So now you know what I did Monday and Tuesday of last week, but as for the rest of the week I didn't really do anything on Wednesday or Thursday.
Friday I stayed home with Chris and we watched tv, but I was exhausted so I just fell asleep on the couch as usual. I just get so tired here with so much Danish all the time and just focusing really hard on what people are saying, trying to figure it out, so I usually fall asleep fairly early (9:30 on school nights, and maybe 10 or 11 if I'm being a real rebel/ have a bit more energy on weekends)
Saturday was the district conference in Odense, so it was really good to see a bunch of exchange students again. We did a short presentation at the conference, but it wasn't much. We just walked in with flags from our home countries and some people said something in Danish if they wanted to. No one from the US was going to, so Anna (from New York) and I decided to just say a very short thing in Danish, and it went well.
Then all the exchange students went bowling. We had a good time and it was the first time we were meeting the "oldies", or ones who have been here since last January. They were from Australia and one from Argentina I think.It was fun, but everyone wished we could have had longer to hang out and bowl. A lot of other districts in Denmark have had a get-together for a weekend, but no one is really sure in my district if we are having one or not, so we'll see!
Saturday it was just Chris and I home again, so we watched this show called Bingo Banko, which is like the American show called National Bingo Night, which really didn't last long. It is basically a tv show that starts around now each year and then you print out bingo cards off the computer and play. The hosts do all kinds of crazy things to get the numbers to make the bingo and if you get 1 row, 2 rows, or all 3 rows filled you call and can win lots of good prizes. We have never won yet, but we're hoping I'm the lucky charm (so far not too much). Then we watched a movie and again I fell asleep!
Sunday: I worked on my Rotary presentation all day and wrote a whole speech in Danish. Then I baked brownies to bring to my Rotary presentation, since I thought it might be a nice touch to show an American dessert!
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| The brownies! |
Monday: I was nervous all day at school about my speech, but one of the girl's from my class helped me on the bus ride home with how to say the more difficult words, which was really nice of her! Then I practiced some more at home until it was time to go. There were maybe 30 people at Rotary that night and all my host families were there. They started by inducting 2 new members and then it was my turn. For a moment we couldn't find my speech, which stressed me out a bit because let me tell you I could not have done it off the top of my head. Luckily we found it underneath some other papers! The speech went well I think, considering I spoke for about 10 minutes in ONLY Danish. I think people understood most of what I said, or at least they were being nice and said they did, but everyone was really nice about it and laughed at the funny parts, so I know they could understand some. One of the parts many people enjoyed was when I said that in Petaluma we have the "World's Ugliest Dog Contest" and showed a picture of last years winner. Then we had a delicious dinner as always and then I served my brownies, which I think was a nice end to the evening. By the end of the night I was exhausted from having been worried about the speech and having finally given it, but I feel accomplished for being able to do it all in Danish and it really shows me how much my Danish has improved since I have arrived! But one thing is that after giving the whole speech in Danish, all the Rotarians spoke only in Danish to me and I couldn't understand a lot of it still. I think my writing is improving much faster than my speaking just because nothing is pronounced like it is spelled.
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| Exchanging Rotary flags ( I don't think flags is the right word, but for some reason I just can't think of the right one now!) |
Tuesday: It was a really good day for me even though nothing very excited happened. We got out of school early, but the bus didn't come for another hour, so 2 girls from my class and I walked to the center of Middelfart since they needed to go to some stores there. It was just nice hanging out with people from my class, similar to what I would do back home.
Also Jytte and I decided that we should start speaking almost only Danish, and I realize just how much I have learned since I have been here. While I am no where close to fluent, it just feels nice to be able to finally understand and be able to respond to simple sentences and questions in Danish.
Then I had soccer and it was a fun practice. We did lots of small activities the whole practice and then just had fun shooting goals at the end. Plus the weather was perfect. It was crisp out, but there was no wind, so it wasn't too cold. And the sky was dark, with even darker clouds, but the field was all lit up by the lights. For some reason it was just a great day and when your'e an exchange student you know not every day do you feel like this, so it's nice to have a day like this!
Wednesday: My Danish language teacher was sick, so the exchange students just walked around Middelfart. We went in lots of stores and in this second hand store we had lots of fun, since a lot of the stuff was old and looked like it was from the 70s. Alicia (from Canada) found 2 American flag handkerchiefs and they were cheap, so of course I had to buy them!
Well that is all that has happened these last few days, but the last week has been busy and I already have plans for this weekend!
Farvel for nu,
Nina
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