Shampoo makes for great body wash

Embrace mistakes.

After 20 minutes of racking my brain for a clever, witty, and pun-ridden way to open this post, I have settled for the ultimate Danish-study-abroad-student-blog-post cliché: Hej!

It has been a long week of 3:50 AM jet-lag-induced-wakeups and fruitless attempts to be accepted by my homestay doggo, Sazzi. Over these past seven days, I’ve missed the train twice, thought about starting this blog post 8 times, and used shampoo on my entire body once.

To clarify, I’ll set the scene.

After 14 hours of flying/layovering, I had just arrived at my homestay for the first time. I was haggard. I had somehow lucked-out and picked seats on both flights directly behind an angry baby. No, it wasn’t the same baby on both flights, they were both very different from each other in size, shape, wailing intonation, etc. but they were very similar in their acute dislike for takeoff, landing, and everything in between.

After being welcomed into the literal coziest home in Denmark and giving Sazzi an introductory belly rub, I set out to remove the layer of airplane grime that had attached itself to me on my journey. Towel in-hand, I made my way to the shower, turned the knob to the hottest setting, and hopped in. Per routine and as I’m sure almost everyone does, my mind turned to deep, contemplative and reflective thought on moral, ethical, and universally-relevant issues.

Somewhere between my reflections on the pros and cons of a single-payer health care system and possible endings to Game of Thrones, I became distracted and didn’t realize that what I perceived to be the Danish word for body wash was, in fact, the Danish word for shampoo.

Oops.

I guess I should have realized it pretty quickly but hey, my mind was in Westeros. I did notice a particular lack of lather but I didn’t pay much heed to that. It was only after trying to work the actual body wash into my hair that I realized something was afoot.

I understood my mistake immediately and, after considering using the conditioner on my entire body for good measure, I realized that shampoo really is a glorified body wash.

I had made a simple mistake that had, in the end, turned out just fine. I smelled like lavender and that’s all that mattered.

While I’m here in Denmark, I will almost definitely continue making mistakes. I will take the train headed south to Sweden instead of north to my homestay. I will forget to charge my camera battery before going on a trip to Norway. I will lock myself out of my homestay on a frigid, snowy day.

This semester will be full of blunders, stumbles, and miscalculations.

But, the difference between good and bad mistakes resides in how you frame them. Sweden is a beautiful country. Scenic trips shouldn’t always be appreciated from behind a camera lens. Locking yourself out makes for a great opportunity to explore the small Danish village you live in.

So next time you’re out of body wash, don’t be afraid to use the shampoo.