My Personal Exchange Journey: Study Abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark

My first week in Copenhagen at Nyhavn, the iconic 17th-century waterfront, canal and entertainment district.

a home away from home

September - December 2018 | study abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark

Welcome (or should I say Velkommen?) to my student exchange experience with UBC Go Global and study abroad journey at the Copenhagen Business School (CBS) in Copenhagen, Denmark!

Lots has changed since meeting, living, and travelling with the friends that I met on exchange, but it’s also been comforting (at least for my own sanity) to know that they’re closer than the miles away it often seems. Reflecting back on the memories with them has also re-sparked my desire to finish this personal travel project of mine – and that’s to recapture some of the significant moments I’ve been fortunate enough to experience during my exchange abroad as a Canadian 🇨🇦 in Denmark 🇩🇰. With feelings of nostalgia, the longing desire to travel again and get lost in a new, electrifying city, I’m reminiscing on my home away from home 🏡.

My Study Abroad Journey

I hope this provides you with a small but insightful glimpse into my personal exchange and study abroad journey while living in Copenhagen, Denmark from September to December 2018. For those who are thinking or planning on going on exchange in the future (whether that be to Copenhagen or somewhere else), then hopefully this provides you with a unique perspective on what it’s like to live and study abroad! If you’re simply just wanting to travel around this absolute gem of a city for a brief period of time, then still be sure to check out my list of the Top 15 Places to Visit in Copenhagen. It’s never too early to start making a travel bucket list! If anything, this blog post serves as a time capsule for myself to reminisce and reflect on the highlights and laughable pitfalls of my experience of travelling 7600 km away from home for four months.

The following is a compilation of excerpts/notes throughout my exchange that I’ve pieced together to create what I hope is a coherent depiction of my experience abroad. I’m hoping that once travelling is safe to do so, future exchange students can use this to help them navigate through some of the uncertainties and help prepare them for their own travel abroad journeys ☺️. Please keep on reading to learn more about what it was like to live in Copenhagen, Denmark, the country that is known as “the happiest place on earth” (besides Disneyland of course), has built the oldest operating amusement park and to my despair, where a hot chocolate can be up to 50DKK (~$10CAD…yikes 😬).

Table of Contents

5 fast fun facts

living the danish dorm life

• Nimbuspark Residence

• Cooking in Copenhagen

• Grocery Shopping

• Eating Out in Frederiksberg

BIKING AROUND THE CITY

back-to-school

• Introduction Week

• cbs buddy program

• CBS classes

• cbs extracurriculars

get hygge with it

holiday season

the wins & losses

bittersweet endings

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5 FAST FUN FACTS

Before we get into my personal experiences, I just wanted to share 5 fast, fun facts on Copenhagen specifically and Denmark as a country:

1. In Denmark, there are twice as many pigs as there are people. 🐷🐷= 👩🏻

2. Copenhagen has taken bicycling to a whole other level – there are more bikes than people and 5x as many bicycles than there are cars. 🚲 > 👩🏻 and 🚲🚲🚲🚲🚲 = 🚙 which I think is just 🤯

3. The Danish language has no word for “please” 🚫🙏🏻…very different from Canadian culture 🇨🇦

4. Copenhagen has the most Michelin star restaurants, one being Noma that serves a 20-course meal for $556 CAD (not that I could have afforded eating at one of them, but if you would like to try to, then go for it!) 🍽💰

5. Sales tax in Denmark is 25% but this along with other taxes all factor into their free healthcare, education and social security services! 💸 = 🏥🏫⛑ 👍🏻

LIVING THE DANISH DORM LIFE

Nimbuspark Residence

During my four months of living abroad in Copenhagen, I stayed at Nimbusparken (also known as Nimbuskollegiet or Nimbus for short), located in Frederiksberg, Denmark. I was extremely lucky to be assigned to this residency because it was originally designated as a graduate-only dorm. CBS is known to have a limited number of undergraduate dorm rooms available (350 dorm rooms but on average, accept 725 exchange students every fall semester). In many cases, students must instead, look into private housing options, which many of my fellow undergrad friends opted for as an alternative.

Every dorm at Nimbus had a private bathroom. Each designated floor had a common kitchen area with 2 full-sized fridges, 2 ovens, 1 sink, pots, pans, dishes to share and an abundant amount of utensils (although the forks always seemed to go missing…🍴🤷🏻‍♀️). There was also a common room located in the basement of Nimbus. This is where we often hosted gatherings for special occasions like Thanksgiving, Halloween and even a few hot pot nights! The residence also had a self-service laundry room (you could pay to use it by loading money onto your FOB key), storage boxes in the basement for housing your suitcases, and bicycle cellars to store bikes if you were going to be away for a period of time or when it was raining outside.

Not the most flattering photo of my dorm room but the extra mattress here helps to show the size of the 15m^2 room for scale!

I can honestly say that I fully enjoyed my experience living at Nimbus. One of the main reasons was the general layout of our dormitory, including the communal kitchen that myself and 9 other residents shared (shout out to my building 34 floor 2 roomies 🥰 shown in the below images). The shared common kitchen and lounge space was a great way to meet new people, converse over our lack of cooking abilities or learn from those that were cooking experts, and host several movie nights throughout the semester. On my particular floor, we had quite the diverse group of students from all around the world including those from Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Germany, India, and the United States. We typically tried to host a floor dinner every few weeks where we each pitched in to make a variety of appetizers, main courses, side dishes, and desserts. This was a great way for us to share some of our favourite home-cooked meals and allow one another to experience different cuisines.

Nimbuspark was centrally located to all the CBS buildings, conveniently near many affordable grocery markets, and just a quick 10-minute walk from Fasenvej Metro. My go-to place in my neighbourhood, besides the grocery stores, I kid you not, was the 24-hour 7-eleven, located on the corner of Finsensvej and Nordre Fasenvej. They honestly had some of the tastiest, and most affordable chicken yakitori skewers I’ve ever had – 2 for 30 DKK (2 for $6 CAD) is truly not bad at all. I would always stop by 7-eleven whenever I was returning back to my dorm from a late night flight or starving after a night’s worth of clubbing (I’m actually a grandma 👵🏻) and not wanting to go to, yet another McDonald’s. So if you’re craving a little snack in Copenhagen, I’d recommend dropping into the nearest 7-eleven and trying a couple of yakitori sticks if you’re on the-go 😋!

Cooking in Copenhagen

I am no chef by any means nor can I say that I am that great of a cook. However, I can confidently say that I make some pretty delicious oven-baked, honey garlic, soya sauce chicken 🍗😋 - my floor mates can attest to that! Throughout the course of my four months abroad, I had the opportunity to experiment more in the kitchen, enjoy the process of cooking, and grow an appreciation for different sauces, spices and marinades. One of my favourite places to shop for different spices was the variety chain store, Flying Tiger. I mean just look at their packaging in the photo below – that alone will surely win you over! I think it’s the marketer in me that goes to appreciate the punny names for each of the flavour mixes. I personally never heard of the store before, because it originated in Denmark, but I learned that there are also stores in the UK, the USA, Spain and Italy. I made sure to purchase a few extra packs of the spice mixes so I could bring some back home with me ☺️.

The Fried Green Potatoes one is my absolute favourite! I only have a little bit left 😢

Living on my own helped teach me how to better fend for myself and to stop being so reliant on my parent’s cooking. However, I greatly missed my Dad’s home-cooked meals 🥺🥘. It also didn’t help that he would constantly send me photos of what he was cooking for dinner back home on our family WhatsApp group chat. A big shout out to Papa Jang though for helping me cook via text and video call whenever I needed assistance, especially for the pan fried steak and salmon, those ones were tricky 😕. I undercooked and overcooked meals too many times to count, but it was all a learning process! Here’s a snapshot of the meals I cooked up:

The one thing I regret not bringing on exchange is a rice cooker 🍚. Back home, my family eats jasmine rice almost every day so prior to going on exchange, packing a rice cooker was high on my considerations list. However, I basically only had enough space to bring either a bicycle helmet or a rice cooker… the helmet that my mom convinced me to bring, yet I never used (shhh don’t tell her), won over. But while there, I actually ended up buying a rice cooker for 200DKK (~$40CAD) and splitting the cost with my floormates. This made it a lot easier to make food when we had our floor dinners with all 10 of us!

Grocery Shopping

If you’ve done your initial research on Copenhagen, then you already know that it is rated as one of the most expensive cities to live in and/or eat out at. I had my fair share of eating out while living there, but since grocery stores are plentiful in Copenhagen, cooking is a great alternative. If you’re frugal and on a student budget, then you’ll learn to navigate the different grocery stores to find the products that fit your budget and individual preferences. Since the Danes are quite health-conscious and actively make an effort to source naturally-grown produce, most, if not all of the grocery stores offer a wide variety of organic products. With Nimbus conveniently located to multiple grocery stores, I always had several options since most of them were located within a short 5 to 10-minute walk away from my dorm. I learned that it was pretty common practice to purchase groceries more frequently (e.g. every few days) rather than every week or two, which is the case in North America. You won’t see too much in bulk as Danish residents seem to enjoy purchasing more fresh produce as opposed to freezing their groceries.

Other noticeable differences relating to grocery shopping between Denmark (Europe in general) and Canada (North America in general) are how expiry dates are listed and how the price of produce is marked. Expiry dates back home are always MONTH/DAY/YEAR, whereas in Europe, it’s DAY/MONTH/YEAR, which greatly confused me in the beginning 😕. All my European friends didn’t have the same issue as myself and other North Americans. Interestingly, instead of buying fruits and vegetables by weight (e.g. per lb) like here in Canada, all the produce in Denmark was purchased per item or per stock (e.g. $0.50/stk). Also note that pretty much everything (e.g. store signage, product packaging, ingredients list, etc.) is in Danish so it’s super helpful for yourself to download Google Translate on your phone. It was pretty common for myself, especially in the first few weeks, to take photos of items and use the app to decipher whether something was, say for example, olive oil, corn oil, or sunflower oil (#firstweekstruggles 😬).

Here’s a quick breakdown of the grocery stores in the Frederiksberg neighbourhood:

1. Netto (Budget-friendly)

This was probably one of the grocery stores I frequented the most, since it was very budget friendly and directly across from Nimbus. Netto stores are typically on the smaller side but are usually found across most neighbourhoods – you can think of them as your local corner grocery store. I often purchased a bag of clementines 🍊 there as I remember them being 15DKK (approx. $3CAD), the cheapest I’d seen in Copenhagen in comparison to the other stores. I would always get the pains au chocolat from here as well.

2. REMA 1000 (Budget-friendly)
I’d say this was my second, most frequented grocery store since they had a wide selection of products and were very inexpensive. I often purchased most of my cold cut meats, poultry products, fish, fruit, vegetables and bread here – basically, everything under the sun you could find at a reasonably-decent price.

3. fakta (Budget-friendly)
I didn’t go to this grocery store quite as often as the previous two just because it was on the opposite side of my residency from where I usually entered/exited. Fakta is probably similar in size to Netto so quite small but is found quite easily all across Denmark.

4. Føtex (Mid-Range)
I’d consider this to be similar to the Safeways and Save-Ons or possibly Walmarts back home in Canada. They are not only a supermarket, but also a department store since they sell everything from groceries, to electronics, to clothing. I remember them always having deals on large packs of chicken or pork where you could buy 3 for 100DKK ($20CAD) so my friends and I would each get a pack and split the cost. Also, I purchased a whole rotisserie chicken from here once because I missed my Dad’s roast chicken 🍗 and this was the closest I could get without having to make it myself! If you’re looking for a wider variety of alcoholic beverages, this is also the go-to place for that!

5. Coop SuperBrugsen (Mid-Range)
Every now and then I would pop into SuperBrugsen, which is a larger supermarket but not as large as Føtex. They had a much wider variety of products in comparison to the budget-friendly options mentioned previously. I typically shopped here for various pasta, rice and bottled sauce options.

6. Irma (High-End)
I honestly don’t think I ever stepped foot into Irma, although it was just a block away from me. During our student exchange orientation, this was one of the specific stores that they informed us of being on the pricier side of grocery stores. In just doing a little bit of research now, it seems like the store sells almost exclusively organic products which would explain the higher price point.

7. Sari-Sari Mart (Asian Grocery Store)
I was so excited when I found out this Asian grocery store was nearby to me! After about a week or two in Copenhagen, I was craving noodles in soup so I ended up stopping here and getting a soy bean miso soup paste, some dried noodles and a Korean kalbi sauce. They also had some other frozen food options such as dumplings and gyozas. Just note that it has a pretty limited selection of goods since the store is quite small and the hours always varied per day so there were times when I went and they’d be closed.

Eating Out in Frederiksberg

1. Café OHA
   This was easily one of my favourite study-spots because of its calm ambiance, refreshing food and drinks and convenient location next to Nimbus. The café is well-known for its pure organic instagrammable açaí bowls, colourfully delicious poke bowls, and plant-based dinner spreads 🥗.  Although their menu offerings are significantly different from my usual meal selections (I’m definitely not the healthiest when it comes to food 😬), I was genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed the dishes! This was actually the first place that I tried with my CBS buddy once I arrived to Copenhagen! I often came here in the morning, grabbed a hot chocolate and açaí bowl, and went through my weekly readings for class. If you’re a CBS student, you can also get a discount if you show your student ID card.

2. Piccolino
   Convenient, fast, and tasty pizza – what more could you want? 🍕😋 Their whole individual sized pizzas range from 60-70DKK ($12-$14 CAD) so definitely very affordable if you’re on a student budget!

3. Forno a Legna
   If you want a little slice of Italy in Copenhagen, Forno a Legna is your little pizza haven. They have perfected the thin-crust, wood-fire, stone oven baked pizza to give you an authentic Italian taste. This was one of my favourite places to grab pizza whenever I was near the CBS Solbjerg Plads campus – it’s convenient location made it even more tempting to go to! Just note that during prime lunch and dinner hours, it often got quite busy so seating was limited and the wait time was longer than expected.

4. Pizzeria Made in Italy

   There are honestly so many great pizza restaurants in Copenhagen, you really can’t go wrong choosing one. I only stopped by this place once but it was definitely a great find by one of my friends. They offer numerous toppings for your pizza including a lot of unusual combinations, such as broccoli! My friends and I biked here for dinner one evening since it was about 10 minutes away from Nimbus.

5. Thai Gourmet
If you’re craving some ethnic cuisine in an otherwise, pretty European-dominated restaurant scene, this place is decent and very convenient in location to CBS and Nimbus. Not necessarily the best Thai food, but fairly inexpensive in comparison to other options. This was actually the first place I ate for dinner when I arrived to Copenhagen, and definitely wasn’t my last visit. I always got to have my pad see ew whenever I can! Thai food is surprisingly and noticeably present around the city so if you’re seeking a little more spice, search up some of the nearby Thai cuisines.

6. BonBon Ice
Of course I would find an ice cream shop in every city I travel too so naturally, Copenhagen was no exception to that. I stumbled upon this cute little shop after a walk around Frederiksberg Have (Garden) with my CBS Buddy. This ice cream parlour offers organic home-made gelato, made from natural grass milk. They have quite a large selection of unique flavours, such as the purple lavender 💜 berry ice cream in the image below! I honestly just chose it because of the colour but it was equally as delicious 😋 as it was pretty. From what I recall, I believe it was 30DKK/scoop (~$6CAD/scoop) which honestly, is just as steep in price in comparison to Vancouver ice cream shops.

BIKING AROUND THE CITY

Now if you’re an avid biker here in Vancouver or within your city of residence, you’re probably familiar, or at least somewhat familiar, with basic hand signals while cycling. Here in BC (maybe it’s the same across Canada), when you place your left hand upwards in an “L” shape, this indicates to others that you’re making a right turn. Whereas in Copenhagen, when you make the same signal, it means you’re preparing to stop. Therefore, instead, a hand out to the right means you’re about to turn right. Initially, these differences took a bit of getting used to and I definitely had to rewire my brain to know which signals to use for myself while also recognizing when other cyclists were making these same hand signals.

If you’re planning on visiting/living in Copenhagen, there are a couple of options depending on if you want to buy a bike or rent one for the time being. I knew a friend who studied in Copenhagen the semester prior, so I was able to purchase my bike directly off of her. If you don’t want to go through the hassle of buying and selling a bike, there are many bicycle rental companies to choose from – a very popular one is Swapfiets. Lots of other exchange students opted for this option to rent their bike for around 150DKK (~$30CAD)/month.

So, here’s a funny story about me getting into a bike accident 😢. This happened pretty early on in the semester, around mid-September – but in my defence, I was still getting used to bicycling around Copenhagen 🙈! My friends and I were biking from our dorms to Superkilen Park which was about 15 minutes away. I was the designated leader this time around so I rode at the front of our pack of four. We were biking across a rather large intersection when a bus pulled up to our side of the curb on the corner of the street. For your reference, automobile lanes are completely separate from bicycle lanes, thus making it safer for all vehicles in high-traffic areas of the city. Now because I was following close behind another biker in front of me, even while crossing the intersection, I failed to anticipate him needing to stop abruptly once people started filing out of the bus. And to my tragic surprise, once he stopped, I wasn’t able to press on my break in time causing my front wheel to go full speed into his rear wheel – KABAM 💥🚲! I’m honestly just so glad that my friends behind me had the decency to leave enough room in between us so they didn’t end up doing the same thing – otherwise, it could have been a gigantic domino effect! The gentleman in front of me was completely taken off-guard. The hit and impact to his wheel caused him and his entire bike to lurch forward. Thankfully, no one was walking directly across him when the incident happened, phew 😪. I was completely shaken by the crash, out of breath and a bit traumatized. The person I hit started riding away but then circled back once he noticed that I completely destroyed his rear wheel light – let’s just say he had some words to share with me 😢. Sorry Danish biker, I hope you were able to fix the light! Anyways, moral of the story is to be aware of your surroundings, anticipate incoming traffic, and don’t anger any Danes! I am happy to report that that was my one and only bike incident!

With all of that said, whether you’re just staying for the weekend or living in Copenhagen for a semester, a bike is a MUST for getting around like a true Danish and exploring the city as a tourist!

BACK-TO-SCHOOL

Introduction Week

As part of every student’s orientation to CBS, an introduction week including day-time tours, sightseeing activities, information sessions, and social night events were scheduled the week prior to the start of classes. The day-time intro week was mandatory and available for all exchange students whereas the night events were an additional cost of 575DKK (~$115CAD).

I remember running late to the first day of orientation, which is a typical Kelsey move 😅🤦🏻‍♀️, just ask any of my friends…they know 👀. Since I stayed at a graduate-only dorm, I hadn’t met too many other undergrad students from Nimbus. While scrambling out of my dorm and heading to the direction of CBS, I noticed another girl from the other building heading out of Nimbus in a hurry. We ended up bonding over our tardiness and have been friends ever since. So to think that if we both weren’t late to the first day of orientation, we may have never met! 😱 Miss you, Anika❤️

Here’s a quick breakdown of both the day-time and evening activities:

I really enjoyed the traditional folk dancing evening – definitely got a good work out! It honestly reminded me a bit of square dancing back in Grade 8 of high school … but a lot more fun and a lot less awkward, haha 😂.

Additionally, the Welcome Dinner (“Casino” themed) scheduled for the last day of the intro week was a lot of fun since we all got dressed up 💃🏻🕺🏻 to celebrate the beginning of the exchange semester.

CBS Buddy Program

Prior to my arrival in Copenhagen, CBS offered every exchange student the option to be paired up with another student enrolled at CBS in their Buddy Program. As you’d expect, the role of the “CBS Buddy” was to welcome visiting students to the campus, residence life and the city itself. An email sign-up form was sent out about two months prior to the start of the semester asking everyone if they wanted to be paired up with a local student. These student volunteers were assigned to pick you up from the airport, show you the Copenhagen transit system and help you get accustomed to anything and everything at CBS. I honestly couldn’t have asked to be paired up with a more compatible, fashion-fanatic, art-enthusiastic, and sushi-loving buddy! Thanks for everything Sille – miss you 💜:

CBS Classes

“Ok, but did you actually study?” – asked everyone

And the answer, to most people’s surprise, is “yes, I did”! As exciting as it was to travel around Europe while I was studying in Copenhagen, it was also important to me to ensure I not only passed my courses, but put effort into the courses I enrolled myself in. The course selection was another reason why I specifically chose to study in Copenhagen.

The 4 courses I completed were:

• Global Strategic Management

• Fashion Entrepreneurship and Business Development

• Visual Communication

• Who Owns the Future? The Promise and Perils of the Coming Big Data Revolution (Online)

Since I decided to go on exchange during my 5th year of university, I left most of my upper level electives as the ones I would take while abroad, thus making it easier to find courses that were transferable to my home university. Of the four courses taken, Global Strategic Management was the only Capstone course that I needed to graduate. I was really excited for Fashion Entrepreneurship and Business Development as I’ve always had a deep appreciation and admiration for the fashion industry – whether it be through previously working at Topshop, reading magazines, following fashion bloggers or watching my favourite fashion YouTubers. Since a course like this one wouldn’t be something I’d be able to take back at UBC, I thought this would be a unique opportunity to learn about the Danish and European fashion industry as whole. Of the four, this was definitely the course I looked forward to each week.

To my surprise, courses at Copenhagen Business School typically only occurred once a week and each class was approximately 2.5 – 3 hours long. The largest difference between the CBS curriculum and UBC’s, is that in Copenhagen, the grade from the final exam is the ONLY thing that contributes to your overall grade. Whereas at UBC, and most schools in Canada, there tends to be multiple benchmarks throughout the semester, including quizzes, projects, and assignments, that all contribute to your final grade. Additionally, although classroom participation was encouraged by CBS professors, there was no grade incentive for speaking up and/or asking questions. For my Global Strategic Management course, there was a group-based assignment and presentation, but it was meant to apply textbook learnings to a real-word case-study example, as opposed to being something that was graded. Like any course, I’d say that to actively stay on top of your academics, it’s very important to keep up with your readings so you aren’t cramming everything into the last 2 weeks before the final. I can’t say I was the best at this because with 4 courses, which is considered a full course load, there was certainly a lot of readings to cover each week. Having the course be 100% based on the final exam was pretty nerve-racking to say the least. Interestingly, there were also various types of final exams depending on the course you took. This consisted of a final exam that was either a written exam, take-home timed exam, or oral exam. I experienced all three and was probably the most anxious about the oral one since initially, I was unsure what it specifically consisted of and wasn’t accustomed to this type of exam. The oral exam was for my Fashion Entrepreneurship course and ended up being with a group of people that we chose ourselves. I was fortunate to have my CBS buddy and other friends within my presenting group. We created a project focused on exploring the topics of international expansion and product personalization while ensuring that sustainability and CSR practices were retained for the local Danish brand, Mads Nørgaard.

You can learn more about all these aspects of the CBS student life by watching some videos, reading this Arrival Guide (my friend and I somehow made it in to one of the photos on here 👀), or checking out the CBS Semester Handbook! For more information on Copenhagen Business School’s Exchange program, visit their website to learn more.

CBS Extracurriculars

Similar to other universities, CBS offered a number of different opportunities for exchange students to get actively involved in student organizations, teams, and clubs. For a complete list of all the student organizations, click here. During my 4 months at CBS, here are the ones I decided to give a try:

CBS Dance

I am definitely not a “dancer”, but I do enjoy dancing for fun! 💃 My friends and I regularly attended CBS Dance’s free weekly classes and workshops. They offered unique classes in a variety of dance genres, including hip hop, Zumba, jazz, contemporary, and many more. Every week, the club would post the class schedule on their Facebook page for anyone interested in signing-up on a first-come, first-serve basis. Basically, whoever of my group of friends saw their post first, would sign the rest of us all up. Overall, I had a lot of fun learning new choreography each week, staying active with my friends, and meeting new people outside of my usual circle of people. I’d definitely recommend joining for anyone interested in dancing and/or breaking a sweat, cause holy was it a work out!

CBS Running Club

I’m a pretty active runner and would regularly run around the Frederiksberg neighbourhood whenever the weather was decent. I often coordinated with two of my floormates, and we would run around Frederiksberg park, one of my favourite places in Copenhagen☺️. So when I heard that CBS had a running club, I definitely wanted to give it a try and meet other runners attending the school. We often broke into two different pacing groups, one that was 6-6:30min/km and one that was 5-5:30min/km. The slower-paced group was always the way to go for me! The running club helped me learn about other potential routes around the CBS area that I never would have known about before joining. I loved running around “The Lakes” which are a row of three rectangular lakes curving around the west side of the city centre. Running in this area during sunset resulted in some of the most breathtakingly beautiful views in Copenhagen 🌅.

Mid-way through the semester, I also signed myself up for the annual Nike Start Op Run which is a 5km, 10km or 15km round course in Fælledparken area. My irrational self thought it would be a great idea to sign up for the 10km on a whim the day before the run 😂🤷🏻‍♀️. This was also 4 days after I had just come back from my 2-week trip around Eastern Europe, so I was in the worst possible shape I had been all semester. Mind you, I did walk way more than I ever would have if I had not been travelling so at least I partook in some form of endurance training prior 🤔. I also didn’t know anyone else who was going so I basically signed up and ran by myself, on a cloudy and rainy Copenhagen day. It’s okay, sometimes you just have to do things spontaneously and hope for the best 🙃! After finishing the run, I was honestly pretty proud of myself for going outside of comfort zone by signing up and getting a time that was just under 1 hour. Participating in a run in another country can now be checked off the bucket list ✔️. Hopefully there are more to come in the future!

CBS Mercury Cross-Fit Work Out Classes

Another club that I briefly tried out near the end of the semester was CBS Mercury. They are a fitness centre located in the basement under the canteen at Solbjerg Plad, the main CBS building. I’m not a gym person at all and prefer outdoor sports instead. However, I was curious about getting involved with cross-fit training. Since one of my friends actively went to their work-out classes and highly recommended it, I thought I would give it a try too. Prior to purchasing a membership with them, everyone had the opportunity to attend two free sessions so you could get a feel for the types of work-outs and strength training classes you were committing to. As a complete beginner, I was new to all the unique exercises that were focused on both mentally and physically conditioning your mind and body. It took a while for me to understand the specific techniques associated with weightlifting, deadlifts, burpees and barbell exercises but the staff were very willing to coach me through each of these. Although I only got a glimpse into what cross-fit is all about, I hope to continue exploring other similar work-out classes.

Ultimate Frisbee – Copenhagen Hucks

The last organization that I got involved with was the Copenhagen Hucks. This is an amateur sports team that operates separately from CBS. As someone who has been playing ultimate frisbee for about 10 years, it was really exciting to get to play in Copenhagen with people from all around the globe! Unfortunately, my cleats didn’t make the cut on my packing list, so my regular runners had to do for the time being. The Copenhagen Hucks organization has a men’s, women’s and mixed team for anyone of all skill levels to get involved in. I just did a drop-in session but lots of the players there practice weekly and participate in tournaments across Denmark.

GET HYGGE WITH IT

Photo courtesy of Stella Rose from Unsplash

“Hygge” (pronounced “Hyoo-guh”) is a word in the Danish language that I strongly associate with my time on exchange. So what does “Hygge” even mean? Well, that’s a little tricky. Meik Wiking paraphrases in ‘The Little Book of Hygge’, and quotes one of the greatest philosophers of our time – Winnie-the-Pooh. When asked how to spell a certain emotion, “You don’t spell it, you feel it.” There isn’t one single word that hygge can be directly translated to in English, or any other language for that matter. Instead, hygge is all about this concept of creating, appreciating and living in a ‘space of coziness’. It captures this idea of enjoying the simple pleasures in life, embracing the beauty of solitude, and relishing in one’s own atmosphere.

I, like many others, deeply associate the feelings of hygge and all that it embodies with my favourite time of the year – Christmas. Now picture yourself curled up on a snowy winter’s day next to a crackling fireplace in your favourite cardigan with fuzzy animal slippers drinking a hot chocolate, earl grey tea or if you’re feeling a little daring, maybe even some mulled wine. Top that off with Taylor Swift’s 'Folklore’ album playing in the background – now that’s hygge. It doesn’t have to be something that’s experienced alone though. It can encompass the feelings of thankfulness, gratitude, appreciation, and ultimately, togetherness when being around your close friends and family. Candles can help A LOT to elevate one’s space into becoming an intimate hygge atmosphere.

Thinking back to when I was in Copenhagen, one of the first times I experienced this unique concept of hygge was during the CBS Buddy Dinner. Me and my buddy, along with two other buddy pairings, spent an evening at my buddy’s apartment eating delicious local pizza and drinking wine at her candlelit dining table. Although I was with people I had only recently met, I felt at ease and a sense of home while enjoying everyone’s company as we conversed over our shared experiences and diverse backgrounds. There are also an abundant number of cafes all around Copenhagen that all create a sense of hygge. Besides Café OHA which I mentioned earlier, other cafes that I enjoyed going to because of their ‘cozy’ atmospheres were Frede & Vester's, Café La Tètè and Matcha Bar.

If you want to learn more about hygge by a true Danish himself, give Meik Wiking’s books a read: The Little Book of Hygge, The Little Book of Lykke, and The Art of Making Memories. According to Wiking, the CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, hygge is such an important part of being Danish that it is considered “a defining feature of our cultural identity and an integral part of the national DNA.” I fully enjoyed reading each of his three books and highly recommend them for more information on hygge.

HOLIDAY SEASON

Happy Thanksgiving

Although I didn’t get to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving while I was abroad, I did get to celebrate American Thanksgiving. Check out the dinner spread - I contributed the bacon wrapped asparagus 😋! Myself and another Canadian on my floor were away during our own national holiday so we were really thankful to be invited to the American one. It was definitely odd to be celebrating separately from my family, but enjoying the abundance of food and company with other students in the same situation helped to bring a little piece of home to Copenhagen.

Happy Halloween

Halloween is one of my favourite unofficial holidays of the year 🎃. Typically, I would make costumes with my group of friends back home so this year was still no exception to the DIY costume! All I needed was a deck of cards, some red poster paper, a gold crown, my own little black dress, and a hot glue gun - voilà - the queen of hearts ❤️is here! Take a look at the group picture above - having “no internet” and an upcoming “deadline” are truly as scary as you can get 😬.

Christmas in Copenhagen

It’s the most wonderful time of the year 🎵☺️! To celebrate the start of the holiday season, there is a specific day in Denmark known as “J-Dag” in Danish or “J-Day” in English. Now it’s not an official holiday but it falls on the first Friday of November and celebrates the day that brewing giant Tuborg releases its annual Christmas beer, known as julebryg. Tuborg trucks drive around to the city centre and deliver free holiday-specific beer to the pubs around town. For most Danes, J-Day has become a night to go into town, celebrate the start of the season, sing some Christmas songs and get into the holiday spirit. It has become a real tradition that takes on the phrase, “Glædig jul og godt Tub’år”, which means Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! What an interesting holiday, haha. Overall, I had a fun time celebrating with my floormates at one of the local pubs in town and experiencing the start of the Christmas craziness!

I am also a big sucker for all things Christmas so going to a European Christmas market while physically in Europe and drinking hot mulled wine were high on my bucket list. I ended up flying back home before Christmas but it was nice to get to enjoy the festivities that the city put on while I was still there in December. Another great place to go to during the holiday season is the famous amusement park called Tivoli Gardens. I’d suggest walking around the garden grounds at night to see all the twinkling nights ☺️✨. I only ended up going once during the 4 months I was in Copenhagen but you can also get a pass to check out some of the other park-themed celebrations throughout the year if you’re there for a longer period of time.

THE WINS & LOSSES

the losses:

• Heading to my first class at Dalgas Have, staring at my phone and walking straight into the fountain 🤦🏻‍♀️

• Choosing to pack a helmet in my suitcase instead of a rice cooker 🍚

• Getting into a bike accident and having a Dane yell at me for breaking his rear light 😔

• Mistakenly booking 2 flights to a destination and not realizing that a return flight was not booked ✈️

• Getting scammed in Vienna, Austria as my friends and I tried to buy tickets for Mozart’s opera 🎟🎭

• Getting rammed into by a deer while in Aarhus, Denmark 🤕🦌

the wins:

• Not getting locked out of my dorm room and having to call the housing office to unlock my door and pay 100DKK (~$21 CAD) 🏢

• Becoming an exchange rate whiz and knowing how to convert from CAD to DKK to Є (euro) to USD 💸

• Learning to bike while wearing heels 👡🚲

• Becoming a pro at putting in/taking out my SIM card and helping my friends out (I legit had 0 clue how to do any of this before) 📱

• Running 10km in the Nike Start Op Run 🏃🏻‍♀️

• DIY Halloween Costume 🎃

• Volunteering at a local Thrift Warehouse Sale (Vinokilo CPH) 👗

• Hot Pot Nights at our Dorms 🍲🍜

• Eating at the CBS canteen after 7pm and only paying 30DKK ($6 CAD) for a whole plate of food! 🏫

BITTERSWEET ENDINGS

It’s still so crazy to think that just two years ago, I had the privilege of participating in a study abroad program at the Copenhagen Business School. At times, it feels as though it was just a month ago that I was heading on a 13 hour flight across the globe, and other times, it feels like another lifetime ago. It still astonishes me that I was actually, physically, there completing a semester abroad in Copenhagen – a place I now consider to be a second home, at least for a brief but significant period of my life.

I remember considering the possibility of a study abroad at the back of my mind when I first applied to UBC. At the time, It seemed like a very exciting and unique experience, but never something that I actually thought I would be one to do. Even after the process of attending an information session, completing my application and learning that I had been accepted to CBS, it seemed like something that was still so far from being a reality until the moment that I actually arrived there. It was the first time traveling and living on my own, not really knowing what to expect but excited for the new adventures and unforgettable experiences that were to come along with the incredible people that I was to meet. With an exchange to the Copenhagen Business School, I wanted to gain new perspectives that challenged my way of thinking, push boundaries that encouraged myself get outside of my comfort zone and get inspired to become more globally fluent with the people around me.

My time on exchange was 4 months of learning, growing, changing, and experiencing. It was a time to get lost both physically and mentally, only to be found again and surrounded by people who were all experiencing the same mixed feelings of uncertainty and excitement. It’s astonishing to realize how big a role proximity plays into our lives and the people that we interact with on a daily basis. I am thankful for the friends I was fortunate to make while on exchange and am also so very thankful for the friends and family I have back home. I look forward to someday going back to visit. Hopefully with my parents the next time so I can show them around the city through my eyes.

Now if you’re someone who is thinking about going on exchange or a study abroad sometime in the future, if you ask any person who has been on exchange if they recommend going on exchange, the answer will be “YES, always YES!”

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