Time Flies

Indeed it does, I have now been in Denmark for over 3 months. I still feel like it was literally yesterday when I was sitting at school thinking "What colour pen should I use to write my Economics notes?". Well now there are a few more things to think about for example, how on earth do I learn Danish when I can't even pronounce the alphabet, how do I not spend all my money when I go to Copenhagen and how do I change the Danish baking measurements to those which are New Zealand recipe friendly? It has really been such a big change, the biggest I will probably ever experience but life's too short to think "what if?". So i will continue to fill you in on what I have been doing all whilst I sit in Danish class at school, you can probably understand why I am not participating.

I feel like quite the social butterfly with something on every weekend and weekdays just flying by. People say the life of an exchange student is easy as we are not given schoolwork (for obvious reasons!) but I still find myself busier than most people and constantly tired which many cannot get their head around. It is one of those many things that only past and present exchange students identify with. Tiredness and chaos aside, I am still having an amazing time and look forward to the coming weeks.

Over the last few weeks have been a blur of friends, travel and school. I am sure i have mentioned my school before but I will do it again for those who may have forgotten (including me). First of all Fredericia Gymnasium resembles a modern art gallery with an extensive and somewhat impressive art collection , even to the untrained eye. The staircase almost melts from the second to first floors, a design lovers dream. The other day I actually plucked up the courage to take some photos inside school as I am in fear of being labelled as the crazy exchange student who acts like an asian tourist taking unnecessary photos of things that are 'normal' and 'no bi deal'. So here they are:

Library/computer area

Staircase . .

Library

Cantine with each classes table

Not too shabby?

The other weekend my family and I went on a road trip to central Jutland, about an hours north of Fredericia (dubbed my myself and Catherine). The plan was to have lunch with some family friends and then go and see what Denmark had to offer in the way of mountains or at least hills. On our approach to what translates as 'Sky Mountain' (quite ironic when it stands at only 170masl), it reminded me of a tamer version of Wellington, it was windy, cold and hilly. But as we all walked to the 'peak', I thought to myself 'Well, where is the rest of it?". It was quite possibly a lower altitude than where my house is in Wellington, charming. There was even a tower which to me felt like it was trying ti be impressive and making the hill that much bigger. It was bitterly cold on the exposed mountain face so we clambered down the steep scree slopes with our ice picks and crampons and found a sheltered area where we could enjoy our picnic of coffee and cake.

On the walk up to Himmelbjerget

Nanna and I in the marriage tree garden

Me with the steep cliffs behind :)

It was so cold, we all had blankets on.

The top of Himmelbjerget

Oh and the other day Denmark decided to return to winter and snow in the middle of April. It was more like slush actually so going home was a really nice (and dry) experience.

As you can see, I was not dressed for it!

Snow with the train station behind.

This past weekend I have also been very busy as it was my gym party (school party) or as they call it, 'Sermo'. I went to a girl's house in my class beforehand and we had a really good dinner before we left for school. It was so much fun to dress up and see my class out of the school environment as sometimes it's hard to get to know my class when all we do is sit in a lecture type class for hours on end. So as we got to school and I was astounded. Everyone was obviously slightly intoxicated which was so strange as you would NEVER see that in NZ (as it would be illegal!). It was such a great night though, I was so tired the next morning as I had arrived home at 3am . . time flies when you're having fun.

At Ida's house. So much fun!

Catherine and I

Again . .

I finished the busy weekend off with more social events as some Aussie (sadly no other NZers!) came to Fredericia to commemorate ANZAC Day which was so nice. It was even warm and sunny enough to have a BBQ, it was like it was summer (I know hard to believe it was snowing a week or so ago!). Today I gave a presentation to my class about New Zealand which I think they liked as I made them afghans . . I was going to make a pavlova but it was almost a certainty that I would ruin it somehow!

Signing off for now as I am in much need of some relaxation.

Hej hej :)

Holidays, Hamburg and Frolicking

Hello! I am checking in for another exciting update of my hectic, tiring, overwhelming and amazing life as an exchange student. I will tell you of my awesome holiday in South Eastern Denmark with my 'sweet as' host family and our day trip to Copenhagen, my class trip to Hamburg GERMANY and what I have been up to day to day. So here it is.

In the last few days of the Easter holidays my family and I drove to Nysted which is a small town on the island of Lolland to visit Nanna and Laerke's grandparents. Although we drove the width of Denmark, it only took us 3 hours. We crossed a few million bridges too. Shows how small this place really is . . here I was thinking New Zealand was small. We were staying in Hans and Helga's summer house which was only 3km from their house and right next to the sea. It was such a cute house which resembled a good old New Zealand whare! We spent the few days we had in Nysted eating scrumptious food, walking along the waterfront, playing mini golf(or rather losing mini golf!) and looking around the area. We were lucky as the weather was quite nice most days, a bit 'frisk' though! Here are some pics.

Nysted waterfront

Nanna, Laerke and I at a farm we visited.

Me, Laerke and Nanna on Hans and Helga's farm

Our whare!

Helga, Nanna, me and Laerke by the seaside and a castle behind us (casually!)

It was so nice to visit Hans and Helga, they were so kind to me even though i seemed to make a complete idiot of myself the entire time what with locking myself in the bathroom, unintentionally throwing ice cream across the room and many other cringe worthy moments. It wasn't the end of our holiday as we left Nysted as we were going to spend a day in Copenhagen on our way home!

I am in love with this city, the architecture makes me want to melt so I will let the photos speak for themselves . . .

A cool bridge, google it as I cannot remember where it is!

Nyhavn Canal

Amalienborg Palace where the Danish Monarchy resides (yes including Mary!)

The changing of the guard at Amalienborg

Christiania flag. A free, hippie, 'happy' place if you get my drift . .

It has such a different atmosphere to Copenhagen, I loved it!

The incredible Opera House. Te Papa should be like this, a bold statement of simple design done well.

My favourite photo of bikes in Nyhavn Canal

Danish innovation at it's finest

The bridge from Zealand to Funen, 20km long!

A sign I found amusing whilst looking for a place to eat in Christianshavn Canal

I had such a great few days with the family so tusind tak!!

Then it was Easter Sunday. In Denmark they celebrate Easter over the whole holiday perios thus Easter Sunday wasn't a huge deal. The 'Paaskeharen' gave us a cool easter egg hunt which was cute! Easter didn't feel like Easter as it feels like it should only be January and yet it is already April! I would love this year to slow down so I can catch my breath.

I even (tried) to make Hot Cross Buns! A bit odd tasting but a good try.

Taste of New Zealand

Us on our easter egg hunt!

I hope you all had a good Easter in New Zealand!!

Now just quickly before my fingers fall off from this typing marathon, I had a lovely end to my week last week when my class asked me to go to Hamburg with them on their class trip for the day! So naturally I said "um . . . YES PLEASE!". So we all headed down to Germany on a bus which took about 3 hours, it still throws my mind how we can drive to different countries but i love it! We were supposed to answer some questions about the city but as they were in German I was excused from it so I just walked around and shopped all day! Here are some snaps.

Me and Catherine on the bus

Tehehe our bus name 'blew' my mind

Me and Amalie eating our Berline!

Hamburg was so pretty . .

I am now known as Kurt.

Yes I did have a hamburger in Hamburg! No toy in Happy meal, not happy

Our class ventured to the dodgy area of Hamburg. We were disgusted haha

Hahaha wow I am cool!

Had such a great time with my class, they really are a cool bunch of kids so thanks 2k! I hope we can hop the border together again.

I'll leave you with a candid pic of me and my crazy friend Ellie when we plus catherine were having a blast on the waterfront by my house.

Until next time faithful followers!

Farvel . . .

I am Indeed Alive.

Yes I am sincerely sorry - I keep forgetting to blog! It is so hard to keep track of time here as there is always so much going on and half the time I don't understand as it's in Danish. So here is a quick (ish) update of what I have been up to over the last few weeks.

About a month ago I had my last day at Vejle Sprogskole (Language school) so now i am on my own which is GREAT. We had a really nice last day with Pavlova (a New Zealand tradition to all of those Aussies who think otherwise), a 'Secret Easter Bunny' and just general silliness as we all knew we wouldn't see each other for a while. It is safe to say not too much work was done that day but it was a good day all the same. Here are some pics of our last day:

Catherine and I with our amazing easter gifts. Got to love Disney Princesses!

All of our amazing wrapped pressies!

I actually was very sad to leave language school as there was such a nice group of people there and i suppose it was helpful learning a bit of Danish (just kidding Rotary it was FANTASTISK). I now just have to force myself to speak Danish at home so i can be fluent by August (my plan, ambitious yet I am hoping achievable! I have started having Danish only days with my family which is difficult but 'good for me in the long run' as my Mother says.

I had a day trip to Odense (one of Denmark's biggest cities) to see Simon, a Danish guy who cam to Wellington on his exchange. it was really nice to see him again and he showed me around the city which was really cool. Sadly, being teenagers, we hadn't thought ahead about the fact that it was a Sunday and everything was closed (yes I know, even by new Zealand standards that's old fashioned!). So we just strolled through the streets and saw the outside of things such as HC Andersen's house. It was sunny too which was so foreign at that time it almost scared me! Here are some pics.

Only in Denmark - a machine counting the number of bikes passing through per day, month and year!

Some interesting trees. Remind me of the whomping willow in Harry Potter

Me outside HC Andersen's house.

The next two weeks following Odense I was on holiday. The first week was because my class went to Berlin on a school trip and I wasn't able to go with them (I know tragic right?) and then the second week we had Easter holidays. So during the first week on holiday I was actually quite the busy bee. I went to the gym a few times and did some much needed exercise (I can still feel the effects of the cross trainer on my thigh muscles). Over the next few days I was indulged in my love of Danish design, modern art and furniture - Trapholt and IKEA baby! Min mor, Gitte, kindly took the day off work and took me to Trapholt design museum in Kolding which is only 20 minutes away from my house. It was my dream to be honest, I loved every minute of it! There was an exhibition on Danish furniture, chairs in particular, which to the normal human being would deem very boring but to me the strange lover of design and furniture, it was amazing! Plus it had the best gift shop ever seen by man. I could have mental with the visa but I practiced self control and only bought a few nice things for myself and pressies for others. Some pics from Trapholt:

Me at Trapholt with Kolding Fjord behind me

Chairs! I love them ALL

My favourite chair of all.

The latest chairs in the Museum

Then the next day was IKEA!!! For those of you who know me, Ikea is heaven for me. My dream is to own Ikea, and I shall! I went with Catherine, a fellow exchangee, to the Ikea in Odense aka the biggest Ikea in EUROPE. My host Dad Ib drove us there as he had work to do so e had the whole day to roam the heavenly aisles of the world famous enterprise (which is not even Danish!). I'll let the photos speak for themselves to show you what I got up to there . . .

Me having fun in the lamp section!

We had lunch there and we had the famous Swedish meatballs mmm. I love the senile old man food trolley.

Love.

Me entering IKEA. A tad excited.

The front of IKEA with the Swedish and Danish flags side by side awww.

IKEA was sooo much fun and I didn't even spend that much money! It's even cheap here in the land of GST being 25%!. I plan to visit Ikea many more times so I can buy enough furniture to furnish my future home :)

I have more to tell you of what I did during my holidays but to be honest I have already exposed you to too much of my word vomit so next time I will fill you in on our family holiday to Nysted and Copenhagen!

I will leave you with a pic of me with my new bike Rotary kindly gave me :)

I am a true Dane now.

Jeg håber I havde en god påske

Lucy