Isabella – Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
Semester 2, 2016
Bachelor of Business
Copenhagen – the home of hygge, indescribable pastries and Danish design. My four months at Copenhagen Business School (CBS) were filled with cosy nights with friends, a crazy amount of cinnamon buns, and an incredible university campus. The cliche really is true – it was the experience of a lifetime.
Denmark is an inimitable part of Scandinavia. The city is warm, with its inhabitants seeming endlessly cool; I’m talking guys wearing Nike sneakers, Adidas track-pants and a leather jacket cool. Not only that, but almost every Dane is tall, with blue eyes and bright blonde hair. As someone with brown eyes and brown hair, i’ts safe to say I felt a little out of place. But once you get to know the Danes, you start to fall in love with their northern charm and positive attitude to life. They can be difficult to crack at first – in Denmark, it’s uncommon to ask someone, “how are you?” But if you buy them a Carlsberg (beer), they’ll be more than happy to let you in.
Living in Denmark
The cost of living in Denmark is similar to that in Brisbane, although, don’t expect there to be an equivalent of $16 burgers at Grill’d. Eating out can be pricey, but it’s easy enough to head down to the local Netto or Meny and pull together some ingredients for group dinner parties. In fact, this is a very ‘hygge’ thing to do – hygge meaning the cosy feeling you get when you’re indoors, with great friends, having some awesome food and a drink.
Classes at CBS
Classes at CBS were very similar to back home. However, they don’t record the majority of lectures. Additionally, they won’t have tutorials for all subjects. Most of mine consisted of a three-hour lecture that included time for practice activities. Personally, I only took elective subjects, so I can’t say too much about any course work for majors. However, I really enjoyed some of the classes and would recommend ‘Visual Communication’ and ‘Big Data and AI: Who Owns the Future?’.
Accommodation
Due to a small mishap with time zones, I ended up missing out on campus dorm accommodation. Instead, a friend and I buddied up and managed to find an AirBnB that would take us for four months. We were in an excellent location (upper Frederiksberg), that was about 20 minutes from the CBS campuses, which suited us very well. If you bought a bike, it was about a 7-minute trip and almost all the Danes ride, everywhere! My roommate and I loved having the flexibility of having our own apartment and inviting people over for drinks, along with visiting the dorms for different parties and events.
Highlights
One of the highlights of the trip was definitely the amount of travel I go to do. Copenhagen is in a great location geographically to zip around from country to country. If you get the chance, I’d definitely recommend booking any of the Erasmus trips. A group of friends and I went to Finland with Erasmus, which was incredible – we stayed in the arctic circle! Moreover, London is also only an hour’s place ride away, and Germany is relatively easy to get to as well.
I’d most definitely recommend Copenhagen as one of your exchange options. My stay there was definitely a great blend of ‘work hard, play hard’ – with lots of travel thrown into the mix. If you’re going, make sure you hit up my favourite street called Jægersborggade in Nørrebro. If you’re into oatmeal, there’s a place called Grød that does it fantastically, and Meyers Bageri (AKA pastry heaven) is down the other end of the street.
There’s an awesome, quirky bookstore called PALERMO Hollywood that has English titles, along with Tricotage, which has some cool Danish fashion pieces. Hit up KAKTUS on your way out to grab some greenery for your dorm room, and then finish up with the Mikkeller and Friends microbrewery around the corner.
Copenhagen is ripe with tourist haunts, but there are some truly Danish gems hidden in every suburb! If you’re going to Copenhagen, or if you’ve been, feel free to let me know where your favourite spots are. And bon voyage!
