The Denmarkian in Daneland

The first day of Winter - this means Christmas is coming up!

There was frost in the morning, and it was so dark that we could hardly see the numbers on the busses until they drove by. Also we saw the moon, REALLY closely. It was just so huge and so red, at first I thought it was the sun. Seriously, it was like this really great big giant orange ball in the sky.

The weather today though after the morning was surprisingly perfect. No clouds whatsoever. I walked home from the bus stop, which took me about an hour, but that was okay because the weather was so lovely.

During music class we did some theory, which was really, really, really crazy easy. Think grade one theory in AMEB. We had to label the keys on the piano.

I love how school finishes at like 1:35pm every day for me, and on Friday it finishes at 11:35am. Sweet!

During Latin I was so, so bored, so I came up with a list for You Know You're in Hasseris Gymnasium When ...

You Know You're in Hasseris Gymnasium (or just possibly any Danish gymnasium) When:

1. Jeans are all you need.
2. If you're not blonde, then dye it blonde.
3. You dont admit it, but the Jantelov is God.
4. So is Lectio.
5. A straight cut fringe and long blonde hair, plus a big black headband is the way to go.
6. You're immediately considered fashionable if you don a black coat, skinny jeans and black boots.
7. The IBs are losers.
8. Class is for Facebooking.
9. A total of 3 hours of sun during a whole month sucks, but is okay.
10. Foreigners suck.
11. Halfies do not exist.
12. You've always got something on every weekend.
13. Big black sunglasses do not make you look like a douche.
14. One word. Mascara.
15. You are a master at spotting fake tans. They are everywhere.

I love this message Caroline wrote on the board.

Stupid Danish System people:
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

IB people:
When life gives you lemons, break out the salt and tequila!

Not that I'm an alcoholic or anything. I just thought that was funny. :)

It's been ages I know! But I have been so so crazy busy, which is a good thing!

I think it's gotten to the point where I can't really write about each day (but I promise I'll write more from now on!).

Today I have a 'study day' ... a day off school where everyone does anything BUT study! I can't get used to how relaxed and free school is here.

So exchange is going really well! My host family is awesome (Birgit and Niels told me first thing that I wouldn't have any problems with them at all because they're so wonderful, and I totally agree!). It doesn't feel like I have been here almost three weeks now. It feels like it's been longer. But then when you think about it, that's almost a month, which is a third of my exchange already over ... !

So that is kinda depressing.

I'm friends with basically everyone from my class (I was complimented by David and Louise on my social skills yesterday!), been to two Danish parties, which were very fun, and yesterday I sang in the Melodie Grand Prix, which is a competition between the school music classes. I was probably the most nervous one there I think! And everyone was so relieved when it was over ...

Aalborg is my favourite city. It's so small and pretty and hyggeligt. I love the concept of 'hyggelig' - there isn't really an English definition for it. I guess the closest one is 'cosy,' but it's not really the same. Being with family in a warm room, sitting on squashy armchairs and having candles everywhere is hyggeligt, but so is riding a bicycle down a muddy dirtpath, trying to combat the wind and rain ... sometimes. Personally I think 'hyggeligt' means you feel like you can do this forever and feel so good doing it.

It's an awesome feeling.

Denmark is crazy about Christmas. Right now Aalborg has Christmas lights everywhere - on the trees, over the streets with the winding lanes, candles in shops ... I love walking through the town.

Also, I have good news! Next week from Friday to Sunday my host family is taking me to Copenhagen, to see all the sights and do touristy things! I can't wait!

Yep ... life is good.

-Stella

Side note: the site Exchange Student World has made this blog a 'VIP Blog'! So that's very exciting. :) If you're thinking of becoming an exchange student, or you're an outbound about to set off on exchange, you should really check it out!

This is my third day here, and I'm only blogging now because I've been busy ... and a bit lazy. Plus I'm still jetlagged ...

Sunday:
Arrived in DK, went to sleep at 6pm. Not much to write about, really.

Monday:
Toured the boundaries of the old farm with my host mor and Bosse. Then went swimming with Julie, Peter, host mor, and later host far. My first big shock? You might not believe it, but when Scandinavian people go swimming, they take all their clothes off completely in public, walk stark naked towards the showers and shower there. And no, there are no doors or separate cubicles for the showers. It's completely open. And yes I had to join. There was a little girl staring shamelessly at everyone showering, standing just a metre in front of me. And guess what. They always shower after PE and so they whip off all their clothing in front of their classmates.

Then we had a very traditional Danish dinner with beans, potato, a type of Danish sausage, 'apple slices' - it's a dessert which I can't remember the Danish name of, host far's 'famous chocolate sauce', red cabbage and bolle.

Today:
Followed Julie around her school. We had kemi (John er LÆKKER), biologi, og PE. Yep. PE. We did this thing called 'jumpdancing' - the guy was overly enthusiastic. And I mean OVERLY. I still have his voice in my head: "fem, seks, syv, otte!" BANGBANGBANGBANG. Jumpdancing is basically like dancing with a lot of jumping and stomping. It gets really tiring after a while, and your legs start to hurt. And then oddly, we did ballroom dancing right after. Big contrast, yes. Thankfully I didn't do the whole showering thing stark naked with classmates, because I went 15mins earlier since I had to meet Birgit, my coordinator, at 2pm. So we went to Hasserisgym, got my subject choices done and all the dry, administrative stuff, and drove back to Julie's skole. And then Astrid came to take me to her apartment since Julie had 'big band,' and now here I am, haha.

I'm tired.

-Stella

First of all: 10 DAYS.

AND I finished all my yearlies today!

Oh life is wonderful.

So, like the title says, I got my itinerary today and I'm super excited - because this means it's REAL! It's HAPPENING! Everything is coming into place!

As it turns out, I'm taking three planes, as opposed to what I thought earlier, which was four. Thank goodness. I'm not quite so worried about plane travel anymore, except maybe about being in a tight spot if I happen to forget to bring a really important document or something. Eep.

So it's basically Sydney -> London, London -> Copenhagen, Copenhagen -> Aalborg.
Over a period of about 34 hours. My my, that will be fun.

I need to buy some luggage tags as well ...

-Stella

As you can probably tell from the title, today I got a letter from my host family. :)

They wrote their own little sections under their name. It was just so sweet - there was even a section from Bosse (the family dog)!

Also, thank goodness, I found that my phone isn't locked. So that means I can just rock up to some mobile phone store in Denmark and buy a SIM card there, no problem. :)

And guess what! Exchange is in less than a month!

-Stella

I just called my host family. The phone reception was terrible, but I am really, really glad I will be living with the Munk family. My impression is that they are truly wonderful people!

This was how the conversation went:

Stella: Hej! Jeg hedder Stella, fra Australien!

Host far (father): ... ?

Stella (worried that she may have gotten the wrong phone number): Errr ... jeg hedder Stella. Jeg er en udvekslingsstudent fra Australien!

Host far: ... huh? Hvad?

- Silence -

Host far: OH! Stella! Wait for a minute ...

- Silence-

Host mor (mother): Hello?

Stella: Jeg hedder Stella, fra Australien.

Host mor: Oh hello Stella! We are very excited to meet you!

- Begin rather confusing conversation in which Stella asks about the name of their dog (of all things!) and many random outbursts of, "Sorry?", "Undskyld, the connection is terrible!" and "I'm so sorry! What did you say?" are prevalent -

Host mor: Would you like to talk to Julie?

Stella: Sure!

- Silence -

Julie: Hej?

Stella: Hej! Jeg hedder Stella.

Julie: Hello!

- Begin another rather confusing conversation in which many random outbursts of, "Sorry?", "Undskyld, the connection is terrible!" and "I'm so sorry! What did you say?" are prevalent -

Haha. Yes, it was a very, VERY confusing conversation.

And it probably doesn't look like it, but I feel like I got to know them quite well in that short amount of time. Not like their life stories or anything, but their general manner and such. It's going to be a good exchange. :)

Also, I talked for half a hour (the conversation with Julie finally ended when my host mor anxiously commented on how expensive it was to call long distance from Australia to Denmark), and I found out that I still had over 2 hours worth left of international calls!

Wow - I love this phone card!

-Stella

I just got the email from Sue.

Yes. THE email!

I am going to be living with a family in Nibe, Aalborg.
Nibe is an old fishing town in North Jutland with a population of about 4,700. It is characterised by old houses, winding lanes and cobblestone squares.

I will have four host siblings - one brother, and three sisters ... and they also have a pet labrador!

I wondered quite a bit about whether I'd be placed in a folkeskole (primary school going from kindergarten to year 10) or a gymnasium (secondary school which goes on for 3 years). So it turns out I'll be in a gymnasium! :)

Heads up Hasseris Gym! I'm coming your way. ;)

-Stella

So today we had the pre-departure orientation and it was really great! We got to meet Nick ( the national director) and Sue, (the/(a?) program manager).

There were about 20 of us. I got there really early because of the train timetable, so I waited at the ground floor for a bit (one of the receptionists told me that Nick and Sue were having coffee). When they came out, Sue peered at me, like how people do when they kind of recognise someone but aren't sure if they are that person of not.

So I stood up and she immediately said, "Stella, right? You're going to Denmark aren't you? I thought I recognised you!" which really surprised me because I had never seen her before in my life - but I suppose she'd know because she, as I found out later, organises the departures to Japan and Scandinavia.

So Nick, Sue and I got onto the lift, Sue introducing me to Nick and Nick telling me how the receptionist was Danish. An awkward kind of silence followed.

Finally we reached the conference room, which was set out with the tables, with folders full of paper, a few postcards, a pen and exchange information labelled with names in front of each chair (everyone was grouped with others going to the same country), a few jugs of water and little bowls of Mentos', going around a big space in the middle where Nick and Sue talked. I quickly found my name, sat down and watched the others nervously walk into the room, as if unsure where they were meant to be.

Firstly we had to introduce ourselves to three or four people we didn't know (Name? School? Where are you going? Why do you want to go on exchange?). There was one other girl who was going to Denmark, and out of 20 people there were only two guys! From everyone I talked to they were either in year 9 or 10 - which quite surprised me since a lot of them looked about year 11 or 12!

After that, we went around in a circle, saying our names, school and destination again, and adding our expectations and concerns, which were written up on a piece of butchers paper.

[Laura wants to know exactly what happened in the presentation as I don't have too much on the content which we talked about, so I will write that at the end of this post.]

So anyway, after about an hour or two, there was morning tea. We filed out of the conference room and voila! Two trays of muffins and portuguese custard tarts had appeared which weren't there before, along with a few jugs of juice and the like. We all just mingled and talked for a bit (it was funny because there was a swimming pool right outside and people kept walking right through us in swimmers, giving us funny little looks, and trying to get to the door).

Sue thought that I had already gotten my host family, and that I was going to live in Copenhagen, and she was really surprised to hear that I didn't and so concluded she probably mixed me up with somebody.  Arghh I can't wait to find out about my host family!

I asked her what my itinerary might look like and she said I had to fly through Singapore, and then London where I will be switching terminals via shuttle bus (eep) and finally to Copenhagen with British Airways.

I freaked out when I heard that! Not much experience with planes ...

Afterwards we went back in and launched into another talk (everyone now seemed braver in regards to reaching forward and taking a Mentos - previously we'd all settled with taking a small sip of water). I found out that I need a lot more preparation, like activating and loading my card beforehand and everything. Does anyone know how to use B-Pay? :\

After an hour we had another break, in which we waited for our parents to come in for the last hour of the orientation to hear a summary of what we had talked about.

-

Okay, so this was what we covered:
- Expectations and concerns
- Program rules
- Culture shock
- Homesickness
- Support structure
- Getting along with your host family (e.g. chores, curfews, communication, host brothers and sisters, religion, etc.)
- Some case studies (there were worksheets)
- Communication with home/calling home
- Money (don't borrow or lend money to your host family either!)
- Insurance
- Transport
- Communication in the case of a language barrier (sign language is the way to go!)
- Student adjustment cycle

There might have been a few additional things, but those were the main points.

Hopefully that was helpful to you, Laura!

-Stella