catching up

Hi all :)

So far, I haven't really posted about what I've been doing from day to day. Most of my posts have been about big events or lessons learnt or something of that sort. This week, I'm trying something new: day to day description.

MONDAY:

I had a maths exam. HA. What a joke. A) it was maths. B) it was in Danish. I do understand a lot now but words like polynomials, differentiation and other big mathematical words aren't exactly the easiest to understand. Words like 'fjersyn' - television - are probably the longest in my vocabulary so far. However, my lovely h-mum had made sure that I was in a separate room for people who needed extra time for some reason or another - learning disabilities and such. So I had five hours. Of course, being me, I was really worried about how I was going to survive that long without food. At breakfast, Stine told be she had packed me a good luck madpakke (lunchbox) and it was in the fridge. I was shocked. YOU CAN EAT IN EXAMS HERE. AND DRINK. AND LISTEN TO MUSIC. AND TAKE IN YOUR COMPUTER, ALL YOUR NOTES AND AS MANY OLD TESTS AS YOU WANT. I was so excited about being allowed to have food that I didn't even ask about having my computer or anything, so when I got into the exam and everyone was pulling out giant text books, laptops, and tonnes of papers I got an even bigger shock. And then my heart sunk, because I probably wouldn't be able to do the exam if it was hard enough that everyone needed textbooks etc. to figure stuff out. All I had with me was a calculator, pencil, and dictionary. I did what I could, which was not much but enough I hope, and left a bit early because I had cramps and wasn't feeling well. I went home, got into my pyjamas and snuggled up on the sofa. Mmmm.
Thinking about it, it really makes sense to be able to have textbooks and internet etc. In a realistic situation in 21st century life, when are you not going to have internet access? If it helps you to solve a problem in real life, then exam conditions should be the same. If you have the initiative to seek help for something you don't understand, figure it out yourself and solve a problem then you should be rewarded for it.

TUESDAY:

Ordinary-ish school day. We have a big assignment due in a few weeks called SRO, a ten page essay on cultural identity and other deep philosophical things about the meaning of life and finding yourself etc, so our classes were all about that. At one point during class, a conversation I was having turned to stuff back home with family, boyfriend, friends etc. and tears began to well up. It's strange how sometimes I can talk about homesickness with no trouble at all and laugh about my feelings, and other times I end up so sad. What matters though is that I didn't let it get me down and snapped out of it pretty quickly. It really helped that upon seeing I was upset, the conversation topic was immediately changed to more trivial topics like tv and books to get my mind off it. Thank you, you know who you are :)
I also went to a Pilates class on Tuesday. I was so unbelievably tired for absolutely no reason, and afterwards I could have fallen asleep on my mat.  The woman who taught the class is this absolutely insane fitness woman who works at the centre. She is very muscular and has not an ounce of fat on her body, but she doesn't look like a body builder, more like a dancer mixed with a swimmer. In a weird way though, she doesn't really look healthy to me, like, she has a bit of a bobble head and is always a little bit TOO happy to be working out. Its called working out because its hard. Nobody should be that excited about pain. Anywho, her excited enthusiasm was probably what stopped me from falling asleep on the spot, but I was so tired that it kind of irritated me that she could be so energetic. I guess I was jealous!

WEDNESDAY:

School, again.  Same kind of classes - all about SRO and culture and things. After school, a friend and I went to the mall because it was her grandfather's birthday and she needed a present for him. We went into this lovely Danish shop called Sosterne Greene, which has everything you could ever need in your house, and some. Presents were easily found!
When I got home, Caroline (h-sister) and I went to the supermarket because I wanted to buy some Danish Easter treats and send them back home to my family.

THURSDAY:

No school. Yaaaay! I slept in a little bit, and tried in vain to skype my lovely boyfriend Tom but the internet kept disconnecting so it was a bit of a failure. I assembled my Easter packages, went down to the post office and sent them away. I hope they arrive in good time for Easter! I also went to the gym again. I need to work off all the cake I have been eating haha. Then, I had language class in the evening from 4 - 7. In the beginning, everyone was really shy and we were an awkward, silent class, and now we cant shut up haha. We are learning bits and pieces and enjoying each other's company as we go. It's really interesting for me to compare how much I have developed linguistically from week to week with these classes - our teacher Jane always speaks in Danish and I understand more and contribute more each time I go. Everyone says three months is when your language ability goes into auto-pilot mode and everything just falls into place. Three months is rapidly approaching, and I am interested to see what happens!

FRIDAY:

I went to Simon's (h-bro) class to do a presentation about New Zealand. They were very sweet :) I started off by pulling out a kiwifruit and asking if anyone knew what it was called. Then I did the same with a mini model of a kiwi bird. And then I asked them what they thought my nationality was, if I came from New Zealand. Interesting how we use the same word for all three things! I just talked for a while about the Maori culture, school system, history, stuff like that and answered some questions. Afterwards, they continued working on creating their own summer camps, a very american thing but funny to see kids do. Simon's group were planning a 'fat camp' for fat kids whose parents want them to lose weight. The blurb said "we will do lots of sport and eat lots of salads." I thought it was hilarious.
On Friday night, my host parents met my biological parents over Skype. It was really nice :) I think everyone had been looking forward to it all week! We also watched the grand finale of the Danish X-Factor, which I have been watching since I got here. I didn't like the winner. Country singer. From Jutland. It's like a country singer from like, Masterton or something winning New Zealand Idol. Nobody would expect it.

SATURDAY:

I went into Copenhagen with two friends to the opening of a new store called Terranova. FREE STUFF! The queue outside was ridiculous, at 10AM it was about 200m long. When the doors opened it was absolute chaos, every just surged in and ahhhhh it was impossible to move! The website said that the first 500 in the door who bought something got free goody bags and a free pair of jeans, but this was misinformation. About an hour after the initial surge, people started handing out these cardboard coat hangers which were vouchers for the jeans. So I didn't even need to buy the fluro pink sportsbra I spent an hour queueing to buy. Oh well! Because it was Easter, all the chocolate stores (and yes, there are multiple ones) were handing out free tasters. Eheheeheh! There was one place where they had a man dressed up as a giant bunny to take photos with. It was a bit spooky and Donnie Darko like, but I took a photo with him nonetheless.
Saturday night we went for dinner at Thomas's (h-dad) father and his wife's place, which is about an hour and a quarters drive away. Their dog was HILARIOUS. Huge, big dog. Stupid. Never did what it was told but was so sweet and happy all the time.

SUNDAY:

Today has been relatively slow-paced. Slept in, had breakfast, blobbed, went to the gym, came home, and now it is Simon's birthday party. As I write this, there are six boys standing next to me playing with the Molly (h-dog. Haha) and talking about soccer. As boys do.

The week ahead is holidays! We are going to the summer house from Wednesday-Saturday to spend Easter with Stine's family. I am really looking forward to it - hopefully the remnants of the snow storm which hit on Tuesday/Wednesday will have melted by then and out Easter Egg hunt will not involve digging in the snow. I'm also getting a haircut on Tuesday at Stine's father's salon, and going to a friend's birthday party tomorrow night. A nice week ahead of me :)

That's all from me, over and out.