So I have now been in Denmark for 2 weeks and a lot has happened!!!
Where my last blog ended off, was on Sunday. The next monday I went into town with my host mom to try and get my Danish CPR number (it's a number that everyone gets once they are born or move here and you need it for everything- library card, bank account, etc.) but we discovered that I can't get one until my visa comes in the mail (still waiting...) Tuesday, my mom went to work along with my dad, so I stayed at the house and just watched tv, ate, did normal things. Wednesday I went into a nearby twon called Herning with Camilla (17yr old host sister in 4th family). We went to the "Herning Center" (MALL!) and I am now in love with Danish fashion and need to go clothing shopping (I only bought pencils and sunglasses that day because I hadn't recieved my allowance from Rotary yet so I had no Kroner and all the clothes were still for summer). Thursday I went to Nanna's house. She is a girl my age and I will be living with her family next week while my host parents go to Greenland. That night I went to my host moms school that she works at (called an aftenskole which is a boarding school) and I met some really sweet girls! Friday I stayed at home all day again, but that night all of my host parents came over and I got to meet them all- Sweetest people in the world! That weekend was fun! One day I got to go to the west coast of Jylland and see beaches and also visit a sandsculpture place where artists from over the world came and made sandsculptures! Another day I went and helped chop wood on my host parents farm.
First week of school:
Monday I started school! I started in what they call 1G(G=grade) at a gymnasium (high school). They gymnasium has 3 grades and I started in the youngest. Because I was in the youngest, I (along with my classmates) was painted with a green face and got my hair sprayed green. It was interesting, but almost funny because we all had it done to us. Oh and the upperclassmen call us fro now (frog). The first day was just being shown around by the teachers. The first 2 or 3 days of school was hard because although everyone was nice, I didn't have a strong friendship with my class. On wednesday we had english and that was amazing. Wednesday was the day where I really bonded with my class (not because of English, but because we played games together and I started to talk to more people and branch out). Thursday was a good day as well but Friday was amazing! It was my birthday so my class sang to me and we also had a free period at the end of the day so we sat around a table, while they taught me weird Danish words and laughed at my accent and then I impressed them by doing the peter piper toungetwister! And afterschool, we had our first cafe. It is basically where they have beer and soda for sale and you sit around with classmates and talk.
My first Rotary meeting:
The first week I was here I had my first Rotary meeting and got to go up and introduce myslelf to the club. The Rotarians are all so nice! Then this last week, I had my second meeting. This was the meeting where Camilla (host sister- remember her? well she just had an exchange year in Australia... and fyi- the aussie accent is amazing!) spoke to the club about her exchange. I got to see her blazer and it is covered in pins!!! Oh and since my birthday was going to be that week, my club bought me a gift- a Fancy flag on a nice flag stand! And one of the Rotarians in my club works at the factory that makes Royal Dansk cookies (oh yeah the factory for that is in my town... so much for trying to not get fat this year!) and she heard I like them so she brought me a tin of a specialty cookie for christmas season and also told me I can tour the factory sometime (ahhhhh!!!!).
Language school:
Oh yeah so this last week I started taking language classes on Tues and Thurs after school in Herning! They are really helpful and the teachers are nice. Oh and to get there I take the bus! Tuesday my dad drove me, but Thrusday I took the bus, alone, for the first time! I was so proud of myself!
Finally..... Birthday!:
So Friday was my 16th Birthday! I honestly thought it might be hard to have my birthday on my 2nd week here, especially since it was a birthday that meant a lot to me (why? driving... duh!). But.... my birthday was amazing! I already talked about school and Rotary parts of my b-day. But that night when I got home a friend (Anna) came over for some coffee (she couldn't come later that night because she was going out of town) . Then that night, some other girls came (Camilla- the host sister Aussie!- then Charlotte-Camilla's older sister/my older sister- and Maria and Alberta and Nanna- the one I'll live with for a week.) We had "kage mand" which is cake man! It is a "cake" (it tastes like popovers) drizzled with icing and then covered in Danish candy! Oh and it's shaped like a person! So you light the number of candles for your year (16 for me!) and they don't sing and you don't make a wish, but when you blow out all of the candles you have to blow them all out at once (if not, the number of candles left burning is the number of boyfriends you have!)- I blew em all out at once! Oh and when the cut the cake, they slit the throat and the birthday person screams (because they're killing you!). haha it was really entertaining! Oh and I got lots of great gifts from everyone, and another Rotarian dropped by and gave me some beautiful jewlery (she owns a jewelry store!). Oh and that night I stayed up til 1 am so I could skype with my family (everyone but my mommy because she was working!).
This weekend:
So yesterday was Saturday and it was really cool! I woke up and got to go with my host dad to a place where you can fly glider planes. It's a plane that seats 2 people, and it's hooked up to a string. The string pulls you really fast until you get in the sky, then it snaps and you can fly! It was so much fun I went up 3 times haha! Then I stayed at home for a while and worked on my Danish. That night I went with my host parents to a nearby town called Silkeborg where there was a festival that only happens every 3 years! We went and sat on a boat with some people and then that night they had fireworks! And I think fireworks are really expensive here, because they told me it would be 150,000 kr (= $30,000) worth of fireworks... but it lasted like 4 minutes... so basically I got to watch $30,000 blow up in colorful explosions in like 5 minutes!
So far my stay here has been amazing! I am already in love with the beautiful country of Denmark! Some people get a car for their 16th birthday, I get to spend a year in one of the most spectacular places on Earth- I'd say I got the best birthday gift!
Vi ses (see you soon),
McKenzie
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