Hi. Hello. I feel like it's been a while since I've done a post.
Today is Day 3 of quarantine for me and things are going okay. You guys are probably tired of hearing about abroad being canceled and all the other things that are going on in the world so I'll try to keep it brief. I was so gutted when 1. our study tours got canceled and 2. DIS sent us home. I think these things happened within a week of each other and I probably should've seen them both coming but naïve little me did not. I think what really got me was the fact that our teacher spent 3 whole hours going over our itinerary for Helsinki the day it got canceled. She was even like at the end of class "get excited, see you at the airport on Sunday", so it really felt like it was happening. As for leaving Denmark, by the time it was time for me to come home I was pretty much ready. I definitely was sad to leave Copenhagen but it pretty much turned into a ghost town in the days before I left that it just didn't feel the same.
As for being home, I really enjoy it–the weather is warm, I'm surrounded by people I care about, I get home cooked food, and I can do pretty much whatever I want. It definitely is different though because I haven't been home consistently since high school. In college when I go home everything feels really rushed because it's either for break or summer and right now everything feels so slow. I kind of don't mind it though because I feel like I've been going going going since the beginning of junior year and I haven't really had time to digest anything.
I'm a little worried for when school starts because I'm not very good at keeping myself to a schedule when I don't have obligations like class or work but I guess this will force me to get better at it. I don't think our program is using Zoom or anything where everyone has to be on at the same time so I'm interested to see what class consists of.
Overall, I would say I'm doing okay. I've been watching a lot of tv and getting some sleep. I guess the thing that I've been thinking about the most is how fast everything seemed to happen. In Denmark what was scary was the number of cases rose so quickly. In three days it went from 90 to 262 to 514 and then by the end of that week everyone from our program was pretty much gone and Denmark and the US shut down their borders. I'm trying not to let the way study abroad ended overshadow my entire experience abroad (especially because the whole thing is a minuscule casualty compared to everything else going on) but it's sort of hard for me to separate them in my head. The best way I can describe it is it's kind of like trying to reread a book. Since you already know how it ends, you can never experience the book the way you did the first time you read it ya know.
Anyways on a lighter note, these are some pics from my final days in Copenhagen.
What does the whittling knife do? You didn’t show me this cool thing :0. Anyway, it was sad what Copenhagen was reduced to by the time we were leaving; it was like you said, a ghost town.
I think you've articulated v well the general feelings/processing that I felt too (and about being home and stuff and how it's nice despite everything) it was all wishful thinking but I guess you gotta have something to look forward to
that is funny/sad (idk if you'd call it ironic but anywho) that your teacher was going over the itinerary like that
One time my brother had a fake knife in his carryon and tsa made a huge deal about it and my mom had to leave the security check to "dispose of it " outside
This seems like a sad post. I honestly saw it coming so i never really felt surprised, but the rate at which everything changed was so jarring and stressful. I’m glad you’re home though and able to just relax. Don’t forget to breathe and reflect on everything!