Happy New Year, everyone! Wishing you all the best for 2015 – I have a feeling that this is going to be a great year (I feel like I’ve been saying this about every year recently, but I mean it just as much). I have to start off by saying I feel fortunate for being in the position that I am. Being able to live and study abroad, while being surrounded by amazing and loving friends and family that only ever want the best for me. This past year was filled with some of the most amazing things I’ve ever experienced – potentially making it one of the best years of my life. Here’s a list of some of the fun and crazy things I got to do:
- Celebrated Three King’s Day in Warszawa, Poland
- Pulled my first (and not the last of the year) all-nighter finishing a project with friends… and then snuck onto the roof of our school like hooligans
- Discovered the Black Swan Bar in Copenhagen – a microbrewery bar with some amazing beers!
- Started and completed my mentorship programme at Novo Nordisk (a large Danish pharmaceutical company)
- Went to a summerhouse with a group of friends in Northern Denmark where we ate amazing food and played lots of fun games
- Saw and “climbed” my first mountain in Switzerland
- Couchsurfed for the first time in Luzern, Switzerland and reunited with an old friend from my first year of Bachelor’s
- Ate waffles, fries with mayo, and drank great Belgian beer in Brussels
- Visited a medieval castle in Ghent, Belgium
- Made new friends and drove out into the countryside of Belgium for a themed party
- Had a real Guinness at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, Ireland
- Looked over the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland
- Drunkenly sang along to live music in the Temple Bar District
- Celebrated May 1st with thousands of other Danes
- Experienced the semi-finals of Eurovision 2014 in Copenhagen
- Went on an impromptu trip to Poland for a week to visit family that I haven’t seen in 12 years
- Attended a lecture by Nobel laureate Paul Nurse (the free champagne at the end made it worth it)
- Concerts at Nemoland in Christiania, Copenhagen
- Beach days in May and June at Amager Strand and Svanemollen Strand, which resulted in me swimming in my first large body of seawater (the Baltic in this case)
- Attended the orchestrated chaos known as Distortion (a giant electronic-music street party in Copenhagen)
- Exploring Dyrehaven, a deer park north of Copenhagen
- Visiting Canada for the summer with an anxiety-inducing layover in Helsinki, Finland
- Visiting my best friend Joanne while she was working at a wildlife sanctuary, and then actually petting a friendly coyote
- Last minute The Script and One Republic concert
- Watching my sister graduate high school and enter university
- Drunken Blue Jay’s baseball games!
- Celebrating Canada Day
- Witnessing my old roommate get married (how crazy is that!?)
- The countless number of dinners with friends
- Watching the world cup finale with my cousin and family
- Flying out to St. Maarten – the first tropical destination I have ever been to
- Cabana cruises, hiking, and beaches galore
- First wine tasting experience
- First (and potentially not the last) tattoo
- Sushi lunches
- Exploring Toronto Island
- Attended the CNE in Toronto for the first time
- Flying back to Copenhagen and hopping on a free canal tour ride
- Volunteering for UNICEF
- Moving to a posh area of Copenhagen (technically not Copenhagen anymore, but close enough)
- Having my friend Maggie visit me from Canada, where we travelled around Denmark and Sweden together
- Halloween in Tivoli
- An amazing Amsterdam trip for my birthday
- Bombay Bicycle Club concert
- Participating in Movember, and growing a decently creepy moustache that I became attached to
- Decorating my flat for Christmas
- Flying back to Canada for Christmas (I was actually able to decorate the Christmas tree for the first time in five years)
- Onesie parties
- Reuniting with friends and family
- Celebrating New Years in Copenhagen
The list became a lot longer than I expected, and I still feel like I could add more to it. If you’re interested in reading more about my year, a lot of the things I just posted about can be found in my previous posts throughout the year! You can also follow me on my Instagram account (@swckwrzsk).
I’m thankful for everyone that was a part of my year and helped make it as amazing as it was. Again, I feel so fortunate and am blessed that I’m able to do the things I do. I can’t wait to see what 2015 brings!
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