Within the last week, I've been on two rather large trips. One, I had the pleasure of spending last Sunday with my host family down in Flensburg, Germany. It was awesome, beautiful scenery ( amazing how different it was, even being less than 30 minutes away from my home here) Wandered around the streets looking at all the different shops and stands. It was all beautifully decorated for the Christmas season. I bought myself a nice little white hat, haha. Or rather, Dennis bought it for me, I didn't have any Euros on me at the time. I still need to pay him back. Took lots of pictures, some with the family, so if you're wondering what they looked like as well, you can see all those pictures here-http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=130970&id=587188838&l=61e7c20d2f
Then yesterday, an older couple from my Rotary took me on a tour of Copenhagen. It was filled with even more activity than usual, due to the upcoming Climate Conference. ( Obama is coming... ewwww) Lots of demonstrations around the streets, added security, extra tourists.
I saw the little mermaid statue, of course. The diamond building, the Queens palace, the giant library looking over the canals. Also spent a bit of time in Tivoli at night, which was also beautifully lit up for christmas. I hope all my pictures turned out okay, considering it was dark, and my flash is tempermental. I dont have those posted yet, but hopefully I will soon.
Did quite a bit of shopping. I mostly just looked around since I'm trying to save my money to get my hair done next week. But I did manage to get a little christmas shopping done. Ate lunch in a cute little cafe by the water. The couple who took me was very generous, Ill have to thank them again at Rotary on wednesday.
I think about half the trip was spent in the car though. It takes about three hours to get there, so we spent just under 6 hours in the car that day. I was supposed to go to school the next morning ( today ) but being out in the rain almost all day, I came down with a bit of a cold.
All in all, not a bad week =)
Friday, December 11, 2009
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Danish Christmas
So, this last Wednesday was the Rotary Christmas party. Ate dinner ( duck is the traditional holiday meat I think) sang some Danish songs. We sang a song to the tune of 'Silent Night', except that the lyrics were much different and the beat was upbeat and happy. I felt like they had violated one of the most sacred songs we know lol.
Then the little kids started making a ring, and dancing around the christmas tree in the middle of the room. I had fully intended on sitting that one out, until my counselor dragged me ( almost literally) into the circle. I was also forced to sit on Santas lap for a bag of candy. Seems like the fricken paparazzi showed up when I did, at least three people took my picture. So much for forgetting that incident =P. For dessert we had these little pancake ball thingys, that you can dip in marmalade and sugar. Pretty tasty. Then we drove home, blasting Snow Patrol in the car and singing at the top of our lungs.
I suppose I'll take the time to jot down a few Jule ( Christmas) traditions. Dancing and singing around the Juletræ is one of them ( as I found out at the christmas party). Another one, is to take a bowl of rice pudding, and bury an almond somewhere in it. And as the family eats the pudding, whoever finds the almond in their bowl get a present. Of course, it has to be by chance, you cant go digging through the bowl trying to find it, haha.
I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but the Danes are HUGE on candles. They pull them out at the slightest occasions. But they're even more common around Christmas time. They have one large candle with measure marks on it ( like a ruler) and they burn a little bit of it each day of December. They also have 4 candles on the dinner table, and they light one each sunday of the month.
Speaking of Sundays of the month, they also have an 'advent calendar', where every sunday in december the kids get a present from their family. And since my host family is awesome, I was included in this. They bought Anna and I tickets to go see 2012. That may not seem like much to you Americans, but going to the movies is a pretty big deal here. It's extremely expensive. 90 kr per ticket, which is almost twenty american dollars.
Tomorrow we're going to spend the day down in Germany, see the towns, maybe get a little shopping done. I'm excited, I haven't been to Germany ( Tyskland) as of yet.
Vi ses!
Then the little kids started making a ring, and dancing around the christmas tree in the middle of the room. I had fully intended on sitting that one out, until my counselor dragged me ( almost literally) into the circle. I was also forced to sit on Santas lap for a bag of candy. Seems like the fricken paparazzi showed up when I did, at least three people took my picture. So much for forgetting that incident =P. For dessert we had these little pancake ball thingys, that you can dip in marmalade and sugar. Pretty tasty. Then we drove home, blasting Snow Patrol in the car and singing at the top of our lungs.
I suppose I'll take the time to jot down a few Jule ( Christmas) traditions. Dancing and singing around the Juletræ is one of them ( as I found out at the christmas party). Another one, is to take a bowl of rice pudding, and bury an almond somewhere in it. And as the family eats the pudding, whoever finds the almond in their bowl get a present. Of course, it has to be by chance, you cant go digging through the bowl trying to find it, haha.
I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but the Danes are HUGE on candles. They pull them out at the slightest occasions. But they're even more common around Christmas time. They have one large candle with measure marks on it ( like a ruler) and they burn a little bit of it each day of December. They also have 4 candles on the dinner table, and they light one each sunday of the month.
Speaking of Sundays of the month, they also have an 'advent calendar', where every sunday in december the kids get a present from their family. And since my host family is awesome, I was included in this. They bought Anna and I tickets to go see 2012. That may not seem like much to you Americans, but going to the movies is a pretty big deal here. It's extremely expensive. 90 kr per ticket, which is almost twenty american dollars.
Tomorrow we're going to spend the day down in Germany, see the towns, maybe get a little shopping done. I'm excited, I haven't been to Germany ( Tyskland) as of yet.
Vi ses!
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
New Hostfamily
So, as the title indicated, I have switched host families as of last weekend. And let me just say, I absolutely LOVE it here. This family is wonderful to me. My host parents, Dennis and Lena, have two children- Anna, who is 14, and Emil, who is 10. Both seem to be very interested in attaching themselves to my hips.
Dennis reminds me SO much of my dad. Intelligent, highly sarcastic. We get along very well. He was also an exchange student when he was younger, to Japan. We're interested in a lot of the same things, good literature, psychology, etc. He gave me a few books from his personal library to read, and I'm anxious to get started. We always seem to be able to find a good conversation topic.
Lena is a very sweet, motherly type, but also very bright. She is kind and laid back ( not to mention, a very good cook) This morning, she packed my lunch for me ( because she had ' extra time' ) and when I got home, she settled me into the tv room, and brought me home made pebbernødder, juice, and crackers to make it more ' hyggelig' for me. I feel so spoiled. By the way, for those of you who don't know what pebbernødder is, theyre traditional danish christmas treats, like little sugar and cinammon cookies. They taste a bit like teddy grahams haha, but I've grown to love them.
Anna loves Greenday, and Twilight ( like most girls these days) She's a good student, and has a good sense of humor. I think she wants to be an exchange student as well.
Emil reminds me a lot of my brother, Sam, who is very close to his age. I was accepted by him as soon as he found out I liked Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Not to mention my father being in the special forces, you should have seen his eyes pop. He likes to hang out in my room, see what I'm up to, and play the parachute game on my Ipod. And on weekends, you can be sure to hear the 'scratch scratch' of him searching through his lego box at 7 o'clock in the morning.
They also have a puppy, named Smut. ( To smut, or smutte, in danish means to leave quickly. Like if you have to be somewhere, maybe you're in a hurry, you can say ' Jeg smutte nu') Which fits him well, because he's a 6 month ball of energy. Always willing to play. Last night, he nudged open the door of my room while I was reading, took one of my flip flops, and ran back down the stairs. I had to chase him around for at least a few minutes trying to get it back. He's a quick little buggar.
Another plus is that, since Løjt ( where I live now) is only ten minutes from where I go to school in Aabenraa, I get to sleep in an hour and a half longer than usual (6:30), and I only have to take one bus! It's a very nice change.
Things are going very well for me. Granted, of course it's still hard being away from home during the holidays, and I still miss certain people like crazy, but I'm in a much better mood more often. It's not that my last host family was bad or anything, they were very nice. But they were older, more introverted, and I tended to be ignored a lot. Spent a lot of time alone in my room because there was nothing else to do besides watch TV. Not to mention, with my seemingly constant lack of sleep, I was almost always tired, which dampened my spirits a bit too.
Next time, I will take a moment to jot down some Danish christmas traditions. They celebrate a bit differently than we do =)
Take care everyone
-Sydney
P.S. The way my name would be pronounced in Danish is " SOOHL-nee" The family teases me by calling me that sometimes. =)
Dennis reminds me SO much of my dad. Intelligent, highly sarcastic. We get along very well. He was also an exchange student when he was younger, to Japan. We're interested in a lot of the same things, good literature, psychology, etc. He gave me a few books from his personal library to read, and I'm anxious to get started. We always seem to be able to find a good conversation topic.
Lena is a very sweet, motherly type, but also very bright. She is kind and laid back ( not to mention, a very good cook) This morning, she packed my lunch for me ( because she had ' extra time' ) and when I got home, she settled me into the tv room, and brought me home made pebbernødder, juice, and crackers to make it more ' hyggelig' for me. I feel so spoiled. By the way, for those of you who don't know what pebbernødder is, theyre traditional danish christmas treats, like little sugar and cinammon cookies. They taste a bit like teddy grahams haha, but I've grown to love them.
Anna loves Greenday, and Twilight ( like most girls these days) She's a good student, and has a good sense of humor. I think she wants to be an exchange student as well.
Emil reminds me a lot of my brother, Sam, who is very close to his age. I was accepted by him as soon as he found out I liked Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Not to mention my father being in the special forces, you should have seen his eyes pop. He likes to hang out in my room, see what I'm up to, and play the parachute game on my Ipod. And on weekends, you can be sure to hear the 'scratch scratch' of him searching through his lego box at 7 o'clock in the morning.
They also have a puppy, named Smut. ( To smut, or smutte, in danish means to leave quickly. Like if you have to be somewhere, maybe you're in a hurry, you can say ' Jeg smutte nu') Which fits him well, because he's a 6 month ball of energy. Always willing to play. Last night, he nudged open the door of my room while I was reading, took one of my flip flops, and ran back down the stairs. I had to chase him around for at least a few minutes trying to get it back. He's a quick little buggar.
Another plus is that, since Løjt ( where I live now) is only ten minutes from where I go to school in Aabenraa, I get to sleep in an hour and a half longer than usual (6:30), and I only have to take one bus! It's a very nice change.
Things are going very well for me. Granted, of course it's still hard being away from home during the holidays, and I still miss certain people like crazy, but I'm in a much better mood more often. It's not that my last host family was bad or anything, they were very nice. But they were older, more introverted, and I tended to be ignored a lot. Spent a lot of time alone in my room because there was nothing else to do besides watch TV. Not to mention, with my seemingly constant lack of sleep, I was almost always tired, which dampened my spirits a bit too.
Next time, I will take a moment to jot down some Danish christmas traditions. They celebrate a bit differently than we do =)
Take care everyone
-Sydney
P.S. The way my name would be pronounced in Danish is " SOOHL-nee" The family teases me by calling me that sometimes. =)
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