7 – Uafhængighed

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.

— Viktor E. Frankl

Denmark’s school break happened to be this past week, so my host family capitalized on it by taking a trip to Guatemala. This left me to have a week of independence and experience living like my peers in apartments (albeit mine was a bit outside of the city). I was very much looking forward to this week as it would allow me to compare different life styles abroad. Now, with that time past, I’m glad I tried both, but am happy I am living with a host family.

The weirdest part of this experience was definitely living alone in someone else’s house. While I realize that my host family’s home is also my home for the semester, it still felt a bit weird being in it all by myself. Mornings and evenings were always a bit lonely because the lack of sound could be unsettling. One great part of this, though, was being able to sing my heart out in the shower (something I’m too embarrassed to do when others are around).

My first reaction when my host family actually left was a sense of freedom and independence. One of the most difficult elements of living so far outside of the city is not being able to participate in weekday night life. Many late-night events felt out of reach from my homestay and now I was able to test those waters without missing quality time with my host family.

One of my favorite memories of this past week was doing another escape room. After thoroughly enjoying the mind-bending puzzles of the first one I did with my class, I eagerly found a group of friends to go experience another one with. Our 7pm booking got down to the wire as we solved the whole puzzle with only a minute and fifteen seconds left out of our hour! It was crazy and so much fun and I definitely recommend that everyone (of any age) tries it out.

Along with the escape room, I was able to participate in game night at Bastard Café, explore the Danish Design Museum, and go to a couple of evening workout classes at a gym in the city. All of these activities helped me feel so much more connected to the DIS community and my friends, though this week was not without it’s discomforts.

I found cooking to be the most difficult part of living alone. While I am nowhere near a good cook, I pride myself on being able to successfully manage a bit more than just pasta (when given a recipe). I had been looking forward to testing my cooking skills this week and am sad to say that it didn’t really happen—most of my meals ended up being bought in the city.

Aside from being expensive, my choice to eat out was disappointing in that I didn’t even attempt to tackle the challenge of cooking. One of my hopes for studying abroad was to become more independent and cooking for one’s self is a mark of that in my opinion. I had thought that I would naturally be able to start cooking for myself regularly even though the last time I did that was probably in high school. This expectation of an easy transition between lifestyles and habits has been a theme in other areas of my life (as talked about in my blog post last week)—especially the harsh reality of unmet goals. While cooking on my own didn’t quite work out, I’ve shifted my perspective and now want to try cooking again, except this time with a bit of help and support from my host mother.

In reflection, this week forced me to adapt to a new situation and I think that that’s what studying abroad is all about. It’s safe to say that I’m glad I’m living with my host family. I appreciate the routine we’ve established and the flexibility I have within it; however, I am looking forward to spending more time exploring life and the city with friends.