My first week in Denmark was one of the most tiring and exciting experiences that I’ve had. DTU planned an introduction week from Tuesday to Friday. On Tuesday morning, I entered a huge sports hall and weaved through massive crowds of other students to find my table. I found my “buddy group” there, which was made up of a native Danish student as our guide and several other exchange students. I was surprised at the diversity in our group; everybody came from different countries, which included Norway, Finland, Sweden, South Korea, Germany, Latvia, and Belgium.That day was filled with team building activities and small tours around the main part of the campus. The next day, we had a presentation about Danish culture, and we later attended a small club/student activity fair.
Thursday was one of the best days of the week; all of the different buddy groups went into Copenhagen for the day. All of the groups competed in a photo scavenger hunt where we tried to take pictures in front of the most iconic places in the city. Doing this gave us a great opportunity to walk all around the city, and we saw the Rundetaarn, Tivoli, and Nyhaven to name a few attractions. In the late afternoon, we took a canal tour, which included passing by the famous Little Mermaid statue. After dinner, we had free time to wander around the city. With a friend, I went into the Norrebro neighborhood to buy a bike – a necessity in Denmark. After walking around for about an hour, we finally found a shop with used bikes that we liked. And after bargaining with the owner, my friend and I walked out happily with our bikes.
Friday morning was my first major test of my biking skills. My dormitory at Tingbjerg Kollegiet is 10 km away from my campus and a 30-40 minute ride. Thankfully I found my way and even arrived on time. That day we separated from our original groups, and we met others in our own majors. Later we went to a small presentation where we were introduced to the head of studies, and we learned more about our program. After that, it was dinner followed by a party. This was undoubtedly one of the biggest differences from American colleges – there was alcohol everywhere on campus and sponsored by the school. Since the drinking age is much younger in Denmark, it follows that everyone old enough to be in college is old enough to drink. According to our earlier Danish culture presentation, the Danes are huge drinkers and partiers. This was definitely true from my experience last week. Most people stayed at the party on campus until early in the morning, including myself. The rest of the weekend, I explored Copenhagen on my own, and I prepared myself for the first week of classes.
