Author: Aly Blackwell | Major: Food, Nutrition and Health| Semester II 2024

Birthday in Copenhagen

Since my last blog post, my study abroad experience has become even better by the second. During session two of my DIS summer, I began a new course titled Postcolonial Europe: Narratives, Nationalism, and Race. I was eager to begin this course not only to meet new people, but this course was definitely out of my comfort zone, and I was prepared for the challenge. Being a pre-PA student, I am always used to science and health courses and this humanities course was a nice refresher and break from the health world. I was nervous starting this class because I expected everyone else to be history majors or political science majors due to the course description and I was frightened I would not “fit in.” However, I was wrong. My classmates ranged from English majors to architect majors to nursing majors. I was not alone. Every single person in my class was so accepting of each other and there was not one ounce of judgement between anyone when discussing the serious topics of this course. Even though my knowledge background and others were not as strong as my classmate’s studying history and humanities, everyone’s knowledge background was welcomed with open arms. Honestly, this is something that surprised me most. I expected there to be a knowledge hierarchy, but there was nothing like that. I loved this mix of students all studying different things, and if it were not for this course, I would not have met the amazing people I call friends today. I encourage anyone doing a summer session to step out of their comfort zone and challenge themselves to a course they would most likely not take at their home university.
During this session, I traveled to Brussels, Belgium and Marseille, France with the DIS students from my class. This was one of the main reasons why I chose DIS. Summer session two at DIS includes a faculty-led study tour to one or multiple countries to dive deeper into the ideas being studied. I loved being able to create stronger friendships and being able to connect ideas from class into the real world while going on this trip with my class. In Brussels, we were able to freely walk around the city center, visit The Grand-Palace, attend a Belgian chocolate factory workshop, attend a class walk with a political activist from the area, and visit the Royal Museum for Central Africa. My favorite activity was the Royal Museum. The museum is an ethnography and natural history museum situated in Tervuren in Flemish Brabant, Belgium, just outside Brussels. The class and I were able to walk with a museum guide to talk about the history of the Algerian War and postcolonial Europe. I enjoyed how on the study tour we could do things on our own and have things scheduled with the class to strengthen our knowledge. We were in Brussels for around twenty-four hours and then we hopped on a four-hour train to Marseille. The Marseille trip lasted around 3 days. We were able to meet and walk with more activists in the area, visit the Porte de l’Orient monument, and were able to do things freely as well. With my class in our spare time, we visited the Basilica of Notre-Dame-of-la-Garde, the Natural History Museum of Marseille, and visited the beach. A special moment of this trip was celebrating my twenty-first birthday while in Marseille. This was something a was nervous about since I was far from my friends and family from home, but my classmates and professor made it the best experience.
Coming back to Denmark after the study tour was relaxing. Denmark had been my home for a while at this point and coming back from the trip was just like coming back home after a long road trip. I loved seeing my roommates again and sharing memories from all our study tours. When I arrived home my roommates had surprised me with a traditional Danish birthday cake which meant the world. We also rented a Go Boat and rode along the Copenhagen harbor while enjoying charcuterie. This was my last week in Copenhagen, and I was truly sad it was coming to an end. I cherished it by eating the famous Danish hot dogs and walking the streets one last time. I would not have traded this experience for the world and saying goodbye to my roommates and friends was heartbreaking, but I know we will visit each other in America. Being able to make unique and unexpected friendships was amazing and the people you meet while studying abroad will truly impact your life. I will take back so many lessons and experiences with me and will never forget them. So long Denmark!