Our beautiful student Summer shared her reflections on the exchange so far with our scholarship team – amazing job, Summer!
It is time for me to express my gratitude for this scholarship once again. 5 months being in Denmark and I have not once regretted my decision. I am truly grateful for the opportunity it affords me.
Half a year already!
It’s strange how time flies, but at the same time, it feels like I have lived here forever. I feel both the feeling that I arrived yesterday and the feeling that I’ve been in Denmark my whole life. This new life has shown me how to express a whole new personality, growth and awakening I never knew I had. To love, to cry, to share, to breathe new air. I honestly have no clue how I could have lived life differently, I have created forever friends I wouldn’t even think of being friends with anymore.
The fact that I leave in 5 months is crazy considering I am already writing this halfway mark letter. My host mom has a rule where “we don’t speak of the wall” which refers to when I have to return to New Zealand.
OMG, while I was volunteering with AFS Interkultur Kolding, I met this lady who went on exchange with AFS in the 1960’s. She had told us all about her exchange and how “back then” you could only travel to the United States. That is crazy right? Just to prove that your student exchange stays with you for life.
You know what? I wouldn’t have it any other way. My host parents have become my real parents, my host siblings have become my real siblings and everyone I have met here is engraved into my soul, through and through. The relationships I have created in such a short time are extraordinary, the memories are a whole new serendipity.
While I am in Europe I want to travel as much as I can! You never know when you can return, especially in this inflation! My family and I have travelled to Germany and Ireland together, with a trip to Italy planned in March! I am so excited!. Germany is so cheap, highly recommended. My family also have occasional day trips to Copenhagen where we leave early in the morning and return late at night. We are planning to go to Sweden in a week for one day, which I am also looking forward to!
Concluding this documentary, I am forever grateful and hope you can experience once again how you felt through me.
Once a kid, always a kid. At heart anyways.
Loves and kisses,
Summer Ngeru <3
Want to see more about Summer’s life on exchange? Check out her Stories takeover on our Instagram highlights! Ready to make your own memories in Denmark? Learn more here.