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.