I have moved in with my 4th and final host family now. It is strange to think that the next time I pack my bags, in just 2.5 months, will be to go back to Australia!
My new host family consists of my host parents Christian and Lene, their 16 year old twins Signe and Simon, and their 19 year old son Rasmus who goes to university in another town and therefore doesn't live at home. They still live in the same area as my last two host families, in fact there is only one house in between their house and my second host family's house, so I still catch the same bus to school and know my way around the neighbourhood.
My new room is on the ground level of the house, while the other bedrooms are all on the top floor.
The days are getting shorter, which means that it is now dark in the mornings when I go to school.
This week the fire alarm went off at school, so we had to all go outside. The process is quite different to in schools in Australia. Here, everyone just casually packs up their things, before making their way out of the building to stand around outside until they say we can go back in. There is no roll-calling and all classes just split up and make their way out how they want to.
It has been raining a lot lately, with the temperature during the day being around 12'C, then at night around 7'C.
I went into the international shop in my town, that generally stocks Asian, African and Middle-Eastern foods. But to my surprise I found Milo! Which Kelsey (another Australian exchange student at my school here) and I decided to buy and go halves in. There was also a range of other things that we have in Australia, that you can't get in the normal grocery shops in Denmark, like jelly crystals, custard powder, French Onion Soup Mix, sweet potatoes and a few other things that will all come in handy when it comes to trying to cook Australian food here!
On Friday night, 25th October, there was a school party, this time it was a glow party, with glow paint and UV lights. There was no one from my class going, but I decided I still wanted to go because it sounded fun and would be my second last school party in Denmark, so I went with Kelsey. She came over to my house after school and we cooked dinner, Chicken Kievs and a lot of roast vegetables (including pumpkin and sweet potato-something Danes don't eat).
Then we got ready together and went to the party. We had a lot of fun. It was Kelsey's first school party in Denmark, so it was fun for me to show her what it's like, and reminded me of my first school party here. We spent a lot of the night with a group of girls from Kelsey's class, so it was also nice for me to meet some new people.
The next day, Saturday, Kelsey and I went for a walk through the forest near where I live and I showed her around my neighbourhood. It is very pretty in Autumn!
On Sunday, I went with my second host family, to their cousin's house, about 1 hour north, in a town called Rebild. Firstly we sat down and had some tea and apple cake.
Then Ditte (host sister from 2nd host family), Caroline (Ditte's cousin) and I went for a horse ride on Caroline's horses. It was such a nice ride, we rode through fields, forests and along small country roads.
Autumn in Denmark, or Efterår in Danish, definitely deserves its own blog post.
It is such a beautiful time of year when the leaves on the trees turn to orange, yellow, red and brown before falling off and covering the ground.
I have also had a great time with my third host family in Autumn.
We have been to Randers Regnskov (Randers Rainforest), which is a zoo that has 3 large biospheres that imitate a rainforest environment so that they can have tropical animals living inside.
We have been to stay at their summer house in Mols, where we picked apples off the tree then took them and got them pressed to make fresh apple juice.
We went for a walk along the coastline nearby, through some little paths lined by trees.
We tried Danish Æblekage (Apple Cake) made with our freshly picked apples, which was just like an apple sauce with biscuits in it and cream on top. It tasted really good!
We went to the Kattegat Centre in Grenå, which is an Aquarium that has animals and shows what life is like in the Kattegat Sea, off the east coast of Denmark.
I went to watch Heidi ride at the local riding school. It was interesting to see that everything is inside. All of the horses are kept inside, then walked through to the indoor riding arenas through indoor hallways. In summer they can go outside more, and during the day the horses get let out for a certain amount of time, but in winter they never go outside, because it's so cold.
I went to a town in the north of Denmark called Hjørring, to visit Nanna, a Danish girl that was on exchange last year and went to my school in Australia. It was exciting for her to talk to an Aussie again and to show me the town that she lives in. It felt funny to be sitting together in Denmark talking about our school and the people back in Australia. We made pasta bake for dinner, something that she has missed since being back in Denmark, and we went to the movies to see White House Down.
The next day we went to Skagen, the very northern-most point of Denmark. We walked along the beach with her family, seeing old German bunkers from WW2. We walked all the way out along a sand point called Grenen, to the very tip of Denmark. You can see where the North Sea and the Kattegat Sea meet, the currents are different so the waves come from different directions and break on each other.
Nanna and I wore out St Columbans senior jerseys and took some photos. It really does make you realise just how small the world is, to be standing in Denmark with a girl from the same school as you in Australia!
I tried a new flavour of flødeboller with her family, white chocolate with a blueberry centre, so far this is my favourite flavour!
That night we made Australian food for Nanna's family. We made Chicken Parmigiana with Roast Pumpkin (something Danish people have never heard of!), honey carrots and roast potato. It tasted amazing, and Nanna was so happy to have it again as it had been her favourite in Australia.
The next day we met up with Sofie, a Danish girl who had also been to Australia on exchange and had been hosted by my Rotary Club. That was also exciting to talk to her again and catch up.
I have packed my bags for the second last time here in Denmark, ready to move to my 4th and final host family. I have really enjoyed living with this family so it is a bit sad to be moving, but at the same time it is also exciting to be moving in with a new host family and getting to know them.
