Health and Wellbeing Abroad

Studying abroad is such a unique experience in that you can explore new parts of the world at the same time as accomplishing academia goals. Such a new environment can be stressful and overwhelming at times which emphasizes that importance of establishing a routine and doing things you know will bring you joy. I’ll show you how I did it during my semseter in CPH!

One thing I did to keep sane is indulging in the food! I am a foodie and love to try new things! This picture is a Danish hotdog, so yum! But buying a little sweet treat or trying a new pastry always makes the soul happy and brightens the mood. Also, trying new foods is a great way to learn about the place you’re in whether its pasta in Italy or smørrebrød in Denmark. It’s a fun way to become inmersed in the culture!

A way to beat homesickness is to do some things that you would do at home! For example, I love to read so I visited a book shop close to my school and browsed around with one of friends! It was so fun since we had our hot coffees and it was chilly outside!

I also made sure to check out book shops in the countries I traveled to! Usually they were all in the native language so I couldn’t understand the books but its partly for the familiarity 🙂

Another thing is to make sure you leave your room or your complex. It’s so important to get out an explore the city your living in! This is a public library that my friends and I would go study at, specifically in the old library section that looked straight from Harry Potter! Exploring new places with new friends is such fun and creates the best memories!

On the topic of health, it’s important to remember that being in a new place brings colds. Taking Vitamin C everyday helped me to not get sick once! I also made sure to make meals that incorporated many fruits and veggies! Don’t worry too much about working out because you walk so much but movement everyday is important. Getting out into the sun and parks is also important for the mental health aspect! Grab a coffee and sit and people watch. Simplicity is key.

2024 CPH Marathon

Study abroad in itself is going to remove you from your comfort zone and it’s normal to feel isolated or alone at times. You’re far away from home! But! It allows you to gain so much new knowledge about yourself and the world that you won’t want to leave. I wouldn’t trade this experience for the world!

Academics in Another Country

Academics! What a fun topic! I was nervous for what this would look like in another country especially after feeling so burnt out from the previous semester. I had been told different things on what the academics specific to my program would look like so I felt nervous. It also was nerve wracking because the buildings are spread throughout the city, which I am not used to.

The classes that I am taking all have similar yet different rigor. A big thing in Danish education is group work. Thus, in my Danish class, we rarely will do individual work except our worksheets and exams. For example, one of our bigger projects was to walk to an assigned neighborhood, interview a local, and then make some sort of video to complete the project. So my group mates and I had to take the metro to be able to do our project, which is not something I’ve ever had to do before for a school project. My Human Trafficking in Global Context class is heavy on discussions and has reading homework due before class starts, which is something I’ve had in my Wofford Philosophy classes.

My core course is lecture heavy and so is my immunology class but that’s to be expected of Biology classes. The class lengths are a little longer here, by maybe 10-15 minutes, but the professors are good about giving us 5-10 minute breaks halfway through. Something that I wish Wofford professors would do, but I won’t be picky 🙂 There is a lot of emphasis on learning outside of the classroom which I feel can be seen sort of in Woffords classrooms. Theres more guidance in what to study at DIS but, if I’m being honest, I don’t do a ton of studying. Why, you might ask? Well all our exams are open book, so I just focus on keeping good notes. I am grateful that this program acknowledges that were studying abroad to gain experiences!

I think that my courses of study here that are relevant to my major have helped solidify my desire to pursue medical school. I really enjoy the hospital setting and was interested in the difference between Danish hopsitals and US hospitals. From my brief visit on one, the biggest difference I noticed was insanely bright and colorful walls and decorations as well as a bike lane through all the hallways! My medical practice class has really solidified my interest in medicine because it’s taught by practicing doctors who are able to give first hand advice and stories about what we are learning. This is nice because I’m learning similar things to Wofford but have the knowledge of a physican to enhance it.

Lastly, my world view has completely expanded because of this experience. I knew of the world and other cultures before, but being immersed in a new one is the perfect way to flip your world upside down. My Human Trafficking in a Global Context class has really impacted me the most by completely destroying what I thought I knew. New definitions and new perspectives have been gained in learning of this issue. It brings in so many political factors that I won’t get into on here, but it’s definitely a much broader topic than I originally thought as well as a much more complex topic.

I think that this experience will be good for me of course, but also in the aspect of academics and learning. I won’t lie when I admit that sometimes learning was becoming a chore at school because of how content heavy in short timeframes. However, being able to immerse in a new way of learning has brought the joy back. Learning is such a gift and priviledge, especially as a young woman, so being refreshed in the mindset is a blessing. The schooling in Denmark is definitely more lowkey than the US, but it’s reminding me of why I am doing what I am doing so cheers to Denmark!

Excursions with my program!

I just returned from a week long trip with my core course at DIS Scandinavia – Copenhagen! To break it down for you, there are core courses at DIS which are similar to majors at universities/colleges. Similar concept in that it is focused on a topic, but it’s only for one semester and only one class. So for me, as I am a Biology major back home at Wofford, I wanted to choose a core course that was related to that in some way. There were a couple that piqued my interest but the one I ended up settling on is Medical Practice and Policy: Human Health and Diseases. Another major difference is that core courses have travel weeks, one short and one longer. I’ll share a little about both in this post, specifically about the academic visits we did. Every core course has these short/long study weeks. My course went to Odense, Denmark for the short tour which is in western Denmark. We went to Tallinn, Estonia and Hesinki, Finland for our long study tour.

For the short study tour, we visited the Odense Univerity Hospital for all of our academic visits. We heard from an ENT, Pathologists, and EMS. At the EMS visit, we also heard a research presentation on whether sedation vs. no sedation is better for intubation.

On the long study tour, we had a visit to a General Practitioners office where we heard from a Family Doctor in Estonia. This visit was cool because we also got a tour of the entire doctors office. In Estonia, more specialized physicians are found in hospitals and more generalized physicians can be found in practices like this. So, a gynecologist is in the hospital while a midwife is at the Family Practice. We also learned that 94% of Estonians have health insurance which just means that they pay taxes. These taxes go towards the Estonia Health Insurance Fund and is what funds an procedures or medical needs for the country.

We then visited the TEMS, Tallinn Emergency Medicine Services. This was a similar visit to the Odense visit in that they have similar practices, though different from the US. They have teams with nurses and doctors, and depending on the severity of the call, one will get sent out over the other. One thing I think could definitely be implemented into American cities is EMS on bikes! In the summers, they have EMS on bikes patroling Old Town Estonia since the roads are so narrow.

Lastly, we visited a dentist in Helsinki and an allergist. The dentist visit was in an old mental insitution but was now a space for lots of different small businesses and even a café! We got a run down of the Finnihs healthcare system as well a lottttt of statistics. I wont include them here as to prevent boredom. But long lecture short, while the Fins are voted the happiest country in the world, they have the highest numbers of people on antidepressants. I think the allergist ties nicely into why this is. In an ever evolving world, we have introduced more urban spaces. A lot of people are no longer out and about in nature and that has increased the amount of allergies that have hit our modern world. Finland doesnt see a lot of sun (we were there for 2 of the 4 days of sun theyve had so far this year) and so people are not outside. The disconnect between humans and nature is the main research topic that the allergist is researching and is why I think a lot of Fins are struggling with depression.

These study tours are all work, theres lots of free time and fun activities set up for us! For example, on a ghost tour in Tallinn, we were blessed to be able to see the Northern Lights in the city! How gorgeous! Never would I have thought I would be able to see these but here they are!

I also learned how to curl! It takes way more strength than you would think! I’ll be watching them during the winter Olympics!

We played Glow-in-the-Dark mini golf in Helsinki with our class! So fun! It was set up like a haunted house which none of us expected so it definitely was a jump scare at first! There was even a hole where the floor dropped when you made it in. Terrifying!

I was also able to feed reindeer in Finland! This was an incredible experience! On this trip, we also did the ice plunge and sauna that is really popular in Nordic countries. We went at night so it was difficult to see into the lake. They cut a hole in the ice for us and we dipped in! Such an unique experience!

I love Tallinn and Helsinki! Those excursions were so incredibly fun and I made some amazing friends along the way!

Day in the Life – Copenhagen

Take a look at a day in my life at DIS CPH!

My classes are held Monday/Thursday or Tuesday/Friday. Wednesdays have no classes for the entire study abroad program because our classes will do field studies, which are field trips. They have some relevance to the class. For example, my Danish class has been to City Hall and we are going to the ballet next week as part of our culture immersion. I have my Core Course, Medical Practice and Policy on M/Th afternoons. On T/F I have class 8:30am-1pm – Danish Language and Culture, Immunology, and Human Trafficking in a Global Context. This is a picture of my Core Course classroom ft. my professor Patrick and our collection of clementines. 👋🏼

Mornings look very different here compared to Wofford. I get up and get ready per usual but I walk 25 minutes to get to my classes everyday. I live next to Rosenburg castle so I get to walk past it every morning, and it is so beautiful.

Commuting is so different here also. Owning a car is very expensive in CPH as prices can be doubled or tripled from car prices elsewhere and parking is expensive. This is an effort to keep cars away from the downtown areas and to make it more pedestrian/biker friendly. Speaking of bikes, this is a very popular mode of transportation and you can find an army of bikes at every stop light waiting to go. CPH is not the place to try riding a bike for the first time because you will get run over by a bike; the locals will not slow down for you! 🙂

M/F I usually have a slower morning since I don’t have class until the afternoon. This usually consists of a morning workout at the dorm gym and catching up on homework for the rest of the week. I cook a lot for myself so I go to the grocery store at least 2x a week since food has less preservatives here. It can go bad quickly so I only buy foods I can eat within a few days of buying.

I also have been frequenting many coffee shops here and trying all that I can. The coffee is amazing but the star of the show is definitely the pastries. So beautiful and so tasty! This was the best cinnamon roll!

When class is over, typically I have work to do as I am participating in research for DIS also. But on the days where I have more time, there is nothing better than getting out and exploring, especially when the sun decides to come out!! This is the Nyhavn Canal and she really is a beauty! It’s so amazing to be able to explore such a beautiful city! There are so many free museums or places that offer student discounts.

Every study abroad is different but my residence housing is similar to Wofford in that I share a room with one person. Some dorms here have 8+ roommates! My housing is also unique in that students from all over the world live here! Most are students at the University of Copenhagen but us DIS kids are sprinkled into the mix. My roommate is Olivia (on the very left), everyone say hello!

DIS also has the option of a visting host family; this is a family that you are able to see but you don’t live with. It allows you to have the dorm experience and host family experience at the same time. I am so grateful for this because I get to do and see some amazing things as well as create a relationship with the sweetest Danish family. Some things we have done thus far: multiple museums, dinners at yummy restuarants, and this picture specifically is from a Brøndby IF football game! My first European soccer game! It was amazing!

Everyday here has new adventures and sights to see! I can’t wait to explore some more! Until next time!

-B

Finally Adjusting – BL

It’s been 3 weeks in the lovely CPH so here are some thoughts on adjustments!

One of the hardest adjustments has been the weather as I arrived in the middle of the Nordic winter. Anyone who knows me knows that I get cold no matter what time of year it is. The wind is brutal since CPH is located on a small island but it’s definitely something that you can get used to. I might even dare to say that I am beginning to appreciate the wind.

Another big adjustment was being in a walkable city. I have spent my whole life in the suburbs of cities so I have to drive to get anywhere. Here, I walk everyday all day. CPH is one of the most bicycle friendly cities in the world so the deeper into the city you go, the less cars. To help with perspective, I am more likely to be hit by a bike than a car. I have really loved how much people genuinely want to be outside and are okay with shifting convenience to the side. It’s refreshing. My walk to class is about 20 min, depending on how many people there are and if there are any worker trucks blocking walkways. Its such a lovely walk where I can people watch and also just have some time to think before I get on with my busy day.


I wouldn’t say that classes have been that big of an adjustment. They certainly are different than Wofford classes in that the Danes like to emphasize group learning, so there are always activities or something to keep us actively engaged as opposed to strict lecture. One of my classes is strictly discussion based so there is no lecture at all. It’s been really nice to have these kinds of classes because I feel more engaged in the content, but it also pushes me out of my comfort zone and forces me to talk to more people in class than I normally would.


As for first thoughts when I arrived in CPH: When I got to my dorm, I was really overwhelmed because it’s this huge complex. It’s actually really lovely because there is a system of students that throw different events throughout the semester as a way to keep the whole community engaged with each other. My room itself is fairly nice; I have a twin sized bed, an armoir, and a desk. I share the kitchen and bathroom with one roommate but some people have 8+ roommates!

To anyone who may be considering going abroad, I can tell you that the adjustments that you will have to make are nothing too severe to where you’ll be unable to do them. It is such a wonderful experience to be able to immerse yourself into another culture and to do so for an entire semester. I remind myself that the uncomfortable is a beautiful thing and is where the most growth happens.