Another little post with some of the nature at the moment....

A rare sunny day
Chilling out with mates and a melodica
Iceskating

Soetkin's boots and the leaves.
Autumn
Walking
From Sam's yacht
"Only on a leash" - another addition to the funny danish signs.

Another month in Denmark!

Busy month this was! Apologies for the lack of a recent blog update, but I've simply been out there trying to make the most of my last 3 months in Denmark...

Firstly, if we go right back to a month ago, it was my birthday (fødselsdagen, på dansk) and I had a fairly laidback day. I had a classmate over for dinner and we ate a BRILLIANT three course meal prepared by my lovely host mum, with the compulsory lagkage (layer cake) for dessert. I got some sweet cds, lots of chocolate and a danish song book.















There was a day soon after this where Sam(hostdad) had to move his yacht from Århus to Horsens, about 5 hours away by sea. We sailed in the freezing weather, mainly under motor, but also a little bit under sail, when the wind favoured us.










There was then a big Rotary get together, with all the exchange students in Denmark gathering at Holbæk in Zealand. It was the last official get together, and it was thus a little bit sad, but good fun was had by all. There was a bit of a halloween party on the Saturday night, with many exciting costumes. I also carved a pumpkin for the first time in my life - no, not a Danish tradition, but a pretty fun way to spent an afternoon.



After the Rotary camp, I went straight to Roskilde to visit my penfriend, Marie, for the 2nd time this year. On the Monday night, me, Marie and her friend went to the the band "The Streets" play in Copenhagen. It was very cool to hang out with her again, and the music was also very awesome. I also went with her to her university for a day, as she is studying a business course entirely in English. There were some people in her class that had also been Rotary exchange students, including a Brazillian who was now back to study his degree in Denmark, who had lived not so far away from where I do, and knew a lot of the Brazillians that I know. Small world really...

I've started playing with a proper band at the Ungdomsskole where I learn Danish, with some guys from the Gymnasium. They are all VERY talented musicians, some of the best I've played with, and we are playing a bunch of original rock numbers. There might be a gig coming up sometime in the coming weeks....We practice for about 3 hours once a week. I've also joined the newly formed Silkeborg Voices choir, arranged by a teacher from the Gymnasium, and there's about 30 of us singing, including a respectable 8 or 9 guys. We'll be singing at a christmas concert soon, and there is a kind of Choir Tour planned, possibly to Germany, but not before I go home. As we say here in Jutland, det er træls.

Luis from the Dominican Republic had the cool idea of entering a poster competition to design the poster for next year's Silkeborg Riverboat Jazz Festival. Jose Juan from Mexico, Luis, and I got together and brainstormed ideas and eventually came up with three pretty cool designs.


We find out early next week if we've won the 10,000kr prize!

Soetkin came up to visit from Belgium for a week, on a break from university, and stayed here with my host family. It was great to hang out again and spend a bit of time together, as well as introduce her to all the new exchange students. We hung out in Silkeborg just like old times, and went out in Århus on the Friday night with many exchange students. It was a big night in the city due to the launch of the annual Carlsberg and Tuborg Christmas beers, and the whole city was out to celebrate this once-a-year-event, drinking and partying the night away. It can be perhaps said that Danes LOVE to drink, and a great deal of Danish culture involves alcohol in some kind of way.

And that just about does it. School's going alright, there's just 3 weeks left before I'm free for the winter break, so things are a little relaxed now. I'm too scared to count exactly how long it is, but there is under two months left before I'm back in Australia! Strange to think...
I was told this month that I speak fluent Danish! Apart from with exchange students, I speak Danish all the time and it definitely dominates my headspace. I have to get a 45 minute presentation in Danish ready for my Rotary club for mid-December, so I should probably get started on it soon...

My host parents are off to the Carribean for a few weeks next Wednesday, so I'll be relocating temporarily to live with my 2nd host family again. I've been to visit recently, and I really miss their piano and spending time with my sweet host siblings, so it will be nice to have a little more time with them.

It's cold, dark and wet here nowadays. It rains most days, and the sun is hardly up when I get to school and is down by 4:30-5pm. But I can battle through! The thought of arriving back to the wonderful warm, long Australian summer is a very good one, even if it means the end of my time here.

Love to all, Dan

Tunisia and the last month...

The month began with District camp - all the exchange students from my district (about 30 of us) met at a scout camp for a weekend of fun. I met a bunch of new exchange students who arrived in July and taught them some of the deep, dark exchange student secrets that we must pass on to the younger generation. There wasn't so many planned activities, it was much more of a meet-and-have-fun weekend.

I've changed families again, for the last time! It was VERY sad to leave the Pejtersens, I had a brilliant time with them. I'm missing many things about my time there, but I can't complain at all. My new family is great fun as well. I went to visit the Pejtersens a week or so after I left and was told Rebekka cried when I left - I miss spending afternoons hopping on the trampoline with her. But they only live around the corner so I can always go to visit.

I realised how much stuff I have accumulated here when I packed up to leave - at least 4 times what I came with. I'll be looking into sending some stuff home by ship...

My new family is very easy going and friendly. I have an 18 year old sister who was an exchange student in Brazil, and 2 older siblings who have left home. My host mum has tea waiting when I come home late from school which is very hyggeligt.


I aced my first maths test of the year with a 10 - the equivilant of an A. They have a very funny scoring system here - with the best mark being 12 (a+), then 10, 7, 4, 2, 0 and -2. 0 is the equivilant of 50%. I still really don't know why they use such a strange system, but apparently it's common across Europe.

I've started jamming with people again, after the previous jam group i was with stopped before the summer. I'm staying in Silkeborg on Tuesday afternoons to play keyboard with 4-5 other like-minded musicians, which is a lot of fun.

And then there was Tunisia!

Arrived in Monastir Airport late Friday night, to discover I needed a visa as I came from Australia...Luckily, it was sorted out within 30 minutes and we were able to drive to Hammamet, where our hotel was. One night there, before we drove to Kairouan to see temples and the city. First impressions were that it was a hell of a lot warmer than Denmark (25 degrees) and very different architecturally. I was also surprised to see Eucalyptus trees on the side of the road - apparently grows well in the dry climate. There's almost no road rules and things very MUCH cheaper than Denmark. The univseral second language is French, as it was a French colony, and they are very fond of curries and sweets. On the first day I bought a carpet and some spices (Saffron is very cheap in Tunisia) and ate a very spicy curry for lunch.


After Kairoaun, we drove a long way to Gafsa. A walk through the city, and then found our 5 star hotel for dinner. "Jugartha Palace" was on the edge of the desert, and had a massive pool, fountains, cocktails waiting upon arrival, jewels on the ceilings and very comfortable beds! We had an incredible night here









The next day we drove out to the desert and took a 10 kilometre walk in the beautiful weather, arriving at a great canyon we walked through.













That evening, we began our camel tour into the Sahara, departing from Gafsa, a city on the edge of the desert. We had a herd of camels, with one person on each camel, led by an arabic man on foot.

Jose and I prepared for the desert:





















My camel:


And the activities of the night in the desert:
our campsite under the Saharan Stars:

and sunrise over the Sahara:
We came back the next day to drive to Douz, a town with a great marketplace where I bought several arabic carpets, spices, jewellery and a woodflute.
Our next hotel was set in caves in a desert town, and I managed to go for a wander and take some great pictures.


We went to visit a family that lived inside a cave in the desert:

The day after, we visited the biggest remaining Roman Colloseum outside of Rome in El Jem.


We spent the final two days in Mahatma, visiting markets, relaxing in the warm medditeranean waters in the warm weather and laughing along with all the danes. I ate hundreds of DELICIOUS olives and had my first good coffee in 9 months! I bargained a little teapot down from 95 dinar to 15 dinar (one dinar is approximately $1) and spent hours sitting in cafes by the sea with the Danes.




Jose from Argentina, me and Tobias from Denmark in our lovely little cafe:

I got home late yesterday evening to Denmark and was incredibly shocked to return to the delightfully cold 5 degree weather. Apparently it will be sunny tomorrow - but when the Danish forcasters say there will be sun, it generally means a total of 10 minutes of sun will fall somewhere over Denmark at somepoint in the day. Alright, maybe 15 minutes. Winter is not too far away...Hopefully my jacket will withstand Denmark in December and early January. It feels very early to be talking about Christmas, but there's hardly a day when Danes don't mention it at this time of the year. Danes give presents on Christmas Eve, and sing songs and dance around the trees after their "Julefrokost", which sounds like a massive day-long feasting celebration! I'm also free from school in early December due to a big individual project my class is doing - so we'll see what I'm able to plan.

Next weekend is the final Rotary student get together with all the students from Denmark meeting in Holbaek, 3 hours away. On the Sunday night after that, I will stay at my penfriend Marie's house, before I go to a concert with The Streets in Copenhagen on the Monday night.

My birthday is also just two days away, and we will be having a hyggeligt family dinner with Danish cakes and lots of tasty flødeboller. I'll make some Anzac biscuits to eat at school with the class during the day too.

Flødeboller: (cream filled chocolate balls with a biscuit base - delicious to eat, not so delicious to pronounce.)

And I've been here 9 months now - whoa!

Love Daniel

ps. now you can click the photos to see them in a bigger version.

pps: NEW ADDRESS and family:

Sam og Mona Eyde
Ahornvej 30
Ry 8680
DANMARK

(+45) 8689 2751

LEGOLAND! and other such good times...

Well, it has yet again been another awesome month. Yes, school been back, which means the resumption of many hours in school where I don't have much to do, but actually, I'm doing a bit in most classes now. Samfundsfag (Society class) has become very interesting now I can understand it and maths, history and religion are all ok.

My days are now 80% danish speaking, 20% English speaking which is brilliant! It's great to feel that sometimes, my Danish is better than their English, as Danes are very good at speaking English. My thoughts are beginning to be Danish-speaking and I no longer feel I have to explain to people that Danish is my second language.

Earlier this month, I visited a beefarm, owned by a Rotarian, and tasted some hard danish honey, very different from our runny Australian honey. I have also visited a Danish dairy factory with Rotary this month, and tasted a lot of tasty Danish cheese.

I had my first Danish school party, or "Gymfest", involving a bar, a dj and an Olympic Games theme at school. About 1000 people came, all dressed up in various exciting olympic games clothes.

Tina and I at a pre-party:


And the queue to get in:


I wasn't home til about 6am from this party. There is no comparison to an Australian school disco here - this was a real beer fuelled, party-music-driven fest of great proportions. It was great to socialise with Danes outside of the class environment a little more - Danes turn into incredibly different people when they have a couple of drinks. They are usually shy and reserved and a little hard to talk to, but with alcohol they are very much the opposite. It's strange to see normally very shy, untalkative people turn into open-armed, welcoming friends. Just another side to the crazy Danes...

I went to Svendborg, 2 hours away by train, to visit Siri and Sophie, two girls from Australia, and to see a Danish jazz group called "Ibrahim Electric". It was a great show, very tight, clean jazz and a very enthusiastic crowd. Bass, hammond organ and a lead guitar:

A classmate lent me their cd months ago, and when I found out they were playing I had to get down to see them.

And then, LEGOLAND!

My good friend Tina asked if I wanted to go to Legoland with her family last week, and what else could I say! It was a childhood dream come true...It's a bit of a cross between a theme park and a open-air museum, with thousands of models of real life monuments and cities, as well as rides and arcade games. We had a great time wandering the models with me, Tina and her younger brother, Emil.

Emil and I:


Model of Copenhagen's harbour:


A street in Hollywood, Legoland:


Me and a windmill:






3 million lego bricks in this one:






Model of the national Danish handball stadium:






Battling lego vikings:


"Lego" comes from the Danish words "Leg" and "Godt", meaning "Play Well."

Next week I have a Rotary camp on the weekend, which will be brilliant! It will be great to see some of the exchange students again. I'm shifting families when I get back on next Sunday afternoon, but I'll be away from home for the Rotary camp from Friday, meaning I'll be packing up here next Thursday. It's going to be sad to leave the Pejdersens! There's a possible trip to Hamburg with Angus, a good friend from Australia, and Tunisia is just 3 weeks away!

I've hit my 8 month mark in Denmark, and I can't beleive how fast the year is going...

Love, Daniel