The Denmarkian in Daneland

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

Okay, okay. I admit it.

I have been tinkering around with blog templates again.

However, this time I did not screw anything up!

I deserve a cookie and a pat on the back. :)

The only thing is it won't let me change anything apart from the name of 'Kategorier' (Categories). I'm trying to get rid of the unsightly numbers next to each tag. There is a little box which says 'Show number of posts per label' which I unticked, but it's still like this [edit: resolved].

Oh well, I'll live.

Also, a few hours ago I received my Travelex cards in the mail, so it's all good now. :)
 ... although when I checked my Travelex account, I found that my last name had been spelt wrongly!

This post is starting to sound like a game of 'Kill the Duck,' except instead of a duck, it's my exchange.

-Stella

In one of my previous posts I wrote about how there was an apparent mix up in the cards and SEA had given me the wrong one.

It turns out that I was right - I've been told to destroy my other cards and they're sending me new ones.

Apparently the issue was labelled 'oops - Travelex card mixup' by SEA!

-Stella

Firstly, yes, I know I've already written twelve posts, including this one, before I have even landed on Danish soil.

Secondly, take it as a good thing. :)
It means I'd probably post up quite a lot when I'm actually over there!
Though I'm not sure whether the overexcitement really is needed.

However, it's sort of impossible not to feel excited about exchange! I shall just go with the flow - there isn't much use trying to quash the anticipation anyway. I'll just try not to write posts full of 'blah' (you know, the ones with heaps of words but no content) to save you some boredom.

I know, I'm a really nice person, right? ^^

Okay, so that this post doesn't turn into a 'blah post', I actually do have something to post here. Just read the title.

Twitter, yes.

Basically, I was bored and thought it would be a good idea to create a Twitter for my exchange.
I actually haven't created it yet ... but I have the window open right now.

It won't let me put /thedenmarkianindaneland as the URL. Bummer.

So I'm stuck with this one:

www.twitter.com/indaneland

Add me!

-Stella

Everyone with SEA gets a Cash Passport card, which is a pin-protected, prepaid currency card useful for travelling overseas with, as you don't need any cash and all you need to do is load it up and go to an ATM to use it and have money in local currency.

To confirm that you've received the card, you're supposed to fax a sheet to a number that they give you, and they will activate your card.

So that's what I did earlier this week, and yesterday I decided to ring them and check whether they had activated my card yet because I didn't receive any notice about it.

It turns out that I had been given the wrong card (hence the the reason why the system kept saying that my birthday was incorrect and that it wasn't what they had on file!) so I emailed Sue about this.

Hopefully it should clear up soon, as I'm leaving in en måned og elleve dage!

One month and eleven days!

It's so soon ...

-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