Arrival in Odense, the first days

Two years after the start of my internship in Africa I thought I'd dust off this blog and write for it again, for a new adventure or such. For those I didn't yet tell, I have decided to go study abroad, in Denmark, for two years.

I really wanted to write this blog post a lot sooner, but the last couple of weeks have been quite busy, and tiring. In reality the decision of what and where to study (naturally inflated to "What do I want to do with the whole of the rest of my life?") has been pressing on me for several years now, and after having come to terms with what I think would be the absolute best for me all the arrangements that needed to be made only prolonged the stress.

Nonetheless, by the end of the summer it actually started to look like most of the stuff that needed doing was done. So, knowing that I wouldn't see many of my friends in a while, I spent quite a lot of time being with them, which was great of course. I might actually have stretched it a little, meaning that the last two days ended up being quite stressful once again. And just as time had run out... One or two things were still left to be done, just as last time. Oh well.

To help me get settled, and to see what Odense (the city I study in) would be like, my parents and brother came with me as we went to Denmark about two weeks ago. Of course my sisters wanted to come too, but all in all we managed to stuff the car quite wholly, unfortunately leaving too little space.

So what was the trip like? Well, there were goats on the train tracks, a dog on the highway, lightning strikes on the highway, a car crash etc. Lots to see, though I think I slept through about half of it. We arrived in Odense late, and spent the night in a hostel. The weather was quite miserable, but we brought drinks and goat cheese, and the prospect of getting some more rest made it all quite well.

The following day, after breakfast at the Ikea, we went to see the university. What that place is like I think I'll tell in another post - let's say I still owe you that. We had a good look around, and were kind of surprised there were still so many there on a Saturday. Unfortunately, as I only realised later, the faculty my study is at is on a different site altogether, which we didn't visit at that time. But roughly half my courses are at the main campus anyway.

After that we could finally pick up my keys to see what my room is like. And well, it's huge. Especially by Utrecht's standards - it must be over twice the size of my previous one. A downside though is that there isn't a living room, instead part of my room is. I share the dorm with Luigi, a cheerful, friendly and outgoing Italian guy. He's so up to date on all goings on and tends to arrange all sorts of things (together with me or no) there's plenty of social things to be part of for me as well.

But back to the first days in Odense - we spent the rest of the day getting the room all ready to use. Many hands do make light work, and at the end of the day it was already quite liveable, if a bit messy still. We ended the day's work with a nice meal at a Mexican we found in the city centre (which was actually quite nice and cozy, to our surprise), before all sleeping in the room itself. Unfortunately my family had to go home a little early again the next day - as close as Denmark is, it's not really just around the corner either.

So there I was then, in my new home, in a place I knew hardly anyone... Fortunately, there's a group that quite realises that many foreign students find themselves in such a situation, namely the Erasmus Student Network. And just that day, only a few hours after my parents left, they had a walk through the city for all newcomers like me. So, me and Luigi gladly took that opportunity to meet people, as did probably well over a hundred others. And many people we did meet there, including some that would become part of a group of friends I have here now, that do quite many things together. I also met a Dutch and an Australian girl that happened to live at the same group of dormitories as I do, and having plenty of food I thought it nice to have dinner together. And as it happened, Luigi had invited two girls for dinner too - it was quite funny when we heard that of each other. It was almost one of those "manly victory moments", but of course people of any other gender would have been just as welcome. At any rate, we had a lovely dinner, a great first "on my own" at that.

The next weeks too there were many things and arrangements, I bit too much to cover in this blog post too I do think. Suffice to say that there has been and is plenty to do here - which has good and less good sides. But I hope to inform you of most regardless.