https://juneincopenhagen.tumblr.com/
One week from tomorrow I am driving up to Vancouver, BC to catch a flight early the next morning to Copenhagen, Denmark. WOW! To see this all come together has been so surreal to me. It still doesn’t feel real. I’m pretty sure it won’t feel real until I am sitting on that plane. Maybe not even until I touchdown in Copenhagen (honestly though, maybe not even then).
Studying abroad has been a long time coming for me. After some self reflection, I realized I picked my dream college right out of high school almost completely because of the fact that it had a campus in Florence, Italy, making it very easy and almost expected to study abroad. I fell in love with this. I had a fascination with Italy that was only fueled by the promise of study abroad this school had made me. My love of all things Italy outlived my love for the school and even though I transferred after my first semester, my dream of studying abroad in Italy was alive and well.
Last year, at WWU, it looked as though I may get my dream. I had picked a program that would take me to Rome for 4 whole months. I was all set to go. I was accepted through the program and through Western, got my passport, and even had my whole budget figured out with the financial aid office. The total of the program made my mom scoff, but she said she’d do anything to help me have this experience I had been talking her ears off about for years now. I was so so excited. Then I got an email. The classes I was hoping to take while in Italy would not transfer to WWU and essentially I would be paying a large chunk of money to be knocked off track for graduation. I decided this wasn’t worth it and the wait to study abroad started again.
This year, I took a different approach to finding a study abroad program. Previously, when trying to find a program I was so set on Italy that I only looked at programs that would take me there. I had to let go of this fixation if I was going to find a program that fit my studies and price range. When I let go of Italy, the whole world opened up to me. And when this happened fate plopped a summer in Copenhagen in my lap. The program had an array of Psychology classes that would transfer and a summer program was much easier to fit into my budget than a semester program. So I decided on Copenhagen and fell in love instantly.
The more research I do on Denmark as a country and Copenhagen as a city the more I fall in love with it. In fact, this quarter I even wrote a paper and gave a presentation on their economy because I found it so interesting. I cannot wait to be walking by the colorful buildings next to beautiful canals. I can’t wait to take a short train ride into Sweden or to the oldest amusement park in the world. I can’t wait to hear the Danish language spoken around me (although I thank the heavens that most Danes speak English and I won’t have to try to have full conversation in this language I barely know!) I am just so happy and excited to have the privilege to experience this culture first hand. I can’t wait to see who I become as a result of this experience.
There are a lot of fears that come up when you’re about to study abroad. Plus, for me, it’s also going to be my first time abroad on my own. There’s the fear that you’re going to get stopped at customs or the fear that you’ll have your purse stolen. I, for one, am terrified the money I have saved up for spending money isn’t going to be enough. Despite these things though, I’ve decided to just forget about them. They may happen and they may not, either way it’s all part of the experience. Sure, I’m scared about the awkward interactions that are going to come with traveling abroad. I’m super scared I’m going to get hopelessly lost on my way to my first day of class (or at any given moment, really). I’m scared I’m not going to make friends easily. I have all the normal fears and anxieties about studying abroad, but mostly I’m just scared someone is going to pinch me and I’m going to have to wake up. I’m just scared this isn’t real. Through all the fear, this is the one thing I have been the most sure about in my life so far. I am determined to really experience everything this month abroad has to offer. One thing has never created so much stress and so much excitement for me at one time and I already feel this experience changing me for the better.