The countdown is on, Copenhagen | Studying abroad and figuring sh*t out.

And just like that, I’m one week away from living in Copenhagen. Amidst the stress of residency permits, course approvals, contracts, subletting and too many emails to count, I feel like I’ve momentarily lost touch with the fact that I’ll be living in a different country for six months.

I started packing my clothes last night and suddenly all of the questions began flying at me.  Who am I going to meet? Will they like me? Will I make friends? Who’s my roommate going to be? What countries will I visit? What’s the funniest thing that’s going to happen? The scariest? Will I marry a Danish man and settle down and have two boys named Kai and Cooper or have one boy and one girl named Cooper and Ella and then move to the South of France somewhere near Aix-en-Provence but maybe be crazy and buy a yacht? It’s just that feeling of wondering what my life is going to be like over there, y’know?

It’s funny because in a lot of ways, I’m reverting back to my first year of university when all I did was think about the unknowns. It was only after first year that I realized that the feeling of discomfort can sometimes be the most lively feeling; to feel like you’re floating and waiting for something to happen but you just don’t know what that something is.

All of this packing has made me nostalgic. I admit, I’m nostalgic about most things in my life, but that’s probably just because I romanticize every thing. That being said, I’ve realized over the past few years that I become nostalgic as a means to cope with change. When I feel a shift coming in my life, I look back on times when I felt comfortable and things were stable. On the one hand it grounds me and on the other, it freaks me the hell out.

That’s why I’m always taking photos and saving poorly recorded Snapchat videos to my phone. I’m a memory hoarder, I admit it. Here’s some snaps I’ve taken in the past week.

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If I’m being honest, I’m not scared to go on exchange. There’s not one ounce of me that’s regretted or had second thoughts about leaving. I’ve had moments, of course, where I’ve thought “Well shit eh, guess I won’t be able to go to that event” or “I’m going to miss that persons’ birthday” or “I wonder what kind of fun my housemates will get up to around here”. I anticipated those thoughts long before I applied clicked “apply” and I think it’s something you definitely need to consider long before deciding to study abroad.

In the grand scheme of things, it’s only 6 months. In my mind at least, it’s not long at all. I’ll be back before the summer season officially begins in Canada and I’ll be finishing off my last year at Western. I mean, praying I don’t rip my hair out and drop out, it should be my last year.

There’s so many things I still haven’t figured out yet. For example, how the heck am I going to get from the airport to my Airbnb? Will I taxi? Will I bus? Is there a train? Unsure! Definitely something I need to figure out.

But everything is fine! I’m fine! Are you fine? I think I’m fine!

Talk to ya’ll later,