{"id":305,"date":"2016-09-21T17:56:26","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T17:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentvoices.bli.lsa.umich.edu\/?p=305"},"modified":"2020-07-23T13:36:14","modified_gmt":"2020-07-23T13:36:14","slug":"julia-snider-copenhagen-denmark-amsterdam-the-netherlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/studentvoices\/2016\/09\/21\/julia-snider-copenhagen-denmark-amsterdam-the-netherlands\/","title":{"rendered":"Julia Snider – Copenhagen, Denmark; Amsterdam, the Netherlands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Julia Snider<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

With the help of the BLI Global Scholarship, I was able to spend six weeks of this past summer studying abroad–five of those weeks were in Copenhagen,\u00a0plus\u00a0a week-long class field trip to Amsterdam, the Netherlands. This was my first time in the Eastern Hemisphere, and I’m happy to say I returned home with an increased sense of self-confidence and willingness to try new things as well as\u00a0a more nuanced understanding of perspective, morality and compromise, both of which will continue to contribute to my success as a leader.<\/p>\n

Getting off the plane at Copenhagen Airport, I was both nervous and excited. I knew I was going to be living in an apartment with 11 other girls (and one Danish Student Resident Advisor), but I didn’t know who any of them were. I knew I would be taking two classes that counted toward my majors in Psychology and Women’s Studies–Psychology of Human Sexuality\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Prostitution and the Sex Trade<\/em>–but I didn’t know much about these classes or about the cities they took place in.<\/p>\n

Luckily, Copenhagen is easy to love. With its colorful canals and narrow streets filled with way<\/em> more bikes than cars, it feels comfortably small for a capital city.\u00a0Here are just a few of my favorite canal-and-bike-related Copenhagen snapshots:<\/p>\n

\"img_20160526_034931-2\"\"img_20160630_020126-1\"\"img_20160529_230302\"\"img_20160616_234438\"<\/p>\n

Check out those views! I realized early on that although my school work was important, the most valuable thing I could do for myself on my study abroad trip was to go out an explore the world around me. However, such adventures take a level of self-confidence that doesn’t always come naturally to me, especially considering\u00a0my peers were a group of girls I had never met before and who were all from different schools than I was. Being away from my friends and family at home wasn’t always easy, but I’m delighted to say that in my time with these girls, I went on a number of adventures that I might not have gone on alone. Best of all, this trip challenged my self-concept and brought me to realize just how closely self-confidence, enthusiasm, and leadership are intertwined. I now think more deliberately about how closely connected my confidence of\u00a0my own abilities is\u00a0with others’ confidence of my abilities, and I know the risk of looking foolish can easily be overshadowed by a good sense of humor and some enthusiasm. This self-reflection and self-confidence will undoubtedly enhance my leadership abilities.<\/p>\n

Here are some pictures of some of my\u00a0post-class adventures!<\/p>\n

\"img_20160528_222015\"<\/p>\n

pictured: Tivoli Gardens (the inspiration for Disney World!)<\/p>\n

\"img_20160605_203104\"<\/p>\n

pictured: Island’s Brygge (kind of like a beach, but without sand and in a canal?); a small child whom I do not know (blue trunks) pushed me off of this platform (funnier than it was scary)<\/p>\n

\"img_20160807_184809\" \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\"img_20160619_015205\"<\/p>\n

Finally, these two were taken on a weekend trip to Mons Clint, Denmark–just a (two hour) train ride from Copenhagen!<\/p>\n

Inside the classroom, my biggest learning moments came at times when my morality was challenged. For instance, in\u00a0Psychology of Human Sexuality,\u00a0<\/em>I was challenged to think critically about a number of controversial issues, such as the difference between pedophilia (as a mental disorder) and child molestation (as a crime).\u00a0Then, the fifth week of my study abroad program\u00a0was spent with my\u00a0Prostitution and the Sex Trade<\/em> class in Amsterdam. There, we attended a number of presentations, each involving\u00a0some aspect of sex work in Amsterdam. Presenters included a former prostitute, representatives of NGOs, and even a sex buyer. I said on my first day of Prostitution\u00a0and the Sex Trade\u00a0<\/em>that I wanted to decide once and for all what my opinion on prostitution was and what policies were best for a country to implement; instead, I left the class with a much more nuanced understanding of a social, moral, and political issue and of the ways that it can effect different individuals and groups. To my surprise, this mission to expand\u00a0my perspective (especially morally) was furthered when I read a book that none other than the sex buyer recommended to my class:\u00a0The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion\u00a0<\/em>by Jonathan Haidt. Between the moral challenges of these classes and the insight I’ve gained from Haidt’s book, I can genuinely say that I’ve come away from this summer realizing that not only does everyone have their own truth, but also that the best way to reach compromise in a world\u00a0of differing–and sometimes conflicting–truths is to lower your\u00a0intuitive defenses and genuinely make an effort to hear and understand\u00a0the opinions of others–even if you find them offensive or morally wrong. I expect this purposeful\u00a0effort to relate to others’ views\u00a0will not only help me to make forward progress in\u00a0personal relationships, but in group conflicts as well.<\/p>\n

Plus, we took a canal tour! What a cool canal!<\/p>\n

\"20160622_225542\"<\/p>\n

Once the program was over, and it was the night before I left my apartment in Copenhagen\u00a0for the airport, I wrote in a small book for future study abroad students that they should “get ready to fall in love with [their] own lives.” It’s SUPER cheesy, and I knew that while writing it, but I also meant it. Studying abroad plopped me down in an inherently challenging, new\u00a0environment, and the insights that I gained\u00a0while there have positively affected me as a person and as a leader.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Julia Snider With the help of the BLI Global Scholarship, I was able to spend six weeks of this past summer studying abroad–five of those weeks were in Copenhagen,\u00a0plus\u00a0a week-long class field trip to Amsterdam, the Netherlands. This was my first time in the Eastern Hemisphere, and I’m happy to say I returned home […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":391,"featured_media":331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[100,111,295,346,394],"class_list":["post-305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-experiences","tag-copenhagen","tag-denmark","tag-psychology","tag-study-abroad","tag-womens-studies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/studentvoices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/35\/2016\/09\/IMG_20160619_015205-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/studentvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/studentvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/studentvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/studentvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/391"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/studentvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/studentvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2005,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/studentvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions\/2005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/studentvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/studentvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/studentvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/studentvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}