One month in Danmark!!!

So yesterday was my one-month anniversary- I wasn't expecting flowers or balloons so that’s okay that you forgot to send some, or if you did I'm sure they are just lost in the post right.
After being in Danmark a month I think I am getting used to life over here there are still the simple things that make me really excited and some things that make me go "this country is so weird!"

The main things would have to be
School- There is still a lot of weird things about school. Mainly the whole no bell thing and also I'm still getting used to dressing up for school. I do have my rungi days where I just wear trackies and a top for example today. The teachers can get quite nasty when you forget to bring your book, this happened to me yesterday in History. I tried explaining that I didn’t see much point in bringing my text books when I couldn’t understand anything but she still insisted that I need to bring it everyday and then she spoke in Danish to me and apparently she was telling me off.

Food- No one really snacks so they just eat the three main meals and the food can taste either really good or really bad! luckily I haven’t had that many bad meals so far. Dessert is only served at special occasions and I have finally tasted rødgrødmedfløde ( I swear that’s the hardest Danish word, and everyone always trys to make me say it) but yes so picture strawberry jam and a bit of cream and that is basically rødgrødmedfløde not exactly what I was expecting but it was still good in a very weird way! On the weekends families have chocolate on their buns for breakfast. Most people don’t eat toast for breakfast they have these weird breakfast buns that kind of look like hamburger buns.

Discoteks- These are the Danish equivalent to New Zealand clubs. They are completely different over here, the boys buy you drinks ( not that I have been drinking of course) and the dance floor is in the centre and basically you sit on the couches surrounding the dance floor drinking your "raspberry and cokes" and then when a good song comes on you rush to the dance floor and dance with all the people. Also everyone comes together at discoteks like its okay for members of the "older" generation to be there dancing.

Transport- It is so easy to get around in Danmark. The main way of transportation in your hometown is by biking. This is a good way to get around and it also gives you freedom. When you want to travel to other places in Danmark and you go by train. The trains run on time and are usually comfortable. I have gotten used to riding trains now, the only bad thing is when you get off at the wrong station...

Then there are the little things like how everything is so expensive over here; you ride on the right not the left. Bikes have their own little bike paths, everyone looks and dresses much older then they are, you can buy alcohol in the supermarket and at little supermarkets.

So its been a busy past week, I got home from Language Camp on Sunday. I had been there for a whole week learning Danish with all the other Inbounders in Danmark. There was so many Australians there- I think there was 30 Australians, 15 Brazilians, 5 New Zealanders, 3 Argentineans and 2 South Africans. There were about 45 girls and only 7 boys!

My arrival to Language Camp was a bit stressful, I got off the train in Bjeniningbro and no one was there to pick me up so I realised I had got off at the wrong train station. I reach into my handbag to ring my councillor and ask for help when I realise I have left my mobile on the train, this means I am basically stranded in a strange town which I know nothing about, I have no way to contact anyone and I can't remember any mobile numbers. I do have one number and that is my district councillor’s number so I walk around the town trying to find a pay phone- all the shops are closed because it is Sunday. I finally find one and call him and he tells me I can just walk to the high school because it is in the area. However he neglected to tell me the way to the school so I find a taxi and he calls my district councillor and gets the name of the school and takes me to the school for free yay!

The week was real fun and I picked up on some Danish which is godt! The people were so nice and I took heaps of photos. Unfortunately my memory card is stuck is Helens (my roomie from New Zealand) laptop. She wanted to have my photos so she put it in her laptop. The laptop is being sent back to New Zealand because it has to be taken apart for some strange reason so I probably wont get my photos for about 2 or 3 months.
We had a party on the last night and that was awesome, we all dressed up real nice and had a banquet. The music started and we all started dancing, the Brazilians are awesome dancers! Was a real fun night I was dancing on the tables ( and yes I was sober)

It was sad leaving the camp because it was so godt to talk Kiwi again and not have to slow down when I was talking and just being able to talk and not having to think before speaking. I had to change trains and I had a one hour wait in this tiny as station that was just a room, I then went to sleep on the train and woke up thinking I had missed my stop so I jump up and run to the door but we pull away just as I get there but thankfully it wasn’t my stop.

I am settling back into life in "The Bro" and am speaking the Danish that I know, I used my knowledge on the train to talk to a guy. I said Hej Jeg hedder Megan, Jeg kommer fra New Zealand Hvad med dig? Then I asked Hvad er Klokken the Du er Single? and Hvor gammel du?
Which is basically Hi my name is Megan, I’m from New Zealand, what about you. Then I asked him what the time was and if he was single and how old he was. So I think I'm on my way to learning Danish.

I am going to the theatre on Friday to see Les Miserables, which is so awesome! Although it has just occurred to me that it will all be in Danish... But im sure i should be able to pick up the storyline.

Hope everyone has a godt week
Kys Kys
Megz

"The Bro"

Bike roundabout- the road roundabout is above


Me in a Danish telephone box


River that runs through the town

Middle of town

Awesome cafe that I go to with the girls

Top end of town

Front of my school

Lunch area

How dark it is when I leave the house

Team Tvis and Holstebro Handball match

Me and the snow!!

The snow

My host sisters team playing handball

My House

What I wear to school

Photos- I shall take some photos of "The Bro" and put them up later

View of Holstebro town from my Councellors apartment



Me and ET




Me and Friendly Cop


Me and Dora at Universal Studios

I think school is really cool..itsa lot of fun..cos everyday we learn and we play..school is number one!

Haha okay school isnt that great but it is still pretty awesome! apart from that for most of the day I am mega conused and cannot understand anything unless Im spoken to in English. My danish is slowly increasing I have learnt the major things to say e.g Hvor er Baren aka Where is the Bar!

My class is very nice I smile at them and they smile back, I have made a group of friends ish they look out for me and show me where my classes are they also laugh at my Danish and my Danish translator book. I sit with them at lunch, lunchtime is fully different over here compared to what I am used to. We all sit down at big tables at the start of the year you choose your table and thats your table for the year and the lunch area is based in the middle of the school and the 2nd and 3rd years all sit together and the first years are scattered around the school. For those of you playing at home I am a 2nd year student. The school is all inside and is actually one building with corridors that split off so the classes can fit in. Class is different over here as well, everyone goes on their laptops and all the boys just play computer games the school also has wireless so thats awesome!!

Now the main way for me to get to school is to ride my awesomely cool bike!! So i decide on my 2nd day at school to ride to school, luckily I had a late start again. So i set off at 9am thinking that leaves me 50 mins to get to school I shall be sweet as! untill for some reason I take a wrong turn (the first of very many!!) and have to get out my map and realise I'm heading in the wrong direction so I backtrack untill I get to familar ground. I then start heading onto this massive road where there is a sign which has a bike and a huge cross through it but I figure I should be okay and I bike quickly untill I can get to the bike lane again and its is here where I miss my turn off. So I keep headign up and up and then i realise that I must of missed my turn so I head all the way back down the road untill I see my turn off and then I finally get to school half an hour late for my lesson.

The 2nd day I leave the house at 7am...and its pitch black outside and freezing as! So Im feeling confident this time thinking I know the way to go, untill I end up in the city instead of school. That was alright though because I knew my way from the city to school. So i got to school on time and ready for ENGLISH!!! the only subject that I can actually listen and pay attention. SoI rock up to my class and get told we doing Romeo and Juliet now for the first time I actually understood Shakespear! it was amazing. I then get up and talk about NZ to fill in time and drew this retarded as map but I managed to get my point across and fill them all in. I got the typical question about is it true that there is more sheep then people. They also know nothing of the Maoris so I quickly filled them in because I am fully Maori thanks to dad.

I know have my route figured out and it takes me 25 minutes to bike to school so thats not to bad. We had a very big storm on thursday and biking home was a mission! mainly because I had the wind coming the same way as I was biking. On thursday it also snowed BUT I was in a very boring as Rotary meeting where we had to sing! and there was no food to distract me.

On friday I headed down to Silkeborg for Dianas birthday and had the awesomest as weekend down there finally getting out on the town! I have figured out that the danes are quite formal they introduce themselves when they arrive by going around the room shaking everyones hands and saying there name and when you have meet them more then once you might be lucky to get a hug. On friday night Diana and I went to her cafe where she works, when she suggested that we go I was like umm why are we going to a cafe thats a little weird however cafes over here are so awesome!! that is mainly due to the fact you can buy alcohol!! So we sit down and have some very nice cocktails and I meet some of her friends.

The next day it was her birthday so we had a big brunch were I met more of her friends and then Diana and I went shopping. The most coolest thing happened when we were shopping..IT SNOWED!!! and then back at her house it was snowing hard out so I ran outside and took lots of photos. Later that night we went into town to go to the "Discos" and I was lucky enough to get into one by sneaking past the bouncer but then I went outside and couldnt get back in so I was sepearted from the group, freezing cold and to top it all off lost in Silkeborg! But I got myself sorted out and got home around 3 so was a pretty good night.

Caught the train home on Sunday back to "The Bro". My host dad wasnt there to pick me up so I was waitign around freezing for half and hour until he came. After spending a weekend in a house with a lounge reminded me of how much I miss it! but Im slowly getting used to having no lounge. I also found some nuts so I can snack on them, they not as nice as biscuits but they do the trick.

Im hoping it will snow of my birthday so will save my snow dance till them! Its still freezing over here but am loving every single second of it!

Have fun in the sun
Love Megz

2 JAFFAS AT HOLSTEBRO GYMNASIUM

I had my first day at school today, like normal I was a lil bit nervous and worried about what to expect bearing in mind I had no idea what subjects I was even going to be learning.
I am at my new family now and their house is awesome but more about that later, part of the family life is that they all have breakfast together...at 7am. This rule applies to weekends as well but the time in 930. Now I am not a morning person, Im used to having my breakfast by myself whilst rushing around getting ready so its a tad werid to sit down all together and to have to talk at that early hour of the morning.
Now my timetable is weird I can start at different times and finish at different times so each day is different. To my joy I got to start at 940 today because my class does spanish and I dont have to do that. Teenagers in Denmark dress very nice for school so I thought I better step up my act the fact that my 15 year old host sis looks older me and dresses older then me is a bit sad. So for my first day of school i was wearing my tight skinny jeans with boots, kiwi top, jacket, coat and scarf. Now I have come a long way from what I usually wear to school in winter and that is trackies and hoodie, the fact that girls dont wear trackies to school over here is sad but Im going to find a way to wear them.
I arrive at my school and get greeted my 2 nice friendly girls who are my "guides" and are in my class and this is where I learn that there is another JAFFA and my school, its a little sad because it doesnt make me unique I guess but im sure im more maori then her so I can pride myself on that. I also finally get told what subjects I'll be learning for half a year. These are....
Danish
Geography
Ancient History
German....gna be interesting
English!!
Religion...hmm
Biology
History
Sport
I only have Sport once a week so thats sad but secretly Im happy becasue it means that I only have to shower..with the girls after sport once a week. I have Sport this Friday so Im counting down the days untill I have to shower with the girls.
So today I was actually only at school for one lesson and that was Danish and we watched a nice Danish film..all in Danish no english subtitles but I kind of understood bits of it and then after Danish we were all free to go home!! how awesome is that so I was home before 12 and then tommorw I will be home at 1. I only have 2 or 3 subjects each day and lessons often get cancelled its very nice.

Onto my family, they are very nice people but I need to learn Danish because they speak it to each other and I get left behind so I find myself staring at my plate and also tryign to follow the convo. The house is huge! 3 storeys I am in the basement were sebastian and caroline also live. The house doesnt have a lounge though so I miss lounging on a couch, well they have couches but just randomly around the house and I dont like spending to much time in my room. O and all the kids have to take turns cooking, but there isnt a schedule so I duno when Im supposed to cook.

I better go now, Im going to cycle on my awesome as bike! its so cool its real old school but yeah Im cycling to the shops to get some kai because as I found out this morning there isnt really any snacky foods so packing my lunch was very hard and they only have black bread (danish bread they all love it)
Hope everyone is having fun in the sun while im turning into a human ice cube!!!
Lots of Love
Megz

Longest 4 days of my life

So I am finally in Denmark! its very cold and gets dark very early and I keep forgetting that I am actually in Denmark till I go outside and then it hits me as well as the coldness.
So to quickly fill you in on the past week. On Monday night after my last post in America a group of us decide we should pull an all nighter, so we stay awake swapping stories playing games the usual and then all 7 of us hop on the double bed and I say we should spoon to take up less room by this stage we lost 3 people so it was only a 5 person spoon. Around 4:30am I decide to go to my room and to try and grab a couple of hours sleep for the big day at Universal Studios. Me and my roommate get rudely awaken at what feels like the crack of dawn but I think it was 750 to be told that breakfast closes at 8 so we had to rush downstairs and I nearly threw up at the smell of it. I dont think americans know breakfast is the most important meal of the day because they heap their food with so much fat.
I actually found Universal Studios to be not that great, the rides were okay but I thought I was going to get to watch televison programs being filmed maybe even get to kiss orlando bloom- okay I wasnt expecting that. I managed to get some good photos though which I will put on here when I actually figure out how to do so. I was so tired on the bus home from the day and the nearly all nighter that I was asleep for most of the trip but I woke up in time to pass hooters.
the next morning was suposed to be disneyland!!!! however I woke up feeling funny and when I was waiting for the lifts I blacked out and also had the mega headache so I stayed home and slept. Word came back to me that the tea cups were broken so I can safely say im happy that I didnt go.
Thursday was flight day so we were finally leaving la hooray!! unfortuantly I was still feeling like crap BUT still smiling as I am hard..most of the time. The plane ride was quite squished even for the lil people. It was on the plane that I started to get more sick, now the porter family moto is take a hard pill but its hard to take hard pills on the plane dad! they even played hairspray but I couldnt even watch it because I felt too bad. My 4 hour stopover in germany went fast mainily becasue I was sleeping for all of it. I did like germany though I found it very nice and cold and the toilets were normal unlike the usa.
When my plane finally touched down in Billund pronounced ballon the first thing I had to do was run to the toilet and throw up, so not excatly the best arrival to denmark but hey i like to make an entrance. Icame out of the gate and meet my host families and councellor looking and feeling like crap but I did it with a smile.
I am finally feeling better and have been out and about today around holstebro, I start school on friday woah!
hope everyone isnt getting to burnt!
lots of love
megz

Its started!!

Kay have arrived in America nice and safely, plane ride was pretty uneventful.
Been keeping busy to keep my mind of leaving and its working all good, have been hanging out with the Denmark girls. We went to get food and have all ready started taking loaads of photos! and not just of me woah I know. Had a hard job trying to ask where the dairy was and I was even saying mini supermarket and the lady still didn't get what I meet, so am a little worried about Denmark. The police are quite nice friendly people have all ready taken a photo with them and their cop car.
We go to Universal Studios tomorrow and then off to Disneyland the next day and then we all spilt off when we fly to Frankfurt.
Am about to run out of money, I will post another blog when I arrive in the land of Denmark!! its so close now, am a little worried about how cold it will be due to it being quite chilly already in LA.
Love you all soooo much!
Don't have to much fun without me!