For my semester in Copenhagen I chose to live in a Kollegium, which is essentially an apartment-style of living that combines DIS students (like myself) with local students in the area.
I live in Nimbusparken, which is in the Fredericksburg area. My direct roommate is Gretchen (read more about her in my First 24 Hours post) and we share our apartment with three local grad students. Signe, is Danish and studying nursing at Copenhagen University, Ida is also Danish and is studying biochemistry, and Lennart is German and studying finance and accounting.
Gretchen and I share a room, and each of our other roommates have single rooms. We all share a common living room and kitchen, where we have a huge kitchen table to sit at. We also have a porch with seats that will definitely be really nice once it gets warmer.
We had a roommate dinner where we all went food shopping and cooked together. We made a vegetarian curry dish over white rice. Lennart’s girlfriend Erica also ate with us and she brought a a traditional german cake called the Black Forest cake which had chocolate cake, tart cherries and whipped cream. it was first made in the town that Lennart is from.
Although I am living among local students, there are also other DIS students in my building. One night a group of my friends here went to Naviya’s room for a taco night. We cooked tons of food and sat down for a meal together.
Naviya had a friend visiting from Greece who brought a Vasilopita which is a greek sweet bread that is made for the new year. You cut the slices for as many people you have, and then assign each slice to have a category such as health, education, family, etc. Then you distribute the slices in age order and everyone eats their slice to find our which piece has a hidden coin in it. whoever has the coin gets good luck for the year.
Another night, Gretchen and I went to our friend Sophie’s apartment for dinner. We made a huge pot of Penne alla Vodka and some of her roommates joined us for dinner.
Being in this kollegium has been a really cool way to meet so many people, both American DIS students and local Danish students. My building hosts social events somewhat frequently where DIS and local students are invited so it is really easy to meet even more people. One of my roommates hosted a party on Friday so I got to meet a lot of her friends and learn more about Copenhagen and life here as a local.
There are benefits to all of the housing types but I think that kollegiums are the best of both worlds because you meet locals while still living with people your age.
