"It's a long way to the top...if you want to learn Danish."

November has been quite the busy month. I cooked an American dinner for my host family. I made, from scratch, Mac n' Cheese with chicken, green onions, tomatoes, and ranch dressing. Luckily I had my wonderful Danish mom, Mette, to help me with the preparation. For dessert I made root beer floats. They loved it! I had such a great time introducing some not so healthy American foods to them. In the middle of November, I moved to my next host family. I was very very sad to leave my family. However, it is a new adventure and that is what my year in Denmark is all about. School wise I have changed my schedule, so I no longer have biology with my class. It was just to difficult to of my class for my level of my Danish. I now have a Spanish class with Esther, which is so awesome! It's a little crazy with three languages though. hehehe

Classmates asks me, "Como te llamas?"

I say, "Jeg hedder... no no whoops um um me...llamo Alex".

I also have a different PE class with 3.m. So far it has been a lot of fun! We're currently doing parkour, also known as free running, where you run up walls and do other kinds of crazy stunts. I know youtube has some awesome clips about it. The next Thule is tomorrow, and I'm so excited!

Winter is officially here in Denmark. The sun doesn't come up until 8:30, and it goes down at around 4:00 everyday. It did nothing but snow for the last week and a half of November, and the temperature has not risen above freezing for the past two weeks. In fact it is currently -6ºC, about 21ºF. Brrrr! However, the snow makes everything feel more like Christmas. Hjørring is getting ready for Jul (Christmas), the walking street is decked out in Christmas lights and trees and there is Christmas tunes playing in every store. The Danes have so many awesome Christmas traditions. Advent, which is the four Sundays before Christmas, started this last weekend. On every advent everyone gets a present. I got the warm socks for the first advent since my host family was worried about my feet due to the lack of winter boots. The Christmas food is amazing! I seriously don't know how the Danes stay so thin. When I went with my new family to a family gathering, I tried æbleskivers, which taste like waffles that were rolled into a ball. They are also served with powdered sugar and jam. I also tried gløgg, which is warm red wine with spices of some kind. It also had chopped almonds in the bottom of the glass to add flavor, I think. It was a little weird, but it tasted so good! I'm sure I will be learning more of these Jul traditions as well as enjoying more amazing Christmas food.

The title of this blog, a quote from Matt in 2.w, illustrates just how I and the other exchange students feel about the Danish language. About three weeks before I switched host families, I realized that I was never going to completely learn Danish if I didn't speak it. I decided from there on out that I would speak only Danish with my families and classmates. It's very challenging, but I am so lucky to have the support of my Danish family and now my second host family in this difficult endeavor. I think it's quite amazing much better my Danish has become since then. I know longer form sentences in English and then translate them to Danish. The Danish just comes, but I still have so much to learn. The language barrier has made it harder to make friends than I thought it would. It has been really tough getting close to my classmates, but I keep trying my best. I've made some friends outside of my class which is great, and I have always had Esther, another exchange student and my best friend, and Julie, my sweet and amazing Danish sister, to hang out with. Being an exchange student has its ups and down. There are times that I really miss my first Danish family and I feel quite alone, but there are also times where I'm excited about getting to know my new family and meeting new people. Even at the toughest of times, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world.

Efterårsferie (Autumn Break)

Just three days after I returned home, I left for Copenhagen to spend a few days with Camilla. After a 5 hour train ride, I met Camilla in Copenhagen. I was so excited to see her! About 5 seconds after I arrived the teasing commenced. Hey foreign hahaha hey foreign hey foreign. You speak don't speak danish right. It's jakke not jak. hahaha Well I can't say I didn't deserve it. It's her payback for the last 7 months of tormenting. We headed back to her house in Hareskov and then to her family's summerhouse with her mom, Ilse. Their summerhouse is located about an hour away from Hareskov in northern Sjælland outside of the city of Havnebyen. It was a very pretty landscape with the sea and fall colors. We spent one evening watching movies and relaxing at the summerhouse. The next morning we walked about 2 kilometers to the end of the small strip of Sjælland that we were on. It was super windy. Much like windy spring day in Nevada. Then we drove into Havnebyen and had fish and chips and remoulade for lunch. That afternoon we headed back to Hareskov. The next morning, Ilse, Camilla, and I visited the Frilandsmuseet in Lyngby. It was my second visit to the museum. Luckily, I saw different buildings this visit. After freezing in lovely Danish weather, we visited a bakery and purchased kage which made everything so much better. Mmmm it was good kage. That evening we went to Tivoli. It was beautiful with all the Halloween decorations. Even though Halloween isn't really celebrated in Denmark, Tivoli was decorated just as well as Disneyland. Thursday morning, Camilla and I traveled into Copenhagen to do touristy things. Since Camilla didn't want to look like a tourist, she left the map of Copenhagen at home, so we it took us a while to figure out where to go. The first place we visited was Vor Frelsers Kirke (Our Savior's Church). As it turns out this was one church that my parents didn't drag us into on our trip two years ago. It was beautiful both inside and outside. Camilla and I walked to the around the corkscrew shaped tower to the top of the church. Awesome views of Copenhagen from the top. The inside was amazing. The church's organ was the most amazing piece of woodwork I have ever seen. I can't even imagine how long it took to make in the 1600s. We met up with Camilla's cousins from Jylland (part of Denmark where I live) and we went to Christiania. Christiania is awesome. Unfortunately I don't have very many pictures since pictures weren't allowed. Basically Christiana is its own neighborhood in Copenhagen that is almost completely separate from the Danish government. I have never seen anything like it. It's very colorful with all of the graffiti and murals painted on the buildings. It's huge! I don't think I've seen very much of it. It was beautiful in a different way, but I am very glad that I got to visit. When we got to the walking street Camilla and I parted ways with her cousins. We visited Rundtårn (Round Tower), which is the oldest functioning observatory in Europe. Lots of old things in Denmark. Oldest flag, oldest monarchy, and lots of old buildings. A funny thing I learned is the hallways of Rundtårn are so wide because one of the King Fredericks (like every king in Denmark is named Frederick) was too fat to fit through the original hallways. Afterwards, Camilla and I did a little shopping on the walking street. I also tried almonds cooked in sugar. I wish I could remember that name. They were so good. Camilla and I went back twice to buy more. That evening we had dinner with Camilla's cousins and their parents. It was such a delicious meal. Jeg elsker danske mad! (I love Danish food.) Camilla and I went into Copenhagen again the next morning. This time solely to shop on the walking street. It was a successful shopping day, and I bought a few things. However, the best part was Nutella pancakes. Yes it is exactly what it sounds like, and it is amazing. Camilla's inspiration for the Nutella tortillas we ate so much at home. Sadly I had to leave Camilla's that night. I was headed for Sweden for my ACT test the next morning. It such a nice visit. I'm super excited for her to come and visit me in Hjørring.

It took about 30 minutes to get to Malmo where I met Helena, Lisa Schuette's host sister 30 years ago. I was super excited to see here again. I hadn't seen her or her family since the 4th of July party in the States 3 years ago. We had tacos for dinner! Yum! I miss Mexican food back home. There isn't so much of it here in Denmark. I had a very hyggeligt evening with Helena's family drinking tea and talking. The next morning I got up early and took the ACT. It went ok, and I hope I get the score I need. The part of the test was that I met an American exchange student spending her year in Sweden and another American who was attending an international school in Copenhagen. After the test, Helena, her son Wilhelm, and I went to the walking street in Malmo. There was an American store, and I bought A&W rootbeer! Due to the lack of any rootbeer in Denmark, I was super excited about this. Helena also took us to TGI Friday's. I have never been to one in the States, but I was super glad to have baby back ribs for the first time in months. That evening, the Rosell family and I drove to a small town about an hour and a half north of Malmo for a family party. It was so awesome. I got to see where Lisa Schuette, a family friend, my teacher, and a former exchange student, lived while she was on her exchange. Helena drove up to the house Mrs. Schuette lived in and pointed out the room Mrs. Schuette stayed in and where my mother had visited her 30 years ago when she was an exchange student to Denmark. I met Mrs. Schuette's host brother, sisters and her mother. I was so excited to meet her mother. She remembered my mother's visit year's ago, and we had a great conversation. That is one thing that never ceases to amaze me about the Rotary program. It creates so many connections all over the world. The food was amazing as well as Mrs. Schuette's family. I had such an fun time eating dinner and talking with them. It was really special for me that I got to experience a another part of my mother's exchange as well as a part of Mrs. Schuette's. Before I departed for Denmark, Helena and her daughter, Ebba, took me to see the Turning Torso, which is the symbol for the new Malmo. It was quite an architectural feat. We also walked around the modern neighborhood that was built around the Turning Torso. Very cool. I'm pretty sure a lot of school teachers live there. I had a great time with Helena's family, and I hope that I can come for a return visit.

Studietur i Czech Republic

Last Saturday evening 2.y (my gymnasium class) and I departed on our studietur to the Czech Republic. It was a 16 hour bus ride to our first destination, Terezin. Even though it was a long trip, it was a very hyggeligt trip with lots of delicious snacks and socializing. After an early early breakfast Sunday morning in a cafe in Terezin, we visited Theresienstadt, a concentration camp during World War II. It was very interesting to see a concentration camp, but it was also very unsettling to be in a place where so many people were killed. One really interesting thing I learned, before Theresienstadt became a concentration camp it was the Terezin prison, and the assassin of Duke Franz Ferdinand, Gavrilo Princip, was imprisoned there. It was also where he died. Afterwards, we visited a museum dedicated to the memory of the Jewish people that lived in the Jewish ghetto located in Terezin. The ghetto was the last place Jews stayed before they were sent to Auschwitz. We then drove to Srbsko, a small town in the Cesky Raj, where we would be staying for the next couple of days. After we arrived and settled in, we went on a "short" walk to plan evening activities. The walk ended up lasting a solid 5 hours. Needless to say there was no evening activity. :) The next morning we were up early for our mountain biking adventure. It was a beautiful ride especially with all of the fall colors. After our 18 km (11 mi) bike ride, we went rock climbing and rapelling. The rapelling was intense! We rapelled down a 25m (75ft) cliff! It was a little scary hanging off the edge of a cliff with only a rope and a harness. That evening an interesting thing happened. While my roommates and I were talking upstairs in the small cabin we shared, some boys from with another study tour from Denmark came into our cabin and squirted about half a bottle of ketchup on as much of our stuff as they could. Some of my roommates clothes, beds, shoes, and my shoes now smelled like ketchup. Yay. The next morning we checked out and headed to a river for rafting. It was more like river floating than river rafting, but it was ok. It was a super long river floating trip. We had to paddle 10 km (6 mi) in an almost non-existant current. We made our merry way to Prague following the rafting trip.

The first thing that we saw in Prague was the Yellow Market. The yellow market sells cheap copies of popular clothing brands such as North Face or Bjorn Bjorg etc. The best part was watching my classmates haggling prices with the vendors. After about 4 hours of shopping, we returned to the hotel. The next morning we went for a run at 6:45 in the morning to the Lennon Wall. Not my favorite part of our time in Prague; it was much to early to attempt that sort of exercise. After breakfast we visited a Kozel brewery in Prague. I have never seen so much beer. Kegs of it everywhere. However, it was really neat getting to see the production of beer from the beginning, with the making of the beer, to the end, with bottling the beer for export. Then we went on a guided tour of Prague that lasted the rest of the day. Prague is a beautiful city. The architecture of the buildings was impressive especially the churches. Another highlight of the day was that I got a Starbucks coffee for the first time in months! There is only one Starbucks in Denmark located in the Copenhagen airport. In fact, some of my classmates didn't even know what a Starbucks was. Pretty crazy considering that there is one on every corner in America. That evening we had dinner at a pizzeria, which was very hyggeligt. I know I have used that word many times, but it is commonly used in everyday language in Denmark, and it is also how my classmates would describe this evening. The next day we visited a gymnasium in Prague. It was pretty similar to the gymnasium that I attend in Denmark. The only difference was that the students had to take more classes and the school was smaller. We took a tour in pairs with students at the gymnasium, and crazily enough I met a girl who had also been an exchange student last year to Montana. At the end of the tour, we were given free rein until we had to meet up that evening to return home. A group of my friends and I went to the walking streets and shopped, ate Ben & Jerry's icecream, drank coffee, and overall had a great time. We also ran into the ketchup boys again, yelled ketchup in their general direction and continued on our way. It was such a fun and hyggeligt trip with my class. 2.y is the best class ever!

THULE!!!

THULE! is a huge school party that happens four times a year at Hjørring Gymnasium. This was the first one of the year, and the theme was villains. I got ready for the school party with Julie and one of her friends from her class, and I dressed up as Mijauf, the cat from Team Rocket. And yes i did wear my hair like that all evening. hahaha Then i went to one of my classmates house, Marie Louise, for forefest (before party). The forefest is a lot of fun. We ate dinner together and talked before Thule. Det var rigtig hyggeligt! When it was time for Thule, we took the train together into the city. Thule was crazy! There i was a live band and lots of dancing. Later in the evening we danced well sort of danced Lanciers the dance that I learned earlier in the year. Unfortunately, I came later so I had no one to dance with. Dang! Luckily there is three more dances. After Thule, I went into the city with my friends from my class. Det var en sjovt og hyggeligt aften!

September

I'm sorry that I haven't updated my blog in a while. I have been very busy for the last 3 weeks. As far as school goes, I still don't understand everything yet, but it gets better everyday. I was very excited the other day when I actually knew that my biology teacher was talking about cancer and how it spread throughout the body. Danish class is keeping me very busy with all of its homework. I had to read a short story in Danish and then write a half page summary or longer about the story, in Danish. I also had to give a 5 minute presentation in my Danish class about my life in the USA in Danish. Even though it sounds like a lot, it is really helping me learn Danish as well as practice my speaking. My presentation actually went really well. I just pointed at the pictures I put on my powerpoint and described them in my best Danish. Jeg bor i Carson City. Der bor halv tres tusind mennesker i Carson City. Jeg bor i nord Carson City. Om vinteren jeg står på snowboard at Mt. Rose hver weekend. However, it got more difficult when my classmates asked me questions in Danish. Some of them I could understand, but it's hard to translate what they said in Danish to English while trying to think of a response in Danish. I also joined an after school volleyball club, and I play every Wednesday with some of classmates. It's a lot of fun, and I occasionally make a good play. I leave with my class for Prague in about a week on our study tour. I am so excited! We have been practicing rock climbing on a rock wall at a nearby gym in preparation for our study trip. It has gone pretty well so far. Except I am going to need more practice tying the climbing rope to my harness. I only epically failed at that. At least the climbing teacher is a very patient man. Tomorrow, Friday night, is THULE!! Thule is a huge school party. Almost everyone from the gymnasium goes and there is a lot of dancing including the formal dance, Lanciers. I can't wait for tomorrow! So that about covers everything school related.

Now for the non-school related events. A few weekends back, Lars and Mette went golfing and brought me along. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, and it wasn't too cold. After Lars and Mette played a few holes of golf, they let me try golfing at the driving range. Yeah my golf shot=not so good, but it was fun to try anyways. I have seen more of beautiful Northern Denmark since the last time I updated my blog. Mette and I went on a day trip to Ålborg and walked around the city. We looked in a few shops and purchased the best flødeboller in the world. Really the best flødeboller I have ever eaten. I also visited Hirtshals, Mette's hometown, with Mette one evening. We walked to the top of the Hirtshals lighthouse. Mette and I also walked around the German bunker museum that is nearby the lighthouse. The Germans would have definitely been ready if the English had decided to invade Denmark. Hirtshals is neat town that smells like fish. I enjoyed a soft ice with Mette as we walked around the town. Hyggeligt :) On Saturday, my host family and I went up to Skallerup klit, which is a vacation resort with about 200 summer houses, swimming pools, spas, badminton courts and such things located right next to the North Sea. The first thing we did was the Junglesti, which is like an obstacle course. It was quite challenging but super fun! Later we walked around and played on the outdoor exercise equipment, jumped on the trampolines, and climbed this huge rope structure. I made it to the top! My family took me on the tour of the main building of the resort. It was a super nice resort! There was several badminton courts and swimming pools as well as ancient Rome bath, restaurant, bar, billard room, bowling alley, gaming area, play place for small children, internet/gaming cafe, and an entire room set up to play Nintendo Wii. Intense! On Sunday, Lars and I "hiked" through the Hjørring mountains. He showed me where a ski jump was built on the mountain for the 1950 something Olympics. It was surprised at how steep the hill was where the jump was built, but judging on the size of the ski jump at the 2010 winter Olympics Hjørring will probably never host the Olympics again. On Tuesday of last week Julie came home. It was great to see her again. She started gymnasium in 2.w. On Saturday I went with Julie and her friends from gymnasium to a Friday night dinner at Sofie's house. Det var meget hyggeligt! We ate dinner together and talked. After dinner, we went to Postgarden, a place frequented by may of the gymnasium students. It was a great evening. This past week, I went with Lars to Tornby strand to watch the sunset one evening. The sunsets here are amazing. On Thursday I went to a performance at Ciffy Cafe by Thomas Buttenschøn with a few of my friends from the gymnasium. The music was different than anything I have heard before, but it was good nonetheless. Det var meget hyggeligt :) Well that's all for now. Vi ses.

Weekend in Skagen

On Friday I joined all the other exchange students from district 1440 (northern Jutland) for a weekend in Skagen. The best part was that I successfully arrived in Skagen without any travel problems. Yay! Saturday morning we visited the northernmost point in Denmark, Grenen. Grenen is also where the Kattegat (Baltic Sea) and the Skagerrak (North Sea) meet. Like every tourist that has visited Grenen, I had my picture taken standing with one leg in each sea. Then we walked down the beach to one of Skagen's lighthouses. Vejret var smuk! (The weather was beautiful!) We walked up to the top of the lighthouse where all of Skagen as well as Grenen were visible. It looked just like the pictures that I had seen on the Internet several months previous. For anyone who decides to visit Denmark this is a must see destination. After we stopped for lunch, we visited Tilsandede Kirke. Only a part of the church remained. The other part was buried underneath the constantly moving sand dunes of north Jylland (Jutland). The next stop was the Råbjerg Mile which is about a square kilometer of sand dunes. It looked very out of place with the surrounding seas and green landscape. We played on the dunes for a while before returning to Skagen to see the Skagen museum. The museum was very cool. It had all the famous, original paintings created by the painters of Skagen. I met up with Ina, a friend introduced to me at Julie's going away party, at the museum. It was fantastic to see her, and we walked around the museum while she explained the famous paintings. Next we walked through the downtown of Skagen. I got a guided tour, since I was with Ina. It was such a pretty town. After we enjoyed a soft ice (the most amazing ice cream ever) we went down to the Skagen harbor. There was a very nice cafe there, and the Rotarians treated all 30 exchange students to any non-alcoholic drink we wanted. I got to visit with Ina for about another hour before she had to go to work. Sunday was the last day in Skagen, but I look forward to visiting again.

Vil du sige det igen langsomt?

I had my first full, uninterrupted week of school since the beginning of the school year. I went to my first handball practice on Tuesday. The coach and all the girls and the playing on the team are very nice and willing to help me learn the rules of handball. Handball is somewhat similar to basketball, so I wasn't absolutely terrible :) I hope that I will learn to play quickly though. On Wednesday, I accompanied Esther and some of her friends from her 2m class for Esther's Danish makeover. She is know looking very Danish with some new clothes and a hair cut. On Thursday I got out of school at 12:05 P.M. YES!! I went exploring on my bicycle around Hjørring. Luckily there are many signs in Denmark, since there were several times I had no idea where I was. My little adventure once again reminded me of the importance of a good map (cough* cough* Mom and Dad) :) I did make it home safely and soundly. But the best part of the week was on Friday. My gymnasium had this school event known as "Fredag (Friday) Cafe." I sat with my class and we just talked and enjoyed each other's company. They also taught me a few Danish card games. It was very hyggeligt (cozy (a very important Danish word)).

Danish is getting easier everyday. I am understanding more and more of everyday conversation. I can also carry on small and basic conversations with my host family and school friends. It is so great that I am getting so much help with my Danish. Even though I have to ask my classmates to repeat things to me many times slowly, they are always happy to help me. My family has been a huge help in my education. My dad Lars spent five hours of his time over a few days helping me read a short story I was assigned in Danish class. I am enjoying every moment of my time here. I love Denmark!

IntroCamp

Sunday morning I finished packing and boarded the train from Hjørring to Randers with Esther and Hunter. For whatever reason traveling to and around Denmark is not my forte. As Esther put it "things started to go south the moment I sat down next to Alex Fallon." When Esther, Sophia, another exchange student, and I were attempting to get off the train at Randers we were boxed in by the man with the food cart. Since we were unable to get off the train, we had to go all theway to Århus. We ended up having to buy another ticket to travel to Bjerringbro, the location of IntroCamp. As if that wasn't exciting enough, we misunderstood how the train route to Bjerringbro worked. At one of the stops, Langa, we thought the train had turned around and was returning to Århus, which it wasn't.It actually was going out backwards in a different direction. We decided that we should just get off the train, so we didn't end up back in Århus. Once the train had headed on its merry way to Bjerringbro without us aboard, we figured out our mistake. Luckily we had only gotten off one stop to early, sowe were less than 5 miles away from Bjerringbro. We called Martin, someone in charge at IntroCamp, and explained that we had arrived, but we needed to be picked up in Ulstrup. He s that someone was on their way to get us. Awesome! We sat down and waited. However two hours later there had been no sign of Martin. I finally got a call from him asking where we were. "Well we're still sitting in Ulstrup waiting for someone to pick us up." "Oh, um, I'll call you back." He never did, but he magically appeared 20 minutes later.

IntroCamp kept us busy with all the things that Rotary had scheduled. We would have Danish lessons in the morning, lunch and then Danish lessons until dinner. After dinner we would have various activities we could participate in such as soccer, hockey, and other games. However, the best part of IntroCamp was going on day trips. On Wednesday, we went to Viborg, a city a little south of Bjerringbro. We were supposed to visit the Viborg Cathedral, but it was closed, so we just walked around downtown Viborg. I had salad pizza for the first time ever. It's exactly what it sounds like, a salad on top of a pizza. One of my friends Emily had the biggest kebab i have ever seen in my life. That night, we had an Danish rock band, the Striving Vines perform for us. Their music was quite good. Thursday night we had a bonfire. All of us gathered together to swap pins and take pictures. We also cooked bread over the fire, a Danish campfire tradition. It was tasty, especially when filled with jam, but it also took 15 minutes since one couldn't light it on fire. The following day we went to Århus. It was an interesting museum. It was very different from any art museum I have ever seen before. After spending a few hours in the museum, we went to downtown Århus and walked around looking in the shops. On Sunday we all said our goodbyes and returned to our homes in Denmark.

A Day in the Life of a Danish Exchange Student

I almost have almost settled into a routine in my new home. I go to gymnasium monday through friday, sit in my Danish classes and comprehend about 20% of the lesson, then have two hours of Danish lessons during my last two classes. The classes here are awesome! I have four to six classes a day depending on whether classes are cancelled. I also have all my classes with the same people, which is great, since I will get to know them very well. When classes are cancelled or we have a free period, we go down to the city or to McDonald's for an hour and just hang out and talk.

On Friday I went to my first Danish party. The student council at the gymnasium throws a party for the first year students, but they invited us to attend. Esther, another American exchange student, and I were offered free beer, soda and pizza for attending the party. The party was unlike anything I have ever seen before. By about 9:00 P.M. about four people came up to Esther and I and informed us that they had been afraid to come up and speak to us in English earlier, but now they were feeling slightly tipsy, so they didn't care. hahaha it was great! The best part, however, was when we went up to the school gym and danced Lanciers (the dance we learned the first week of school). Lanciers was a success even though some of the dancers won't remember dancing or falling in the middle of the dance.

Lars, Thomas, and I drove up to Rubjerg today. From the top of the Rubjerg, I could see Hjorring, which is about 20 kilometers away, in the distance. It was also super windy at the top of the mountain, but Thomas and I enjoyed creating situations consisting of what would happen if you flew a kite up here? or what if you had an opened parachute strapped to your back? When we got home, Thomas made us homemade pizza with pepperoni, pinapple, and corn. Delicious! I also had a rootbeer that Mette bought for me at Super Best. It was ok, but IBC Rootbeer is much better (hint hint mom and dad) hahaha Later that evening I went with Lars and Mette to the beaches in Løkken. The sand here was also very fine and great to walk in barefoot. Mette and I walked around in the North Sea, which is about as warm as Lake Tahoe. Well, tomorrow I depart for language school in Bjerringbro, for a fun filled week of Danish lessons, and meeting all of the exchange students in Denmark. So as they say in Denmark vi ses (see you).

Forstår du hvad jeg siger?

Weekend! Yes! After three days of confusing Danish classes, many questions about whether or not I understood anything and dancing lessons, it's awesome to have a break. Just like all other Danes my age I celebrated with a 25 kilometer bike ride on Friday evening with my Danish mom, Mette. The countryside was beautiful! On top of one of the small hills, we could see all the way to the sea! It was so relaxing cycling around the backroads of Northern Jutland. Apart from the occasionally mooing cows and passing cars, it was just Mette and I talking and enjoying the sunny weather.

On Saturday, Lars, Mette and I drove to Nibe for a Rotary orientation. All the exchange students from district 1440 were present. The first half of the meeting was extremely uninspiring. Basically it was another Rotarian explaining the 4 D's (no drinking, driving, dating, drugs) to us. I am so glad he did since I wasn't sure if I could remember all of them from the five previous Rotary orientations. However, after lunch all the exchange students were sent downstairs to socialize and swap pins. It was so much fun! I got see some of the exchange students that I had met in the airport as well as meet other exchange students in my district. The sunset was amazing tonight! From the backyard we could see the beautiful gold, pink, and blue colors flooding the western skyline. Lars and I rushed to the Hjorringbjerg (Hjorring "mountains") to see if we could catch the sun dipping below the horzion. We just missed it. We hiked around in the towering Hjorring mountains, and I climbed up to the top of the tower. It was hard to see the city at such a high altitude, but I managed to snap a few pictures.

On Sunday, I met my third host family. They are very nice. I have a sister, Simone, who was an exchange student to Iowa last year and currently in the first year of gymnasium. I am very excited to get to know them. She is also part of handball club and has invited me to one of their practices when I return from language school in Bjerringbro. Well I have to prepare myself for another busy week at Hjorring Gymnasium, so tah tah for now!

First Day of School

The day started with a welcome assembly in the Festel (similar to a small gym). The rektor (principal) of the school, Elizabeth Austin, welcomed us back to school. At least I think she did, but I don't really know since the entire speech was in Danish. Hanne Bolt, an English teacher at the school, introduced the exchange students to the entire student body. After the assembly, Esther, Hunter and I wandered around the school sporting a deer in the headlights look. It was confusing to be in a new school, but even more confusing to be in a new school in a foreign country. Luckily, two girls from my class, which is 2y, invited me to join them in the katine (cafeteria, not a bar). They introduced me to the rest of 2y. Since we had a free period right after the assembly, I sat with my class and listened to them speak Danish to each other. I understood about 20% of the conversation. One of the girls, Ida, occasionally spoke to me in English. After a 20 minute break between the second and third classes, I went to my first class, Chemistry.

The only thing I understood in that class was the teacher introducing herself to me. The rest of the class, not so much. I think we were observing the sulfur in solid, liquid and gas form. At the end of class, my teacher Kigga, handed out textbooks and periodic tables in Danish. Our homework involved reading about 12 pages of the textbook. Kigga knew that I had a very limited Danish vocabulary, so she suggested that I just look at the pictures in the book and hopefully I would understand what was happening.

Since I had no foreign language, and my PE class was cancelled, I had another free period. However, I had no clue what to do with that hour. Ida and Cisca (classmates) suggested I just go with them to their German class. Their teacher was very nice and let me stay in the class, and study my Danish.

A 25 minute lunch period began right after German class. I sat with Esther and Louise, one of Julie's friends that I met at her party. Her English is extremely good, and it was a nice break for Esther and I to have a conversation with her in English.

The fifth class of the day was math. At the beginning of the class, Hanne Bolt, came into the class and had me introduce myself to everyone. I gave a very short speech half in Danish and half in English about where I was from and what my hobbies were. Hanne also explained to my classmates that they needed to speak Danish to me slowly and in short, simple sentences. Once she left, my math teacher, Trine, acted upon Hanne's advice and began her to lecture slowly in Danish. My classmates thought it was hilarious, but at least I could semi-understand what was happening. However, when she assigned a few warmup problems, I was once again lost in a sea of confusion. She knew that I spoke very little Danish, so she asked me in English if I had ever seen this kind of math before. I did recognize some of it, but most of it was Greek to me.

Instead of attending my last class, I participated in Lanciers, which are five dances taught to the first year gymnasium students. These dances are common at the four Thule parties the gymnasium has each year. Even though Esther, Hunter and I are not first year students, we did not know the dances, so we had to learn them with the new students. The dances are very formal, but hopefully not to complicated. The dance teachers paired us off and then grouped four pairs together. We learned the first dance. After we practiced it a few times, most of the students including myself seemed to get it. I say most because one of the boys I had to dance with had no idea what he was doing even after an hour of practice.

Even though it was a confusing first day, I am looking forward to the rest of the school year. Everybody is very nice even if they are afraid to speak English with me. Also, I'm sure at some point, I will even understand my classes.

Back to Hjørring

The night we returned from the sommerhus, Mette, Lars, Julie and I drove to the beaches in Lonstrup to see the sunset. The sand was amazing! Soft and white, nothing like Nevada's beaches. We walked down the beach past a German bunker built in World War II. It read "Zimmer Frei" which means free room in German. hahaha We also saw Marup kirke (church), which the sea is fast approaching. It was built some kilometers from the sea, but now it is only 12 meters away. We also saw the Rubjerg lighthouse in the distance.

The following day was my first Danish lesson taught by Jens (Yens) Peter (Peter). I had the class with the other Hjorring exchange students, Esther from Valentine, Nebraska, and Hunter from Niagara Falls, Canada. Mostly the lesson consisted of Jens helped us with the pronunciation of the glottal stop in Danish. Hvordan ga'r det? (How goes it?) After dinner, I met one of Julie's gymnasium (high school) friends, Laura. I also learned how to played kongspil (king game directly translated) together with Mette, Lars, Julie, Laura and Thomas.

In kongspil, you have two teams. Each team has to knock down the opponents five blocks by throwing six sticks equally divided between each team member. When one team knocks down one of the blocks, the opposing team must throw the block out into the playing field. Once the block is set upright, the opposing team must knock down the block before they can go after the remaining blocks. Once all five blocks have been knocked down, then the team can attempt to knock over the king block, which is placed in the middle of the field. The team that knocks over the king wins.

After several games of kongspil, I watched Fried Green Tomatoes with Mette, Laura, and Julie. It was a excellent movie. Then Laura, Julie and I watched Anaconda, which wasn't a particularly good movie. The huge snake definitely looked fake, and ate more people in three days then a snake would ever eat in its lifetime.

On Saturday, I experienced a Danish Christmas Eve dinner with my family and I think Mette's or maybe Lars sister and her two children. The Danes really know how to celebrate Christmas with excellent food. We had flaeskesteg (roast pork) with hot rodkal (red cabbage), sweet potatoes, regular potatoes with brown sauce, and for dessert we had risengrod (sweet rice porridge). It is a Danish tradition to put one whole almond in the risengrod, and whoever finds it wins Christmas. After we finished eating, we played a traditional Danish Christmas game. There is a pile of presents placed in the middle of the table. Then, everyone around the table rolls a dice. If you get a six you get to take a present for yourself, and once all the presents are gone, the real "fun" begins. In the next round that lasts about 12 minutes, everyone rolls the dice, but this time if you roll a one you take a present from one person and give it to another. If you roll a six, you get to take a present from someone and keep it for yourself. There are no teams in this game, so if you lose all your presents that's too bad. Apparently this game makes children cry at Christmas, but I'm not sure why.

On Sunday morning, we had brunch with Mette's dad and his girlfriend, Lars mother, and Mette's sister and her husband. Danish brunch is delicious! We had fresh eggs and sausage and some other fattening foods. Julie had her going away party later in the day. I was introduced to about 30 students from the gymnasium, whose names I forgot about 3 minutes after I met them. I also met many family friends whose names also escape me. This was the first party in my life that I had to leave to take a nap due to exhaustion. Now I am beginning to experience the language fatigue that was explained in Rotary orientations. Even though I can only understand about 20% of the conversations, it is always so exciting for me when I know what people are talking about. The speaking is going to take a while though. I'm sure once I can remember that the correct response to have a goodnight's sleep is not "your welcome" I'll be on the right track.

Sommerhus i Sønderjylland (summer house in Southern Jutland)

The day after I arrived, my family and I drove about 4 hours to the summer house in Southern Jutland (mainland Denmark) that they had rented for a week. Before arriving at the summer house, we drove into Germany to a border shop and stocked up on soda and candy since it's cheaper in Germany. The summer house was very hyggeligt (cozy), and it looked out onto a fjord. We walked down to the marina in the evening after dinner. It was a very enjoyable walk with my family especially with Thomas, my brother, and Julie, my sister, who are very funny. Just reference my facebook pictures.

The next day we drove to Grasten Slot (Castle) where the Danish royal family was vacationing. We hoped that we would get to see the royal family. Unfortunately we didn't, but we did get to see the changing of the guard on the castle grounds though. After lunch as the summer house, we drove to Sonderburg. The royal ship that had transported the royal family to their summer house was docked at Sonderberg. After touring the walking street, we strolled down to the Sonderborg Slot (castle) to watch the ring riding (bottom picture). I also ate a hamburger for the first time with a fork and knife at a cafe near the castle. Later that evening I experienced my first game of Pictionary in Danish. Basically, when it was my turn to draw a picture for my teammates to guess, my family just told me to draw whatever word I could understand on the card.

On the last day at the summer house, we drove to Flensborg, Germany. I had now spent the last three of my four days in Denmark in Germany. We walked down to the marina and the walking street for several hours looking in the shops. We had lunch at a cafe on the walking street. Ordering was now even more confusing, since it was in another language I didn't know. My family told me that I could just learn German along with my Danish.

Airport Trouble

I said goodbye to my parents and Camilla Friday morning and boarded the 7:40 A.M. flight to Denver with Mara Chapman, another exchange student on her way to Denmark. Unfortunately, when we reached Denver, we discovered that our flight to Chicago was delayed three hours, so Mara and I ate lunch and waited and waited. Then the flight board informed us that the flight was now fours hours late and coming at 4:20 P.M. Ugh! We finally boarded the flight to Chicago, but for whatever reason mother nature did not want us to meet our connection in Chicago, so it started torrentially raining on the tarmac. Yay! We had to wait another half hour to take off. Now Mara and I really started to worried that we would not make our Copenhagen flight.

After we reached Chicago, we ran to our SAS connection, but due to a train arriving late at Terminal 5 and the slow security check, Mara and I were ten minutes too late to make our 10:05 flight. The agents working at the airline gate sent us to the SAS counter to see if anyone could help us at 10:30 at night. While we were in line, Mara's dad was able to reschedule our tickets for a 3:00 P.M. flight to Frankfort, Germany. We collected our luggage from SAS, and proceeded to drag our heavy suitcases to Terminal 1. We walked around a nearly deserted airport at 11 at night searching for an United Airlines employee forever! Luckily we finally did find an employee, who gave us a voucher to the Ramada Inn, and directed us to the hotel shuttles that ran 24 hours a day. Mara and I dragged our suitcases out to the shuttles only to discover that there was no shuttle to the Ramada Inn. We lugged our suitcases back to the terminal, and asked the agent on duty what we should do now. She called the hotel, and imagine that, the shuttle had stopped running an hour ago. She put us up in the Hilton for the night, which was the best thing that had happened all day.

We flew out of Chicago at 3:00 P.M. after spending about 30 minutes at the check-in while the Lufthanse agents figured out if they were going to let us on the plane, since we only had a piece of paper with locator numbers and no boarding passes. The agent also told me that the airline could only check my bags until Copenhagen, and then I would have to figure out how to get my bags to Aalborg, Denmark, my final destination. The agents did finally get us on the flight. We arrived in Frankfort at 6:40 A.M. Mara and I parted ways since she had a direct flight to Bilund in the A terminal, her final destination. I had to fly to Copenhagen departing from the B terminal. It took me a while to get to the B Terminal to gate B12, where my Kobenhavn flight was scheduled to depart. The signs in Frankfort airport are not helpful at all. One of the signs told me that i needed to go to the right to get to gate B12. Unfortunately there was a 20 minute wait to get through the passport check where a grumpy German policemen told me that this only went to the C gates and that i was supposed to go left. I ended up at another passport check were another unhappy German employee directed me to the correct passport area. Then I had to go through security before I could get to the gate. When I finally arrived at the gate, I asked the lady working at the desk for my boarding pass. She shooed me away and told me come back later. I met up with about 10 other exchange students on their way to Denmark, and we swapped stories of our traveling woes. I did finally get my boarding pass from the snarky desk attendant, but she told me that they had overbooked the flight, so I was on standby. After the non -standby passengers plane had boarded, it was just another exchange student and I waiting for seats. Then another grumpy German supervisor told us that he had one seat left on the plane. Thankfully the other exchange student let me have the flight.

I arrived in Copenhagen around 11:00 A.M. I walked to my connecting flight leaving at 12:15 P.M for Aalborg. When I asked the nice, Danish desk attendant to print my boarding pass, she informed me that I was not on the flight list. She sent me back through to the re-ticketing area to see if someone could assist me. An employee working at the re-ticketing area informed me that when my flight was rescheduled the travel company did not book my flight all the way through to Aalborg. I did however have a reservation to fly from Aalborg to Copenhagen June 7th, 2010. What?! I ended up having to buy another ticket that cost me about $200. Luckily the next flight was at 1:05 P.M., and my luggage would be on the plane! I also met more exchange students on their way to Aalborg near the gate my flight was supposed to fly out of. However the switched the flight to another gate, and by the time I had realized it, I was too late to make my flight. I had to go back to the re-ticketing area to get another ticket for the later flight to Aalborg at 4:55 P.M. I finally made it to Aalborg 50 hours after leaving Reno and 24 hours later then expected.

First blog

Hi I'm Alex, and this is the blog I am setting up for my yearlong adventure in Denmark. I will be leaving for Hjørring, Denmark, which is located in northern part of the Danish mainland, either the 30th or 31st of July. I have been talking with my host sister, Julie, and my host mom, Mette, on facebook. They are a very musical family. Julie plays the piano, sings in several choirs, and does theater from time to time. Mette also sings in choirs and participates in the theater. My host dad Lars composes music, and my host brother Thomas plays several instruments and is a member of several bands. They are taking me on a short trip down to a summer house in southern Jutland (the Danish name of the peninsula). I am very excited to meet them, and spend time with Julie before she leaves for Coopersville, Michigan on her exchange. The picture to the left is my host family on one of the many beaches in Denmark near where I will be living.