Submitted by Mallory Smith on the 2014 fall semester DIS (Denmark’s International Study Program) program in Copenhagen, Denmark…
Today marks my 40th day in the beautiful country of Denmark and my friend recently brought to my attention that I will be in Europe for another 114 days (I’m traveling after the program for a month). This is a very strange reality because it acknowledges that eventually there will be an ending to what has so far been, and will continue to be, the best experience, thus far, of my life.
Although I am living in Copenhagen and am constantly trying to assimilate into the culture and society, I love spending my free time as a wanderlust tourist. I bike or walk, alone or with friends, all over the city with no plans other than to explore. Its incredible having the time to do this. What I don’t see today, I can always see tomorrow, but I try not to stick to that mentality because I have to see everything while the weather is still nice.
Everyday I bike to school (four miles each way), except my bike got stolen yesterday but as soon as I get a new one I’ll be back to my daily commute. There is something so incredible about the biking culture here. It keeps the streets of Copenhagen quiet always allowing time to get lost in your thoughts and it also keeps the air so clean!
It is extremely hard to condense everything I have experienced and learned in the past 40 days into a single blog post so I will keep it concise. My classes are all incredibly interesting. All of my professors are teaching two days a week on the side of an actual job in the field they are teaching. As a result, they are able to offer a great deal of real world and relevant perspectives and experiences to what we learn.
Complementing the amazing courses are field studies which I have for every class. There are no classes on Wednesday so that day is set aside for field trips relating to the courses I am taking. I have been to a medical museum, an interesting interpretive performance, the Danish National Art Gallery, an interesting art exhibit on families and their affect on people, and have had to interview Danes on the street asking their perspective on their culture and society.
My core course here is Public Health which means I spend a week traveling through the western part of Denmark with them and we spend another week traveling through Finland and Latvia together. During my travels through Western Denmark, I was given the opportunity to visit several different health houses and explore in greater detail how Denmark’s health care system is set up and how it works so efficiently. I actually leave for Finland and Latvia this Sunday so I am getting extremely excited for that!
Before coming to Denmark, based solely on my general knowledge of their health care system, I was under the impression their system was perfect. One thing I am truly enjoying about being here is obviously hearing about ways that it is working but also learning some of the flaws in it’s system. Acknowledging the flaws makes it easier to pick apart the system and define ways it could be improved and applied to the United States.
Although it is odd not watching the leaves change on the Green this time of year, there is no place else I would rather be than Copenhagen!
