I completely fell in love with Copenhagen when visiting last year in July. There was something about it that just felt like home and this pull to a place and its culture was something I have not experienced before.

In August I moved to Copenhagen to study music and ever since arriving each day has been new. The Scandinavian way of living is so different to Australia and something that has taken a little adjusting to. Arriving in summertime has been wonderful but I am really going to need to change my Australian “the sun is deadly” mentality and dose up on vitamin D before winter hits. I can already feel it tugging away at the long late summer days.

Since arriving in this beautiful city, I have really been trying not to run around like a tourist to “see” everything (monuments, etc.). Doing some of this is good of course, but I worry about home-sickness blooming in the future if I live here too closely to how I would spend my time when only passing through a city in a few days or weeks. It’s something to be aware of and probably an area (portable life) that I need to learn more about. It was really exciting moving here and felt so normal to do so – as though my entire psyche was saying “of course this was going to happen” while my friends and family at home would have seemed more excited than I did. In all honesty it was quite exhausting getting everything ready before coming here – the paperwork, course details, life… it really felt like a relief when the plane finally landed and I was on my way to a new life in Copenhagen.

Of course… no matter where we go the one thing that always moves with us is the self. All of the self; the good, the bad, the indifferent. Having the space in one’s mind when in the state of travel is such a wonderful period of time when we can see the self in a new light – what makes us tick, what was determined by our surroundings (place and people), what we like and don’t like… it becomes clear that all of this is a choice. We are, each human on this earth, responsible for how we interact with the world. I was really hit by this here – simply from being in new place for the long-term. The closest experience I have had so far to this level of distance was living in France when I was 16 for a few months on exchange. So much of how I thought changed during this time. It’s quite confronting to realise that all of who we are is a choice once we reach a certain stage in life – no longer determined by the past, how we deal with the present is entirely our own fabrication. How exciting!

I am surrounded here by such wonderful people and feel so grateful for each day (especially when the sun is out!) – the Danes are wonderful and so welcoming. This is already becoming a place I call home, and what bliss this is. Equiped with a bicycle, backpack, coffee and cinnamon buns in such a great city… adventure begins!

First moments in Copenhagen; September and October 2017

…The seasons sigh slowly from late summer into autumn with the days still long and filled with wonderful people.