University of Wisconsin–Madison

Denmark: Brenna Braun

Program: University of Copenhagen Exchange, Semester

Brenna’s Major: Biology and Global Health

Brenna looks away towards the camera across the river from several colorful, narrow houses and parked sailboats.
This is a photo of me on a windy day at Nyhavn, Copenhagen, Denmark.

How were your program academics similar or different from taking classes at UW-Madison?

I loved the classes I took at Copenhagen University and I found their rigor and quality to resemble those of UW-Madison. However, the structure of courses were slightly different. At Copenhagen University, my course lectures only met once or sometimes twice a week, but for a longer duration of time. For me, this meant my classes were at least two hours long with one of my courses meeting for seven hours in a day. Luckily, every 45 minutes, class would have a 15 minute break where it was common for students to get coffee or sometimes the professor will make some themselves. The other big difference academically was that my classes had no homework nor midterm exams, meaning my entire grade consisted on my performance on the final exam.

An aspect about Denmark that I appreciated so much while I was there was this emphasis on taking a moment to live slowly and enjoy the small things.

What is your advice for someone considering your program?

My biggest piece of advice for someone considering my program is to take the pre-semester course for exchange students offered by Copenhagen University. Through this course, I was introduced to many of the other exchange students along with Danish instructors and peers, many of which became my close friends. Additionally, the course has an introduction to the Danish language portion where I learned basic Danish, making navigating Denmark much easier. My language instructor also gave us a lot of advice for living there and recommendations for places to visit. I found the practical information provided in this course to be invaluable and I doubt I would have been able to enjoy my exchange as much as I did.

A large, wooden statue of a troll sitting cross-legged in front of a building painted to look like a forest with a sign that says "The World is in Our Hands".
This is a photo of the Dambo troll located in Christiania, Copenhagen, Denmark.

What is a custom, food or tradition from your host country that you are taking forward? 

An aspect about Denmark that I appreciated so much while I was there was this emphasis on taking a moment to live slowly and enjoy the small things. In real life, this looked like deciding to walk to a place instead of driving or taking public transport because it would take more time and give my friends and I an opportunity to talk. Now, as I am back in Madison, I try to incorporate this practice into my daily life whether it is choosing to walk or just taking a moment to relax in the mornings. Overall, this mentality gave me a new insight on how to view life and is something I know I will always take with me.