I had to do various things throughout the week like take them on tours of the DIS facillities (and managed to get a group of 5 lost in a stairwell of one of our new buildings), put together student Q&A panels, escort them to classes or sessions they want to sit in on, and the coolest thing I got to do was go on an exclusive tour inside Amelienborg palace. Amelienborg is the winter castle residence of the royal family and they only let special groups in to the castle and most Danes will never even get to go inside. It was a beautiful castle and its times like these that make my job worth it!
I also got to ask some abroad advisers and such from all over the US how they got their job s and I got advised on how to continue a career in international education. Schmooze, schmooze, schmooze. A lot of the advice they gave me mentioned networking and getting yourself out there. Mmmm, so much of life is really about who you know.
One of out host moms has had her 100th and 101st student this semester. She has been hosting DIS international students for over 50 years. We had a lovely little reception for her with some of her old and current host students, her family, and my department. Det var meget hyggeligt. Talk about dedication!
I also had a pretty cool opprotunity this weekend to assist one of my colleagues on DIS's first ever farm excursion trip to a local farm about an hour north of Copenhagen. More to be written about that later...A nice and brief introduction to what WWOOFing might entail :)
So the honeymoon period of my job is certainly over. Don't get me wrong, I still love it very much, but its not always a walk in the park. Most things, even the greatest things, I suspect, have some sort of a honeymoon period and a more normal period. Anyway, there have been some times lately where I let the negative attitudes in the office, or other negative vibes get me down. I find myself getting annoyed with students. And I have to stop and take a breather to remember why I wanted to be here in the first place: to help students have the life changing experience abroad that I had. Recently there have been a few things that have made me love my job and help me remember the important things about this internship and this next year ahead of me.
I got a thank you email from a student that told me I was awesome for remembering to send him a certain list. He came in many weeks ago to get a list which I didn't have at that time and all these weeks later, I finally sent it to him. I also got a little bag of American Halloween candy and a thank you note from one girl who has been in our office a lot lately for various reasons (one being a broken key, another being her hitting her chin on her beer stein at Oktoberfest and needing stitches from a German hospital). And finally, the most touching of them all: one student telling me about his terrifying coming out experience in Tennessee, how he had is own body guard more or less throughout high school so he wouldn't get hurt, and how he has tried to commit suicide before. There was a fair amount of wine involved on both ends, but I almost began to cry just hearing all of this and how impressively hard his journey has been. Its hard for me to believe that this kind of hate exists in this world. He says he feels so much safer, happier, and accepted in Copenhagen and at DIS. He has been an active member of a LGBT group we have an alliance with and just thanked me and another staff member for offering services and just being there.
Its nice to know that what we do is appreciated. Definitely a labor of love. For the longest time I have known that I want to help people in some way. shape, or form for the rest of my life, and it feels good to know that this is what I am doing :)
