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.

:)

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...

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 :)