Denmark

Hello to people reading this 


Well I've been in Denmark 3 days and I already think it is one of the most beautiful countries I know ( with the experience of only knowing Australia). The Denmark bound students (myself included) touched down at 6.23 am  at Copenhagen to 0 degrees. I thought that long haul flying would be an adventure, I was wrong. Melbourne airport just annoyed me and the joy of having my own TV and airplane food quickly died away. By the time we got to Bangkok, most of us were sleep deprived and had no clue how to get around the airport seeing that it is insanely ginormous - I'm not kidding when I say that, there were about 4 of each store within one leval and within minutes, I had lost all sense of coordination ( however that's not too hard for me :p) The travelator's soon became our best friend and once we boarded the two storey plane (that was a bit wierd as well) I fell asleep during take off. The one flight that was somewhat pleasant, if not cramped, was from Copenhagen to Billund. The photo below was as we were heading toward the domestic terminal to catch the shuttle bus, first experience outside and it was freezing thus the more grimancing smile. 

first time outside in Copenhagen ( o degrees)

Anyway, as we got close to Billund, the clouds parted and the green Danish countryside emerged, along with masses of frozen lakes and very neatly kept gardens and farms. I was met by my first host family and counsellor and we drove for 45 minutes or so ( a long time in Denmark) before getting to the counsellor's house and their view overlooks lillbælt ( I think that's correct??) and you can see the middle island Fyn very vaguely. Had a Danish style lunch, slept a bit and then experienced my first match of European handball ( Denmark vs Poland-Denmark won!) and I have decided that it is an awesome game, nothing like the Aussie 4 square with King, Queen, Jack and Dunce but more of a cross between soccer, basketball and various other games, it moves pretty quickly and is much more fun than cricket will ever be. They played Argentina last night and won, and head into the semi finals against Sweden. I've finally found a sport that I can stand watching :D

Icy road - came incredibly close to stacking it

We( Sven (counsellor), Connie (his wife) and I) went walking along the beach for a couple of hours or so. Most of the coast is clay that is constantly being washed away by the melthing ice so all along the path were uprooted trees in soft clay. The town is home to one of DK's major military bases and as we were walking home ( on a frozen road which is incredibly difficult to walk on) we ran into a army dude who had spun off the road in a mercedes benz jeep and was stuck in close to a metre ditch. I considered taking a photo but I don't exactly know if thats allowed, or if he'd be happy with it.

Anyway, we also visted the 'birth certificate' of Denmark  in a town called Jelling(pronounced like Yelling) - two big mounds, one that held the Danish King Gorm who is one of Queen Magarethe's ancestors, with a little white church in the middle, which represented the change in worship from Nordic Gods, one of whom was called Gorm, to the Christian faith and next to the church is a big rune stone. One side tells of the change to Christianity, another shows a snake encompassing a lion ( from the Nordic Gods) and the other depicts Jesus on the cross. Anyway that's me in front of it, in the freezing cold. 


When it gets to 4 pm DK time (4am Aust time), my body decides it wants to sleep which is pretty annoying but I'm slowly getting over that. I was told that each hour difference will require another day to get over so I should be in a normal sleep pattern by the end of the week, ready for intro camp with all the other exchange students. 


I forgot that cars drive on the other side of the road so to learn how I cross roads, I follow the 7 yr olds on their way to school and so far so good, I havn't been squished yet! 


I start school tomorrow in 2nd G which I guess is like yr 11 although most people will be my age or older and the school is amazing, the cafateria is massive and each homegroup have their own table. During the breaks, competitions are held as well as performances and the like. For field trips, classes go to places like London, NY, Rome, Berlin etc. and my class (2c) will be heading to Iceland in March so here's to hoping that I can go with them! I will be studying Bio, English, History, German, sport and chem (sigh sigh sigh sigh - another year of pain) but at least it doesn't count for uni. There are about 30 people in a class, you call the teacher by their first name and cycle to school every morning, it'll be very different - also no uniform (yay hip hooray).

Most of the houses look like this and have very good central heating and heated tiles in the bathroom- I don't know why more Australian houses don't have them :P Home sickeness hasn't been too bad but every now and then something happens and it makes me think of home i.e. Carly Simon's 'Your so vain' played on the radio and I thought of Richard's annoyance at the song . Anyway, electricity and things in general are incredibly expensive here although it all pays for education which is free for all as well as the very good public health system that they have. I also think that due to not knowing how the whole exchange rate thing works, I paid the euro equivalent of $10 for a cup of coffee and pastry. oops. The royal family is much more equal that somewhere like England and there seems to be less of a celebrity status around them, so maybe I have a chance of meeting Mary after all :D


For now, from an amazingly beautiful country, until after intro camp, farvel
xoxo

Why a Blog?

Why the title?

My finishing quote for valedictory was by Mark Twain and in all honesty, sure I can say it to a bunch of year 12's, but I want to live it!

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Why the blog?

Instead of sending out monthly emails that people never read anyway, I figured that having a blog, in which I can post pictures etc. makes life far easier (for me at least) and hopefully I can put maps up and show everyone where I went in Europe, so if you want, you can follow my adventures

For those who haven't picked it up, I will be going on student exchange, organized with Rotary International, to a town in Denmark called Fredericia, study at school ( fortunately it doesn't count for anything), live with 3 or 4 host families in the town, travel, learn Danish, enjoy a different culture and meet new people, from all over the world. I figured it was nicer than heading straight into Uni (Which I will do in 2012 at Adelaide ( double degree with arts and science cos I still don't know what I want to do))

So Fredericia, if you peek on the map, is on the largest peninsula called Jutland, which is attached to Germany, and is very close to the bridge that joins Jutland and Fyn. It's a coastal town, and at least for my first family, I'll be about 5 minutes from the beach and about 20 mins (on bike) from my school. In saying that, I find it hard to imagine riding to school, when it's still dark, in inches of snow - that'll take getting used to!

Anywho, I leave on Jan 21st from Adelaide, go to Melbourne, catch Thai airways to Bangkok, and then Thai again to Copenhagen (capital of Denmark and yes, the ice cream does come from there ) and from Copenhagen, I catch a domestic flight to my final destination , Billund where I will hopefully meet my first Host family and Danish counsellor - His name is Sven, it makes me chuckle every time .... :D

Anyway, this week I also received info for a Eurotrip that all the Danish exchange kiddies take in May. It's 18 days, on a bus, with a bunch of 16 - 18 yr old teens - what fun... I still have yet to make up my mind on what I think about that but mainly, we travel parts of Europe and it looks amazing!!!!

We first go to Berlin, see all the sights including the Berlin Wall remains and the Brandenburger Gate, then continue to Prague, on the way stopping at the concentration camp Theresienstadt - I can imagine this will be a very harrowing experience, going to the Holocaust museum when I was a kid was painful enough, let alone actually visiting the real place, definitely not going to be an easy time.

We continue to sightsee in the Czech Republic before crossing into Austria and arriving in Vienna where we get to see the Schonbrunn Palace!!!!!!
We arrive at Lido De Jesolo which is 'a beach area of paradisaical beauty at the Adriatic coast of Italy' and the guide says, 'We will spend the next day bathing and basking in the sun' - I though it was sort of cute :P Following that we travel to Venice....sigh.... and go to St Marks Square, which is basically a square, seemingly filled with pigeons, that is shown in far too many action movies and without doubt, James Bond must have run/shot/driven etc. through there at some stage in his unrealistically long life!

Anyway, after Venice, we go to Verona and have the chance to see Juliet's balcony (for those who don't know, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is set in 'fair Verona') We then travel alongside the Italian Riviera till we hit Monaco (Grace Kelly was Princess Consort before being killed in a car accident driven by her daughter, Princess Stephanie) and see the Royal Palace! (If you didn't know, Monarchy is, in my opinion, the most fascinating part of History)

Back on track, we arrive at Avignon in France, where the popes chilled back in the 14th Century and continue onto Paris!! Eiffel tower, Notre Dame, The Louvre, both Arc De Triumph's, The Latin Quarter, the Concorde Square and the Center Pompidou ( named after the French woman in Dr Who, who was mistress to King Louis 14 (also known as the Sun King, he built Versailles) and whom David Tennent, as the Dr, meets!) Hopefully we'll get to see Versailles, that'd make doing yr 12 History worth while.

We leave Paris and arrive at Brussels although I would like to see if it would be possible to stop at Passchendale and see the battlefield where hundreds of Aussies died in WW1 or at least see a battlefield. After that we go to Amsterdam, eat some 'cookies'..... actually I kid, no drugs allowed kiddies :D ....and travel through Hamburg before returning to Denmark.

While we don't get to go to England, hopefully I'll be able to go with my host family (fingers very tightly crossed)

Feelings, schmeelings...that sorta stuff

Obviously excited that I've come this far and not been told to wake up. The plane ride should be amazing seeing it'll be the first overseas travel since I was a wee kid. Bit nervous at meeting my first family although the introcamp that I go on should help, excited that I get to spend another year at school (sarcasm) studying history (that was serious), happy that I avoid Uni for a year, nervous about how to deal with homesickness, esp. missing the mother and father and GJWTHF etc., worried about how I'm meant to reduce time spent on facebook....seeing my average time during yr 12 increased, I cannot see it happening, excited at the prospect of meeting a ton of new people, nervous about finding a solid, bible based, Jesus preaching church and youth group, nervous about having a different smelling, non Adelaide hills house but overall, exceedingly excited!! Who wouldn't be?

Anyway, I apologise for boring you if you have read on to this point, but that gives a slight overview of what 2011 holds for me and I might do another blog, once I get the hang of this thing, closer to my leaving date!

Peace out,
Hannah xoxo