Sunday 15 December 2013
The end
In the last few weeks, I have been too busy making the most of the short amount of time I have left, and therefore this blog has sort of taken a backseat. I could write a whole lot about all the things I've done, but I really can't be bothered. You can hear about it when I come back, which isn't far away!
I do, however, want to say a quick thank you to everyone who has been involved in my life up until this moment, and to all the people who have contributed to making this year pretty damn unforgettable.
I am standing on the brink of a new horizon, one filled with opportunities and possibilities. A year ago, I stood in almost the same place; on the edge a cliff with an overweight suitcase, eyes brimming with tears, and a heart filled with hope. I left my entire world behind to deal with the real world. I was not in the slightest prepared for what this year would grow to be, nor the significance it would end up having to pretty much everything. It has not just been a year in my life, but a lifetime in one year – an eternity that has gone by in the blink of an eye.
Whilst I a looking forward to coming home to fulfil new hopes and dreams and seize new opportunities, I am sad to be leaving. This place has given me so much knowledge, insight, and allowed me to develop a real sense of myself and the world as a whole that I didn't have before.
I know it will be hard to adjust to a world which was once so familiar to me, which will be be so alien and strange upon my return, but life is full of challenges.
See you all soon.
Tuesday 19 November 2013
STORM HITS DK
On the 28th of October there was a storm. It hit multiple places in Europe, and Denmark was once of them. It was the worst storm in 60 years. Here is a video (not by me) of what it was (sort of) like:
It was nuts. Trees fell across the train lines, so the trains all stopped. Signs had been put up the weekend before for the various candidates for the local elections, so they were flying all over the place. It was impossible to ride a bike: if the wind was against you you just went backwards. Windows were smashed, bits of trampoline went flying everywhere, it was INSANE. I was extremely lucky and managed to catch THE last train home from school, and was inside before the worst hit but boy oh boy, it was nasty.
Sadly, one person died, but fortunately he was the only one. He was also a bit dumb: went down to the harbour to take a video of the waves without putting on any protective gear and got hit in the head by a roof-tile.
Our house was fine, apart from our rubbish bin, which lay out in the middle of the road when I got home - but that was easily fixed! Apart from Molly missing out on her afternoon walk and Simon's soccer getting cancelled it didn't affect us at all. Lucky we are :)
It was nuts. Trees fell across the train lines, so the trains all stopped. Signs had been put up the weekend before for the various candidates for the local elections, so they were flying all over the place. It was impossible to ride a bike: if the wind was against you you just went backwards. Windows were smashed, bits of trampoline went flying everywhere, it was INSANE. I was extremely lucky and managed to catch THE last train home from school, and was inside before the worst hit but boy oh boy, it was nasty.
Sadly, one person died, but fortunately he was the only one. He was also a bit dumb: went down to the harbour to take a video of the waves without putting on any protective gear and got hit in the head by a roof-tile.
Our house was fine, apart from our rubbish bin, which lay out in the middle of the road when I got home - but that was easily fixed! Apart from Molly missing out on her afternoon walk and Simon's soccer getting cancelled it didn't affect us at all. Lucky we are :)
Italy
In the last holidays (our week-long autumn break) I went with my host family to Italy. I figured out that Italy is the sixth country I have been to this year - crazy!
The reason for the trip was this: Mormor and Morfar (my host grandparents) had their wedding anniversary. I think it was their 45th, but let's forget specifics. It was a big number anyway. So, they decided to rent a giant house in Tuscany for six weeks to celebrate. Throughout the time they were there, they had different people come to visit and come the October holidays, it was our turn. Pretty much all Danes go overseas in the autumn break in search of some place warm, and fair enough because this country is really depressing at this time of year - rain, rain, wind, cold, rain. Let's just say despite the ridiculously early hour of the morning we arrived at the airport, it was not at all deserted. However, Copenhagen airport is expertly organized so we got through the kilometre long queue in no time at all! The same cannot (unfortunately) be said for Milano airport, where we had to wait an hour and a half for our rental car - but hey, in Italy, time is a non-existent concept, so when in Rome...
We were extremely lucky to have the company of not only MM and MF but also Eleonora and Hans-Christian (HC). HC is my host mum's brother, and Eleonora is his girlfriend, who just happened to be Italian! She was an absolute sweetie and such a great ambassador for her country. She showed us all kinds of Italian food, events, and taught us so much about the culture she grew up in. She was so passionate about it - and we were all so grateful for her marvellous company.
I made a little video compilation of the week. Click here to watch it!
So that was Italy. Unfortunately, Mormor and Morfar got sick at the end of the week so the ending was a little bitter-sweet. When I woke up the Monday morning after we got back, I was also sick. Bugger. But after a week in bed I was well enough to take on the world again, and exciting things began to happen again....
To be continued....
The reason for the trip was this: Mormor and Morfar (my host grandparents) had their wedding anniversary. I think it was their 45th, but let's forget specifics. It was a big number anyway. So, they decided to rent a giant house in Tuscany for six weeks to celebrate. Throughout the time they were there, they had different people come to visit and come the October holidays, it was our turn. Pretty much all Danes go overseas in the autumn break in search of some place warm, and fair enough because this country is really depressing at this time of year - rain, rain, wind, cold, rain. Let's just say despite the ridiculously early hour of the morning we arrived at the airport, it was not at all deserted. However, Copenhagen airport is expertly organized so we got through the kilometre long queue in no time at all! The same cannot (unfortunately) be said for Milano airport, where we had to wait an hour and a half for our rental car - but hey, in Italy, time is a non-existent concept, so when in Rome...
We were extremely lucky to have the company of not only MM and MF but also Eleonora and Hans-Christian (HC). HC is my host mum's brother, and Eleonora is his girlfriend, who just happened to be Italian! She was an absolute sweetie and such a great ambassador for her country. She showed us all kinds of Italian food, events, and taught us so much about the culture she grew up in. She was so passionate about it - and we were all so grateful for her marvellous company.
I made a little video compilation of the week. Click here to watch it!
So that was Italy. Unfortunately, Mormor and Morfar got sick at the end of the week so the ending was a little bitter-sweet. When I woke up the Monday morning after we got back, I was also sick. Bugger. But after a week in bed I was well enough to take on the world again, and exciting things began to happen again....
To be continued....
Monday 21 October 2013
Last week of term one, there was a music concert at school. I have a list of things I want to do in Denmark, and one of them was perform in front of a crowd, so I saw it as a sign...
I got an email the week before from the music teacher which was sent out to the whole school, asking after performers. I replied, signing myself up....
I borrowed a guitar from a friend and began practising. After two days I had practised so much I had to wrap my fingers up in plasters...
Day of the concert, I woke up nervous. I spent the whole day at school nervous. I nearly cried during my sound-check because I was seriously so nervous.
I don't really understand WHY. I have been in a ton of musicals, and of course I get nerves, but I never get so nervous that my stomach hurts, I can't swallow, I feel sick and I shed tears 30 minutes before I even go on-stage.
People say nerves are good, because it means you care about the performance you are going to give, so I guess I really cared a lot. My host family, friends, and classmates were all there to see and support me, so I was kind of feeling the pressure in spite of their good intentions.
I went up, did it, and it sounded good. I felt so unbelievably good about it afterwards I cannot even begin to describe!
Here is a link which may or may not lead you to a video of me singing, I am not entirely sure how reliable it is :
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202181647210878
I got an email the week before from the music teacher which was sent out to the whole school, asking after performers. I replied, signing myself up....
I borrowed a guitar from a friend and began practising. After two days I had practised so much I had to wrap my fingers up in plasters...
Day of the concert, I woke up nervous. I spent the whole day at school nervous. I nearly cried during my sound-check because I was seriously so nervous.
I don't really understand WHY. I have been in a ton of musicals, and of course I get nerves, but I never get so nervous that my stomach hurts, I can't swallow, I feel sick and I shed tears 30 minutes before I even go on-stage.
People say nerves are good, because it means you care about the performance you are going to give, so I guess I really cared a lot. My host family, friends, and classmates were all there to see and support me, so I was kind of feeling the pressure in spite of their good intentions.
I went up, did it, and it sounded good. I felt so unbelievably good about it afterwards I cannot even begin to describe!
Here is a link which may or may not lead you to a video of me singing, I am not entirely sure how reliable it is :
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202181647210878
It is time to publish a whole lot of posts I started and never really finished. SO.
SACRE COUER?
LOUVRE?
YES. I was in Paris. With these beautiful people: 3.A
I am not a good photographer, photo courtesy of google <3
My little group of four were very lucky and managed to find a very nice lady willing to be interviewed, so within the first ten minutes of being there we were done for the day and spent the rest of the time looking around in the gigantic shopping centre next door.
I am proud to say I bought nothing besides food the entire trip, plus a gift for my host sisters birthday. Being thrifty.
Next thing I ticked off was Napoleans Tomb with these two losers:
I love Paris, and I will live there one day, no matter what.
Bisous xx
EIFFEL TOWER?
SACRE COUER?
NOTRE DAME?
LOUVRE?
YES. I was in Paris. With these beautiful people: 3.A
I will try not to get into too much detail, because I honestly think Paris is such a wonderful place that I could go on about if forever and ever.
We were there from the 17th of September to the 22nd of September, which was a Tuesday night through to a Sunday night. We didn't just go because we all suddenly felt like it at the same time, it was a school trip and was SUPPOSED to be learning orientated and full of activities and research, but most of the time we just ended up sightseeing.
Our hotel was so typically Parisian. A tall, thin building wedged in-between two other tall thin buildings, resulting in us having to walk up five sets of steps to get up to our room. There was a bakery across the road where we bought our breakfasts (the gypsies on the corner eyed up our croissants with hungry eyes every morning; poverty: one of the not so good things about Paris). and a metro station a minutes walk away, giving us pretty much full access to everywhere in Paris. Our teacher recommended that we didn't use the metro so much, because it was easy to just walk everywhere in Paris, but after the first day nobody was walking anywhere if the metro was a possibility. We followed our French teacher around on a walking tour of the city from 9AM to 6PM pretty much non-stop, and didn't get lunch until three by which point everyone was STARVING.
On that first day, we saw most of the big stuff but didn't go inside, just walked past. Which, in my opinion, was a bit dumb. It meant we had to go back in our own time to actually SEE things properly. Centre Pompidou, Notre Dame, Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, Jardin des Tuileries, the list goes on. All of this in one day. It was a bit much to proccess, I assure you.
Day 2 began with a boat tour along the Seine. It was a little chilly, but what the hey! Surprisingly, the boat tour really helped me to orientate myself around Paris. I like to think I inherited my mum's talent of "following my nose" and ending up in the right place. By the end of the trip I was almost able to walk or take the metro without consulting my gigantic touristy map, but just to be safe I kept using it, because there's nothing worse than being lost in a foreign city.
I have been to Paris before, two years ago and saw most of Paris then, but there were still some things I missed, and I managed to fill in the blanks this time, starting with La Grande Arche de la Defense. This was a modern area, which we went out and did some research on.
We were there from the 17th of September to the 22nd of September, which was a Tuesday night through to a Sunday night. We didn't just go because we all suddenly felt like it at the same time, it was a school trip and was SUPPOSED to be learning orientated and full of activities and research, but most of the time we just ended up sightseeing.
Our hotel was so typically Parisian. A tall, thin building wedged in-between two other tall thin buildings, resulting in us having to walk up five sets of steps to get up to our room. There was a bakery across the road where we bought our breakfasts (the gypsies on the corner eyed up our croissants with hungry eyes every morning; poverty: one of the not so good things about Paris). and a metro station a minutes walk away, giving us pretty much full access to everywhere in Paris. Our teacher recommended that we didn't use the metro so much, because it was easy to just walk everywhere in Paris, but after the first day nobody was walking anywhere if the metro was a possibility. We followed our French teacher around on a walking tour of the city from 9AM to 6PM pretty much non-stop, and didn't get lunch until three by which point everyone was STARVING.
On that first day, we saw most of the big stuff but didn't go inside, just walked past. Which, in my opinion, was a bit dumb. It meant we had to go back in our own time to actually SEE things properly. Centre Pompidou, Notre Dame, Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, Jardin des Tuileries, the list goes on. All of this in one day. It was a bit much to proccess, I assure you.
Day 2 began with a boat tour along the Seine. It was a little chilly, but what the hey! Surprisingly, the boat tour really helped me to orientate myself around Paris. I like to think I inherited my mum's talent of "following my nose" and ending up in the right place. By the end of the trip I was almost able to walk or take the metro without consulting my gigantic touristy map, but just to be safe I kept using it, because there's nothing worse than being lost in a foreign city.
I have been to Paris before, two years ago and saw most of Paris then, but there were still some things I missed, and I managed to fill in the blanks this time, starting with La Grande Arche de la Defense. This was a modern area, which we went out and did some research on.
I am not a good photographer, photo courtesy of google <3
My little group of four were very lucky and managed to find a very nice lady willing to be interviewed, so within the first ten minutes of being there we were done for the day and spent the rest of the time looking around in the gigantic shopping centre next door.
I am proud to say I bought nothing besides food the entire trip, plus a gift for my host sisters birthday. Being thrifty.
Next thing I ticked off was Napoleans Tomb with these two losers:
Joking, love you guys. It was near to closing time so we had to rush through a bit, but as far as all of Napoleon's monuments to himself and his achievements go, this was pretty monumental.
I also had one day that I will forever remember as the best day ever. I walked/metroed around Paris by myself for most of the day seeing art, art and more art. I ate good food, wasn't stressed out by anyone else's demands. Wandering dreamily through the elegant galleries of the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay and Musee de l'Orangerie I was disappointed by the Mona Lisa again (as I expected), but stood in front of Monet's water lilies for what seemed like hours, lost in the world of impressionism. I also had a little peek into the Centre Pompidou, the biggest modern art museum in Paris. It was intriguing. Plus, to end the day, I went all the way up to Monmartre to a Dali exhibition and took photos of myself in a photobooth, just like Amelie.
I also had one day that I will forever remember as the best day ever. I walked/metroed around Paris by myself for most of the day seeing art, art and more art. I ate good food, wasn't stressed out by anyone else's demands. Wandering dreamily through the elegant galleries of the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay and Musee de l'Orangerie I was disappointed by the Mona Lisa again (as I expected), but stood in front of Monet's water lilies for what seemed like hours, lost in the world of impressionism. I also had a little peek into the Centre Pompidou, the biggest modern art museum in Paris. It was intriguing. Plus, to end the day, I went all the way up to Monmartre to a Dali exhibition and took photos of myself in a photobooth, just like Amelie.
I love Paris, and I will live there one day, no matter what.
Bisous xx
Saturday 14 September 2013
Being New at Old Things
Recently, I have started up some of my old hobbies. Ballet, guitar, singing, etc. I don't know why it took me this long to get back in to doing things I love doing so much. I guess I didn't realise how much I missed them until I started doing them again!
In saying so, that doesn't mean it's easy to just start again straight off the bat. You can't just not dance ballet for eight months, start again and expect everything to go hunky dory. That's just ridiculous. The day after my first class, my calf muscles ached and I walked up and down stairs at snail pace. Not to mention that during the actual class I struggled to keep up - it's a new syllabus, a different style of ballet, another teacher than the one I have had since I was five, aaaand the list goes on. It wasn't easy, and it still isn't to be honest. It takes some time to get used to things: both physically and mentally.
Yes, now you see where I am going with this.
It's a metaphor for what it was like arriving here because that, too, was sort of like starting something old again. I have lived in foreign countries before, I've been away from home before, I've learned languages and met new people but that doesn't mean I was in the least prepared for anything I have experienced here.
I expected a lot of myself at the beginning, and when I couldn't meet my own expectations I got really frustrated. I wanted to learn Danish so badly, and it seemed so immensely inconvenient to me that my brain wouldn't just be a sponge and soak everything up instantly. I wanted to fit in and make friends so much, but the language barrier makes this a rather difficult task. I really expected myself to be a chameleon, to just adapt and blend in to my surroundings instantly. The fact that I stuck out like a sore thumb a lot of the time bugged me, and I felt like I was letting myself down.
A lot of the exchange students who have just arrived here with the summer intake remind me so much of myself in that sense that they are so desperate to adapt, but it seems impossible to all of them. The thing I have learned is that adapting takes time, a lot of time. When you first arrive here, you want to adapt straight away, but what you don't realize is that that would take all the fun out of it. That IS the essence of the experience of an exchange, the process of getting accustomed to something totally new. Let's say I decide one day I want to be a professional trapeze artist or something. If I could get up on a trapeze and be perfect at it straight away, that takes away the specialness of accomplishing the small goals that you make for yourself along the way. Why would you want to take that out of the equation?
Also, returning home will be like a magnification of starting ballet again. It's not going to be easy. Having to adjust to my old lifestyle is going to be a total shock, and it will take some time, especially after having experienced something so different. What will make it easier for me now is that I know it takes time, I know that I wont instantly revert back to my old self within an instant. I may never return to being my old self. The thought of that once freaked me out, then I was okay with it, and now I think it is a good thing. A really good thing. What is the point of living if you are going to be exactly the same person your whole life?
I'm not even sure what I'm trying to express to you all here, but I guess the essence of it is that just because something is old doesn't mean it can't be made new again.
:)
In saying so, that doesn't mean it's easy to just start again straight off the bat. You can't just not dance ballet for eight months, start again and expect everything to go hunky dory. That's just ridiculous. The day after my first class, my calf muscles ached and I walked up and down stairs at snail pace. Not to mention that during the actual class I struggled to keep up - it's a new syllabus, a different style of ballet, another teacher than the one I have had since I was five, aaaand the list goes on. It wasn't easy, and it still isn't to be honest. It takes some time to get used to things: both physically and mentally.
Yes, now you see where I am going with this.
It's a metaphor for what it was like arriving here because that, too, was sort of like starting something old again. I have lived in foreign countries before, I've been away from home before, I've learned languages and met new people but that doesn't mean I was in the least prepared for anything I have experienced here.
I expected a lot of myself at the beginning, and when I couldn't meet my own expectations I got really frustrated. I wanted to learn Danish so badly, and it seemed so immensely inconvenient to me that my brain wouldn't just be a sponge and soak everything up instantly. I wanted to fit in and make friends so much, but the language barrier makes this a rather difficult task. I really expected myself to be a chameleon, to just adapt and blend in to my surroundings instantly. The fact that I stuck out like a sore thumb a lot of the time bugged me, and I felt like I was letting myself down.
A lot of the exchange students who have just arrived here with the summer intake remind me so much of myself in that sense that they are so desperate to adapt, but it seems impossible to all of them. The thing I have learned is that adapting takes time, a lot of time. When you first arrive here, you want to adapt straight away, but what you don't realize is that that would take all the fun out of it. That IS the essence of the experience of an exchange, the process of getting accustomed to something totally new. Let's say I decide one day I want to be a professional trapeze artist or something. If I could get up on a trapeze and be perfect at it straight away, that takes away the specialness of accomplishing the small goals that you make for yourself along the way. Why would you want to take that out of the equation?
Also, returning home will be like a magnification of starting ballet again. It's not going to be easy. Having to adjust to my old lifestyle is going to be a total shock, and it will take some time, especially after having experienced something so different. What will make it easier for me now is that I know it takes time, I know that I wont instantly revert back to my old self within an instant. I may never return to being my old self. The thought of that once freaked me out, then I was okay with it, and now I think it is a good thing. A really good thing. What is the point of living if you are going to be exactly the same person your whole life?
I'm not even sure what I'm trying to express to you all here, but I guess the essence of it is that just because something is old doesn't mean it can't be made new again.
:)
Sunday 1 September 2013
Lately
Now time for another big catch up! Here we go....
School has well and truly begun now. My life is back to the early mornings, day spent hunched over a desk, and evenings filled with homework. The days seem to go by in a flash! It is scary to think that now I have pretty much three months left here... Time seriously flies. It's scary.
School started on Wednesday two weeks ago, but on the Tuesday beforehand all the new first graders (we call them putte) at the gymnasium had a day with he school to themselves. It is apparently a tradition that the third and second graders stand outside the main entrance to the school and throw water and bird food at them when they leave school at the end of their first day, so we did that on Tuesday. I must admit it was a pretty pathetic effort, not many people showed up because the weather was lousy PLUS the putte got let out early, so we were caught off guard.
Afterwards, everyone went to Lunden. Oh Lunden. The drama you have caused. Lunden is a classic example of Danish youth culture. It is a piece of grass about two minutes walk from the school that is right outside a supermarket. On Friday afternoons (and sometimes Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday too) most of the students from our gymnasium flock over to it. We buy cases of cold beer or cider and sit on the grass soaking up the sunshine for a few hours before we go home. It sounds nice, I know. However, some students recently have taken Lunden a bit too far... It began with drinking games: some of which involve running in circles in combination with drinking, some which involve hitting an upright beer bottle with a shoe. Too complicated to explain. In short, a small group of students were considerably sloshed, went in to the supermarket and did some things that got us into some serious trouble.
Peeing in the changing rooms. Throwing up in the staff bathrooms. Opening a jar of hair gel, using it, then putting it back again. The list goes on, you get my point. So, obviously the school is coming down hard on Lunden right now. Luckily, Autumn has just begun so the weather no longer really permits it to be a good time. I have a feeling this week may be the last week in Lunden, for me anyway. Friday afternoon drinks are not really my thing...
After the first week of school I took off to a place called Kalundborg.
 |
| 3.A (my class) at Lunden |
After the first week of school I took off to a place called Kalundborg.
The red cross on the left is Kalundborg, and the red cross on the right in where I live. There was a music festival on on Kalundborg, and my host dad's dad lives there, so I was invited up for the weekend to go the festival and go for a horse trek! My host grandfather has five children, the oldest of which is Thomas (my host Dad) and the youngest of which is Liv. She is seventeen, but my host aunty. Cool! She has just come back form an exchange to Englang, so we had a lot to talk about. I spent the weekend with her listening to all the bands and meeting all her friends. The music was great! My favourite was this guy called Rasmus Seebach, but I also really liked another guy, Mads Langer. I'd heard some of their music before, so I guess it helped being able to sing along. There was also this really weird act on the last night that was this weird techno music and crazy costumes and then all of a sudden there was a dude playing bagpipes...
So that was that. Seriously weird combination. On the Sunday, we went horseriding. Liv has her own her, her dad has one, and her mum has one! I rode a delightful Icelandic horse whose name I can unfortunately not remember. I think it was Sunny. He was very sweet anyhow :) In spite of the rain we set out for an hour long ride which involved some moments of trotting pretty fast. I'm not exactly a professional horse-rider so I had sore legs the day after... The last time I rode a horse was when I was twelve I think. Dad had given me a four hour trek with him as a Christmas present, and I got given the most EVIL horse in existence. It sort of scared me off. But it was nice to try something different - you can certainly not horse ride in the city anyway.
The following Friday night I went to Tivoli with my host family. Tivoli is this huge theme park right by the central station. Every Friday throughout the summer the put on concerts, and last week was Mads Langer, the guy whose music I quite likes at the Kalundborg festival. It was my immediate host family + mormor, morfar, mormor's brother, his wife, and their daughter. We went out for dinner beforehand and then milled around before the concert started. There was a ridiculous amount of people. You almost couldn't see anything through the sea of sardines, and the music quality was pretty bad too, but Mads Langer was there, and we heard him (again)!
The next day, I went in to Copenhagen with Molly from New Zealand (an exchange student, not to be confused with Molly my dog) to see the Gay Pride Parade. Words cannot express the madness.
This guy was pretty normal. There was one dude I saw who was completely naked. Like, no clothes AT ALL. I considered taking a photo with him, but then when I thought about having to show it to people I realized it might not be such a good idea... Not everyone would appreciate his nudeness. Copenhagen was so vibrant and full of life, it was insane. I must say it was a bit overwhelming - all the costumes, music, alcohol and madness - but it was certainly an entertaining day.
Last night, I went to a friend's 18th Birthday. There is another one next weekend, plus a school party the weekend after that, and then off to Paris for a school trip the week after that, So I guess you could say things are getting a bit busy!
Another update coming soon. Over and out :)
Tuesday 20 August 2013
Molly
Molly, our Golden Retriever, is probably one of the things I am going to miss the most. It's weird, but she's just ALWAYS there and always happy to see me. Some of her habits include:
-Morning and afternoon walks
-She eats grass
-She whimpers and twitches in her sleep
-Whenever we sit down to eat, she has to go outside
-She never barks, but scratches at the door when she wants to come in
-If you are home alone she sits outside your door and watches you
-If you are patting her and then stop she will stare at you and shove her head into your lap until you start again
-She malts like crazy
And many more. Here is a taste of her life.
-Morning and afternoon walks
-She eats grass
-She whimpers and twitches in her sleep
-Whenever we sit down to eat, she has to go outside
-She never barks, but scratches at the door when she wants to come in
-If you are home alone she sits outside your door and watches you
-If you are patting her and then stop she will stare at you and shove her head into your lap until you start again
-She malts like crazy
And many more. Here is a taste of her life.
Thursday 8 August 2013
The preceding image serves as a warning that this post is going to be an absolute MONSTER. Since the last time I properly wrote ( didn't just add a link to a video ) I have been on soooo many adventures. So here we go.
I think it must have been the 14th of July when it all began. A one and a half hour drive to a place called Marielyst in Nykobing Falster, the summerhouse area in the southernmost island of Denmark. Caroline's best friend Frida and her family were down there and we had been invited to stay for a night. It isn't actually a summerhouse either - well it is but that's not how they tend to use it. Frida's Dad is an actor and most years he performs in something called a "Review" - a series of skits and scenes that sort of summarize the years' political, sporting , and cultural achievements/failures in a hilarious, piss-taking sarcastic way typical of the Danes. The 'Review' is performed every Tuesday-Saturday from June until August I think, so Frida's Dad Henrik actually LIVES in the summer house for two/three months.
The house was right next to a fabulous beach which we walked along to get ice cream. There were waves and sand and wind and it was a lot like a beach at home, really. Marielyst is also kind of like The Mount of Denmark. In the summer time all the 'buffies' and Jersey shore types arrive in their fancy cars, drink like fish, cause absolute havoc and disappear with the sun in late August some time. Weird thing is, they are nocturnal. During the day it's all German tourists, then at night time the party begins. Or at least so I heard.
We only stayed one night there, but Simon ( host brother ) and Vigo ( Frida's little brother ) insisted on going for a run as Simon was really keen on staying in top form for when soccer started back. An hour and a half later, they still weren't back. That was a stressful morning. Anyway, they came back eventually and we went to see Møns Klint - a chalk cliff about an hours drive away. We had to walk down four hundred steps to get to the bottom. We stood in awe, then walked back UP four hundred steps again.... Unfortunately at this stage my camera was buried deep in my bag so I got NO photos but I took a peice of chalk with me, and the lovely google image can supply an image to go with:
The same day, we continued to drive on to Sønderjylland where some family friends were borrowing a relatives house whilst they were away. To get there I think we drove through almost every major island Denmark has... Sønderjylland is a region in the Southern part of Jutland next to the German border, and it is rather different from the rest of Denmark in a variety of ways. It actually used to belong to the Germans, so parts of the German culture have crept their way in to the area. They also have a very special accent down there - a mixture of German and Danish sort of. The other thing about it is that they speak VERY slowly. This leads a lot of Danes to think they are slow in the head, but they aren't, just more relaxed. I can also see how it would be good to live there as an exchange student - everyone talks so slowly that it is easier to understand the language in a weird kind of way! It is a part of the country rich with history too - some of which we saw when we went on a bike ride around. Canons, an old port etc. There was a museum but it was hideously expensive and apparently underwhelming so we skipped that and got ice cream instead!
We stayed there for two nights, then drove on to Berlin. I saw drove on like a casual thing but it actually took about 6-7 hours. There were road works on the highway so we had to drive via Hamburg. One thing about German motorways - there is no speed limit. It freaked me out. I swear everyone in Germany has either a Porsche or an Audi that they drive at like, 300km an hour. Now I wont say too much about Berlin, as most of it is said in the video. I will, however add some pictures.
It is a strange feeling to see places that you have seen it history films. Places where you have seen Hitler giving a speech on an old black and white tape, where you have seen Nazi soldiers marching in old movies. It's weird and kind of unreal. In the second photo we are standing by a large chunk of the wall that had been preserved. At one stage, I walked past a photo which showed three dead bodies which had been strung up to the wall. The photo was displayed in front of the exact same part of the wall where those bodies had been. It was a really grounding thing to see.
Another interesting thing about Berlin is that despite the wall coming down, there is still a separation between West and East, however it's much more atmospheric. It was much like when I was in Vietnam a few years ago. The state of division no longer exists in an official sense, but a division of a certain kind cannot be broken - it is retained by the people, the ambience, the buildings, even the smell of places sometimes. Especially in a place like Berlin where the separation existed for so long, it is a little as if people forgot how to be unified as a whole city again. It's definitely not a negative thing, just quirky. It was also boiling hot and I do not understand a word of German.
SO. It took us TEN hours to get home this time because the traffic was so thick. Awesome. Also - on the way there we stopped off at the border shop. It is technically in Germany but everyone who shops there is Danish. It is MEGA cheap and you can get bulk loads of fizzy drink, chocolate, lollies and stuff for SUPER cheap prices. We were glad we did it on the way there rather than we way back. That way we had sugary snacks for the car ride (yum) and didn't drag our journey out longer than it already was.
We got home at around eight, had dinner, slept, then got into the car the next morning and went to the summer house in Nykobing Sjælland. Yesssss.
Days and days of this. Perfectly blue sky, sun, beach, and nothing but free time. Only problem being we spotted a fair few nasty jellyfish in the water sometimes. The beach by the summerhouse is a rock beach - different to what I'm used to at home. The benefit of it was that you don't get sand in your bikini, towel, hair, food, sunscreen etc. etc. and in that sense it was LOVELY to have a rock beach.
Next stop: Bornholm. Again. If you read my blog all the time then you will have read a post in April about this place. I went for a mini-stay with AFS when it was FREEZING cold over there. In summer it is a totally different place! We stayed in a summerhouse there with some family friends and their kids. It was such a nice week - a good balance of good and bad weather, relaxing yet no too relaxing so it gets boring, and entertaining all at the same time.
We did most of the same stuff I did during that week, and a few more things in addition. We went to a glass blowing place where I helped Cecilie ( one of the family friends' kids ) to make a name plate for her hamster out of little bits of glass. We stuck them onto a big piece of glass which was then heated over night so they all melted together and it looked fabulous! I also jumped off a cliff and zip-lined over a lake. That was really really fun! There is a video, but it is incompatible with my computer for some reason. Will try get it up somewhere - it does exist!
I kind of thought about it afterwards as a metaphor for my exchange. Like, you walk up a big hill and get to the top of a cliff. You are scared, but you have come all this way and you have to jump now. That's what it felt like leaving home. The jump is scary, because you don't want to fall, but then you feel that the ropes have got you and you start to take in everything around you and you get a whole new view from the one you had at the top of the cliff. Then, BOOM, you land in the water with a shock. You are back where you started but you have seen and done something new and you have a new found courage. Cheesy I know but whatever.
We drove straight over the bridge from Sweden and I was immediately dropped off to AFS summer camp - I didn't get a chance to come home before. It was a fun and enlightening weekend. There were over 150 new students who had just arrived, plus the ones who came in winter. It was so interesting to see everyone going through the exact same thing we all did at the beginning - the weird combination of excitement, nervousness, sadness anticipation. Like every emotion at once. It was also the first time I had seen everyone from the winter intake since the first camp ( pretty much ). Seeing how much everyone has adapted and developed was interesting. Some definitely more than others - everyone has had totally different experiences and it has really impacted how we approached/will approach the year.
School starts again next week. I am looking forward to a bit of routine again but I know I will regret saying it in three weeks and wish I had holidays again! My Danish has improved leaps and bounds over the holidays I think, so I am excited at the prospect of seeing how much more school work I can do. After camp I have a whole new set of goals to fulfil so let's see what the remaining months will bring!
:)
Thursday 25 July 2013
Tuesday 9 July 2013
Catching Up
I have gotten so lazy. This:
.... my mantra in regards to this blog lately.
I think it has been a little over two weeks since I last wrote something. Since then, I have:
Been to the dentist. I freaked out coz I though I was getting a wisdom tooth and my mouth really hurt so I went to the dentist, he looked in my mouth, took some photos and no wisdom tooth! This was of course good news but also bad news considering AFS doesn't pay for dental care and I had just spent a significant sum of money for a dentist to tell me I was fine. But I'm fine guys all good.
Week before last, the weather was absolutely dreadful and I was feeling kind of depressed because it was supposed to be summer. However, I
Roskilde started the day after our schools 3rd graders graduated. They do this thing here where all the students graduating from the last year of gymnasium drive around in these big ass vans (like party busses). The day starts with the graduation ceremony, during which all the 2nd graders com and decorate the van of the corresponding 3rd grade class ( I am in 2a, so we decorated 3a's bus). Ours was, of course, the last to arrive so i was a bit of a rush to get it done. Looked pretty fab though!
In addition, 3a gave us ten beer trays with 24 beers in each... so like 240 beers. We have them standing in the office (where my host mum works) waiting for us when we start back after summer haha!
ALSO the number of exchange students in the country has significantly lessened. Everyone who came in August last year has now gone home :( Although it was sad to see them all go, all of them had homes to go back to and mixed feelings about it all: excited to go home again but distraught at leaving their new lives behind and starting 'real' life again. Now, we are only three left in our local chapter until a whole heap of new students come again in August. Our chapter is getting five new students from a variety of countries, and I am excited to meet them all and be a 'senior' eheheh.
It was also midsummers day a couple of weeks ago, celebrated in Denmark as Sankt Hans Aften. It's a bit like Guy Fawkes, we had a massive bonfire in the field out the back of our house with a witch on it. Not a real witch one made of out a broom and some clothes stuffed with straw.
I was very happy that I was NOT one of the hundreds of thousands that went to Roskilde Festival. The weather was... dreadful for a large duration of it. Still, I'm sure the music was great and the partying was fun and I hope all who went had a good time.
Last week, the lovely Emily Sceats was in Copenhagen! Emily and I went to the same schools our whole lives, primary to high school. We always knew each other, but never really KNEW each other until we went to Vietnam together on a history trip in year 12. We were room buddies, got along really well, and still do :) I spent a few days last week showing her around the city, all the tourist attractions and shops and everything. I don't think I have talked to someone so much since I got here - I just about lost my voice! She has been travelling around Europe and was on her way to London after visiting me. We are both young people on exciting European adventures, hers a little different from mine of course in the sense that she is travelling, not living somewhere permanently so we had a lot to talk about.
We also got a pool!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok it's a paddling pool but who cares. Same same. It is just perfect for those hot days when you are lying in the sun and need a cool down. Stine, Caroline and I also went to the beach just today. It was a beach pretty close to the city and was remarkably similar to Mission Bay actually. Only differences being that there was a surf lifeguard set up ( haha there was no surf whatsoever I do not understand ) and instead of the North Shore and Rangitoto making up the view, it was Sweden. Weird.
Asides from that, there have been a couple of trips in to town, resulting in late night/early morning arrivals home, and lots of fun. The video below (which I hope works) is of my favourite busker. He stand there with a cow beanie on his head and plays the recorder, but he can't play the recorder so he just toots the same note over and over. I love him <3
I am leaving on a variety of travels next week and will try to keep this reasonably up to date but I can't promise anything!
.... my mantra in regards to this blog lately.
I think it has been a little over two weeks since I last wrote something. Since then, I have:
Been to the dentist. I freaked out coz I though I was getting a wisdom tooth and my mouth really hurt so I went to the dentist, he looked in my mouth, took some photos and no wisdom tooth! This was of course good news but also bad news considering AFS doesn't pay for dental care and I had just spent a significant sum of money for a dentist to tell me I was fine. But I'm fine guys all good.
Week before last, the weather was absolutely dreadful and I was feeling kind of depressed because it was supposed to be summer. However, I
Roskilde started the day after our schools 3rd graders graduated. They do this thing here where all the students graduating from the last year of gymnasium drive around in these big ass vans (like party busses). The day starts with the graduation ceremony, during which all the 2nd graders com and decorate the van of the corresponding 3rd grade class ( I am in 2a, so we decorated 3a's bus). Ours was, of course, the last to arrive so i was a bit of a rush to get it done. Looked pretty fab though!
In addition, 3a gave us ten beer trays with 24 beers in each... so like 240 beers. We have them standing in the office (where my host mum works) waiting for us when we start back after summer haha!
ALSO the number of exchange students in the country has significantly lessened. Everyone who came in August last year has now gone home :( Although it was sad to see them all go, all of them had homes to go back to and mixed feelings about it all: excited to go home again but distraught at leaving their new lives behind and starting 'real' life again. Now, we are only three left in our local chapter until a whole heap of new students come again in August. Our chapter is getting five new students from a variety of countries, and I am excited to meet them all and be a 'senior' eheheh.
It was also midsummers day a couple of weeks ago, celebrated in Denmark as Sankt Hans Aften. It's a bit like Guy Fawkes, we had a massive bonfire in the field out the back of our house with a witch on it. Not a real witch one made of out a broom and some clothes stuffed with straw.
I was very happy that I was NOT one of the hundreds of thousands that went to Roskilde Festival. The weather was... dreadful for a large duration of it. Still, I'm sure the music was great and the partying was fun and I hope all who went had a good time.
Last week, the lovely Emily Sceats was in Copenhagen! Emily and I went to the same schools our whole lives, primary to high school. We always knew each other, but never really KNEW each other until we went to Vietnam together on a history trip in year 12. We were room buddies, got along really well, and still do :) I spent a few days last week showing her around the city, all the tourist attractions and shops and everything. I don't think I have talked to someone so much since I got here - I just about lost my voice! She has been travelling around Europe and was on her way to London after visiting me. We are both young people on exciting European adventures, hers a little different from mine of course in the sense that she is travelling, not living somewhere permanently so we had a lot to talk about.
We also got a pool!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok it's a paddling pool but who cares. Same same. It is just perfect for those hot days when you are lying in the sun and need a cool down. Stine, Caroline and I also went to the beach just today. It was a beach pretty close to the city and was remarkably similar to Mission Bay actually. Only differences being that there was a surf lifeguard set up ( haha there was no surf whatsoever I do not understand ) and instead of the North Shore and Rangitoto making up the view, it was Sweden. Weird.
Asides from that, there have been a couple of trips in to town, resulting in late night/early morning arrivals home, and lots of fun. The video below (which I hope works) is of my favourite busker. He stand there with a cow beanie on his head and plays the recorder, but he can't play the recorder so he just toots the same note over and over. I love him <3
I am leaving on a variety of travels next week and will try to keep this reasonably up to date but I can't promise anything!
Knus og krams herfra :) Meg
Thursday 20 June 2013
Lately - My Life in Videos
I have recently discovered that I can take videos with the camera on my phone! Call me technologically retarded but I seriously didn't realize. You press the button that has the camera icon on it twice and it turns to video! So cool! Hence, the following post contains a few videos of what's been going on in my life lately.
AFS has a rule that if an exchange student decides not to do all their exams, said exchange student must do some volunteer work. Others have been helping out in kindergartens, ice cream shops, technology firms, and other interesting things. I have been working in the book depot at my school. You know? The place where you take all your textbooks at the end of the year? Don't get me wrong, I like it, but it's not as riveting as I would have liked. My contact person said she had contacts at this really fancy deli where exchange students had volunteered before and she'd try getme in but we never heard back from her... So there I was... Doing this... For four hours every day for the last week or so.
What's great about it is the people. They are all so chilled and easy to get along with, and it has helped me to see how much progress I have made both in terms of my Danish and how and my people skills. Not being able to communicate so well for so long really sets you up. Now that I can communicate, I cant stop! :) It's also nice to feel useful again. I'm not going to lie I spend a lot of my time in school just playing Subway Surf or Fruit Ninja because school work had a tendency to defeat me or go right over my head. With this un-paid job, I'm DOING something. Otherwise I would be sitting in the sun reading, which is of course lovely but can make you feel both sunburned and lonely if you do it all day every day. Almost all the employees are also students at the school - more friendly faces!
Today was my last day there actually. I made a cake for everyone to say thanks :) I also got a present from Michael, the boss guy. It was a book - appropriate seeing as I was working in a book depot - however it was a VERY interesting book. Turns out that Michael, unbeknownst to all of us who work there, has been writing poetry since 1999. He published it all on the internet under a pseudonym and got a whole lot of great feedback, so he came forward and published HUNDREDS of poems in a book, which he gave me a copy of. Talk about hidden talent...
There was also never ending fruit and coffee in the staff room which I could help myself too. I shall miss that :'(
Because all my Danish friends have been having exams and tests and stress stress stress, I have been spending a lot of time with exchange students. In the last week I have been to the beach, to a picnic, to a concert, and to dinner all with other exchange students. AFS says its important not to spend all your time with other AFSers but its better than being alone, right? Besides, as I said everyone else is busy studying. Here is a video from a concert we went to on Friday night.
Bad video. But it was pretty bad music too not gonna lie. It was this song by a guy called Pharphar and the lyrics translate to "I Feel Like Rolling You." Hideously inappropriate considering the amount of children at the park. It was a free concert though, so.....
Last Saturday, my host aunt came home from a year in England. She is actually younger than me - 17. Thomas' (my host dad's) dad has been married three times and has had five kids and she is the youngest. She was such a sweet girl! It was interesting to meet someone coming HOME from an exchange year as oppose to me - halfway through it. She was really down to earth and open about everything, and her family was SO glad to have her back!
Another exchange student arrangement this Monday too - AFS Copenhagen North ( my local chapter) were invited for dinner at Mook's place. She is from Thailand and is soon to change families so she wanted to host something before the big move. Pretty much EVERYONE is changing families. Some people have had one family until now, are having one for the summer, and ANOTHER one when school starts again. I just cannot imagine it. It would be so stressful having to constantly adapt to new households. I am so comfortable with my family now and, honestly, I am starting to get a weird feeling. I don't want to go home. It's not that I don't miss home, because I do sometimes, but it represents reality. Well, it doesn't represent it, it IS reality. Coming home is an inevitability and it's only just hitting me now. Rather than coming home, why don't ll the people I miss come here? Anyway I'll stop with the melancholic spiel.
We left Mook's house really late and had to wait aaaaages for the train. Nek minnit running down an upwards escalator.
Yep. So, now I have a proposition to make. I don't actually know who reads these posts, but if you do please leave a comment saying what you'd like a video of. I like this whole video thing it saves writing time....
a) A tour around Værløse
b) A day in the life of Molly (the dog)
c) Me talking Danish about something (say what) with subtitles in English
VOTE PEOPLE. If there are people....
:) :)
AFS has a rule that if an exchange student decides not to do all their exams, said exchange student must do some volunteer work. Others have been helping out in kindergartens, ice cream shops, technology firms, and other interesting things. I have been working in the book depot at my school. You know? The place where you take all your textbooks at the end of the year? Don't get me wrong, I like it, but it's not as riveting as I would have liked. My contact person said she had contacts at this really fancy deli where exchange students had volunteered before and she'd try getme in but we never heard back from her... So there I was... Doing this... For four hours every day for the last week or so.
Today was my last day there actually. I made a cake for everyone to say thanks :) I also got a present from Michael, the boss guy. It was a book - appropriate seeing as I was working in a book depot - however it was a VERY interesting book. Turns out that Michael, unbeknownst to all of us who work there, has been writing poetry since 1999. He published it all on the internet under a pseudonym and got a whole lot of great feedback, so he came forward and published HUNDREDS of poems in a book, which he gave me a copy of. Talk about hidden talent...
There was also never ending fruit and coffee in the staff room which I could help myself too. I shall miss that :'(
Because all my Danish friends have been having exams and tests and stress stress stress, I have been spending a lot of time with exchange students. In the last week I have been to the beach, to a picnic, to a concert, and to dinner all with other exchange students. AFS says its important not to spend all your time with other AFSers but its better than being alone, right? Besides, as I said everyone else is busy studying. Here is a video from a concert we went to on Friday night.
Bad video. But it was pretty bad music too not gonna lie. It was this song by a guy called Pharphar and the lyrics translate to "I Feel Like Rolling You." Hideously inappropriate considering the amount of children at the park. It was a free concert though, so.....
Last Saturday, my host aunt came home from a year in England. She is actually younger than me - 17. Thomas' (my host dad's) dad has been married three times and has had five kids and she is the youngest. She was such a sweet girl! It was interesting to meet someone coming HOME from an exchange year as oppose to me - halfway through it. She was really down to earth and open about everything, and her family was SO glad to have her back!
Another exchange student arrangement this Monday too - AFS Copenhagen North ( my local chapter) were invited for dinner at Mook's place. She is from Thailand and is soon to change families so she wanted to host something before the big move. Pretty much EVERYONE is changing families. Some people have had one family until now, are having one for the summer, and ANOTHER one when school starts again. I just cannot imagine it. It would be so stressful having to constantly adapt to new households. I am so comfortable with my family now and, honestly, I am starting to get a weird feeling. I don't want to go home. It's not that I don't miss home, because I do sometimes, but it represents reality. Well, it doesn't represent it, it IS reality. Coming home is an inevitability and it's only just hitting me now. Rather than coming home, why don't ll the people I miss come here? Anyway I'll stop with the melancholic spiel.
We left Mook's house really late and had to wait aaaaages for the train. Nek minnit running down an upwards escalator.
Yep. So, now I have a proposition to make. I don't actually know who reads these posts, but if you do please leave a comment saying what you'd like a video of. I like this whole video thing it saves writing time....
a) A tour around Værløse
b) A day in the life of Molly (the dog)
c) Me talking Danish about something (say what) with subtitles in English
VOTE PEOPLE. If there are people....
:) :)
Thursday 13 June 2013
Social Networking
I am in need of a rant, and this is one I feel like sharing, not writing in my rant diary. And yes, I do have a rant diary. It helps me to sort out my thoughts on whatever I rant about.
Having been here for a little over five months now, I have come to realize that social networking is a GIGANTIC part of youth culture in Denmark. Actually, not just youth, but culture in general. Part of it has to do with the fact that i-phones are slowly taking over the world, and therefore everybody has apps for stuff like twitter, instagram, facebook, and a million other things that give you access to a whole cyber world of endless entertainment with the click of a button. It is a miracle in terms of human development and evolution, and for this exact reason it is also very controversial. There are two sides to the whole social networking thing, and I'm going to give you my take on both sides.
+ You can contact anyone anywhere, any time.
The exception to this is if your phone dies. Then people think you are ignoring them.
- You cannot avoid people without them knowing (the 'seen' setting on facebook....)
- You are constantly confronted with this whole digital world that makes you feel so in touch with everyone, but really you are sitting on your computer/phone alone looking at profiles that people have carefully constructed to portray themselves in a specific way. The moment it hits you you go from feeling alone to lonely, and that sucks.
- It can become an obsession or addiction.
+ You can connect and keep in touch with old friends and people who live far away.
- Sometimes knowing about what they're up to makes you feel even further away from them (this is a big thing for me at times)
+ You can share your life experiences with people in one big post rather than say the same thing over and over to several different people (eg my blog!)
- You don't actually know who reads it
- Some people consider really weird irrelevant stuff to be a life experience.
Hey guys. Today I made my bed!
...................................................
Cool
+ You can share photos with people in one go (eg. instagram or pinterest) rather than print it out and send it or catalogue it in a photo album
- Some people use instagram to take photos of really irrelevant things.....
# look # at # my # feet
..................................
Cool
- Once your photo is posted online it is no longer yours, anyone can download it, share it, do whatever they want with it.
Social networking and media has reached a point now where you can pretty much know what someone is doing, where they are and who they are with at any given moment. This has its upsides and downsides, but the rule (as for all things in life) is: everything in moderation.
P.S - This was not intended to offend anyone :)
Having been here for a little over five months now, I have come to realize that social networking is a GIGANTIC part of youth culture in Denmark. Actually, not just youth, but culture in general. Part of it has to do with the fact that i-phones are slowly taking over the world, and therefore everybody has apps for stuff like twitter, instagram, facebook, and a million other things that give you access to a whole cyber world of endless entertainment with the click of a button. It is a miracle in terms of human development and evolution, and for this exact reason it is also very controversial. There are two sides to the whole social networking thing, and I'm going to give you my take on both sides.
+ You can contact anyone anywhere, any time.
The exception to this is if your phone dies. Then people think you are ignoring them.
- You cannot avoid people without them knowing (the 'seen' setting on facebook....)
- You are constantly confronted with this whole digital world that makes you feel so in touch with everyone, but really you are sitting on your computer/phone alone looking at profiles that people have carefully constructed to portray themselves in a specific way. The moment it hits you you go from feeling alone to lonely, and that sucks.
- It can become an obsession or addiction.
+ You can connect and keep in touch with old friends and people who live far away.
- Sometimes knowing about what they're up to makes you feel even further away from them (this is a big thing for me at times)
+ You can share your life experiences with people in one big post rather than say the same thing over and over to several different people (eg my blog!)
- You don't actually know who reads it
- Some people consider really weird irrelevant stuff to be a life experience.
Hey guys. Today I made my bed!
...................................................
Cool
+ You can share photos with people in one go (eg. instagram or pinterest) rather than print it out and send it or catalogue it in a photo album
- Some people use instagram to take photos of really irrelevant things.....
# look # at # my # feet
..................................
Cool
- Once your photo is posted online it is no longer yours, anyone can download it, share it, do whatever they want with it.
Social networking and media has reached a point now where you can pretty much know what someone is doing, where they are and who they are with at any given moment. This has its upsides and downsides, but the rule (as for all things in life) is: everything in moderation.
P.S - This was not intended to offend anyone :)
Wednesday 5 June 2013
La Belle France
On Monday, I jumped on a plane, flew for two hours and guess where I landed? Swtizerland! I did not stay in Swtizerland, however, I drove thirty minutes over the border by bus to meet my big sister Ali who lives in Sciez, France and works as an au pair. The reason for my visit was her 20th birthday, congratulations Ali! But I also wanted to see how she lived and catch up on the last five months. I've almost been away for five months! Wow!
I arrived on Monday evening and had a huge hug the second I got off the bus. I don't know why but I cried when I saw her too. I wasn't sad, I just cried. Classic me. Anyway, we got pizza to take away and ate it sitting down at one of many ports upon Lake Geneva, admiring the glistening water and sparkling sunshine with a snowy mountainous back drop. After spending so long in a country where the biggest hill I climb is the stairs up to the train station it came as a bit of a shock to be reminded what mountains are again. They are big. They are steep. Nothing like the piddly slopes of Denmark. Being said, I love having no hills. On the other hand, my legs are no longer accustomed to climbing them so walking the cobbled streets of Rhone Alps France region was rather a challenge.
Ali's birthday began with dropping the twin girls off to school. It may have been her birthday but life doesn't just stop, apparently. We then got chocolate almond croissants from the bakery and ate them on the beach. Oh lord, our week of food came from culinary heaven. I feel as if I have put on a million kilos in the last seven days. I know I haven't, but I feel like it. The day after Ali's birthday, we had reservations for a restaurant close to her place which received a Michigan star a couple of years ago. Four course dinner. Yes please. Let's go. That Wednesday night was the culinary highlight of the week. I could honestly go on about food forever, but I'm not going to because other people don't care about food as much as I do. I will summarize: I ate lots of good food. Calories are a stupid human invention and I don't care about them, because it tasted SO GOOD. This sums up my approach to life:
Saw a modern art museum in Geneva. It was free because only one floor was open. It was very hip, very modern :)
- Saw a watch museum in Geneva. Now this was fun, even though it sounds boring it was hilarious. On the third floor, in the back room, there were pocket watches with portraits on them. I don't think I have ever laughed so hard. Some of the faces looked like caricatures and some of them were just plain ugly. I literally couldn't stop giggling!
I also met the grandparents of the two girls Ali looks after - they had us over for dinner on her birthday. They were lovely people! I also met an Australian woman who lives close by. Ali babysits her kids in return for a gym membership. She was dog sitting their dog for the weekend because they went away. That dog is not a dog. It is a devil. I have scratch marks on my leg from it jumping up and clawing at me. Who would have though such a tiny little ball of fluff could do so much damage? Sigh...
Also, please excuse the lack of photos. My camera died on the first day there, and I forgot to charge it all week. So smart.
I am back in DK now, obviously, and I am basking in the GLORIOUS SUNSHINE. It rained all week in France so it is a welcome change! I had an English exam on Monday which was a bit of a joke. It was five hours long, and when I finished at 12 and had to find something to do for the next two hours I realised how ridiculously long five hours is for an exam. I had two hours to kill before I could leave. I have the Romeo and Juliet film on my itunes and I contemplated watching it but decided against it- could look suspicious. And yes, we were allowed our laptops and internet access. And food, but I left my lunch at home so all I had was a carrot. Wooooo!
I had such a great week in France. I was awesome to see my sister again, and I was really sad to leave her ;( We both got pretty emotional at the airport. But, the good thing is that she is only 2 hours away! A week away was also particularly significant in that I came home again. Not just back to Denmark but home. It really feels like home. I was so excited to see our dog Molly :) I missed her! And of course I missed my host family too, but scratchy little fluff ball made me appreciate how docile and sweet Molly is. Awwwww.
Also, please excuse the lack of photos. My camera died on the first day there, and I forgot to charge it all week. So smart.
Sunday 19 May 2013
Exams vs. Party Time!
The first set of exams were announced on Wednesday, written Danish (no thanks) and written English. Funny enough, I actually find the practise exams we have done really hard... They are very grammatically based,you have to find a mistake in the sentence, correct it, and explain the rule it correlates to. In spite of my strong linguistic grounding, I am completely dumbfounded when it comes to English grammar. There ARE no rules, because every rule has an exception...
The weather is possibly to blame. On Friday, we had four modules, which is like, a full on day. However, one of those was pe, and in Social Studies we went outside and played a Danish ball game, and then our teacher bought us ice cream. Then in Geography, we sat outside and "did a quiz" which no one really paid attention to, and ate brownies. Everyone gives you cake here. It's not good, but it is so good.
On Friday, we have a school tradition called Lunen, where everyone goes to a field 2 minutes away from the school with a massive boom box and even massiver boxes of beer and cider. Everyone lies in the sun, plays drinking games, etc. I haven't been yet, but I am hoping to go this Friday if the weather is nice :) Just one of those things you gotta do!
Because I have turned 18, I am now legally old enough to go to da clubs. So on Friday, I did!
Excuse the selfie. But it was really fun! No ankle rolling this time. We went to a club called Night Fever. It was hilarious, there were multicoloured light squares on the dance floor and a disco ball and all that classic 70's stuff. Definitely the right place to go if you wanna dance! There were, of course, some very strange people there, however that is always to be expected. There was one young man who joined in everyone's little dance circles and didn't seem so actually know anyone....Some people! I caught he train/biked home and was in bed by 3:30.... Helloooooo sleep in!
The following day, yesterday now was GLORIOUS. It was 25 degrees earlier on. We ate every single meal outside! Caroline and I went to the mall to return something she'd bought but regretted buying, and we were tempted to go shopping, but then decided it was pointless to be inside on a day like that, so we bought an ice cream and sat in the sun, then went home again. I went for a long walk in the late evening sunshine, and then came....
THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST
DENMARK WON
YAY
And oh my lord Romania what were you thinking........
Ok I know they were thinking they wanted to lose because they don't want to host it next year but seriously? I don't think I have ever laughed so hard in my life.
The Eurovision song contest was started over 50 years ago to help patch things up in Europe after the war, and its still going! It was hosted in Sweden this year, in Malmo which is only 30-40 minutes away from here. I didn't go, by the way, I just watched it on TV. Next year, it will be hosted in Denmark! It sucks I wont be here for it, but I can be a part of it from the other side of the world anyway.
This week, I am going to the ballet! The tickets were from my host grandmother (Farmor), so on Tuesday, Caroline and I are off to the Royal Theatre with her. I am SO excited!! Asides from that, it is the last week of school before my three month summer holiday... I am also ff to France to visit my lovely sister because she is turning twenty the week after next!!! So exciting!!
It feels so good to have caught up. Wow.
Next up, the rest of that weekend was spent with more friends and family. It was a super long weekend, we had the Thursday Friday Saturdy AND Sunday off school, hurrah! So Friday night I took a massive bag of leftovers to a friends place, and four or five of us from school all ate dinner together. Afterwards, I headed off to another friends place to work on an English assignment to hand in the next day (got top marks, hollah!). We were up until 12 writing it, and then decided it would be a super good idea to watch a film called The Changeling. Such a good film.
If you get a chance, watch it. Due to our late night, we slept until midday, got up, made pancakes...
...and went to the fitness centre together. It was the first time I had done any exercise since my ankle, and it was good to get moving again. My ankle is much better, I can walk on it easily now but no running for the moment. It's still quite swollen too which is funny because it doesn't hurt so much. I really hope it goes away soon, injuries are so annoying!
My friends grandfather has Alzheimers' and decided to run away from her grandmother at the supermarket He was missing for several hours, but luckily was found just when I got home! Phew. She lives with her grandparents, who don't speak any English. They were really impressed with my Danish! Woo!
On Sunday, it was Farmor's 60th birthday brunch. We went into a restaurant in the national museum of Copehagen. There were about 60 people there I think! She is a loyal member of a super good choir so there was much singing, and the normal speeches and toasts etc. These people love to celebrate!
On Monday, it was her actual birthday, and we had a birthday dinner at the golf club she is also loyal to. Caroline and I found a room downstairs with hair dryers and curling irons and Marilyn Monroe type movie star mirrors. Anemona, my 5 year old host cousin, came down and we decided to have some fun and do her hair. She is also going through a one direction obsession and taught us a dance she made up to 'What Makes you Beautiful'. So cute!
So that was the long weekend!
If you get a chance, watch it. Due to our late night, we slept until midday, got up, made pancakes...
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| I know they look disgusting, but they tasted good, and were healthy believe it or not! |
...and went to the fitness centre together. It was the first time I had done any exercise since my ankle, and it was good to get moving again. My ankle is much better, I can walk on it easily now but no running for the moment. It's still quite swollen too which is funny because it doesn't hurt so much. I really hope it goes away soon, injuries are so annoying!
My friends grandfather has Alzheimers' and decided to run away from her grandmother at the supermarket He was missing for several hours, but luckily was found just when I got home! Phew. She lives with her grandparents, who don't speak any English. They were really impressed with my Danish! Woo!
On Sunday, it was Farmor's 60th birthday brunch. We went into a restaurant in the national museum of Copehagen. There were about 60 people there I think! She is a loyal member of a super good choir so there was much singing, and the normal speeches and toasts etc. These people love to celebrate!
On Monday, it was her actual birthday, and we had a birthday dinner at the golf club she is also loyal to. Caroline and I found a room downstairs with hair dryers and curling irons and Marilyn Monroe type movie star mirrors. Anemona, my 5 year old host cousin, came down and we decided to have some fun and do her hair. She is also going through a one direction obsession and taught us a dance she made up to 'What Makes you Beautiful'. So cute!
So that was the long weekend!
This morning I have been to the gym with my host mum and sister, and am now sitting in front of my computer at my desk having eaten a big breakfast and cleaned my sweaty self in the shower. FINALLY. It is time to catch up. I am going to do this in a few separate posts just to block it out a bit. So, to begin with, Caroline's confirmation!
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Helping the lady of the hour apply her false eyelashes. This is now my speciality! I helped Stine put some on a few weeks ago for a cocktail party too. Maybe I should be a make up artist... Not.
Next on the agenda, the oh so crucial hair. Luckily, Morfar is a hairdresser so that came free of charge, and Caroline got exactly the style she wanted!
Next up, a photographer came and took photos of Caroline and her best friend Frida outside by this beautiful tree. There is a huge block of open land out the back of our house which is now (I must add) TOTALLY GREEN. Spring is really and truly here!
And into the church we go. She felt a little bit faint walking in, the pressure was on as she and her friend Laura were front of the line... They were the leaders... Dundundun! But no worries, they were exemplary leaders, and the prettiest girls in the room :)
The actual confirmation was all done in a matter of seconds....It was all the singing and sermons in between that made the service an hour and a half long....
And outside again for more photos. Check out the priests outfit. Hahahaha I had to restrain myself from laughing the whole service. He looked like a wannabe Queen Elizabeth 1.
Mormor and Morfar's have a friend with a Rolls Royce. So, of course, Caroline and Frida were driven away from the service in this beauty of a vehicle. What a treat!
Now for the important part, the reception!
We had been there for several hours the day before setting all the tables and decorations up. We held the reception in the staff room of my school. I must say it was a little weird to have a party in the STAFF ROOM, it's another step up from the school parties...
There was so much food. I cannot even begin to describe how much food.
There were many speeches, songs and toasts! ....
Generally a great feeling of family, celebration and happiness.....
Many photos were taken. With Caroline's BRAND NEW FANCY CAMERA!
We were there until the early hours of the morning, and were all thoroughly exhausted. Simon was probably the most tired, judging by these photos.
And of course, the next morning we were back again to clean up. School on Monday! Afterwards, I think we all had that feeling after something really big happens. that sort of "it's over" feeling. A bit like the feeling after closing night of a musical, where you wish it could keep going but you know it had to end. Sigh. What a great day, and a new cultural experience!
And of course, the next morning we were back again to clean up. School on Monday! Afterwards, I think we all had that feeling after something really big happens. that sort of "it's over" feeling. A bit like the feeling after closing night of a musical, where you wish it could keep going but you know it had to end. Sigh. What a great day, and a new cultural experience!
Tilykke Caroline, den sødeste lille soster i verden :)
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