Denmark For A Year (by Maria Jose from Costa Rica) The question you get asked the most during this year: Why did you choose this country? I’ve answered it so many times now that it looks like I’ve rehearsed it. My first choice wasn’t Denmark, it was Holland. I couldn’t go to Holland because of my age. My second choice was Denmark. But now I am very happy that it all turned out like this. I feel this country is more like me. I wanted something different, a country that wasn’t the most famous nor the most visited country in Europe, but still interesting and beautiful. I also wanted a cold country, to escape for some months from the heat. I thought my destiny was Holland. I said that the country between Denmark and Holland that did better in the 2010 World Cup, was the country destined for me. Denmark didn’t even made it to the second round, so I dismissed it very early, even though it was on my official list as my second choice. I suffered when Holland lost against Spain in the final, but I was still hoping to do my exchange there. Months later I received the call from AFS that changed all my plans. I couldn’t go to Holland because I was beyond the age limit by the time I left Costa Rica, but there was a place for me in my second choice, Denmark. I immediately had to investigate everything all over again, but this time about another country. I had to read as much information as I could find, change all my mentality and prepare myself for Denmark. As I read more and more, I got more excited. In the final months all I cared about was my exchange. I got the information about the host family a month before I left, the same day as my high school graduation. I had waited for that e-mail for so long that when I saw it I started trembling of excitement. I read it and it said it was only 2 people in the family, the mother and the daughter. I immediately read the address and looked for in Google Earth. I was prepared to live in a small town in the middle of nowhere, I never thought I would be placed so close to the city. I couldn’t believe I was going to live just 15 minutes from the capital, Copenhagen. I kept reading and I loved mi family, mi danish sister had been in Costa Rica for a year with AFS, we had many things in common and I just felt a great connection with the family. I would never forget that day, my graduation was not so important anymore. I came to the graduation as the happiest person in the world, I didn’t even pay attention to the ceremony, my mind was not there with my classmates and friends, mi mind was already in Denmark. It has been 6 months but I still remember when I cried a little saying goodbye from my parents at the airport. I still remember the faces of nervousness/excitement of the other costa ricans when we were on the plane. I remember my first impression when I came out of the plane and I felt the winter cold. The city was all dark even though it was 8 in the morning. There would be a long time before the rest of the students arrived so they took us through a little tour around the city. It wasn’t the best day to go on a tour, but I still thought it was incredible. They took us to lunch and that was when we tried danish food for the first time. I don’t think any of us left an empty dish. Then the other group of students started to arrive, we were all tired, with no clue of what was ahead for us. The camp was 3 days of exhaustion, impressions, laughs, new languages, new faces, new names and specially new food. We didn’t ate much and we didn’t sleep much, but we talked a lot. Finally, it was the time to meet our new families, mine came to pick me up at the camp, but others had to travel even 5 hours by train to meet them. And now the dilemma, How do I say hi to them? Should I
hug them or just shake hands? Kiss on the cheek, never! I don’t even remember how I said hello to them, I was just being myself. I came to my new house and I felt strange. But that was my new home, mi new family, my new life and I just had to get used to it. The first 4 months went by and I felt happy. I liked my high school, I liked my danish lessons, mi family was amazing. Everything was new, everyday I met new people and new things, I thought everything was so interesting. That kept me distracted for a long time. During the first 4 months I still hadn’t cried at all, I didn’t felt sad for being away from my country. I did missed my family and specially my friends, but it was never to the point of crying. The first time I felt away from my real family was the day of my birthday. I celebrated it one day with my friends and another day with my danish family. But the next day, in my real birthday, I felt lonely. I wanted to be in Costa Rica with my family and I wanted to celebrate it with them. I felt like that was the only thing I was missing. But those moments where you feel sad or missing you country, you have to let them go and move on. Its a matter of getting distracted and thinking how lucky I am to be here, how incredible this opportunity is to me and all the good things that will come out of this experience. In this 6 months I have learned so many things, things that I couldn’t learn anywhere else. Things that you only learn when you are in a situation like this. I have grown a lot, without even noticing, every experience makes me grow and when I notice I get surprised. Something that really surprises me is the way I see my country now that I have been away from it for a long time. Now I see things in it that I didn’t saw before, bad and good things. But I still never thought that with this exchange I would appreciate more my own culture and even learn more about it. I see my language in a different way now, I didn’t pay much attention to it before, but now I think it is the most beautiful language out there. I feel proud to be costa rican and to be latinamerican. Even though I admire many things from danish culture, like the organization, the good education and the honesty; now I appreciate more the joy, the human warmth and that little something that Costa Rica has that makes me think there is where I belong. I have also learned not to judge people. I have met a lot of people that I used to see in a different way that I do now. An exchange is a great opportunity to make real friends. The other exchange students will be your friends during the whole year and maybe even more, they are going through the same things and they know how it feels to be in another country with a culture different from theirs. It is important to come with an open mind, ready to meet all types of people and face all types of situations. To be on an exchange, you have to be strong, and if you are not strong yet, you will be after this. It is incredible how fast time goes, a year may seem like a lot of time, but it’s not. You have to enjoy every second and make sure those are moments you will never forget. Time definitely goes faster when you are having a good time. I just saw the exchange students from Summer 2010 going back to their countries and I think of the moment when is my turn to say goodbye. I feel like is going to be really difficult, here I have another family, another life, Denmark is my second home. I could have made this text explaining every detail of life here, how danish people are, what things are there to do, how the language or the weather is, but the point of being an exchange student is precisely to discover those things on your own as the year goes by. Besides, every experience is different. There is not one better or worst than the other, they are just different. What I can be sure about is that this is the best decision I have made and it will probably be one of the best decisions in my entire life. I love being part of this big family of people who made the brave choice to explore a culture and explore the world in a different way. Not by television or by the internet, but by ourselves.
Future exchange students, I wish you the best experience of your lives. The only things you would regret are the things you didn’t do.
María José Zúñiga Blanco Denmark 2011