Shortly after I moved in with them, we went to stay in their holiday house for a long weekend. Their holiday house is on the east coast of Denmark, in a very pretty little village called Mols. Jesper's parents own the house next door, so we went and ate with them most days.
We went and visited the very old nearby town called Ebeltoft. We walked through the town, and saw the oldest courthouse in Denmark, then went jet boating in the fjord. It was the first birthday of my host cousin, so we went to her birthday lunch.
On Monday 5th August, my Rotary Club held their first meeting after the summer holidays. They decided against holding a normal meeting and instead had an 'Australian Evening'. I helped them design an Australian menu, so that they could all try Australian food; they even found a butcher in Denmark where they could buy kangaroo steaks from. They all really enjoyed the food, especially the herb & cheese damper! Its a bit funny that the first time I tried kangaroo meat was in Denmark.
The main event of the evening was my presentation about my summer in Denmark. I spoke for around 30 minutes about my Euro Tour, Sailing Trip and the other things I have done on my holidays, without notes, and all in Danish!Everyone was very impressed by my Danish and presentation. I felt quite proud when I was finished, I have achieved something that 6 months ago, I never thought would have been possible.
On Wednesday I went to the movies with my host brothers and their Grandpa, to see Monsters University. It was the first time I have been to the cinema in my town. The movie was of course, converted to Danish (the picture is exactly the same, just all the talking was in Danish). When I was younger I used to like the first Monsters Inc movie, so I thought it was good to see the next one.
On Thursday I ate lunch in town with Charlotte, from my class. We looked around the shops for a little after.
On Saturday I went to Legoland, with my Rotary club's president, Camila, and her family. It was such a fun day! Everything around the theme park is made from lego, from the bins, to signs, rides and many lego figures; they even have a whole miniature lego city.
It rained in the afternoon, luckily it was only towards the end of the day! But for the walk to the car we bought some very attractive bright yellow Legoland ponchos.
On the last Sunday before we went back to school, I went horse riding with my friend from my class, Julie. After a ride in the fields and through the town, we went and visited her 3 month old foal which was very cute.
This week, my Rotary meeting was at Mønsted Kalkgruber, which is an old and now unused, Limestone mine. We caught a little train town into the mines, where we watched a very interesting video about the mines that was projected up onto the walls of the cave, over an underground lake where you could see the reflection. After the video, we went for a walk around the mines before eating some cheese (that they now make in the mines) and fruit they had prepared for us.
Tuesday 13th August saw the end of my 3 month long summer holiday, but also the first day of school for the new school year, as a senior. It was exciting to see my class again. Over the past 3 months I had improved a lot with my Danish, so it was also great to understand the lessons and be able to just talk normally with my classmates in Danish. The first school day for seniors in Denmark is always celebrated by all of the seniors dressing up in costumes and then doing things to the other students, especially the first years as they walk in the gates, like throwing things such as glitter, flour and cinnamon, spraying them with coloured hair spray or bad smelling deodorant, drawing on them with pen or lipstick and also putting homemade necklaces of old lollies around their necks. Myself and a few girls from my class dressed up as Danish football fans, it was fun getting to see it all!
I still get to see my second host family, even though I don't live with them anymore. I have been to their house to eat dinner (where Mette had even made Lamingtons for dessert!), and I have also been horse riding with their daughter Ditte. It is great to get the chance to get to know Ditte, even though she wasn't home while I was living with them.
On Sunday 18th August we had a Rotary get together in the town of Nibe. After going to a garden party for lunch with my host family on Saturday, where there was some delicious food, in the late afternoon, I went to stay at Grace Prosser's place (one of the other Australian girls), that way we could go up to the get together, together the next day. We had a nice night, catching up, listening to music and watching a movie. The next day we went to the get together. It looked so different from the last time we were there in January when there was snow everywhere and we were new to Denmark! This time we were the older exchange students and got to meet our 'newbies' that had just arrived in Denmark to start their exchange. It was a really nice day, getting to see the others and to meet the new ones.
Last night, my host family and I ate Australia food! My host brothers helped me make Lamingtons, which was a lot of fun, especially the best part of course- trying the mixture and licking the bowl. I made a meat pie (complete with a pastry shape of a kangaroo on top- which the kids loved!), damper, salad and vegetables for the main meal, which everyone really enjoyed. Heidi's parents came for the dinner as well as Heidi's sister-in-law who is also named Heidi (who has been in Australia for a year when she was younger- and absolutely loved to eat the Australian food once again) and her 2 young children, so we were 10 people all up.
