DIS Blog
Student Blogger Digest
Community in Copenhagen
It’s daunting to move abroad. Settling into a new country and foreign culture, all the while building community for yourself, requires initiative and the right resources.
Whether it’s discovering a new hobby or pursuing a preexisting passion, getting involved and finding your people will ground you in your new surroundings and enrich your study abroad experience. Don’t know where to start?
Read on to learn how DIS Copenhagen students immersed themselves in activities within the city, meeting strangers, making friends, and finding a temporary home in Denmark.
Joan’s 10 tips to meeting people in Copenhagen
Joan came to Copenhagen with the goal of making connections beyond the DIS community.
She knew that Danes can be a bit reserved and slow to warm up to strangers, so she experimented with as many ways as she could imagine for branching out into new communities to discover where she had the most success.
Through volunteering, sports clubs, friends of friends, and even sharing bread with a stranger in a park, Joan was able to branch out and meet Danes and internationals alike.
“If you feel like you don’t have enough friends, you’re not alone. I have tried numerous ways to meet people outside of DIS and it has taught me that many people are willing to get to know you – it can just be a little hard to get those opportunities.
Read Joan’s full list of tips for ways to make new connections.
At home in your housing
For many students, their housing becomes their home base for community.
Whether it be a Homestay family, fellow DIS students in an LLC or Residential Community, or Danish and international students in a Kollegium, your housing offers many ways to bond and connect with others and build a real sense of home.
Student Bloggers Yerin and Charlie both wrote about finding home through their housing.
“My living community gave me every opportunity to make this happen, but it didn’t do it for me. You have to be the one to take the initiative to meet people, no one else can do this for you.”
Read Charlie’s experiences with the Outdoor LLC.
“Living in a Kollegium was far more than just a housing arrangement for me. It is a crash course in cultural immersion, personal responsibility, and the art of living with others.
I learned that true community is built on shared experiences, mutual respect, and a willingness to embrace the quirks of everyday life.”
Read Yerin’s blog on her kollegium experience and making Danish friends.
If you feel alone, you’re not alone
When you first show up in a new place, it’s completely normal to feel like you’re the only one out of your comfort zone.
Natalie wrote a blog early in her semester about navigating these first days and getting a foothold in Copenhagen.
“When you stop believing you are the only person ‘behind,’ you find that you are perfectly in line with everyone else.
So, talk to your classmates who arrive five minutes early with you, invite them to local cafes to do your homework together, initiate a cooking night… you never know who you may meet, and you never know who else is in the exact same boat as you, just waiting for someone to invite them along.”
Religion, a run club, and a Visiting Host Family
“As human beings, we naturally find ourselves yearning for community wherever we go.”
Pauline found community in different places and activities.
Her Visiting Host Family offered her the chance to travel throughout Denmark together, connect with host-sisters her same age, and join the table for family dinners. She was able to practice her faith alongside locals by attending services at different churches. And her afternoons spent running with the DIS run club brought her closer to fellow students as they shared snacks and reflections after each run.
“I have encountered so many welcoming, safe spaces… it comes down to taking action and putting yourself out there!”
Connecting through affinity groups
DIS hosts affinity groups of Students of Color and for LGBTQIA+ students and allies.
Melanie wrote about her experience finding community through the Students of Color affinity group as well as her broader experience of studying abroad as a Black student.
“I have found a group of girls of color who I’ve been able to make great memories with in Copenhagen. If you are a student of color, you will find community that accepts you here!”
Read Melanie’s blog on studying abroad as a Black student.
Find more information about our Copenhagen affinity groups and the staff who lead them.
