Studying Abroad: A Bittersweet Experience
BY MARAM SHALABY
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
“Do you want to go to Denmark?” was the question I was asked by one of the Multimedia Journalism (MMJ) faculty members last year at around this exact same time.I laughed and asked them to elaborate on what they meant. I was later told that there was a partnership between the MMJ department and the Danish School of Media and Journalism in Denmark, which is the best and oldest journalism school in Europe.
At the time, all I knew about Denmark were the stereotypes that were portrayed in the Egyptian movie Al Tagroba Al- Denemarkeya, which literally translates to The Danish Experience.
I called my mother right away and I was very happy about how supportive she was.
I started all my applications but I still couldn’t believe that this was happening. I chose not to think about it until the end of the semester. I was very reluctant about my decision because I did not want to go to a new country that I absolutely knew nothing about and to be honest, I did not even feel like going to this specific country, I thought it was going to be super boring.
I had my life all settled in Egypt, with my studies and my friends and I didn’t want to leave all that behind and travel.
After a long wait for my visa, I arrived in Denmark a week late.
It was cold and snowy, I was a bit lost but soon, all that changed. The minute I arrived to my room, I felt at home already. Everyone was very welcoming and helpful.
I still remember my first class as if it were yesterday. We were a class of international students except for a small number of Danes. The professor treated us as professional journalists and not as students.
I can say that I learned so much more in four months, journalistically, than what I’ve learned in AUC in two-and-a-half years, just because all our work in Denmark was practical. We traveled and covered stories in several countries in Europe, such as France, Spain, The Netherlands and Germany.
Other than the journalism side, I felt completely independent because I used to receive a stipend every month; I didn’t even need to take an allowance from my parents.
I was put in situations where I had to make fast decisions and even though sometimes they weren’t the best, especially at the beginning, I learnt from my mistakes and it became a lot easier by the end.
Time flew and suddenly it was my last day in Denmark. I was excited to go back to Egypt because I missed it and my friends and because I thought that I had already made peace with leaving. You can call it some sort of closure, maybe.
However, I was completely wrong.
I arrived in Egypt and the first few days were just amazing. I got to see my friends and eat foul (beans) and koshary. I went to my favorite restaurants and spots in Cairo that I had missed so much.
But soon, I started feeling out of place and borderline depressed because I wasn’t in Denmark anymore.
Everything around me feels exactly the same but I feel like I’ve changed a lot, I’ve done a lot and I’ve traveled a lot but no one understands me. It is like I’ve progressed and being home is just pulling me back to my old habits.
It’s suffocating.
It was hard for me to go back to taking money from my parents or staying in one city for more than a month.
Denmark had taught me how to be energetic and up for anything at any time but I couldn’t do that here for simple reasons such as that I can’t walk from New Cairo to Zamalek and that I can’t spend every weekend in a different city.
It didn’t get better; I soon started comparing every single thing to Denmark and talking about it all the time – even now. My friends can’t even tolerate a single word I say about my experience there anymore, which I completely understand; but I can’t control it.
Just as I’m writing this I feel like I want to talk about so much more but I also don’t want to bore you with all the details.
Traveling abroad is a one-of-a-kind experience. It teaches you a lot and the amount of fun you have there is just hard to describe, but the hardest part is coming back to your home country and being expected to crawl back into your old routine.
It’s just impossible.
I’ve been in Egypt for five months now and I still can’t adapt. Denmark was great; so great that I can’t enjoy anything in my life right now anymore.
I got attached to it so much and I just can’t stop thinking of ways to go back there, to reunite with my friends anywhere in the world.
I still need some kind of closure.
But with all that, I still would encourage anyone to try an experience like this one because as hard as it is for me right now, I think it was all worth it.
Denmark was certainly the best experience of my life and I would do it all again if I had the chance.
