The International Extraordinaire is just like you! Its only desire (apart from cake) is to help its fellow full degree comrades find their way through the depths of Denmark and Aarhus University. So behind the eccentric facade of wisdom and sarcasm is the real deal: two international students who have many a tale to tell. Therefore, if you want to know a little bit more about your omnipotent host of hey you, AU!, then read below to find out who and what lies behind the mask…
Marcia
Even the animals at the zoo are built out of lego in DK.
Fulfilling all the stereotypes that you can think of, I’m a tea-obsessed, queue-loving, constantly-swearing Brit who had left the student life behind and was trying to make their mark in the world of work. However, two years ago I could deny no longer those feelings I had tried so very hard to repress – my heart belonged to the sordid world of academia and it was time to crawl back to it, praying for open-arms. Luckily, AU came to my rescue in the form of the obscure subject of Cognitive Semiotics, which combines my love for the humanities in all its glorious forms and the joy of philosophising and science-ing over theories about how us mere humans struggle to make sense of, and function, within this battered and bruised world of ours. So in August 2010, I shipped myself all the way from the UK to DK and have been trying to survive my second(!) Master’s programme before I hope to move on up the ranks to the holy grail, the PhD.
Although it takes me a mere 1 hour and 20 whole minutes to fly from London to Aarhus, these viking cultural differences are much further apart from my own than the time difference implies. This was even more surprising as I had already been an exchange student in another Nordic country, so I ever-so-naively thought I knew pretty much everything you needed to know about Scandinavia. But of course I was wrong. Denmark is a close-knit circle of cultural and social identity, and it is very easy to feel that you are an outsider looking into the snowdome of DK without any chance of ever making it through. However, after one year I feel like I have managed to break though the glass ceiling (as long as you don’t ever ask me to speak Danish) and although DK will surprise me at any given opportunity, I have survived pretty much unscathed. And if nothing else, I have gained a most excellent collection of tales to tell, some amazing friends and the concept of hygge.
Jessica
I smile on the outside, but cry on the inside, because it's too damn cold!
Born and raised in California, I made my way into the big, wide world when I chose to study in Berlin, a glittering and bustling urban paradise, for a year. While there, I was Jedi mind-tricked by a Dane into moving with him to Aarhus and starting a Master’s degree, so here I am: a Mexican American who studies English literature in Denmark, who after a whole year still has not learned Danish and still hates black licorice…with a deep passion #internationalextraordinairewin
It’s a love/hate relationship between Danish culture and me, but in the end I am able to say I gave it a shot, tried my best, and even picked up some nice habits (i.e. cycling without getting hit by a car is a very useful talent).
If you’re more interested in the countryside culture that Denmark has to offer (seeing as Denmark is mostly countryside!), then come, sit around my rocking chair while I knit you a scarf and tell you about the Danish penchant for mucking around the forest to pick various edibles (mostly mushrooms and hyldeblomst). I’ve had the privilege of learning how to make æbleskiver in a pan that had been handed down two generations, to bake a family recipe for vaniljekranse completely from scratch (in the strangest mechanism ever to crush half a kilo of almonds to a paste), and to pick my own strawberries and hyben for homemade jam (which most Danes are craaazzzyyy for).
If you have no idea what the hell I’m talking about, all you have to do is ask and I am more than happy to share the secrets of these Danish delights with you!
