Campus Carlsberg – probably the best school in the world

What an experience this last semester, and especially the last two months were! It was like a rollercoaster ride that led trough deep valleys of disappointment and high loops of excitement. It all started on the 11th of January, when my host university in Copenhagen confirmed that Denmark applied new and stricter rules to shut down its borders due to coronavirus. Only one week before my semester abroad was about to start.
That was a hard pill to swallow, but thankfully, Copenhagen’s professions high school or simply KP was prepared. They switched all our welcome events and classes to an online platform and even organized game nights on zoom so that us exchange students had a chance to at least get to know each other virtual.
As weeks passed, I slowly started to lose hope to ever step foot into Denmark, since the government used to prolong their travel restrictions on and on. But then in April, very surprisingly, rumours started to spread. Rumours that stated that Denmark will start to open its borders within a week. As soon as those claims were confirmed, I booked the next flight, packed my bags and was finally off to start my Erasmus abroad.
Since this point, the exciting part of our rollercoaster ride started. Literally. Corona rules in Denmark where quite loosened at that time and first thing us exchange students did was going to Tivoli together. Tivoli is a small but awesome amusement park in the middle of Copenhagen. On its rides we formed first bands of friendships which became stronger and stronger every day. Together, we explored Copenhagen and its surroundings. Even though the city greeted us with a lot of rain, we experienced it to its fullest. We strolled down to Nyhavn with its colourful houses, sat down with the Little Mermaid and ate Smørrebrød in cosy cafes.
In the following weeks we were introduced to the campus and finally allowed to complete our courses in person. Campus Carlsberg lays a bit outside of the city center, right next to the famous beer brewery Carlsberg. It is provided with an incredible diversity of facilities students can use: numerous music rooms, science labs, handicraft rooms, sport halls, a big library and so on.
At KP, you choose three courses that are each worth 10 credits. The courses I attended were a) The Nordic model, b) creativity and experimental processes and c) physical activity in everyday teaching. I thought this was the perfect combination to take as much and diverse knowledge as possible from my stay. Group works, outdoor education and being physically active are things the Danes worship a lot in their education and that is something I was able to experience during my stay too. Even on zoom, our teachers made sure we went outside, moved our bodies and did group work after group work. And they continued with this on campus as well.
With the creativity class, we went outside to parks and museums, did our courses there and got inspiration for our projects from Danish architecture and design.
With the physical activity class, we not only did theory of how PA benefits learning, but also tried it ourselves. Our teachers showed us a lot of different methods and games on how to combine learning with movement and sports.
Finally, with the Nordic model class, we were even able to do a one-week internship in Danish primary schools and experience how their school system works first-hand.
When it was time to go back home, I didn’t only return with a bit of melancholy, but also with a bunch of new friends all over Europe, with some great and new academical knowledge and with a lot of amazing, unforgettable memories.