Getting Started in Copenhagen
Upon my arrival in Copenhagen, I was picked up at the airport by my designated Danish buddy from Copenhagen Business School (CBS). He helped me get to my shared dorm room in Svanevej (a CBS student resident hall in Nørrebro), taking a metro and a bus to get there, and introduced me to a go-to Danish late-night snack: Kebabs and for the vegetarians, Falafel. All of this was so new to me: the highly integrated, tech reliant public transportation, the danish accent of my buddy, the rainy, cloudy atmosphere of the gorgeous city center and its outskirts. All of it was new and all of it was immensely exciting.
After a jam packed orientation and social week, complete with Danish folk dancing lessons, a comedy show, and a huge gourmet welcome dinner followed by an after-party at a 3-story club, my roommate Annabelle Baer (UMD Finance and Computer Science, 21’) and I prepared ourselves for our first week of class and the semester ahead.
My roommate Annabelle Baer and I love cooking in the shared kitchen downstairs.
My roommate and I enjoy hanging out in Svanevej’s shared basement, equipped with couches, a tv, a foosball table, a pool table, and lots of large tables for eating and studying.
I’ve been enjoying Icelandic Greek yogurt brand, Skyr with chia seeds and muesli for breakfast every day.
Here’s some of the yummy food we cooked on the weekend so that we could eat healthy meals during the busy week.
Exploring my part of the city, called Nørrebro, has been so much fun! This area is called Red Square.
Exploring the city center has been a highlight of my time here in Copenhagen. These houses in the Nyhavn area are brightly colored and beautiful!
The culminating event of CBS’s International Exchange social week was a delicious welcome dinner followed by a huge party.
At Copenhagen Business School, I am enrolled in Strategic Management (or the equivalent of BMGT 495), Macroeconomics (or the equivalent of ECON 305), and Service Innovation and Sustainability (an upper level elective). I have also been concurrently taking an online class through UMD for my Hebrew Studies minor.
For the most part, CBS’s class structure and physical classrooms are very similar to Smith. There is a lot of encouragement from professors, much like at Smith, to participate, ask questions, and collaborate in groups. One thing about academic life here at CBS that is wildly different from UMD is the grading system and overall expectations of students in terms of work. The only grading opportunity in each and every class is the final examination (which can be either a paper, an oral presentation, a 4-hour sit-in exam, or some combination of the three). What this means, is that it is up to you to do all the readings and exercise sheets throughout the semester and not save them for the last minute before the exam. It is a whole new level of academic independence and so far, I have enjoyed and appreciated the change. I don’t think I would want it for more than just this semester as it is stressful having my grades weighted on just one assignment/exam but it’s interesting and in a lot of ways, freeing, at least for the time being.
Throughout this first month of classes, I have so much enjoyed admiring the gorgeous architecture of the various CBS academic buildings, biking through the city center as well as to and from classes, reading and studying in cute coffee shops I come across, cooking in the shared kitchen of Svanevej, traveling to nearby European cities (so far Mälmo, Sweden, London, England, and Brussels, Belgium) and most importantly, slowly but surely, feeling more and more at home here in Copenhagen.