A new home

"I'm in Denmark". I keep having to remind myself. It's only been two days but it already feels like home. Six months of planning this sabbatical has pre-tuned my brain to receive and process all things pertaining to life in Denmark; Copenhagen, to be more precise. By now, most of what I've witnessed is consistent with the picture I'd since painted in my head. During the last year, I made three short visits to this city, each visit yielding a stronger impulse to return than the previous. So, I've returned. This time for a full year.

I spent the last six months working two jobs over six days a week so that I could come here and live without any plan or schedule to adhere to. That I have had the good fortune to take a full year off from my job in London (which is there to return to) and some money saved up in order to support myself while I remain, is not something I have taken lightly. I plan to use this time to write. What I will write has yet to be uncovered. But as much as time in a different city has its distractions, this time off is not going to be a lark. It is for me an exercise in self-discipline and more importantly, an attempt to find my voice. I'm a dreamer, but I'm also a doer. If I am compelled to do, I will, and so on...but more on that later.

This isn't meant to be a guide to living in Denmark. This isn't meant to be a political or social commentary. This isn't about Copenhagen as a tourist destination or a forum for highlighting cultural differences. If anything, I seek to find the common threads. So while I do make reference to my 'year of living Danishly', I would not have my words seen as an attempt to define the country and its people. For that, you'd need to come here and find out for yourself.

This is simply a portal to my reflections on what it is to stop everything and start from scratch, and how the conventional idea of 'home' is almost too static for this random girl. The way I see it, home begins with knowing yourself, then finding the place that fits at that given time. So here I am, in Denmark, at the beginning of one year. I am home.

Random Girl