Jeg snakker Dansk! Not really. I don’t really speak Danish, but I am on a 14 day streak for learning it on this language-learning app I’ve discovered called Duolingo. I’ve learned how to say lots of useful things, like “the apple is purple” and “the duck and the spider eat breakfast.” Now it’s nice to learn something just for the sake of it, but that’s not the motivation behind my Danish learning campaign. No, I’m spending next semester abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark. I figured I might as well get a head start, so hopefully I can be past the “spiders eating breakfast” phase of conversation by the time I get there.
When did I decide on Copenhagen? Well, with a hefty pro & con chart between Copenhagen and Ecuador over the summer. Copenhagen ultimately won out, for several reasons, the largest of them being that I realized that just being abroad would challenge me in new ways, and I didn’t always have to choose the most difficult path. I also wanted to have an experience that my younger self wouldn’t have predicted me to be doing at 20. I have the tendency to have the same interests and activities for years. I’ve played the violin for more than half my life. I’ve wanted to study biology since I was 12 years old. It’s not necessarily a bad tendency, but it means that I sometime need to seek out new experiences and see where they lead me.
Look at how beautiful it is!
Let me tell you some of the things I’m excited about. For one, I’ll have the chance to take music lessons Royal Danish Academy…provided, of course, that I’m accepted after submitting my video audition. You never know with these things, but I really do feel like I have a valid shot. I’ll be playing the Barber Violin Concerto 1st movement (until the key change) and the two Schumann Romances I learned last spring. My intonation has improved leaps and bounds since I’ve come to Wellesley, and I really do feel that my violin is in a good place right now. We’re recording the audition next Monday, so if the blog post comes a little late, you’ll know why.
I’m also excited about the biology courses I’m taking. My “core” course, which includes a trip to London, is Medical Biotechnology and Drug Development. We get to tour pharmaceutical companies’ research facilities, and I’m looking forward to getting a view at the private sphere of biological research. I’m also planning on taking a class on Diabetes, which could not be more interesting or appropriate considering on how I spent last summer and am planning to spend the next!
But most of all, as corny as it may sound, I’m excited to get out there and see the world. I’m excited that I don’t necessarily know where I’ll be traveling in five month’s time. I’m excited about all the new people I’m going to meet, and the things I’m going to discover about myself, and the conversations I’m (hopefully) going to have in simple Danish.
For now, though, I’m determined to soak up every minute of the three semesters I have left on this beautiful Wellesley campus, where the rain has finally stopped and I can hear the sounds of laughter coming from the library.
Ever lovely yours,
Eleanor
Happy girl with her Boston adventures! (and misting light fixtures)