It seems that in between AT week, eating sushi, planning a party, attending a party, hygge, danish school and shopping in copenhagen I have fallen behind in my blogging adventures and am lacking a post about one of the most emotional, fun and saddest weekends of my exchange. Yes, Holbæk Get Together has been and gone. It was fun, it was exciting, it was sad and there were tears shed all over the place. My last ever Rotary get together. Where has my year and time gone in Denmark? Speaking of which, today there are exactly 2 months until I am home in Australia. It is now 11:15am in Denmark and I suspect that if we fast forward to this exact time in 2 months, I will be fighting back all the tears, giving my final hugs to the people who have become such an important part of my life. It will be weird not seeing my class everyday, not speaking danish everyday, not just being able to go to copenhagen whenever i want, or even just popping over to Sweden just to go shopping... A little thing called reality hit me at Holbæk when I reluctantly gave my final hugs to all of my exchange student friends from all over the world. For some, it may be the last time that I see them, which is weird to think about because each and every one of them have been an important part of my exchange. So many tears and hugs were shared and the weekend was just perfect.
It all began on Friday night, with a 30 min car trip to holbæk. I was reunited with all the exchange students in Denmark, some of which i have not seen for 6 months and others that i have never met before (the newbies). There were so many newbies it was insane. The group of oldies isnt so big... there are around 44 of us, so we all know each other. It was so good to see them all again, and i was so happy to be reunited with my aussie girls from Jutland who I dont get to see as much as I would like. The first night consisted of dinner, and a disco with music until some ungodly hour of the morning. I think i went to bed at around 4:30am, and slept on the floor of a school which wasn't the most comftorable thing. But all of the oldies were together so it was so nice to 'hygge' together and be all together for the last time in our exchange.
The next morning everyone woke up a little tired and all nursed sore backs from that darn floor. Our day consisted of a little tour to Holbæk city, where we got to explore a little. Of course being Denmark, it just poured with rain all day, so the 2km walk into the city wasn't as pleasant as it would have been on a summers day. After becoming totally drenched, and purchasing a 30kr umbrella, me along with a group of aussies headed to a cafe to get some caffeen and recharge for what was going to be a very very long night. It was hyggelit to sit in the warm candle lit cafe and just talk about exchange and everything that we have all gotten up to. Catching up with all the beautiful Aussies reminded me how much I am going to miss all of them next year! We didn't really do much in the city, we basically tried to stay out of the rain and bought some supplies for the party. It was a nice tour though and Holbæk is a nice city even in the rain.
We came back a little soaked and tired, but this did nothing to dampen our spirits! After eating lunch and changing clothes, we had some time to do some fun activities. You could choose from hockey, soccer or making a pumpkin cut out. But as oldies, we decided to make our own little activity and sign everyones flags, write in books and just hygge reminicing about all the wonderful memories we shared together. It is a tradition as an exchange student to have either a flag or a book signed by all of the people who have been important to you thoroughout the year. My danish flag is now covered in beautiful messages that I will have for the rest of my life. I did shed a few tears reading them later... The book however will remain untouched until I am back in Australia and have the emotional capacity to read it without breaking down.
Signing Flags
Signing
Aussie Hygge!
After this little session, we had time to prepare for the Halloween Disco/party. This was a lot of fun, and there were costumes, makeup and texters going all over the place. Every person managed to dress up and some costumes were absoloutley awesome. Now that I think about it, this was actually my first Halloween, where I dressed up to celebrate the occassion. and believe me i will always remember it. My costume was a bunny, which I loaned from my host sister. But not the bunny from mean girls and not the bunny like a try hard with just the ears. This was the full shebang. I had a head, I had feet and of course I had hands. It was a lot of fun and everyone thought my costume was awesome ;)
So, to start the night off we had a formal dinner where every one sat down on round tables and in an ordered fashion went up and got food. It was a really hyggelit dinner and I sat on a table with some Aussie girls who I don't get to see too often.
After the dinner, there were some speeches from Rotarians, and then came the talent show where we were invited to put in some acts. Of course, the South Americans stole the show, so no one really wanted to dance after them.... their cultural dance was amazing, and i have said so many times that if i got the opportunity to do another exchange, I would do Brazil!
So, following the south americans, some americans got up and did a little fun rap, then more south americans danced and sung, then there was an amazing singer accompanied by my friend Beth on guitar, then the New Zeland boys took to the stage and totally blew everyone away with the Haka. It was awesome to see it live! Then.... it was my turn. Here is where the emotion for the night really began. It is a tradition as exchange students to have a farewell video that is shown on the last get together. I volunteered to make it and that was a good idea as it gave me something to do in class! Here is a link if you have 7 spare mins, i reccomend checking it out.
So, to start the night off we had a formal dinner where every one sat down on round tables and in an ordered fashion went up and got food. It was a really hyggelit dinner and I sat on a table with some Aussie girls who I don't get to see too often.
After the dinner, there were some speeches from Rotarians, and then came the talent show where we were invited to put in some acts. Of course, the South Americans stole the show, so no one really wanted to dance after them.... their cultural dance was amazing, and i have said so many times that if i got the opportunity to do another exchange, I would do Brazil!
So, following the south americans, some americans got up and did a little fun rap, then more south americans danced and sung, then there was an amazing singer accompanied by my friend Beth on guitar, then the New Zeland boys took to the stage and totally blew everyone away with the Haka. It was awesome to see it live! Then.... it was my turn. Here is where the emotion for the night really began. It is a tradition as exchange students to have a farewell video that is shown on the last get together. I volunteered to make it and that was a good idea as it gave me something to do in class! Here is a link if you have 7 spare mins, i reccomend checking it out.
This video was a success, and I made many cry. It was so fun to look back on our exchange year, and reflect on how far we have all come as people. I think that all of the people I came with in January 2013 have changed in more ways than one. We are now young adults, ready to dominate the world!
So the talent quest ended with a few tears, but that didn't stop the oldies from having one of the funnest nights of our exchange. There was a disco, with really high music and it had a party atmosphere. We all danced until the ungodly hours of the morning again. A band came along and played some live music, and of course there was a DJ, with coloured lights. It was so fun dancing all night long.
So the talent quest ended with a few tears, but that didn't stop the oldies from having one of the funnest nights of our exchange. There was a disco, with really high music and it had a party atmosphere. We all danced until the ungodly hours of the morning again. A band came along and played some live music, and of course there was a DJ, with coloured lights. It was so fun dancing all night long.
The next morning, everyone woke up tired, exhausted and emotionally drained. The final goodbye came, and songs from our exchange were played which only made us cry even more. I hugged all my beautiful exchange friends for what may be the last time, and wish the all the best with the future. It was a wonderful weekend.
I was picked up on Sunday morning, and slept for an hour when I got home because I was just so exhausted. Then, we celebrated my host dads birthday! It was a lot of fun but a very very very tiring weekend.
Back to school monday for a week that is called AT. I had a similiar week to this when I first came to Denmark, but this time I actually participated and help (a little) with the final project. My class had this project based in Physics and English (yay for me). It was different to the last one, as it was a lot more pratical and it involved nearly the entire second year. It was based around the idea of making my school more green. My group worked with the idea of solar pannels, and installing them into the school. Obviously there is not a lot of sun in Denmark, so we had to think pratically about this. Our project ended really well and it was a hyggelit week.
On Wednesday however, we were free from school as in Denmark it was a day where people work and earn money to donate to the children in Africa. The girls in my class however didn't participate and instead used the time to go shopping in Copenhagen. Very dangerous for my already overflowing collection of clothes. We actually went to a place that I have never been before- a place called Fields which is a thumping huge shopping centre! It was so nice to go shopping with them, and I only bought a little..... ;) we ate lunch together and just talked. We went home at about 4pm, and I stayed in Copenhagen to meet one of my Australian friends. The weather wasn't the greatest, and it gets dark now at around 4pm, so we got to see Copenhagen by lights. We stopped in Nyhavn for a coffee, then ventured further down the shopping street (our usual route). We finished the night off with a dinner in the shopping street, before crashing on the way home. It was a very fun day.
On Friday night, I ate dinner with one of my Danish friends and her Australian dad. It was so cool hearing an aussie living in Denmark and we talked about some cultural differences that we had both experianced.
On Friday night, I ate dinner with one of my Danish friends and her Australian dad. It was so cool hearing an aussie living in Denmark and we talked about some cultural differences that we had both experianced.
The rest of the week was normal, however the weekend was not as I was at school on both Saturday and Sunday to hold a fete type thing with my class. This was to raise money for their study tour to Malga in Spain, that I will unfortuantley not be here for. It is a tradition for second year students to go some where in Europe, or even New York with their class. The purpose of this, I am not really sure, but I wish that i was there when my class goes. It would be a lot of fun, but I have been asked if i will buy a ticket to Spain from Australia, or even better have there study tour to Australia! Anyway, this weekend was a thing called study fest, where every class in second year throws a little party for parents, and friends where they have some fun things to raise money. The theme of my class was Circus, so we set up our classroom like a circus. There were lights, coloured dots, bunting- the full thing. So we met early Saturday to set it up for the night. Everyone from my class dressed up like circus folk. There were clowns, dancers and a few ring masters (of which I was one). This was a lot of fun. We had a horse, and a cream throw thing where our history teacher was the one to cop the cream. I can now officially say I have thrown cream at a teacher something that not many people can ;). We ate some dinner and then partied the night away before getting kicked out at 11pm. It was a very very fun night and my friend Laura and her host sister came too.
Sunday, we were back at school cleaning up the mess that we made... it took about 3 hours. I went home, did an english assignment, read harry potter and just had a chill out day (something that I have not had in a very very long time). Then for dinner, we ate duck as it was a special day in Denmark where nearly half of denmark eat duck.. i am not really sure why, denmark has a lot of traditional days like this though. It was cool to experiance
Today is Monday, and I have 2 peroids of school left... english and biology. Today has been a pretty normal day although I was quite proud of myself as I presented something in Danish to my whole class as part of group work. Never in my wildest dreams would I thought that possible! AND I GOT 7 FOR MY LAST DANISH ASSIGNMENT IN FULL DANISH! WOOOO HOOOOOO!
Anyways, this week is pretty normal. Just school and hopefully will be sending a package home. On the weekend there are plans to make some christmas decorations and on sunday im seeing Stomp the musical! Should be a good week!
Love to everyone at home
See you in two months
xxx
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