Come mid-May, DIS spring students prepare to take their last finals, discover the fairytale that is Tivoli, sit by the ships at Nyhavn, and wrap up their semester with goodbyes to host families, bikes, Copenhagen, DIS, Danish buddies, and new American friends. At that point, the sun sets later and later, and Scandinavian summer is just fighting its way in. Every Dane continues to insist that the Danish summer is coming. Soon enough, the parks become miraculously green and lined with students and friends from universities across the city. Meanwhile, cafes all over Copenhagen tempt the sidewalk-passerby with outdoor seating – blankets included! Street performers on the main walking street, Strøget, strum away at their guitars, and small one-man-markets filled with fresh Danish strawberries set up shop on every square. Imagine all of these things in one peek down Vestergade, the street where DIS lives. With that, there are always a handful of students after each semester who resist their flight back home to the States, find an opportunity, and take on summer in Copenhagen.
Erik Douds, a spring DIS Student Blogger, is one of those daring few! He decided to stay in Copenhagen to pursue an architecture and design internship, after organizing it with a DIS faculty. We look forward to hearing Erik’s first impressions soon, after he spends a week at his new digs – in a Danish workplace! For now, check out his post where he recaps 10 reasons to stay in Denmark for the summer (even including a helpful map of Immigration Services). Details on Erik’s internship are soon to follow!