I made my way safely to and from Norway with a bus last week. I won't write much about it for the fact that it was pretty much the same week as before. (Read previous blog) However, this time was with a bunch of Danes and every night we all ate dinner together and it so nice and hyggelig. One night we had a buffet with 8 different kinds of fish and all these salads and breads. It was quite astounding, actually. Another night we all came back for cake and there was 7 or so different kinds of cakes and it was some of the best cake ever! And yeah, we skied a lot and it went surprisingly better than last time. But who cares about skiing if there is cake! :)
I have been thinking a lot about a lot of important things: my future mostly, but also my past. I can easily be classified as a dweller and a "what if"-er, and I do not see this qualities leaving anytime soon. I recently saw a documentary about an American living in India. She was a photographer and gave 10 or 12 slum children cameras. The pictures they produced were simplely tremendous. She sold them in the US and the money they generated she used to find the children schools where they could escape the slum and their othewise slum future. I really stuck with me and started a battle with myself. I felt really selfish and plain dumb for choosing Denmark, when I could have chosen India, Ghana or China; countries that are significantly different than the US. The truth is if you take away the language and the little things here and there, the US and Denmark would seem almost the same. Do the same for the previous countries and the results are quite different. I do somewhat regret coming to Denmark, when I could have experienced something more powerful and life-changing in another land. The problem that I think about is the person I was then and the person I am now. The 'then' person was not a risk taker. I was outgoing and friendly, but was definitely afraid of the cultures that seemed so far away and distant. I believe I choose Denmark because, although it put me out of my immediate comfort zone, it allowed me to be stay within the realms of my "normal". Generally the people have the same values, religion and access to the rest of the world. Believe me, I am glad that I am in Denmark and I know I have had some real unique experiences and have made some life-long friends, but the "what if" still gets me. What if I went to a country where the majority were not of Christian belief? What if I went to a country where the food was totally different? What if I went to a country where they weren't 'white'? All these questions haunt me, but I reassure myself that Denmark has given me some of the best moments of my life and I woundn't trade that for anything.
I know I have the blessing (or curse) of the travel bug. I want to travel around the world and experience all the different cultures and meet new and interesting people. I want to see the history past and the history of the next generations. I want to be living history and share that with the world. Maybe this is why my mind wanders and ponders the past, present and future so much. My future may be uncertain and my life, a blank canvas, but if I know what my head wants, and more importantly my heart, my decisions will become much more clearer.
Onto the clichés. I have been in Denmark for almost 7 months and have 4 months remaining. The first 6 or so months I was climbing a mountain. It was hard and it never seemed liked I would reach the top. The time went by slowly and I was many times discouraged, but I didn't give up. I finally reached the top and really enjoyed it. I had accomplished my goal, but I was quickly hit with reality when I realized I had to climb back down. The climb down goes much faster, but is harder. I don't want to leave the top, but I cannot stay up there forever; I have to come down. It isn't that I don't want to come down, because the bottom is safe ground and is my comfort place. It is just that I have experienced the peak of the mountain and will always want to go back. But I can't because there are more mountains to climb and more desents to make, but they will come. Right now I am just trying to come down the mountain and enjoy every step that takes further from the peak, but closer to the ground.
Andy
Monday, February 22, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
The ENTIRE Month of January
For starters, I apologize for my blog absence for the whole month of January; I have "good excuses". However, I have being keeping a list of things to include in a blog, so I am hoping not to miss any details. Also, this blog may reach a point where you get tired of reading it, because I am predicting it will be lengthy. Feel free to stop halfway and take a little walk. Also, the Spell Check isn't working, so mind the mistakes. And feel free to comment!
New Year's Eve
I spent New Year's Eve with two other exchange students, Kate from Australia and Jason from France. It was really nice to get together and just hang out. We went to Kate's house and filled ourselves up with peppernuts and muffins and played the Australian version of Monopoly and also Apples to Apples To Go!, which my mom had sent as a gift for my host family for Christmas. It was quite enjoyable and we really enjoyed ourselves. The New Year was brought in with a solid 30+ minutes straight of fireworks. WHOA! It was pretty exciting. The next day was a really lazy day and I ended up watching the USA's youth hockey team play Canada with commentary in Danish. However, that night was filled with a lot of scurring and last minute chores, as the next day we went to...
Norway!
We woke up at 5 and slowly got our things into the car. We drove to Copenhagen's airport and meet my "host cousins", Justine and Therese, who came with to Norway. (They also had never skied, like me) We got on our 8 a.m. flight and took off for the shortest flight I may ever take in my life, 55 minutes. An hour later we had landed in Norway and were greeted by snow, snow, a little wind and more snow. I have to say I felt a little at home being surrounded by so much snow; it felt right. The next 6 hours were possibly the most boring of my entire life. Despite recently arriving to a new country and being in an incredibly beautiful airport, there wasn't much to do. Sleep and looking at books in a bookshop, pretty much consumed the rest of the time. Finally, the train (what we had been waiting for) came and we got all out stuff together and sat on the train...for 3 hours. It was, however, much easy to keep entertained on the train because the train ran right next to some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. Snow-covered trees and houses high in the hills turned into ice-filled rivers and cities by the water. It truly was amazing.
We finally reached our destination at about 7 p.m. and the moment we walked off the train, we were immediately reminded that we were in Norway. It was -10 degrees C, which means nothing to anyone reading this. It is about 14 degrees F. Yes, very cold. We waited about 15 minutes inside a nearby supermarket for our taxi and it drove us 15 minutes up into the hills/mountains. We reached our cabin and we were all really glad to be in from the cold. The cabin was small, but perfect for us. There was a kitchen/dining/living room, a small bathroom and two bedrooms; one with a full bed and one with 2 set of bunkbeds (one of the bottoms was a full bed). The cabin had sleeping for exactly 7 comfortably (My host dad, mom, 2 brothers, 2 "host" cousins and me). Our cabin was one of about 12 all closely together. There was a central store, ski hut and some other outbuildings, but there were also more than 30 campers, many who belonged to people who lived there during the winter months and moved during the summer. There was a sense of permance to them.
The first day we woke up at 10 and went to prepare our skis. The weather was actually really nice and I was only wearing a t-shirt, long-sleeved shirt and a sweater. I was excited and nervous to try skiing for the first time. We started with the basics of rhythm (left foot, right pole; right foot, left pole) and then moved to stopping and slowing down. My host brother, Hjalte, was giving me all this information and I just did not understand anything he was really saying, so when I first tried going down a little hill I immediately fell and realized this would be no cake walk. After 15 more minutes of falling down, I had only learned how to go up a hill. I didn't even fall down right, I kept falling down on the back of skis and it really hurt my butt. Finally, we decided we should take learn-by-doing approach. Kjeld (host dad), Aske (host brother), Justine, Therese and I all went together for a "short" 2 hour 5 km tour. During the trip, I fell down at least 18 times and 4 times on a single hill. It ended up taken about double the time and by the end of the day I was well ready for bed. The next day we did some more technic work and I got really discouraged. I kept falling and after the 40th time, it isn't much fun. I was also real slow and kept falling behind. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one finding it tough; Justine and Therese were also having problems, but I still didn't understand how I was the only one falling every single time on hills?!
Everyday we finished skiing around 5 p.m., when it satrted to get dark. We had brought with some movies to watch and decks of cards. It was really nice to all be together and just relax. For Christmas, the "cousins" had recieved some used English books from their cousin who lives in Texas. We had a quite a lot of freetime and so I borrowed one of the books. They were extremely girly, but I realized how fun reading is and that I need to start reading more. (Since then, I have begun to read the Harry Potter series. I have never done so and I finished the first 2 books in 3 days.)
As the week progressed, my atittude improved as well as my ability. On the down side, the weather got worse and so much colder. The second to last day it was -24 degrees C (-11 degrees F) and we decided to just take the day off and give our bodies a rest. It was much needed for me. My body was just aching from falling so much. The final day was our longest and coldest day. We took an 11 km tour and it was absoulutely beautiful. I had to just stop sometimes and look around at the untouched and barren landscape. The weather made it quite difficult as it was windy and -31 degrees C, which is -24 degrees F! YES, -24 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT!!! It was worse when we stopped for a break, we just wanted to keep going. Ice formed on eyebrows, eyelashes and nose and started to on my cheeks. When we got home, my body was physically in pain because the I was warming up too fast. It was quite the day. We got home without problems and all-in-all, it was a really great trip. I will actually be going again Week 7 (2/13-20) and doing pretty much the same thing. I am hoping it will be a little warmer though!
WALKING BREAK
Homework, Sickness and Spanish Students
The Monday I got back, the joy from my trip died. I was given a 15-page assignment for English and Social Studies about U.S Immigration, due in 2 weeks. I was not in the mood for hard work (Am I ever?) and from then on my nights were devoted to research and creating acceptable English sentences, hence why I was unable to blog. I kind of became a hermit for a week. It didn't help that I also became sick and stayed home from school for 2 days. When the due date finally came, I was just glad to be finished and I think I actually created a decent report. The due date was also a date that my whole class was looking forward to. That day 30 Spanish students arrived in Denmark and went to live with various people in my class. The next day we all went together to Copenhagen and walked around and saw some of the big tourist attractions. It was fun, but I finally realized how pathetic my Spanish is. I kept trying to say something to them in Spanish, but it would come out as Danish. It got to be kind of a joke. On Tuesday we went skating, which was another first for me. I was terrible at first, but then one of the Spanish students helped me and I was a little farther from terrible, but not by much. It was really fun. They stayed until Thursday, but I left on Wednesday for..
Mini-Exchange in Ålborg
I stayed home from school on Wednesday, because at noon that day I would take a train to Køge and meet all the other exchange students and then take the train together to Roskilde and get on a train together to the other side of the country to Ålborg. This plans were changed by the arrival of snow. In Denmark, when snow comes DSB (Danish train company) act as though they have never seen snow before. The trains are always cancelled or late and it is just a mess. On this particular day there was a lot of snow and the train I and the other exchangies were going to take to Roskilde was cancelled. After a few phone calls were exchanged, I found out that we would be taking taxis. My first taxi ride was probably one of the most frightening experiences of my life. It was in New York on my way to meet all the other Americans going to Denmark. It had just taken 2 flights all alone and now was greeted by about 60 taxis outside the airport. I was to look for a black cab that said "Red Hat". After 50 minutes of me walking around with my baggage for the next year following me and having no idea what I was doing, I finally found it. It was a beige cab and the company was "Red Cap". This taxi ride was not much better. First it was about 15 minutes late. Then for 1 minute I tried to tell him that I wanted to go to the next station so that I could maybe catch the train on time, rather than drive all the way to Roskilde. He didn't speak much English and I was so nervous, I couldn't form proper sentences. Finally I got to the proper train station and was 5 minutes too late. I was met by the chairperson of my local AFS chapter and he arranged for a seat for me on the next train. So, I had to take the train all alone to Ålborg, about a 4 hour train trip. The train didn't come on time and I waited and waited and 35 minutes later it finally came. I took my seat on the train and just relaxed. I had packed some 'gummi' candy and just ate it and read Harry Potter. 3 hours in and delayed because of the snow, the train stopped in Århus, Denmark's 2nd biggest city and an hour from Ålborg by train. I had to switch trains and finally I arrived in Ålborg. My family picked me up, drove me home and bought me a pizza for supper. It was a hectic day, but ended nicely.
The family I lived with there was incredibly sweet. The parents were both dentists and they had 3 kids who were all exchange students: Stine (27), Alabama; Søren (23), Mexico and Katrine (19), Spain. Katrine is in her final year of school and is the only one that lives at home. They lived in a house from around the 1870's. It was pretty spectactular and quite large. They also had a pet turtle that was really big and slept the all day. In the morning, it would get a bath and then afterwards just crawl around the house. I feed it some lettuce. It was quite possibibly one of the highlights of my life. Just kidding. My family said that they want to visit the USA and now that they know someone who lives there, they said they would so sure visit sometime. I really hope they do. All-in-all the week was really nice and some of the highlights were:
Den Gamle By (The Old City): It is an outdoor museum in Århus with more than 60 buildings that were moved there from all over Denmark. It is set up like, well...an old city. There was a tobacco shop, a school, a sawmill, the mayor's house, stables, etc. Everything is authentic and the building are incredible old; I believe the oldest building I saw was from around 1560! Really a must-see
Lindholm Høje: Once an ancient Viking village, Lindholm Høje is a museum filled with Viking artifacts and information. It was so unique how they could preserve everything from so long ago. It was quite unique. Afterwards we went skating
Dinner with Exchnage Students and Families: On Sunday we all got together and had a really nice dinner and just sat and talked. It was really hyggeligt. We then told everyone about our families back home and in Denmark and about ourselves and then people asked questions. It was fun.
Tuesday: The day we went back it snowed the whole day. We all got together at one of the AFS leader's homes and ate breakfast and just talked..in Danish. The snow was the perfect packing snow and we had maybe the best snowball fight I have ever had and built easily the best snowmen I have ever built. We took the train home and I learned how to count to 10 in Thai and a bunch of dirty pharses in French. I would say it was a successful day!
I WASN'T KIDDING! GO TAKE A WALK!
Conclusion (Finally.)
I have recently been thinking deeply about how my time in Denmark has gone so far. I have faced lots of obstacles and made difficult decisions, and feel I have changed because of them. I am so much more independent and open-minded. I have always been a really indecesive person and usually made decisions based on other people and how it would affect them. Now, I am better aware of what I want, but still am aware of how my choice affects others. With summer approaching and June 25th becoming closer, I also feel anxious. I am not anxious to leave Denmark but more, anxious to return to Wisconsin. If anything at all, this separation from my "real life" has made me appreciate "home" so much more. I think I also have a new appreciation of the English language. Even though it is so common and unorginial, per se, it is a beautiful language and I really am proud to be a native English speaker. Finally, I believe my worst enemy is time. Maybe because it is so unlimited, or so it seems. We cherish time, yet throw it away. We forget about time, however wish we could have more. We need time, but want it to sped up. "Give it time", because "time flies". We can never make up our mind about time. It is like a 'half full' 'half empty' thing; sometimes its full and sometimes its empty. That is just the way it is. I have to just remind myself that time is precious and needs to be enjoyed, but also that the one lost is time is lost forever. I just hope time is on my side.
Andy
New Year's Eve
I spent New Year's Eve with two other exchange students, Kate from Australia and Jason from France. It was really nice to get together and just hang out. We went to Kate's house and filled ourselves up with peppernuts and muffins and played the Australian version of Monopoly and also Apples to Apples To Go!, which my mom had sent as a gift for my host family for Christmas. It was quite enjoyable and we really enjoyed ourselves. The New Year was brought in with a solid 30+ minutes straight of fireworks. WHOA! It was pretty exciting. The next day was a really lazy day and I ended up watching the USA's youth hockey team play Canada with commentary in Danish. However, that night was filled with a lot of scurring and last minute chores, as the next day we went to...
Norway!
We woke up at 5 and slowly got our things into the car. We drove to Copenhagen's airport and meet my "host cousins", Justine and Therese, who came with to Norway. (They also had never skied, like me) We got on our 8 a.m. flight and took off for the shortest flight I may ever take in my life, 55 minutes. An hour later we had landed in Norway and were greeted by snow, snow, a little wind and more snow. I have to say I felt a little at home being surrounded by so much snow; it felt right. The next 6 hours were possibly the most boring of my entire life. Despite recently arriving to a new country and being in an incredibly beautiful airport, there wasn't much to do. Sleep and looking at books in a bookshop, pretty much consumed the rest of the time. Finally, the train (what we had been waiting for) came and we got all out stuff together and sat on the train...for 3 hours. It was, however, much easy to keep entertained on the train because the train ran right next to some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. Snow-covered trees and houses high in the hills turned into ice-filled rivers and cities by the water. It truly was amazing.
We finally reached our destination at about 7 p.m. and the moment we walked off the train, we were immediately reminded that we were in Norway. It was -10 degrees C, which means nothing to anyone reading this. It is about 14 degrees F. Yes, very cold. We waited about 15 minutes inside a nearby supermarket for our taxi and it drove us 15 minutes up into the hills/mountains. We reached our cabin and we were all really glad to be in from the cold. The cabin was small, but perfect for us. There was a kitchen/dining/living room, a small bathroom and two bedrooms; one with a full bed and one with 2 set of bunkbeds (one of the bottoms was a full bed). The cabin had sleeping for exactly 7 comfortably (My host dad, mom, 2 brothers, 2 "host" cousins and me). Our cabin was one of about 12 all closely together. There was a central store, ski hut and some other outbuildings, but there were also more than 30 campers, many who belonged to people who lived there during the winter months and moved during the summer. There was a sense of permance to them.
The first day we woke up at 10 and went to prepare our skis. The weather was actually really nice and I was only wearing a t-shirt, long-sleeved shirt and a sweater. I was excited and nervous to try skiing for the first time. We started with the basics of rhythm (left foot, right pole; right foot, left pole) and then moved to stopping and slowing down. My host brother, Hjalte, was giving me all this information and I just did not understand anything he was really saying, so when I first tried going down a little hill I immediately fell and realized this would be no cake walk. After 15 more minutes of falling down, I had only learned how to go up a hill. I didn't even fall down right, I kept falling down on the back of skis and it really hurt my butt. Finally, we decided we should take learn-by-doing approach. Kjeld (host dad), Aske (host brother), Justine, Therese and I all went together for a "short" 2 hour 5 km tour. During the trip, I fell down at least 18 times and 4 times on a single hill. It ended up taken about double the time and by the end of the day I was well ready for bed. The next day we did some more technic work and I got really discouraged. I kept falling and after the 40th time, it isn't much fun. I was also real slow and kept falling behind. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one finding it tough; Justine and Therese were also having problems, but I still didn't understand how I was the only one falling every single time on hills?!
Everyday we finished skiing around 5 p.m., when it satrted to get dark. We had brought with some movies to watch and decks of cards. It was really nice to all be together and just relax. For Christmas, the "cousins" had recieved some used English books from their cousin who lives in Texas. We had a quite a lot of freetime and so I borrowed one of the books. They were extremely girly, but I realized how fun reading is and that I need to start reading more. (Since then, I have begun to read the Harry Potter series. I have never done so and I finished the first 2 books in 3 days.)
As the week progressed, my atittude improved as well as my ability. On the down side, the weather got worse and so much colder. The second to last day it was -24 degrees C (-11 degrees F) and we decided to just take the day off and give our bodies a rest. It was much needed for me. My body was just aching from falling so much. The final day was our longest and coldest day. We took an 11 km tour and it was absoulutely beautiful. I had to just stop sometimes and look around at the untouched and barren landscape. The weather made it quite difficult as it was windy and -31 degrees C, which is -24 degrees F! YES, -24 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT!!! It was worse when we stopped for a break, we just wanted to keep going. Ice formed on eyebrows, eyelashes and nose and started to on my cheeks. When we got home, my body was physically in pain because the I was warming up too fast. It was quite the day. We got home without problems and all-in-all, it was a really great trip. I will actually be going again Week 7 (2/13-20) and doing pretty much the same thing. I am hoping it will be a little warmer though!
WALKING BREAK
Homework, Sickness and Spanish Students
The Monday I got back, the joy from my trip died. I was given a 15-page assignment for English and Social Studies about U.S Immigration, due in 2 weeks. I was not in the mood for hard work (Am I ever?) and from then on my nights were devoted to research and creating acceptable English sentences, hence why I was unable to blog. I kind of became a hermit for a week. It didn't help that I also became sick and stayed home from school for 2 days. When the due date finally came, I was just glad to be finished and I think I actually created a decent report. The due date was also a date that my whole class was looking forward to. That day 30 Spanish students arrived in Denmark and went to live with various people in my class. The next day we all went together to Copenhagen and walked around and saw some of the big tourist attractions. It was fun, but I finally realized how pathetic my Spanish is. I kept trying to say something to them in Spanish, but it would come out as Danish. It got to be kind of a joke. On Tuesday we went skating, which was another first for me. I was terrible at first, but then one of the Spanish students helped me and I was a little farther from terrible, but not by much. It was really fun. They stayed until Thursday, but I left on Wednesday for..
Mini-Exchange in Ålborg
I stayed home from school on Wednesday, because at noon that day I would take a train to Køge and meet all the other exchange students and then take the train together to Roskilde and get on a train together to the other side of the country to Ålborg. This plans were changed by the arrival of snow. In Denmark, when snow comes DSB (Danish train company) act as though they have never seen snow before. The trains are always cancelled or late and it is just a mess. On this particular day there was a lot of snow and the train I and the other exchangies were going to take to Roskilde was cancelled. After a few phone calls were exchanged, I found out that we would be taking taxis. My first taxi ride was probably one of the most frightening experiences of my life. It was in New York on my way to meet all the other Americans going to Denmark. It had just taken 2 flights all alone and now was greeted by about 60 taxis outside the airport. I was to look for a black cab that said "Red Hat". After 50 minutes of me walking around with my baggage for the next year following me and having no idea what I was doing, I finally found it. It was a beige cab and the company was "Red Cap". This taxi ride was not much better. First it was about 15 minutes late. Then for 1 minute I tried to tell him that I wanted to go to the next station so that I could maybe catch the train on time, rather than drive all the way to Roskilde. He didn't speak much English and I was so nervous, I couldn't form proper sentences. Finally I got to the proper train station and was 5 minutes too late. I was met by the chairperson of my local AFS chapter and he arranged for a seat for me on the next train. So, I had to take the train all alone to Ålborg, about a 4 hour train trip. The train didn't come on time and I waited and waited and 35 minutes later it finally came. I took my seat on the train and just relaxed. I had packed some 'gummi' candy and just ate it and read Harry Potter. 3 hours in and delayed because of the snow, the train stopped in Århus, Denmark's 2nd biggest city and an hour from Ålborg by train. I had to switch trains and finally I arrived in Ålborg. My family picked me up, drove me home and bought me a pizza for supper. It was a hectic day, but ended nicely.
The family I lived with there was incredibly sweet. The parents were both dentists and they had 3 kids who were all exchange students: Stine (27), Alabama; Søren (23), Mexico and Katrine (19), Spain. Katrine is in her final year of school and is the only one that lives at home. They lived in a house from around the 1870's. It was pretty spectactular and quite large. They also had a pet turtle that was really big and slept the all day. In the morning, it would get a bath and then afterwards just crawl around the house. I feed it some lettuce. It was quite possibibly one of the highlights of my life. Just kidding. My family said that they want to visit the USA and now that they know someone who lives there, they said they would so sure visit sometime. I really hope they do. All-in-all the week was really nice and some of the highlights were:
Den Gamle By (The Old City): It is an outdoor museum in Århus with more than 60 buildings that were moved there from all over Denmark. It is set up like, well...an old city. There was a tobacco shop, a school, a sawmill, the mayor's house, stables, etc. Everything is authentic and the building are incredible old; I believe the oldest building I saw was from around 1560! Really a must-see
Lindholm Høje: Once an ancient Viking village, Lindholm Høje is a museum filled with Viking artifacts and information. It was so unique how they could preserve everything from so long ago. It was quite unique. Afterwards we went skating
Dinner with Exchnage Students and Families: On Sunday we all got together and had a really nice dinner and just sat and talked. It was really hyggeligt. We then told everyone about our families back home and in Denmark and about ourselves and then people asked questions. It was fun.
Tuesday: The day we went back it snowed the whole day. We all got together at one of the AFS leader's homes and ate breakfast and just talked..in Danish. The snow was the perfect packing snow and we had maybe the best snowball fight I have ever had and built easily the best snowmen I have ever built. We took the train home and I learned how to count to 10 in Thai and a bunch of dirty pharses in French. I would say it was a successful day!
I WASN'T KIDDING! GO TAKE A WALK!
Conclusion (Finally.)
I have recently been thinking deeply about how my time in Denmark has gone so far. I have faced lots of obstacles and made difficult decisions, and feel I have changed because of them. I am so much more independent and open-minded. I have always been a really indecesive person and usually made decisions based on other people and how it would affect them. Now, I am better aware of what I want, but still am aware of how my choice affects others. With summer approaching and June 25th becoming closer, I also feel anxious. I am not anxious to leave Denmark but more, anxious to return to Wisconsin. If anything at all, this separation from my "real life" has made me appreciate "home" so much more. I think I also have a new appreciation of the English language. Even though it is so common and unorginial, per se, it is a beautiful language and I really am proud to be a native English speaker. Finally, I believe my worst enemy is time. Maybe because it is so unlimited, or so it seems. We cherish time, yet throw it away. We forget about time, however wish we could have more. We need time, but want it to sped up. "Give it time", because "time flies". We can never make up our mind about time. It is like a 'half full' 'half empty' thing; sometimes its full and sometimes its empty. That is just the way it is. I have to just remind myself that time is precious and needs to be enjoyed, but also that the one lost is time is lost forever. I just hope time is on my side.
Andy
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
"God Mad"
After 5 failed attempts of me trying to be clever, I have resorted to being blunt and extremely unpoetic. Intros have never been a strength of mine.
Christmas in Denmark was honestly and truthfully, not that much different than it is in the US. Right away it seemed heaps different, until I realized that, well, it isn't. People exchange gifts, just like in the US. There are seasonal movies on TV, just like in the US. Everyone is, generally, in a jolly, "christmas-spirity" mood, just like in the US. Everyone dances around the tree while holding hands and singing holiday songs, just like...oh wait, no. Okay, so besides that and the total lack of Christmas lights on houses and blow-up Santas on lawns, Christmas in Denmark was very similar to how it is in United States. However, one major difference, FOOD! I know I have meantioned this before, but the Christmas food in Denmark is truly magnificent. In the days leading up to Christmas, we had all this traditional food. And/duck, risengrød/rice pudding, risalamande med kirsebærsauce/rice pudding and almonds with cherry sauce, brunede kartofler/caramelized potatoes, æbleskiver/something like apple pancake donut holes, and more. Also, Danes celebrate on the 24th. That is when all the gift-giving, dancing (more like walking) and christmas spirit happens. Leaving the 25th to be a lazy day of playing with your newly aquired presents and eating all the leftovers, YES! The food is already something I know I will miss. Knowing that I feel this way, my host brothers bought me a Danish cookbook for Christmas called "God Mad" (Good Food)! It was by far my favorite present. I made sure it has all my favorite recipes. I cannot wait to get back and make all these crazy Danish dishes. I guess I have the next 6 months to practice them!
The 26th was a family gathering of Kjeld's, my host dad, family. Many of them came early and I had lots of awkward conversations with them. My life is about 70% Danish now, refering to language. For the majority, Aske and Hjalte speak English to me. Not for my benefit, but for theirs. However, recently, they have begun to speak more and more Danish to me. I would classify my Danish as a 2/5. Suffcient, but LOTS of room for improvement! :) Anyway, back to the family gathering. It was pretty much just a lot of talking and playing cards, but it was fun. We had Vietnamese food and we ate with chopsticks, which I am surprisingly decent at using. It was really delicious food. Afterwards, we exchanged presents. I was happily surprised to get 2 presents.: running socks and a gift certificate to the movie theater. I felt bad that I hadn't gotten anything for the gift-givers, so I went to my room and searched for something to give them from all the gifts my mom sent. I think that they were also plesantly surprised that I had returned the favor. All-in-all, it was a really nice evening.
New Year's is coming up and I am glad to say I have plans. Never in my life have a made plans for New Year's earlier than the 31st, so I was glad to break that. I am going to spend it with an Australian exchange student who has already been here for 11 months. She leaves the 4th and since I will be in NORWAY, I will not be able to see her off. But, I am not too sad, because I will be in NORWAY! I am super-duper excited! We leave Jan. 2nd and come back the 9th. It will be a week of skiing and having fun. I am pretty sad that I will miss a week of school, though. ;)
I hope everyone had a tremendous Christmas season and has a fun, safe New Year's. Take care!
Andy
Christmas in Denmark was honestly and truthfully, not that much different than it is in the US. Right away it seemed heaps different, until I realized that, well, it isn't. People exchange gifts, just like in the US. There are seasonal movies on TV, just like in the US. Everyone is, generally, in a jolly, "christmas-spirity" mood, just like in the US. Everyone dances around the tree while holding hands and singing holiday songs, just like...oh wait, no. Okay, so besides that and the total lack of Christmas lights on houses and blow-up Santas on lawns, Christmas in Denmark was very similar to how it is in United States. However, one major difference, FOOD! I know I have meantioned this before, but the Christmas food in Denmark is truly magnificent. In the days leading up to Christmas, we had all this traditional food. And/duck, risengrød/rice pudding, risalamande med kirsebærsauce/rice pudding and almonds with cherry sauce, brunede kartofler/caramelized potatoes, æbleskiver/something like apple pancake donut holes, and more. Also, Danes celebrate on the 24th. That is when all the gift-giving, dancing (more like walking) and christmas spirit happens. Leaving the 25th to be a lazy day of playing with your newly aquired presents and eating all the leftovers, YES! The food is already something I know I will miss. Knowing that I feel this way, my host brothers bought me a Danish cookbook for Christmas called "God Mad" (Good Food)! It was by far my favorite present. I made sure it has all my favorite recipes. I cannot wait to get back and make all these crazy Danish dishes. I guess I have the next 6 months to practice them!
The 26th was a family gathering of Kjeld's, my host dad, family. Many of them came early and I had lots of awkward conversations with them. My life is about 70% Danish now, refering to language. For the majority, Aske and Hjalte speak English to me. Not for my benefit, but for theirs. However, recently, they have begun to speak more and more Danish to me. I would classify my Danish as a 2/5. Suffcient, but LOTS of room for improvement! :) Anyway, back to the family gathering. It was pretty much just a lot of talking and playing cards, but it was fun. We had Vietnamese food and we ate with chopsticks, which I am surprisingly decent at using. It was really delicious food. Afterwards, we exchanged presents. I was happily surprised to get 2 presents.: running socks and a gift certificate to the movie theater. I felt bad that I hadn't gotten anything for the gift-givers, so I went to my room and searched for something to give them from all the gifts my mom sent. I think that they were also plesantly surprised that I had returned the favor. All-in-all, it was a really nice evening.
New Year's is coming up and I am glad to say I have plans. Never in my life have a made plans for New Year's earlier than the 31st, so I was glad to break that. I am going to spend it with an Australian exchange student who has already been here for 11 months. She leaves the 4th and since I will be in NORWAY, I will not be able to see her off. But, I am not too sad, because I will be in NORWAY! I am super-duper excited! We leave Jan. 2nd and come back the 9th. It will be a week of skiing and having fun. I am pretty sad that I will miss a week of school, though. ;)
I hope everyone had a tremendous Christmas season and has a fun, safe New Year's. Take care!
Andy
Thursday, December 17, 2009
One word...SNE!
This morning I woke up and was greeted with a snow-covered window. I sat and looked outside for a couple seconds. The excitement set in. I quickly took a shower and ate breakfast. Gerda told me that usually whenever it snows the train comes late and so I probably did not have to hustle to the station. Being a Wisconsinite, snow is nothing new to me. I have seen and done many things, that to foriegners would seem utterly strange. For example: snow in October or April, having back-to-back snow days, the whole concept of a snow day, snow plows, shoveling your driveway once and immediately starting over, snowmobiles, etc. One thing that not many Wisconsinites get to experience is riding a bike in snow. To Danes, riding your bike in snow is like any other aspect of their day. To Wisconsinites, riding your bike in snow is something that only mad people would do. So, I was excited.
I got all bundled up and headed outside. An immediate smile came to my face. I hopped on my bike and started my usual 6 minute bike ride to the station. Right off the bat I ran into problems, literally. The snow drove my bike off course and into some shrubs. I laughed to myself and continued on. It was pretty difficult as I was on a road that is not driven on very often and I soon realized that it didn't help I cycling in a small drift. I found an easier path and continued on. Not as hard as I thought it would be, as long as I stayed out of the drifts. As I turned onto the main road I bike on, I struck the normally visble curb. I was thrown off balance and I ended off almost falling off, but I didn't. As I reached the station I realized that it was 2 minutes past the time that they train comes, however I saw many people still standing on the platform. I quickly locked my bike and headed up to join the crowd. A few seconds later the speaker said (in Danish, obliviously) that the train was cancelled. So, I waited inside the station building and watched as the group grew and grew. 40 minutes later the next train came..10 minutes late. The train was already full and I luckily got a seat. As the train stopped at the rest of the stops, the train became more full and more full and more full. People ended up standing in the asile awkwardly and scouting for open seats. I thought it was "hyggeligt" (no exact translation, but it means something like "cozy".)
When I got to school (25 minutes late) I meet some of the students in the cafeteria and they said that our teacher hadn't come yet. Just then she walked in. She also takes train and no surprise, it was cancelled and delayed. The rest of the day continued as normal minus the 30% of the school's students absent. My train home was delayed and I ended standing in the cold for 50 minutes. I was freezing. The train ride back was not a repeat of the morning train, thankfully. My bike ride home was also quite a bit easier as than the morning. Because of this, I completely regarded that there was ice on the road and Mother Nature sure taught me a lesson. I was riding my bike past two old ladies when I hit some ice and feel off my bike. It was like slow motion fall, which made me feel like I was in some kind of action film. The old ladies watched it all happen and quickly made sure I was okay. They kept saying a phrase similar to "oh my goodness". As a result of the fall, my chain fell off my bike. I attempted to get it back on, but the old ladies kind of distracted me. I told them "Goddag and pas på" and swiftly left them pushing my injured bike. By the way, I am totally okay. I thought it was more fun than painful.
If the snow stays, which is a possibility, it will be the first "White Christmas" in Denmark in 14 years! That is so crazy! I am really looking forward to it. I should probably do my homework now. Who knew English could be so hard!
God Jul and Nytår!
Andy
I got all bundled up and headed outside. An immediate smile came to my face. I hopped on my bike and started my usual 6 minute bike ride to the station. Right off the bat I ran into problems, literally. The snow drove my bike off course and into some shrubs. I laughed to myself and continued on. It was pretty difficult as I was on a road that is not driven on very often and I soon realized that it didn't help I cycling in a small drift. I found an easier path and continued on. Not as hard as I thought it would be, as long as I stayed out of the drifts. As I turned onto the main road I bike on, I struck the normally visble curb. I was thrown off balance and I ended off almost falling off, but I didn't. As I reached the station I realized that it was 2 minutes past the time that they train comes, however I saw many people still standing on the platform. I quickly locked my bike and headed up to join the crowd. A few seconds later the speaker said (in Danish, obliviously) that the train was cancelled. So, I waited inside the station building and watched as the group grew and grew. 40 minutes later the next train came..10 minutes late. The train was already full and I luckily got a seat. As the train stopped at the rest of the stops, the train became more full and more full and more full. People ended up standing in the asile awkwardly and scouting for open seats. I thought it was "hyggeligt" (no exact translation, but it means something like "cozy".)
When I got to school (25 minutes late) I meet some of the students in the cafeteria and they said that our teacher hadn't come yet. Just then she walked in. She also takes train and no surprise, it was cancelled and delayed. The rest of the day continued as normal minus the 30% of the school's students absent. My train home was delayed and I ended standing in the cold for 50 minutes. I was freezing. The train ride back was not a repeat of the morning train, thankfully. My bike ride home was also quite a bit easier as than the morning. Because of this, I completely regarded that there was ice on the road and Mother Nature sure taught me a lesson. I was riding my bike past two old ladies when I hit some ice and feel off my bike. It was like slow motion fall, which made me feel like I was in some kind of action film. The old ladies watched it all happen and quickly made sure I was okay. They kept saying a phrase similar to "oh my goodness". As a result of the fall, my chain fell off my bike. I attempted to get it back on, but the old ladies kind of distracted me. I told them "Goddag and pas på" and swiftly left them pushing my injured bike. By the way, I am totally okay. I thought it was more fun than painful.
If the snow stays, which is a possibility, it will be the first "White Christmas" in Denmark in 14 years! That is so crazy! I am really looking forward to it. I should probably do my homework now. Who knew English could be so hard!
God Jul and Nytår!
Andy
Thursday, December 10, 2009
The Baker's Party
I figured it was time that I stop being lazy and write another blog post. So...
Two weekends ago was my "Julefrokost" with my class. It was at one of the girls in my class's house. There were about 20-25 people that came and it was really nice and I had a really nice time. It was two days after Thanksgiving and the meal was seriously bigger than any Thanksgiving meal I have ever had! There were 5 courses. Course 1: Fish on bread with remoulade (a delicous Danish sauce similar to tarter sauce but better!) Course 2: Tarteletter (a Danish dish similar to chicken pot pies) Course 3: Frikadeller (little round, fried Danish meatloafs, but again, better!) Course 4: Flæskesteg (roasted pork) and finally Course 5: Ris a la mande (rice pudding with almonds). It was super delicious and was some of the best Danish food I have had yet. After dinner, things got a little crazy. There was a lot of dancing and some heavy drinking. There were also a few "regurgitation-happenings". About 15 people spent the night and the others went home. I stayed and slept on a hardwood floor with 1 blanket. Not the most comfortable sleep I have ever had! The next morning we had a very typical Danish breakfast of hot rolls with butter, jam and smelly cheese. I took the train home and that night went to my host mom's mother's house (my host grandma..if I can call her that). Ironically enough, she lives near Herfølge, the town that I lived in first. It was a very large dinner with endless portions. Duck, potato, a really good cucumber salad and of course cake! I was pressured with my Danish because "bestemor" (grandmother) speaks fast and mumbles: like most Danes do! All-in-all, it was a really nice evening.
This past weekend was really fun as well. Gerda, the boys and I drove to Fyn on Saturday. Actually, first we went to Aske and Hjalte's swim meet and then we drove to Fyn. Fyn is the little island between Zealand (the island Copenhagen is on and that I live on) and Jutland (the peninsula connected to Germany). It is often called "The speed bump of Denmark". Danes are so funny! :) Anyway, we visited Kjeld's (my host dad who works in Bangladesh and comes home soon) sister, Helle, and her husband, Jørn, and their twin daughters, Justine and Therese, who are 15. We got there at about 6 p.m. and had dinner and then just relaxed. The next morning Gerda and I ran really far and then my ankle started to hurt. (I cannot remember if I wrote this in a previous blog, but awhile ago in gym class I was playing volleyball and landed funny on my ankle. That night it had gotten really puffy and I iced it, but it still hurt a lot. I couldn't walk on it and so I took a "recovery day" and stayed home from school. It has gotten a lot better, but every once and awhile it starts to hurt again.) So, halfway or so through the run I walked back to the house. It was a really nice run and it was great to run with some different scenery. So, the rest of day the 5 of us kids make Christmas cookies. Det var virkelig hyggeligt.
Christmas has come to Denmark! Although there is no snow, not many decorations, no people caroling and it rains (almost) daily, there is a really big, lit christmas tree by my school that I walk past every day and that is good enough for me! The Danes are really big on Christmas, not so much with decorations and presents, but with food, candles and something called julekalendar. First, the Danes have a lot of food that is strictly christmas food. All the food we had at the julefrokost was really christmas food and if you had it outside of winter, people would make fun of you (except fish, obvisouly, and frikadeller). There is also something called risengrød, which is a mixture of rice and milk and you put butter and cinnamon and sugar on top. It is really filling, but really good. Pretty much every Dane has some way to count down to Christmas. Most popular is candles. You may have a big candle that you light every day and gradually gets down to the 24th or you might have 24 little candles (like we have). Note: Danes celebrate Christmas on the 24th instead of the 25th, no explanation except for the fact they want to be unique. And finally, julekalendar! There are some TV programs that show a 30-minute clip of a show from Dec.1st until the 24th. Two channels have them and each has 3 different shows: one for todlers, one for children/exchange students and one for adults. You can buy a calendar that count down the episodes, which is why it gets the name julekalendar (jul(e)=christmas and kalendar=calendar). My favorite show is called Pagten and it is about this boy who meets an elf (nisse in Danish) and they have to save everyone from the Ice Queen (Isdronning). It is really addicting! I will write more about Christmas after it actually happens.
I am actually quite busy for the next for weeks, and months at that. Here are some of the bigger things I will be doing in the coming months.
Dec. 23-Jan. 3- Christmas Break
Jan. 1- 8- Skiing in Norway with my host family and Justine and Therese from Fyn (my host cousins?)
Jan. 17-24- Mini-Stay with a family in Jutland
Feb. 14-21- Skiing in Norway with my host family, AGAIN!
Mar. 14-20- Trip to Spain with my class
I may not write again until 2010! So, I wish everyone a safe and merry christmas and wonderful new year. Glædelig Jul og Godt Nytår!
Andy
Two weekends ago was my "Julefrokost" with my class. It was at one of the girls in my class's house. There were about 20-25 people that came and it was really nice and I had a really nice time. It was two days after Thanksgiving and the meal was seriously bigger than any Thanksgiving meal I have ever had! There were 5 courses. Course 1: Fish on bread with remoulade (a delicous Danish sauce similar to tarter sauce but better!) Course 2: Tarteletter (a Danish dish similar to chicken pot pies) Course 3: Frikadeller (little round, fried Danish meatloafs, but again, better!) Course 4: Flæskesteg (roasted pork) and finally Course 5: Ris a la mande (rice pudding with almonds). It was super delicious and was some of the best Danish food I have had yet. After dinner, things got a little crazy. There was a lot of dancing and some heavy drinking. There were also a few "regurgitation-happenings". About 15 people spent the night and the others went home. I stayed and slept on a hardwood floor with 1 blanket. Not the most comfortable sleep I have ever had! The next morning we had a very typical Danish breakfast of hot rolls with butter, jam and smelly cheese. I took the train home and that night went to my host mom's mother's house (my host grandma..if I can call her that). Ironically enough, she lives near Herfølge, the town that I lived in first. It was a very large dinner with endless portions. Duck, potato, a really good cucumber salad and of course cake! I was pressured with my Danish because "bestemor" (grandmother) speaks fast and mumbles: like most Danes do! All-in-all, it was a really nice evening.
This past weekend was really fun as well. Gerda, the boys and I drove to Fyn on Saturday. Actually, first we went to Aske and Hjalte's swim meet and then we drove to Fyn. Fyn is the little island between Zealand (the island Copenhagen is on and that I live on) and Jutland (the peninsula connected to Germany). It is often called "The speed bump of Denmark". Danes are so funny! :) Anyway, we visited Kjeld's (my host dad who works in Bangladesh and comes home soon) sister, Helle, and her husband, Jørn, and their twin daughters, Justine and Therese, who are 15. We got there at about 6 p.m. and had dinner and then just relaxed. The next morning Gerda and I ran really far and then my ankle started to hurt. (I cannot remember if I wrote this in a previous blog, but awhile ago in gym class I was playing volleyball and landed funny on my ankle. That night it had gotten really puffy and I iced it, but it still hurt a lot. I couldn't walk on it and so I took a "recovery day" and stayed home from school. It has gotten a lot better, but every once and awhile it starts to hurt again.) So, halfway or so through the run I walked back to the house. It was a really nice run and it was great to run with some different scenery. So, the rest of day the 5 of us kids make Christmas cookies. Det var virkelig hyggeligt.
Christmas has come to Denmark! Although there is no snow, not many decorations, no people caroling and it rains (almost) daily, there is a really big, lit christmas tree by my school that I walk past every day and that is good enough for me! The Danes are really big on Christmas, not so much with decorations and presents, but with food, candles and something called julekalendar. First, the Danes have a lot of food that is strictly christmas food. All the food we had at the julefrokost was really christmas food and if you had it outside of winter, people would make fun of you (except fish, obvisouly, and frikadeller). There is also something called risengrød, which is a mixture of rice and milk and you put butter and cinnamon and sugar on top. It is really filling, but really good. Pretty much every Dane has some way to count down to Christmas. Most popular is candles. You may have a big candle that you light every day and gradually gets down to the 24th or you might have 24 little candles (like we have). Note: Danes celebrate Christmas on the 24th instead of the 25th, no explanation except for the fact they want to be unique. And finally, julekalendar! There are some TV programs that show a 30-minute clip of a show from Dec.1st until the 24th. Two channels have them and each has 3 different shows: one for todlers, one for children/exchange students and one for adults. You can buy a calendar that count down the episodes, which is why it gets the name julekalendar (jul(e)=christmas and kalendar=calendar). My favorite show is called Pagten and it is about this boy who meets an elf (nisse in Danish) and they have to save everyone from the Ice Queen (Isdronning). It is really addicting! I will write more about Christmas after it actually happens.
I am actually quite busy for the next for weeks, and months at that. Here are some of the bigger things I will be doing in the coming months.
Dec. 23-Jan. 3- Christmas Break
Jan. 1- 8- Skiing in Norway with my host family and Justine and Therese from Fyn (my host cousins?)
Jan. 17-24- Mini-Stay with a family in Jutland
Feb. 14-21- Skiing in Norway with my host family, AGAIN!
Mar. 14-20- Trip to Spain with my class
I may not write again until 2010! So, I wish everyone a safe and merry christmas and wonderful new year. Glædelig Jul og Godt Nytår!
Andy
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Løver og Tigre og Bjørne, Øv Mig!
First off, I changged the color of the blog. I did some research and black text on an off-white background is easiest to read and is better for your eyes. I also changed the text to a more modern, sleek, read-friendly blog. And no one cares about this, so moving on...
The title reads, "Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!" I really couldn't think of a clever title, hence my previous blog post's title of "Clever titles are hard to think of...", so instead I thought of something clever. Oxymoron?
I believe this is the first time I have blogged and it hasn't included over 3 weeks full of events. So, that is maybe a good sign? Honestly, I am bored, so I thought I would make use of the time I have and fill everyone back home in on my happenings.
Last weekend was really fun. We went to Tivoli and saw a play/musical in English. It was super funny and it was even more funny, because there was a lot of Danish humor. Actually it was more just stupid Danish phrases. They would say them in Danish and then translate them to English, where they make no sense. For example, "there are owls in the marsh", "to kill a parrot", "to be dog-hungry" and "to have a bank". There were also a lot of puns on the English language too. It was really funny. Afterwards we walked around the Tivoli Gardens and looked at all the Christmas decorations and other cool things. Then a few of us exchange students went around Copenhagen and just talked and walked and laughed. It was nice. We decided to entertain ourselves by going up to complete strangers and talking to them. Actually, we met more Norwegians and Swedes than we did Danes! That is the cool things about Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, is that if you speak slow and use your hands, you can communicate with any Scandanavian! It was really fun! Oh I almost forgot, there was a Danish girl who came with us to the play and she was an exchange student in WISCONSIN! It was so awesome. She sounded like she was from WI too. I even quizzed her with "bag", "couch" and "Milwaukee". Then we talked about Culver's, cheese curds, State Street and other WI insignia. (That doesn't really make sense, but I don't care!)
Today is Wednesday and it is a day I dread. 1) I am only halfway through the school week 2) I have Spanish (good in the US, bad in Denmark when you are trying to learn the language of Spanish instruction) 3) My night to cook food for the family. Okay, 1 and 2 were really weak reasons for not liking Wednesdays, but I needed to build up to the climax of reason 3. Anyway, I am a terrible cook. Back home, I made chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter and jelly sandwichs (which everyone in Denmark think sound disgusting), and pretty much everything else was made by my glorious mother. So, once a week I am all alone in the kitchen cooking recipes foreign to me and attempting to make something edible for the whole family. I dread this so much! But, when I actually doing it and cutting, slicing and dicing and disgracing the cooking gods, I really enjoy it. I put on some music and sing along and just cook. However, Wednesday evening is really nice, because I know that I will not have to cook again until next Wednesday. So far, I have made pizza, chili, tuna macaroni and cheese, burgers and frikadeller, a Danish beef patty, aka heartheart with ketchup. So good. So, if anyone has any yummy meals, send them to me. No "cream of..." cans; they're American!
Well the weather in Denmark is pretty bad and sad, sometimes it makes me mad or glad, but mostly it makes me wish I had my dad. It is so dark all the time! From 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. is complete in udder darkness. As I used to say when I was little, it is "peach black". I have to do everything in the dark! AHHH! But, when it is not "peach black", it is overcast and chances are that it is also raining. It is always, ALWAYS WET! ALWAYS! There hasn't been any snow here, but I don't feel bad because there isn't any in Wisconsin at the moment either. Snow in Denmark comes rarely and stays shortly. Inappropriate use of an adverb. Sorry, BRFHS English Department; I try my best!
This upcoming weekend is my Christmas dinner with my class. I am really looking forward to it. A blog post will follow, but it may be a few weeks late, as usual.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and enjoy the time with your families and friends. Because you never know when a family member might decide to be an exchange student halfway across the world in some unknown country where they speak some unknown language and live an unknown lifestyle, where they don't celebrate the American holiday of Thanksgiving. You just never know...
The title reads, "Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!" I really couldn't think of a clever title, hence my previous blog post's title of "Clever titles are hard to think of...", so instead I thought of something clever. Oxymoron?
I believe this is the first time I have blogged and it hasn't included over 3 weeks full of events. So, that is maybe a good sign? Honestly, I am bored, so I thought I would make use of the time I have and fill everyone back home in on my happenings.
Last weekend was really fun. We went to Tivoli and saw a play/musical in English. It was super funny and it was even more funny, because there was a lot of Danish humor. Actually it was more just stupid Danish phrases. They would say them in Danish and then translate them to English, where they make no sense. For example, "there are owls in the marsh", "to kill a parrot", "to be dog-hungry" and "to have a bank". There were also a lot of puns on the English language too. It was really funny. Afterwards we walked around the Tivoli Gardens and looked at all the Christmas decorations and other cool things. Then a few of us exchange students went around Copenhagen and just talked and walked and laughed. It was nice. We decided to entertain ourselves by going up to complete strangers and talking to them. Actually, we met more Norwegians and Swedes than we did Danes! That is the cool things about Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, is that if you speak slow and use your hands, you can communicate with any Scandanavian! It was really fun! Oh I almost forgot, there was a Danish girl who came with us to the play and she was an exchange student in WISCONSIN! It was so awesome. She sounded like she was from WI too. I even quizzed her with "bag", "couch" and "Milwaukee". Then we talked about Culver's, cheese curds, State Street and other WI insignia. (That doesn't really make sense, but I don't care!)
Today is Wednesday and it is a day I dread. 1) I am only halfway through the school week 2) I have Spanish (good in the US, bad in Denmark when you are trying to learn the language of Spanish instruction) 3) My night to cook food for the family. Okay, 1 and 2 were really weak reasons for not liking Wednesdays, but I needed to build up to the climax of reason 3. Anyway, I am a terrible cook. Back home, I made chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter and jelly sandwichs (which everyone in Denmark think sound disgusting), and pretty much everything else was made by my glorious mother. So, once a week I am all alone in the kitchen cooking recipes foreign to me and attempting to make something edible for the whole family. I dread this so much! But, when I actually doing it and cutting, slicing and dicing and disgracing the cooking gods, I really enjoy it. I put on some music and sing along and just cook. However, Wednesday evening is really nice, because I know that I will not have to cook again until next Wednesday. So far, I have made pizza, chili, tuna macaroni and cheese, burgers and frikadeller, a Danish beef patty, aka heartheart with ketchup. So good. So, if anyone has any yummy meals, send them to me. No "cream of..." cans; they're American!
Well the weather in Denmark is pretty bad and sad, sometimes it makes me mad or glad, but mostly it makes me wish I had my dad. It is so dark all the time! From 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. is complete in udder darkness. As I used to say when I was little, it is "peach black". I have to do everything in the dark! AHHH! But, when it is not "peach black", it is overcast and chances are that it is also raining. It is always, ALWAYS WET! ALWAYS! There hasn't been any snow here, but I don't feel bad because there isn't any in Wisconsin at the moment either. Snow in Denmark comes rarely and stays shortly. Inappropriate use of an adverb. Sorry, BRFHS English Department; I try my best!
This upcoming weekend is my Christmas dinner with my class. I am really looking forward to it. A blog post will follow, but it may be a few weeks late, as usual.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and enjoy the time with your families and friends. Because you never know when a family member might decide to be an exchange student halfway across the world in some unknown country where they speak some unknown language and live an unknown lifestyle, where they don't celebrate the American holiday of Thanksgiving. You just never know...
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Clever titles are hard to think of...
I am really bad at keeping up with my blog. To be honest, it is kind of something I dread because I have to remember everything that happened, try to make it sound interesting and it is all in English. Honestly, my English is bad. I am seriously considering not coming bad to the US, because I know that I will have to work hard again. Here, I can pretty much do whatever I want. In school, if I want, I can take my shoes off, play backgammon and write notes in Danish to my friends (honestly, it helps!). A major reason that I have all this freedom is because I do not really understand everything. So, it will be weird to go back to school and understand everything and also have homework! My teachers always just tell me to make a power point about Wisconsin or the Declaration of Independence (which I did, and no one understood because how do you make the Declaration interesting and understandable to Americans, let alone foreigners. Sorry Jefferson...). You can say I pretty much pull the "Exchange Student Card" a lot.
On Halloween, I went to Næstved to see some of the exchange students there. If you have been following my blog faithfully, Næstved is a town I have talked about a few times. There are some really fun exchange students there, and whenever I go we always have a good time. I honestly cannot really remember what else happened that day. We walked around Næstved, went to a bar and practiced our Danish. It was really nice. Two students from New Zealand, who live in Næstved, and I are planning to cook supper at one of houses sometime. It should be really fun.
That week in school there was sometime called OB day. It is a day where the students find a business/company/organization who will pay them for a day's work. Then the students give all the money to a good cause. This year the money went to help children in Zimabawae go to school. That is a HUGE difference from US to Denmark; The students are extremely politically active. A few weeks ago students across Denmark planned a big protest at all the gymnasiums. No adults, no school help, only 16, 17 and 18 years old. It is really incredible.
Another example of their political activism was this past week. All the classes were cancelled for the week and every student was placed in a group, which apparently you could choose but I obvisously didn't understand that. Anyway, the week was devoted to research and activism about the climate. It was pretty much a mock climate conference, similar to the UN Climate Change Conference that will take place in Copenhagen in early December. If you haven't heard of it, it is called COP15 and I really encourage everyone to read more about it, because the things that will happen there will be decide the fate of our planet. Moving on, there was a lot going on this week. There were countries from all different postitions on the climate (US, Russia, China, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, etc.) There were also groups like the European Union, GreenPEACE, Green Air and oil companies that tried to persuade the decisions of the conference in a certain direction. There were also terrorists who kidnapped one of the leadersThere were a bunch of debates and agreements between countries and it was really cool. I was Bolivia. It was nice too, because I was with people from different classes who I didn't know, so I was put out of my comfort zone. There wasn't much for me to do the whole week, so I spent a lot of time on Facebook and playing trivia online. Time well spent. The week ended with a party at the school and some really good bands from the school. They were really talented.
Yesterday, Gerda, Hjalte, Aske and I went to Gerda's brother's farm to help out. We chopped wood, fed sheep, goats and cows and got really dirty. It was a really long day, but it was fun. I have really cool boots now and I cannot wait to use them again! There were also some neighbors there to help out with some meat packing and we had really, really Danish food. Rugbrød with leverpostej and cucumbers; apple crumble and æbleskiver, light round cakes, similar in size to a golf ball, which you dip in marmalade and powdered sugar. Really good! Rugbrød is a dark, bread that (almost) ALL Danes eat. It took time for me to like it, but now I have my favorite combinations: Cucumber, egg and mayonaise is one of favorite, pepperoni is good and so is pickled herring in curry sauce. Sounds gross, tastes good. Leverpostej is gross and I will never like it. It is literally "liver paste". No, thank you. For the most part Danish food is good. Heavy, but delightful. Not a good description of food, but I really don't know how to describe it. There are some really Danish foods and meals, but there are also a lot of pastas and rice and non-Danish dishes.
Today, Gerda, Hjalte and I went on a bike ride into the country. It was the nice to see the surrounding area and all the tiny towns and anicient estates. We passed a church built in 1587 or sometime around then, and it was so incredible to think what life was like back then and what the area looked like and so on. It was really beautiful and for the first time in..well maybe ever, the sun shone and it didn't rain. Honestly, the past month has been so rainy. Everyday it rains, and rains, and rains...seriously. If Seattle thinks it is rainy there, I think Denmark has them beat. It is a cold rain too. It isn't a rain that you go running in or play around in. The song "Singing in the Rain" was definitely not written by a Dane, lets just say that. It doesn't help that it is getting really dark now. It gets light at 8 a.m. and gets dark at 4 p.m. But if it is a rainy day (every single day), it never really gets light, so the whole day is dark and it makes you feel like buying chocolate and brownies and getting fat. I know from personal experience.
I am really looking forward to the next few weekends. As Christmas comes closer, all these neat traditions happen and it is really nice. Next weekend I am going to Copenhagen with my AFS chapter and all the exchange students in it, to see a Christmas play in English. The weekend after that is a Christmas lunch with my class. It should be really fun. I am really looking forward to it. And then the weekend after that weekend, we are all going to Fyn to visit my "host cousins", if I can call them that. We will do some Christmas baking. Then Christmas is almost here and then I will be home soon! So weird. I don't really think about time much; it takes away from the whole experience to think about when it ends. I am just enjoying as it comes.
IDA! I hope you are finally happy that I meantioned you. I will see tomorrow!
Andy
On Halloween, I went to Næstved to see some of the exchange students there. If you have been following my blog faithfully, Næstved is a town I have talked about a few times. There are some really fun exchange students there, and whenever I go we always have a good time. I honestly cannot really remember what else happened that day. We walked around Næstved, went to a bar and practiced our Danish. It was really nice. Two students from New Zealand, who live in Næstved, and I are planning to cook supper at one of houses sometime. It should be really fun.
That week in school there was sometime called OB day. It is a day where the students find a business/company/organization who will pay them for a day's work. Then the students give all the money to a good cause. This year the money went to help children in Zimabawae go to school. That is a HUGE difference from US to Denmark; The students are extremely politically active. A few weeks ago students across Denmark planned a big protest at all the gymnasiums. No adults, no school help, only 16, 17 and 18 years old. It is really incredible.
Another example of their political activism was this past week. All the classes were cancelled for the week and every student was placed in a group, which apparently you could choose but I obvisously didn't understand that. Anyway, the week was devoted to research and activism about the climate. It was pretty much a mock climate conference, similar to the UN Climate Change Conference that will take place in Copenhagen in early December. If you haven't heard of it, it is called COP15 and I really encourage everyone to read more about it, because the things that will happen there will be decide the fate of our planet. Moving on, there was a lot going on this week. There were countries from all different postitions on the climate (US, Russia, China, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, etc.) There were also groups like the European Union, GreenPEACE, Green Air and oil companies that tried to persuade the decisions of the conference in a certain direction. There were also terrorists who kidnapped one of the leadersThere were a bunch of debates and agreements between countries and it was really cool. I was Bolivia. It was nice too, because I was with people from different classes who I didn't know, so I was put out of my comfort zone. There wasn't much for me to do the whole week, so I spent a lot of time on Facebook and playing trivia online. Time well spent. The week ended with a party at the school and some really good bands from the school. They were really talented.
Yesterday, Gerda, Hjalte, Aske and I went to Gerda's brother's farm to help out. We chopped wood, fed sheep, goats and cows and got really dirty. It was a really long day, but it was fun. I have really cool boots now and I cannot wait to use them again! There were also some neighbors there to help out with some meat packing and we had really, really Danish food. Rugbrød with leverpostej and cucumbers; apple crumble and æbleskiver, light round cakes, similar in size to a golf ball, which you dip in marmalade and powdered sugar. Really good! Rugbrød is a dark, bread that (almost) ALL Danes eat. It took time for me to like it, but now I have my favorite combinations: Cucumber, egg and mayonaise is one of favorite, pepperoni is good and so is pickled herring in curry sauce. Sounds gross, tastes good. Leverpostej is gross and I will never like it. It is literally "liver paste". No, thank you. For the most part Danish food is good. Heavy, but delightful. Not a good description of food, but I really don't know how to describe it. There are some really Danish foods and meals, but there are also a lot of pastas and rice and non-Danish dishes.
Today, Gerda, Hjalte and I went on a bike ride into the country. It was the nice to see the surrounding area and all the tiny towns and anicient estates. We passed a church built in 1587 or sometime around then, and it was so incredible to think what life was like back then and what the area looked like and so on. It was really beautiful and for the first time in..well maybe ever, the sun shone and it didn't rain. Honestly, the past month has been so rainy. Everyday it rains, and rains, and rains...seriously. If Seattle thinks it is rainy there, I think Denmark has them beat. It is a cold rain too. It isn't a rain that you go running in or play around in. The song "Singing in the Rain" was definitely not written by a Dane, lets just say that. It doesn't help that it is getting really dark now. It gets light at 8 a.m. and gets dark at 4 p.m. But if it is a rainy day (every single day), it never really gets light, so the whole day is dark and it makes you feel like buying chocolate and brownies and getting fat. I know from personal experience.
I am really looking forward to the next few weekends. As Christmas comes closer, all these neat traditions happen and it is really nice. Next weekend I am going to Copenhagen with my AFS chapter and all the exchange students in it, to see a Christmas play in English. The weekend after that is a Christmas lunch with my class. It should be really fun. I am really looking forward to it. And then the weekend after that weekend, we are all going to Fyn to visit my "host cousins", if I can call them that. We will do some Christmas baking. Then Christmas is almost here and then I will be home soon! So weird. I don't really think about time much; it takes away from the whole experience to think about when it ends. I am just enjoying as it comes.
IDA! I hope you are finally happy that I meantioned you. I will see tomorrow!
Andy
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
A Day in the Life of Andy Epps
6:05-Wake up, hit the snooze button
6:08-Get out of bed, open my window and check the weather for the day, which by the way is impossible because it is pitch black.
6:09-Decide what to eat for breakfast. It switches between corn flakes with bananas or 2 pieces of bread: one peanut butter, one Nutella. One day every 2 weeks we have Danish pancakes, which are a conbination of American pancakes and crepes; not too thick, but thick enough to stuff with Nutella and bananas. Yes, I eat my pancakes with Nutella and bananas. Breakfast is usually accompanied with a little Danish lesson from the newspaper, which I forget 12 seconds later.
6:18-Finish breakfast. Go to my room and decide what to wear for the day. Usually after I look through my limited supply of American clothes I realize that it doesn't really matter what I wear, because 1) I am American and Americans wear whatever they want to and 2) Whatever I wear will be covered up by the sweatshirt I will be wearing all day because it is so cold. After this thought, I grab something and head to the shower.
6:20-I stand in the shower and forget that the water is 112 degrees, because it only says 44 on the handle. I usually silently sing a song in my head that I played on my iPod about 264 times yesterday. It is possible.
6:26-I turn off the shower and feel bad I have just been standing under expensive hot water for 6 minutes. I then proceed to open the window in the bathroom to let all the moisture out. Usually 3 seconds later my feelings for taking a 6-minute shower are relieved. I then for no apparent reason stand in the shower, covered with a towel and waste about 23.75 seconds of my morning. I change and proceed to my room.
6:29-I close my open window and get my backpack ready for the day (books, gym clothes, money, etc.). I get all my warm clothes ready and start to put them on, while watching Simpsons on TV 3+.
6:38-I am ready for school and also the weather of the North Pole. My typical wardrobe for a day consists of:
1 t-shirt
1 long-sleeve t-shirt (sometimes)
1 sweatshirt and/or sweater
1 pair of socks (although I have wore 2 pairs before)
1 pair of underwear
1 pair of the 3 jeans I own
1 rainproof jacket
1 pair of rainproof pants
1 winter jacket
1 scarf
1 pair of $3 gloves
1 extremely positive attitude!
6:39-I realize that I have not brushed my teeth, shaved, applied deodorant to my axilla or stared at myself in the mirror. At this time I also question my daily routine and wonder if it is the most efficient. Luckily, I have built in time for this exact purpose. So, I brush my teeth, shave, deodorant myself and stare into my eyes for 8 seconds in the mirror.
6:43-Get ready to brave the Danish elements. Say "Har en god dag", "Vi ses" and/or "Hej Hej" and the occasional "See you later alligator" to Hjalte and Gerda. I get on my bike and say out loud, "I hate this bike." Seriously, I say this every single day. My bike squeaks, randomly changes gears on its own, has the most touchy brakes ever and sometimes runs into curbs...so, if you ever see me run into a curb, it IS NOT me, it is the bike. I just remembered that 95% of the readers of this blog live 4,000 miles away and will never see me ride my bike. And the 5% that do not live 4,000 miles away will still, never see me ride my bike, so....
6:46- Halfway through my bike ride to the train station and I am thinking, "I hate wind. I hate rain. I hate dark. I hate cold." Sometimes this thinking is done aloud.
6:50-I reach the station, lock my bike and stand on the platform waiting for the train that comes 7:04.
7:04-Get on the train and remove my "Santa Claus" clothing. Get out my iPod and find a new song to play 264 times that day.
7:40-Attempt to sleep after remembering that I only have 10 minutes to take nap or risk falling asleep in one of my classes.
7:51-Arrive at the station in Roskilde and either: get my stuff together and walk off the train or wake up with drool on my chin, get my stuff together and walk off the train. Optional 2 is more common.
7:59-8:02- Depending on my walking speed, how cold it is, whether the train was late or not, I arrive at school anywhere between this time. As soon as I enter the door, I say "God Morgen" to as many people as possible.
8:05-(1:40-3:25)-School. An accumulation of me playing backgammon on my iPod, pretending to listen/understand during lessons, eating chocolate chip scones (Yumm!), going on Facebook, standing or walking around awkwardly and talking to myself. Pretty boring...
2:08, 2:38, 3:08, 3:38, 4:08-I take the train home, depending on my class schedule that day. My train leave every 30 minutes "On the 8's", if you were wondering.
Note: We will say today is a normal day, when I would take the train at 2:08.
2:55-I arrive in Haslev after waking up 3 different times to see if we were in Haslev yet, almost missing my stop. I get my bike and it is all wet (SHOCKER!). I unlocked it and ride home.
3:03-I arrive home and am greeted by Hjalte and Aske playing "Let's kill people" computer games. Not my thing, but thats cool. I usually watch an epiosode of Navy CSI (NCIS, as it is called in the States) or something else. Maybe a little Facebook time, but I usually just relax.
5:00-Dinner preparation time. If it is Wednesday (my day to cook) I start to make the meal, but no matter what day it is I usually help the cook because I like to peel carrots and potatoes...not! I do it more because then we can talk and my Danish improves and I get to know a little more about them, and they get to know me also.
6:00-Aftenmad. We are pretty good at eating at 6:00:12. Danes like to be precise!
6:25-We finish eating and clear the table. The cook cleans the kitchen and the table. Computer time for the boys, M*A*S*H time for Gerda and me.
7:00-8:29-I don't know what I do. TV, Homework, Reading, Danish, Ice Cream, etc.
8:30- Top Gear! It is a British TV show about cars. I am not a car enthusiast, but it is really funny and entertaining. It reminds of Car Talk on NPR ( for those of you who do not listen to Car Talk or for that matter NPR, shame on you) where only 30% of the show is actually about cars. Most of time the show is about these random competitions between the 3 hosts. One was about who could make the best amphibious car and one time they went camping and accidently set their camper on fire. Funny stuff. Top Gear can also be substituted for MythBusters. There is a ridiculous amount of American TV here.
9:30- Again, like clockwork, we all go to bed. However, I have "the foriegn card", so sometimes I can get out of going to bed early, but normally I am dog-tired. Sometimes, I even go to bed at 9:00. Trust me though, if you were hearing, reading, speaking, learning a new language 24/7, you would go to bed at 9 too. Also, if you didn't remember, I get up at 6:05...EVERY morning!!!
10:02-Random time, but I would say I usually fall asleep around then, after some intense thinking.
You have just experienced 'A Day in the Life of Andy Epps'. Thank you for reading and just so everyone knows, it was snowing today! Whoa!
Andy E
6:08-Get out of bed, open my window and check the weather for the day, which by the way is impossible because it is pitch black.
6:09-Decide what to eat for breakfast. It switches between corn flakes with bananas or 2 pieces of bread: one peanut butter, one Nutella. One day every 2 weeks we have Danish pancakes, which are a conbination of American pancakes and crepes; not too thick, but thick enough to stuff with Nutella and bananas. Yes, I eat my pancakes with Nutella and bananas. Breakfast is usually accompanied with a little Danish lesson from the newspaper, which I forget 12 seconds later.
6:18-Finish breakfast. Go to my room and decide what to wear for the day. Usually after I look through my limited supply of American clothes I realize that it doesn't really matter what I wear, because 1) I am American and Americans wear whatever they want to and 2) Whatever I wear will be covered up by the sweatshirt I will be wearing all day because it is so cold. After this thought, I grab something and head to the shower.
6:20-I stand in the shower and forget that the water is 112 degrees, because it only says 44 on the handle. I usually silently sing a song in my head that I played on my iPod about 264 times yesterday. It is possible.
6:26-I turn off the shower and feel bad I have just been standing under expensive hot water for 6 minutes. I then proceed to open the window in the bathroom to let all the moisture out. Usually 3 seconds later my feelings for taking a 6-minute shower are relieved. I then for no apparent reason stand in the shower, covered with a towel and waste about 23.75 seconds of my morning. I change and proceed to my room.
6:29-I close my open window and get my backpack ready for the day (books, gym clothes, money, etc.). I get all my warm clothes ready and start to put them on, while watching Simpsons on TV 3+.
6:38-I am ready for school and also the weather of the North Pole. My typical wardrobe for a day consists of:
1 t-shirt
1 long-sleeve t-shirt (sometimes)
1 sweatshirt and/or sweater
1 pair of socks (although I have wore 2 pairs before)
1 pair of underwear
1 pair of the 3 jeans I own
1 rainproof jacket
1 pair of rainproof pants
1 winter jacket
1 scarf
1 pair of $3 gloves
1 extremely positive attitude!
6:39-I realize that I have not brushed my teeth, shaved, applied deodorant to my axilla or stared at myself in the mirror. At this time I also question my daily routine and wonder if it is the most efficient. Luckily, I have built in time for this exact purpose. So, I brush my teeth, shave, deodorant myself and stare into my eyes for 8 seconds in the mirror.
6:43-Get ready to brave the Danish elements. Say "Har en god dag", "Vi ses" and/or "Hej Hej" and the occasional "See you later alligator" to Hjalte and Gerda. I get on my bike and say out loud, "I hate this bike." Seriously, I say this every single day. My bike squeaks, randomly changes gears on its own, has the most touchy brakes ever and sometimes runs into curbs...so, if you ever see me run into a curb, it IS NOT me, it is the bike. I just remembered that 95% of the readers of this blog live 4,000 miles away and will never see me ride my bike. And the 5% that do not live 4,000 miles away will still, never see me ride my bike, so....
6:46- Halfway through my bike ride to the train station and I am thinking, "I hate wind. I hate rain. I hate dark. I hate cold." Sometimes this thinking is done aloud.
6:50-I reach the station, lock my bike and stand on the platform waiting for the train that comes 7:04.
7:04-Get on the train and remove my "Santa Claus" clothing. Get out my iPod and find a new song to play 264 times that day.
7:40-Attempt to sleep after remembering that I only have 10 minutes to take nap or risk falling asleep in one of my classes.
7:51-Arrive at the station in Roskilde and either: get my stuff together and walk off the train or wake up with drool on my chin, get my stuff together and walk off the train. Optional 2 is more common.
7:59-8:02- Depending on my walking speed, how cold it is, whether the train was late or not, I arrive at school anywhere between this time. As soon as I enter the door, I say "God Morgen" to as many people as possible.
8:05-(1:40-3:25)-School. An accumulation of me playing backgammon on my iPod, pretending to listen/understand during lessons, eating chocolate chip scones (Yumm!), going on Facebook, standing or walking around awkwardly and talking to myself. Pretty boring...
2:08, 2:38, 3:08, 3:38, 4:08-I take the train home, depending on my class schedule that day. My train leave every 30 minutes "On the 8's", if you were wondering.
Note: We will say today is a normal day, when I would take the train at 2:08.
2:55-I arrive in Haslev after waking up 3 different times to see if we were in Haslev yet, almost missing my stop. I get my bike and it is all wet (SHOCKER!). I unlocked it and ride home.
3:03-I arrive home and am greeted by Hjalte and Aske playing "Let's kill people" computer games. Not my thing, but thats cool. I usually watch an epiosode of Navy CSI (NCIS, as it is called in the States) or something else. Maybe a little Facebook time, but I usually just relax.
5:00-Dinner preparation time. If it is Wednesday (my day to cook) I start to make the meal, but no matter what day it is I usually help the cook because I like to peel carrots and potatoes...not! I do it more because then we can talk and my Danish improves and I get to know a little more about them, and they get to know me also.
6:00-Aftenmad. We are pretty good at eating at 6:00:12. Danes like to be precise!
6:25-We finish eating and clear the table. The cook cleans the kitchen and the table. Computer time for the boys, M*A*S*H time for Gerda and me.
7:00-8:29-I don't know what I do. TV, Homework, Reading, Danish, Ice Cream, etc.
8:30- Top Gear! It is a British TV show about cars. I am not a car enthusiast, but it is really funny and entertaining. It reminds of Car Talk on NPR ( for those of you who do not listen to Car Talk or for that matter NPR, shame on you) where only 30% of the show is actually about cars. Most of time the show is about these random competitions between the 3 hosts. One was about who could make the best amphibious car and one time they went camping and accidently set their camper on fire. Funny stuff. Top Gear can also be substituted for MythBusters. There is a ridiculous amount of American TV here.
9:30- Again, like clockwork, we all go to bed. However, I have "the foriegn card", so sometimes I can get out of going to bed early, but normally I am dog-tired. Sometimes, I even go to bed at 9:00. Trust me though, if you were hearing, reading, speaking, learning a new language 24/7, you would go to bed at 9 too. Also, if you didn't remember, I get up at 6:05...EVERY morning!!!
10:02-Random time, but I would say I usually fall asleep around then, after some intense thinking.
You have just experienced 'A Day in the Life of Andy Epps'. Thank you for reading and just so everyone knows, it was snowing today! Whoa!
Andy E
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Home...
Home is where we feel comfortable and safe. We can love, and that love is returned. The dreams we dream are safe from prejudice and by no means, unattainable. We can be who we want to be. You are never a stranger at home. Home is where we can think and reminisce. Home finds you, it is not a choice, but instead an obligation. You heart only knows when it is home. There is an energy we feel there, when we are surrounded by old or new friends, people we have made the memories we will carry with us forever. It is the feeling we recieve, being there, that lets us know we are home. Home is only a word.
Do I miss home? No. I miss the people, the places, the things, that have all made me at home and gave me a feeling of comfort. Home can change. I will always have a place of 3,618 people to call home. But I am creating a new home, Denmark. I feel at home here. I feel happy and wanted. It isn't a mistake that I am here. It is where I am not a stranger and can think and love and be who I want to be. I believe that I am no longer living at a "home away from home", but that I am home. I have a second home where I have new friends and new memories. Although this home is new, it is permanently bound to me. It has found me and my heart has spoken.
Enough seriousness. I have now been with my temporary family for a week and everything has fallen into place. It may sound extremely cliché at the moment, but I feel "home". Hjalte is 15 and Aske is 12, so I am the "storbror" (big brother). Hjalte was kind of shy at first, but now has warmed up to me. We watch a TV show together and are working on an impossible puzzle. Aske is the typical little brother. He is a total "mama's boy" and likes hugs. He can be a little much sometimes, but I can handle it. They are both swimmers and they swim every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from August to June!!! That is A LOT of swimming! Kjeld, the dad, is an engineer abroad and is currently in Bangladesh and comes home every 3 months or more. I briefly met him. He was reserved, but nice. Gerda, the mom, is the self-described "boss of the house" and is always right. She is really energetic and comical. She was an exchange student in Virginia and so her English is far better than my previous family. It is so nice to be able to joke around with her and not always be serious. She is a teacher and teaches all different subjects. Every night, someone has to cook the meal. My night is Wednesday, so if anyone has any delicious recipes, please send them to me. I think I will be making Mac and Cheese for my first meal. I will let you know how it goes.
Although I am feeling at "home" here, they are only a temporary family. After I had been here for less than 18 hours, Gerda told me that I could stay longer. The "ad in the newspaper" has taken longer than expected to actually get in the newspaper. This way, it is easier for Judith, the chairperson for my AFS region, to find me a good host family without being stressed. So, I will stay here, hopefully, until Christmas. The only thing that kind of stinks though is that I now have a 45 minute train ride to school and back and I have to wake up at 5:55 a.m.!!! I guess somethings are bittersweet. ;)
I haven't really done anything remarkable this past week, just settled in. Today, Gerda and I went on a bike tour of Haslev. On our way, we meet one of her colleague's husbands. He invited us for tea later and so we continued our ride and ended at their house. I cannot remember their names, so I will call them colleague and colleague's husband. At first, Gerda and her colleague talked in the kitchen, so I talked to the colleague's husband. It was really intimidating, because he was really tall and spoke Jutland Danish. Jutland is the peninsula that is connected to Germany and yes, there IS a difference between normal Danish and "Jutland Danish"! We talked about a bunch of weird things...all in Danish. If I was stuck on a word or pronouced it wrong, I would just say it in English and colleague's husband would tell me in Danish. He was really patient and that is something I have realized about most Danes, they are very patient with people attempting to learn Danish. They realize how hard it is. After colleague's husband and I had talked for 10 minutes or so, we moved to the table and had tea. And yes, I drink tea now. We also had muffins and almond cookies that were very good. I had 5. The whole conversation was in Danish and I could follow it quite easily. Colleague and colleague's husband told me that my Danish was very good for being here for 3 months, but I still think it stinks. It was nice to hear though and they would smile and laugh everytime I stumbled on a word, which made me realize that they really do appreciate my attempts to learn this crazy langauge.
The weather the past 2 days has been rainy and cold. Also, it is now dark at 6:00 p.m. My train ride in the morning is almost completely in the dark too, so winter is certainly on its way. During winter, there are only 8 hours of daylight, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. That will be really strange. I am sure I will probably gain 10 pounds after Christmas is over! Oh well, AFS does stand for "Another Fat Student".
Andy E
Do I miss home? No. I miss the people, the places, the things, that have all made me at home and gave me a feeling of comfort. Home can change. I will always have a place of 3,618 people to call home. But I am creating a new home, Denmark. I feel at home here. I feel happy and wanted. It isn't a mistake that I am here. It is where I am not a stranger and can think and love and be who I want to be. I believe that I am no longer living at a "home away from home", but that I am home. I have a second home where I have new friends and new memories. Although this home is new, it is permanently bound to me. It has found me and my heart has spoken.
Enough seriousness. I have now been with my temporary family for a week and everything has fallen into place. It may sound extremely cliché at the moment, but I feel "home". Hjalte is 15 and Aske is 12, so I am the "storbror" (big brother). Hjalte was kind of shy at first, but now has warmed up to me. We watch a TV show together and are working on an impossible puzzle. Aske is the typical little brother. He is a total "mama's boy" and likes hugs. He can be a little much sometimes, but I can handle it. They are both swimmers and they swim every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from August to June!!! That is A LOT of swimming! Kjeld, the dad, is an engineer abroad and is currently in Bangladesh and comes home every 3 months or more. I briefly met him. He was reserved, but nice. Gerda, the mom, is the self-described "boss of the house" and is always right. She is really energetic and comical. She was an exchange student in Virginia and so her English is far better than my previous family. It is so nice to be able to joke around with her and not always be serious. She is a teacher and teaches all different subjects. Every night, someone has to cook the meal. My night is Wednesday, so if anyone has any delicious recipes, please send them to me. I think I will be making Mac and Cheese for my first meal. I will let you know how it goes.
Although I am feeling at "home" here, they are only a temporary family. After I had been here for less than 18 hours, Gerda told me that I could stay longer. The "ad in the newspaper" has taken longer than expected to actually get in the newspaper. This way, it is easier for Judith, the chairperson for my AFS region, to find me a good host family without being stressed. So, I will stay here, hopefully, until Christmas. The only thing that kind of stinks though is that I now have a 45 minute train ride to school and back and I have to wake up at 5:55 a.m.!!! I guess somethings are bittersweet. ;)
I haven't really done anything remarkable this past week, just settled in. Today, Gerda and I went on a bike tour of Haslev. On our way, we meet one of her colleague's husbands. He invited us for tea later and so we continued our ride and ended at their house. I cannot remember their names, so I will call them colleague and colleague's husband. At first, Gerda and her colleague talked in the kitchen, so I talked to the colleague's husband. It was really intimidating, because he was really tall and spoke Jutland Danish. Jutland is the peninsula that is connected to Germany and yes, there IS a difference between normal Danish and "Jutland Danish"! We talked about a bunch of weird things...all in Danish. If I was stuck on a word or pronouced it wrong, I would just say it in English and colleague's husband would tell me in Danish. He was really patient and that is something I have realized about most Danes, they are very patient with people attempting to learn Danish. They realize how hard it is. After colleague's husband and I had talked for 10 minutes or so, we moved to the table and had tea. And yes, I drink tea now. We also had muffins and almond cookies that were very good. I had 5. The whole conversation was in Danish and I could follow it quite easily. Colleague and colleague's husband told me that my Danish was very good for being here for 3 months, but I still think it stinks. It was nice to hear though and they would smile and laugh everytime I stumbled on a word, which made me realize that they really do appreciate my attempts to learn this crazy langauge.
The weather the past 2 days has been rainy and cold. Also, it is now dark at 6:00 p.m. My train ride in the morning is almost completely in the dark too, so winter is certainly on its way. During winter, there are only 8 hours of daylight, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. That will be really strange. I am sure I will probably gain 10 pounds after Christmas is over! Oh well, AFS does stand for "Another Fat Student".
Andy E
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Holiday
This past week has been holiday for pretty much all of Denmark. As I said in my last post, I was going to visit Johanna, a former exchange student to BRF, on the neighboring island of Fyn. On Saturday night I took the train to Copenhagen and meet Johanna's boyfriend, Charles. He was in the city for some filming he was doing. We took a train to Odense, the 3rd largest city in Denmark (which isn't saying much). It was about a 1 hour and 45 minute ride. We then walked to their house, which is in a sort of development. All the houses are the same and they are connected to each other via a gravel bike path and communal "bike shelters". It was really neat.
Johanna lives in the house with Charles and also with Charles' brother, Evan, and his wife, Christina. Johanna is Swedish, Charles and Evan are Wisconsinites and Christina is Danish. It is quite a interesting living situation! Also, Johanna, Charles and Evan are all med students at Southern Denmark University in Odense. It was really nice to meet them all and they really made me feel welcome. I stayed there from Saturday to Wednesday and it was a really nice relaxing time. We didn't really do anything special, but I was totally fine with that. Charles gave me some movies/documentaries to watch. So, I could tell you pretty much anything about Barbarians or Ancient Rome!
I had also planned to do something with Tove, another exchange student who went to BRF; however, she had to work on Saturday and so we took a rain check. I was also planning to go to Copenhagen to a party with some other exchange students on Friday night, but both of the students who had planned to go with me, couldn't and I did not want to go alone so I just stayed at home. It actually worked out real well, because that night at 2 a.m. I snuck into the kitchen, bringing along the comforter from my bed, and used one of my host family's laptops. I took some grapes and sat in the corner and listened to the BRF vs. Westby football game. It was really nice to hear some familiar names and I even got a "shoutout" from Brain B. Even though BRF lost, I enjoyed it very much.
Today I went for a walk around Herfølge. It was really nice and I found things that I never knew were here. For example, there is a maze only 15 feet from my house! I was really surprised! I also went to the local cemetery. Sounds creepy and weird, but it was actually really nice. The cemeteries in Denmark are more like parks. There are trees and flowers and bushes everywhere. Instead of only having a headstone, here you buy a little area that is guarded off by tiny shrubs and then the grave is decorated with flowers and plants, etc. There are also "normal" gaves with only a headstone, but they are scattered along the walking paths and it is a little weird. All in all, I was really glad I visited it and it also gave me an oppurtunity to reflect on everything that is happening and to think about what is ahead for me.
Great news!! On Thursday I found out that I have a temporary family! I will live with them until I get a "real" family. They live in Haslev, a town about 20 km away and it is two stops farther south on the train, which means that I will have an extra 10 minutes on the train to school, but I suppose I can handle that. The family hosted an Italian boy last year and they had a really good experience. They have extremely Danish names! The parents are Kjeld and Gerda. Kjeld is an engineer who is currently on holiday, but will return to Bangladesh soon. They have 3 sons: Hjalse, Aske and Theis, who is studying at university in Copenhagen. I will move to their house tomorrow and am excited to meet them. I will continue to go to school in Roskilde, but if they would decide to keep me, I would probably change schools. We will see how it all goes.
Andy E
Johanna lives in the house with Charles and also with Charles' brother, Evan, and his wife, Christina. Johanna is Swedish, Charles and Evan are Wisconsinites and Christina is Danish. It is quite a interesting living situation! Also, Johanna, Charles and Evan are all med students at Southern Denmark University in Odense. It was really nice to meet them all and they really made me feel welcome. I stayed there from Saturday to Wednesday and it was a really nice relaxing time. We didn't really do anything special, but I was totally fine with that. Charles gave me some movies/documentaries to watch. So, I could tell you pretty much anything about Barbarians or Ancient Rome!
I had also planned to do something with Tove, another exchange student who went to BRF; however, she had to work on Saturday and so we took a rain check. I was also planning to go to Copenhagen to a party with some other exchange students on Friday night, but both of the students who had planned to go with me, couldn't and I did not want to go alone so I just stayed at home. It actually worked out real well, because that night at 2 a.m. I snuck into the kitchen, bringing along the comforter from my bed, and used one of my host family's laptops. I took some grapes and sat in the corner and listened to the BRF vs. Westby football game. It was really nice to hear some familiar names and I even got a "shoutout" from Brain B. Even though BRF lost, I enjoyed it very much.
Today I went for a walk around Herfølge. It was really nice and I found things that I never knew were here. For example, there is a maze only 15 feet from my house! I was really surprised! I also went to the local cemetery. Sounds creepy and weird, but it was actually really nice. The cemeteries in Denmark are more like parks. There are trees and flowers and bushes everywhere. Instead of only having a headstone, here you buy a little area that is guarded off by tiny shrubs and then the grave is decorated with flowers and plants, etc. There are also "normal" gaves with only a headstone, but they are scattered along the walking paths and it is a little weird. All in all, I was really glad I visited it and it also gave me an oppurtunity to reflect on everything that is happening and to think about what is ahead for me.
Great news!! On Thursday I found out that I have a temporary family! I will live with them until I get a "real" family. They live in Haslev, a town about 20 km away and it is two stops farther south on the train, which means that I will have an extra 10 minutes on the train to school, but I suppose I can handle that. The family hosted an Italian boy last year and they had a really good experience. They have extremely Danish names! The parents are Kjeld and Gerda. Kjeld is an engineer who is currently on holiday, but will return to Bangladesh soon. They have 3 sons: Hjalse, Aske and Theis, who is studying at university in Copenhagen. I will move to their house tomorrow and am excited to meet them. I will continue to go to school in Roskilde, but if they would decide to keep me, I would probably change schools. We will see how it all goes.
Andy E
Thursday, October 8, 2009
"Tuesday Night"
The post is a branch from "Where does the time go?" and although it is not necessary to read that post first, chronologically-speaking it makes me sense. It may also be kind of depressing, but I will attempt to write it in the most postive manner possible.
A couple of weeks ago Elise and I sat down at the computer and had a "Google Translator" conversation. I expressed that I was not as happy I thought I should be and maybe a change should be made. We said we would give it 3 weeks and then reassess everything. Last Thursday Jesper called me into the kitchen and gave me a letter in both Danish and English that expressed how they felt about me staying there. It ended with, "We think the best solution is that you find a new family." It was harsh and surprising, but then again, I had wished that I would change families. As the age-old saying goes, "Be careful what you wish for..", that is absoulutely true in my case.
Back to the title of the story. On Tuesday night Judith, the organizer of my AFS region, came to our house and talked with us. At first she talked with the Petersen's, while I attemped to listen (it was in Danish). I could understand what they saying, but not word-for-word. There seemed to be a lot of emotion in Elise voice, which frightened me a little. Afterwards, Judith and I went into my bedroom and we talked. She was really easy to talk to and so it was easy being completely honest. In the end, she said that a major problem was the communication. She said that Elise did not always understand me and I did not understand her, so there was a lot of misunderstandings that stuck with Elise. Moreover, we both had different expectations of what it would be like having me live here.
Now is the hard part. On Saturday Judith is putting an "ad" in the newspaper with my picture and a little bit about me. She said that they have actually been quite successful and have found some wonderful families this way. It still feels weird. It seems like I am being sold or something. I will most likely have a new host family in the coming weeks, but it all depends. The hardest part is the uncertainity. I have no idea who or where I will be and so I literally have to jump with both feet, head first with my hand tied, into a big hole and hope that there is a bottom. It is a really weird feeling. I just have to reassure myself that everything will be okay and it will all work out fine. Nothing is perfect and have to accept that and move on. It is also hard, because I know that this is equally difficult for the Petersen's. I do not want it to sound like they are the enemy. I truly care about them and the memories they have given me have been tremendous, but I think that for both of our sakes, it is better this way.
Thank you all for reading and it gives me joy to know that I am not 'speaking in the dark', if that makes sense. I know that this blog is reaching many people and is serving its purpose, which I am thrilled about. Thank you all for putting up with my depressing posts and crappy English. :)
Andy E
A couple of weeks ago Elise and I sat down at the computer and had a "Google Translator" conversation. I expressed that I was not as happy I thought I should be and maybe a change should be made. We said we would give it 3 weeks and then reassess everything. Last Thursday Jesper called me into the kitchen and gave me a letter in both Danish and English that expressed how they felt about me staying there. It ended with, "We think the best solution is that you find a new family." It was harsh and surprising, but then again, I had wished that I would change families. As the age-old saying goes, "Be careful what you wish for..", that is absoulutely true in my case.
Back to the title of the story. On Tuesday night Judith, the organizer of my AFS region, came to our house and talked with us. At first she talked with the Petersen's, while I attemped to listen (it was in Danish). I could understand what they saying, but not word-for-word. There seemed to be a lot of emotion in Elise voice, which frightened me a little. Afterwards, Judith and I went into my bedroom and we talked. She was really easy to talk to and so it was easy being completely honest. In the end, she said that a major problem was the communication. She said that Elise did not always understand me and I did not understand her, so there was a lot of misunderstandings that stuck with Elise. Moreover, we both had different expectations of what it would be like having me live here.
Now is the hard part. On Saturday Judith is putting an "ad" in the newspaper with my picture and a little bit about me. She said that they have actually been quite successful and have found some wonderful families this way. It still feels weird. It seems like I am being sold or something. I will most likely have a new host family in the coming weeks, but it all depends. The hardest part is the uncertainity. I have no idea who or where I will be and so I literally have to jump with both feet, head first with my hand tied, into a big hole and hope that there is a bottom. It is a really weird feeling. I just have to reassure myself that everything will be okay and it will all work out fine. Nothing is perfect and have to accept that and move on. It is also hard, because I know that this is equally difficult for the Petersen's. I do not want it to sound like they are the enemy. I truly care about them and the memories they have given me have been tremendous, but I think that for both of our sakes, it is better this way.
Thank you all for reading and it gives me joy to know that I am not 'speaking in the dark', if that makes sense. I know that this blog is reaching many people and is serving its purpose, which I am thrilled about. Thank you all for putting up with my depressing posts and crappy English. :)
Andy E
Where does the time go?
I cannot believe that I have been in Denmark for almost 9 weeks! It is crazy to think that my time in Denmark will be over before I know it! The time is going by so quickly and so it is hard to keep my blog up-to-date with all the things that are going on. I am sure for my "active blog readers" the suspense kills you! I know my mom said that she checks it almost daily and gets somewhat frustrated when there is not anything new.
Last blog I mentioned my class party I was going to. It was really fun. It was in the middle of nowhere, but it was a really nice location. The party was in an old farm building. It had been converted into a building that could be used for parties. There was a kitchen and bathroom and a bar. It reminded me somewhat of a town hall, where people vote. It smelled like one too! There were about 40 people there from all 3 "B" classes. It is mainly a party to welcome the 1B class into the "B"-family, but since I was a newbie as well, I took part in some of the traditions. Being that it was in the middle of nowhere, my older host sister, Malene, and her boyfriend picked me up and drove me home. Consistent to the party being in the middle of nowhere, they got lost and the planned 12:00 pick-up became 12:45. We got home at about 1:20 and went to bed right away. Malene and David spent the night in my host parents room, because Jesper and Elise were on vacation in northern Zealand. I cannot remember what else happened that weekend (being that it was so long ago). It think it was a typical lazy weekend.
I am playing volleyball in Køge on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays nights, even though I have yet to make a Friday practice (for various reasons). I still am bad, but I am improving. I can now set to an appropriate height (not 6 feet), pass to the setter, block, dig and I can even jump serve (kind of). I really enjoy everyone there and am getting used to the nickname "America". I kind of like it. The coach is also speaking Danish to me, so volleyball has duel purposes.
I cannot remember what else happened that week, so I will skip to the next weekend, which was the AFS Autumn Camp. It was hosted at a school in Køge, so it was only a 5 minute drive. It was really great to see some of the people from the opening camp. They gave us a lot of time to talk to the other exchange students about how things were going with everything, which was really nice. There were a lot of crazy moments, including a 2 a.m. break-in into the kitchen, a 4 a.m. "campfire" without fire and going to bed at 6 a.m. and waking up at 8. It was really fun and was a great way to spend a weekend.
The following Tuesday was an interesting day at school. Students across Denmark were protesting the cut funds for Danish students for the next school year. After the 1st class, students locked the teachers into the lounge and then blocked off the cafeteria. People had brought cake and games and it was really fun. I was tired, so I caught an early train home. I watched P.S. I Love You with Danish subtitles and feel asleep quite early. I was really tired and was kind of nervous for the night. Explaination will be in a following post titled "Tuesday Night". I know, how creative.
Wednesday was also an interesting day, because it was "Idrætdag", very similar to a field day back home. It was only for the '2' classes, so it wasn't the whole school. The day started off rainy and 50 degrees and when we ended it was clear skies and 65. (Danish weather is so crazy!) The events in Idrætdag were:
100m, 400m, Shot Put, Javelin, High Jump, Long Jump, 4x1 Relay and a 4k relay, which was 4 people who ran 1k around a park and then came back, somewhat similar to a cross country race; minus the relay part and the fact that you were only running 1k. I signed up for the 400m and Long Jump. I ended up doing both and a 4x1 relay and a leg of the 4000m relay! I was so tired by the end of the day that I had a hard time riding my bike home for the station. When I got home I immediately began making a salad for that night's Køge Area AFS Meeting. I decided to make a salad with lettuce, chicken, noodles and feta cheese. I had had it before and loved it, so I thought I would share it with everyone. I went to Fakta, which is a grocery store that I dislike but everything is cheap, so I go there anyway. The store is so unorganized and there is an area where all the things that don't really have a place (pickles, cookies, ice cream toppings, broken things, etc.) are thrown into these metal crates and you have to rummage through everything to find what you want, even though you have no idea what is where. All in all, Fakta doesn't not win the 'Most Organized Store' award. Long lines too. ANYWAY, I made the salad and when I was done realized that the bus left in 5 minutes. I quickly changed and ran to the bus carrying my salad and wearing my backpack with heavy things in it, after having Idrætdag! I felt like I was going to die. Thankfully, the only time the bus has really ever been late, was that day. I walked on the bus out of breath and carrying my dinner in a big bowl, which, as is expected, drew some weird looks from the bus driver and passengers. I got off the bus, only to almost miss the train by a few seconds and arrived at my destination 15 minutes later. The meeting was boring, because it was a presentation, in Danish, by 3 former AFS students. One was hosted in Mequon, Wisconsin, but I did not get a chance to talk to her. Overall, it was a nice meeting.
The next week is my Fall Break. I do not really have any plans as of the moment, but some are under way. So far these are the plans: Saturday go to Copenhagen and catch a ride with Johanna's (an exchange student from Sweden whom my family was a contact family for and now she goes to school in Denmark) boyfriend (who is from Wisconsin and was an exchange student to Denmark) and I will stay with them until Wednesday when I will catch a train home and then rest and do some homework. Then, on the Saturday after I will go to Copenhagen and to see Tove! She is also an exchange student from Sweden, but she was hosted in BRF last year. It will be really fun to see her, because we were good friends. It will be fun. Therefore, do not expect a blog post untill after the holidays. I hope everyone back in the WI is enjoying the wondeful fall weather I am hearing about! Do not be jealous though, because it is also cold, windy and rainy here, BUT that is the weather ALL THE TIME! Take care.
Andy E
Last blog I mentioned my class party I was going to. It was really fun. It was in the middle of nowhere, but it was a really nice location. The party was in an old farm building. It had been converted into a building that could be used for parties. There was a kitchen and bathroom and a bar. It reminded me somewhat of a town hall, where people vote. It smelled like one too! There were about 40 people there from all 3 "B" classes. It is mainly a party to welcome the 1B class into the "B"-family, but since I was a newbie as well, I took part in some of the traditions. Being that it was in the middle of nowhere, my older host sister, Malene, and her boyfriend picked me up and drove me home. Consistent to the party being in the middle of nowhere, they got lost and the planned 12:00 pick-up became 12:45. We got home at about 1:20 and went to bed right away. Malene and David spent the night in my host parents room, because Jesper and Elise were on vacation in northern Zealand. I cannot remember what else happened that weekend (being that it was so long ago). It think it was a typical lazy weekend.
I am playing volleyball in Køge on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays nights, even though I have yet to make a Friday practice (for various reasons). I still am bad, but I am improving. I can now set to an appropriate height (not 6 feet), pass to the setter, block, dig and I can even jump serve (kind of). I really enjoy everyone there and am getting used to the nickname "America". I kind of like it. The coach is also speaking Danish to me, so volleyball has duel purposes.
I cannot remember what else happened that week, so I will skip to the next weekend, which was the AFS Autumn Camp. It was hosted at a school in Køge, so it was only a 5 minute drive. It was really great to see some of the people from the opening camp. They gave us a lot of time to talk to the other exchange students about how things were going with everything, which was really nice. There were a lot of crazy moments, including a 2 a.m. break-in into the kitchen, a 4 a.m. "campfire" without fire and going to bed at 6 a.m. and waking up at 8. It was really fun and was a great way to spend a weekend.
The following Tuesday was an interesting day at school. Students across Denmark were protesting the cut funds for Danish students for the next school year. After the 1st class, students locked the teachers into the lounge and then blocked off the cafeteria. People had brought cake and games and it was really fun. I was tired, so I caught an early train home. I watched P.S. I Love You with Danish subtitles and feel asleep quite early. I was really tired and was kind of nervous for the night. Explaination will be in a following post titled "Tuesday Night". I know, how creative.
Wednesday was also an interesting day, because it was "Idrætdag", very similar to a field day back home. It was only for the '2' classes, so it wasn't the whole school. The day started off rainy and 50 degrees and when we ended it was clear skies and 65. (Danish weather is so crazy!) The events in Idrætdag were:
100m, 400m, Shot Put, Javelin, High Jump, Long Jump, 4x1 Relay and a 4k relay, which was 4 people who ran 1k around a park and then came back, somewhat similar to a cross country race; minus the relay part and the fact that you were only running 1k. I signed up for the 400m and Long Jump. I ended up doing both and a 4x1 relay and a leg of the 4000m relay! I was so tired by the end of the day that I had a hard time riding my bike home for the station. When I got home I immediately began making a salad for that night's Køge Area AFS Meeting. I decided to make a salad with lettuce, chicken, noodles and feta cheese. I had had it before and loved it, so I thought I would share it with everyone. I went to Fakta, which is a grocery store that I dislike but everything is cheap, so I go there anyway. The store is so unorganized and there is an area where all the things that don't really have a place (pickles, cookies, ice cream toppings, broken things, etc.) are thrown into these metal crates and you have to rummage through everything to find what you want, even though you have no idea what is where. All in all, Fakta doesn't not win the 'Most Organized Store' award. Long lines too. ANYWAY, I made the salad and when I was done realized that the bus left in 5 minutes. I quickly changed and ran to the bus carrying my salad and wearing my backpack with heavy things in it, after having Idrætdag! I felt like I was going to die. Thankfully, the only time the bus has really ever been late, was that day. I walked on the bus out of breath and carrying my dinner in a big bowl, which, as is expected, drew some weird looks from the bus driver and passengers. I got off the bus, only to almost miss the train by a few seconds and arrived at my destination 15 minutes later. The meeting was boring, because it was a presentation, in Danish, by 3 former AFS students. One was hosted in Mequon, Wisconsin, but I did not get a chance to talk to her. Overall, it was a nice meeting.
The next week is my Fall Break. I do not really have any plans as of the moment, but some are under way. So far these are the plans: Saturday go to Copenhagen and catch a ride with Johanna's (an exchange student from Sweden whom my family was a contact family for and now she goes to school in Denmark) boyfriend (who is from Wisconsin and was an exchange student to Denmark) and I will stay with them until Wednesday when I will catch a train home and then rest and do some homework. Then, on the Saturday after I will go to Copenhagen and to see Tove! She is also an exchange student from Sweden, but she was hosted in BRF last year. It will be really fun to see her, because we were good friends. It will be fun. Therefore, do not expect a blog post untill after the holidays. I hope everyone back in the WI is enjoying the wondeful fall weather I am hearing about! Do not be jealous though, because it is also cold, windy and rainy here, BUT that is the weather ALL THE TIME! Take care.
Andy E
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Something To Blog About
In response to the previous blog, I really did not mean for it to sound so depressing. I read it later, after I had wrote it and realized how depressing it really did sound. When I wrote the blog, I was actually feeling pretty good. I will be careful to give the wrong impression in future blogs! Even though, I really enjoyed all the comments!
On Saturday, Joe (exchange student from MI, USA and language school) and I took the train to Næstved to see some other exchange students. It was really a great time. We met four Kiwis (New Zealanders) who were in our "group" from arrival camp. Two of them live in Næstved and two came from from Jutland. Also, an Italian and Brazilian who live in Næstved joined us. The weather was beautiful and so the eight of us decided to go to the beach. It was about 4:00 when we left and 8:00 when we came back. It was a really wonderful time. I had to go home at 10:00, because the next day Fie and I went to Copenhagen. We visited my older host sister, Malene, and her boyfriend, David, at their apartment in a suburb of Copenhagen. They were going to take us to a "football" game at 3:00, but it was rescheduled for 6:00. To kill time, we played Monopoly. (The Danish version is called "Matador".) After, we ate at a cafe and then headed to the stadium. It is called Parken and is FC København's stadium and is also where the Danish National Team plays. It was fun to see soccer played professionally. I never knew that there was so much strategy to the game. It was a fun day and I really enjoyed it.
Last night I went to Køge to another volleyball club. It, ironically, is located only 2 blocks or so from my language school. It was awesome! There were six other boys on the team and they are all about my age. Although my volleyball fundamentals are extremely underskilled, I had a great time. It was especially great, because I felt really comfortable! All six of the boys really encouraged me and they are all really good! I have a long way to go with my volleyball skills, but the social part I think will be a little easier. I am going back on Wednesday and Friday. If I continue to have fun, I will join the club.
This Friday I also have my class party. I am in class '2b' and so the party will be all the B's: 1b, 2b and 3b. I am really looking forward to it. I really like my class and enjoy spending time with them. I am really lucky that I have them to help me become "Danish". The family situation is better, but still not resolved. I am thinking that a big part of it is the language barrier between my host parents and I. Neither of them speak much English, so it is hard to communicate beyond the basic conversational level. It will just take time and hard work!
Andy E
On Saturday, Joe (exchange student from MI, USA and language school) and I took the train to Næstved to see some other exchange students. It was really a great time. We met four Kiwis (New Zealanders) who were in our "group" from arrival camp. Two of them live in Næstved and two came from from Jutland. Also, an Italian and Brazilian who live in Næstved joined us. The weather was beautiful and so the eight of us decided to go to the beach. It was about 4:00 when we left and 8:00 when we came back. It was a really wonderful time. I had to go home at 10:00, because the next day Fie and I went to Copenhagen. We visited my older host sister, Malene, and her boyfriend, David, at their apartment in a suburb of Copenhagen. They were going to take us to a "football" game at 3:00, but it was rescheduled for 6:00. To kill time, we played Monopoly. (The Danish version is called "Matador".) After, we ate at a cafe and then headed to the stadium. It is called Parken and is FC København's stadium and is also where the Danish National Team plays. It was fun to see soccer played professionally. I never knew that there was so much strategy to the game. It was a fun day and I really enjoyed it.
Last night I went to Køge to another volleyball club. It, ironically, is located only 2 blocks or so from my language school. It was awesome! There were six other boys on the team and they are all about my age. Although my volleyball fundamentals are extremely underskilled, I had a great time. It was especially great, because I felt really comfortable! All six of the boys really encouraged me and they are all really good! I have a long way to go with my volleyball skills, but the social part I think will be a little easier. I am going back on Wednesday and Friday. If I continue to have fun, I will join the club.
This Friday I also have my class party. I am in class '2b' and so the party will be all the B's: 1b, 2b and 3b. I am really looking forward to it. I really like my class and enjoy spending time with them. I am really lucky that I have them to help me become "Danish". The family situation is better, but still not resolved. I am thinking that a big part of it is the language barrier between my host parents and I. Neither of them speak much English, so it is hard to communicate beyond the basic conversational level. It will just take time and hard work!
Andy E
Thursday, September 17, 2009
LONG Post
It has been 15 days since I last wrote and a lot has happened!
I went to Copenhagen and met a really good friend. Her name is Merih and she is from Turkey. She was having problems with her host family, school, Danish and also some problems back home. She was unhappy here. She was already in the early stages of going home to Turkey. She is probably my favorite exchange student that I have met so far and when she said she would be in Copenhagen with her host family, I couldn't pass up an oppurtunity to see her one last time. It was her and me all day and it was very enjoyable. We got some coffee/hot chocolate (I still do not drink coffee, but I am drinking a lot of tea!) in a small cafe that overlooks the main shopping street in Copenhagen. The street is called Strøget and is very similar to Street State in Madison, but is so much larger! After, we walked down Strøget to Nyhavn and then eventually to Christiania. (See the post 'København' for an explaination of all these places.) In Christiania we ran into a few other exchange students who were planning to meet up with later. It was a surprise to see them. They were leaving and we were going in, so we told them we would catch up later. Merih and I sat by the water and had a few beers and talk for a really long time. That is what I like most about her; she can talk about nothing forever and it still makes sense. She will always be a great friend and we have even briefly discussed a trip to each others' homelands in the next years. It started to rain, so we decided to head back to the Strøget. It is about a 15 minute walk and so by the time we got back, we were very wet and cold and hungary. We called the other exchange students and met them at a place very similar to Subway, but with very lazy workers! I watch the girl make my sandwich and put it under a light, then she made her own sandwich, went on break and came back and gave me my sandwich. It was frustrating, but I got back at them by refilling my cup 3 times when it was "no refills". So I guess we are even! After we ate, we took the Metro to one of the exchange student's house. By the time we got there, it was dark, late and I did not know my way back to the station. I asked Elise if I could spend the night and she said that it was fine. The next morning, I said goodbye to everyone and then took the train back to Herfølge.
That week in school was something called 'AT'. I have no idea what it stands for and to be honest what it actually is. It is something where the whole week they combine 3 classes and then on Friday have to do presentations on it. It is confusing. The point is, I could not participate in anything. I went to school Monday-Wednesday and ended up staying in the library and going on the interent. It was useless for me to be there, so Thursday and Friday I skipped school and stayed at home and cleaned, studied for language school and watched Lord of the Rings and Finding Nemo in Danish with English subtitles. Friday night was the first school party. I went to a "varm-op" party with Fie and her classmates. I definitely had too much alcohol and therefore will not continue farther. I not used to drinking at all, so I am still getting used to how much is appropriate for me.
This week started with language school on Monday, instead of Tuesday. It was the final lesson until the Modul 1 test on Thursday (today). It was a lot of "How do you say this?" and "Does that make sense?", but it was a good lesson. On Tuesday, I fell asleep on the train; bad, bad idea. The train I take from school in Roskilde goes from Roskilde to Næstved, with the middle stop being Køge. There are 4 stops between Roskilde and Køge and 5 stops between Køge and Næstved. Herfølge (where I live) is the stop right after Køge. If you were to ride the train all the way from Roskilde to Næstved, it would take you about 1 hour and 15 minutes or so. Anyway, I fell asleep in Roskilde and slept all the way until the last stop before Næstved. I woke up and did not notice the scenary, so I got off at the train at Nord Næstved, bought a ticket for about $8 and then rode the train all the way back to Herfølge. It decided that I will never fall asleep on the train again! That night I went to a Volleyball Club in Herfølge. They said I could come and see if I liked and if I didn't, then I could just not come again. I thought it would be a bunch of kids my age, but was more like a bunch a people who got together to play volleyball. There were 16 people there and the average age was probably about 40+. They only people close to my age were an 11, 14 and 15 year old. Despite the age difference, I really had a good time. I love to play volleyball in gym class, so it was fun to play it with people who actually wanted to play! Even though there wanted the play, they were not all that good. I was surprised that I could actually jump and block and spike. I will not continue going to the club, but I did find a volleyball club in Køge with ages 14-19, so I will attend there next Monday and hopefully I will have a good time!
Wednesday night (last night) was a really hard night. Elise and I sat at the computer and typed things into Google translator to each other. She doesn't understand English very well and I do not understand Danish very well, so this was our compromise. I have been having some concerns about the distance of my school to my home. It is a 30+ minute train ride every day, there and back. It is really frustrating and something which causes me to wake up at 6 a.m. every day; something I am NOT used to! There have also been some issues with my host family. I really do like them, but I do not feel an emotional connection to them. They do not seem like my "mother" and "father", they just seem like people I am living with. It is hard to explain and quite more complicated, but it is not how I want to feel about the people I am going to be living with for the next 9 months of my life. We talked and decided that in 3 weeks I will decide if I want to stay or find a new family. It is so hard, because I know how much of a change they are going through too, and it would kill me to hurt them by just leaving them and going to a new family. I do not them to feel "used". I do care about them, which makes the choice that much harder.
To make matters worse, I had my language school modul 1 test tonight. During the 6 week course, we had to write 2 short, 1 minute papers about our family and our daily routine and also read 3 books in Danish at about a 1st grade level and a write short synopsis about each. Today, we had to randomly choose which one of the five would have to recite. Afterwards, we would also randomly choose a picture and then ask the tester 10 questions about it using: hvad, hvordan, hvem and hvornår (what, how, who, when) and then ja/nej (yes/no). I was 2nd to last our of everyone and I choose 'my family'. I always get nervous about things like this. The things that I cannot control. The uncertaintly of what is going to happen. I am always nervous when reading in front of other people or talking to people I do not know or taking test. So, if you combine all 3 of those, you get exactly what I was getting myself into! The tester was a different person than our teacher and I had a really hard time understanding what she was saying, which made me SO much more nervous. I had practiced all the books, but failed to practice both 'my family' and 'my daily routine'. I was unprepared and it showed. She said that it was too short and she could not understand what I was talking about at times. Then came the questions and it was even worse. I forgot about practicing for that test and last night I was planning to review all the vocab, but I was talking to Elise. The tester said that my Danish was bad and it was not okay that I couldn't ask her questions. It was really harsh and made me feel a lot worse. She said that she could not pass me and let me go back to the classroom. It was really humilating, because my Danish is really not that bad. I can understand what Danes say to me most of the time and can usually respond with something short. It really made me want to give up on Danish and Denmark and come home on the next flight to the US. I was holding back tears and it did not help that all the people in my class had passed. I really do appreciate them, because they tried to make me feel better and genuinely felt bad for me. Because I did not pass, I cannot continue onto modul 2. So, I went home on the train early and walked back the house. The 10-minute walk was hard and 9 minutes of it were filled with my first Danish tears. In those 9 minutes, I was very homesick. I wanted my mom to rub my head and tell me it was okay and I wanted my dad to do that face he makes when he is disappointed with me, but doesn't know what to say. I wanted to to be home, in a familiar place. Then I realized that it is moments like that, the desperatly hard times when I hate everything and want to be home, that are going to shape me into a new person. I am going to be smarter, more mature and independent. I know that those hard moments will turn into wonderful times and will make this year absoulutely incredible.
I can retake the modul 1 test in 3 weeks and then continue onto modul 2. I probably was going to quit language school anyway and take up a sport, because many are tuesday/thursday. So, maybe this is all for the better and eveything will work out fine. I am somewhat over the whole thing, but that fact "they pass everyone" and I was planning on passing and was supposed to pass, that is what is eating away at me. I know it is just something I have to accept and learn from. Yet another learning experience.
I know that this is a tremendously long post and whoever reads it, thank you and please comment. I love to hear feedback and find out who is reading my blog. From what I hear, it is pretty popular! Keeping reading!
Andy E
I went to Copenhagen and met a really good friend. Her name is Merih and she is from Turkey. She was having problems with her host family, school, Danish and also some problems back home. She was unhappy here. She was already in the early stages of going home to Turkey. She is probably my favorite exchange student that I have met so far and when she said she would be in Copenhagen with her host family, I couldn't pass up an oppurtunity to see her one last time. It was her and me all day and it was very enjoyable. We got some coffee/hot chocolate (I still do not drink coffee, but I am drinking a lot of tea!) in a small cafe that overlooks the main shopping street in Copenhagen. The street is called Strøget and is very similar to Street State in Madison, but is so much larger! After, we walked down Strøget to Nyhavn and then eventually to Christiania. (See the post 'København' for an explaination of all these places.) In Christiania we ran into a few other exchange students who were planning to meet up with later. It was a surprise to see them. They were leaving and we were going in, so we told them we would catch up later. Merih and I sat by the water and had a few beers and talk for a really long time. That is what I like most about her; she can talk about nothing forever and it still makes sense. She will always be a great friend and we have even briefly discussed a trip to each others' homelands in the next years. It started to rain, so we decided to head back to the Strøget. It is about a 15 minute walk and so by the time we got back, we were very wet and cold and hungary. We called the other exchange students and met them at a place very similar to Subway, but with very lazy workers! I watch the girl make my sandwich and put it under a light, then she made her own sandwich, went on break and came back and gave me my sandwich. It was frustrating, but I got back at them by refilling my cup 3 times when it was "no refills". So I guess we are even! After we ate, we took the Metro to one of the exchange student's house. By the time we got there, it was dark, late and I did not know my way back to the station. I asked Elise if I could spend the night and she said that it was fine. The next morning, I said goodbye to everyone and then took the train back to Herfølge.
That week in school was something called 'AT'. I have no idea what it stands for and to be honest what it actually is. It is something where the whole week they combine 3 classes and then on Friday have to do presentations on it. It is confusing. The point is, I could not participate in anything. I went to school Monday-Wednesday and ended up staying in the library and going on the interent. It was useless for me to be there, so Thursday and Friday I skipped school and stayed at home and cleaned, studied for language school and watched Lord of the Rings and Finding Nemo in Danish with English subtitles. Friday night was the first school party. I went to a "varm-op" party with Fie and her classmates. I definitely had too much alcohol and therefore will not continue farther. I not used to drinking at all, so I am still getting used to how much is appropriate for me.
This week started with language school on Monday, instead of Tuesday. It was the final lesson until the Modul 1 test on Thursday (today). It was a lot of "How do you say this?" and "Does that make sense?", but it was a good lesson. On Tuesday, I fell asleep on the train; bad, bad idea. The train I take from school in Roskilde goes from Roskilde to Næstved, with the middle stop being Køge. There are 4 stops between Roskilde and Køge and 5 stops between Køge and Næstved. Herfølge (where I live) is the stop right after Køge. If you were to ride the train all the way from Roskilde to Næstved, it would take you about 1 hour and 15 minutes or so. Anyway, I fell asleep in Roskilde and slept all the way until the last stop before Næstved. I woke up and did not notice the scenary, so I got off at the train at Nord Næstved, bought a ticket for about $8 and then rode the train all the way back to Herfølge. It decided that I will never fall asleep on the train again! That night I went to a Volleyball Club in Herfølge. They said I could come and see if I liked and if I didn't, then I could just not come again. I thought it would be a bunch of kids my age, but was more like a bunch a people who got together to play volleyball. There were 16 people there and the average age was probably about 40+. They only people close to my age were an 11, 14 and 15 year old. Despite the age difference, I really had a good time. I love to play volleyball in gym class, so it was fun to play it with people who actually wanted to play! Even though there wanted the play, they were not all that good. I was surprised that I could actually jump and block and spike. I will not continue going to the club, but I did find a volleyball club in Køge with ages 14-19, so I will attend there next Monday and hopefully I will have a good time!
Wednesday night (last night) was a really hard night. Elise and I sat at the computer and typed things into Google translator to each other. She doesn't understand English very well and I do not understand Danish very well, so this was our compromise. I have been having some concerns about the distance of my school to my home. It is a 30+ minute train ride every day, there and back. It is really frustrating and something which causes me to wake up at 6 a.m. every day; something I am NOT used to! There have also been some issues with my host family. I really do like them, but I do not feel an emotional connection to them. They do not seem like my "mother" and "father", they just seem like people I am living with. It is hard to explain and quite more complicated, but it is not how I want to feel about the people I am going to be living with for the next 9 months of my life. We talked and decided that in 3 weeks I will decide if I want to stay or find a new family. It is so hard, because I know how much of a change they are going through too, and it would kill me to hurt them by just leaving them and going to a new family. I do not them to feel "used". I do care about them, which makes the choice that much harder.
To make matters worse, I had my language school modul 1 test tonight. During the 6 week course, we had to write 2 short, 1 minute papers about our family and our daily routine and also read 3 books in Danish at about a 1st grade level and a write short synopsis about each. Today, we had to randomly choose which one of the five would have to recite. Afterwards, we would also randomly choose a picture and then ask the tester 10 questions about it using: hvad, hvordan, hvem and hvornår (what, how, who, when) and then ja/nej (yes/no). I was 2nd to last our of everyone and I choose 'my family'. I always get nervous about things like this. The things that I cannot control. The uncertaintly of what is going to happen. I am always nervous when reading in front of other people or talking to people I do not know or taking test. So, if you combine all 3 of those, you get exactly what I was getting myself into! The tester was a different person than our teacher and I had a really hard time understanding what she was saying, which made me SO much more nervous. I had practiced all the books, but failed to practice both 'my family' and 'my daily routine'. I was unprepared and it showed. She said that it was too short and she could not understand what I was talking about at times. Then came the questions and it was even worse. I forgot about practicing for that test and last night I was planning to review all the vocab, but I was talking to Elise. The tester said that my Danish was bad and it was not okay that I couldn't ask her questions. It was really harsh and made me feel a lot worse. She said that she could not pass me and let me go back to the classroom. It was really humilating, because my Danish is really not that bad. I can understand what Danes say to me most of the time and can usually respond with something short. It really made me want to give up on Danish and Denmark and come home on the next flight to the US. I was holding back tears and it did not help that all the people in my class had passed. I really do appreciate them, because they tried to make me feel better and genuinely felt bad for me. Because I did not pass, I cannot continue onto modul 2. So, I went home on the train early and walked back the house. The 10-minute walk was hard and 9 minutes of it were filled with my first Danish tears. In those 9 minutes, I was very homesick. I wanted my mom to rub my head and tell me it was okay and I wanted my dad to do that face he makes when he is disappointed with me, but doesn't know what to say. I wanted to to be home, in a familiar place. Then I realized that it is moments like that, the desperatly hard times when I hate everything and want to be home, that are going to shape me into a new person. I am going to be smarter, more mature and independent. I know that those hard moments will turn into wonderful times and will make this year absoulutely incredible.
I can retake the modul 1 test in 3 weeks and then continue onto modul 2. I probably was going to quit language school anyway and take up a sport, because many are tuesday/thursday. So, maybe this is all for the better and eveything will work out fine. I am somewhat over the whole thing, but that fact "they pass everyone" and I was planning on passing and was supposed to pass, that is what is eating away at me. I know it is just something I have to accept and learn from. Yet another learning experience.
I know that this is a tremendously long post and whoever reads it, thank you and please comment. I love to hear feedback and find out who is reading my blog. From what I hear, it is pretty popular! Keeping reading!
Andy E
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Concerts and Alcohol
Last Friday I went to a concert in Tivoli, which, for all you non-Danes, is a pretty big deal! Tivoli is basically the national amusement park of Denmark. It is located in Copenhagen right next to train station. It has two parts: the amusement park side and the gardens (which I have not seen). I thought I was going to the concert with 3 girls from my class and one of their boyfriends, but when I got there instead of 3 girls, there were 7 and no boyfriend. It was actually quite fun to be with them in a setting other than school. One of the girls wanted to buy cigarettes, but she forgot her ID and they did not believe she was 18. So, they sent me to buy them because "I am tall and speak English!" The legal age to buy tobacco is 18 and alcohol is 16 (18 in bars), but no one really cares, per se. Also, here in Denmark (almost) EVERYONE smokes! That was a really big culture shock. Many people "party smoke", which means they only smoke at parties, but quite a lot smoke daily.
The concert was Nik and Jay. There are kind of a Danish joke. Everyone hates them, but secretly likes them. I was told that their songs are played at pretty much every party, because when you are drinking no one cares what is playing! The girls also told me that you have to drunk to really concert. So, we did have a few beers, but I was far from drunk! I AM BEING RESPONSIBLE!! The concert all-in-all was really fun.
The next day Jesper and Elise drove me across Sjælland (Zealand in English) to my AFS region's welcome meeting. It was hosted at a park that had all these Danish games you could play. It is hard to explain because there is nothing like it in the States! There are a total of 7 exchange students in my region: 2 from USA, 2 from Thailand, 1 from Australia, 1 from France and 1 from Germany. It was really fun to see them all again (even though 2 of them go to language school with me and 1 them goes to my gymnasium!). All of our contact families were there too, so it was a really great day!
Saturday night was also the final night of Køge Fest which had been going on all week. I meet up with the 2 exchange students from language school (who I had seen previously that day) and hung out with one of their host brothers and his friends. We had some alcohol...probably too much, actually! We were safe! The featured music was the band Aqua, which I had ironicly had an obession with when I was 12. Their most popular song is probably "Barbie Girl", so I am sure most of you have heard them. After the concert, I went to the train station to get picked up by Elise. I had been there for 5 minutes and then all of a sudden there were 15 police officers, 5 police vehicles and 3 drug dogs. It was crazy how fast they got there! And then, one of the dogs went crazy and the officer took it over to a guy and the dog started biting his pants and then the police tackled him and he got arrested! I kept asking myself, "Is this really happening?!" It was straight from the movies!
Today I went with 150 other Spanish students from my gymnasium to a movie called, "Los Abrazos Rotos". It starred Penelope Cruz and was kind of a weird movie. It was hard to me to understand what exactly was going on because the movies was in Spanish with Danish subtitles, but I could understand most of it. I actually learned quite a bit of Danish, because I would hear a Spanish word or phrase and then see it in Danish. It was really good practice for both languages!
I am going to Copenhagen again this weekend to see some of the exchange students who are living there. I really love spending time with all the other exchange students because they know exactly what I am going through, because they are doing it themselves! On September 18th I am going to another town to see some of the people from our intial "group" at the orientation camp. Our group was the English-speakers: USA, New Zealand and Australia. I am also busy for the next 6 weekends, which makes me really happy! I am really having a wonderful time here in Denmark!
Andy E
The concert was Nik and Jay. There are kind of a Danish joke. Everyone hates them, but secretly likes them. I was told that their songs are played at pretty much every party, because when you are drinking no one cares what is playing! The girls also told me that you have to drunk to really concert. So, we did have a few beers, but I was far from drunk! I AM BEING RESPONSIBLE!! The concert all-in-all was really fun.
The next day Jesper and Elise drove me across Sjælland (Zealand in English) to my AFS region's welcome meeting. It was hosted at a park that had all these Danish games you could play. It is hard to explain because there is nothing like it in the States! There are a total of 7 exchange students in my region: 2 from USA, 2 from Thailand, 1 from Australia, 1 from France and 1 from Germany. It was really fun to see them all again (even though 2 of them go to language school with me and 1 them goes to my gymnasium!). All of our contact families were there too, so it was a really great day!
Saturday night was also the final night of Køge Fest which had been going on all week. I meet up with the 2 exchange students from language school (who I had seen previously that day) and hung out with one of their host brothers and his friends. We had some alcohol...probably too much, actually! We were safe! The featured music was the band Aqua, which I had ironicly had an obession with when I was 12. Their most popular song is probably "Barbie Girl", so I am sure most of you have heard them. After the concert, I went to the train station to get picked up by Elise. I had been there for 5 minutes and then all of a sudden there were 15 police officers, 5 police vehicles and 3 drug dogs. It was crazy how fast they got there! And then, one of the dogs went crazy and the officer took it over to a guy and the dog started biting his pants and then the police tackled him and he got arrested! I kept asking myself, "Is this really happening?!" It was straight from the movies!
Today I went with 150 other Spanish students from my gymnasium to a movie called, "Los Abrazos Rotos". It starred Penelope Cruz and was kind of a weird movie. It was hard to me to understand what exactly was going on because the movies was in Spanish with Danish subtitles, but I could understand most of it. I actually learned quite a bit of Danish, because I would hear a Spanish word or phrase and then see it in Danish. It was really good practice for both languages!
I am going to Copenhagen again this weekend to see some of the exchange students who are living there. I really love spending time with all the other exchange students because they know exactly what I am going through, because they are doing it themselves! On September 18th I am going to another town to see some of the people from our intial "group" at the orientation camp. Our group was the English-speakers: USA, New Zealand and Australia. I am also busy for the next 6 weekends, which makes me really happy! I am really having a wonderful time here in Denmark!
Andy E
Friday, August 28, 2009
Learning Danish, Forgetting English, Sleeping through Spanish?
Again, what a week! And TGIF!
Last weekend was just kind of a lazy few days. It was nice, because I had homework! I had to do a power point for biology about Wisconsin for my class and also has some Spanish homework, which hence the title, was quite simple. Then on Sunday, Jesper, Elise, Fie and I went to Copenhagen for the Fair Trade Festival. It was a 2-day festival that promoted the fair trade products and also created awareness about labor in third-world countries. It was a small festival, but enjoyable. Afte that the 4 of us walked around copenhagen looking for lunch. We stopped at a small cafe. The food was gourmet and delicious. It was nice to just sit and eat and watch the people and cars go by.
The next day was a great day, because the train times changed back to normal. They had been different for a number of months due to construction. Here is why this is so exciting. In the morning, we arrive 5 minutes early, which means I am not late for class and after school I can catch the train and then be back in Herfølge in 20 minutes, compared to 45 minutes. This cuts back on the train time and makes life so much easier. The trains are also running more often, which means I don't have to worry about missing a train and having to wait an hour for the next one.
School is going real well. I am not sure if I mentioned the enrollment in my last post, but I believe there are 800 students in the school and 6 exchange students. It is so weird having all these new faces of people I have never seen before. I am enjoying it though. I have already met 4 other students who have gone on exchanges with AFS. It is so weird! On Tuesday, I had gym for the first time. It was really fun. We were practicing high jumping. It was funny, because everyone would cheer for everyone who went, if the made it over the pole or not. I thought that this was just another example, on a smaller scale, of the mutal respect everyone has for each other in Denmark. After gym I had Spanish and we watched a movie about a girl who smuggled drugs into the US and it was weird, but I actually understood some of it. I was so surprised. I actually think that my Spanish is better here than it was in the US, which makes no sense. My English on the other hand is getting so much worse. I can already tell that my sentences are becoming shorter and honestly, it is really a miracle that you are even able to read these posts!
That night I also has language school. It was a really tough lesson and I went home and just sat there asking myself, "Why did I choose Denmark?". It was really hard to change my attitude about the language. Then, on Thursday our teacher told us how proud she was of us on Tuesday. She said that she went home very pleased and she told us that each one of us has potential to master the language. That was just what I needed to here. It gave some confidence and all the way home Jesper and I spoke Danish in the car. Of course, my Danish was broken and probably made no sense, I could see that he was happy I was trying.
Tonight I am going to a concert in Tivoli with some friends from my class. And then I have to wake up at 9 and go to the AFS welcome meeting for my area. It should be fun, but I will be so tired! I am thinking that I may post something soon about the food here, so stay tuned! Vi ses!
Andy E
Last weekend was just kind of a lazy few days. It was nice, because I had homework! I had to do a power point for biology about Wisconsin for my class and also has some Spanish homework, which hence the title, was quite simple. Then on Sunday, Jesper, Elise, Fie and I went to Copenhagen for the Fair Trade Festival. It was a 2-day festival that promoted the fair trade products and also created awareness about labor in third-world countries. It was a small festival, but enjoyable. Afte that the 4 of us walked around copenhagen looking for lunch. We stopped at a small cafe. The food was gourmet and delicious. It was nice to just sit and eat and watch the people and cars go by.
The next day was a great day, because the train times changed back to normal. They had been different for a number of months due to construction. Here is why this is so exciting. In the morning, we arrive 5 minutes early, which means I am not late for class and after school I can catch the train and then be back in Herfølge in 20 minutes, compared to 45 minutes. This cuts back on the train time and makes life so much easier. The trains are also running more often, which means I don't have to worry about missing a train and having to wait an hour for the next one.
School is going real well. I am not sure if I mentioned the enrollment in my last post, but I believe there are 800 students in the school and 6 exchange students. It is so weird having all these new faces of people I have never seen before. I am enjoying it though. I have already met 4 other students who have gone on exchanges with AFS. It is so weird! On Tuesday, I had gym for the first time. It was really fun. We were practicing high jumping. It was funny, because everyone would cheer for everyone who went, if the made it over the pole or not. I thought that this was just another example, on a smaller scale, of the mutal respect everyone has for each other in Denmark. After gym I had Spanish and we watched a movie about a girl who smuggled drugs into the US and it was weird, but I actually understood some of it. I was so surprised. I actually think that my Spanish is better here than it was in the US, which makes no sense. My English on the other hand is getting so much worse. I can already tell that my sentences are becoming shorter and honestly, it is really a miracle that you are even able to read these posts!
That night I also has language school. It was a really tough lesson and I went home and just sat there asking myself, "Why did I choose Denmark?". It was really hard to change my attitude about the language. Then, on Thursday our teacher told us how proud she was of us on Tuesday. She said that she went home very pleased and she told us that each one of us has potential to master the language. That was just what I needed to here. It gave some confidence and all the way home Jesper and I spoke Danish in the car. Of course, my Danish was broken and probably made no sense, I could see that he was happy I was trying.
Tonight I am going to a concert in Tivoli with some friends from my class. And then I have to wake up at 9 and go to the AFS welcome meeting for my area. It should be fun, but I will be so tired! I am thinking that I may post something soon about the food here, so stay tuned! Vi ses!
Andy E
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
School, School and more School...
Well...what a week!
I started school on last Thursday. It was great to finally get there and see the school. It is so big! There are 3 buildings: Art and Music; Cafeteria, Office and Classrooms; and the HUGE one with the library and 30-some classrooms. It is interesting, because there are no "Social Studies classrooms"; a classroom can be used for French one class and the next for Religion. Sometimes you even have back-to-back classes in the same room (Today, I had English and Religion in the same classroom).
The schedule is similar to BRFHS, but we get 20 minute breaks between classes. This is what the schedule look like:
(1 modul is like a block or period)
Modul 1- 8:05-9:40
I started school on last Thursday. It was great to finally get there and see the school. It is so big! There are 3 buildings: Art and Music; Cafeteria, Office and Classrooms; and the HUGE one with the library and 30-some classrooms. It is interesting, because there are no "Social Studies classrooms"; a classroom can be used for French one class and the next for Religion. Sometimes you even have back-to-back classes in the same room (Today, I had English and Religion in the same classroom).
The schedule is similar to BRFHS, but we get 20 minute breaks between classes. This is what the schedule look like:
(1 modul is like a block or period)
Modul 1- 8:05-9:40
Modul 2- 10:00-11:35
Modul 3- 12:05-13:40
Modul 4- 13:50-15:25
This means that I could have a maximum of 4 classes per day, which rarely happens. What is really nice, is when your Modul 1 class gets canceled, because then you get to sleep in! This happened to me on Tuesday! What is also different about the schedule is that you have a different class every modul. So, I will not have Danish every Modul 2 for a semester. In fact, there are no semesters. Just one, very long year! These are the classes I will be taking all year:
Danish
English
Spanish
Citizenship (Social Studies)
Classical Civilizations
Religion
Biology
Sport (Phy. Ed)
Natural Geography
History
As you can see, 8/10 classes are in Danish. So, it will be a VERY long year!
My class has 30 students in it, including me. I have every single class with these other students, which is another difference from school in the States. I already have some friends who sit by me and talk to me, which is good.
Also, language school is going well. It is every Tuesday and Thursday night for 4 hours! It gets long, but we have generous breaks. There are 8 people in my class: 3 exchange students (including me), a husband (England) and wife (Spain), a lady who has Danish boyfriend (Ireland), a lady who moved here for work (Germany) and a guy who just joined (country unknown). It is really hard, yet fun at the same time. During the breaks we talk to get other, which makes everyone more comfortable to make mistakes, which happens A LOT!
Finally, the highlight of my week! On Monday night, Jesper (my host dad) and I played badminton. It was so awesome! There is a fieldhouse next to the soccer fields devoted only to badminton, and handball in the winter. I thought I was good at badminton, but Jesper killed those thoughts. 1st game: 6-15, 3-15, 2-15 2nd game: 1-15, 2-15, 1-15 I was happy he didn't "skunk" me though! My arm and legs are still sore, 2 days later! I think we are going to do it next Monday too, though.
Andy E
This means that I could have a maximum of 4 classes per day, which rarely happens. What is really nice, is when your Modul 1 class gets canceled, because then you get to sleep in! This happened to me on Tuesday! What is also different about the schedule is that you have a different class every modul. So, I will not have Danish every Modul 2 for a semester. In fact, there are no semesters. Just one, very long year! These are the classes I will be taking all year:
Danish
English
Spanish
Citizenship (Social Studies)
Classical Civilizations
Religion
Biology
Sport (Phy. Ed)
Natural Geography
History
As you can see, 8/10 classes are in Danish. So, it will be a VERY long year!
My class has 30 students in it, including me. I have every single class with these other students, which is another difference from school in the States. I already have some friends who sit by me and talk to me, which is good.
Also, language school is going well. It is every Tuesday and Thursday night for 4 hours! It gets long, but we have generous breaks. There are 8 people in my class: 3 exchange students (including me), a husband (England) and wife (Spain), a lady who has Danish boyfriend (Ireland), a lady who moved here for work (Germany) and a guy who just joined (country unknown). It is really hard, yet fun at the same time. During the breaks we talk to get other, which makes everyone more comfortable to make mistakes, which happens A LOT!
Finally, the highlight of my week! On Monday night, Jesper (my host dad) and I played badminton. It was so awesome! There is a fieldhouse next to the soccer fields devoted only to badminton, and handball in the winter. I thought I was good at badminton, but Jesper killed those thoughts. 1st game: 6-15, 3-15, 2-15 2nd game: 1-15, 2-15, 1-15 I was happy he didn't "skunk" me though! My arm and legs are still sore, 2 days later! I think we are going to do it next Monday too, though.
Andy E
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Homesickness, School, etc.
I experienced my first homesickness. I was not so much "homesick", but more "sick of home". For 5 days all I did was sit in my room, watch TV and take naps. I was mad about the language, my family, my town, my school, etc. What I needed was a routine; I now have a routine. I also needed some time alone, which I got today. My parents work from 9-5 every weekday and school started today, so Fie was at school and I had the house to myself and the silence was good.
Last night I started to make chocolate chip cookies, but forgot about the chocolate chips!!! So, this morning I went to the supermarket looking for "cooking chocolate". I was having a difficult time, so I asked a lady, "Er du snakker engelsk?" (Do you speak english?) Thankfully she did and was able to find the chocolate right away. I started to cut the chocolate into "chips" right away and then put them in the cookie dough. I intially thought that they tasted terrible. However, when Elise got home she reassured me that they were tasteful.
Elise got home early to take me to language school. It is in Køge, a neighboring town 2 miles away. The language school is Tuesdays and Thursdays, so this was like a mini-lesson about the tings I missed yesterday. There were two other AFS exchange students there: Joe (MI, USA) and Lennart (Germany). Although my school started today all the exchange students were asked not to come because the day would be hectic and we didn't need to be there. There are 1000 students in my school (I know!) and there will be like 10 exchange students (not all AFS). I will go to school tomorrow and then from school I will go to language school in Køge. It is confusing for me, so I am guessing is confusing for you as well. I will let you know how my first day of school goes.
Andy E
Last night I started to make chocolate chip cookies, but forgot about the chocolate chips!!! So, this morning I went to the supermarket looking for "cooking chocolate". I was having a difficult time, so I asked a lady, "Er du snakker engelsk?" (Do you speak english?) Thankfully she did and was able to find the chocolate right away. I started to cut the chocolate into "chips" right away and then put them in the cookie dough. I intially thought that they tasted terrible. However, when Elise got home she reassured me that they were tasteful.
Elise got home early to take me to language school. It is in Køge, a neighboring town 2 miles away. The language school is Tuesdays and Thursdays, so this was like a mini-lesson about the tings I missed yesterday. There were two other AFS exchange students there: Joe (MI, USA) and Lennart (Germany). Although my school started today all the exchange students were asked not to come because the day would be hectic and we didn't need to be there. There are 1000 students in my school (I know!) and there will be like 10 exchange students (not all AFS). I will go to school tomorrow and then from school I will go to language school in Køge. It is confusing for me, so I am guessing is confusing for you as well. I will let you know how my first day of school goes.
Andy E
Saturday, August 8, 2009
My First Week
Yesterday marked my first week in Denmark. I thought I would give my first observations of this lovely country.
Music- Pretty much all the music on the radio is American Oldies. I have yet to hear a Danish song on the radio.
Cars- It is so expensive to get a driver's license here. For a license alone it is $3000!!! Driving lessons are about $150 per lesson and you need to take 6 lessons or more. It is crazy! All the cars are small and manual. I can't drive here, but even if I wanted I couldn't because every single car is manual! It is also interesting how small the roads are. Sometimes a single bike lane is the same width as a two-way road! This is a fact!
Wealth- Everyone is Denmark is somewhat wealthy, but no one feels the need to show it. They are content with what they have. I can already see that they do not put value in wealth, but instead in intelligence, creativity and humor.
Humor- The Danish sense of humor is all about irony. They appreciate a good sense of humor and love to laugh, especially at the dinner table!
Naked Babies- I am pretty sure that you could not even find a children's swimsuit in Denmark. In one week, I have seen more naked babies than a delivery room. Okay, maybe that is an exaggeration, but still...there are a lot of naked babies.
Language- The Danish language is so confusing. First, there are 3 extra vowels: Æ, Ø and Å. I can't pronounce any of them and they seem to be in every single word! I am really confused with the d's, e's and r's. The d's are silent, but not really. For example, the word for 'food' is 'mad', however, it is pronounced 'mel', BUT at the end you are suppose to add like a little sound for the 'd' by putting your tongue on your hard palate. The 'e' is more like an 'er'. For example, Fie, my sister, is pronounced 'fee-er'. It almost sounds like you are saying 'fear' really fast. And when you say 'r', you have to use your throat, which English-speakers do not use when talking. I don't know when I am saying it right or wrong. It is hard. Also unlike English is the use of the tongue. When speaking English, the tongue is constantly moving to create different sounds. In Danish, the tongue hardly moves, which is why it is so difficult for English-speakers to learn.
Wind Energy- Denmark is a leader in wind energy, and proud of it. Because Denmark is so flat and is pretty much a bunch of islands, the wind is abundant and they take advantage of it. There are wind turbines everywhere. The one thing that I have noticed is that they are placed in areas that are not used for living or farming. The turbines are places in the water, next to forests, in pastures, etc. I hope that someday wind turbines are as visible in the US as they are here.
The Danes- Danes are very proud people. They are proud of their food, culture, language, standard of living, government and their sustainible lifestyles. I am really enjoying my time here in Denmark and a large part of that is because of the people. They are so friendly and "hyggeligt".
Andy E
Music- Pretty much all the music on the radio is American Oldies. I have yet to hear a Danish song on the radio.
Cars- It is so expensive to get a driver's license here. For a license alone it is $3000!!! Driving lessons are about $150 per lesson and you need to take 6 lessons or more. It is crazy! All the cars are small and manual. I can't drive here, but even if I wanted I couldn't because every single car is manual! It is also interesting how small the roads are. Sometimes a single bike lane is the same width as a two-way road! This is a fact!
Wealth- Everyone is Denmark is somewhat wealthy, but no one feels the need to show it. They are content with what they have. I can already see that they do not put value in wealth, but instead in intelligence, creativity and humor.
Humor- The Danish sense of humor is all about irony. They appreciate a good sense of humor and love to laugh, especially at the dinner table!
Naked Babies- I am pretty sure that you could not even find a children's swimsuit in Denmark. In one week, I have seen more naked babies than a delivery room. Okay, maybe that is an exaggeration, but still...there are a lot of naked babies.
Language- The Danish language is so confusing. First, there are 3 extra vowels: Æ, Ø and Å. I can't pronounce any of them and they seem to be in every single word! I am really confused with the d's, e's and r's. The d's are silent, but not really. For example, the word for 'food' is 'mad', however, it is pronounced 'mel', BUT at the end you are suppose to add like a little sound for the 'd' by putting your tongue on your hard palate. The 'e' is more like an 'er'. For example, Fie, my sister, is pronounced 'fee-er'. It almost sounds like you are saying 'fear' really fast. And when you say 'r', you have to use your throat, which English-speakers do not use when talking. I don't know when I am saying it right or wrong. It is hard. Also unlike English is the use of the tongue. When speaking English, the tongue is constantly moving to create different sounds. In Danish, the tongue hardly moves, which is why it is so difficult for English-speakers to learn.
Wind Energy- Denmark is a leader in wind energy, and proud of it. Because Denmark is so flat and is pretty much a bunch of islands, the wind is abundant and they take advantage of it. There are wind turbines everywhere. The one thing that I have noticed is that they are placed in areas that are not used for living or farming. The turbines are places in the water, next to forests, in pastures, etc. I hope that someday wind turbines are as visible in the US as they are here.
The Danes- Danes are very proud people. They are proud of their food, culture, language, standard of living, government and their sustainible lifestyles. I am really enjoying my time here in Denmark and a large part of that is because of the people. They are so friendly and "hyggeligt".
Andy E
Thursday, August 6, 2009
København
Today Fie and I went to Copenhagen. We took the bus from our Herfølge to Køge and then a train from Køge to Copenhagen. At the train station we met one of Fie's friends from school, Laura. She lives west of Copenhagen and we live south, so it is a good meeting point.
From the station we walked through Copenhagen's streets. There is so many stores and SO MANY BIKES! There are bikes that sell water and ice cream, some that carry children and there are even bike taxis. There are just so many different kinds of bikes!
Our first excursion was to the Rundetaarn (Round Tower). It is a 114 foot tower that King Christian IV ordered be built in 1588. It has a spiral ramp that winds a total of 685 feet and winds 7.5 turns. It is located in the middle of Copenhagen and the top offers some spectacular views. You can even see the bridge the connects Denmark to Sweden. Fie, Laura and I sat on the top and had some apple juice and plums.
After the Rundetaarn, we did a little a shopping which resulted in wasted time. I was looking for a pair of shoes because I only brought 2 pair. We found a bunch of shoes at a fair price; the only problem was that they were all 45 (US 12), and I wear a 48 (US 14). Laura, however, went into a children's bookstore and bought me a book about a boy who gets a dog. I can't wait to read it! After that, we gave up on shopping.
From there we walked to the Nyhavn, which is the older part of Copenhagen. It is the area with beautiful multi-colored buildings on the water. It was really great to see such a beautiful place. We kept walking and walking until we reached a place called Christiania. It is a "hippie city" with a great deal of history. In the 70's, people who lived there wanted a more self-governant government. The government wanted to move them and they fought the police and all this stuff happened, blah, blah. Anyway, the people of Christiania won and so today the people who live there do not have housing laws and they don't pay taxes. They also sell and use drugs openly. It was really interesting to visit and see how they live. It is not very clean and there are definitely some sketchy people there, but it was fun to see. I believe tomorrow we are going to an amusement park that was described to me by Elise as "small, small, small, small Disney World". I will see how it goes.
My Danish is still in pretty non-existant, but I am starting to somewhat understand the conversations at the dinner table. Jesper always asks me if I understand what they are talking about and then fills me in. Usually after we are done eating there is a quiz for me of all the items on the table. I am getting better! School starts next Wednesday and I am hoping to start language school soon. I cannot wait until I can start talking to my family in Danish. Oh, the thrill!
Andy E
From the station we walked through Copenhagen's streets. There is so many stores and SO MANY BIKES! There are bikes that sell water and ice cream, some that carry children and there are even bike taxis. There are just so many different kinds of bikes!
Our first excursion was to the Rundetaarn (Round Tower). It is a 114 foot tower that King Christian IV ordered be built in 1588. It has a spiral ramp that winds a total of 685 feet and winds 7.5 turns. It is located in the middle of Copenhagen and the top offers some spectacular views. You can even see the bridge the connects Denmark to Sweden. Fie, Laura and I sat on the top and had some apple juice and plums.
After the Rundetaarn, we did a little a shopping which resulted in wasted time. I was looking for a pair of shoes because I only brought 2 pair. We found a bunch of shoes at a fair price; the only problem was that they were all 45 (US 12), and I wear a 48 (US 14). Laura, however, went into a children's bookstore and bought me a book about a boy who gets a dog. I can't wait to read it! After that, we gave up on shopping.
From there we walked to the Nyhavn, which is the older part of Copenhagen. It is the area with beautiful multi-colored buildings on the water. It was really great to see such a beautiful place. We kept walking and walking until we reached a place called Christiania. It is a "hippie city" with a great deal of history. In the 70's, people who lived there wanted a more self-governant government. The government wanted to move them and they fought the police and all this stuff happened, blah, blah. Anyway, the people of Christiania won and so today the people who live there do not have housing laws and they don't pay taxes. They also sell and use drugs openly. It was really interesting to visit and see how they live. It is not very clean and there are definitely some sketchy people there, but it was fun to see. I believe tomorrow we are going to an amusement park that was described to me by Elise as "small, small, small, small Disney World". I will see how it goes.
My Danish is still in pretty non-existant, but I am starting to somewhat understand the conversations at the dinner table. Jesper always asks me if I understand what they are talking about and then fills me in. Usually after we are done eating there is a quiz for me of all the items on the table. I am getting better! School starts next Wednesday and I am hoping to start language school soon. I cannot wait until I can start talking to my family in Danish. Oh, the thrill!
Andy E
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