen at 2 in the morning after our plane was delayed, and payed the price for the twelve-hour-fjord-tour with less than three hours of sleep. Sitting at the Bergen bus station four hours after our plane landed, munching on chips for breakfast in the dark, the idea of getting on a boat for half the day was much less endearing. But after we boarded the bus, the sun started rising and we saw the Norwegian landscape for the first time:

Luckily the bus was pretty empty so I could jump from one side to other whenever a scene presented itself. I’m embarrassed to say that this gave me a fair amount of adrenaline!

By the time we made it to the fjord cruise, I had already taken 300 photographs. And that was only the beginning. Hardangerfjord was truly a photographers paradise: the sun illuminated the blues and greens of the country to an unbelievable vibrancy:

It was physically overpowering to stand in front of these mountains; it felt like mother nature’s way of shouting or writing in all caps. Each hour on the water bled into the next until my hands were numb and my face was sunburnt. Our boat took us to Eidfjord where we disembarked and got on a bus to visit the Vøringsfossen waterfall:

Again, I was overcome by the earths forces and sheer beauty.

Once we boarded the cruise to head home, the exhaustion of the day really started to catch up to us. One boat ride and one bus ride later we were back in Bergen—the twilight atmosphere cast the same shadows as 12 hours earlier when we were sitting at the bus station awaiting our adventure. We could hardly believe how much we were able to accomplish, and after epic burgers and ice cream we stumbled home for some much needed sleep.

On Sunday we slept in and explored the town, leaving time to hike up the easy Mount Fløyen— “Only a 45 minute walk,” google maps said; “Easy, family friendly hike,” the poster outside of Bergen said.

Lies. Lies! All of it, lies! Alex, Isabelle, and I set out for Mount Fløyen with high spirits, stopping every so often to take a sip of water and take in the sites. But after 15 minutes of hiking at a literal 90 degree angle, we realized this was only the beginning: the trail only got increasingly steeper, and as well-dressed Norwegians effortlessly passed us with their dogs, we had to stop at every turn to catch our breath and sit down! But one hour and 300 calories later we made it to the top:

The view was almost worth the suffering and embarrassment. Almost. Luckily the trek down was significantly shorter and less painful! With only a few hours left in Bergen we explored the town, bought some necessary pastries, and set out for the airport around 5.

And just like that, our 36 hour stint in Bergen was complete. I couldn’t believe the beauty of this humble city, and as much as we had been able to see, I couldn’t help but imagine all that was left to explore. Farvel for nå, Bergen!

Fuji Film Friday, Round 1

On top of my blogging relationship with wordpress, I have also been keeping daily records with my personal, handwritten journal. It makes for an awesome way to store my memories until I can fully flesh them out on here, and it gives me the opportunity to check in on myself at the end of the day (self-care is so important, even when you’re having the time of your life abroad!). I had a lot of goals when I left the United States in August, but I’ve dedicated the most time to one goal in particular: to appreciate something special everyday and make the most of the challenges I face. I believe that there is a lesson to be learned with every adventure, and I intended to find it in even the most unlikely situations. This daily effort to be mindful and appreciative can be exhausting, but I manage it by writing in my journal every night.

But as I said in the beginning of my blogging journey, I’m a photographer first, writer second! So to make my daily journal goal more fun, I ventured to also take one polaroid a day. This is the perfect compromise, I thought optimistically. Unfortunately, this one-polaroid-a-day strategy lasted…. Four days. Since August 21 I have been averaging at least two polaroids a day, but until my film stash runs out, I’m going to keep at it! In the meantime I thought I could do a little wrap-up of the week on wordpress based on the polaroids from the past seven days— hence the Fuji Film Friday title. So without further ado, I present September 20-27, as recorded by my trusty raspberry-colored fuji film polaroid camera:

This past weekend I was lucky enough to have two of my good friends from college (thanks William & Mary for introducing me to such cool people!) come visit me. Ludy (left) spent the spring semester in Chile and is now spending her fall semester in Madrid, while Henry (right) is studying urban planning at Oxford. I had a blast showing them all the cool spots, the most famous being the colorful streets of Nyhaven (pronounced “Noo-haun”) pictured above!

No trip to Copenhagen is complete without a tour from the water: after taking Ludy and Henry to the touristy spots during the day, I went off the beaten path and rented a boat for an hour to take around the harbor. Colby, one of my American flatmates, and Cynthia, my wonderful roommate, met us around 6 and before we knew it we were in the middle of the river. Cynthia is pictured above in all of her boat-driving glory. I mean, we only hit the wall of the canal twice, I’d say that’s a pretty great record!

On Saturday I took Henry and Ludy to my favorite spot in Copenhagen: the Garden of the Royal Library. Especially in the afternoon sunlight the garden seems to transform into a magical fairy garden, complete with little birdhouses and rows of colorful flowers.

On Saturday night we all legitimately blew our life savings on the best sushi I have ever tasted in my life. Sticks and sushi, a restaurant strategically positioned right above Tivoli (the amusement park in Copenhagen), serves the best views and sashimi in town! I blame the enchanting atmosphere of Tivoli for leading me to believe I could live so lavishly, but if I’m being honest… I regret nothing. My bank account might be screaming, but just look at all that sushi! It is my dream come true!

Ludy and I explored Copenhagen on Sunday and came across a wooden giants (pictured above). This city is filled with whimsical expressions of art and activism; I love that I’ve been here for over six weeks and I’m still finding little pockets of beauty!

I gave my polaroid a rest from Monday to Thursday, but broke it back out when I attended a lecture by Shoshana Zuboff at the Louisiana Museum of Art. Shoshana spoke passionately about the consequences of data collection and the future of digital culture, and I applied her ideas to my paper for my core course, New Media and Changing Communities.

Thats all for this week, thanks for following along! See you next week for another Fuji Film Friday.

Visiting an Online Nation and Free-falling in Sweden: Core Course Week 1

Have you ever heard of Ladonia, a micro-nation in Sweden made up of 20,000 online citizens from 50 countries? Their national anthem is the sound of a stone being thrown in the water, there are technically no residents within their physical boundaries, and the country just voted to install a prime minister! Ringing any bells? No?

Don’t feel bad. Up until last Saturday I had also never come across the ephemeral realm of this Swedish territory, but once I set foot in their sculptural terrain I couldn’t unsee the magic:

Welcome to Ladonia: situated in the natural reserve of Kullaberg in southern Sweden, the transitory micro-nation encapsulates the spindly sculpture Nimis (pictured above) by Lars Vilks in its boundaries.

Here is the backstory on Ladonia: Lars Vilks illegally erected this sculpture from 75 tonnes of driftwood on the Swedish natural reserve, and in an effort to preserve it from the Swedish government, he declared the surrounding area an independent country named Ladonia in 1996. Since then, this corner of Sweden has received a fair amount of attention from avant-guard artists, locals, and tourists, even inspiring a sculpture adjacent to Nimis titled Omphalos:

This intersection between communication and culture, between worshipped expression and heated debate, is why my classmates and I found ourselves in Ladonia on a Saturday morning in September. But I didn’t just explore Sweden with any class— Ladonia was the finishing touch on a long week of field trips, lectures, and activities arranged by something DIS calls my “core course”. Everyone at DIS is required to enroll in this core course, which is best explained as a predominant class (most of which are three credits, a select few are six) that relates to a student’s major at their home university. Each core course includes a week-long program stay tour to a European destination (I’ll be going to Ireland in a few weeks!) in October and a Core Course Week comprised of a two-day seminar in Copenhagen and a three-day short study tour in September. This blog post relates to the latter scenario; my core course, New Media and Changing Communities, explored Copenhagen on Monday and Tuesday and then hopped across the water to stay Sweden from Thursday to Saturday.

But I’ve gotten ahead of myself. Allow me to start my Core Course story where it all began: on a dreary Monday morning in the meatpacking district of Copenhagen. We were gathered there to experience startup culture first hand, specifically through the lends of a startup named Duuoo. Duuoo describes their product as “the performance review, reimagined” with “continuous performance development software for high performing, engaged teams.” Their company process was fascinating, but the working environment that Duuoo fostered was even more striking: large tables, natural light, and play spaces peppered the open floor plan of the workspace. The aesthetic produced a creative, receptive backdrop for Duuoo to operate in; a sort of “serious play” framework that inspired me to innovate and create right there on the spot. We left Duuoo all too soon and made our way to DR, the Danish Broadcasting Corporation also located in Copenhagen. On top of a guided tour of the facilities (including the backdrop for a TV show, news set, broadcasting room, and storage areas), we met with Sophie Bremer, a renounced Danish journalist who explained the fair, trustworthy relationship between the Danish public and DR’s journalism—a far cry from the fake news culture in the United States.

**News Flash: I’m obsessed with Denmark and I’d like to stay here forever!**

On Tuesday we met again in the rainy meatpacking district, but this time to visit Khora, a virtual reality studio. One of the stations offered a scary snake-infested environment, so of course I confidently put on the virtual reality mask, laughing at my other classmates who were unnerved by the “snakes”, only to find myself screaming and ripping off the mask only minutes later. The lifelike experience of virtual reality was truly shocking; I recoiled when a shark swam by in one station and felt my head spin when I jumped out of a skyscraper at another.

Later that afternoon we went to Aller, a Danish publishing company best known for their work with Elle magazine, Cafe Magazine, and Familie Journalen. Cecelia Boll, the digital strategist for Aller, discussed with surprising candor the uncertain future for the publishing industry, specifically within magazines. After her presentation she earnestly asked us (us!) what we thought the resolution was for publishing in the digital age. Sitting around the table with my sixteen other classmates discussing solutions, I suddenly felt as though I was in a board meeting with my colleagues. And perhaps the craziest part was how natural it all felt. Cecelia spoke to us as though we were informed professionals, and I found myself answering her questions with more confidence, creativity, and assertiveness than I thought possible.

Aller’s physical foundation is just as creative as its production: the building is designed to resemble a ship in the harbor.

My class met on Thursday morning, fully rejuvenated after having Wednesday off to relax, ready to travel to Malmö, Sweden! We boarded the bus promptly at 8:30, and before we had time to get settled we were already in Malmö. I was shocked— the bus ride was literally shorter than my commute to the grocery store in the United States. Dorte, my wonderful professor, and Christina, Dorte’s right-hand woman, bought us coffee and prepared us for our first Swedish visit: Sydsvenskan, the local newspaper in Malmö. Heidi Avellan, the editor of the opinion section, discussed problems facing Sydsvenskan that were strikingly similar to that of Aller. In short, the immediacy of the digital age and the devastating affect it has on the publishing industry is impossible to ignore, especially considering the future. Less and less people between 18 and 34 are spending money on physical newspapers and magazines, but companies are struggling to make a profit online.

We brainstormed with Avellan, talked to other journalists about online strategies, and took a tour of the rest of the news space. Malmö is an especially interesting city to explore through the lens of digital media because it has taken in a record amount of immigrants and refugees, making it the most diverse city in Scandinavia.

Later that afternoon we attended a lecture at Malmö University regarding the effects of the Syrian refugee crisis on digital culture and humanitarianism in media. After leaving the lecture we all agreed how relevant each field trip had been this week— my core course covers a wide range of topics (New Media could be applied to almost anything), but everyone’s diverse interests had been incorporated into the visits in one way or another.

After a long day of travel and learning, we explored the sunny streets of Malmö.

On Friday morning we started the day at Media Evolution City, a co-working space dedicated to collaboration and innovation in media companies. Again, we were floored by the aesthetic and attention to detail:

Our tour guide described how much they wanted people to feel comfortable in the space; they even did an experiment where they left a candy wrapper on the ground to see how long it would take someone to pick up. “We want people to feel at home here, so if there’s a candy wrapper on the ground, they should pick it up. We want to emphasize that this is a shared space for innovation, responsibility, and creativity.” For the record, someone did pick up the wrapper!

We left Malmö that afternoon and set off for Helsingborg where we put our skills to the test… in the form of zip lining! Each core course puts in effort to take students out of the academic setting and immerse them in culture (or in my case, “immersing in culture” meant free-falling from a tree twenty feet above the ground while zip-lining employees yelled instructions to me in Swedish). What a rush!

**My core course is bonded for life now. Once you free-fall in the middle of the woods in Sweden, there’s no going back.**

Later that evening we took to the streets of Helsingborg to see what Sweden had to offer, only to literally strike gold: we found an outdoor bar with a band playing classic songs (in English). When we sat down we realized that everyone in the bar was playing against each other to guess the most songs (or at least we think, the sheet of paper was all in Swedish). If it was indeed a game, our table would have won by a landslide— we shrieked the lyrics to Queen, Abba, and Van Morrison until our faces were numb.

On Saturday we woke up and hiked to Ladonia, the online nation I described in the beginning of this post. We’re all caught up, and even after writing it all down, I still struggle to believe that my class was able to accomplish this much in just a five day period. If anything, this week speaks to the unparalleled engagement and excitement in DIS, both on behalf of the students and faculty. Through the field trips and tours I learned more than ever had in a class, felt more sure of myself than I ever had in a lecture, and left feeling intensely inspired to embrace New Media as my career of choice. I never would have had this opportunity in the United States, much less in the collaborative, aesthetic environment of Danish and Swedish design. I can’t wait to see what my class accomplishes in our long study tour in Dublin in just a few weeks!

Of course, no tour is complete without some seriously incredible eats. I could write an entire blog post about the delicious food I consumed with my class in Sweden, but I’ll allow the pictures to speak for themselves. My taste buds will never be the same!

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The Dogs of Copenhagen

You’ve heard of The Humans of New York, but have you met The Dogs of Copenhagen? The lovable pups of Denmark’s capital city are cuter, fuzzier, and friendlier than their human counterparts- where a Dane might avoid eye contact and politely ignore you, their dogs will gleefully leap into the scene and beg for a kiss and cuddle. Luckily I am always ready to smother any and all dogs with unconditional love.

For my third Sunday in Copenhagen, I challenged myself to get to know the four-legged locals. With my camera around my neck and treats in hand, I kept my vision low to the ground and carefully listened for the sweet jingle of a dog collar. After a few hours (and countless treats) my efforts paid off and I met six of Copenhagen’s finest pups- have a look below!

Molly is a Boston Terrier who grew up in Copenhagen. Molly and her human, Nina, had just returned from a trip: “I travel with her everywhere,” laughed Nina. “She tends to steal the show!”

Meet Vera the Pug. She’s an old soul but she still finds it in her to walk in the park with her human, Tom. She didn’t like my cheese bit treats very much, but I think it takes some time to get to know her: Tom described her as “her own kind of dog. She is very lovable!”

Carlo and Bobbo: “They are best friends!”

Carlo, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, is just one year old and tries to keep up with his best friend who lives in his building, Bobbo. “Sometimes he just runs through the hall out of nowhere and jumps on us! It scares us every time!”

Here we can see the evolution of Bobbo’s thought process: I can almost hear him thinking “scanning… scanning… okay she brought treats, she’s okay!”. Bobbo is a French Bull Dog, half a year older than Carlo. “Find him on instagram: Bobbo_the_frenchie!”

This is Freya. She is an Alaskan Husky/Labrador mix and turns eight years old this month. She likes to stand like a human in exchange for treats!

Yackie is an eleven-year-old Border Terrier. “He feels energies. If people are sad he’ll comfort them. He’s just my best friend.”

I hope you enjoyed this tender report on the most lovable residents of Copenhagen! I fall in love with this city a little more everyday and I can’t wait to learn more about it. Check back in for a reflection on my first study tour and a food tour of Copenhagen (sampling the best danish in the city is a must)!

Dinner with the Danes

Of all the inanimate structures in the world, homes always tell the best story. The gentle slope of the threshold, worn down after years of use, kindly whispers “welcome”; the warm light of the kitchen murmurs of late nights making tea or overcrowded evenings making chicken-pot-pie. The trinkets and aesthetic of a house allude to entire ancestries within a single space, in an eyes-are-the-windows-to-the-soul way but with furniture and wallpaper instead of eyes and countless generations instead of a single soul. So, when I finally settled into Denmark and met my visiting host family in their delightful and warm home, I wasn’t the slightest bit surprised to find that they were a kind and cozy bunch too. They welcomed me into their space with the comfort of a best-friend’s house and the charm of a one-hundred-year-old Danish home. Which, for the record, is the actual age of their humble abode.

I arrived at my visiting host family’s house on Tuesday afternoon, just past five o’clock (or, for all you European readers, 17:00). I had been there before, just a day after I landed in Denmark for the first time, but my jet lag was so severe that this visit still felt initial. I was determined to remember more about this visit than last time, so before I went inside I pulled my bike up on the curb across the street and took a quick photo of their house. The facade is truly striking: the lack of windows hums privacy, but the bright yellow paint sings “hello!”.

**The view of my visiting host family’s house from the street.**

Before I go into the rest of the evening, allow me to explain the idea of a Visiting Host Family: DIS has organized a program that allows students (like me!) who live in residential communities to be paired with a Danish family that they see every few weeks, similar to a host family but a little less intense. We meet every so often to get dinner, exchange culture, and just hang out. The convenience and authenticity makes it a popular option among DIS students who want to get to know Danish culture more intimately.

Flashback to me standing in front of my visiting host family’s beautiful house on Tuesday when my host mother, Susanne, opens the door. The rest of the family isn’t home yet, and the kitchen is filled with afternoon sunlight and preparations for our falafel dinner. “Can I get you any tea or coffee?” Susanne asks as she buzzes around the kitchen, olive oil in one hand, greek yogurt in the other. I politely decline (the bike ride to their house left me plenty warm) and move to the glass doors overlooking the patio:

**The patio and garden of my visiting host family’s house**

Similar to Danish social norms, my visiting host family’s house is reserved when you first see it. Its friendly but unassuming; you don’t experience warmth and expression until you’re invited into the conversation. Lucky for me, my encounter with this Danish home and family has been absolutely lovely— they gave me a seat at the table; a glimpse into their beautiful little danish routine. Taking in the flowery terrace, I feel a soft nudge on my shin. Joy, the family’s Cornish Rex cat, had come through the kitchen to pay me a visit!

**Joy, the family’s cat, is also friendly, beautiful, and shockingly soft!**

Aside from Joy’s shenanigans, the kitchen is bustling with falafel, polenta fries, and freshly baked bread. Most of the family is home now and Jan, my visiting host dad, gets me a Swedish beer to try. Sille, a fourteen-year-old jewelry maker/trampoline professional, is showing me some of her favorite pictures on her Nikon. Maia, a sixteen-year-old Titanic specialist is just coming home from her part-time job at the grocery store. Looking through the terrace doors, a stranger might think I had known this family for months. They welcomed me into their dynamic with open arms, and repeatedly insisted that I come to their house “whenever you need. Whenever you want!”

**Susanne, my visiting host mother. Alternate title: Professional Chef. She has made me not one but TWO of my favorite meals thus far in Denmark.**

I want to help out with dinner prep, but its too late— Sille is taking me outside to trampoline (I mean, how can I refuse!?). Sille is like a graceful bird that can flip upside down, around, and backwards with no regard for gravity:

She explains how she can fit two cartwheels on the trampoline, but never three; she has spent years practicing in the backyard, taking videos that she can review later to improve her form. Back inside dinner is being finalized and I find Jan to ask him about the history of the house: “The house just turned 100 years old,” he explains. “We held a birthday party for the house a few weeks ago and invited the community over for drinks, dinner in the garden, and dancing.” He shows me pictures on his iPad where indeed, a good number of people had gathered to celebrate the life of the neighborhood home.

The history of the house is even more fascinating: a year before the house was constructed, the architect received the highest award for architectural design. I don’t have the direct translation, but I know that it was prestigious in Denmark and the house is featured in various design books of Denmark. Rightfully so, the family is very proud. The house was officially built in 1919, complete with a sign above the front door denoting that the residence was “designed by architect Christian Kampmann for Alfred Møller and his wife Dagmar and their three kids”. Little details like this shift the atmosphere of the building from “house” to “home”; it produces the kind of structural character that inspires birthday parties and visiting hosts.

**The view from the dining room, looking into the garden**

“Dinner is ready!” Susanne calls from the kitchen. “Dinner” in this case is a conservative term… Perhaps “feast” is more along the lines of what our evening meal turned out to be. Falafel, Tzatziki sauce, fresh bread, hummus, polenta French fries, greek salad, and freshly picked mushrooms have taken over the dining room table and I am officially in heaven. As I attempt to take in all the dishes, Sille and I compare music tastes, Jan talks about the new hospital built down the street, and I fill everyone in on my weekend trip to Berlin. I’ve never known a group of people for so little time, only to feel so overwhelmingly comfortable.

**Jan, Maia (not pictured), Susanne, and Sille**

Jan, Susanne, Sille, and Maia made my Tuesday night extraordinary with normalcy. Much like the house’s exterior, the first time I met them we both presented sunny, blank facades. But now, sitting around the dining room table, enjoying their company in the warm glow of the lamp, I knew I had entered into their home of sentiment and care. My adoration and appreciation grew with every laugh, and as I sat there talking to Maia about the Titanic, enjoying the best falafel I had ever had, I couldn’t help but think “I just can’t wait to come back.”

The Moment I Knew I Was Home

As of today, I have spent 8 days, 11 hours, and 50 minutes in Denmark. Or, in my preferred measurement of time, I have consumed seven glorious ice cream cones, crossed nine adventures off of my Copenhagen bucket list, and filled twenty pages in my journal. This week has felt more like its weight in hours (192 hours, to be exact), and I’m only now beginning to process the excitement of it all. I could glaze over the past eight days and recount the glossy highlights of exploring the city, but really there’s only one ordinary moment that I want to talk about. It’s the moment that, after being in this country for just four hours, I realized I was home.

It all began when I arrived at my housing assignment exhausted, confused, and slightly delirious from my travels through the Copenhagen airport (the substantial packing job I had originally praised myself for quickly turned into a cumbersome suitcase that was nearly impossible to transport on my own). By some miracle, at 4 P.M. on Saturday, August 16, I finally made it to my new humble abode:

I live in the Nimbus Kollegium located in Frederiksberg, about two miles away from the DIS campus. Fabulously situated close to a metro stop and the Copenhagen zoo, Nimbus is definitely the place to be!

I live in a Kollegium which means I share a flat with five American students and three Danes. I’m about 20 minutes from central Copenhagen by bike, and fantastically positioned next to the Copenhagen Zoo, the Frederiksberg Gardens, and the best 7-eleven in the whole city. When I arrived at the Kollegium on Saturday afternoon I was overwhelmed with the general post-travel exhaustion, and I barely had enough moral to drag my bags across the threshold. The excitement of being in a new place was quickly wearing off and instead being replaced with a quiet panic— I needed to unpack, I needed to meet people, and I needed to figure out how to work a Danish shower. Anxiously, almost subconsciously, I started remembering things I had left at home and items I had to buy.

And then, in the height of my apprehension, I saw Sofie. Walking down the hall from her room, she warmly extended her hands and introduced herself as one of my Danish flatmates who had lived in the apartment for a few years. She joked about the magnitude of my luggage and gently asked if I would join her in having tea. I told her I would love nothing more, and together we sat at the kitchen table sharing a pot of licorice tea. Sofie talked about her life, I talked about mine, and she shared her experiences and adventures from Copenhagen.

Having only known Sofie for a little under an hour, I relaxed in the afternoon sunshine with her, feeling at home with a warm cup of tea in my hands. It may have been the jet-lag, it may have been the rose-colored-Copenhagen syndrome, but through Sofie’s company I felt the weight of travel and assimilation become simple fairy dust. My apprehension was superfluous while my potential for adventure was profound; Sofie’s stories painted an image of Copenhagen that was approachable and cozy, and I could make it my own if I wanted to. It was at this moment that I realized the study-abroad victories are not always so grand. I was so anxious to find outstanding comfort and grand connection in this new city, but really, at the end of the day, all it took was just a warm cup of tea. And a small dose of Sofie.

Its been a week since I sat across from Sofie drinking tea, and I’ve made my way from my housing to DIS without directions a few times, made friends that already feel like family, and obtained one of the worst sunburns ever. And all in just 8 days time! I can’t wait to scratch the surface of Denmark’s culture, check back in a few days for another peek into Copenhagen life!

The Character of Copenhagen Construction

I’ve been in Copenhagen for four days now, and the luster of the everyday is hardly wearing off. My steady love for anything and everything that this city has thrown at me has forced me to diagnose myself with Rose-Colored-Copenhagen syndrome— allow me to explain: during my first day here, I asked my danish flatmate, Sofie, where the trash was in the apartment, and once she showed me, I cheerfully exclaimed “oh, how fun!”. Later that day, she showed me the dumpster and I involuntarily blurted out the same sentiment (In this case the dumpster was interesting because there were also large bins for recycling, but still!). In no way, shape, or form does trash placement ever warrant that much excitement, but in the moment even the most mundane activity felt thrilling and so perfectly danish.

Outside of the flat I have been consistently star-struck with every detail of this city, from the colorful facades of the Nyhavn canal to the warm glow of the seven-eleven sign on my street. My friends and I have found time to explore everyday, but it has proven difficult with me because at every corner I find a reason to stop, break out the camera, and jot a note down in my phone. Some details are more noteworthy than others, but over the past few days I’ve made an effort to focus my attention on the structural character of the city; it almost feels as though there’s a new color around every corner and if I don’t capture it in some way it will slip right through my fingers. So, behold the Buildings of Copenhagen: each with their own flare and spirit, each with a special place in my heart.