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!

Airline tickets!

Alright!

I can officially say that I have my airline tickets, and that I definitely know the exact date that I'm leaving! Woohoo!

Okay, so, *drum roll please*

I OFFICIALLY depart SeaTac Int'l airport on August 9th! I have (thank god) only one connection, and will be flying direct to Amsterdam! I'll have time to get some coffee or something because I have a 3.5 hour layover (or maybe just buy out the Starbucks store and all their coffee, because I have the inability to sleep on airplanes, and my flight is 9 hours), and then I will board a flight to my final destination, Denmark!

I am SO excited to meet my host family and to just simply see Denmark!! Ahhh!

On December 9th I got home from Victoria Canada and wrote on my little "countdown whiteboard," Eight months to Denmark. I glanced at it every minute, hour, day of my life. I had those moments of complete excitement thinking I'd never get there, to thinking that "I'll be in Denmark soon," to thinking..."Oh woah, woah. Hold on a second. I'm going to Denmark?" And now eight months is up! I mean...I'm going to Denmark. I actually made it. D E N M A R K!!!!!!

And lastly- thank you to everyone who has helped with my exchange up to this point! So many people have helped to make sure I, and all the other exchangers have what it takes to be incredibly successful exchange students. In two weeks it'll be up to me (and the occasional help from some others) to make of my exchange what I truly want it to be. I am literally two weeks away from boarding the flight that will forever change my life, and I am so thankful to those who had the faith in me to carry me this far, and to provide me with such an incredible opportunity. I appreciate it!! :-)

OFFICIALLY 12 DAYS UNTIL I FLY TO THE HAPPIEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!

Seriously though I'm so excited I could probably fly without an airplane.

Jeg vil være i Danmark i 12 dage og jeg er så spændt!

Vi ses! Se dig snart Danmark!

"Bonne Vacance"

And thus, my last day of school in the English language (for a year at least) is over.

WHICH IS CRAZY. SERIOUSLY, WHERE DID THE LAST NINE MONTHS GO. 

I practically just applied to Rotary, I just got accepted. That was NOT eight months ago. But it was. (Yesterday was eight months exactly actually). 

I JUST found out I was going to Denmark, and wrote on my whiteboard "eight months until Denmark" which was just this infinitely long waiting time. And now it's one in a half months away? 

What. Even. I'm not actually sure that's acceptable.

I've learned a lot of things this past school year (Duh. I'll never forget what Osmosis is), but especially through Rotary, and it's not even my exchange year yet. The biggest thing I learned though? Goodbyes suck. Even if I said goodbye to most people for just a year. The one thing is though, is that when I get back most of my friends will be seniors, and while I'm still holding onto hope that I graduate on time, they will have changed, just as I will have. Time moves on, and people move with it. So a year, in perspective is not a long time. A lot still happens though.

Although, the next time I walk through the hallway of a school, it'll be in Denmark! I'll be the person with the funny accent, who has to think of weird things to say off the top of my head if somebody wants to hear me speak English. BUT HEY I'LL HAVE AN ACCENT. HOW COOL IS THAT?!!?!

So maybe, in that case, saying "hej hej" or "Au Revoir" to a lot of my friends for a year wasn't ALL a bad thing. I mean, in one and a half months I get to see how large life outside of my own small town is, and I'll be able to learn about the world by seeing it, not by reading about it.

A ship is not meant to stay docked in it's harbor.
Just as a life is not meant to be lived in one place.

Approximately 57 days until I see life on the flip side of the Atlantic Ocean!
SEE YOU SOON DENMARK

Hej Hej!

Countdown: 3 weeks

Okay so when I say countdown: three weeks, I'm not counting down to the time until I leave to Denmark...

(I wish.) 

I'm counting down to the weeks left of school! And not JUST school! THREE WEEKS LEFT OF SCHOOL IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Although when I think about it, some of my teachers may as well be speaking a foreign language because I can hardly understand them anyway. I mean, an A in geometry all year? Can someone explain THAT to me? 

ANYWAY. 

I also have kind of an update: 

First, let's do a quick Q&A session, kind of like the way I figured out all I needed to for exchange: 

Almost every question that people ask me is either: "Are you getting excited?" and "When do you leave?"

Well, in all honesty, I'd love to know when I'm leaving as much as the next guy and unfortunately I'm still kind of waiting. Not to fret though, I'll know soon, just like everyone who's friends with me on facebook when I post some kind of an all caps lock status update. 

Am I getting excited? I suppose to keep things simple I'd just say yes, I'm getting very excited. If I wanted to be accurate though, I'd say that there is no getting excited for exchange. As you may recall I almost knocked photo frames off the wall, fell out my seat with a seatbelt on, and shattered two cellphones with excitement...and that was just December. So to say the least, I've been excited. 

MOVING ON: 

In one of my posts way, way back I mentioned that I don't need a visa to study abroad in Denmark (A visa is not the traditional swipe-n-go money card people think of, in this case it's a residence permit and if I didn't have it I'd technically not legally be allowed in Denmark.) Some countries however, don't require visa's to study there (from what I've heard), and Denmark is apparently not one of those countries. So change of plans, I need a residence permit after all. I also need to make an in person appearance at a consulate in order to receive that, and when I find out where that is there will be blogs with lots and lots of photos. It will not be in Washington however, because there is not a Danish consulate in Washington state. 

I also said that I'd be leaving around August 25th in a past blog post, and that too has changed. In one set of rules and regulations that I had to read over, sign, and scan back to the ADC of my Danish district it was written that I'd be leaving around (so not exactly) the first weekend of August. I've also heard that many people are expected to arrive in Denmark August 8th or 9th, and actually some people have purchased their airline tickets for that weekend also. I am still in the process of filling out my residence permit application, which needs to happen before I actually get the residence permit, and until I get my residence permit, I won't purchase my airline tickets. Thus, until I purchase my airline tickets, I won't know the exact date that I hop on an airplane yelling "FREE AT LASSSTTT." 

Nah just kidding, I'll put on some kind of convincing show for my moms sake at the airport... (I say because she reads my blog ;-) )

For all the people that ask me questions about exchange though, I love it when you ask questions, and please feel free to KEEP asking me questions because eventually my answers will get a little less repetitive. 

One last thing (I'm sorry this blog post is super long) PLEASE START THINKING ABOUT ASKING YOUR PARENTS TO BE AN EXCHANGE STUDENT, EITHER SHORT TERM OR LONG TERM. IT IS AN INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE, AND ALREADY I'VE EXPERIENCED THINGS THAT I CAN'T REALLY DESCRIBE. I WANT YOU TO FEEL THE SAME HAPPINESS AND EXCITEMENT THAT I DO. Applications are typically turned in to Rotary in September but applying to be an exchange student is not an overnight process. It took me about  five months to fully think about this along with my parents before handing in my application (which was the scariest and most satisfying moment of my life). 

TWO MONTHS TO DENMARK!!!!!!!! (I should probably stop wishing my time away now)...

Vi ses! :-)