Sunday 28 April 2013

Changing Host Families & The First Week With My New Host Family

On Saturday I moved in with my second host family. Throughout my stay in Denmark, I will have 4 host families, living with each family for 3 months.


Flags welcoming me to my new host family's house

I had finished packing on Friday, so was able to just get up, have breakfast and go on Saturday morning. I don't know how I have managed to collect so much stuff over only 3 months; I had quite a few bags along with my suitcase. 




Natalie drove me to my new host family's house, which is around 7km from Viborg in a suburb called 'Hald Ege', she stayed for a little to help me get my things into my new room, then left.

My new room...


  
  



My new host family is Kim (host father) and Mette (host mother), with their 14 year old son Casper; they also have a 17 year old daughter Ditte who is in Oregon, USA, on exchange at the moment, so I am staying in her room. 
Kim works as a project manager in an IT business, and is a member of my Rotary Club.
Mette has her own business, which performs 'Cranio-Sacral Therapy; a type of natural therapy that uses massage and other similar techniques to fix a number of different problems.
Casper attends the junior school, which is still on 'lock-out' at the moment, so he hasn't been going to school. He also goes to rifle shooting practice once a week, plays basketball, plays the guitar and enjoys playing computer games.
Also part of the family, is their sweet little dog Cherie, who is a 'cotton dog'; the breed is called Coton de Tulear- a type of dog that doesn't shed fur and is ok for people with allergies. 



Cherie


First, I unpacked, then sat down and talked with my new host parents, Kim and Mette. After this, we went grocery shopping together, where we talked about what foods I like and what foods they like, and found out that we have a lot of common interests for foods. Then, after lunch we went for a bike ride around Hald Ege so that I could see the neighbourhood, which is very scenic and surrounded by forests. The forest here, called Hald Ege Skov, is the oldest in Denmark, with many of the trees being over 300 years old. At the moment, there are no leaves on the trees, but it is spring so soon everything will turn green and alive again. I got to meet their horse, Ronja (ron-yah), and the 3 horses that belong to their neighbour. The 4 horses, which are all Icelandic Horses, live in fields behind the house, which I can see from my bedroom window. 




After a tour of the garden, where I was told about a little squirrel that sometimes comes and eats from the bird feeder, and watching Cherie play in the sun for a little, we went inside, sat down and had some tea and cake (that I had gotten to pick out from the bakery as a welcoming afternoon tea). I helped to cook dinner that night, where we had chicken with a tomato sauce, pasta and salad. Later, we all sat in the lounge room, watching some tv, chatting and drinking tea. It was very 'hyggeligt'. 

On Sunday, we had breakfast together, before Kim and Casper left to attend a practice session for Casper's confirmation which is in a few weeks. Mette and I decided to spend some time with Ronja. We had planned to have a ride, but as it was a bit windy and the yard is still new to her (she was kept in another field and stable in another part of Hald Ege previously), she was very nervous. So we just spent some time with her to get her used to it instead. In the afternoon, after Kim and Casper had returned, we went to visit Farmor and Far far (Kim's parents- my host grandparents), who live about 50 minutes from Viborg in a town called Terndrup. We ate a delicious afternoon tea together, of freshly baked breads, jams, pastries, other snacks, tea and coffee. Later that afternoon, I met with two girls that live nearby and go to the same school as me, so that they could tell me how to catch the busses from here.

On Monday afternoon I decided to go for a run. There are many different trails along the side of the fields, through the forest and along a bike path that runs where an old railway used to, through the forest. I will admit, it can seem a little eery sometimes without any leaves on the trees, but it was such a beautiful place to run! At one stage, I saw two deer walking through, then later there was a deer in the middle of the trail ahead of me; when it saw me it froze, before running off through the trees. Kim and I went to the Rotary meeting later, which was at a company in Viborg that makes trade displays; they served dinner and then biscuits, tea and coffee later during the presentation.


        


On Tuesday after school I had an interview with the local newspaper, the 'Viborg Stifts Folkeblad' and had photos taken, as they are going to write an article about me and being a Rotary exchange student. Later that afternoon, Mette and I spent some more time with Ronja, then went for a walk through the forest (which Mette does every day). Each evening, at around 9pm, the family sits together in the lounge room, drinking a cup of tea, sometimes having some dessert or fruit, while we talk and sometimes watch some TV. It is a very relaxing and nice way to end the day.


Ronja & I

Wednesday was Casper's 14th Birthday, so we woke him up bright and early at 6am, carrying flags to his room and singing the Danish Happy Birthday, then I led us in singing the English version of Happy Birthday also which Casper enjoyed. Then we skyped with Ditte (in USA), it was great to get the chance to 'meet' her through Skype. We are both really looking forward to meeting each other when she comes back to Denmark in July! After this, we had a birthday breakfast, complete with the Danish flag decorations; then it was off to school and work. I ride my bike to the bus stop, which doesn't take more than 3 minutes. I park it at the bus stop and take the bus into Viborg, where I can either take another bus to school, or walk.
That night, I helped Mette make the food for the birthday dinner. We had a meal of Casper's choice, lasagne! Which I was very excited for, because until then I hadn't eaten lasagne since I was in Australia. I made the salad and Mette made the lasagne. I also got to make the birthday cake, which was a Danish 'lagkage' (layered cake- very common for birthday cakes in Denmark). Mette talked me through each step, but I put together the cake and decorated it myself. You can make lagkage in whatever way you want, using different toppings and fillings. The one I made had 3 layers, first on the bottom a layer of sponge cake, topped with strawberry jam, a type of custard creme and bananas, the next layer of sponge cake was on top of that, with the same fillings of jam, custard creme and bananas, then the top layer of sponge cake, on top of the whole cake I put whipped cream, strawberries and chocolate, piping the cream in a pattern around the edges of the cake. On top of the cake was also candles spelling out 'Tillykke' ('congratulations' in Danish- this is what is said instead of Happy Birthday), and some Danish flags (which are always used as decorations on birthdays here). The cake tasted great, and everyone loved how I had decorated it.


 


Farmor & Farfar (Kim's parents- my host grandparents) came to the birthday dinner, along with a cousin, Kristian. Farmor and Farfar were very interested in hearing about Australia, as they had travelled there before. We spent a lot of the evening talking about Australia, Denmark and so many other things. They were also very impressed with my Danish; most of the night we were speaking Danish because they do not speak very much English.


Thursday, 25th April, was ANZAC Day in Australia. So to commemorate this day in some way from Denmark, I decided to bake ANZAC biscuits for my host family. I only had a short day of school, finishing at 12, so got home early and had plenty of time to bake them together with Casper. We ate some after dinner with tea, while sitting in together in the loungeroom. My host family really enjoyed them!




Also on Thursday, the local newspaper published an article about me. I thought that the article would be small, maybe 1/4 of a page, so I was very surprised to open up to a huge article that covered 2 pages! The article is titled 'Jayana Nyder Det Kølige Danske Vejr'- 'Jayana Enjoys the Cold Danish Weather'. The article then goes on to talk about how I am enjoying Denmark, the cold weather, what I am doing here in Denmark, how I have been getting used to the Danish life and also my opinions on things like the Danish food. The article is all written in Danish of course, and it is funny to see some things that I said in English, quoted in the article in Danish; so sometimes the translation isn't exact. I was very pleased to be able to read the article myself, I only had to ask Mette what a few words were and phrases meant.


Now I am all settled in with my new host family. I am really looking forward to the next 3 months living here. We have a busy 3 weeks ahead of us, with 2 confirmations to attend, a birthday dinner, 2 presentations I will give, a weekend away in Sweden and also my language school will start again next week (finally, after over a month the lock-out has ended!). We will be very busy, but it is great to see so many things and a lot of fun! Then I will embark on my Euro Tour, and my exciting summer holidays will begin!

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