“The only difference between a good day and a bad day is your attitude.”
— T. Middleton.
The last 7 days have been absolute mayhem. Which is typically used to describe a week that has gone particularly poorly, but I jumped in head first and have truly enjoyed myself. DIS (the study abroad program I am traveling with), my host family, and Copenhagen have truly exceeded my expectations.
In the week leading up to my departure for Copenhagen, I was feeling unprepared, nervous, anxious, and overwhelmed. In the midst of the whirlwind of emotions, I prepared my clothes as you see in the image above – each painstakingly rolled and organized by color. Let’s face it: I own a lot of blue/black and am pretty high controlling.
However, one thing that helped level me was my host family. When I received their introduction email, my world settled a little bit. They introduced me to their family of four, plus a dog named Mojo and a cat named Kasper. They included little tid bits about their eight year old son, Felix, trying trampoline lessons for the first time and an invitation to travel with their family to a vacation home during my stay. I was overwhelmed by their warmth, and upon arriving a couple of days ago, I can confirm that they surpass even what I imagined.
So, feeling that mix of overwhelmed by nerves and the excitement of my host family, I chose to take the step of faith and board my plane. I arrived jet-lagged with unbrushed teeth, sweaty palms, and a reminder from DIS to set a good first impression with my host parents, even though it was 3 am for my body.
My host mom, Dorthe, greeted me at the airport, helped me drop my bags off, and then promptly walked us over to the local sports complex, where 20 relatives had gathered to “play soccer”. Now, I thought we were just kicking a ball around, all the way up until I was slide tackled by a 60 year old grandfather and ended up on the ground. I immediately got up, grinned, and tightened my laces because that exactly how my family “plays soccer”. (And yes, they were calling it soccer to make sure I knew which version we were playing.)
The large family reunion continued late into the night with lots of food, wine, and laughter. About halfway through, I excused myself from the table and locked myself in the bathroom. I was overwhelmed and exhausted. My jet-lag was catching up, I couldn’t understand half of the conversations that were happening in Danish, and I didn’t know if the extended family wanted me there. But in this moment, I paused and realized that these are the moments where I could choose to unplug or to lean in further. Pre-study abroad Mark would have stepped back and gone back to his room and went to sleep early. Instead, I chose to return to the table and ended up having some deep conversations with the relatives that did speak English.
Since Saturday, we haven’t had any other large family gatherings. Just small dinners with the 5 of us around their table. That doesn’t mean that these last couple of days haven’t been filled with adventure. I’m excited to hopefully tell some of my other stories, including a hospital run and stitches after a trampoline mishap, or deciding to run a half marathon with my host dad (John), or Mojo the dog crawling into my bed at 2 am and giving me a literal heart attack.
That first day in Copenhagen showed me a glimpse of what was to come and allowed me an opportunity to choose between leaning into my time in Copenhagen or unplugging. I plan to continue to take opportunities to connect with my host family or the city itself, and hopefully, in doing so, I’ll learn more about myself.
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