Discovering Denmark: A Different Week, A Different School

This week Natacia has exams and exam preparations, which means that going to school with her would mean sitting around doing nothing all day for me. So this week I have been going to school with Natacia's Cousin, Ann-Sofie. Ann-Sofie goes to a different kind of high school to Natacia, this school is a regular gymnasium, rather than Natacia's technical gymnasium. This school is in a different town, called Sorø. The school is very old, and very beautiful. It sits on the edge of a beautiful lake, and has a lovely old church on the grounds. On Monday I had a lovely sleep in while Natacia got up at the usual time of 5:55. Due to some cancelled classes Ann-Sofie didn't start until 10, so I didn't need to be ready until 9. But that also meant that I was home alone for 2 hours. Ann-Sofie arrived by bike, and we drove my host mums car to school. We started Monday with Biology, followed by Danish, we stopped for lunch, then we had double German. Because it was someones birthday they gave everyone some really yummy, fresh baked cake in the Danish lesson. After school Ann-Sofie needed to buy a jacket for one of her horses, so we went into Slagelse to buy that, then picked Natacia up on the way home. We then went to Natacia and Ann-Sofie's Grandmother's house, for their weekly 'Grandmother day' which is a bit of a tradition they have in the family. This was the first time I had experienced this as previously Natacia and I had scouts on Monday after school. It was very nice, even though the Grandmother doesn't speak English. We had bread with cheese and spreads, as well as chocolate milk. My Host Mother was there as well. So we ate, and talked, then Natacia, Ann-Sofie, and I went into another room and played cards and ate lollies. After a while my host mother left and Ann-Sofie's parents arrived, then Natacia and I walked home after a short conversation with Ann-Sofie's family. For dinner we had Tuna and hot bread rolls for dinner, which was great because I love tuna. There was a pineapple for dessert, but we didn't eat it.

On Tuesday I also had to get up at normal time, Ann-Sofie and her mother collected me at 7:10 and we drove with her mother to work, before taking the car to school. This was a short day, starting with double English, which was nice, followed by biology, where we did an experiment. In English the teacher asked me to tell everyone a little bit about myself, before they moved on to other work. I was pleasantly surprised at how good they all were at English. In biology they did an experiment looking at lung capacity, which was funny to watch, but I didn't take part. After biology we were finished for the day, so Ann-Sofie drove me home, where I ate my lunch, spoke with my Host Dad, who's still unable to work, and lay on the bed on my laptop. About an hour later Natacia arrived home, being let out of school early, and told me about one of the other high schools in Slagelse being evacuated due to a bomb threat. Natacia then wrote out Christmas cards to her previous host sister and one of the other Australians who had been in Denmark last year, which we took to the post office, then went for a walk. The walk was very refreshing, and we both felt much better for not just sitting in the room on our computers. Not long after we got back from our walk, Susanne (Host Mum) arrived home, and she cut up the pineapple, which was delicious, and I'm sorry (not really) to say that I ate nearly the whole pineapple by myself. But it was so good, and my tongue still tingles a bit. My Host Parents then went out the the shops, so Natacia and I were left at home. We hung out the washing, we peeled the potatoes (for some reason I struggled a little too much with the potato peeler... Dane's and their kitchen utensils) and we cut, seasoned and cooked the meat. We then ate and got ready for scouts, My host parents arrived home just before we ate, but they didn't eat until after scouts.

Scouts last night was a very different experience. If you've ever been to a Tupperware party, imagine that, but for fireworks, and that was pretty much last night at scouts. They showed everyone the different fireworks they had, and then they showed everyone what different effects each firework had, then you could buy the ones you liked. It's illegal to have or buy fireworks in Australia, so this was so weird to see, but it was also pretty cool. When it was over, my Host Parents and most of the people there bought some fireworks. The scouts were selling the fireworks, because they were going to be getting some of the profit. At the very end of the evening Natacia, me, and two other scouts, Mia and Liu were presented the badges for completing the 'stay awake for 36 hours' badge. In two weeks of being in Denmark I had completed 2 badges, I got one on my very first day in Denmark and completed the other on the second weekend in Denmark.

Today I went with Ann-Sofie again. This mornings travel arrangements were a little different, so I had to get up at 5:20, and my Host Mother drove me out to Ann-Sofie's when she left for work. So we left the house at 6:05 and when we arrived, no one was awake yet. So I sat in the kitchen until Ann-Sofie was dressed and ready, then we had breakfast together, as I hadn't eaten before I left, Then her mother drove us to the bus stop. We then caught the bus to her school, The first two hours were spent in the hall with the Canteen, where they were all working on Biology reports. While we were in there the canteen opened and the food smelled so good that my stomach started growling, but I stayed strong and lasted through the two hours of Chemistry we then had, til lunch time.

After lunch we had double Danish, I didn't understand much, but Ann-Sofie would tell me what was happening every so often, so it wasn't so bad. Halfway through the lesson, as it was a double, we had a break, and when class started again people started handing around a bag of mandarins and a packet of chocolate chip biscuits. Everyone was allowed to take one mandarin and one biscuit. They were both scrumptious. When Danish was over we went to the bus stop to wait for the bus, but we saw one of Ann-Sofie's friends, and she offered to drive us. She dropped us at the train station, where we caught a train into Slagelse, then caught the bus into Dalmose. We stopped in at Grandmother's house to pick up Ann-Sofie's bike, and the Grandmother wouldn't let us leave without having a lolly first, like most grandmothers. We then walked back to my host house, where Natacia had spent the day studying for her exam tomorrow. When we got there we had some bread and spread, Ann-Sofie decided to try some Vegemite. This was possible one of the funniest things to watch, the look of total disgust as the taste hit her tongue was priceless. The reaction lasted forever, it was truly hilarious. Afterwards I had to open 3 presents to get up to date on my Christmas Calendar. The presents were an orange popper, Reisen and a Danish flag.

Photos:

The View Out The Window At School: