G'Day Australia, It's Been a While

On Saturday 11th January, I began the reverse of the journey that I had embarked on one year earlier, which would this time take me 41 hours. I drove to Aalborg airport with my counsellor Alice, who was the one that had driven me home from the airport when I first arrived in Denmark. But this time, we were driving the other direction, her daughter Katrine was with us, we were speaking Danish and the European countryside outside the car window was familiar.

After a little confusion by the lady working in the airport, I was checked in to Sydney (when I should have been flying to Brisbane). When I explained to her that I was supposed to be flying to Brisbane, she said 'at least you will be in Australia, maybe you can call the people who will be waiting for you and get them to pick you up from the different airport', I then had to explain to her that wasn't really possible as there was a 12 hour drive between the two airports.

Then after saying goodbye to my counsellor and second host family who had come to the airport to say goodbye, I was off on the first part of the trip home.

We had a brief stop over in Copenhagen airport, where we got our tickets corrected and re-printed saying Brisbane.

We arrived in Bangkok at 6am (Bangkok time), for our 18 hour stop over. After running through the airport with another Brisbane girl, Elle who had the same problem as me, we finally had our bags and ourselves checked in to Brisbane. The stop over turned out to be quite nice actually as we got a hotel and could relax by the pool, have shower, lunch and a sleep. Before the next flight.

 

 

 

At the airport, we had some Thai food for dinner, before boarding the final flight. It was a strange feeling knowing that the next ground we would walk on would be Australian!

  

Although a lot of people tend to not, I really enjoy plane meals!

As we first caught sight of Brisbane while descending we all began to get quite excited and also nervous. The other people on the plane seemed a bit confused as to why we were so excited/nervous to be arriving in Australia, as we were talking in Australian accents. But as the plane touched down on the runway, we all remarked on things like how brown the grass was, how blue the sky was, how bright it was and how fast our hearts were beating. We were now in Australia once again and were about to see our families for the first time after one year; it was a strange and quite overwhelming feeling, not to mention that most of us had only slept for around 6 hours out of the past 45.

After going through security and baggage claim, we stopped, realising that just around the corner were our families. We stood there for a little while, put our blazers on, gathered some courage and all tried to convince someone else to walk out first. We ended up just walking out together.

For some reason, the tears came before I had even seen my family. Bryson was the first one to greet me, standing there looking all tall and grown up holding a bunch of red roses and wearing the Danish football tshirt that I had bought him. I think I scared him a little; the first time he had seen me in a year and I come out with tears down my face giving him a big hug.

 

After hugging Bryson I went to the rest of my family, hugging my mum who began crying when she saw me, dad, Caiden (who was a lot bigger overall) and then everyone else in turn. It was so nice to see them all again not just through a screen, being able to hug them and hear their voices clearly.

Caiden drove home from the airport, which was strange because he had gotten his Learner licence while I was away and I had never seen him drive on the roads before. My family had put up a welcome home sign for me, but other than that and a few new pieces of furniture and decorations the house was exactly as I remembered it. It was so nice to see my beautiful room again and especially my big comfortable bed.

I think I had been home for around 30 minutes before I couldn't resist it any longer, I grabbed my keys, told Caiden to jump in the car, and went for a drive. I cannot describe how good and free it felt to be driving again after 1 whole year, I must have looked like an idiot with the amount I was smiling.

 

The next day after waking up from an amazing sleep in my own bed, I walked out, said good morning to Bryson and started speaking to him. He was looking at me really strangely, it was then that I realised that I had just spoken to him in Danish. He thought this was a bit funny.

  

In my first week home I ate around 6 mangoes and countless amounts of Aussie fruit and vegetables, drove myself and my brothers to the beach (1 hour from my house) around 4 times, showed photos from my year (only getting up to June!), caught up with my friends and shared a lot of stories of our adventures in 2013, unpacked my suitcase and box that had arrived, went through my pile of mail and began enjoying all of the little Australian things that I had missed over the past year.

 

The Final Weeks

It seems surreal that my exchange journey is coming to an end and that it was a whole year ago that I first moved to Denmark. 

 

 

On the 31st of December, the New Years Eve celebrations in Denmark begin with almost every family sitting around the tv to watch the Queen's speech. Dronning Margrethe (Queen Margrethe) reflects upon the past year for Denmark and also discusses the future in a very patriotic and inspirational way.

  

After this I went and ate dinner together with my class, then spent the night celebrating 2013 and welcoming 2014 with them.

  

In the last 10 seconds of 2013, we counted down to the New Year. It is tradition and good luck to be standing somewhere high, so we stood on a lounge chair and then at midnight you jump down into the New Year.

  

At midnight, the entire town lit up and came alive with fireworks. They are legal in Denmark, so most people have their own fireworks that they set off themselves. We were in an apartment up high so had a good view over the town to see all of the fireworks popping up from the streets of the town.

I was lucky enough to win a private party at the club in my town, Crazy Daisy, so I was able to hold a going away party for me and all of my Danish friends. It was a great night and felt like more of a celebration of my year together with all of the friends that I had made rather than a farewell thing.

 

 

After my going away party, I had one week left in Denmark. On the Monday night I had my final Rotary meeting, where I said farewell to the Club that had been so good to me over the past year. I played a short movie that I had made to them about my year in Denmark which they enjoyed.

Here is the link to watch my video:

My Exchange Year in Denmark 2013

I spent some time with the other exchange students from my school. We went to a cafe in Viborg for afternoon tea and then they all came to my house and went through all of the clothes and things that I wanted to get rid of. They all took whatever they wanted from the pile.

On Tuesday, I went to Copenhagen to see the city for one last time before I leave (who knows when I will get to see it next!). I spent the day with Sarah (another Australian exchange student), we went and saw all of the touristy places again, tried to track the Queen down as she went from one castle to another- we missed her by a few minutes but did see her guard and all of the horses, ate lunch in our favourite place at Nyhavn and spent some time to just hygge. Copenhagen really is one of the nicest European cities, with under 2 million people (yes, smaller than Brisbane) it doesn't feel too busy and is very clean.

 

 

 

 

On Wednesday night I went and had dinner with my third host family. It was nice to see them and my host grandparents once again before leaving. Saying goodbye to them and my two younger host brothers wasn't easy. But in 2015 they plan to come and visit me in Australia which I am very much looking forward to.


I went to school on the Thursday and Friday. On Friday I made my class Lamingtons to eat in our last lesson together and gave them all a little koala and an Australian shot glass. They surprised me with a present and card that everyone had signed. It was a beautiful Marguerite bracelet that matches the earrings that I got for Christmas, very Danish. Plus some of my favourite flavoured flødeboller and some other chocolates from Frellsens (Danish confectionary shop). We took a class photo and spent some time to just hygge and chat before hugging and saying 'vi ses' (see you) to each member of my class. Each person in my class had been a special part of my exchange year and memories. I am so grateful that I had such a great class while in Denmark.

 

  

I had actually began packing about 1.5 weeks before I was due to leave, and finalised it on the Wednesday so when it came to the night before leaving I didn't have that much to do.

  

So much has happened since I hopped on the plane 357 days ago in Brisbane by myself with only my 20kg suitcase and hand luggage, leaving everything and everyone that I knew in Australia to travel to the other side of the world to the unknown to live in Denmark where I knew no one and couldn't speak the language. I have learnt so much about myself, life and the world, learnt and become fluent in Danish, made so many great memories, met so many great people, travelled Europe and overall had an incredible and unforgettable experience.

I am so grateful to everyone that made my year possible and as amazing as it was; my parents and family, friends, host families, Danish friends, other exchange students, staff and volunteers, everyone else that I met along the way and of course Rotary who it would not have been possible without- a huge thank you to both Viborg-Asmild Rotary Club for hosting me in District 1440 and to the Caboolture Rotary Club in District 9600 for sponsoring me.

If anyone is considering exchange, I would highly recommend it! I would also definitely recommend the Rotary Youth Exchange Program, I am so happy that I decided to go through Rotary.

- This is not my last blog entry!

Glædelig Jul! Merry Christmas!

Before you experience a Christmas in another culture you don't really think too much about the differences that there can be. I am so glad that I have had the opportunity to experience a completely different type of Christmas this year in Denmark. 

My host family picked out the Christmas tree on the Friday afternoon, 20th December. Then on the 23rd, we brought it into the house, put it up and decorated it. The decorations are similar to the ones we use in Australia, glass balls, small santas, stars and other Christmas figures. But they don't use tinsel, beads or electric lights. The tree is also decorated with real candles, which are only lit on Christmas night.

  

In Denmark Christmas is considered the 24th December, so on this day we wished each other 'Glædelig Jul' (Happy Christmas) and 'God Jul' (Good Christmas). During the day we didn't do anything in particular, but after lunch the food preparation began ready for our Christmas dinner. We had Christmas dinner together with just my host parents and host siblings. For dinner we had: roast duck, caramelised potatoes, boiled potatoes, red cabbage and brown gravy.

Then for dessert we had the traditional Danish Christmas dessert, Ris a La Mande (like a cold rice pudding made with almonds). As a Christmas tradition, one whole almond was hidden in the bowl for a lucky person to find. I ended up finding the almond and won a prize, which was 6 flødeboller- one for each of us to eat.

  

After dinner we went into the lounge room and did another Danish tradition, walking around the Christmas tree, holding hands while singing Christmas songs. This was a very different thing to me, because in Australia we have nothing like it and to most Australians it would sound like quite a strange thing to do. It was great to get to try such a different tradition, I thought that singing the songs on Christmas night together was a nice thing, although walking around the tree whilst doing it was something that I think would take some getting used to.

After this which was around 9pm, it was time to open presents! The presents all stayed in another room then were brought out one by one to be opened; while one person opened their present everyone else watched on. The present opening lasted until around 10.45pm, when everyone had opened all of their presents. I was very lucky to receive some excellent presents (a lot of really Danish things!) from my host families and other people. 

 

After we were finished opening the presents we all just went to bed. I skyped my family in Australia who had just opened their presents on Christmas morning. It was nice being able to see the presents that they got for Christmas and be a part of Christmas morning. A lot of exchange students say that they feel quite homesick at Christmas but I didn't really experience this, I found it great to experience a different type of Christmas and did only have 3 weeks left until I would see my family again anyway.

   

On the morning of the 25th I woke up and was happy and excited because it was Christmas. Then I remembered that Christmas has already happened the night before on the 24th, but in my head it was still Christmas, I had to stop myself from wishing my host family a Merry Christmas because that had been the day before! We just had a normal breakfast, then for the rest of the day my host family all just did their own relaxing things like reading new books and watching tv series that they had gotten as Christmas presents the day before. It felt a bit strange for me to not be doing anything Christmassy, because in Australia our Christmas celebrations start when we wake up in the morning (on the 25th) and last until we go to sleep that night, sometimes even continuing for days. So I decided to listen to watch some Christmas movies, of course including The Grinch.

  

That night (25th) I went to have a Christmas dinner with my 3rd host family, at Jesper's parents' house. It was so nice to see them all again and get to celebrate Christmas with them. After dinner we all played Just Dance on the Wii (that the boys had gotten for Christmas), not just Villads, Malthe and me, but also Heidi and Jesper, even the grandparents had a go. Then we had a darts tournament, which was a lot of fun. I had taken Tim Tams for them to try and they absolutely loved them. They gave me new Pandora charms for my bracelet (that they had previously given me), a snowman- because I love the snow in Denmark, a swan- the national bird of Denmark and a kangaroo- very Australian. It was such a hyggelig night.

 

On Friday the 27th, I had a Christmas lunch with both Alice and her family, another member of my Rotary Club Peter (who was involved in the exchange student department of the club) and his wife, my 2nd host family and also my 4th host family. Alice had kindly offered to host it at her place and we all shared the task of making the food. It was an interpretation of Australian Christmas food, so we had: roast turkey with stuffing and cranberry sauce, glazed ham with apple sauce, vegetables, pasta salad, damper, trifle, Bailey's balls, jam drops, pavlova and punch. The food ended up being delicious and everyone really enjoyed it.

  

 

I am so grateful to all of the people that let me into their homes and families to be a part of the Danish Christmas, it was truly a special experience that I will never forget.