I can't sleep and I need to be writing an actual paper due at midnight...perfect time to blog I think!
Memories. Laughter. Goodbyes. Tears. Joy. Reflection. Food. Words. Silence. Color. Music. Cupcakes. Sun. Rain. Running. Walking. Bibles. Water. Papers. Avoidance. Denial.
Words, words, words. Language is a fabulous thing. Its going to be sad returning to such a mono-linguistic country. In my last Danish class on Friday I was thinking about it, and I've actually picked up a lot of Danish while here, in class, practicum, my host family, watching tv, and eaves dropping on the bus, amongst other things. Of all languages to know...Danish. Only tiny Denmark uses it, and that you actually are using the right dialect at the right time with the right people is even more rare. I would not have it any other way though. To spend four months in a country and not at least trying to learn their language would be such a waste. It is such a part of the culture. What is immersion if you just hang out with Americans speaking English all the time. Even if you happen to be in a different country. Doesn't count I say! At least for me anyway...because I know I'm describing some of my dear DIS friends, and I know they still had a wonderful study abroad experience.
That is the amazing thing about DIS I think. You can really pick the kind of experience you want, and we all have such different experiences. I chose to live with a Danish family, take Danish, hang out in a Danish daycare...but other than that my classes were in English, I went to an English speaking church, English Bible study...most of my friends here speak English. So here I am patting myself on the back saying I did a good job immersing. I guess what really matters is if I learned something while here. For while I did make an effort to immerse myself, if I didn't learn anything about myself or the world, then I would have been sad. But no worries I've learned a lot! Maybe not very much in the classroom setting...but in other aspects I've done a whole lot of learning!
My brain feels like a puddle of mush right now. Friday night I finally went clubbing, and didn't spend a single kroner, so proud of myself. A group of us from Bible study got all fancy and wandered to the meat-packing district where a lot of the clubs have free entry. We danced, we laughed, we wandered, we took pictures. We ended up a fabulous little cafe with live music...then to central...then we ended the evening/morning watching Gilmore Girls til the sun rose at bright and early 5 am. Then Saturday I slept half the day away, and attempted to write my paper, majorly failing of course. Then yesterday...my last full Sunday in Copenhagen.
FIBC. Such a blessing this semester. It is truly a community brimming with God's love and joy. From the first time I went when we were approached by three or four people asking us to join different things, to yesterday when at the end of the service the pastor wished us farewell, so many joys and tears. But what really made it the best was our dear life group. Connect, every Sunday the second coffee after the service, every Wednesday gathering for dinner then discussion and prayer and love, the retreat, then last night our last final game night of our time here. It just amazes me how open this community is, even though they see people come and go every year. It would have been so easy for them to just blow us off knowing that we were only going to be in Copenhagen for four months, but they invested in us so much! Truly, that is what God's church should look like. Paul said that they would know we are Christians by our love, and this church did not lack God's love at all!
I am not looking forward to all the goodbyes I still must make this week...but I am so looking forward to the memories we will make. For truly, that is what makes this experience so wonderful. What you invest is what you get out of it. I have made such wonderful friendships this semester that will be so hard to let go, but I rest assured that the memories were worth the hard goodbyes, and its really only a goodbye for now, even if it may seem like forever.
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