With the end of my first week in Copenhagen approaching, it’s hard to believe that I’ve only been here a few days. From arrival until this moment I’ve been undergoing rapid immersion through both my studies and the many experiences I’ve had in the first few days of being a student in Denmark. Although I’ve become quite taken with the city with its picturesque views and happy people, that’s not to say there hasn’t been a few challenges in settling in. Upon immediately arriving I was filled with a combination of fear and excitement. Would I be comfortable in Copenhagen for the rest of the semester? Would I make new friends? Would I learn things both inside and outside of the classroom? Even though I still have some uncertainties, the end of this first week in Copenhagen has already answered these questions and left me with a feeling of excitement and adventure that I haven’t felt before. I found answers to my questions after a night out ended around a table at a McDonald’s by Norreport Station after missing the bus home to the kollegium where I’ve been living.
The first Tuesday after arrival was a day filled with practicalities for the rest of the semester—filling out visa forms, acquainting ourselves with the campus, and attending academic orientations. Still experiencing jetlag and slightly overwhelmed by the amount of information I needed to absorb, I was exhausted and quite frankly ready to sleep for hours on end. Myself and the other students living in my kollegium headed back home after this long day looking expressionless and exhausted. We all decided to head back to our rooms for a while with no intention of leaving the kollegium later that evening. A few hours later, to my surprise, we all eventually found ourselves excitedly talking with one another at our kollegium’s café. I suddenly wasn’t as tired as I originally thought and was ready to go explore Copenhagen with the other members of my kollegium.
The time spent on the bus together was filled with conversation, laughter, and a general excitement that everyone had so spontaneously decided to forego the fact that we were all so exhausted and take the opportunity to instead get to know one another and explore the city that we’d spent the last three days acquainting ourselves with. As we each hopped off the bus and starting confusingly trying to figure out which direction to go in, I couldn’t help but notice how beautifully different the city looked at night. We had got off the bus in front of the Parliament building, with water surrounding it on all sides. The lights reflected off the water and seemed to dance as we walked across the bridge towards the bar where we had heard other students would be going to. However, in that particular moment, I was so struck by the actual situation I was in. The city was quiet and almost empty aside from the escalating conversation of our group. I realized then that Copenhagen is a city with many canvases, changing with the different times of the day. The city has many layers to explore, whether it’s during the day, the evening, or with a group of rambunctious friends. All the fatigue I had felt earlier was suddenly gone and replaced with a rampant curiosity as I realized just how dynamic Copenhagen could be.
Our aimless walking eventually took us to several bars where we met both other DIS students and local Danes. There was a clear excitement spreading around wherever we went as myself and the other DIS students recognized what a great opportunity we all had to meet both new Americans and Danes. Just simply going out despite the inclination to stay in and sleep had made us aware of all the opportunity we have over the next four months to meet new people and discover a city that has elements both foreign and somewhat familiar to us. Despite the lively conversation and fun times being had, myself and two other students living at my kollegium decided we would try to catch the last regular bus back to our kollegium, which is about a 30 minute bus ride away. We realized we had about 20 minutes before the bus schedule transitioned to the night bus, which didn’t start running for another hour after the regular bus stopped running for the night. Still not entirely familiar with the layout of the neighborhood we were in, we decided to start heading in the direction of what we thought to be Central Station. As time started ticking away, we realized just how disoriented we were and began frantically looking for the station and hoping that we wouldn’t have to end up waiting an hour for the next bus home. Suddenly we saw bright red lights and lots of bus stops ahead of us. Quickly running to what we assumed must be our bus stop, we looked up only to find that we had not found Central Station, but had ended up at Norreport Station quite a ways away from where we actually needed to be. Tired, slightly agitated, and a little lost, we decided that there was no way we would be making the bus home for at least another hour and, not wanting to walk back from where we had just come from, started discussing what we could do for the next hour.
We found our answer when we saw a lot of young people walking in the direction of a McDonald’s across the street from the station. A little skeptical, but in need of a place to sit for at least an hour while we waited for a bus, we decided it was probably our best bet. At this moment I started second guessing all the positive feelings I had felt earlier. I was now exhausted, upset that I felt so unconfident using the public transportation here, and sitting in the most American place I could think of in the middle of Copenhagen. Not thoroughly amused at this point, myself and my two other kollegium members sat down at a booth and shared some french fries. Just as we sat down a local Danish man came up to us at our booth and randomly engaged in conversation with us. He seemed thoroughly interested in why we had chosen to come study in Copenhagen and, as a young Dane himself, talked to us for over half an hour about all the places he recommended we go before our time here is over. It turned out that in the most American place I could think of, I had actually had a really authentic conversation with a local Dane and learned about what I should be doing to experience life as a local while I’m here. Had all the frustration in not finding our bus stop not occurred, I would never have had the chance to meet the local Dane who had so kindly come up to us after recognizing that we were a little lost and a lot tired. I realized at this moment that just as seeing Copenhagen at night had surprised me, there will be many instances during my time abroad when the most important conversations come at the most unexpected times, even when it seems as if everything else has gone wrong.
As we started talking about all of the funny things we had experienced together that night and laughing about the absurdity of us running around Copenhagen frantically looking for a bus stop, I realized that we were exactly where we were supposed to be. Talking and laughing with the two other people around the booth at McDonald’s, I suddenly realized that they weren’t just people I was living with, but had the potential to become very good friends of mine. The night had gone from not planning on going out, to seeing beautiful Copenhagen under the lights, to sitting in a McDonald’s after we missed our bus. Although it appeared to be a string of random events, I realized after we met up with the other members of our kollegium at the late bus stop that this night was the first turning point in my experience. Sharing laughs and lively discussion with people that had been little more than strangers a few hours before, I realized on that long bus ride back that I was going to be making friends that I’ll cherish for a long time to come.
It’s hard to imagine that I’ve only been here a week mostly because upon reflecting on what to write about there seems to be so much that I’ve seen, done, and heard about. Although I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all of the events and activities that DIS has planned for us as new students abroad, it has been the unplanned and unforeseen moments that have stuck with me the most. My first night out in Copenhagen helped me realize that sometimes not sticking to the plan and rolling with the punches is the way to meet the people that may become your closest friends. There is an opportunity for immersion wherever you might find yourself, even in the McDonald’s at Norreport Station.
