So as the title reads, it will soon be a month, since I packed my bags, boarded the plane, spent two very very long days flying, and arrived in this cold country. There have already been ups and downs, but fortunatly, mostly ups!
I should however apologise for a mistake made in the past blog - I said that Richard got annoyed at the song 'You're so vain' but after thinking about it for more than a second, it was actually 'I am Women' :D I think that needed to be clarified. And tip #1 to anyone travelling to Europe in the winter - When Dumbledore exclaimed that one can never have to many socks, he was right!! There have been so many times that I have expected to pull my feet out of my shoes, missing toes from the frostbite - Converse All stars don't cut it as winter shoes.
The second week I was here, I tootled off to a town called Bjerringbro to go on introcamp with all the other exchange students ( or newbies) who came from the Southern Hemisphere ( Mostly Aussies, some NZ's, Brazilians, Argentinians and a South African in the 2nd half of the week) Our camp was held at Nørgaards Højskole which is pretty large ( see pic below - however remove most colour and leaves from the tree's, chuck in some grey tones, and maybe some rain, and there you have it! )
The school is perhaps comparable to a TAFE course mixed with boarding school, in which you don't have to sit exams and that sort of stuff, and anyone can attend, to specialise in a certain field. Many international students ( from places like Poland, Hungary and Lithuania also attend) This school in particular was strong in the music, art, drama and sport field and most of the full time students would stay there maybe 6 months, before going onto doing something else, be it Uni (and in saying that, I learnt that most students don't start Uni until they are around 22/23 yrs old) or Music Academy etc. It actually seems like a really good education, although it is one of the systems that you have to pay for unfortunatly. Provided ( I think this is correct) you attend lessons in your certain field for at least one and a half hours prior to, and after lunch, then its all good. The youngest student is 18 and the oldest about 28 at the moment. Back on track though, we rocked up, most of us having caught the same train, at Randers train station and were taken by bus, to the school, which is guarded by a large troll called Gudar ( beats me why they wanted a troll to guard it - Harry Potter influence perhaps? :D ) We were all given a dorm on campus to share with another student - my roomie was a girl from Toowoomba, living in Roskilde, called Sav, who is, if I may say so, very cool, and a lovely person!
After being shown a tour of the school ( side note: I will try not to bore with details - the three page email I sent to min Mor og Far allowed me to say everything to my hearts content) we were divided into classes, there being about 52 of us in full, with three teachers. The most important thing on my mind at that time, was not to learn Danish, but to watch the final of the World European Hanball tournament, being held in Sweden, with Denmark and France playing off against each other. Most people, rotary kiddies and full time students bundled into the lecture hall to watch, and my goodness, it was so intense! Stomping, clapping, cheering, yelling in frustration and with about 10 seconds to go, down one goal, a Danish player called Bo Spellerberg gave Denmark another chance by smashing one into the goals - we were ecstatic!!!!!! Anyway, in the extra 10 minutes, with everyone sitting on the edges of the chairs, Denmark very sadly lost 37 - 35, the last goal being scored with about 1 second to go - so incredibly disappointing, yet everyone, rather than say how well they had done, sort of slumped out of the hall for dinner! Still I now believe with all my heart, that handball is a much better game than AFL or cricket, and can happily live in the knowledge that I am not completly loyal to all Australian things.
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| Gudar the troll |
Anyway the Monday and Tuesday were spent learning Danish verbs, the alphabet, numbers etc. and a bit of grammar - I now fully believe that the Australian Govt. needs to make grammar part of the national curriculum ( and for my sake, probably spelling as well :P ) and on Tuesday afternoon, we sat down and discussed what its like to be a Danish teenage - very different from anything I've ever known back home - bit of a learning curve ahead! Tuesday night was pretty nifty though - everyone, long term students as well, learnt a song by Prince called 'Feel for you' and being back in a choir was surprisingly fun! So for about 2 hours we sat there and sang to our hearts content. In the evenings, we had a room called Pejsestuen (fire room) to use which was generally filled with the yells of students playing marfia, while others strummed away on guitar or piano, and the rest just chilled - twas a very nice atmosphere, if not sometimes loud! On the Wednesday, we took a trip north, to a town called Viborg, in which resides a Domkirke ( Cathedral - one of the main ones in DK) and it was amazing! From creation right through to the crucifixion and various NT stories, were painted on the walls and then in the main, central dome, the 12 disciples sat facing inwards - obviously words will not express how magnificant it was, but wow, seeing something that historic, and elegant ( I can't think of the right word ) was pretty breath taking!
We also visited a place called Hald Sø which is a large lake - the remains of a chunk of ice from the last ice age - surrounded by 'mountains'- Denmark in comparison to Australia, is flat!! That night we had surprise entertainment which turned out to be bowling at the local alley and it still amuses me that no matter where you go, there is a wardrobe for coats and seeing we had walked there in the rain and cold, it was very useful. It was a pretty nifty evening, managed to get two strikes in my last bowl - what are the odds? I manage to spill food on myself most meals, and many people will probably testify to that fact, but manage to get one strike, let alone two!!!
On thursday we had a lecture on Danish society ( p.s. I truthfully am trying to leave out the unimportant details, I promise!) which was pretty interesting - some info on the viking history of the country and why it is one of the happiest and least corrupt in the world, and what the deal with the heavy tax is ( Basic level wage earners pay 45% of their income!) There is also a thing called Jante Law which says that you are no better than anybody else, don't think you're special etc. sort of like Tall poppy syndrome, but it seems to work very well in Denmark, people seem more humble and the word 'Hygge' is used to mean cosiness, contentment, happiness and satisfaction.Anywho, it was a very good to know! That evening I choose to go to a internationl night type thing where students from Lithuania, Poland and Hungary spoke about their country's culture, food, fashion, landscape and the like, I also had the chance to sing in Polish, Lithuanian and Hungarian - Danish, in comparison, will be a breeze! Still Budapest looked amazing, so that's gone down on my list of places to visit!
Friday was spent in Århus, one of DK's largest cities, going to an art museum called Aros ( The art of Denmarks Golden Age is quite beautiful if I may say, although Modern art still annoys me) and then shoppping and that evening, I watched my first ever Danish film called 'Blinkende Lygter' and while it was sometimes quite violent, it was highly amusing, and a good introduction into Danish film.
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| Southern hemisphere newbies |
On Saturday we met the district counsellors, who again discussed the four D's (no dating, drinking, driving or drugs ) and had an end of camp party and performance time - my class, being the coolest of course ( :p) learnt a modern Danish pop song and belted it out - so I can now say I know a Danish song of by heart, without knowing the language. In saying that, our teacher as well as introducing us to the more pop side of music, told us about a band called Kashmir, which have since become one of my favourites!
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| Class - Andreas/teacher on far right |
Sunday was really just cramming everything into our bags, boarding the bus with about a minute to go and catching the train home - I would say it went smoothly, but I think I boarded the train at the wrong station or something like that so the train lady got all hoity toity and told me I had to pay more - It'll be a while before I get the hang of this train business!
So overall, the camp was brilliant - learnt more Dansk, and it was especially useful getting the joining words and verbs down, met new people, made me some friends and got to see some new cities!
Anyway, so that was introcamp - will write more later about London ( end of March) and life in general but I should also say Congratulations to Katie and Jason on their engagment and Congratulations for Nathan and Anthea for their wedding in a couple of days!!!!
Farvel for now! xoxo
