guess who's going to denmark!

This Friday, I'll begin four months of utter ridiculousness and excitement. After perusing numerous programs with intriguing possibilities, I chose the most exotic place I could think of. . . Copenhagen, Denmark! (a sea of blonde-haired, blue-eyed faces... so exotic!)

For reals though, this is basically why I chose this program (DIS):

1. They encourage us to travel as much as possible. We'll have a 17 day long break to journey wherever the wind blows us. We also have every Wednesday off for various activities: field studies (read: field trips), exploring the city and surrounding area (Sweden is just half an hour away!) etc. Some of these trips include Hans Christian Anderson's place and castle Hamlet is set in. More on that later.

2. DIS is focused on integrating the students in the Danish way of life as much as possible. I'll be living with a host family; I just got an email from my "familie" (=family. totally just spoke Danish) recently and they sound ridiculously incredible. More on that later, after I meet them and all. 

3. My core course, Child Diversity and Development, was what put Copenhagen on my radar in the first place. I'm doing the Childhood in a Multicultural Context track, which includes a week long study tour to Istanbul, Turkey! I'm unbelievably excited for this class, partly because I get to go to Turkey, but mainly because I've already looked at the syllabus and I know that this course suits me perfectly!

So, over the next four months I hope to have tons to write and perhaps even video about (the latter depends on how tech-savvy I decide to become, which I admit is unlikely, as I tend to repel technology). As excited as I am to take this next step, I admit  about leaving my friends back at Davidson College and my family in SC. I know that nervousness is part of the preparation for my experience though; I think there would be something wrong if I wasn't nervous at all. My goal going into this is to never let fear or uncertainty get in the way and never let my expectations interfere with my lived experience. I plan to accept every invitation and new opportunity that comes my way and make this experience my own. 

I'm definitely the luckiest girl in the world :)

applicable quote of the day:

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

-Mark Twain

hej hej, until next time!