“And I think to myself, what a wonderful world”
– Louis Armstrong
Hej allesammen! Velkommen til mine blog igen.
(Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog again.)
For this blog post, I will recap the crazy busy October that I have experienced here at DIS. Midterms as well as our popular personal travel week have come and gone and suddenly, I am sitting here wondering where this month went! I wish time would just stop for a brief second, but of course, that is not how the world works. All I can do is to continue to soak up all these life-defining experiences as they come and enjoy the time left remaining. With that being said, let’s jump right into it!
Midterms
As one would expect, midterms while studying abroad look very different from the typical midterms or finals week we all have experienced at Whitman. The prospect of an exam or presentation here at DIS doesn’t provide require a ton of extra commitment or time as they are built into the class structure very well. My midterms at DIS revolved mostly around group projects and presentations, rather than a more standard timed test. There is a wider range of assessment styles here than compared to my experience with American education. Much like our schedule back at Whitman in the fall, we have a break after our midterm week. However, here at DIS, we get a whole week off instead of just the 4-Day weekend! This is titled our “Personal Travel Week”. It is just another perk of getting to study abroad!
Travel Week
My favorite part about being in Rome was being able to say “When in Rome”
For my personal travel week, I embarked to Italy and Spain (and France… briefly). I had the pleasure of traveling with six of my good friends from DIS. I found that traveling with a group like this was incredibly rewarding. The bond we all were able to form was very special and has helped us all continue to get closer.
When it came to our schedule for this trip, it is safe to say we were incredibly ambitious. I am not going to lie, we may have bitten off more than we could chew, but it was still an amazing experience. Our first stop was one of my top countries in Europe I have always wanted to see, Italy. We began our tour in Rome before heading farther west to Naples and Sorrento. My highlights of this leg of the trip were Pompei, the island of Capri, and the colosseum. It was stunning to experience the history that Italy has to offer. However, the lack of public transportation was a reminder to myself that picking Denmark was a pretty smart choice for studying abroad.
The streets in Barcelona were so beautiful to walk down!
After leaving Naples, we had a brief layover in France, specifically in the city of Marseille. This quick adventure around this city was fueled by one thing, food! We all wanted to be able to say that we ate crepes in France, and we made it happen. In my books, totally worth it. We then continued to Spain for the last leg of our trip. The two cities we were able to spend time in were Madrid and Barcelona. First and foremost, the weather was such an amazing change of pace compared to the rain we have been experiencing in Copenhagen. Secondly, both cities have very good public transportation, which allowed for a tad more stress-free adventure than Italy. Highlights from both these cities were the Prado art museum, the famous Barcelona cable car, Picasso Museum, and the Royale Palace. I loved all Spain had to offer and do wish we could’ve spent a little bit more time there but looking back on the whole trip I am so proud of how much we actually got to see in the short 9-day window that we had. For future DIS students, make sure to get the most out of your travel week! I promise you won’t regret it. This week really reminded me how fortunate I am to be able to see this wonderful world as part of my college experience.
My friends and I overlooking the Barcelona skyline!
Wrap-up and Next Post
That wraps up this blog and thus brings the midpoint of my semester to a close. Next week, I am extremely excited to begin sharing with all of you the research I have been conduction at the University of Copenhagen in addition to my studies at DIS. Over the last month, my research partner and I have dived into the thick of our semester project and it has been a wonderful experience. I already feel like I am grown so much in my ability to not only conduct research but write and communicate my findings as well. I am also embarking on another trip, this time to Germany, with my core program at DIS, so watch out for a blog post about that as well!
As always, thanks for reading! Hopefully, everyone will be back at this blog next week!