copenAIDAN

Hej everyone! I’ve decided to switch up the format of my blog post this week in the spirit of Thanksgiving. Instead of my typical chronological recap, I’m going to make this a “gratitude” post in which I’ll give thanks by sharing how all of my moments this week (the last full week of classes!) capture what I’ve been grateful for as a whole this semester. Hope you enjoy! 🙂

my academic studies

I’ve loved everything I’ve learned academically while studying here in Denmark. I know most of my blog posts haven’t focused a lot on that (sorry – limited space), but I’ve especially felt it this week as all my classes start to wrap up and tie together. On Monday, I had a Medical Practice & Policy exam focused on neurology (strokes), cardiology (heart attacks), endocrinology (diabetes), and orthopedics (shoutout to your greenstick fracture when you were a kid, Mom). I’ve loved that class, especially because it’s taught by two doctors at the city’s main hospital – it has made me so excited to become a physician. Later that week when my sister told me she was sick, all of the clinical tests and skills I’ve learned this semester immediately jumped to my mind – I realized that I’m already starting to think like a doctor. I also had my Neuroscience of Fear final exam this week, and I found myself enjoying answering the “course takeaway” question – it tied a nice bow around everything I had learned this semester.

In Neuroscience of Religion, I had my final group presentation in a research conference setting. At the end of class, Jes (our teacher) told us to close our eyes, extend our hands, and repeat after him. “Thank you for the love I receive. Thank you for my opportunities. Thank you for the universe. Thank you.” When we opened our eyes, Jes told us that even though he’s not religious, he’s been performing a self-experiment throughout this semester – he recites these phrases out loud every night before going to bed. He said that that teaching this course has made him consider the existence of something greater, and after his self-experiment, he said he’s starting to feel a difference. That was really special for me to hear.

I also loved my Health Econ & Policy course (one of my top favorites this semester). It connected exceptionally well with my person-centered medicine research between the University of Copenhagen and the Mayo Clinic, which I’m excited to continue even after I leave Denmark. On Wednesday, I attended an all-day seminar at the University of Copenhagen about behavioral economics and healthy aging, and I knew so many of the concepts thanks to Health Econ. In our last official class yesterday, Holger (our teacher) asked us to reflect on this semester. “In ten days, what are you going to take away from these four months? What are you going to remember in ten years?” This made me really sentimental – I didn’t want to think about how in ten days, this will all be behind me. I think it’s going to feel like one giant dream, or a fairytale.

my visiting host family

My visiting host family has been one of my favorite parts about this whole semester – I am beyond grateful for them. On Saturday, I spent all day at their house to celebrate Villads’ thirteenth birthday, Danish style (tillykke, Villads!). It’s tradition to decorate everything with the Danish flag on birthdays (🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰!!!). For young kids, Danes also bake a kagemand (cake man). In Jutland, the birthday kid cuts the head off, and the rest of the kids scream (we didn’t do that part – we just ate the cake). All of the extended family was there – they’re always so kind and welcoming to me (their grandma knitted me a little tissue-holder). I really enjoyed meeting them and chatting with them!

We opened presents (I think Villads’ favorite was a 7-11 gift card, and I got him some of his favorite Dumle candy) and enjoyed a delicious brunch. Afterwards, the “kids” (myself, Tilde, Villads, his friend Oscar, and their cousins) played Hedbandz and ping pong. Ping pong is apparently common among Danish schoolchildren – they all run around the table in a circle and play a continuous game until someone misses. It was lots of fun, and I really felt like part of the family!

I also spent Thanksgiving with my host family this Thursday. It was such a wonderful night and something we had been looking forward to for a while. It was quite a challenge to find some of the ingredients, but we did it! I went over to their house in the afternoon to start cooking, and we made everything totally from scratch – we had cranberry sauce, stuffing (a hit!), mashed potatoes, green beans, turkey, and a delicious pumpkin pie for dessert. It was beyond successful (I’m honestly impressed with how well everything turned out!), and it was fun to share a bit of American culture with them.

These two visits this week really encapsulated how grateful I am for my host family and how truly special they have made my time here in Denmark. My all-time favorite moments this semester have been cosy nights at their house sitting around in the candlelight or even just doing homework at their kitchen table and feeling like I fit right in. I’m excited to go to the Kronborg Castle Christmas markets and bake Christmas cookies with my host mom & sister today!

my friends

This week, my roommate Hope’s family was in town, so she’s been with them every day and staying in their hotel every night. Her family was so nice and took me out to dinner on my favorite nice restaurant street (Kompagnistræde) on Wednesday night. It has really hit me being without Hope this week how much I’m going to miss her when we leave! I’ve been so grateful to have not only a fantastic roommate but a true friend like her – we always talk about how lucky we are that DIS placed us together.

I’m also thankful for the rest of my friends here at DIS – my class friends (core course & Health Econ especially!), Lauren & Claire, my kollegium “smaller unit” friends, and my European tennis partners. Claire came to Thanksgiving at my host family’s house this week, and I went over to her kollegium last night to have dinner and watch a movie. I also had my last weekly tennis session on Thursday – all of these “lasts” this week are really getting me in the feels.

cosy coffee shops

I’m really grateful for the kaffebar culture here in Copenhagen (surprise!). Just this week, I studied in KAFFE Istedgade and Kaffebaren På Amager on Sunday; Roast and Emmery’s on Tuesday; and Couloir No. 35 and Pisserenden Nr. 8 (for a group project!) on Friday. I’ve been keeping a list all semester called “Kaffe i København” with my thoughts and recommendations on the best kaffebarer in the city. I plan to add it as a page on my blog once finals die down – keep an eye out for that in the next couple weeks!

The reason I’m so thankful for kaffebarer is actually not because of the pastries or the coffee (although I’ve really enjoyed some specialty roasts, and the baked goods were exciting the first couple of weeks). I actually love kaffebarer because they encapsulate something I think the Danes do exceptionally well: slow living. You rarely see people doing work in coffee bars as much as you do at cafés in the States, and you also don’t see as many people grabbing coffees to go. Kaffebarer demonstrate a passion for quality over quantity. This leads into the next thing I’m grateful for…

danish culture

I’ve really grown to appreciate Danish culture this semester. I didn’t know much about it before coming here (besides the bike stereotype), but after being in Denmark for four months, it’s definitely something I’ll cherish forever and have even been trying to incorporate into my own life. I must be seeming more Danish lately, because now people on the street or in coffee shops or the grocery store talk to me exclusively in Danish, even more than before. I obviously don’t understand ANYTHING they’re saying, so I’ve just developed a technique of smiling and nodding and say “tak” or “undskyld.” 90% of the time that seems to work and the other person doesn’t even notice – I enjoy blending in (which I think also reflects Danish culture). However, I have started to pick up on words that my host family says every once in a while, or to be able to read things in the grocery store or on Instagram ads or commercials. Thankfully, almost every Dane I’ve encountered speaks exceptionally fluent English (with a Danish accent, of course, which I’ve now decided is my favorite accent ever), although sometimes it’s been fun to stumble across a word with my host family that we don’t know and to look it up and laugh about it. On Thursday, I started doing Danish Duolingo with Tilde, and she helped me pronounce some of the words (tranebær is cranberry). I’ve also just enjoyed being surrounded by Danish people in general, especially at the medical school (I studied there twice this week).

What I’m thankful for most about Danish culture is the perspective I’ve gained into a completely different way of life. I think a lot of it is determined by the mentality and the economy – Danes trust each other, and they trust the state. Because of their salaries and tax rates, there are tons of social benefits (childcare, healthcare, education, etc.). Most Danes only work around 37 hours per week, and the rest of time is spent with their family – you almost never see a Dane doing work outside of working hours. School also isn’t all-consuming – my host family was shocked to discover how many hours we study, and I was surprised (and jealous) to see them happily carving pumpkins the night before an exam. My friend Jeffrey from my Neuro of Fear class is an official DIS blogger, and he wrote a really good blog post on Danish living. This semester has also made me want to change my entire wardrobe – I have LOVED Danish design and fashion. Check out this viral DIS post from a few years ago – it’s downright hilarious: How to Look Like a Dane. The “comfy chic” or “informal-formal” style that I learned about during DIS orientation is actually spot-on, and it’s something I want to start incorporating in my life. Just because I leave Denmark, it doesn’t mean Danish culture has to leave me.

facetime

While I’ve absolutely loved being in Denmark this semester (if you couldn’t tell by now), I’ve also been beyond grateful for FaceTime and texting. This week, I FaceTimed my sister for three hours to help her with physics, I FaceTimed the whole extended family on Thanksgiving (they were all together!), and I FaceTimed my mom probably every day just to touch base and tell her about the little things. I’ve also been able to video chat back to the States to do things like guest lecture for a class or interview for scholarships. I’m SUPER thankful for FaceTime and texting for helping me keep up with my best friends from Notre Dame as well – it honestly feels like I wasn’t even away from campus this semester.

bike rides

Finally, I’m thankful for the biking culture here in Denmark. It speaks to how environmentally friendly Denmark is (public transport is amazing, each family has at most one car, they compost everything, and everyone sorts every single piece of trash – metal, glass, paper, cardboard, plastic, etc.). It also reflects how fit Danes are – they bike everywhere (there are 1,000,000 bikes in Copenhagen but only 600,000 people). Furthermore, biking enables the Danish culture of slow living – I’ve felt this by biking to the corner grocery store every day on the way home from class and putting my fresh groceries in my basket to cook up for dinner that night (a lot better than a giant run to Costco or Target or Walmart).

What I most enjoy about biking is that it’s enabled me to see the city. One of my favorite things about Copenhagen has been all of the side neighborhoods, especially Nørrebro and Østerbro, where I enjoy the local cobblestone streets, coffee bars, and little shops. Lately, I’ve enjoyed my bike rides past all of the Christmas decorations and Christmas markets. Since it’s dark when I bike home (the sun sets around 3.45pm now), I get to enjoy the twinkling lights and garland on every storefront. It’s also been getting colder when I bike – yesterday, it even snowed! Biking has been a nice time for me to be by myself and listen to music and reflect on the semester (cue sentimental Aidan).

Anyway, thanks for tuning in to my blog post this week – I hope you enjoyed the change of pace! These are all the things I’m referring to when I say I want to soak up every last bit of Copenhagen, and this is exactly what I plan to do for my last ten days here. Thanks for following along on my journey this semester – I’m grateful for YOU. 🙂