Hej alle!
I just wanted to update you all on my majestic daily life living in another country. Everything here is great, and I am about to embark on a week of traveling. I'll be going to London for four days, and then to Copenhagen for three days. For the most part, I stay pretty busy. If I'm not doing something with Rotary or my host family, then I am at school, doing something with the musical.
One of the many things that I have done over the past few weeks was go to my host sister's school, where I met her class and gave a presentation on what it's like being a teenager in America. Everyone said that I was nothing like the American girl they imagined, so I can successfully say that I broke some stereotypes! But I did get a few questions that I have heard quite a bit, here they are:
1. Are you a cheerleader?
2. Do you own a gun?
3. Have you ever drank before in America?
4. Do you have a car?
5. Do you have a boyfriend? Is he a football player?
6. What is American football exactly?
7. Do you like Obama?
8. What clique are you apart of?
9. Do you eat McDonald's?
10. Have you met any celebrities?
11. Have you ever seen snow?
12. How many people go to your parties?
13. Have you ever fired a gun?
14. Are you rich?
15. Do you know any fat people?
The last one really cracked me up, and so did the first one, in fact all of them made me laugh pretty hard. Some of my answers disappointed people, but for the most part, everyone was pretty relieved. Especially when I said I had never fired a gun before. So I can sufficiently say that all of these stereotypes are pretty much broken, because I am not a cheerleader nor do I have a boyfriend or a car or a gun, so BOOM stereotype broken. Well that's all from me for now, I'll be posting relatively soon with some pictures of London!
Cheers!
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Monday, September 9, 2013
Exchange Student Family and Memories
I'm sure that everyone is wondering what I have been doing with my time for the past month, and for the majority of the time, I have been spending time with the hundred plus other exchange students in Denmark and making some crazy memories from crossing multiple cultural boundaries. I will warn you now, this may be a really long post.
As many of you know, I started off my exchange going to a language camp with some other nearby exchange students for the first two weeks. At this school I met some great people, 6 of which were from the U.S and Canada, 5 from South America, and 1from Slovakia. Meeting all of these exchange students so early one was comforting. We were able to experience all of the strange and awkward cultural differences together, we were all lost in the culture, but at least we were lost together. Other than meeting our amazing Danish teacher, who was probably the nicest teacher I have met to date, we helped each other learn how to use the public transportation, had the opportunity to complain about the strange bathroom facilities (like the toilets with multiple flushing options or the showers that are really get the entire bathroom soaking wet), and experience some delicious, and disgusting, food. After this language school, I had to say goodbye to two of the exchange students, the girl from Slovakia and the girl from Argentina, because they're a part of AFS, not Rotary.
Here is a picture of my awesome class:
Then, I got to travel through this beautiful country and was introduced to my host family's cozy little cottage on an island of the coast of Zealand. The weather was perfect and the ocean was beautiful, but a little to cold to go swimming. I met some of their friends, who lived in Houston for three years and had some delicious food. I also went to a fresh fish market for the first time and had fresh fish for lunch while sitting in the marina look out over the ocean. Needless to say, I was amazed by the beauty and couldn't help but think of how lucky I was.
Here are some more pictures of my time at the cottage:
Leaving this magnificent place was difficult, but I was excited to be off at Introcamp with the other 170 exchange students in Denmark. Introcamp was obviously crazy and exciting to say the least, just like any Rotary event. Within an hour of arriving, I had met just about everyone, knew where everyone was from, and exchanged pins and cards with at least 80 people. By dinnertime, we had met our teachers for the week, and become friends with everyone at the camp, and by the next morning I was already calling some of my friends family and others my best friends. By the third day I had decided I never wanted to leave Introcamp because every one there had become a family to me, one that consisted of 170 kids and 8 teachers, one that was almost as closely knit as my family back home, one that I never wanted to leave because I felt so at home there with them. So much happened in this week, and I had made so many memories in such a short amount of time that it felt like I had been there for at least a month. If this post wasn't so long already, I would go through each day and tell you all about every single activity, but that might be a little extreme in this case. So instead I will tell you about the really big things that happened while at camp.
The First Night:
Meeting everyone and getting pins and bracelets from all around the world is something that can definitely make someones day, especially a Rotary exchange student (we have a little obsession with pins / stuff we can make into pins). Sometimes, the names were easy to remember, but when it was to difficult to remember, calling people by there home country/state/city was perfectly acceptable. The only issue with that was the Brazilians, being that there were about 70 of them and if you called out "Brazil" you would be answered by a huge roar of noise followed by spontaneous dancing and chanting (and I though America was patriotic...). By the end of that night, I had become close with my awesome room mate, Abby, and made some friendships that I couldn't imagine not having, like my friend Guilherme from Brazil, who is probably my best friend now and one of my favorite people in Denmark. The first night we all walked down to this little park to have coffee, cake, and fruit while sitting by the river and meeting everyone. This eventually turned into a bunch of singing, pictures, more pin exchanges, dancing, and the casual mini food fight/wrestling.
At the end of the first night we ended up with this awesome picture:
The Surprise Concert:
On Wednesday night, the teachers surprised us with a concert by a danish band called Mettro. The band was amazing and were taking pictures with all of the different flags and exchange students mid-song. Then the played a cover of the song "Put Your Hands Up for Detroit", and needless to say I went a little bit crazy and everyone was pointing to me saying that I was from Detroit. This then prompted the band to give me a bunch of free stuff and one of the other exchange students to lift me up on his shoulders. I don't have the pictures of the concert, most of them were taken by my friends, but once I get some of them I will post them.
The Århus Museum of Art:
Being the art geek that I am, I felt like a little kid in a candy shop. The Museum is world renown for its amazing installations and its amazing modern art collection. The most famous piece in the museum is the large installation on top of the museum. This installation is a huge tunnel, in the shape of a ring that you can walk inside of, but the catch to the tunnel is the optical illusion it creates. The tunnel walls are made of colored class, which is designed as a spectrum wheel. The optical illusion is created when you are standing in a certain color, you are looking out at the beautiful colored view of Århus and then you reach a section with natural light and no glass, when you look around you, everything is colored the color that is opposite of the one that you were standing in. After walking around in the spectrum for a while, and then walking outside, you start to see more vibrant colors for a few hours because of the illusions that were played on your eyes. Also while at the museum, I saw one of my favorite sculptures, which is a large neon lettered sign, a sign that is so big that you can't read it when you are standing in front of it, you have to walk in front of it in order to read it. I didn't know that this sculpture was housed in the museum's modern art gallery, so I was very happily surprised. The museum was followed by lunch, shopping and sight seeing with some of the other exchange students in Århus.
Here are some pictures from the day:
"Boy" (note the size comparison)
The view from inside the spectrum
My lovely roommate
"My Sense of Your Language"
(my favorite)
Saying goodbye to all of the other exchange students was difficult, I cried and I was hugged by 170 people. I burst into tears saying goodbye to Guilherme and Abby, and was kissed on the cheek by every single Brazilian. I had to say goodbye to my awesome teacher, who I had so much fun with making fun of the weird danish culture. I miss everyone from Introcamp so much, but there isn't much that can be done about it, and I know that I will see them in November for an amazing few days in Copenhagen.
I will post again next week, and I will also post some more pictures this week and put up a map of Denmark with all of the cities that I have visited.
Vi ses i næste uge!
Becca
As many of you know, I started off my exchange going to a language camp with some other nearby exchange students for the first two weeks. At this school I met some great people, 6 of which were from the U.S and Canada, 5 from South America, and 1from Slovakia. Meeting all of these exchange students so early one was comforting. We were able to experience all of the strange and awkward cultural differences together, we were all lost in the culture, but at least we were lost together. Other than meeting our amazing Danish teacher, who was probably the nicest teacher I have met to date, we helped each other learn how to use the public transportation, had the opportunity to complain about the strange bathroom facilities (like the toilets with multiple flushing options or the showers that are really get the entire bathroom soaking wet), and experience some delicious, and disgusting, food. After this language school, I had to say goodbye to two of the exchange students, the girl from Slovakia and the girl from Argentina, because they're a part of AFS, not Rotary.
Here is a picture of my awesome class:
Then, I got to travel through this beautiful country and was introduced to my host family's cozy little cottage on an island of the coast of Zealand. The weather was perfect and the ocean was beautiful, but a little to cold to go swimming. I met some of their friends, who lived in Houston for three years and had some delicious food. I also went to a fresh fish market for the first time and had fresh fish for lunch while sitting in the marina look out over the ocean. Needless to say, I was amazed by the beauty and couldn't help but think of how lucky I was.
Here are some more pictures of my time at the cottage:
Leaving this magnificent place was difficult, but I was excited to be off at Introcamp with the other 170 exchange students in Denmark. Introcamp was obviously crazy and exciting to say the least, just like any Rotary event. Within an hour of arriving, I had met just about everyone, knew where everyone was from, and exchanged pins and cards with at least 80 people. By dinnertime, we had met our teachers for the week, and become friends with everyone at the camp, and by the next morning I was already calling some of my friends family and others my best friends. By the third day I had decided I never wanted to leave Introcamp because every one there had become a family to me, one that consisted of 170 kids and 8 teachers, one that was almost as closely knit as my family back home, one that I never wanted to leave because I felt so at home there with them. So much happened in this week, and I had made so many memories in such a short amount of time that it felt like I had been there for at least a month. If this post wasn't so long already, I would go through each day and tell you all about every single activity, but that might be a little extreme in this case. So instead I will tell you about the really big things that happened while at camp.
The First Night:
Meeting everyone and getting pins and bracelets from all around the world is something that can definitely make someones day, especially a Rotary exchange student (we have a little obsession with pins / stuff we can make into pins). Sometimes, the names were easy to remember, but when it was to difficult to remember, calling people by there home country/state/city was perfectly acceptable. The only issue with that was the Brazilians, being that there were about 70 of them and if you called out "Brazil" you would be answered by a huge roar of noise followed by spontaneous dancing and chanting (and I though America was patriotic...). By the end of that night, I had become close with my awesome room mate, Abby, and made some friendships that I couldn't imagine not having, like my friend Guilherme from Brazil, who is probably my best friend now and one of my favorite people in Denmark. The first night we all walked down to this little park to have coffee, cake, and fruit while sitting by the river and meeting everyone. This eventually turned into a bunch of singing, pictures, more pin exchanges, dancing, and the casual mini food fight/wrestling.
At the end of the first night we ended up with this awesome picture:
On Wednesday night, the teachers surprised us with a concert by a danish band called Mettro. The band was amazing and were taking pictures with all of the different flags and exchange students mid-song. Then the played a cover of the song "Put Your Hands Up for Detroit", and needless to say I went a little bit crazy and everyone was pointing to me saying that I was from Detroit. This then prompted the band to give me a bunch of free stuff and one of the other exchange students to lift me up on his shoulders. I don't have the pictures of the concert, most of them were taken by my friends, but once I get some of them I will post them.
The Århus Museum of Art:
Being the art geek that I am, I felt like a little kid in a candy shop. The Museum is world renown for its amazing installations and its amazing modern art collection. The most famous piece in the museum is the large installation on top of the museum. This installation is a huge tunnel, in the shape of a ring that you can walk inside of, but the catch to the tunnel is the optical illusion it creates. The tunnel walls are made of colored class, which is designed as a spectrum wheel. The optical illusion is created when you are standing in a certain color, you are looking out at the beautiful colored view of Århus and then you reach a section with natural light and no glass, when you look around you, everything is colored the color that is opposite of the one that you were standing in. After walking around in the spectrum for a while, and then walking outside, you start to see more vibrant colors for a few hours because of the illusions that were played on your eyes. Also while at the museum, I saw one of my favorite sculptures, which is a large neon lettered sign, a sign that is so big that you can't read it when you are standing in front of it, you have to walk in front of it in order to read it. I didn't know that this sculpture was housed in the museum's modern art gallery, so I was very happily surprised. The museum was followed by lunch, shopping and sight seeing with some of the other exchange students in Århus.
Here are some pictures from the day:
This is a live woman
"Boy" (note the size comparison)
The view from inside the spectrum
My lovely roommate
(my favorite)
Saying goodbye to all of the other exchange students was difficult, I cried and I was hugged by 170 people. I burst into tears saying goodbye to Guilherme and Abby, and was kissed on the cheek by every single Brazilian. I had to say goodbye to my awesome teacher, who I had so much fun with making fun of the weird danish culture. I miss everyone from Introcamp so much, but there isn't much that can be done about it, and I know that I will see them in November for an amazing few days in Copenhagen.
I will post again next week, and I will also post some more pictures this week and put up a map of Denmark with all of the cities that I have visited.
Vi ses i næste uge!
Becca
Friday, September 6, 2013
Some Answers to Some Questions
First month in Denmark down and it already feels like I've been living here for three. Sometimes it is difficult to realize that I have only been here for a month, especially when everything feels so natural here. I have already met some great people and have made some great memories in a short amount of time. With meeting all of these people, I have noticed that I am answering most of the same questions, so I decided to answer these frequently asked questions for all to see. Here we go!
1. How's my Danish? My Danish is moving along at a very slow but steady pace. I try to use as much Danish as I can, and I encourage all of my classmates and friends to speak Danish when they are around me. It is sometimes difficult to learn a new language when English is such an accessible and widely known language here. Almost everyone here knows English very well and instead of addressing me in Danish, they just speak to me in English. I have also found that when I do try to speak Danish in stores or at restaurants, they tend to pick up on my American accent and my broken Danish very quickly, then they immediately switch to English. When I am in busy stores, I let it go and just speak English so that I'm not holding up business, but when I am in quiet little places, I ask them to speak Danish to me slowly. Everyone is very helpful when I ask them to speak Danish, and they are all very pleased that I am making an effort to learn the language. The goal is that by November, I will be able to understand Danish when it is spoken to me, and that by the end of December, I am able to respond somewhat.
2. Do you like your host family? Yes! They are so incredibly helpful and kind to me. They make me feel at home and are always interested in what I have to say. They love hearing about my culture and love teaching me about theirs. It is strange to think that in just two short months I will be leaving my new home for yet another one with a different family, but it is all fine because I get along great with my second host family as well. My first family was a great pick for me though, they all speak fluent English, making communication with them a lot easier. They are also very good at teaching me Danish. They have made it a habit to speak to me in Danish as much as possible and then they switch to English once they realized that I can no longer understand the conversation.
3. Do you like it in Give? I love it!! It already feels like home to me, and I am completely comfortable walking around the city exploring. It is so beautiful here and everyone is very open and willing to help the "silly America", don't worry, this is said with endearment and only by my friends.
4. What's different about the schools in comparison to schools in America? The school that I am attending is the equivalency of American high school, and my class is the equivalent of being a junior back home (which is perfect because that is what I would be anyways). The school schedule is set up more like a college. You have about three classes a day, and you are responsible for knowing where you're supposed to be and when you're supposed to be there. There isn't as much homework, but when it is given it isn't repetition that you're doing, but actual work that you haven't seen before. Instead pen and paper for everything, they use their computers in almost every class. The strangest thing to me is the way that they address their teachers, or adults in that matter. Instead of using "Mr" and "Mrs", all of the teachers and adults are addressed by their first name. This is because children and adults are considered equals in society, maybe not on a political stance, but in everyday life, they are.
5. What do you miss most from home? The people of course! I miss all of my family and my friends, as is expected and I am dealing with it. I have had a few days where I have felt very sad missing everyone, but I am getting through it and staying busy. I also miss driving. I didn't think that I would miss it as much as I do, but I really do miss the independence and ease that driving supplies. However, independent travel is easy to come by because of the amazing public transportation system here, but driving was such a nice and calming thing that was an easy way to pass time with my friends. I also miss some of the food that I had back home. Most of the food that is in America is also in Denmark, but everything is in smaller portions and the American food is much more expensive here. I guess I miss how easy it was to just walk into my kitchen back home and raid the fridge, but once again I am definitely surviving because all of the food that I do eat here is absolutely amazing!
So far I haven't been asked about the political issues in America, and I am definitely thankful for that because I really don't know much about American politics. Also, American stereotypes aren't very common here, or at least I haven't encountered them so far. Hopefully, if there are any negative stereotypes, then I am proving them wrong and setting the record straight about Americans, whatever the stereotype may be.
This is all for now, but I should have more stories up by next Tuesday or Wednesday. Most will be about all of the crazy exchange students (because we are all completely insane), who I meet last week and spent the most amazing week of my summer with, and about this weekend with all of the exchange students from my district.
Vi ses i næste uge!
Becca
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)