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! :-)