I leave to Study Abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark.

I’ll be taking the 6:50pm flight from LAX to Heathrow London, then a connecting flight from Heathrow into Kastrup airport, which is right inside the heart of Copenhagen.

Until a couple months ago, I didn’t really even know the geography of where i’d be studying abroad, so it’d be cruel for me to go any further without providing a description!

If you search it up on google maps, you’ll see Copenhagen as a small coastal country on the east side of Denmark.

It is directly below Sweden and Norway, and it’s part of the Scandinavian countries–which generally denotes Norway Sweden and Denmark.

But it’s also part of a grouping called Nordic.

Nordic countries include Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.

And they include the nordic myths and legends, from which we have inherited Thor and Loki, in our modern day MCU watching American Hollywood culture.

The danish flag is a bright red, looks almost like a brighter hue of crimson to me, and it has a Nordic cross, of which many of the countries above share the same design.

If you told a preschooler to draw the flag, just imagine two parallel lines hotdog style right down the center row, then two lines hamburger style, but slightly more to the left than center.

Voila. Now color outside of the lines with red, then erase the pencil markings for your very own flag.

I have the question asked to me very many times, so i’d like to list out a couple reasons why did i choose to study abroad, and to do it in Denmark?

In no particular order,

Since coming to UC San Diego, I have been meeting international friends, going to study abroad events, and curiously listening to books, stories, and friends who have experience of traveling or even living abroad. This has driven me to want to try it and come up with my own stories!
In the summer after I graduated high school, I had a growing reading habit, and to satisfy it, I went to a thrift store near my highschool. I bought “The Little Book of Hygge” pronounced roughly “hoo-ga”, and was fascinated by how danish culture, at least in Copenhagen, is presented as a happy place to live, a walkable city (in contrast to LA, which is uses freeways and highways and car road religiously for transport), and as a place where hygge–the description of simple comforts like family and food and friends–flourished.
I want to make friends worldwide so in the future, when I go backpacking and traveling, I can hit them up and stay on their couches. How’s that for being resourceful?

I have many, many more reasons for wanting to study abroad, including hosting dinner parties and talent shows among new friends, but I am limiting my weekly observations to 15 minutes of writing time total in order to have my eyes on the prize–the actual experience of living abroad.

And no, I do not know the danish language.

Yet.

Thanks for joining me on this first observation!

PS. (post script)

The language is called “the danish language”

The people are called “Danes” as in “Americans” or “Danish” like “American”

And the national treasure from them, as far as I am concerned, are Royal Dansk, danish butter cookies. Look them up. For some reason, my asian grandparents always had this at their homes when I came over for celebrations as a kid.

Coincidence? I think not.

PPS.

Thank you to everyone who donated to my California to Copenhagen GoFundMe.

http://bit.ly/quishawnabroad

Any financial support is much appreciated.

And keeps this newsletter ad free–for the 5 people reading it. 😉