Denmark, here I come! I'm so excited to finally find out where I'm going. Denmark is amazing! I'll post pictures later ....
Also, here is a list of the other Outbound Exchange Students and their blogs, if you are interested in following them as well:
Sophie (Denmark) - http://sophiesyearabroad.weebly.com/
Kenzie (Germany) - http://themackenziechronicles.blogspot.com/
Sydney (Australia) - http://sydneyamericanaussie.blogspot.com/
Maggie (Turkey) - http://myyearabroadmaggieb.blogspot.com/
Nicole (Brazil) - http://nicoleinbrazil.weebly.com/
Erin (Czech Republic/Slovakia) - http://elichnerowicz.blogspot.com/
From Indiana (with extra love!)
Hannah
Also, here is a list of the other Outbound Exchange Students and their blogs, if you are interested in following them as well:
Sophie (Denmark) - http://sophiesyearabroad.weebly.com/
Kenzie (Germany) - http://themackenziechronicles.blogspot.com/
Sydney (Australia) - http://sydneyamericanaussie.blogspot.com/
Maggie (Turkey) - http://myyearabroadmaggieb.blogspot.com/
Nicole (Brazil) - http://nicoleinbrazil.weebly.com/
Erin (Czech Republic/Slovakia) - http://elichnerowicz.blogspot.com/
From Indiana (with extra love!)
Hannah
09/23/14 - Well, another busy week has passed by before i noticed it! Somehow, I figured out how to switch my keyboard input to Danish, so I've got the æ ø å thing down, but now I can't figure out how to switch it back ... hmm ... well, I'll figure it out at some point! I spent the weekend at Fanø, which was amazing! We had a strikkefest, or knitting festival, so now I have learned how to knit! My transformation to an old lady is complete! :D I am currently knitting a scarf (red, if you want to know) and there are plans for a sweater on the way. School is still going great, and I've got an outing to Århus planned for this Saturday with Freja, which will be pretty awesome. And tomorrow is the official get-together for exchangees on Jylland, so that will be ... busy, to say the least.
By the way, if anyone has questions, feel free to email them to me/ message me on Facebook / find some way to contact me and I'll do my best to answer them on here!
For now, some more pictures. If I ever have more than a few minutes of time in which I'm not busy, I'll add a video! (Especially if people request one!) Vi ses!
By the way, if anyone has questions, feel free to email them to me/ message me on Facebook / find some way to contact me and I'll do my best to answer them on here!
For now, some more pictures. If I ever have more than a few minutes of time in which I'm not busy, I'll add a video! (Especially if people request one!) Vi ses!
October
10/10/14 Well, I haven't really been updating much because I've been so busy! School is still going fine and all. I had a bit of a cold but it's going away pretty quickly.
What have I been doing, you ask? Well, I have been to another Rotary exchange student get-together, and it was pretty awesome. We talked about rules and stuff, and went bowling. I also went to another local Rotary meeting, and presented myself to the club. Apparently, I'm only expected to go to a few more before I return home. I also have talked more to my next host family. My 2nd host parents are awesome! Also their daughter Janni, who went to Brazil last year. I'm quite excited to spend Christmas with them! My first host parents have also said that they will take me to London at some point, so there's something else to look forward to. When I told my second host family about the trip, they said they planned to take me skiing in Germany and to Sweden! And while my first host family has a vacation house on Fanø, my second host family has a vacation house north of Copenhagen so I also will have many chances to visit people in that area :)
10/19/14 Got behind on my blog again, dang it. I'm having serious trouble remembering this. I apologize to you all. But my dad emailed me some questions to answer for you about Denmark, so at least I have something to talk about.
First, I should tell you that this past week was Fall Break, or I suppose the Danish equivalent of it. In the olden days in was used to harvest the potato crop, so a few other exchange students and I have jokingly labeled it the potato holiday. I spent the first part on Fanø with my host family, where I met an exchange student (Grace) and we shopped and hung out together. It was a lot of fun. Then, Friday and Saturday I spent on Langeland with another exchange student, Laura. We went to the biggest haunted house in Europe, called Horror Nights, at one of the local baroness' castles. I was hoping to be more scared than I actually was, but it was pretty hyggelig :D
So, to answer my dad's questions.
Are there poor in Denmark? If so, what is their safety net? To be honest, there really aren't poor people or rich people in Denmark. Everyone is extremely well off. The nobility have the same amount of money as the 'working class' but they don't actually work, it's all inherited. The fancy castles and things like that are handed out by the queen to whomever she wants to give them to, but then there is a pretty large tax on them. (Taxes here take 70% of a person's income.) If a person is jobless, he or she can apply for financial aid which, in many cases, is more money than they were making when they worked anyway (a large reason why the tax rate is so high). And health care, etc. is still free to everyone, regardless.
How easy / expensive is it to go to college in Denmark? For someone who has lived in Denmark for more than 5 years, college is free. Not only that, students are PAID a monthly stipend to go to college so that they don't have to work at the same time and can focus on their studies. However, there are some rigorous tests to get into a university, depending on what you want to major in. Most Danes get in for something, but not necessarily their first pick of a major.
How much freedom do the young Danes get? Young Danes, basically from the time they are 13 or 14, are quite independent. Parents here have little to do with most teenagers' daily lives. At age 14 or 15, most kids get jobs at a local supermarket or factory so they have money to spend on alcohol. There is no minimum age on drinking in Denmark, but one can buy alcohol from a store at 16 and from a bar at 18. Smoking is also legal at 16. It's also very easy to get drugs here, even though many are illegal, and no one really hides the fact that they have them. Other people don't really seem to care, so I kind of just avoid certain places at night. But honestly, Denmark is really safe. Rape, domestic violence, etc. is so rare because the culture is accepting of sexual exploits from an age of about 13 (yes, I have heard stories of 13 year olds having sex ....) so no one feels the need to go to extremes. Or at least, that type of extreme. Basically, Danish teens explore every aspect of life to their hearts' content, and the parents don't stop them, because then they mature and become responsible adults who don't do anything like that.
Are there such things as charities in Denmark and, if so, are typical young Danes participate in them (donate time/effort)? Denmark has many different charities, but no one really donates any time or effort to them unless they are past the age of retirement (all Danes retire at age 65 and have a pension for the rest of their lives, another reason the taxes are so high). Old clothes, money, or other material things are freely given all of the time, but most teenage Danes feel they don't have the time to volunteer for a charity.
What are typical ways of leasure time spenditure of a young Dane? In Denmark there are many leisure activities that one can do. All sorts of clubs can be found in or around Kolding, for local people. Football clubs (real football, not American football) are popular here, along with handball. But a decent number of teens (anywhere from 3 to 30) can be found in any club. To be honest, I don't even know all of the clubs in the area. But there is a website that one can visit to find clubs they want to participate in, and all of the related information.
What kind of parent/kid relationships are typical for Denmark? How much freedom does a teenage Dane have? I think I already answered the 'freedom' question pretty well, but I will reiterate that Danish teens have all the freedom they want. Parents and children have a rather relaxed relationship, everyone gets along quite well and siblings don't fight (that really amazed me, haha). Parents make so few demands of the children that the children just comply. Each of us has a few weekly household chores, in addition to keeping our rooms fairly clean and making dinner once a week. It's not a big deal for anyone. Everyone speaks rationally and is polite and somehow it all works (me: why isn't the USA like this?!?!) so if I'm going to the store, I just ask if anyone needs anything, and they return the favor when they go. So it's not only parent/child relationships, but teenager/teenager relationships in the household.
This wasn't a question my dad asked, but I feel like I also should point our a few things about friends. I don't know how I did it, but I seem to be accepted here by my classmates and other exchange students (where did all of these friends come from? I'm feeling swamped, haha) and we do lots of crazy stuff. It's really accepted for a class to basically be a huge group of friends, to do a lot of partying, a lot of drinking, and a lot of spending time together out of the classroom, and I find it freaking awesome (the spending time together part, not the drinking part :) ) Because a class spends the whole day together, you get close to 26 other people REALLY fast. I spend more time with my friends, both in and out of school, than I do with my host family. I'm starting to think the US system is really backwards.
Anyway, so that's my long rant thing about what's up in Denmark. Also, have some pictures. :D
Remember, if you have a question you want answered just email/message me on Facebook/text me, etc.
Med kærlighed,
Hannah
What have I been doing, you ask? Well, I have been to another Rotary exchange student get-together, and it was pretty awesome. We talked about rules and stuff, and went bowling. I also went to another local Rotary meeting, and presented myself to the club. Apparently, I'm only expected to go to a few more before I return home. I also have talked more to my next host family. My 2nd host parents are awesome! Also their daughter Janni, who went to Brazil last year. I'm quite excited to spend Christmas with them! My first host parents have also said that they will take me to London at some point, so there's something else to look forward to. When I told my second host family about the trip, they said they planned to take me skiing in Germany and to Sweden! And while my first host family has a vacation house on Fanø, my second host family has a vacation house north of Copenhagen so I also will have many chances to visit people in that area :)
10/19/14 Got behind on my blog again, dang it. I'm having serious trouble remembering this. I apologize to you all. But my dad emailed me some questions to answer for you about Denmark, so at least I have something to talk about.
First, I should tell you that this past week was Fall Break, or I suppose the Danish equivalent of it. In the olden days in was used to harvest the potato crop, so a few other exchange students and I have jokingly labeled it the potato holiday. I spent the first part on Fanø with my host family, where I met an exchange student (Grace) and we shopped and hung out together. It was a lot of fun. Then, Friday and Saturday I spent on Langeland with another exchange student, Laura. We went to the biggest haunted house in Europe, called Horror Nights, at one of the local baroness' castles. I was hoping to be more scared than I actually was, but it was pretty hyggelig :D
So, to answer my dad's questions.
Are there poor in Denmark? If so, what is their safety net? To be honest, there really aren't poor people or rich people in Denmark. Everyone is extremely well off. The nobility have the same amount of money as the 'working class' but they don't actually work, it's all inherited. The fancy castles and things like that are handed out by the queen to whomever she wants to give them to, but then there is a pretty large tax on them. (Taxes here take 70% of a person's income.) If a person is jobless, he or she can apply for financial aid which, in many cases, is more money than they were making when they worked anyway (a large reason why the tax rate is so high). And health care, etc. is still free to everyone, regardless.
How easy / expensive is it to go to college in Denmark? For someone who has lived in Denmark for more than 5 years, college is free. Not only that, students are PAID a monthly stipend to go to college so that they don't have to work at the same time and can focus on their studies. However, there are some rigorous tests to get into a university, depending on what you want to major in. Most Danes get in for something, but not necessarily their first pick of a major.
How much freedom do the young Danes get? Young Danes, basically from the time they are 13 or 14, are quite independent. Parents here have little to do with most teenagers' daily lives. At age 14 or 15, most kids get jobs at a local supermarket or factory so they have money to spend on alcohol. There is no minimum age on drinking in Denmark, but one can buy alcohol from a store at 16 and from a bar at 18. Smoking is also legal at 16. It's also very easy to get drugs here, even though many are illegal, and no one really hides the fact that they have them. Other people don't really seem to care, so I kind of just avoid certain places at night. But honestly, Denmark is really safe. Rape, domestic violence, etc. is so rare because the culture is accepting of sexual exploits from an age of about 13 (yes, I have heard stories of 13 year olds having sex ....) so no one feels the need to go to extremes. Or at least, that type of extreme. Basically, Danish teens explore every aspect of life to their hearts' content, and the parents don't stop them, because then they mature and become responsible adults who don't do anything like that.
Are there such things as charities in Denmark and, if so, are typical young Danes participate in them (donate time/effort)? Denmark has many different charities, but no one really donates any time or effort to them unless they are past the age of retirement (all Danes retire at age 65 and have a pension for the rest of their lives, another reason the taxes are so high). Old clothes, money, or other material things are freely given all of the time, but most teenage Danes feel they don't have the time to volunteer for a charity.
What are typical ways of leasure time spenditure of a young Dane? In Denmark there are many leisure activities that one can do. All sorts of clubs can be found in or around Kolding, for local people. Football clubs (real football, not American football) are popular here, along with handball. But a decent number of teens (anywhere from 3 to 30) can be found in any club. To be honest, I don't even know all of the clubs in the area. But there is a website that one can visit to find clubs they want to participate in, and all of the related information.
What kind of parent/kid relationships are typical for Denmark? How much freedom does a teenage Dane have? I think I already answered the 'freedom' question pretty well, but I will reiterate that Danish teens have all the freedom they want. Parents and children have a rather relaxed relationship, everyone gets along quite well and siblings don't fight (that really amazed me, haha). Parents make so few demands of the children that the children just comply. Each of us has a few weekly household chores, in addition to keeping our rooms fairly clean and making dinner once a week. It's not a big deal for anyone. Everyone speaks rationally and is polite and somehow it all works (me: why isn't the USA like this?!?!) so if I'm going to the store, I just ask if anyone needs anything, and they return the favor when they go. So it's not only parent/child relationships, but teenager/teenager relationships in the household.
This wasn't a question my dad asked, but I feel like I also should point our a few things about friends. I don't know how I did it, but I seem to be accepted here by my classmates and other exchange students (where did all of these friends come from? I'm feeling swamped, haha) and we do lots of crazy stuff. It's really accepted for a class to basically be a huge group of friends, to do a lot of partying, a lot of drinking, and a lot of spending time together out of the classroom, and I find it freaking awesome (the spending time together part, not the drinking part :) ) Because a class spends the whole day together, you get close to 26 other people REALLY fast. I spend more time with my friends, both in and out of school, than I do with my host family. I'm starting to think the US system is really backwards.
Anyway, so that's my long rant thing about what's up in Denmark. Also, have some pictures. :D
Remember, if you have a question you want answered just email/message me on Facebook/text me, etc.
Med kærlighed,
Hannah
november 2014
11/04/14 Somehow my last post got deleted, so I apologize for that. And then, when I tried to fix it, it mysteriously disappeared again ... hmm ....
Anyway, I've had a great few weeks! Still amazed at the amount of partying that goes on here (it can't just be Kolding, can it?) and occasionally I worry about my classmates. They seem to take 'we don't party hardly, we just party hard' to the limit. :D
Well, this past weekend I was in Germany. Hamburg, specifically. It was an amazing day! The drive only takes about 2 hours, and there was a lot to see. I also got to see Kenzie, a fellow outbound from D6540, who lives in the area! We explored a tunnel under the Elbe River, saw the 'Rathaus' (city hall), visited some old buildings and churches, and of course went shopping. I tried some Turkish food (the Turks have overrun Hamburg) and saw some of the sights. Everything is so cheap there compared to Denmark! :D It's crazy. Must come from being crazy wealthy. Lastly, we went to a football game. Hamburg vs Leverkusen. It was the craziest game I've ever seen! Within five minutes there was a yellow card. All in all, four yellow cards were awarded (and one should have been a red, just saying!) We were in the standing section with the hardcore fans, ad it was raining beer most of the match. :D Anyway, I've added some pictures below!
Also went to church at a local church in Christiansfeld. It was very interesting, and different from church the way I'm used to. And of course, it was in Danish. I was surprised by how many words I recognized, so my Danish is progressing well!
I thought I'd add a little about Danish fashion. Denmark, apparently the fashion capital of the world, basically has the mantra that 'Black is the new Black.' :D So any little bit of color (other than a scarf or backpack) is out of place here.
Vintage style is the latest (which I'm really happy about, because that's how I dress, haha) and grandma sweaters are also 'in.' Last of all, girls should look like they spent 5 minutes on their hair and 5 hours on their outfit, while guys should spend 5 hours on their hair and 5 minutes on their outfit.
Also, some information about how archery is going! The club is just a local thing, with people of all shapes and sizes (by which I mean ages and shooting styles). For now, I've switched to a recurve bow because there really is no competition group for compound barebows. Apparently it's a fairly good club, however, because they get all sorts of grants and awards and such. Some pictures are added below!
Lastly, a few weeks ago we had a Halloween get-together for Exchange students at Holbæk, so I've got pictures of that as well. It was a lot of fun!
Fra Danmark med kærlighed,
Hannah
Anyway, I've had a great few weeks! Still amazed at the amount of partying that goes on here (it can't just be Kolding, can it?) and occasionally I worry about my classmates. They seem to take 'we don't party hardly, we just party hard' to the limit. :D
Well, this past weekend I was in Germany. Hamburg, specifically. It was an amazing day! The drive only takes about 2 hours, and there was a lot to see. I also got to see Kenzie, a fellow outbound from D6540, who lives in the area! We explored a tunnel under the Elbe River, saw the 'Rathaus' (city hall), visited some old buildings and churches, and of course went shopping. I tried some Turkish food (the Turks have overrun Hamburg) and saw some of the sights. Everything is so cheap there compared to Denmark! :D It's crazy. Must come from being crazy wealthy. Lastly, we went to a football game. Hamburg vs Leverkusen. It was the craziest game I've ever seen! Within five minutes there was a yellow card. All in all, four yellow cards were awarded (and one should have been a red, just saying!) We were in the standing section with the hardcore fans, ad it was raining beer most of the match. :D Anyway, I've added some pictures below!
Also went to church at a local church in Christiansfeld. It was very interesting, and different from church the way I'm used to. And of course, it was in Danish. I was surprised by how many words I recognized, so my Danish is progressing well!
I thought I'd add a little about Danish fashion. Denmark, apparently the fashion capital of the world, basically has the mantra that 'Black is the new Black.' :D So any little bit of color (other than a scarf or backpack) is out of place here.
Vintage style is the latest (which I'm really happy about, because that's how I dress, haha) and grandma sweaters are also 'in.' Last of all, girls should look like they spent 5 minutes on their hair and 5 hours on their outfit, while guys should spend 5 hours on their hair and 5 minutes on their outfit.
Also, some information about how archery is going! The club is just a local thing, with people of all shapes and sizes (by which I mean ages and shooting styles). For now, I've switched to a recurve bow because there really is no competition group for compound barebows. Apparently it's a fairly good club, however, because they get all sorts of grants and awards and such. Some pictures are added below!
Lastly, a few weeks ago we had a Halloween get-together for Exchange students at Holbæk, so I've got pictures of that as well. It was a lot of fun!
Fra Danmark med kærlighed,
Hannah
11/11/14 - Another week flown by! It's been a pretty great one. I swear, I never can just come home after school, can I? Someone always want to do something :) I'm enjoying it. We celebrated Alex's 18th birthday on Friday! We got him a gift card to one of the sporting goods stores in the storcenter. Hopefully he uses it, he really likes to wear sporty clothes I think. After that was Mammutfest, which also went really well. It started out a bit boring, with some singing and things about how awesome Munkensdam is, but once the dancing started it got better. I did a lot of nutbushing, which is some sort of Australian dance, haha. And we were out pretty late, so I enjoyed it immensely.
Also went to Flensburg yesterday. It's just over the German border, so that's where we get most of our cheap candy, etc. I really wanted to go to the swimming pool, I'll have to find some other time! It only took an hour to get to Flensburg, so I think we'll be returning fairly often.
Some more pictures for you all! Vi ses!
Fra Danmark med kærlighed,
Hannah
Also went to Flensburg yesterday. It's just over the German border, so that's where we get most of our cheap candy, etc. I really wanted to go to the swimming pool, I'll have to find some other time! It only took an hour to get to Flensburg, so I think we'll be returning fairly often.
Some more pictures for you all! Vi ses!
Fra Danmark med kærlighed,
Hannah
11/18/14 - Well, no pictures this time, folks. I have, however, been quite busy. Friday night Doris, from Taiwan, hosted an International Dinner for the rest of us Exchange students around Kolding, and it was a lot of fun! Each of us brought a dish from our home country - I was feeling like a fancy chef with my bag of potato chips and gingersnap cookies, haha. :D Saturday night, I visited with my next host family, Max and Jette Henriksen. I got a tour of the house, it's so large! They're the nicest people, I'm quite happy to be living with them soon. I move the first of December! And they have a dog, which makes me happy! I am also sad to leave the Vesters, though .... Sunday, we visited Christian at his efterskole, then took a walk (I can't really say hike, it wasn't high enough for that) to the highest point in Denmark, about 147 meters above sea level :D It had a nice view, for really not being that tall, haha.
That's pretty much it for now ... but I have a Thanksgiving Dinner to host for my classmates this Friday, and I'll tell you all about it next time!
Kærlighed,
Hannah
That's pretty much it for now ... but I have a Thanksgiving Dinner to host for my classmates this Friday, and I'll tell you all about it next time!
Kærlighed,
Hannah
December
12/16/14 - Well, it's been a month now. As you can see, I've got a lot to tell! I apologize for taking so long to update. I'm really bad at this. I'll make up for it with the sheer length of this post though, haha.
My last few weeks with my first host family were very busy. We took a trip up north a little to climb up to the highest point in Denmark - 170.86 metres above sea level. It's quite strange to not have any natural waterfalls, mountains, etc. near to where I live. But Denmark has a lot of other qualities to make up for this!
I also held a party at my host parents' house for American Thanksgiving. I'm pretty sure everyone had a good time. Obviously, they had no idea what we were celebrating, but honestly, it was more about having a party than it was about celebrating American history, even though Black Friday has been commercialized world-wide. My host parents were at Fanø, so we basically had the run of the house, even though my host brother was home and had some friends over! I think the last person left about 2 am, but I was too tired to pay much attention to the clock.
12/22/14 - With my next host family, I went to my host grandmother's 75th birthday party and we played a game called 'kugler' which is a bit like bowling but easier. There are pictures above. The ball is the size of my fists put together and the track is a little narrower than a bowling track, but there are 10 pins to hit.
I moved in with my new host family on December 1st. They're quite welcoming, and I feel just as at home as I did with my last family! Although I miss the Vesters very much .... Still, I'm quite happy here. We do a lot of things together, even something as simple as watching a movie together at night.
Speaking of which, there are these things called 'Julekalenderer' which are Christmas T.V. series that go for a half-hour every evening in December until Christmas. I have been watching one about elves who make Santa forget that he is Santa, and they have to teach him about what to do and how to do it again. It's called Pyrus. A new one comes out every year, but I don't watch the newest one because it seems quite strange - with time travel and all sorts of things. I also watch one that is a mix of Danish, English, and German, so it's confusing at times. Hopefully I can find the DVDs to bring back to the US with me! :D
I also took a day trip to Copenhagen and looked around there. We did some shopping and stopped at Tivoli for the evening. Tivoli is beautiful! As the oldest amusement park in the world that is still running, there is also a lot of history. I'm looking forward to going back at some point, I didn't get to do much there except look around. But as you can see from the pictures, it is really decorated for Christmas! They've gone crazy with the lights! I'm sorry that some things are blurry - things happen fast! :)
For now, I'm wrapping presents and waiting for Christmas. We've been doing advent here, so each Sunday for the 4 Sundays before Christmas, we get a gift. It's a sweet idea. I'll take a lot of pictures of Christmas and tell you about the traditions next time - I'm told we're going to sing and dance around the tree .... :/ ....
My last few weeks with my first host family were very busy. We took a trip up north a little to climb up to the highest point in Denmark - 170.86 metres above sea level. It's quite strange to not have any natural waterfalls, mountains, etc. near to where I live. But Denmark has a lot of other qualities to make up for this!
I also held a party at my host parents' house for American Thanksgiving. I'm pretty sure everyone had a good time. Obviously, they had no idea what we were celebrating, but honestly, it was more about having a party than it was about celebrating American history, even though Black Friday has been commercialized world-wide. My host parents were at Fanø, so we basically had the run of the house, even though my host brother was home and had some friends over! I think the last person left about 2 am, but I was too tired to pay much attention to the clock.
12/22/14 - With my next host family, I went to my host grandmother's 75th birthday party and we played a game called 'kugler' which is a bit like bowling but easier. There are pictures above. The ball is the size of my fists put together and the track is a little narrower than a bowling track, but there are 10 pins to hit.
I moved in with my new host family on December 1st. They're quite welcoming, and I feel just as at home as I did with my last family! Although I miss the Vesters very much .... Still, I'm quite happy here. We do a lot of things together, even something as simple as watching a movie together at night.
Speaking of which, there are these things called 'Julekalenderer' which are Christmas T.V. series that go for a half-hour every evening in December until Christmas. I have been watching one about elves who make Santa forget that he is Santa, and they have to teach him about what to do and how to do it again. It's called Pyrus. A new one comes out every year, but I don't watch the newest one because it seems quite strange - with time travel and all sorts of things. I also watch one that is a mix of Danish, English, and German, so it's confusing at times. Hopefully I can find the DVDs to bring back to the US with me! :D
I also took a day trip to Copenhagen and looked around there. We did some shopping and stopped at Tivoli for the evening. Tivoli is beautiful! As the oldest amusement park in the world that is still running, there is also a lot of history. I'm looking forward to going back at some point, I didn't get to do much there except look around. But as you can see from the pictures, it is really decorated for Christmas! They've gone crazy with the lights! I'm sorry that some things are blurry - things happen fast! :)
For now, I'm wrapping presents and waiting for Christmas. We've been doing advent here, so each Sunday for the 4 Sundays before Christmas, we get a gift. It's a sweet idea. I'll take a lot of pictures of Christmas and tell you about the traditions next time - I'm told we're going to sing and dance around the tree .... :/ ....
January
01/10/15 - Happy New Years, everybody! I've had a great first ten days, it's quite strange to think that this is my 5 month anniversary of coming to Denmark! I only have another 6 months. :( Well, I should probably update you guys on what's been happening. I finally gave out all of my presents, and from what I can tell, everybody enjoyed what I gave them! I love to give people things, I don't really know how to explain it. But at the same time, I hate to get gifts because I don't really get anything here that I actually wanted. But my host family, being the nice people that they are, decided to finalize our trip to London in February and then told me they would pay for most of it as my Christmas gift! I'm sooooooo excited to go see London for the first time! We get to see the Sherlock Holmes museum, and the London Eye, and all sorts of very neat things, though my host parents say the food isn't all that good. :D
Also, all of the 'oldies,' or exchange students that came in January of 2014, left today. It's very sad for us who came in August and September, but now we're the oldies! My good friend Chantelle is gone. I hope to visit her in Australia at some point.
For a long time before Christmas break, I was told I was moving to a new class, the Biotech class. Then, on Wednesday, I recieved an email from the headmistress of the gymnasium that they think it would be better for me to stay with my old class. I'm very glad that I don't have to go and make new friends now!
We did, actually, dance around the tree. I'll add some videos of that, at some point. Christmas I spent with my family. New Years I spent with my friends from school, at one of their houses. We had a huge amount of fun! We watched the queen's speech, ate dinner, watched the Prime Minister's speech, and saw a short film that is shown every New Years from the 1940s. At midnight, we jumped off of chairs into the New Year, had a toast, and went out to the back porch and set off fireworks. It was a really great time.
Well, for now that's all. Vi ses!
Fra Danmark med kærlighed,
Hannah
Also, all of the 'oldies,' or exchange students that came in January of 2014, left today. It's very sad for us who came in August and September, but now we're the oldies! My good friend Chantelle is gone. I hope to visit her in Australia at some point.
For a long time before Christmas break, I was told I was moving to a new class, the Biotech class. Then, on Wednesday, I recieved an email from the headmistress of the gymnasium that they think it would be better for me to stay with my old class. I'm very glad that I don't have to go and make new friends now!
We did, actually, dance around the tree. I'll add some videos of that, at some point. Christmas I spent with my family. New Years I spent with my friends from school, at one of their houses. We had a huge amount of fun! We watched the queen's speech, ate dinner, watched the Prime Minister's speech, and saw a short film that is shown every New Years from the 1940s. At midnight, we jumped off of chairs into the New Year, had a toast, and went out to the back porch and set off fireworks. It was a really great time.
Well, for now that's all. Vi ses!
Fra Danmark med kærlighed,
Hannah
01/18/15 - Well, not much exciting has happened this week. Although, there have been some amazing developments! The London trip is just 3 weeks away, and I can hardly wait! After that, there is a trip with the Ungdomsskole, which is where the exchange students take Danish lessons, to Bacelona, Spain. That is in April. And we finally have information on the Euro Bus Tour, which I am more excited about than the other 2 combined! We are visiting 8 different countries, and 14 different cities. I'm even going to Brussels, which is near where my friend Laura lives! She was an exchange student to the USA a few years ago and stayed with my aunt!
01/26/15 - I had a great weekend with some of the awesome exchange students visiting for a movie night! It's really strange to be an 'oldie,' which means I get to rule the newbies! Or, rather, newbie. We've just got one. It was a great Friday, I think we ended up watching six or seven movies total. And it was my first time seeing 'The Fault in Our Stars,' which, to be honest, I found a lot more funny than I found sad. Does that make me a terrible person? I hope not.
Two more weeks until London, but not much other than that! We have everything planned out, and it's such an exciting trip! I can't wait, or rather, I don't want to. It's come to my attention that it is impossible to exaggerate or be sarcastic in English around these Danes, they don't get it. On the other hand, sarcasm in Danish is guaranteed to get you the biggest laugh of any joke you can tell.
Anyway, life is going on as normal. Or at least, as normal as it gets when you're in a different country. Nothing much other than that to tell! Vi ses næste uge (see you next week)!
Fra Danmark med kærlighed,
Hannah
01/26/15 - I had a great weekend with some of the awesome exchange students visiting for a movie night! It's really strange to be an 'oldie,' which means I get to rule the newbies! Or, rather, newbie. We've just got one. It was a great Friday, I think we ended up watching six or seven movies total. And it was my first time seeing 'The Fault in Our Stars,' which, to be honest, I found a lot more funny than I found sad. Does that make me a terrible person? I hope not.
Two more weeks until London, but not much other than that! We have everything planned out, and it's such an exciting trip! I can't wait, or rather, I don't want to. It's come to my attention that it is impossible to exaggerate or be sarcastic in English around these Danes, they don't get it. On the other hand, sarcasm in Danish is guaranteed to get you the biggest laugh of any joke you can tell.
Anyway, life is going on as normal. Or at least, as normal as it gets when you're in a different country. Nothing much other than that to tell! Vi ses næste uge (see you next week)!
Fra Danmark med kærlighed,
Hannah
February
02/02/15 - Nothing really has changed in the last week. I dyed my hair for the first time (it's a reddish colour now) and went to school, like normal. All of the new exchange students are here, so it's nice to know them! There are 2 of them, to replace the 2 that went home. I'm fairly sure I never introduced them on this blog, but I feel like I probably should. We have:
Anna - Venezuela, arrived last January but stayed past the end of her exchange, so is here until April or May
Chantelle - Australia, went home in January
Caleb - New Zealand, went home in December
Johanna - Belgium
Katharina - Austria
Doris (Real name Chiao-Chen) - Taiwan
Alex - Ecuador
Darling - Ecuador
Natalia - USA
Christian - New Zealand, arrived last month
Luis - Costa Rica, also arrived last month
So, if I start casually dropping names like I know people from around the world, it's because I actually do and probably forgot that it isn't normal in Indiana.
Also, one more week until London! The excitement is getting to me. I swear. Aaaaaahhhhhh.
I haven't really done anything worth taking pictures of recently, but when I do, you all are sure to get them!
Savner I! (Miss you all!)
Fra Danmark med kærlighed,
Hannah
16/02/15 - LONDON WAS FREAKING AWESOME OH MY GOSH. Just in case you all were wondering what happened this past week. We were there for 3 days, and those were the best 3 days ever! We flew in and saw the Sherlock Holmes museum, and stopped at the Beatles store and the Queen store (my host family likes them just as much as I do, which is awesome). We also visited all of the famous places, of course. The London Eye. Big Ben. Westminster Abbey. Buckingham Palace. We took a double-decker bus tour of the town, and saw the Thriller! Live musical, which was absolutely fantastic! I couldn't believe how many Michael Jackson songs I know. :) We even stopped at a real English pub and ate fish and chips, which weren't that good to be honest. Still, I enjoyed my time there so much! Now it's just another month and a half until I'm in Barcelona for a week!
I also got a chance to visit my friend Alyx over this break. She lives close to Aarhus. We did some shopping, watched some movies, and just in general hygget us. :) One of the best breaks I've had in a long time!
So, here are all of the pictures! Vi ses næste uge,
Fra Danmark med kærlighed,
Hannah
Anna - Venezuela, arrived last January but stayed past the end of her exchange, so is here until April or May
Chantelle - Australia, went home in January
Caleb - New Zealand, went home in December
Johanna - Belgium
Katharina - Austria
Doris (Real name Chiao-Chen) - Taiwan
Alex - Ecuador
Darling - Ecuador
Natalia - USA
Christian - New Zealand, arrived last month
Luis - Costa Rica, also arrived last month
So, if I start casually dropping names like I know people from around the world, it's because I actually do and probably forgot that it isn't normal in Indiana.
Also, one more week until London! The excitement is getting to me. I swear. Aaaaaahhhhhh.
I haven't really done anything worth taking pictures of recently, but when I do, you all are sure to get them!
Savner I! (Miss you all!)
Fra Danmark med kærlighed,
Hannah
16/02/15 - LONDON WAS FREAKING AWESOME OH MY GOSH. Just in case you all were wondering what happened this past week. We were there for 3 days, and those were the best 3 days ever! We flew in and saw the Sherlock Holmes museum, and stopped at the Beatles store and the Queen store (my host family likes them just as much as I do, which is awesome). We also visited all of the famous places, of course. The London Eye. Big Ben. Westminster Abbey. Buckingham Palace. We took a double-decker bus tour of the town, and saw the Thriller! Live musical, which was absolutely fantastic! I couldn't believe how many Michael Jackson songs I know. :) We even stopped at a real English pub and ate fish and chips, which weren't that good to be honest. Still, I enjoyed my time there so much! Now it's just another month and a half until I'm in Barcelona for a week!
I also got a chance to visit my friend Alyx over this break. She lives close to Aarhus. We did some shopping, watched some movies, and just in general hygget us. :) One of the best breaks I've had in a long time!
So, here are all of the pictures! Vi ses næste uge,
Fra Danmark med kærlighed,
Hannah
march
.03/15/15 - Well, things have gone every direction in this past month or so that I've forgotten (yet again) to keep all of you lovely, patient people at home up to date! Sorry about that, guess I get caught up in the living? Anyway, I haven't taken enough pictures since last month to really warrant adding a new slideshow, so I think I'll leave that for next time. But what have I been doing - that's why all of you are checking my blog, isn't it? Such devotion to someone four thousand miles away - you gotta be crazy :) but thanks anyway, I guess.
The biggest (and also most terrible and stressful) news as of late if that my little brother has leukemia. You can now see why it's been a month since my last post. It's been awful for us all, especially for him, and I really wish I could do something to help.
After that fiasco, I had the archery competition for Denmark two weeks ago. I was shooting barebow on a recurve, with about 40 pounds draw and 18 meters from the target. And ... somehow I managed a first place? Don't ask me how that one happened, I wasn't exactly expecting it. So now I'm officially titled a 'Jyskmester' and I get to wear this fancy medal to competitions and stuff. I honestly wish it had been someone else, there's been all sorts of people running around congratulating me.
Another thing that happened was this last week. We've had a project week, where basically we sit in the same class, all day every day, learning about a subject for the first three days. The last two we are divided into small groups and given a project to work on and present during the last class on Friday afternoon. We had a combination of history and physics class, and my group was to work on a famous astronomer and mathmatician from Denmark named Tycho Brahe. I was surprised when many people back home told me they had never heard of him, he made some fairly important contributions to modern physics. I guess all of you with questions can ask me about him now. :)
Other than that, not much to say. I'm not very good at communicating, and I've known that since before I left on my exchange or even started this blog, and I keep getting yelled via email or Skype by various people complaining that I don't make my blog posts long enough, and I don't blog enough. I know people, I know, I'm working on it. After all, that's what this year is partially about, isn't it? I guess we'll see if it pays off.
I can think of one more thing though; I'm headed to Oslo - the capital of Norway, for all you ignorami :) - for three days over Easter break, which is quite exciting. There's been a bit of complication on the Barcelona trip, which looks like it might be canceled, but I'm not quite as broken up as I could be considering I'm going to Norway regardless! One of my wonderful friends I made here from Taiwan, Doris, is going with her host family and they decided to take me along :D It's extremely nice of them, and I'm quite grateful, as you can imagine! It's going to be an amazing trip - we're taking a cruise there and back, which is exciting.
And I'll leave you all on that happy note, considering I didn't give the best of news at the start. As always, contact me through my email/facebook with any questions you want me to answer on this blog, and I'll get to them ASAP!!
Med så meget kærlighed fra danmark,
Hannah
The biggest (and also most terrible and stressful) news as of late if that my little brother has leukemia. You can now see why it's been a month since my last post. It's been awful for us all, especially for him, and I really wish I could do something to help.
After that fiasco, I had the archery competition for Denmark two weeks ago. I was shooting barebow on a recurve, with about 40 pounds draw and 18 meters from the target. And ... somehow I managed a first place? Don't ask me how that one happened, I wasn't exactly expecting it. So now I'm officially titled a 'Jyskmester' and I get to wear this fancy medal to competitions and stuff. I honestly wish it had been someone else, there's been all sorts of people running around congratulating me.
Another thing that happened was this last week. We've had a project week, where basically we sit in the same class, all day every day, learning about a subject for the first three days. The last two we are divided into small groups and given a project to work on and present during the last class on Friday afternoon. We had a combination of history and physics class, and my group was to work on a famous astronomer and mathmatician from Denmark named Tycho Brahe. I was surprised when many people back home told me they had never heard of him, he made some fairly important contributions to modern physics. I guess all of you with questions can ask me about him now. :)
Other than that, not much to say. I'm not very good at communicating, and I've known that since before I left on my exchange or even started this blog, and I keep getting yelled via email or Skype by various people complaining that I don't make my blog posts long enough, and I don't blog enough. I know people, I know, I'm working on it. After all, that's what this year is partially about, isn't it? I guess we'll see if it pays off.
I can think of one more thing though; I'm headed to Oslo - the capital of Norway, for all you ignorami :) - for three days over Easter break, which is quite exciting. There's been a bit of complication on the Barcelona trip, which looks like it might be canceled, but I'm not quite as broken up as I could be considering I'm going to Norway regardless! One of my wonderful friends I made here from Taiwan, Doris, is going with her host family and they decided to take me along :D It's extremely nice of them, and I'm quite grateful, as you can imagine! It's going to be an amazing trip - we're taking a cruise there and back, which is exciting.
And I'll leave you all on that happy note, considering I didn't give the best of news at the start. As always, contact me through my email/facebook with any questions you want me to answer on this blog, and I'll get to them ASAP!!
Med så meget kærlighed fra danmark,
Hannah