Week #8 in Denmark- 2 months!

While it is March now and supposed to be Spring here in Denmark, winter definitely came back this week!

On Tuesday morning when I left to ride my bike to school, it was -7 degrees! The gears on my bike were frozen, and with no way to change it from a really hard gear, I ended up having to push my bike up the hill. After school, just as I walked outside to get my bike and ride home, it began snowing. Riding my bike home while it was snowing was quite an experience! While it wasn't heavy enough to stop me from seeing where I was going, it was heavy enough to be a bit annoying, hitting me in the face as I rode along.

This week at school, my class is working on one of their big assignments. So every lesson this week is spent learning about it and then completing the task. As I don't have to do the assignment, I have been able to spend a lot of time working on my Danish. I have finished reading 3 books in Danish now and completed a lot of my 'På Vej Til Dansk' workbook. I really enjoy going to language school on Tuesday and Thursday nights. This week will be my last week in the same class, next week I will start in a class that is up one level.

My gym membership allows me access to a few gyms in the town, so on Tuesday afternoon I tried going to a different one. The gym uses a technique called 'Circle/Circuit Training' where all of the machines are arranged in a circle and you move from one to the next. They have buzzers that go off every 45 seconds so that you can keep track of how long you are doing each exercise for.

On Wednesday morning I woke up to look out my window and see the street covered in snow. Overnight, it had snowed almost 10cm, so there was a nice white coating over everything. For a little while after it has snowed, when it is cold, the snow sticks to the leaves and branches on the trees, this looks very beautiful. 

I went school with Claes on Wednesday. He is 15 so he is in Year 9 and attends the Danish equivalent of a middle school/primary school (they have grades Preschool-9 in the one school in Denmark). His school is called Viborg Privat Realskole, and is a private school in the middle of the city part of Viborg. They also don't have a uniform, but in class they have more rules and the teachers are a little stricter, a bit more like in Australian schools. In each year level, they have around 3 classes. They all do the same subjects, but are broken up into classes for each, depending on the level that they work at. It was cute to see all of the little children playing on the playground at lunch, in the snow wearing big puffy onesies.

Wednesday night, I went to watch my very first handball game with Natalie. Cleopatré Darleaux, a girl from my language class is a professional goal keeper and was playing for the Viborg team, so she let me borrow her game cards to get free entry, which also let me go in and get free drinks and biscuits at half time! The game can be quite rough, but it is a great atmosphere, with music being played every time a goal is scored and people being very passionate about their cheering! The Viborg team won by 13 points!

On Thursday, I went to work with Eva and Arly, to their medical clinic. Arly works as a GP, while Eva works as a nurse (in addition to being a politician in the local council). I was able to sit in the room during consultations, while they talked with patients, performed tests and even while they did blood tests, needles and acupuncture; during which I found a nice spot on the opposite wall to look at. I learnt a lot about the way that general practitioners in Denmark work, and also nurses who can have their own room and their own consultations with patients. Compared to Australia, they perform a lot more tests; if someone comes in with what seems something like a throat infection, they will take samples of fluid from the eyes, nose and mouth, or even blood, to send to the laboratory for testing, rather than simply using the results of an examination to diagnose and prescribe. I found it quite interesting to see, and very lucky to have the opportunity to have such a first hand experience of this.

On Saturday I met up with some of the other exchange students from my school. We played some air hockey and pool, had some hot chips and played a game of bowling. It was a great afternoon to just relax and have fun with other exchange students.

Charlotte (Honduras), Pinar (Turkey), Me, Daniela (Moldova) & Cameron (Australia) 

I had ridden my bike to town, as the weather had been ok in the morning, but while we were inside it had snowed a lot and was still snowing. So I rode my bike home in the snow again. It wasn't that bad, this time I knew to put my hood on and ride slowly so that the snow didn't get in my face too much. But it was definitely nice to get back and sit in front of the fireplace!

This weekend, Natalie's host brother Matt and his wife Emma both from Australia, visited Denmark. So we ate a lot of traditional Danish food this weekend, which was good for me to try too! On Saturday afternoon we all went outside and built a snowman. The temperature had dropped, so the snow wasn't sticking that well and our snowman didn't end up being as big as we had hoped. It was still a lot of fun to make but! The dog, Vilje loves playing in the snow, even though her ball is covered in snow and partly frozen!

     


















On Sunday, we went to church in the Viborg Domkirke, which is the Viborg Cathedral. If you visit the church to just look through it, you have to pay, so we went while church was on and had free entry. There was a traditional choir singing with an organ and the whole service was in Danish of course. The entire ceiling and many of the walls are covered in intricately detailed paintings that each depict a different biblical story or figure. As well as many stone pillars, there were stone lions and other carvings on the interior. On the outside of the church, there are two lions carved into the stone walls, they were made in the year 1100! The church is very beautiful and is surrounded by gardens and courtyards where Kings and Queens once used to be crowned hundreds of years ago, when the town was the capital city of Denmark.

I really can't believe that it has been 2 months now that I have been in Denmark! Looking at photos, it feels so long ago that I was in the Brisbane International Airport about to leave; but at the same time being here has gone so quickly! Even in 2 months, I feel like I have learnt so much, not just about life and Denmark, but about myself.

Brisbane Airport 2 months ago

Week #7 in Denmark

This week I joined many other Danish people and began riding my bike to school. It can be quite tiring and cold, but overall, not too bad. The distance to school is almost 3km, and takes me around 15 minutes. I rode my bike to school most days, but the days that I went to gym I was able to catch the bus, as it would be too difficult to ride my bike carrying my bag with all of my things for school and gym in it. It was a bit of a quiet week in the house with less people, while Natalie was in Iceland on a school trip.

On Monday evening at the Rotary Meeting, the members all sang Happy Birthday to me. First the Danish version, then the English version. This was so nice and totally unexpected!

I got home from school at a good time on Tuesday; I am really enjoying that we finish school most days here at 1.35! So I decided to take the dog, Vilje for a walk and explore the neighbourhood a little.

          


















Wednesday evening, I went swimming with my host brother Claes. He coaches the swimmers, so while he does this, I swim laps.

On Thursday, my class had a test during the first lesson, so because I don't have to do any tests, I got a sleep in and only had to arrive at school at 9.25am. We only had 2 lessons that day, so I was able to leave school at 12, and go to gym.

Thursday night we went to the Viborg Sportsmester (Viborg Sportsmaster Awards). This was held at the local hall/ presentation centre, Tinghallen. The title of 'sportsmaster' is awarded to citizens of Viborg that have achieved something special in their area of sport in the past year. My host brother Nis, was being recognised as a sportsmaster for his achievements in swimming, both in the Danish competitions and World competitions.

Friday was another great day at school, with only 2 classes, 9.25-12. Friday afternoon, after a family afternoon tea of Danish pastries/cakes and tea, my host father and brothers went off to the Danish Open Swimming Competition for the weekend, and my host mother Eva, and I went to Århus.

Århus is the second biggest city in Denmark (the first is the capital, Copenhagen), there is a big university there, so a lot of young people move there to attend university (which is free in Denmark!). My host sister Cecilie, lives in an apartment there, while she is at uni. So we went to stay with her for the weekend while we saw the city.

The street across from Cecilie's Apartment, you can see the ocean at the end

That night Eva and I went to the cinema. After sitting in the foyer and enjoying a hot chocolate, we went in and saw the movie Lincoln. The cinema was quite small, with only around 20 seats and a much smaller screen than the cinemas in Australia, but the chairs reclined which was great. The movie was in English, but they had added Danish subtitles.

       




















Later that night after the movie, Eva went and picked up Natalie from the train station, coming back from her trip to Iceland. We saw the amazing photos she had taken of geysers, volcanoes, glaciers and so much more! She even brought me back an 'Iceland' pin to put on my Rotary blazer.

The next day we went shopping in Århus. There are so many shops! Most of the shops are on the side of small roads and on the sides of pedestrian streets, but some are in large mall areas.

Shopping Streets- with Cecilie (left) & Natalie (right)      

Shopping Mall

We went into a shop that makes Danish chocolate. The shop smelt amazing, and because it was their birthday they were giving away free samples. There is a special Danish confectionary called 'Flødeboller' which translates to cream ball. They are balls of a soft creamy marshmallow mix, with a biscuit/marzipan base, coated in chocolate. They come in all different flavours and sizes. They taste absolutely amazing. We tried white chocolate and passionfruit flavoured ones in the shop, which is probably my favourite flavour so far from all of the ones I have tried.

Flødeboller Tower in the shop

Inside of the white chocolate-passionfruit flødeboller

After a long day of shopping, we went back to the apartment for some lunch and tea, before setting off to visit the Danish Royal Family's Holiday House, Marselisborg Palace. While they are not staying there, people are allowed to walk around the gardens and palace, however when they are staying there the entire surrounding area is closed off and there are guards. The guards stand around the grounds as well as in these red post things, like where I am standing in the photo below. The palace and the gardens were absolutely beautiful. The gardens actually reminded me of a movie that I watched as a child, 'The Secret Garden'. I am still getting used to walking around and any patch of water being frozen! Small ponds, lakes and even puddles are all frozen. The shallower ones, like the small dam in the photo below, are frozen completely solid.

  

       

     


















On Saturday night we had pizza for dinner and Eva, Cecilie, Natalie and I watched a movie. Then on Sunday morning we drove back to Viborg. I baked some ANZAC biscuits. Without real Golden Syrup I was worried that they wouldn't work out, but after adding a little extra butter, they turned out quite well! For afternoon tea we all sat down and had them with some tea and coffee. Nis had returned from the swimming competition with 5 gold medals, in both the Danish and International Competition!

That afternoon I went with my host father Arly, to drive Nis the 1.5 hours back to his Hojskole (like a boarding school). Nis was very excited as he is going on a school trip to Japan on Monday! It was a nice drive, getting to see some more of the Danish countryside.

My Birthday/ Min Fødselsdag

This year my birthday was special for more than one reason, I turned 18 and spent it in Denmark!

My birthday officially started at 3pm on Friday here, because at that moment I turned 18 in Australia. So I began getting birthday wishes, even though technically where I am I was still 17. After school I went to a friend from my class, Emilie T's place, with a few other girls from my class, Emilie A & Charlotte T, to get ready together for the school Karnebal (Carnival) party. I am going to use the first letter of last names, there are a lot of people with the same names here! It was a fun afternoon, listening to music, eating massive slices of pizza and getting ready together. 

   

  

The school party had the theme of 'Karnebal' which meant that everyone had to dress up, so we all were wearing costumes. I wore a sparkly dress, long black gloves, a feather boa and curled my hair; kind of went for the movie star/ 1920s girl look. Later, most of the rest of our class came over for the 'pre-party', which is something Danish teenagers do for almost every party they go to. At around 9pm, we all caught a bus that we had hired, into town to the school. It felt strange at first going out, all dressed up, then putting my big puffy jacket on!

When we arrived at school, we got our tickets/wristbands and handed in our bags and jackets to be looked after for the night. The night was so much fun, meeting new people, having fun with the people I already knew, dancing, laughing, enjoying the loud music, seeing all of the costumes and seeing people drinking at school while the teachers walk past barely noticing or paying attention. It was such a different experience going to a party at school, because in Australia that is something we definitely don't do! There were around 400 people at the party, so the dancefloor was quite crowded at some parts of the night, but it was a lot of fun, the Danish teenagers really get into their dancing!

At midnight, I officially turned 18. It was so exciting, I was with Charlotte M (from Honduras) and a few other girls, we started jumping around, hugging, dancing and cheering, then a few girls from my class sang me happy birthday, in the middle of the dancefloor. The party ended at 1am and my host mum came and picked me up from the school.

First photo as an 18 year old! With Charlotte M

In the morning, I was woken up by my host family as they came into my room singing the Danish version of happy birthday, carrying the Danish flag, chocolate coated strawberries and glasses of champagne. I opened my cards and packages from Australia first, then from my host family. I was so excited to receive tickets to go and see the Danish ballet perform Romeo & Juliet in Copenhagen in April with my host mother and sisters! After opening presents, eating chocolate coated strawberries and having some champagne in bed, we went and had a lovely breakfast. The breakfast included fresh fruit, bread and Danish pastries! After this, we all went back to bed for a bit more of a sleep in. Later in the day I went shopping for a bit in town with my host mother and sisters. Then I cooked a quiche for lunch. The rest of the afternoon we just spent relaxing, and watching the movie, New Years Eve with my host sisters.

  

That evening, my host grandparents ( Bedstemor & Bedstefar) came over to share my birthday dinner with us. We had chicken parmigiana and a creamy pasta dish that I had chosen. Then for dessert we had a white chocolate mud cake that my host mother had made! The food was delicious and it was a great evening!

 

    

 My family in Australia had also been celebrating my birthday by baking cakes and wishing me a happy birthday!

Left- My Uncle, Aunt & Nana, Right- My parents & brothers

On Sunday, I skyped my family in Australia for the first time since arriving in Denmark. It was great to see them & hear them wish me a happy birthday. My little brother Bryson was also very excited to tell me some new jokes of his and to pull faces in the webcam! 

On Sunday afternoon I went to my counsellor Alice's house to have a birthday afternoon tea with her and her family, my Rotary protection officer and his wife, as well as my second host family the Dam Larsens. It was a wonderful afternoon with hot chocolate and cakes! I was given a sports bag, a Danish football supporter shirt and some products from the Body Shop that smell amazing!

I am so grateful to everyone, from Australia, Denmark and other places around the world that all helped to make my birthday very special.

Week #6 in Denmark

Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to meet up in town with some of the other exchange students that go to my school. At Viborg Katedralskole (my school), all up there are around 7 of us; 2 of us from Australia and the others are from countries including Taiwan, Honduras, Moldova, China and Turkey. We had lunch together and talked about what it is like to be an exchange student at our school and in our town. It was great to hear about the different experiences that each of us have had and to get some tips from the ones who have already been here for six months.

On Saturday night, Natalie had some friends over for her birthday. We spent the evening having a nice dinner followed by fruit and chocolate fondue! Then we just chatted and played some games. We played a Danish game called 'Ego', where you ask questions about each other, some of the questions are quite funny, then have to answer which one is most likely. When it was my turn, I would  read out the question in Danish, then if I didn't know what I had just asked, the girls would translate it for me. It was a lot of fun to get to meet new people and have a fun girls night.

On Sunday I went with a Rotarian and his wife to a travel exhibition, 'Ferie for Alle', in the nearby town of Herning. There were stalls set up from travel agencies all around the world, they all had displays and were promoting their country as a holiday destination. It was funny to see the Australian stall. I was even asked by a staff member at one of the stalls if I would like to be an international student and go to Australia to study... I found that a little amusing. She was a little embarrassed when I replied back in English saying that I was an international student from Australia. It was also great to see the stalls advertising different destinations in Denmark and to try some of the cheeses, cakes and chocolates that the stalls had to offer.

In my English class, we are currently studying the topic of 'Australia', so in the lesson on Monday, I spoke to the class about what it is like to live in Australia and a bit about what my life in Australia was like. I told them all about what it was like growing up in the country in Australia, what it was like being a teenager in Australia, the animals, school, traditions, sport and weather; then they asked me a lot of questions which I was very happy to answer. I felt quite proud speaking about Australia, and telling them about all of the things that are so normal to me, but they find both interesting, different and probably strange. After telling some stories about the Australian wildlife, such as how kookaburras used to steal food off the BBQ, kangaroos/ wallabies were very common in the backyard and snakes sometimes came in the house, I had to explain that we do not spend our lives trying to fight off and keep away the animals, that they are just a normal part of life and barely bother us. They found it both shocking and funny to hear what game we mean by 'handball', the simple one that you play bouncing a ball to each other in different squares, considering how popular and serious European Handball is here.

Walking into school...

On Monday night, I attended the Rotary meeting, which I do every week. But this week the meeting was at the local Newspaper and Radio Station. After a tour of the building, where we got to see the offices as well as the sound booth and systems used for recording the radio, we got to sit down to delicious Danish pastries, biscuits, tea and coffee while the manager spoke about the company. In Denmark, people and newspapers have almost complete freedom of speech and no censorship. This means that they can write or publish their opinions, even if they are very controversial, and do not censor their music on the radio, a lot of images in the newspapers or clips on tv.

I have joined the gym here, and have been a few times this week with Charlotte, who is another exchange student at my school, from Honduras. The gym here is huge, and has so many machines, a lot that I have never seen in Australia before. After the Danish pastries and new food that I am trying here, it feels so good to be back at gym! 

On Wednesday afternoon, I rode to the post office by myself to pick up a parcel. This was the first time that I had rode my bike somewhere by myself, and it felt a little strange to be using a push bike like I would normally use my car. I rode along the bike roads, that even have a line painted down the middle (you have to stay on the right hand side), round abouts and traffic signs telling which bike roads take you where. After picking up the parcel, I put it in the basket on the front of my bike and road home. After this, I decided to lay down for a little while to relax and ended up falling asleep, until I woke up just before dinner. Being busy, seeing and learning so many knew things, trying to learn and understand Danish and trying to remember everything is a fun challenge, but can be quite exhausting!

On Thursday I had my first Danish school excursion, to Tangeværket Energimuseet, which was an energy museum in a nearby town. We caught the bus to the museum, where we walked around from building to building looking at the different methods of renewable energy in Denmark and hearing about the history of it and global warming. It turns out that the most common method of generating energy in Denmark is through wind energy, wind farms and windmills. There was a huge dam/lake there, that we got to walk near. It was very beautiful, as the sky was blue and the sun was shining; true spring weather as everyone here says (even though it was still only around 5 degrees). There were swans and ducks swimming in the centre of the dam, in the part that was not frozen, and some were walking and standing on the parts that are still frozen.