First of all sorry this has taken awhile to write; I've just been busy, and tired and didn't really feel like spending a lot of time writing a long blog post. But now you can know what I have been up to for the last 2 weeks or so.
Friday the 7th I was driven into Odense to meet Jaz's aunt. Jaz is a friend of mine from back home, who I have gone to school with since kindergarten and he happened to come to Denmark for the year also to live with his aunt and cousin. Jaz's aunt happened to be in Odense, so she offered to drive me to visit Jaz for the weekend. He lives in a town called Birkerød, which is like 20 minutes from Copenhagen I think. We spent Friday just watching a scary movie and going for a walk with a girl he know's who is from Poland and lives in Denmark now.
Saturday (October 8th): It was a really busy day, so I will try and remember everything we did!
First we drove to Kronborg Castle (Hamlet's Castle) and walked around. I think this is the first castle I have ever been to and it was really nice. We also took a tour of underneath the castle and climbed the tower. From the castle we could see Sweden, which is such a weird feeling; being able to see another country from across the water!
Then we walked around the town of Helsingør and I tried this Danish snack. I asked whether it was better to know before or after I tried it, and Jaz's aunt said after. It is called flæskesvær ( I think) and ended up being fried pig skin, but it wasn't actually as bad as that sounds, it tasted alright!
Then we took the coastal drive to Copenhagen and it was a really pretty drive! Then we saw the Little Mermaid. Everyone else that had already seen it told me how small it was and that they were disappointed, but I had then imagined it would be really small, so it was bigger than my expectations.
Then we got dropped off at the train station to meet Sonia (the girl from Poland) again and walk around Copenhagen for the rest of the day. We walked on the shopping street and I resisted buying very much except for a few postcards and a keychain for my Rotary blazer, which by the way is getting filled pretty fast! Pictures to come soon!
We also went to Nyhavn, which is probably the picture you would see first if you were to google Copenhagen pictures.
Then we headed to Christiania, which is a small, controversial community in Copenhagen. Here's a link to read more about it, since it would take too long to completely explain on here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freetown_Christiania , but pretty much it is a very unique place that can really only be found in Denmark. In Christiania you can't take pictures because of all of the drug trading, so I only have this one from the front gate:
Christiania was a really unique place to go and it was fun to look around.
Then Jaz, Sonia, and I went to this really good coffee shop called Barresso, which I may have talked about before, but it is really good, but incredibly expensive. I ordered a small hot chocolate with whipped cream, but as with anything I order in Denmark I am never really sure what I am getting until Ihave it in front of me. This turned out to be a VERY small drink with a straw with chocolate on it to stir in the hot milk, then the whipped cream was literally just a glass filled with whipped cream. This cost me around 7 dollars, but it was still good!
Then we went home and had dinner, then just relaxed after a very busy day!
Sunday (October 9th): We had breakfast with Jaz's grandparents and the food was delicious as Danish food usually is and it was really nice to meet his grandparents.
Then we drove through places in Copenhagen again, like the Parliament building, the Queen's castle, and this area across the water from the Opera house. We also climbed the Rundetårn (Round Tower) and got a great view of Copenhagen!
Then I took the train home, which was just a nice, calm train ride, with not too many people. It was good to be home again!
Now just the highlights from last week:
Wednesday at language school we were given the assignment to find something interesting to do in Middelfart and make a speech about it as if we were showing it to our parents from back home. We were put in pairs and I'm with Alicia (from Canada). The class went down to the tourist center and chose our topics. Alicia and I chose the psychiatric hospital museum, because we really couldn't find too many fascinating things in Middelfart that we could make a speech about.
On Thursday we went to the museum and struggled a bit trying to figure out what we needed to pay since the man working only spoke Danish. In the end we got our tickets and the man convinced us to buy a pamphlet explaining the museum in English. We had fun wandering around and figuring out what things were, but it was a bit creepy with it's white walls and soundtrack of patients from when the hospital was still open.
Friday: My class had the last 2 classes of the day canceled, so I went to a sandwich place that is really good with some people from my class. Then we went back to school because we were having a "Fredags Cafe", which is pretty much just people drinking beer and eating cake after school, but the money was for charity. There was also a limbo contest, which was funny to watch and the winner of course won a bottle of beer. Then the "slave auction" began. It was pretty much people going on the stage offering different things and then the audience would bid on them. For example some of the things offered were making lunch for someone for the next week, playing Oh Susana on the harmonica while the guy took off his clothes, unlimited drinks at the next Gym party (that one went for a lot), and so on. It was really funny to watch and 2 girls in my class helped explain what it was the people were offering.
My host dad, Niels, was gone in Germany until Sunday, so it was just the 3 of us home. That night we watched a traditional Danish movie, called Olsen Banden. They didn't have any English subtitles, but we put the Danish one's on because it made it easier to be able to read and listen, so I could actually understand some of what was going on. I want to watch it again once I get better at Danish, so I can fully understand it.
Saturday was my last soccer game. I played for about 30 minutes and made some good passes as the girl's on my team told me. We won 5-2 and it was a good game to end the season on!
Then that night I taught them to play a card game called Ocho Pinnocho and I changed it so Chris and Jytte had to answer in English and me in Danish, which made it a lot more challenging at least for me! We also were talking about some tongue twisters and difficult words to say sin Chris is always trying to get me to say Rød Grød Med Fløde ( something only Danish people can really say correctly), so I taught him She Sells Seashells by the Seashore and another exchange student had told me that Danish people have trouble saying "There are 2 squirrels in the refrigerator", so I tested that on Chris. He flawlessly said all of it, but then wouldn't try refrigerator, so I said I wouldn't be entertaining him by saying Rød Grød Med Fløde anymore haha. Eventually he tried saying it after a bit of persuading and did pretty well considering it is a pretty hard word to say!
Then we watched Bingo Banko as always and then an American movie that was on tv, but as usual I fell asleep!
Sunday we went to Legoland again because we had some free passes from last time and Jytte had gotten a few more at work, so we invited Jytte's friend and her 2 daughters and 2 of the oldest daughter's friends. They are all friends with Ellen (my host sister who is in Alaska on exchange) and I have played 2 soccer games with one of them. The four of us just went off on our own and they were all very nice to me and we spoke mostly in Danish. It was cold, but at least there was no rain! We rode lots of rides and this time Legoland was decorated for Halloween (even though they don't celebrate it here), which was nice. It is so different here with places closing for winter because of the weather. Tivoli and Legoland are both closed now, but they open for certain times, like Christmas and the fall holiday (which I am on right now). It was a nice day at Legoland and I am glad I got to go again!
Monday, I went to Fredericia to see the exchange student that lives there, Cadu (from Brazil) and Alicia and Gustavo from my school also came. I met with Cadu first because Alicia and Gustavo had some issues with the train. Apparently they had ended up on a direct train to Kolding, when they had thought it would stop in Fredericia, so they had to take another train back, but it all worked out.
We just wandered around the shopping streets and ate lunch (bread and chocolate milk), had ice cream, shopped, and had fun. It was a really nice day and we had a lot of fun and I didn't spend TOO much money. ;)
Now I am on efterårsferie, which is a week off from school. It used to be a week where the kids would go help pick potatoes with their parents, but now it's just a vacation week.
I have lots of plans for this week, so the next blog will be full of exciting things!
Farvel for nu,
Nina
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