Wow! It’s already been more than a week in Copenhagen.

I’ve been living ~40 minutes south of Copenhagen in Solrød Strand with a host family. My host mom is Marianne, my host dad is Per, my host sister is Katja, and they have a puppy named Carly (and two cats). We have walked around town, gone to the beach, seen Nyhen (Nue-han – emphasize the first part and then kind of give up on the rest), and the Little Mermaid (which is very small). It has been fun learning about Denmark from their perspective.

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It has been interesting adjusting to the new city. Some of the biggest differences I’ve noticed is how everyone gets around: people take the train, or ride the bus (rush hour biking is terrifying to watch). People seem to live in the moment, and enjoy the “simple” things, especially out in Solrød. Things are pretty expensive, but it is still fun to window shop and look around the different vintage shops in the city center.

My family and I talk a lot about the differences between the US and Denmark. Aside from making a meaningful connection with my family, this is one of my favorite things about living with a host family. We talk about how Denmark has a completely different political system, where there is no political majority (at least since the early 1900s). We discuss how health care looks different in Denmark. It is especially cool getting to listen to my family and then also learning about some of these things in my classes.

The two classes I have that most focus on culture are my Pregnancy and Religion & Politics Classes. In my Pregnancy class, we have talked about how the health care system is structured across the national, regional and municipality levels, with general practitioners at the center of the system. In my Religion & Politics class, my professor lectures about Denmark’s policial history and how religion has become integrated into everyday cultural norms and even laws.

My other two classes are equally interesting, they are more focused on the biology knowledge. For my Epigenetics class, we have already had our first field study! We visited the University of Copenhagen to learn about IVF in cattle and epigenetic re-setting of embryonic germ cell lines.

That’s all for now! Some of the things I’ve learned so far:

• Public transport is big in Denmark. Really public everything
• Tag Selv Silk is pretty amazing
• 4 month old puppies (I’m looking at you, Carly) are kind of like zombies (you were kind of right, mom)
• I really enjoy the slower pace of being a little outside the city, and taking the train isn’t that scary at all!