Intro camp!

Hellooooo!

This past week I had my introduction/language camp for exchange! It was a week long event that had all of the Rotary Youth Exchange Students in Denmark from all districts, held in a town called Bjerringbro! It was super cool to meet people from all over Denmark, and I made some pretty cool friends. There were kids from Taiwan, Japan, Lithuania, Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay, Chile, Canada, U.S.A, and Argentina (Maybe forgetting a few countries).

I arrived Sunday afternoon with all the other exchange students, and from there we traded pins for our Rotary blazers, we talked a lot, we ate dinner, and then we danced A LOT in our "living room" area with some strobe lights, and A LOT of Brazilian music.

We had three hour Danish lessons every morning from Monday to Friday, and again in the afternoon from Monday to Wednesday. On Thursday we went to Århus and saw the art museum there, and then we were able to walk around and shop a little. I also ordered ice cream (twice) IN DANISH.

Friday afternoon was really great because our afternoon Danish lessons was talking about culture shock, and although Denmark is much like what I'm used to at home, and although the culture shock wasn't very much, it was really great to be able to talk with a whole class full of other exchange students about all the differences we've noticed and what we all think of them, or how we're adapting to them.

Saturday night there was a little "celebration" for the end of intro camp. By celebration I mean there was an entire country full of exchange students crammed into a lecture hall dancing to Brazilian music all night long. It was literally like we were clubbing, minus basically everything that goes into clubbing besides music, and people. It was a lot of fun.

We also had to perform a "show" at the end, it was all just really fun performances made up by the teachers and students. My class ended up marching into the lecture hall signing an old Danish nursery rhyme: "Min venstre, min venstre, min venstre fod er meget godt, den hopper og danser i støvler og sko. Men hvad den med højre, den højre? Den højre danser hopsasa." Which basically translates to: "My left foot, my left foot, my left food is really good, it hops and dances in boots and shoes, but what about the right? The right? The right is dancing hopsasa." I'm pretty sure hopsasa is an old Danish dance...or maybe a part of the rhyme I still don't know.

Here are some pictures from intro camp:

The "massive river of Denmark" we saw on the first night of intro camp.

A kid named Hunter and I holding up the American flag in front of the art museum, you can kind of see the rainbow bridge above us.

Also the rainbow bridge.

This is probably the biggest exhibit in the art museum in Århus, it's the rainbow bridge on the roof.

This is a view of Århus from the roof of the art museum.

This boy is one of the biggest exhibits in the art museum in Århus.

This is all Danish I translated from a story in English. 

I would have wrote more, but I'm tired because I just got back from intro camp today. 

Vi ses!

Først dag i Skole

Hello!

Idag var min først dag i Dansk skole. 

Today was my first day in Danish school. 

I got placed into a second year class, and I'm in a class line of Social Sciences - Religious studies - English. 

I will now (confusingly) describe to you what a second year vs. first year and what a class line is: There are three years in a Danish gymnasium (Gymnasium is what they call their "high schools"). You have your first year classes, which is all the kids who are in their first year at gymnasium, your second year classes which is all the kids in their second year at gymnasium, and your third years which you probably understand by now. 

Then you have your class line, which is incredibly hard to describe. In a Danish high school, it is not like in the United States. In Danish school, you pick a general class line to study (kind of like a "major" or "minor" in the U.S), and whatever you pick, that is what you study in the rest of your time in statsskole (gymnasium) and into university. When you're a first year, you will choose what class line you want to study, and in January at the half year mark you can re-decide your class line, or confirm that's what you'll be studying. Once you choose, that is what you study for the rest of the time. 

For example: you can have a class line "French, Spanish, German" or "Biology, Chemistry, Physics" or maybe some kind of biotechnology or psychology type class line as well. 

Everyone has to take two languages besides your general class line, English compulsory for everyone and after that you can choose your second language to be either Spanish, French, or German. I personally am hoping and wishing with every last fiber of my being that I can be placed in French, but I suppose in the end if I'm not the world wont end and I suppose me not taking French as a language in my exchange year doesn't mean I can't stop studying French anymore. Don't disregard the"hoping and wishing with every last fiber of my being" part though because I still am doing that regardless of what I actually write. Or "skrive" if I were to be Danish. 

This is where it get's even longer and more confusing, I'm not just taking English, Social Sciences, a language and Religious studies, there are more classes broken down into this class line such as biology (which I took last year so maybe I'll have some earthly idea of what the teacher is saying) and natural geography. I think that's it...not sure though. 

ON WITH MY DAY- So I walk into natural geography first with the foreign exchange coordinator at my school. I was told to say something about myself, so I introduced myself in Danish and figured that was enough. I ended it by awkwardly whispering "yaay," and everyone laughed. I'm guessing it's because: 

A.) I had an accent. 

B.) I spoke in wrongly pronounced Danish with an accent

C.) I was as awkward as I thought I was

D.) I'm simply foreign. 

Hoping for either A, C, or D. Natural Geography ended almost an hour early so I talked with some girls, almost walked into the boys bathroom, saw some boys walk into the girls bathroom (I hope it was that...) and then went to Social Sciences. I sat there and pretended like I knew what the teacher was talking about, and then went to lunch. I sat with a couple girls at lunch and pretended like I knew what they were talking about, and then went to biology. I again, sat there and pretended like I knew what the teacher was talking about, wrote down some (pretty good- if I do say so myself) notes, and then contemplated how I'll get 11 months worth of translated Danish notes and xerox book copies home to show my school in the United States. That was my last class of the day, thus school is over.

Other than that it was a pretty solid first day of school- I met some nice people, and that's cool. I'm going to go attempt reading something in Danish and again (lets see if you can guess what I'll say) pretend like I know what I'm doing. Shocker. 

Vi ses, hej hej! :-)

Photo update

My last blog didn't have any photos because it was my first day here and plus 11:30 at night, but here's some photos so far that I've taken in Denmark. I start school on Monday so maybe if I'm not absolutely fried from trying to pick out words I understand from a foreign language all day, I'll write a blog.

Anyway, min billeder. (Don't try to google translate that because honestly I'm not even completely confident in my ability to form a grammatically correct phrase in Danish out of even two words ;-) )

My first sight of Denmark after sitting in Amsterdam Schiphol airport for 3.5 hours, and airplanes for a grand total of almost 10 hours.

AMSTERDAM STAMPED MY PASSPORT SAY WHAAAT.

I'm not one for selfies but my host families dog Luna jumped on my lap and put her front paws on my desk making me laugh so I opened webcam to document the moment, because who doesn't love cute dogs who do even cuter things. 

Second or third night in Denmark, I can't remember. Since I'm not going to school yet, all my days are kind of running together, I even had to ask my host dad yesterday if it was Thursday. My host families house is situated right near a battlefield that's behind us left from a battle between the German's and Danes, which is in the picture.

Sunset from... I don't know Wednesday night? Probably. Like I said, my days are running together.

Called it on the rain ;-) it was torrential downpour right after I got inside from walking Luna. It rained literally harder than I've ever seen it, and coming from the Pacific Northwest that says a lot. Kudos to you if you understand what I'm referring to when I relate these cows laying down to rain.

Not often that you see an actual Dairy cow grazing. Well I mean unless they live behind your house :-D

Another sunset picture, this was last night. I know that for sure.

I just took this photo with my phone so it's not too great but it's an old church in Germany in a town called Flensburg.

And there's some pictures so far.

Vi ses, hej hej!

Velkommen til Danmark

Hej! Jeg er i Danmark! (I'm in Denmark!)

I took off on my flight from Seattle to Amsterdam on Friday night, and it was a 9 hour flight. Some of it felt ennnndlesssssss like that word, and some of it went by fast. Oh, and story time!

Okay so I board the plane, and it's my first international flight right? So of course I'm flying overseas, wanting some reassurance that I will make it overseas. So I'm scoping out who I'm sitting next to, and find I'm next to a family with three kids. I'm thinking, oh cool, okay. Maybe a little less intimidating than a business man. (I have this weird thing about flying; I feel like a business man traveling alone is more susceptible to die a plane crash than a kid and her family with the rest of their lives - don't ask.) So I sit down and kind of smile, and start organizing my two carryons under my seat, when I realize these people have an accent. I wasn't really expecting anything less than that because it's an international flight, but I started to recognize the accent and realized I knew the language...because the family was speaking French! I've been waiting two years to test out my French skills and what better way to do so than on a 9.5 hour flight? (They understood me, by the way. Just as I understood them.)

I finally got into Denmark around 5:35 Danish time, and it was a 90 minute drive from Billund to Sønderborg. I got to talk with my host family of course, they're all really sweet and welcoming and I find myself not experiencing what might be called the "honeymoon stage," but rather a country that I can call home, without even realizing I'm away from home. I of course slept a lot also, but woke up voluntarily at 5:30 in the morning because I just decided I wasn't tired anymore. Jet lag, grrr.

When I woke up I ate breakfast with my host dad, host sister and two host brothers, and then my host sister and host dad and I all drove to Germany for a couple hours! My host father's business is in Germany, and a lot of grocery shopping is done there also so I got to see a grocery store in Germany! It's like a mall in the United States, and then when you keep walking past the various food shops and vendors, you'll enter a store that's basically like a German version of Walmart.

I can now say that in two days I have been in Amsterdam (for a layover), Germany, and Denmark.

When we got home from Germany we had a couple hours before eating dinner, and after dinner my host mom, dad, and one of my host brothers went to my second host brothers handball practice. It was pretty cool, it's like a game of basketball with soccer nets instead of hoops.

So, there is my arrival and first day in the happiest country in the world. I would have wrote more, but I'm super tired right now and kind of falling asleep on my computer. Jeg er så træt.

Mojn!