Hey! My name is Cassandre (Ka-Sahn-Dreux) but you can call me Cassie. I’m a rising Senior at Spelman College, an all-women HBCU in Atlanta, Georgia. I was born in Montréal, Québec but I now live in Miami, Florida. I’m traveling to Copenhagen for three weeks to study Positive Psychology with DIS (Session 1). Not many study-abroad programs have psychology courses. As a psychology major, I wanted my study abroad experience to incorporate my passion and DIS is allowing me to do just that.
It’s my first time traveling abroad and I’m doing it alone. I would be lying if I told you that I wasn’t scared, nervous, excited, happy, intrigued, all the good stuff! To keep it real, my goals for the summer are so selfish: I want to explore Denmark, I want to make new lifelong friends, I want to learn and experience, and as cliché as it sounds, I want to LIVE! (all while earning 3 credit hours that go towards my matriculation at Spelman College. A win-win situation!)
During my three weeks, I’ll be living in a residential community in Amagerbro (which I learned, later than I’d like to admit, is said Ah-Ma-Bro) with my DIS-appointed-roommate, Wendy.
I’m really looking forward to reaching my most powerful tourist form while also immersing myself in Danish culture.
My first week in Copenhagen is officially over and listen, if nobody told you, I will: bring your comfy walking shoes and sturdy ankles because the cobblestone is tricky and you will be walking and walking and walking and walking and…
So, if you are like me, athletically-challenged, make time to stretch in the morning for your daily workout commute!
The longer I stay here, the longer my Copenhagen “bucket list” gets. So far, I have visited Nyhavn (which is the canal with all the pretty, colorful houses), the Little Mermaid statue, the Rosenborg Castle, the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, the Cisterns, and the beautiful Frederiksberg Gardens. I also enjoyed the night life on my first Friday here. As soon as the sun goes down, the Danes really come out! I can truly say, Danes have their own way of turning up!
No matter how common it is, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing Danes climb the bus with an open bottle of wine!
My Positive Psychology course is very interesting and somewhat all I’ve expected/not expected it to be. Many group work activities, lots of discussions, lots of readings (which make you question when you’ll have time to see your environment??? However, we make it work), I’ve questioned about 20 Danes about why they believe Denmark seems to be the happiest place on Earth on Field Studies, I’ve enjoyed some hygge with my classmates at local cafés after classes. I am also very excited about not only learning new concepts but actually putting them to practice.
So far, Copenhagen is not disappointing. My goals for next week are to learn to bike to and from school and visit more of Copenhagen and maybe a bit of Sweden next weekend.
It’s an A-B conversation and I’m C-ing my way outta here!
-your international girlfriend, Cassie.