the results are in...

Okay folks the results are in. Before i go and post my first danish report card (keep in mind ive only been here a month) i will attempt to explain the danish way of giving out report cards because it is sooo different to australia

Firstly, the reports are given out on the internet at a certain time and students cram around their computers to see their fate. For all those exhsc students out there, imagine the morning you recieved your results. But this nervous wait doesn't happen once, it happens every semester...

Their marks aren't out of 100 like in Australia and they are not awarded A's B's and C's... instead they are given a number (thanks Wikapedia, can always count on you to save the day)

Grade	Description[1]		Equivalents
			13-scale	ECTS	U.S.
12	excellent	high level of command of all aspects – no or only a few minor weaknesses[n 1]	11/13	A	A+
10	very good	high level of command of most aspects – only minor weaknesses[n 2]	10	B	A-, A
7	good	good command – some weaknesses[n 3]	8/9	C	B, B+
4	fair	some command – some major weaknesses[n 4]	7	D	C, C+, B-
02	adequate	the minimum requirements for acceptance[n 5]	6	E	D-, D, D+, C-
00	inadequate	does not meet the minimum requirements for acceptance[n 6]	03/5	Fx	F
−3	unacceptable	unacceptable in all respects[n 7]	00	F	F

So today, at 12:30, i crammed around my computer with my class mates to await my fate.. and considering i have only been here a month, and submitted one english essay on where i want to be in 10 years time, i wasn't expecting any grades at all...... but alas, a tiny little box came up on lectio

So folks, here is my fate.... I understand the average marks for Danish, i mean i just turn up to class and attempt to understand what they are talking about. Sometimes i will look at the texts and one of my friends will translate. i also participate in group work so that mark was expected! Drama was also not a surprise either. Again i just turn up to class, and have only been like 3 times because the rest of the time they have been canceled.  

But to be honest i am a little disheartened and concerned by my english mark....

For someone who speaks English daily- i recieved an AVERAGE MARK FOR SPEAKING!!!!! Well i think this is the funniest thing ever.. and I burst out laughing when i saw it.  My class also agreed with me and laughed along! So if you refer back to the wikapedia scale, you will see that it states "some major weaknesses".......... thats a little concerning. Suppose my limited use of aussie slang and my accent aren't really helping AYE MATE! 

Vacationnnnn oh-oh-oh!

So another week has been and gone.... and like always, it was a fantastic one, especially because it was WINTER VACATION!  (listen to this Danish goodness) http://www.youtube.com/watchv=G125LwdIxuA&playnext=1&list=PL0E5D415F0D37D446&feature=results_video

Anyway, now that I have set the scene with that catchy song (which I'm sure will be stuck in your heads for a number of days) I shall begin.

In the seven days that have passed, I  suppose that you could say I am now a regular in Copenhagen. The first two days of winter vacation, I toured the city with one of my fellow exchange friends from Western Australia. She stayed with my host parents for two nights and that was heaps fun. We saw most of Copenhagen, and endured what the Danes would deem horrible weather conditions (that being snow and rain) The rain was bearable until the end of the day when we were trying to find our way back to the train station using a map... that ripped in half right when we needed it most because it was so soaked from the rain. But this adventure was fun. Strategically walking into warm shops trying to piece together the map wasn't all that bad and we got to see A LOT of Copenhagen. We were both so exhausted at one point that we crashed on the couches in a cafe. Warm beverages (or a smoothie in my case) were comforting and we attempted to figure out how far we had to walk.... 

Well, turns out the train station was like 300 metres away. But anyway i need to go back to the beginning of our day! 

Okay so we got up nice and early, keen to see the sights of Copenhagen. Our day was jam packed with sights and we planned to see them all- no matter what the weather decided to do.

So wearing every possible layer we owned and our best waterproof shoes, we caught the train into Denmark's beautiful capital city. 

We hoped off at Central Station and were right in the midst of things

Our eyes popped  as we gazed out onto the Tivoli roller coasters, we gasped as we took in the beautiful buildings andddddd of course we stopped for some coffee. A cafeen recharge never goes astray! 

So after feeling a little more engergised we ventured off!

Our first stop of the day was the outside of museums that were closed on mondays (of course) but we admired the buildings (especially because they looked so so soooo beautiful in the snow)

From there we walked through a really magnificent old castle with a beautiful old garden. We tried to figure out what the building was.... There were camera men outside and a lot of people standing in suits  looking important. We later found out that the castle is actually the parliment building so who knows- we could have seen some really important Danish politicians and not known it! 

Along the shopping street, we found this random tower that had a sign showing prices. Not knowing what it was, we decided to investigate- and thank goodness our curiosity got the better of us! It turned out to be an old astronomy tower with a beautiful view out over Copenhagen. It was amazing, and so so breath taking. It was in that moment that I realised where I was..... this was not a dream- it was actually happening. 

We stopped for a little bit of shopping a long the shopping strip (this was a relief for our frozen bodies) and we were eventually  on our way to Newhound... this took quite some time and we got slightly lost as it seemed that every street had houses that looked like those in google. We eventually found our way, and sat down in a cute little restraunt and had some much needed energy food. With our stomachs full, we took the cliche tourist pictures with the houses, and ventured to see Princess Mary. Once again, she knew that Aussie's were coming as she was home! Darcie and I then ventured off to the Little Mermaide and again took some more touristy pictures.. then by 4 30 decided it was time to catch a train home (insert lost story here) 

We were exhausted when we got home and crashed into bed quite early. We mapped out a schedule of what we were going to do the next day and got a good nights sleep in preperation. 

We again woke up the next morning bright eyed and ready for a day of culture and more adventures. Both feeling more confident about navigating out way around the city, we once again stopped at Central station and visited the museums that we had sadly missed due to their closure. The sun decided to come out today which was super nice.

Our first cultural stop was the parliment building. This was AMAZING and it should be too considering it is where the Queen hosts some of her most important guests and gives her new years address. It also holds the balcony where crowds gather to see the new king and queen (i imagined myself being there when its mary's turn) and has the most beautifully furnished rooms. I was amazed!!! Part of the castle also burnt down hundreds of years ago, and today you can go under and see the remains. This was SUPER COOL! And i felt like an archaeologist on a dig. It was a perfect start to the day. 

From there Darcie and I ventured to the marble museum. Not really knowing what to expect, we walked in expecting to be 2 hours max. Well neither of us could believe how big the place was! There were sooo many rooms, soooo many marble statues and even some french paintings in there as well. It was unbelievable! I had to be a little excited as I saw the actual busts of the Julio Claudian emperors!!!! (for those of you who don't know, ancient history was my favourite hsc subject). We spent quite a while in there, roaming through various civilisations and seeing all of their artefacts. It was the biggest musem that i have ever been to. I will defiantley be going back there throughout the year! 

After two museums, we were sooo hungry so we found some fast food to satisfy our needs. I love it how anywhere in the world- there will always be a strip of McDonalds and KFC. Darcie and I though ditched these usual options and went for our first ever meal at Burger King. It tasted so good... and we had been walking so much so we could treat ourselves to this 

Recharged, we ventured off into the shopping street of Copenhagen once again to navigate our way back to Mary's palace. We roamed through the museum there and then headed to the Marble church. This church was unlike anything  I have ever seen in my life. I actually can not find words to describe it. The inside was amazing- so peaceful, old, well preserved.... just incredible. My pictures didn't really do the amazingness justice... I will be going back there to do a tour in the summer! 

So after seeing the cultural sites for the day, Darcie and I headed home, (this time knowing our way to the station) and crashed with some danish candy in front of Harry Potter. We watched it with Danish subtiltes and even attempted to watch it with the danish voice overs... but it just wasn't the same. We went to bed exhausted but so happy with what we had achieved in two days! 

So Darcie left on Wednesday :( and from then on my vacation was pretty average. Borrowed some books from the library, did my physics homework (yes i did just say physics) and chilled, caught up on some sleep and watched a few movies. It was really good! 

On Friday though, I visited an archaeologists site in my town. One of my host famalies friends is an archaeologist (HOW COOL) so he took us on a tour. The site is connected to the cathedril in my town. It dates back to like 1614 and was amazingggggggg. All of the artefacts were so cool, and being underground was something that i will always remember. i loved seeing it! it was an experiance thats for sure :) On Saturday, I went shopping with my host family at an outlet in Copenhagen. Bought a trench coat (i feel so european) and then went to my host dads sisters house to help her move apartments. Then today, I spent the last day of vacation sleeping in!!!! (6 30am wakeups for school are something that i am not quite used to:/) and then ventured off to the local pool to do some laps. It felt strange going swimming when it was snowing outside but it felt so good to be back in a pool again!!! Worked off some of the danish bread which was a bonus and looked into the gyms that i can join whilst im here. 

Overall i had a super vacation! 

This week its back to school :) and on friday im heading to the border of Denmark (really close to Germany) for a Rotary get together with all the exchange students. Im really looking forward to it :) 

Hope you are staying out of the rain Australia! 

time flies when you're having fun

One month ago, I walked onto a plane with butterflies in my stomach
One month ago, the only thing that I knew about Denmark was Princess Mary
One month ago, I only knew how to say hello in Danish
One month ago, I had never seen snow
One month ago Copenhagen was just a place that I would someday hopefully see
One month ago, I embarked on the adventure of a life time

One month on I have been to so many places that I could write a book on Danish history
One month on and my Danish is actually starting to improve
One month on and I wake up to snow falling out of the sky

One month on and I have walked the entire Copenhagen in three days
One month on and I have met the most amazing people, and have wonderful friends
One month on... and I couldn't imagine being anywhere else

Jeg elsker København!

Ventured into Copenhagen today and if you ask me, thats a pretty good way to spend your first official day as an 18 year old. 

Copenhagen is a wonderful city, filled with so so much character. When I first walked out of the carpark and onto the old shopping strip there were buskers playing some music. This almost echoed down the old cobble stoned street and had a really soothing tone for a saturday afternoon. The old buildings are also magnificent. Its not a huge city like Sydney though, and doesn't have the skyscrapers that tower over you, but their towers are still pretty impressive- especially because they are hundreds of years old and were built by one of Denmark's old kings. There were also lots of old churches which were beautiful. The architecture in this country is phenomenal, and I have never seen anything like it in all my life. 

My favourite place in Copenhagen was defiantly Newhound. This was what I saw when i googled Copenhagen- the old boating town with beautifully decorated coloured houses lining the harbour. This was just as amazing as it looked on the pictures i saw before coming and I can not wait to go there when the sun is shining. 

I had a very good first trip in and am sure that I will come home wearing an I LOVE COPENHAGEN tee-shirt.

I ticked off doing some of the main tourist things;

-visited the little mermaid 

-strolled along the shopping strip that is apparently one of the longest in the world

-drank some hot chocolate in a cosy cafe

-visited princess mary for some afternoon tea

-went to her castle museum

-visited New Haun 

-saw the opera house

-strolled past and through buildings that were hundreds of years old

-saw the ancient defence system for denmark

(basically saw half of the city in one day) 

More Copenhagen adventures to come this week during winter vacation! A trip in with Darcie and maybe even one with my class. It's going to be a good week!

Newhound

She's so little! 

G'day Princess Mary! (She must have known i was coming.. the little flag up on the castle means that she is home!)

A beautiful old church.. and the beautiful Danish countryside.. in the middle of Copenhagen

Everywhere you look there is beautiful old buildings!

I'M OFFICIALLY 18!

Celebrating a birthday away from home in another country is a super cool experience- especially when you turn 18 in Denmark! Getting to see all of their cultural traditions and customs from the inside was wonderful and something that I will always remember. I wasn't sure how I would feel on this day, as I have heard from past exchange students that birthdays are always the hardest, and because i was turning 18 i thought that it may trigger some homesickness because in Australian terms, 18 is the big one. However none came. I found that I actually had my best birthday ever, right here in Denmark. 

I was woken up by my host family singing the 'happy birthday' song in Danish. This was really sweet, and a tradition in most families. I then headed out to school. 

School was pretty average- although i did understand a history movie (yay team) I also made some lamingtons to share with my class! Was a little worried in relation to how they would turn out having never attempted to make them before but they were actually really good and they all enjoyed them :) 

After school, some of the girls from my class took me to Cafe Vivaldi, which is like a chain of cafes in Denmark. It was so cosy and we all ordered some nachos to share. They sung me happy birthday in Danish, but did a different version to the one they sung at school. This one had an instrumental section, and so they choose to play the digderdoo which was one of the funniest things i have ever heard. It was really sweet. They also got me a danish flag for our table, as it is customary in Denmark to have that when it is someones birthday. I had such a nice time with them all. After we ate some of the best nachos i have ever tasted (Vivaldi is known for them) we headed into this lolly shop where you can pick and choose your own candy. I had a vision of like the ones that you go into before you see a movie- but it was WAY bigger and WAY cooler than that. Hannah you would have loved it. There were boxed of lollies EVERYWHERE and it was so so cheap. We all walked around picking some candy to eat. I got a lot of Danish ones to try- but avoided the liquorice as it is a little too strong for my tastebuds. So after we walked away with a weeks supply of candy, I said my goodbyes and caught the bus home. 

My host parents then took me out to dinner at a sushi restaurant. This was so good and i had been craving sushi for so long. (how have I even gone a month without it?!) We then ventured home, but they told me that they had to stop to pick up something. I didn't really know what we were doing so I just got out of the car and followed. I walked down the two flights of stairs and walked into my  entire class waving the danish flag screaming SURPRISE! It was the sweetest thing, and something that I will always remember. Turns out that we were actually at a bowling alley and that they had arranged a party for me there. They also told me that they had been planning it in front of me all week, using a different name that I thought was some strange Danish word that I would learn someday. How hilarious. But I had no idea and was so so soooo surprised! But it was the nicest thing and I had such a fun night bowling with them all. Was a little embarrassed though, as bowling isn't my forte and I couldn't get bumpers :( haha but it was so much fun! The bowling alley was a pumping place- I couldn't believe that there was a bar there ?!?!?! But they had some good danish music and everyone had a super fun night :) I actually love my class and part of me wishes that i could finish school and graduate with them in 2 years time... 

So all in all, i had a fantastic birthday in Denmark. I also had a wonderful time celebrating the night before with my second host family who came over for dinner. It was a very hyggeligt evening :) Todays plans are heading into Copenhagen for some exploring and then tomorrow im having a birthday dinner with my host famalies :) but darcy is coming down to stay for two nights and going into Copenhagen with her will be so much fun. I'm now officially 18 and on winter vacation. LIFE IS GOOD!  

We're all mad here....

Last night, i was lucky enough to go and watch my schools production of Alice in Wonderland. All of the tickets were sold out, however one of the boys in my class is a dancer in the musical so he scored me a ticket!

So after language school, I ventured into town and had a quick dinner with some of my Brazilian oldies. It was so much fun, talking about their experiences and impressions about Denmark so far. I ate at a kebab shop so I was expecting a normal size kebab.... but I was served the biggest meal I have ever seen. Supersize coke and a kebab that literally took up the whole length of a huge dinner plate. I was so thankful that I had some Brazilians there to share it with!

I then caught the bus back to my school to see the show. 

It was wonderful! Alice in Wonderland is one of my favourite movies so I was so excited to see it in Danish. I was not disappointed. The whole show was just amazing. 

I was super surprised when I found out that the entire show had been put together by the students. For that standard it was kind of hard to believe! The costumes were wonderful and the dancing was pretty good as well! The school had shaken up things a little bit and reworded songs to appropriately fit the musical. So like the Red Queen sung 'rumour has it' by Adele and the lyrics were changed to 'rumour has it im the one thats winning this war'. There was also the song 'hit me with your best shot' which was used for the fight scene. I loved the music- especially because it was one of the only things that I could actually understand :) but I did pick up a few questions and words here and there but it was VERY handy to know the story back to front! I loved what they did with it and loved the show! The audience did too as the cast received a standing ovation. 

Today, I had a sleep in and ventured to school after a much needed Skype home. This afternoon I'm heading to my third host families house for some afternoon :) and then I am speaking at my Rotary Club this evening. Busy day ahead! 

Intro camp!

Sorry that I have been MIA for a few days- have just arrived home from my intro camp which was in Jetland! I had such a busy week... filled with bread, laughs, new people and six hours of danish a day. It was so much fun- but I am so tired right now! 

Last Saturday, my host family took a road trip to Jetland to drop me off at my camp. We stopped at things along the way so I got to see a lot more of Denmark (pretty sure i will have seen the whole country by the end of the year because it is so small) Anyway. Our first stop was at Odense where I was lucky enough to visit Hans Christian Andersen's House. This was a part museum that had random bits and pieces from his life. It was so well done and such an amazing thing to see. I loved it! It was really interesting to learn about as well and maybe ill be able to read his fairytales in Danish :) woo. The town of Odense was also beautiful. There was a market on when we arrived which was nice to see and added to the character of the town. The streets were cobble stoned (of course) and were lined with beautiful old buildings of all different colours and super cute houses. So Hans Christian Andersen's house has been ticked off my 'Things to see in Denmark' list. 

From there we continued our four hour journey through the countryside. We stopped at two really big bridges. I love the Sydney Harbour Bridge.... but Denmark has got a step up on us and it isn't even a tourist destination. They were absolutely massive and the architecture was pretty cool.  One of the bridges even used to be the biggest in the world! 

Once we had ventured over the countryside, we arrived at our stop over for the night. My host dad's mums house. They lived in a beautiful farm house tucked away in a small country town. It was beautiful taking a walk around the town at sunset. It had the typical smell of a country town and was so tiny and secluded. That night we also had a Danish traditional christmas dinner. The food was unreal, and I am already looking forward to Christmas so I can eat it again (but i am avoiding the scales for sure) 

So after we were all rested, we continued our road trip to Burringbar. Today our sight seeing agenda was mountains.... or a better word for it would be hills. It was cool though. I visited the two highest peaks in Denmark. Was a little surprised when we could drive to the top of the peak. Guess I'm used to the 21km treck to the top of Mt Kousiscko.... Okay so to get an image in your mind, the size of the 'moutain' would be about the size of the peak at the top of River Road. Now imagine that with a big tall building on top just to add some true superiority. The view from the top though was magnificent and I loved looking out over the Danish country side. I had to laugh though at the size of the moutain. Guess I didn't really realise how flat Denmark is..... 

Anyway, eventually we arrived at my new home for the next week in the little town of Burringbar. This was also a country town, similiar to camden just lacking in the thai places and hairdressers! Anyway, said goodbye to my host family and met my new roomie for the week! Recognised her from the plane which was cool and we walked up to meet everyone else. I was so surprised at how many people I actually knew there as most of the new exchange students were from Australia! There were about 8 from Brazil, 3 Kiwis and 4 from Argentina and around 4 from Columbia. Needles to say, the Aussie's totally dominated! So we all got settled in and talked about our new experiances and first impressions of Denmark. It was really good to be able to relate to them all as we were all going through the same thing. We then played some icebreaker games and ventured off to bed to mentally prepare ourselves for six hours of Danish in the morning..... 

7:30am alarm woke us up on a Monday morning. It was a nice change from the usual 6:30 wake up for school but none the less we were all bright eyed and ready to learn as much Danish as we could.. We got the basics downpat on the first day.... I can now introduce myself, say where I live, my age, my language and what i like and dislike without having to look at a piece of paper- yay team! Six hours though was super long.... and so draining and we all found ourselves exhausted by the end of the day. 

We still managed to squeeze in a gym session which we all needed after eating so much bread (danish diet staple food just seems to be bread... something that has made us all want to avoid the scales and hit the gym) We then crashed into bed after a game of hockey in the gym. 

The second and third day followed a similiar pattern. We got a little more adventurous with our Danish and conquered the verbs and nouns. This became more difficult when we had to place them in past and present tense- still need to pratice that, But by the end of six hours we were well on the way to mastering this aspect of the strange foreign language. My favourite part was learning this really cool song for the alphabet... It was the anthem of our intro camp- check it out  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f488uJAQgmw (but beware it is addictive and will be stuck in your head for numerous hours) 

We did have a surprise one night where the Danish band 'Fair Enough Martin' came and played for us. They did a little gig and their music was so chill. Kind of music you would hear on triple J. So that was really fun and a really nice break for all of us :) 

On the fourth day, we had a break which we so desperately needed. So we all piled onto a bus and ventured into Aarhus. We had a tour of the old town which was filled with ancient buildings. Kind of similiar to Soverign Hill but a thousand times better. It was so interesting to see the buildings such as the school and the doctor and shop that still contained all of the origional things that were used in the town. 

After our little tour (which went by so quickly) we ventured into the city centre where we were allowed spare time. Aarhus like every Danish city has a church in the street which gave it so much character and made it a beautiful place to spend an afternoon. I ventured off with some of my aussie gals and we went on our first serious danish shopping spree. The sales were really good and we all managed to update our wordrobes so we dont look like complete aussie dags. At the end we had so many bags that it was quite a funny site. I had such a wonderful day though. 

That night we got some time to chill out on the couches. We consumed a few too many packets of Danish candy and the most amazing chocolates ever- Toffiees. I am in love with this German goodness (maybe i like them a little too much). It was really fun just laughing with everyone. Don't think i have laughed that hard for the entire time that i have been here actually. 

By Friday we were all exhaused yet we continued to plough along with the language. We did some revision which was good and continued to sing size matters (needles to say we now know the danish alphabet- yay team). 

On Saturday we had a bit of a relax. Three hours of Danish in the morning and then time to prepare for our class item that night. I love my class! Everyone really bonded well and this made the week more amazing. We came up with the idea of doing 'our impressions of Denmark so far' and did a video. We filmed scenes highlighting the differences that we have noticed. It was hilarious to make! 

So we tackled:

-The people and language; 

How no one talks to each other on the train

How everyone asks you to say Rul Gul Me Flur 

How the word for stop looks like Slut 

-The music

We did our own version of Nick and Jay wearing hooded winter jackets. Making a mini music video was the funniest thing 

-The party atmosphere

pretty self explanatory 

-The food

bread.bread.bread.bread

-The weather

Grace making a snow angel without a winter coat was one of the funnest things i have ever seen

Our video came together quite nicely and was a really good laugh for everyone. Our class had so much fun making it... but editing the movie was a challenge- as imovie was in spanish! So i figure if we pulled that off in an hour and produced a pretty good video using another language- Danish should be a breeze for us all! 

After our item shows we had a disco party as a way to end our time at intro camp. It was really fun actually and we were all so tired. Darcy, Grace and I ripped up the dance floor, but sat back down when the Brazillian girls got up and strutted their stuff. Needles to say we were embarrassed of our Aussie ways. But it was so cool and everyone really bonded. We were all so tired and crashed into bed by 12:30am. 

Sunday marked our last day at the camp. It was so sad to say goodbye to everyone, especially since we all bonded towards the end of the camp. We have another get together in April though at a waterpark hotel (didn't think they had those over here) and im looking forward to it already :) 

So after saying goodbye we all parted our ways. I caught the train home.. around four hours. It was so comftorable and the drive through the country side was super pretty. I was glad to arrive back at my host famalies house though! I even tried out some of my danish skills !

When i arrived home, i went straight to a Festilarn party (danish halloween). My host brother was dressed up as a punk and looked so so good with spiky pink hair. I was so glad that he won best dressed. It was really nice to go to this party, and to see this danish tradition! 

After some bread for dinner (of course) i crashed into bed, set my alarm for 6:30am and got a really goodnight sleep. 

This week should be good! Birthday celebrations will be in full swing as I'm seeing all of my host families on various days. Then the week after I'm on winter vacation and will be venturing into Copenhagen (so keen!) 

Will write soon!

Missing everyone at home so much 

Odense 

Han's Christians Anderson's Museum 

The peak of Denmark... 

Competition for the peak of Denmark.... 

IT SNOWED! 

The beautiful old town in Aarhus 

The beautiful old town in Aarhus 

Strolling the streets of Aarhus doing a bit of shopping... 

The sunset over the countryside...