As a Dual Degree student, if there is one thing we don’t lack, it’s time. Time to decipher what we want to do while our Btech batchmates face the tsunami that is placement season. I knew in the beginning of my 5th semester that one thing I craved for was change, to look beyond the institute’s walls and the stresses that come with the academics within. That coupled with the lifetime goal of watching Messi and Busquets rolling the ball for FC Barcelona at the Camp Nou, an exchange didn’t seem like a bad idea .A semester away from campus would get me that required change in perspective, so I jumped on the bandwagon of browsing through the list of universities IITB had affiliations with.

I thought the visa process would be the most bureaucratically challenging aspect of my plans, but the exchange mapping system at MEMS IITB turned out be a lot worse. First, finding courses abroad whose syllabus matched with the ones at IITB and then trying to prove that to the professors, who would then say a particular topic in the course wasn’t there in the syllabus abroad and make me re-do the whole process all over again.

After multiple iterations, once the tyranny that is the IITB administration was managed, I settled on DTU Copenhagen as the eventual university I would spend a semester at.

After finally getting my visa approved, and loading on winter clothes and Indian spices(life saver), I took off for Europe!

As someone who has lived most of his life in the crowded place that is Mumbai, looking at the archaic buildings and the free space in Copenhagen can be astounding. Copenhagen is like the utopia you imagine one day Mumbai will become, minus the people. With sunset at 9 when I arrived to sunset at 4 when I left, the freezing breeze in the already rainy winter, India could not be more different. You will see most people riding on cycles, even mothers carrying their children in baskets up-front and a public transport networks that can get you to about 50 metres to any point on the map, while slowly chipping away at your bank balance. After spending a couple of days roaming around the city, watching a game of football and sleeping in our rented Airbnb, we were all set to go to DTU, and see how the universities in Denmark are.  As DTU generally hosts many exchange students(>400), it has a special programme called the Introduction Week, where they put you in groups of 15 with other exchange students. A large part of the first week is spent with this ‘Buddy Group’, where we explored the campus and the city, partied….. a lot (Denmark ofc) and even had a celebratory dinner with all exchange students.

The buddy group I had, had students from Asia, Australia, North America and other European countries. Having such a diverse group of people to interact with is rather mind opening for someone from IITB, as we generally never have a lot of international students. The friends I made in the 1st week were people I would meet throughout the semester for meals and parties/sports. I think a large part of the experience in an exchange is the interactions you have with people who grew up in a completely different cultural setting.It opens your mind to a completely different view of things, which is something that didn’t happen very often to me at IITB.

Of course, I still was on an exchange to attend college. Classes at DTU were very different from most universities. You would have a single 4 hour lecture for a course, with the last 2 hours usually meant for group work. Evaluation was more diversified with projects and assignments in groups being a large part of the process. I think the lectures were similar to those at IITB, but without an attendance policy(yay).

What put you outside your comfort zone was the inherent egalitarianism exhibited by the professors. You would call your professors by their first name and not ‘Prof’ or ‘Sir’, and conversations with them were a lot more casual when compared to IITB. Courses were different in terms of being more numerical, and exams were open laptop. Let’s just say the Danes had the education system figured out. If there is one thing Europe offers uniquely to an Indian, it is travel. With my Schengen stamped passport, I spent a large part of my time travelling. Watching an FC Barcelona match live, a childhood dream was soon to be a reality. So after a lot of research looking into the cheapest flights (hail Ryanair!) , my itinerary was ready and I was off bag-packing.

The first destination was Belgium, where we devoured Belgian waffles and fries for most meals. We also visited the canal city of Brugge, which looks like it is a set from a Disney movie with colourful buildings and a canal running right through the city. We marvelled at the golden facade of the Grand Place in Brussels and climbed the Atomium, watching the sun set from top. My first trip in Europe saw me camp at a hostel, where you get to meet many fellow travellers and even listen to bands in their common areas. The life of a bag-packer was slowly setting in.

The diversity of experiences Europe offers is truly immense. There are the places rich in history, spoilt by the bombs of WW-2 like Berlin or Gdansk. The way WW-2 history was displayed, ‘as it happened’, in Germany, ie a nation accepting the failures of its past leadership, is a lesson most nations need in the current day and age. There are the cultural mega-centres like Paris, Barcelona and Vienna, where you can almost feel the difference in the air, with the tiny shops, music playing on the streets or the Gothic architecture of even common houses.

What makes a real difference is often the interactions you have with fellow travellers. There are things like free walking tours of cities, parties and games in hostels or even events like playing football with the locals. The atmosphere of trust which exists, pushes you to try new things for eg. teaching a bunch of Europeans the moves to Tunak Tunak Tun ;) . I would often find fellow Indians, or other exchange students in many of these activities and spend the rest of the day exploring the city with them.

You can try the wide variety of cuisines in each country, and even though being a vegetarian significantly reduced my options, I’m fairly certain I won’t forget my first bite of Pizza in Rome, waffles in Brussels or a croissant in Paris. I did miss Indian food and the intense flavour associated with it, but then it only made me respect Indian cuisine more. Of course, I always had pizza and Turkish falafels, so being vegetarian was never a reason for me to go hungry. Staying alone and fending for yourself without a mess in Copenhagen really makes you appreciate your mom’s cooking, but you do learn slowly to cook pasta and tortillas, which are palatable and sometimes tasty.

Writing a blog without talking about my experience of finally watching European football would be a shame. After staying up to watch Barca play on TV at 2 AM in India(missing morning lectures ofc), one of the core motivations for an exchange was to watch the team I had been following for a decade play live. I finally got the opportunity to watch Barcelona play (twice!),and watching Lionel Messi score a hattrick made it one of the most memorable days of my life. Listening to the Champions League anthem and singing along with the crowd gives you goosebumps(on second thoughts that happens even when you watch on TV).

Saying Europeans are passionate about football would be an understatement. THEY ADORE IT. I sat aside with people who had been season ticket holders for 40 years, and had seen how the club came to its present stature. Quick tip- Don’t wear a Barcelona scarf in a street full of Borussia Dortmund supporters. Arguing with Liverpool fans about why they won’t win the EPL, or watching el Classico with the local club divided in Scarlet Blue and White, you can feel the groans and pulsations even if you know nothing about football.

As the months drove past bustling with travel, some projects and slowly getting to a level in cooking where Gordon Ramsay wouldn’t call me an idiot sandwich, I discovered how important Christmas is in the west. Christmas markets are set up months in advance, and people gather with their friends for many Christmas dinners. What did surprise me was that a day or 2 before Christmas, the city shuts down. Shops close, traffic halts and everyone goes home to spend Christmas with their family. I managed to find 2 dozen fellow travellers with whom I spent Christmas eve with, cooking Indian desserts for them, while singing carols to the fine tunes of a ukulele. For the first time, I understood how it felt like to celebrate Christmas.

As the clock struck 12 on new year’s eve, watching the Copenhagen sky light up with a billion fireworks, with Avicii playing in the background, I knew the last 6 months had been transformative and surreal.

As the return flight approached, and I had my bag packed with Chocolates and souvenirs to the brim, I bid adieu to Copenhagen.

If there’s one takeaway from my story, it’s this- Go on an exchange if you can, you won’t regret it. Maybe to see how different people and places can be. Or maybe to see how similar they are. One thing’s for sure, you won’t come back without unforgettable memories.