Submitted by Katarina Rodriguez Thomas on the 2024 Spring program in Copenhagen, Denmark…
Since submitting my application way back in September, I have been super excited to get to Denmark and start learning about all the different things to do here! After arrival, we had four days to get acclimated, attend some orientations, and really just explore the city and get to know our new peers. While living in Denmark, I chose to live in the Outdoor LLC, which lets me meet people with a lot of common interests and we all live at Basecamp Lyngby.
Despite all the snow we’ve been getting in Denmark, we’ve all found ways to get outside, explore the city, and even attend the coronation of the new king! For the first time in 900 years, the Queen of Denmark (Queen Margrethe II) abdicated after serving for 52 years. This caused a huge celebration in Denmark and people flocked to the streets to see the crowning of the new king on Sunday, January 14. There were tens of thousands of people around the Christiansborg Palace to see the new King Frederick crowned from the outer balcony. Even though it was only our second day in the country, we were able to wave our Danish flags, wear some paper crowns, and celebrate right alongside the Danes who had been awaiting this eventful day for quite a while.
When I’m not crowding the streets in the hopes of catching a glance of the new king, I can be found wandering the streets of center city with other DIS students, hanging out at Lyngby, or hiking in the parks nearby. I, and many other students living at Lyngby, have had to quickly get to know public transportation to get around, as we live about 45 minutes away from the center of the city and DIS’ campus, but it’s given us all a good reason to explore what’s around us. Lyngby is surrounded by parks and walking areas with some nearby small lakes for kayaking. We’ve also grown accustomed to Percy Jackson nights in the cinema lounge and group grocery store trips, which have been great for turning a normal Wednesday night into the best day of the week.
So far, learning the area and the people has been amazing and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the rest of study abroad! (Submitted on January 25, 2024)