Almost 7:45, but never quite

Hi, I’m Magdalena! I came from Austria to Denmark to start over and find people who actually appreciate art, which I intend to do here, at Kulturfabrikken. I’ve been here approximately two months, so today I’m going to share some of my first impressions.

The first mission in new surroundings for me always is to find the perfect spot to write. Thus, I spent my first weeks in Denmark strolling around in Nykøbing but somehow I always ended up on my room’s balcony. The reason for that might be that it’s been my childhood dream to live in a brick house with a balcony, so I’ll be sitting here with a vanilla candle drawing and writing even in winter, when it’s freezing. I’m Austrian, I’m used to it.

So far, Denmark has brought out my motivation to skate, paint and make Pølsehorn but also my competitive urge to beat Soumia at...UNO??? It’s a game we could play (hyperbolically speaking) for HOURS without getting bored.

According to her, visiting Copenhagen is a necessity, and one of the first things one needs to do when in Denmark. So we went on a daytrip to the city and seeing people comfortably walking around in extravagant outfits and eccentric makeup made me feel at home immediately!

We’ve gone to Copenhagen a few times now, strolling through Christiania, attending a concert, spending hours in bookstores, meeting friends for drinks in the evening...I’m planning on exploring this incredible city a lot in the next months!

One of the best weeks yet was the week Soumia did the swap shop with the added book swap during the autumn holidays. Anyone entering Kulturfabrikken that week might have seen me painting one of the mannequins which I had my ups and downs with but at least I’m happy-ish with the result. I’m glad I got the opportunity to really focus on the art and wasn’t forced to rush through the process.

Even though I don’t have language school yet I am very keen on learning this incredibly confusing language, which even natives don’t seem to understand. But Guna, my very supportive mentor, as well as a few of the skaters have been trying their best to patiently teach me words, phrases and tongue breakers in Danish. And there is also this annoying daily Duolingo reminder forcing me to say “Hej Ida, jeg hedder Henrik.”

The organization that made it possible for me to move to Denmark for nine months, Dansk ICYE, also gave me the opportunity to join an “On-Arrival-Training” two weeks ago. Twenty volunteers from all over Europe were invited to a Højskolen in Ollerup to get to know each other. It was an amazing experience, especially since we were a very fun group of people and I intend to stay in contact with a few of them.

The day I told my friend, Clara, that I was leaving Austria for Denmark, she started planning a trip to come and visit me. So last week she actually did and we spent five amazing days together. I had a list about things I wanted to show her, like Nykøbing’s center, the seaside and, of course, Denmark’s capital, where our priorities were spending hours in book stores and libraries.

When I was a child I truly couldn’t have imagined a better life at eighteen. This is quite literally everything I’ve wanted since I realised one didn’t have to spent their entire life in the country they were born in.

I'm very much looking forward to my following seven months at Kulturfabrikken, which I'll document as best I can as ESC-blogs!

-Maggie