An Exchange Student’s Guide to Studying Abroad in Denmark

“When you’re traveling with someone else, you share each discovery, but when you are alone, you have to carry each experience with you like a secret, something you have to write on your heart, because there’s no other way to preserve it.” – Shauna Niequist

Deciding to go on exchange is the easy part. Then comes the jealousy from the friends…the making of travel plans…the outfit preparations… it’s all very exciting. However, once you get past the anticipation and the excitement, moving to a new country for half a year or more can be very daunting. Even having moved to Canada from the States for university (a much smaller change admittedly), coming to Denmark was much more of a culture shock than I’d originally anticipated.

To make the transition process a little easier for other people, I’ve put together a guide to acing exchange in Denmark:

Getting Around 

– Buy a bike (and a good lock). Copenhagen is a relatively small city geographically and there’s bike lanes everywhere (plus it’s flat) so you can get anywhere on your bike. Read up on bike rules here.
– Don’t use the bus – it’s slow and unreliable and I’ve often biked faster than the  uses (seriously just metro or bike).
– The Metro runs every couple of minutes and runs all night. It’s very efficient and I highly recommend.
– Get a Rejsekort – price is half of regular fare and it adds up for all the trips back and forth to the airport. It works for metro, bus and s train.

Food

– Don’t buy takeout it’s very expensive.
– Food in general is very expensive.
– Better to get a full meal if you’re already spending money or get coffee with a friend instead!
– Cook at home (but get used to eating meat because there are not a lot of easy options for vegetarians let alone vegans).
– Try the pastries/desserts – this was my favourite part of danish food and in my mind, the more remarkable of danish foods.
– Black Licorice!! They do it differently here and you’ll fall in love with it.

The Danish Education System:

– Schedules are done differently (much less class time and much less mandatory) so use that to your advantage and travel travel travel! (Quite a few Danes show up on the first day of class, show up at the exam and still get an A)
– School is more concept based and theoretical (define terms, etc) than practical so expect to reflect that in your exams.
– Oral exams are totally weird and grading is sort of arbitrary so just grit your teeth, commiserate with classmates and do your best!

Style

– Always dress nicer than you think you should because the Danes will still out-dress you.
– Wear many layers to plan for variations in weather.
– Don’t wear tight jeans when you’re biking (lost two pairs of jeans that way).
– Eliminate colours.
– Fur is in! I swear Scandinavian women probably singlehandedly drive what still exists of the fur trade. It’s both horrifying but also wonderful (because they look so damn good).

Social life

– Always opt in for the orientation stuff – you’ll regret it if you don’t.
– For the happiest people in the world, Danes are very hard to get to know.
– But, once you do get to know them they are absolutely wonderful people (it just takes a lot to break the ice with complete strangers).
– My friends here were surprised that I consider myself an introvert (US/CAD vs Scandinavia I guess lol) so take that as you will.
– Just put yourself out there and when it’s too hard, you always have over exchange students to rely on before getting back out there.
– You’ll meet fantastic people while you’re here. Make sure to make the most of it!

Housing…the biggest struggle 

– Housing is VERY VERY difficult to find. If you don’t know people, or your school doesn’t give provide housing, you may be in a pretty tight spot.
– If you’re looking for housing, beware of scams! Apparently there’s quite a few out there.
– Many of my friends were able to negotiate longterm deals in AirBnbs so this may be an option for you. (Note that Denmark may be considering banning AirBnb so be sure to look it up before you go).

Things to Bring With You (Because They Don’t Have it Here) 

First of all, check out my packing list. 
– Cough/cold medicine (for some reason they only sell echinacea and which doesn’t do the trick when you need to ‘un-sick’ yourself for traveling, exams, etc.
– Favourite foods: my mom sent me Japanese food & snacks because it was almost impossible to buy here (and if you could buy it, it was ridiculously expensive).

Copenhagen is a pretty small city but give yourself time to get to know it and if you’re able to, travel outside a bit to see what else is out there in Denmark!

Welcome to København!

I’ve been in Copenhagen now for a good couple weeks (my one month anniversary is coming up! ) and although it was love at first sight, it has also been an adjustment process.

I’ve been really lucky to have made some really amazing friends so quickly. These girls make me laugh and it’s so heartening to know that girls from all over the world (US, Singapore, Netherlands, Germany, Canada) can have so much in common.  Where my friends – also exchange students – are as clueless as I am, I’ve had my roommates Frederik and Ilyas to help fill in the gaps and expose me to Danish culture

Speaking of cultural differences, there are actually a lot of similarities between Denmark and home but also a lot of subtle differences. Beyond the obvious language difference, my life has fallen into an easy pattern that is very similar to my daily life back in Vancouver.

Cultural Adjustments:

  • Coffee is expensive – easily $6/cup ! Nothing like expensive coffee to make me miss being able to grab Tim’s on the way to class every morning.
  • Speaking of expensive, FOOD IS SO EXPENSIVE! Even though it isn’t expected to tip, going out is unbelievably pricey compared even to Vancouver!
  • Good Asian food is so hard to find I’m already getting cravings. Missing being able to get cheap (and yummy) sushi on every corner – the fact that tofu isn’t commonly sold in grocery stores is a sin. Being vegetarian here would be pretty tough.
  • People bike everywhere – I love it! It’s often faster to get places in Copenhagen by bike than by public transit (but beware the aggressive Danish bikers and know your road rules).
  • Danes tend to be very polite and friendly but also shy and a bit hard-to-get-to-know in comparison to my North American counterparts. However, it seems to me that if you manage to break through the exterior, you will have some lifelong friends.
  • People rush less and enjoy life more. I’m trying to adapt this into my lifestyle but it’s a daily struggle not to push my way past slow walkers in the street.

I’m also into my second week of school now and have noticed quite a few differences in the methods of teaching:

  • Classes are much larger than they typically are back home. There’s only one section per course so everyone that’s taking a class is put into one lecture.
  • Classes also overlap! Apparently it’s typical but I’m still getting used to running between classes.
  • Campus is spread out across the city – sometimes I’ll even take the train between classes.
  • Less time is spent on classwork while more time is spent on readings. Not sure how I feel about this.
  • I miss UBC’s course structure quite a bit – probably because I’ve adjusted to it over the years – but it’s interesting learning from a different perspective.
Nyhavn
Nyhavn

Anyway, lots of love to everyone back home. I miss you like crazy but don’t worry about me – I’m loving life and adjusting to the differences…one impossible to pronounce word at a time.

Spam prevention powered by Akismet