"hyggelig" kobenhavn

reflecting

i told myself that today was going to be a day to relect on my semester in copenhagen. but then i didn't feel well this morning and instead i've been a super-lazy girl and i've done absolutely nothing today. but i have some time now, and as i'm thinking, i'm just realizing that i may have spent a great deal of time reflecting and appreciating things that have happened as they happened..does that make any sense at all? i think i went into this experience with my eyes and ears open and tried to think about my experiences along the way, instead of just ending up now, in december, going "what did i do for the last four months?" now that's not to say that things didn't go waaaay too fast. i remember thinking when my parents got here that it was the halfway point and i was going to blog about the things i had been doing and the things i still wanted to do. and now i wish i had done that because i don't remember what was on my list. but surely i did lots of the things on it - i have been quite busy! but what i wonder is what will i remember about my semester abroad in 6 months or a year or ten years? isn't that funny to think about...which memories will stick with me and which ones will fade away?

but i think i definitely have some favorite things about this experience like challenging myself by getting on a plane and having no idea what i was getting myself into, or how i was going to manage and what experiences i was going to embrace. i also loved meeting all sorts of new people and learning about their backgrounds and what has brought them to this place in their lives. i loved living in a city where you don't need a car to get around and just being able to go and walk around and enjoy the life of the city, perhaps accompanied by a friend, perhaps not, perhaps enjoying a drink during these walks, perhaps not. it's been a very different lifestyle in terms of adjusting to things that are out of my normal realm, although in a country equally as developed, educated, and modern as my own. i have also enjoyed experiencing a very different university setting from my own. attending a large university with 15,000 students and adapting to teaching styles and testing methods different from what i'm used to has given me a different perspective and kind of a different way of looking at education and realizing there are so many ways to do things and it's important to experience them. i didn't have to agree with the way that things are done here in denmark, but it has been good for me to see that there are other ways of living life. i love travelling, but travelling isn't why i came here. i wanted to 'live' in another country - on a day to day basis - not just to see the sights, but to be among the people and be a part of something different from my own. and i feel like, to some extent, i have done that. it's hard to completely immerse yourself in a culture where you don't know the language and also when it is in an educational setting, but i feel like i've gotten some insight into the lifestyle here.

i think tomorrow, my last day, i might try to get out into the city some and take some pictures. i have taken a lot while i'm here, but i just want to capture some of the daily life things that i might forget. we'll see how i do on that project!

and yes, i am still planning to catch up on the trips, etc. that i've been promising. maybe i'll just my christmas break to do that. and then what? should i go back to the malibukaddie.blogspot.com or stick with this one? or is life in malibu just boring now compared with this one??

by the way, i am very excited to be heading home - sunday morning will be a bittersweet departure for sure. but i am looking forward to spending time with friends and family who i have missed over the past four months! and then it's back to cali on jan. 1! and believe it or not (because my dad does say i tend to have a problem with "ppp" - piss poor planning) i already have a place to live in california when i get back! whew! that's one less thing for me to worry about...now it'll just be finding cars, getting ready for xmas, and then packing up my life...AGAIN!

posted by kaddie @ 8:46 AM