It is strange how the process of getting acclimated to living in a new area works, especially in an entirely new country. For a while, it feels like you are a baby again. All of the sights and sounds around you are almost completely new and, most likely, people around you are speaking in a language that is entirely meaningless to you. For the first few weeks in Copenhagen, it felt like my brain was just a sponge trying to soak up as much information as it possibly could.
Finally, my daily life in Copenhagen has begun to feel like a normal routine. Now, when I wake up, I don’t feel like I am in a place that is completely foreign to me. Eventually, a sense of accomplishment arose when I realized I could get to certain places without the use of Google Maps or some other navigation service. That doesn’t mean I don’t still occasionally get lost, however. But in my opinion, the mistakes I made when I first got here were a necessary part of getting to know a city. No one automatically adapts to an entirely new city seamlessly. Walking the wrong direction or taking the wrong train is all part of the experience. All of this is why I am so glad that I decided to enroll in two Sessions instead of just one. I feel like I only got truly acclimated right at the end of Session 1, and now I can spend the next Session feeling like an actual resident of Copenhagen.
What shocks me most is how much I have done in the past three weeks. Simultaneously I feel like I have been here for a long time but also that time has flown by. In the three weeks that I have been in Copenhagen, I have been to many places. I have been to Frederiksborg Castle, Kronborg Castle, Tivoli Gardens, The Six Forgotten Giants, The National Museum of Denmark, The Design Museum, The Little Mermaid, and more! I also completed the three-week course, The Meaning of Style. It was hard to believe that I had finished an entire course after only three weeks, but I also felt like I learned and experienced a lot in that amount of time.
Finally, I am very happy that I have been able to immerse myself into a completely new culture these last few weeks. I feel like I have a grasp on Danish culture that I never would have gained otherwise. And while doing so, I have been able to meet some great people along the way that I will hopefully remain in contact with long after my time with DIS ends. I am looking forward to getting to know this amazing city even more in the next three weeks!