But Why Aarhus!?
Apologies for the radio silence! Finishing my BA and moving abroad for my MA took a lot of time and energy, but I’m hoping to continue my little vlog with more fun content, this time from the lovely city of Aarhus, the second-largest city in Denmark.
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Announcing my move to Denmark was something that prompted a tonne of questions from friends and family.
Most of them expressed concern about the living costs, they’ve all pretty much only heard about Denmark from the perspective of someone spending a weekend in Copenhagen.
Of course, Denmark is expensive as a tourist! You have to pay for flights and accommodation, then you spend all your time eating out, and you don’t exactly have a lot of time to do research on where is cheap to eat. And then there’s a million attractions you want to visit, which is more money you have to spend.
But living in Denmark, living outside of Copenhagen, is an entirely different matter. I wish I could accurately show you people’s faces when I tell them I pay 1/3 as much on rent as I did in England. They can’t fathom it, and they try to justify their shock by say “oh, but you lived near London!” I hate to break it to them, but the rent situation for students is horrific all across the UK.
And then come the cost of living comments. Is Aarhus still move expensive than most of the UK for food shopping? Sure, but I don’t think it’s an unbearable amount. Whatever I spend on food, I still spend less than I did just on rent during my BA. Public transport prices are the one aspect I will admit defeat on, a day ticket for Aarhus is a good 2£ or thereabouts more expensive for more or less the same coverage. The buses also stop just after midnight, and if you want to ride the bus after midnight, it’s double the cost! Besides, my original route into uni with the bus took me double the time biking does.
Hence, I Danified myself almost instantly and got a bike subscription. That’s obviously more expensive than straight up buying a bike, but bike repairs are the expensive thing and with my subscription, I get free repairs. Something that was massively important to me as someone who now relies on their bike to do literally everything. From commuting to food shopping, from going out for drinks to running errands, all of that relies on my bike. I miss my very light road bike back home, but as much as I was tempted to import it over, it wouldn’t handle the strains of city life, I fear. Not to mention my back would be in pieces from all the hunching over. The first time I biked into uni, I thought I’d never get used to it. My route is slightly uphill and the first trip was punctuated by rain and wind, but the more I do it, the easier and quicker it gets, and I don’t even have to think about biking now. Biking in the city centre is still a little stressful, since there’s so much to keep an eye on. Bikes are actual traffic here, there’s traffic lights, bike lanes, and hand signals you need to know, which is very different to my cycling experience back home. I used to exclusively bike on the pavements back in England, because I had zero trust in drivers’ abilities to navigate the road with me in it. I still don’t frankly!
Another issue people found, was that they had no idea where this city was. They’d never heard of it and thought it was some backwater town with a dodgy uni. Aarhus is, in fact, a very prestigious uni in Europe, welcoming thousands of international students through its doors yearly. And not just people from outside the EU, or from parts of Europe with poor quality universities, but from Germany, France, Spain, Italy, all the heavy hitters with proven university systems.
The flat hierarchy here is incredibly attractive too, especially for me as someone who studied in a department in the UK with a very similar vibe. I’m used to being on a first name basis with the people who teach me, and to be able to share my research interests, and to even gossip with them. I very much enjoy being taught in a low-key environment that doesn’t stress me out. Let’s be honest, I’m studying my MA, and I’m going to be under enough stress with assignments and thesis papers eventually.
Getting home was another question. But I can fly from Aarhus to Stansted if I really need to. I don’t recommend it because trying to get from London to Birmingham takes years off of my life. Although it comes out to more or less the same price, I prefer to fly from Billund to Manchester. That does involve me taking the bus to Billund, which takes just under two hours, and then the bus from Manchester to Birmingham, which is just over one hour at the best. But anything’s better than four hours on a bus in one go. Also, Ryanair flies both routes, which means it’s the cheapest it’s gonna get for me. Is it always cheap? No. I’m looking at going home in October at the prices are nearly 200£ return, a far cry from the 30£ it often is. But that’s the holidays for you!
Moving onto my other home, the one here that costs me a pittance, I’m so damn pleased with it. I pay something around 320£ equivalent a month, which gets me a decent sized room with an en-suite, my own little mini patio, and plenty of space in the common areas. There’s also a bar that is dirt cheap on the estate, as well as a supermarket (kind of expensive, but good for emergencies!), and my laundry is directly under me. If I ever do need to take the bus, the bus also stops a six-minute walk away and takes me directly into the city centre. To top it off, I live near a good few of the friends I’ve made here so far, so I’m never starved of socialisation opportunities.
Volunteer opportunities are huge here, the Danes are really into it from what I know. I volunteer at the moment with the Studenterhus, the Danish equivalent of a Student Union, both behind the bar and as a culture volunteer. You don’t get paid (obviously) but you get amazing discounts on food and drink, as well as either cheap or free entry into events. The Studenterhus in general puts a lot of things on for both local and international students, so it’s fantastic to be able to get involved. I went to Skagen over the weekend, where we saw the exact point where the North and Baltic seas meet at the northernmost tip of Denmark. I also signed up to be a Student Ambassador, as that’s what I did back at my UK uni, so I help run the UniBuddy platform and do Instagram takeovers now and then. I find it really rewarding to share my perspective and to help international students hopefully decide to study here!
Job wise… Yeah, this is the tricky part. Not being able to speak fluent Danish makes it tricky, but not impossible. I’ve yet to find a job, but I’m taking Danish classes, and I’m volunteering, so hopefully that pays off eventually. I’m keeping my eye out in any case, but until then, I’m in a very fortunate position where I have some small savings, and also my parents help me out a lot financially. I’d rather have a job and pay for myself, but I’m grateful for my family’s support all the same.
In terms of weather, I don’t think anyone has a great opinion of Danish weather, least of all the Danes themselves, but it’s not really that bad. The summers tend to be decently warm, like warm enough to go swimming at the beach, and the winters… I don’t find them to be much worse than England. It’s cold, grey, and rainy all the same, in coastal Denmark, you just have to deal with the added peril of wind. This was new for me, because I’ve always lived inland, so the coastal breeze that threatens to knock you off your bike was a wake-up call, but not impossible to deal with.
And that brings us to the Danes themselves. I think Danes get a bad rep. I’ve had people say they’re cold and blunt, and yet I don’t really see that. Sure most of them won’t approach you unless they think you need help or you ask for it, but when they do, they’re almost always willing to help. I have a good few Danish friends, and they’ve always made the effort to help me settle in, to practice my terrible Danish, and to get me involved. A guy I’m neighbours with is a huge AGF (the local football team) fan, and he is constantly inviting newcomers to come watch games with him. The Danes in my class are always game for teaching up about how things work here, and one of them even translated the entirety of the Danish language pub quiz for us so we could join in.
Tomorrow I actually start my Danish Education, which is another concept about Denmark I love. Newcomers to the country get up to five years of Danish language classes for free! I mean, you have to pay a 200£ish deposit for it, but you get three hours of classes for free along with the learning materials. Plus, there’s plenty of flexibility when it comes to when and where you take your classes. Mine take place in the exact building I have the rest of my classes, and they’re specifically for international students at the university. My dorm even has an agreement with another language school to hold classes in the dorm itself!
All in all, my experience of Aarhus thus far has been amazing. Not to say it’s been perfect, but it’s as close to perfect as I’ve experienced yet. A final question a lot of people have for me, is whether I’m staying in Denmark, or going home after I graduate.
I can’t say for certain whether I’ll stay in Denmark. Don’t get me wrong, I’d be more than happy to, but I have my fingers in a few different pies so to speak.
I only know one thing for sure, my life in the UK is 100% behind me, continental Europe is my home and will be for as long as I can see.
