Natasha's Exchange to University of Southern Denmark | Denmark
When I left Australia to embark on my (long) journey to Europe, I had no idea what I was heading into. Having just settled into life in Perth after living in the Mid-west, it felt like a huge challenge just to make the decision to leave my family and friends. As it turned out, while I may have left people behind, I made an entire new family in Denmark.
My exchange experience was in Odense, Denmark studying at the Southern Denmark University; but it didn’t feel like I spent much time there at all. I used this opportunity and spent a month backpacking either side of the semester, as well as taking advantage of the weekends to explore countries that, to me, felt like they were right on my doorstep. Living in Denmark was a huge culture shock – which was unexpected because Scandinavians can seem so similar to us. They love drinking, sport and having a good time. But it’s the subtle differences that can really have the biggest impact on you. From not having a word for “please” and being very efficient in their social etiquette, Danes can sometimes seem quite cold and indifferent. This could not be further from the truth, and I had the joy of living with 13 Danes and 1 Norwegian in my dorm. They became my new family, took me under their wing and showed me how great life there can be. My dorm even had its own bar/club on site and held parties every week (we even had strippers!).
By the end I saw 17 countries, and there is no way I could identify any as my favourite because the experiences were all so different. From taking a cruise from Finland to Russia, exploring Lapland and watching the breathtaking northern lights, climbing snowy mountains in Poland, eating to my heart’s content in Italy, there is no way I could ever forget the amazing places I have visited, or the amazing people I have met along the way.
I recommend Scandinavia for Australians to go to if you want to be really immersed- while I saw many Aussies in my travels, there was only one other Australian at my University (that I knew of). This meant you were forced to step outside your comfort zone and not rely on having other people from your country to fall back on. Take advantage of being so close to everything and save up enough to travel around – my friends and I used to check the budget airlines pages at the beginning of the week and see where they had specials to go to, and just hop on the plane to explore for the weekend. Being a 1.5 hour train ride from Copenhagen, it became the go to destination for a day out. From here, it was 20 minutes to Sweden and I ended up seeing more of the country than any of the Danes I lived with.
Leaving my new family was the hardest thing that I have ever done, but as I am writing this I am getting ready to meet a few of them in Thailand for the study break, and saving for a trip back for the dorms week long birthday bash next year. While I still can’t pronounce most of their names 100%, I love them all and the Danes were the best part of my experience.
- Natasha studied abroad at the University of Southern Denmark , Denmark
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