Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
― Albert Einstein
To start, Copenhagen has been a wonderful city to explore. I am so happy that bike lanes exist as they have been my primary means of movement throughout the greater Copenhagen area. Every day I have been riding my bike to the train station, taking it on the train, and then riding to DIS. This has cut my previously 50 minute commute down to a solid 32 minutes—on a good day. I am still figuring out the kinks of public transportation though and have cut it close to class a couple of times.
The other day (of course one of the days I was already running a bit late), my train decided to stop in the middle of the tracks for about 6 minutes. I later found out that this happens when the computer system controlling the trains encounters an error to avoid catastrophe. I wish I could do that and just stop whenever I thought I was in imminent danger. For example, yesterday in my Danish class we were learning numbers and thought I was going to die when she asked me to pronounce 795 (syv hundrede og femoghalvfems). It would been nice if I could’ve just stopped moving and people could tell my professor “oh yeah, he shut down to avoid a catastrophe.”
But aside from those occasional hiccups, I haven’t had too much trouble with the transit. With it, I have been able to visit so much of the city.
I have really been enjoying all of my classes. My video game ones are letting me dive into a subject I have had no formal education on and my other classes are pushing my academic boundaries.
One thing that I still haven’t been able to wrap my brain around is the fact that in three of my classes I am studying video games! It still feels like an amazing dream that I will have to wake up from in the morning, but so far it’s stuck around. Earlier today I went on a field study with my Rhetoric of Gaming class to an escape room—and that was it. We literally just did an escape room. Coming from my academic background, this has all been a breath of fresh air.
Shadow Wars has been a truly eye-opening class. We are learning about the methods and strategies that Russia has used to wage a cyber war against the west. On Monday, we actually had a guest lecturer, Jon Kyst, come in and discuss his work as the Russian media expert in the EU’s East Strategic Communications Task Force. It was a fascinating experience to hear from an actual member of a part of the EU. Up until now, the EU was really just some big entity that I knew of but didn’t really feel a connection to. After Jon explained his job and the tactics employed to combat Russia, I have some newfound faith in a peaceful resolution to the current tension we have.
Next week is Core Course Week and I am quite excited to visit the Lego Museum and make some video games!
Since my last post, things have been getting a bit better socially. I am happy to report that I did indeed go on an adventure this weekend! For my Danish class, I had to visit Christiansborg Palace and fill out a worksheet on the tapestries that live in its great hall. As the packet was quite thick, a classmate of mine suggested that we visit together. On Friday, we met up for food beforehand and then blasted through it in an afternoon. It was honestly very nice to have some one-on-one time with another American for a bit. Because I live in a homestay, most of my interactions with other students have been in classroom or group contexts. We talked a lot about life here and how it varies from our home lives in different ways (she’s from Seattle).
Beyond that, I also went to a DIS-sponsored bowling night on Thursday. This was honestly so much fun as I haven’t been bowling in several years. This was a really great chance for me to meet people I might not have otherwise run into during this semester. That’s the great thing about these events and I was actually introduced to two people who go to my school!
So overall I’m feeling much more comfortable socially. I am starting to get the hang of things and have been able to make plans to meet up with people at different times of the day so I’m not as lonely. One thing that I do need to get onto, though, is booking travel plans for upcoming weekends. These first few weeks I have just been focused on getting my feet on the ground, so now it’s time to get them off this ground and onto somewhere else. While I do want to visit a few places in Europe, I also want to make sure to explore the rest of Denmark and get to the mainland one of these days.
Learning To Cope 