Finally Feeling at Home

Living with a Danish roommate has certainly had its perks so far as well as making for some interesting times. It’s been lovely to have a space to myself when I’m finished with school for the day or I’m tired from a long day of making new friends and exploring as many facets of the city as possible. While I know others go home to a house full of fellow students (which can also be nice), I thoroughly enjoy being able to decompress in my quiet apartment. And when my roommate, Cathrine, comes home, we have a great time exchanging stories and I can ask her my million questions for the day. She’s actually been great about explaining parts of Danish culture to me, like the education system, kollegiums, the gap year, when people here learn to bike. She was particularly helpful while I attempted riding her bike for the first time, i.e. she snapchatted pictures of me to her friends, laughed continuously, and showed me pictures of her cousin’s 3 year old daughter who just successfully learned to ride a bike without training wheels. Nice, right? (I was definitely great at riding a bike when I was a kid, I just haven’t ridden one since I was about 10…)

But then I also get to meet her friends, which is a huge plus because it’s a bunch of Danes that are ridiculously easy to meet and already want to talk to me because I’m living with their friend. Of course, the levels of English speaking ability vary and I feel very guilty for coming into a country where I speak absolutely none of the language yet. But they’ve all been extremely nice and understanding and most have started up multiple conversations with me, which I’ve really appreciated. I love getting to know them. And, honestly, nearly everyone I’ve met here in the past two weeks speaks English impeccably well, which is far more than I can say for my Danish speaking abilities, despite the three classes I’ve had so far. Cathrine also likes to show me around her favorite spots, so we went down to the harbor at Islands Brygge with several of her friends last weekend and she convinced me to jump in with everyone else! It was freezing! But you get used to it after being totally submerged and it was actually a blast.

The other thing I love about this program is that most students are placed with roommates that live within the city because so many Danes this age live in little apartments around Copenhagen. So the commute is not bad at all but I still get to get away from campus after my day’s over and have an entirely new place to explore. I love living in Nørrebro. Yesterday, the apartments in my area threw a little street party right below my building and it was a lot of fun to just hang out and listen to some local bands. 

I’ve really enjoyed listening to some Danish music and being able to appreciate so much of it even though I can’t understand the lyrics. Plus, walking around my neighborhood just to see what’s here is amazing. Just look at the pictures! The architecture continues to astound me on a daily basis. So…long story short, I’ve had an incredible experience living with a local thus far 🙂

I love how the top of this building is just sticking out of the roof! And this is a prime example of streetlights here, hanging from a wire.

There’s another little top sticking out of the roof on the right and the main building here is just gorgeous and so unique!