Personal Development Week 13

Week 13-  20^th-26^th April 2012

This week marked the end of our classes here in Denmark. Our university here offers both a three and a four month ERASMUS program, so as of this week 15 people will be leaving our group to return to their home countries. Over this next month we will not have any concentrated class time but will be required to write an individual assignment in which we will be comparing aspects of our home countries education system with that of Denmark. To do this we will need to visit schools, interview teachers and carry out a lot of research, so class might be over- but the work definitely isn’t!

With so many people packing up to go home, this week has made me reflect and think back over my time here in Denmark. We had a final class on Wednesday in which we brought out our posters we created right back in week 1, and had to add the new things we had discovered about ourselves since being here. Immediately I could identify so many ways in which I had not only changed, but matured and grown. I came here as a quite shy person, who often sat in the background, but now I realise and can see myself that I have become much more outgoing and definitely more independent! Other things have changed about me too over these last 3 months; I do cooking, cleaning, washing, and can figure out directions and where I need to be by myself. Once you are “thrown out” into the real world you begin to realise that you really can cope. I was so nervous before arriving here, I didn’t think I would be able to manage, and to stay on top of everything, I thought I’d be living on cereal for a lot of my meals! I’m out of my home comfort zone, but honestly I feel like I’ve settled here, and now living like this has become second nature to me. I have a more developed understanding of Denmark’s culture, and their education system, and I know that over this next month as I go out myself into new schools and environments I will further my understanding of this even more, and this is something I am really looking forward to having the opportunity to do.

This has been a reflective week, I have thought about how those 15 people I have become friendly with over the last few months are returning home, back to reality, and although part of me is a little jealous, I know that I am not ready to leave Denmark yet. I am still growing and maturing, and being here is encouraging me to do that. It might be strange here, how when we arrived things like the language seemed so scary, the food seemed strange, the accommodation wasn’t what I expected, but I have managed to cope. I can’t believe how much I have changed over these last 3 months, how much I have developed and therefore I look forward to seeing what I am going to be like, and how much more my views and opinions will have changed by the time I return home!