Dansk og Vinterbåd

Det er ikke så lang tid til, før jeg bliver tager afsted, desværre. Imidlertid har jeg den bedste del af min udveksling tilbage, fordi jeg nu kan sige det meste af, hvad jeg har lyst at sige på dansk.

Soon, it will only be three months I have left in Denmark. That means I have spent eight months here. I guess you could say that my Danish has gotten a lot better.

I now have a much greater ability to understand Danish, and can almost always understand what’s going on. Sometimes I need a bit of help with some words, but there isn’t a language barrier. My work that I put into learning Danish before I came here is paying off.

I now speak nearly all Danish with my Danish friends. Unless it is something that I have trouble even explaining in English, it is all Danish with my host family. I have surprised myself and found out that I can actually talk about politics with Simon (host brother), though the credit should really go to Simon for being very patient and helping me out a lot. Johanne and I don’t have a problem communicating in Danish, though it is quite fun for all of us when she demonstrates to us the English that she does know.

One of the things I have been doing is reading books. I started with books that were a bit easier, but I surprised myself when I checked out a book for 10-13 year old girls and could understand almost everything, and going pages without having to use the dictionary. Of course it does help to use the dictionary, but it is truly amazing thinking about how far I have come since I first came here. Going from two year old reading level to ten year old level within a time period of seven months is a really special experience.

Of course, my Danish is still far from perfect, and that does lead to some entertaining moments. My second day with the Skødts, I asked Simon if he was feeling better, but it sounded a lot like I was asking him to pass me the beets, which were in equal distance of both of us. This is the difference of “Følger du bedre?” (Are you feeling better?) and “Må jeg beder dig for rødbede?” (Can you please pass the red beets?). When we were cleaning up after dinner in the summer house, I asked Torben (host dad) if I should take the rug off the table, when I meant to say tablecloth. There have also been times when I have started speaking Danish or English without thinking which language I am speaking.

Other than speaking a lot of Danish and reading, I have been up to some other stuff.

On Saturday, I got to take my first vinterbåd (winter bath). I’ve already done the Polar Plunge in the United States under extremely cold conditions, so I guess you could say that I have already become a isbjørn (polar bear). However, I hadn’t become a viking yet, so it was time to strip down to the ridiculous swimsuit I used for the polar plunge again and take my vinterbåd.

I had been looking for a chance to take the vinterbåd, and it ended up working out really well when Sarah (Canadian best friend) raised enough money to send a girl in need to school, and was obligated to fulfill her promise of taking a vinterbåd if she raised enough money. Most of her host family and I headed down to the beach together after a dejlig morning brunch.

I confess that I wasn’t too scared after having survived the Polar Plunge. I can’t say the same for Sarah, but that didn’t stop her when we arrived at the beach. She went right in, and soon was joined by her little host brother Emil and her host father Allan.

I knew that I had to go in not long after. I got the towels set up for afterwards, and ran into the chilly Danish lake.

It was quite cold, but did not really have anything on the Polar Plunge. It took a minute to wipe off, and then I was perfectly content to stand around the beach and laugh a lot with Sarah.

The vinterbåd may not have much of a reason to be feared, but it was still an experience to be had. We concluded that it is actually pretty hyggeligt to do together, and though it’s said to make you healthier, it also just might make you happier.

Besides taking a vinterbåd, I’ve been up to some other stuff as well. I have a fair amount of energy that I am starting to take out at the gym. It feels really good to be going to fitness again, despite getting to bike five kilometers to get home afterwards (it’s not hard to bike, it’s just not the most enjoyable after doing a leg workout and have used up all of your energy).

I’ve also seen a lot of Emilie and Johanne’s gymnastic/dance performances. This weekend was the final performance, and it is safe to say that I am a proud exchange student sister. Here, the performances have many parts, and I am sure that they must put a lot of work into them.

There has been a fair amount of hygge as well, with plenty of tea and sometimes, as I experienced last week, really delicious Minnesota shaped scones. This is how I will finish my blog, but there should be more coming soon.

Nu tænker jeg på, når jeg skal flyve tilbage, som jeg ikke glæder mig til. Indtil det tidspunkt skal jeg forsætte med at spise en masse mad, løbe udenfor, når det ikke er dårligt vejr, og få mere hjælp med dansk. Glæder mig til tid med min værtsfamilie, mine venner og Europatur. De gode ting er lige om hjørnet.

Flytningen til Skødts

Hejsa venner! Jeg er tilbage, men hos en ny værtsfamilie. Jeg er stadig i Vojens, en by af knallerter, ishockey, og kunstnerisk skimmel i togstationen. Faktisk jer er rigtig glad at være her, og alle af min værtsfamilier er meget sød og hjælpsomme, og det er nogle vigtig ting ligesom en togstation og en bibliotek (Haderslev har ikke en togstation). Det er næsten min sidste flytingen i Danmark; ikke min sidste fordi jeg skal tilbage til min første værtsfamilie min sidste uge i Danmark (Skødts skal rejse til Island).

Exchange unfortunately does fly by really fast, and I have now moved in with my last host family. I’m still in Vojens, a small town outside of Haderslev. I have just now live a bit more further out in Vojens, closer to my first host family. I am now with the Skødts, who include my host mother Marie, host father Torben, Simon (18, Haka), Emilie (15, efterskole and exchange student to US next year), and Johanne (12, middle school).

I moved from the Birk Jensens, my second host family. It’s been quite the experience being an only child and living with quadruplets, and older brother, and four daycare kids. There, I learned (or at least attempted to learn) the language of how so many siblings communicate with each other. I have learned so much with them – from more Danish to making food to learning how to live in a big family – and I am very grateful for their help with it. Mange tak til Anne-Mette, Henning, Iben, Søren, Jesper, Lars, and Morten for a chance to live  with you all. I never thought that I would live with quadruplets – or witness someone eat soy sauce with chicken wild rice soup – but now I have done both, and it’s been an amazing experience. 

Featured: Søren, Lars, Me, Jesper, Iben

I had a wonderful goodbye dinner with them on Thursday the 9th, and on Friday a hyggeligt afternoon. The weather was actually good for once, and I headed over to the Skødts. I was welcomed in, and before we knew it I was off to my first gymnastics meet.

We got to watch Emilie’s Efterskole perform their routine, which was very impressive. I also learned that “gymnastik” in Danish typically means both dance and gymnastics. That night we saw everything from intense tumbling to slower dancing. Emilie’s efterskole’s performance was really good, and was fun to see gymnastik in Denmark for the first time!

Since then, I’ve adjusted to going from living with five siblings/four daycare kids to two host siblings that are regularly in the house (though I do see Emilie on the weekends). The Skødts love politics, going to watch Johanne and Emilie perform gymnastik, and trying new food.

Moving to a new host family is always exhausting. It takes energy to adapt to another lifestyle of living. However, it hasn’t been too bad, because there is lots of delicious food here to help with my increased appetite. I have been more tired than usual, but this transition has not been to hard. It was a bit sad saying goodbye to the Birk Jensens, but it’s not too hard considering they are a bike ride away – I even got to stop by this Thursday to greet Anne-Mette on her birthday. I’m closer to my first host family, which will probably result in some highly important host kitty visits.

There’s been a decent amount of events that have happened since I have moved. Here is what else has been going on:

On Wednesday,  I couldn’t bike, but instead was driven into Haderslev and got to go on a little walk to school. It was extremely pretty.

The reason why I had to be driven to school was because I could not take the bike to the bus station, because I had a Rotary District meeting in Odense that I would get back very late from.

This was the meeting where we would meet our new inbounds from Brazil, Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand. It was a very hyggeligt night, where we made dinner within small groups and have some time before and after to talk. Our dinner consisted of a whole chicken, boiled potatoes, granny salad, root vegetable crisps, cucumber salad, and for dessert the infamous rødgrød med fløde (red berries with creme). I unfortunately didn’t get a picture of the rødgrød med fløde, but here is the main meal we made.

It was a very nice evening, and I am hoping to see more of my exchange student friends soon, and I really am looking forward to Eurotour with them.

I got to make dinner again the next day, but this time it was for my host family. For my first madlavning aften (food making night) with the Skødts, I made American style burritos. I used lots of spices, and was grateful to learn that they really like to try new foods that have a lot of flavor.

This weekend I got to travel down to Rømø – a little island on the west coast of Denmark – to the Skødt’s sommerhus, after watching Johanne perform at gymnastics and meeting Marie’s parents over saft, chokolade, and kiks.

 

Marie, Torben, Johanne and I had a very hyggeligt evening, complete with a great movie and apparent monster under my bed as a new person (as Johanne explained to me).

It hasn’t been too bad moving at all, and I am looking forward to the adventures that I have coming up.

Tak til alle af mine værtsfamilier; jeg er så taknemlig for jer. Til Skødts, glæder mig til den næste tre og halv måned vi har sammen. Jeg lover at I skal høre meget mere interessent dansk, og måske ser mere med monsteret. 😉

Blåvand Eventyr

Hejsa allesamen, det er nu senere i mit udveksling år, og jeg har kun en værtsfamilie tilbage. Det er ok, fordi jeg har haft en fantastisk sy måned her, med mange eventyrer ligesom den en jeg havde i Blåvand.

It’s been a while since Sarah (Canada), Jared and I heard that we would be going to Blåvand for a weekend with Bodil, my first host mother. We were quite excited, but we didn’t know what this weekend held for us.

Our first adventure was in picking Jared up at the train station. We met him at the Varde train station, but he wasn’t there. We soon learned that the little town of Varde has not one, two, but three train stations. Jared had gotten off at Varde Nord, which we thankfully found.

We had a very nice evening; talking a lot and probably eating way too many licorice vingummi. Next morning, we got up and it was simply stunning outside. Soon we got outside to go on a walk in the beautiful sand dunes.

One of the features of this area is that it has a lot of World War 2 Bunkers. It’s actually really fun to go around and explore them, and there is a lot of history with it.

We had the great idea to up to the top of the WW2 bunker. The view was great up there, and we got a great picture on top of the massive block of cement. However, the next level to jump down was cement, which turned out to be just fine for Jared and Sarah. I was a bit freaked out of the cement – I have no problem with jumping off eighteen foot/six meter cliffs into water, but after seeing Sarah scrape her fingers and thinking about the cement, I wasn’t in a great jumping condition. I tend to just do things like that, so I did it, but I didn’t land well.

I tried to walk it off, but I just couldn’t. I got dizzy, and though it’s a bit embarrassing to admit, it was necessary for the dearest people in my Danish life to carry me through hills of Blåvand. We got back soon, and determined that I would be just fine, I just would be a bit limited in my motion. I was lucky to be with people that were willing to put up with that.

Sadly for us, Jared had to head back up north for an event the next day. On the way back, we stopped to see the horses. I’m sure that Sarah would have been really happy if they were actual horses, but these war bunker horses were still work the stop.

The next day, Sarah went on quite the run and brought lots of treasures back with her. By treasures, I mean dead things that I promptly told her to take out of the house, not dissect and save them like she actually did. We relaxed that afternoon, hyggede os, and had a relaxing evening watching the contest for Eurovision and a movie about a trip around Europe. It’s safe to say that Sarah and I are very close, especially after she has put up with me for an entire long weekend which I was injured for.

I was a bit more motionally functional on Sunday, and together we walked around Blåvand, maybe eating crepes (danske pandekager) with ice cream. We had a very nice ending, but eventually had to go home.

As far as other stuff I’ve been doing, there’s been a fair amount.

I’ve made chocolate chip cookies with Yuna (Japan), and had dinner and masse af hygge as well! Yuna is really fun, and we made the perfect American chocolate chip cookies. The next day, I brought them for my class at lunch, and watched them quickly disappear. I was surprised that my classmates appreciated my preference for chewy cookies, since Danish cookies are typically not chewy. They liked them so much that I hoping to have an American food night, because half a batch of cookies is not enough.

I went the monthly Sønderjysk KFS (Christian Youth Organization) meet up, which happened to be in Haderslev this month. It’s a lot of fun for me; the people here are really kind and it’s quite interesting to see how Christian youth are involved in Denmark. Denmark as a whole is not a religious country, so I feel very lucky to actually know a few people who go to KFS at the school.

I’ve moving from the Birk Jensens to the Skødts tomorrow, and I have been taking the proper food preparations. I made chicken wild rice soup not long ago, which went well despite Søren putting soy sauce in his portion. This last Sunday I made American pancakes, and that certainly was a success, as no one put ketchup or soy sauce on them and they were well liked! I had my last food making night on Monday, and made a hot dish (casserole for the rest of the US).

I’ve been packing the entire week, and though it is sad that this is my last family, I am excited to spend the last part of my exchange with the Skødts.

My house with the Birk Jensens – the sunset at Damparken the night of KFS – Sarah appreciating a goose in Damparken – my hot dish

Fire måned tilbage, og glæder mig til det hele. Jeg nu kan snakke så meget mere dansk, og det er rigtig sjov. Det er sjov at forstå hvad mans klassekammerater siger. Glæder mig at sige min dansk når jeg er færdig med mit udveksling. Og til min næste værtsfamilie, hvis I læser det, glæder mig meget til at flytte til jeres hus i morgen. I har bare været sød til mig, og jeg er spændt for min ny oplevelse med jer.

Ferie del Tre – København del To

*continued from Ferie del To*

After seeing the spectacular Nyhavn, it was time to head over to La Glace to meet up with Mariel, Jared, and Jared’s host brother Christian. Mariel is a fellow Minnesotan exchange student, and lives in the København area. Jared is my Canadian friend who lives up in Vestjylland, who has been in my writing a fair amount.

La Glace has been around since 1870, and might just be the cutest cake cafe to exist. It’s right in the area of København where there was a lot of shops, and we were lucky enough to get a table fairly quickly. It wasn’t long before all of us got our cake, which was nothing short of amazing. It tasted even better than it looked, which is saying something. 

Since Christian and Jared had to head back to the Herning area rather soon, so we had to part ways after a little bit. Soon after, Siri, Matilde, and I got to see a fair amount more of København.

Here is the Parliament building, and it is sort of possible to see the stock buildings a little bit in the bottom right picture. I couldn’t get the picture I wanted of them, but they were spectacular.

Our stop in the Nyhavn area again was well worth it for the pictures.

There’s a beautiful dock area that we went through. I’m not sure why this light thing was set up, but it was plenty fun to walk through it. There was also people in hot tubs and a fancy restaurant on the way.

Marmorkirken – Marmor Church – is right across the palace area. I didn’t get to see inside the palace, but I did get to see some soldiers, as someone from the royal family was home.

Matilde had to head home, and we parted our ways at Marmorkirken. When on our way to the Little Mermaid, we passed through a fort like area. I am not sure about the meaning or history behind it, but it did remind me a bit of Fredericia.

After walking a bit more, we arrived at the Lille Halfrue, otherwise known as the Little Mermaid. Nyhavn wasn’t that bad, but the Lille Halfrue was –  well here’s the picture I got. 

Okay, so that picture isn’t the best, but thankfully we got a few people to move and some kind people who I am assuming were Americans to help me and Siri get a decent picture.

After a very long gåtur (walk) around København, Siri and I were more than ready to go  home and relax. We ate a lots of food, had hygge, talked about Detroit Lakes, and finished off the rest of the existing fruit salad.

The next day, I had a Vegemite-free brunch with Siri before heading off to meet my friend Shannon, who lives close to København and was with two of her friends from boarding school. I got to know Shannon back at the Central States Rotary Convention in July, when I found out that both of us had deferred from Macalester (words to be said later about my current college plans).

After much wandering around, I found Shannon and the rest at the Espresso house near København H. The first thing I realized is that I talked slow English. Shannon’s friends talked extremely fast English, and after spending a lot of time with them, Shannon did too. Meanwhile, I could understand everything they said, but could not talk at that rate. As my Danish has been getting a lot better, my English has not faired so well. This is the first time I have really been able to see just how bad it is.

It was really nice getting to see a bit more around the city, including a stop by the trampolines. We made our way to PapirØen, which has a huge selection of food from different places. It’s a bit expensive and packed with people, but completely worth it. Shannon and her friends got some tacos and I got a burrito, which I would say I regret not getting a picture of, but I might have gotten the burrito grease somewhere else. This burrito was incredibly greasy, to the point where I had a part of my sweater heavily doused.

With a greasy sweater and a full stomach, we started to head back to København H to head home. I somehow managed to find my bus on time and without any trouble at all, which was somewhat of a miracle in the craziness of København. I sat next to a kind lady on the way back and had a very pleasant experience.

It was amazing to see so much of København in one weekend. It’s truly a stunning city, where most people have good intentions. It is a great contrast to Chicago, where my dad and I attracted homeless people asking for money at an astounding rate, and a stranger walking up behind me would have not kindly told me that my bootlaces needed tying. I only ran into one homeless person that asked for money.

As nice as København is, it is very expensive and I was happy to return to Vojens. It’s not København, but I have established a life that I love to come home to here. That is going to be harder to leave than anything else.

København er en meget flot by, og jeg var meget heldig at besøge det og se det med Siri. Rotary forbindelser er bedre end man kunne spørge for i nogensinde. Nu, jeg er tilbage i Vojens, men der er mange spændende ting her, som ikke er biblioteket (hvilke vi faktisk har, fordi nogle af mine danske venner har glemt det).