Hello and welcome!

You’ll have to excuse the dramatic title but it’s all I could come up with (thanks Kerouac). I’m a Flinders University student on exchange at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. I’ll be here for 6 months working on the final semester of my Bachelor of Science (Animal Behaviour). I’ll be taking courses in Conservation Genetics, Freshwater Ecology, Tropical Botany, and Nordic Mythology, as well as a 3-week pre-semester Danish class. Prior to this exchange, I did not know anyone who lived in Copenhagen, let alone Denmark, and had never been to Europe before. The combination of a vast unknown with a short length of stay left me faced with both a sense of semi-paralytic terror, and also with a sense of itching urgency to immerse myself in as many experiences as possible. I’m thankful that my curiosity weighs in enough to get the ball rolling in the direction of the latter.

I arrived in Copenhagen via London, Athens, and Amsterdam. The scope of diversity in such close proximity within Europe and the UK is still blowing my mind. A half-hour train ride from Copenhagen and I could be in Sweden. A half-hour train ride in Adelaide and I’d still in Adelaide – definitely not another country. I fully intend to exploit the closeness of other cities and will no doubt mention it in future posts. I’ve only been here a few days, but so far the weather has been blessedly sunny, warm, and there seems to be a lot of events going on. Walking through the city centre, I came across a bunch of artists working on a bus (pictured below, which does not illustrate how warm it’s been) to promote the Galore street art festival. My first missions are to get a bike, meet some people, do some things!

I’m probably getting a bit ahead of myself though. This is getting a bit wordy for an introductory post, so now that you’ve read a bit of the lead-up to my arrival in CPH, or KBH to the Danish, I’ll write about my experiences with my first impressions of Copenhagen, learning the Danish language, and cycling in Copenhagen in my next couple of posts!

Anita