Wednesday, September 23, 2009

The good, the bad, and the ugly..


















Whoah, okay, so it's now been a month since I left anything here. I really am sticking to my word about being unorganised. But anywho, i'll tell what i've been doing, since I realise I actually forgot to do that in the first post haha. I suck at this man.
Since I arrived here in Denmark, 2 months ago, i've been doing a bit of travelling with my host family, in weekends and stuff. Three days after I arrived at my new home, we took a train to the top of Denmark, to a town called Skagen (just to warn you, im going to add the pronounciation next to all the words, because knowing my Mum, she's probably going to read this and tell a billion people, and pronounce all the words wrong, so yeah, Skagen = Skay-en).

It was such an amazing town, really old and rich in history, with cobbled streets and lots of tiny cafés. On the first day we arrived we checked into a B&B, rented some bikes and rode around the town. This was kinda funny, because my history with bicycles is not so flash, so i fell off a few times haha. I think my host family was ready to give me training wheels.

Anyhow, the next day we rode to the Northern most point in Denmark, and stood in the water where the two seas meet, which was really trippy. The rest of the trip was spent biking more, eating tons of is (icecream), and napping lots.

A few days after we came back from Skagen, my host mum Anette, host sister Cecilie and I travelled to the island of Fyn (prn = Fern) to spend two days with my Mormor (host mum's mum) at her summer house. It was right on the beach, and it was really beautiful. We basically did nothing, just ate lots, and went for walks through the woods and along the beach. It was really nice just to relax before I had to start school.

When we got back, it was a busy few days. We arrived back on Monday morning, and we had to go to the Næstved (prn = Nest-ville) Gymnasium for a meeting with the lady who looks after the exchange students. When I arrived in Denmark I was enrolled at a business school, but it is located about 20 kms from my house, so Anette rang the Gymnasium to see if it was possible that I go there. So that was what our meeting was for, and it turned out that they thought it was fine that I go there. On Tuesday we had to go back to the Gymnasium for a tour around the school with the other exchange students, and on Wednesday was my first official day at school. I thought I would have been a lot more nervous and scared than I was, but it just seemed really casual, and when I first met my class it was pretty nice since they were all so friendly.

Three weeks after I started school, we took a trip to the island of Jylland (prn = You-land), to go and see Legoland!

We decided to go and queue up for this boat ride, where we had to sit two people to a boat and you went round the water and looked at all the different things made of lego, like the Taj Mahal and stuff. I went in a boat with Anette, and just as a joke she asked me if i wanted to "steer" the boat, since thats what all the little kids did, not knowing that we really did have to steer the boat.

We got in and our boat went completely mental, crashing into the walls, and rocking really violently from side to side. Neither of us knew what was wrong with it, and when we looked around everyone had their hands on the wheel, really concentrating on steering their boat. We just looked at each other and burst out laughing. And after that we still didnt steer properly haha

The rest of the day we saw some pretty spectaculiar things made of lego. I swear everything that is well known around the world was there, it was so incredible to see. They had the Disney castle, Mount Rushmore, Hollywood Blvd., the temples of Eqypt, Stonehenge, and lots of other things.

Then we travelled to Vejle to stay with Anette's sister Susanne, and celebrate her son's 16th birthday. On the way we stopped at this crazy as farmhouse where somebody had dug up a grave of a teenage girl, which was hundreds and hundreds of years old. The weird thing was some of her hair, and her clothes, and teeth and things were completely fine, they hadnt withered away with time or whatever you call it. She had also been found with a dead baby next to her, but nobody knew why she was buried with it. Weird stuff man.

A few weekends later some exchange students came to Næstved from other parts of Denmark, and we hung out for the day and went to the beach in Karrebæksminde (prn = Kar-beks-min). We bought some bread and beers before we caught the bus, and we ate them on the beach. The weather was really nice, and it was a really good day.

The weekend just been, we had a camp in Køge (prn = Koo), with about 40 of the exchange students from this area of Denmark. It was so good to see them all again, and we got up to some funny things, such as breaking in to the kitchen at 2am to get some food, eating tons of apples!!, having a fireless campfire at 4.30am, trying to overcome our tiredness and see the sun rise but only making it til 6am, then being woken up at 8am! and having communal showers again.

It was alot of fun, and the weekend was mostly designed to help us talk about problems we have been having in our families, and how we think we can overcome them in order to build better relationships with our families.
When I arrived back in Næstved on Sunday, I went with Anette to Cecilies riding school, to watch her ride in some competitions. It was actually quite surprising for me because I have never liked horses, or anything to do with them, but it was cool to see her riding, and her horse scared me a little, since it was so huge! After she had competed we went to the stable and I got to feed some of the horses! haha it was pretty cool though.

This past week I have been sick, so I took the week off school, but there has been a strike so most of the students have been protesting and things. Something about the government taking money from the students or something, I dont really know. That's where it gets frustrating when I dont understand the language, because it would be interesting to know what they are protesting for. But I just have to hang in there and keep trying my best. Language class doesnt help much, since we only have it once a week for one and a half hours, and its mostly just a time too see the other exchange students and eat lots of crappy food haha. We actually had too write what we thought we should do, and what we wanted to learn in class, and I wrote that we should have a cake, so now we are going to get cake every lesson hahaha :)

I also went to some other danish lessons last week, but it was far too hard for me, so the teacher told me too go home and she would find another class for me. She rang and said there was another one, and I went to meet with the lady who runs it, so im starting those classes in two weeks time. Its all so confusing man. But I hope it helps me, because Anette and Ulrik have told me that we wont be speaking english at home after the 1st November!!


So anyway, there has been a lot of other things that have happened in between all of this, but I will write that later on. Right now I have to go and pack because we are going to go to Bornholm, Sweden and Germany tomorrow!! So exciting :) I will try and write about it when I get back, but yeah, as you see i'm not too good at this. Might be another month haha
Vi ses
Kelsi :)

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

First month

Right, so I finally decided to have a crack at writing a blog, but you really shouldn't be surprised if it becomes slack after awhile, those of you who know me would know that I am highly unorganised.
Anyway, it has been a month so far, here in Danmark, and so far I have loved every single moment of it. From the flights over (yes, even the 13 hour one on crappy Lufthansa, with no television), the airport antics (travelators :] ), the arrival camp, meeting all of the other exchange students and having a fantastic first 3 days, to the first meeting with my Host family, travelling to different places around Danmark, and the first days of school (as well as all the others that have followed). My host family has been really great, in the way that they have welcomed me into their family, and treated me just as they treat each other. We have alot of laughs together, and they are trying really hard to help me learn Danish, but I understand that it is extremely hard from their side, trying to teach a kiwi one of the hardest languages in the world.
Everything is so new and exciting, and sometimes a bit weird, such as all the cancelled lessons at school. All the girls back at NPGHS would LOVE it, i can guarantee, but too be honest it kind of annoys me, because I actually WANT to be in class, as strange as it may sound.
The language is definately a huge barrier that I hope to overcome within the next few months, and my Danish is ssss...llll....oooo...wwww.....llll.....yyyyy.. coming along. I can understand very small parts of conversations, and I know some phrases, but it is barely enough to have a conversation, which is what I really want too do.
Some things that I have noticed about Danmark so far, which are mostly just really small things, but have stood out to me alot, are;
1. Biking to school is extremely easy, since everything is so flat.
2. When we are in the car, and we stop at the traffic lights, they go GREEN-ORANGE-RED, and then RED-ORANGE-GREEN, which I can never get over, it just seems awfully strange.
3. There is no toast, only spread on bread.
4. MC Hammer pants are very fashionable.
5. Guys wear man-bags
6. It is ridiculously expensive to get your drivers license, and even more so to buy a car
7. If you tell Danes that you have never heard of B&O, and Royal Copenhagen, they will think you dont know anything ;)
8. Four very popular Danish past-times; Drinking, Eating, Sleeping, Drinking
9. Almost everyone speaks English very well, which is a bad thing, because then you're not forced to speak Danish
10. Guys think it's really cool to tuck their jeans, or trackies, or any sort of pants they are wearing into their socks.
11. Danes LOVE to hygge. And it is brilliant
12. Georg Jensen..say no more.
13. Danes love candles, refer to number 11.
14. When Kiwi's speak, we are often mistaken for Americans. Great
15. It's not uncommon to see kids around the age of eleven smoking
16. Danmark is NOT the capitol of Sweden
17. Danmark is also NOT the capitol of IKEA

But basically I have had a fantastic time so far, I love Danmark so much, I might never want to come home (haha kidding Mum and Dad if you read this). Sorry about this being all muddle up and stuuf, with lots of bad english. Haha
Vi ses, Kelsi ♥