AUG 17-24

THE BEGINNING

When I stepped on the LAX escalator that carried the passengers to the security checkpoint, I felt a sinking feeling below my feet. Did I make the right choice? Well, too late to turn back now. My surge of sadness from the thought of not seeing my family for four months didn’t last very long when I saw them following me from below as I moved up the line. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud and felt reassured to know that they will always be there. With that confidence, I stepped on the plane.

11 hours is awfully long. I successfully finished 2 sudokus of medium difficulty, attempted a hard one (half done), looped my playlist CB (stands for Current Bop), finally watched The Endgame (now that I am culturally up to date, send the memes my way, friends), journaled, and daydreamed about all the possible adventures and ways things could go wrong. However, everything about Copenhagen so far has exceeded my expectation.

THE SUITE

I live in an apartment located on Gasværksvej, which is apparently the “it place” to be in the city. The building is occupied by 2 living and learning communities (LLC). LLC is a type of DIS housing that places a group of students that share a same interest together. I am in the Arts and Culture LLC. I have 5 other suite mates: Hanan, Sophia, Emma, Hannah, and Esmeralda (all of whom I will properly introduce later!) and we conveniently live on the verrrrryyyy top floor of the apartment. Five flights of stairs. No elevator.

The first few days were pretty disorienting. Introductions, orientations, never ending small talks, tours, and constant reintroductions that follows the phrase “ah, I’m sorry, I know we just met, but what’s your name again?”. When my suite mates and I walked around the city for the first time, it was so clear that we were foreigners. When we went to grab brunch, it was frustrating that we couldn’t even make the slightest guess at the words on the menu. The æ and ø were honestly so dizzying. Then, the waiter came up to us and kindly gave us menus written in English (thank goodness).

What’s great about living in an LLC is that there is definitely a camaraderie in being lost together and sense of comfort in that we have each other to figure things out together. I mean, it’s always better to be lost together than alone. It’s also really bizarre to meet new people from around the world all connected in the strangest manner: someone who graduated from a nearby high school from home, finding those with mutual best friends, or something as complex as a mutual friend’s ex’s best friend’s neighbor in another dimension or something like that. This random chance of meeting these individuals at nowhere else in the world, but in Denmark (?!) gives me a bit of badum.

Every Thursday, our LLC attends different events related to our theme with our coordinator Amanda. This week, we visited Copenhagen Contemporary to participate in their weaving lab. I was impressed by the artistry and the intricate mathematical expressions that defined the weaving patterns. We also got to work on our own projects. I used their smallest loom to weave the simplest pattern: 2 grays then 2 whites, back and forth. They also had a portable weaving kit that I got to take home.

Their interactive exhibitions were also definitely worth visiting. The installation IHave Grown Taller from Standing with Trees by Claudia Comte was calming and playful. We got to climb the fallen trunks of the trees and lie down with our eyes closed. We even carved our names on the tree trunks. Wu Tsang’s Diversity is Reality was probably my favorite. Tsang presented two films: Into a Space of Love and Shape of a Right Statement. The first film shared New York’s house music and its history cultivated by queer, black and brown communities. Although I was only able to watch a small segment of the second film, I was genuinely surprised and moved by the project. The video shared a piece of autism activist, Amanda Baggs’ perspective on language – how we find normalcy in the act of speaking and writing, and those who are unable to do so are disposed of having proper “communication”.

THE LOVELIEST SATURDAY

On Saturday, we started off the morning slow and went to a flea market or Nansensgadefest located near our school. There were SO many vendor tables that we barely made it to the end. It was actually really devastating, but also quite hilarious to keep picking up pants that came up all the way to my chest. These Danes are just so tall…! Then we went to Islands Brygge Harbour bath and jumped off of a 5 meter diving tower (ah!!!!!). It was actually really frightening to be up there and the fall felt awfully long, but really refreshing when I made it into the water. We were just swimming…in the middle of the city…in Denmark…with a 76 degree weather…! Ended the day with some good Danish chocolate ice cream. What more can you ask for?

MOVING FORWARD !

Now that I have settled in and my classes have officially started, I feel better about orienting myself around this foreign city. A part of me can already feel that this semester is going to fly by so quickly (ah!). Some exciting things are happening this week: I am meeting my visiting host family and they are lending me a bike (!!!), I am getting together with my Pomona pals on Wednesday (there are 7 of us here in Copenhagen), and this entire week, the weather is going to hit almost 80 degrees. Finally, I don’t doubt my decision about being abroad anymore 🙂

Until next time,

Eileen