Djurs Sommerland

On Tuesday my host cousin, Annemette, brought me to the amusement park Djurs Sommerland where she and a lot of other students (including my host brother) work. I was so excited to go because I've heard so much about it from my host family and other classmates. My host family also knows that I love Halloween, for which they decorate the entire park, so I knew I was going to love it.

They use over 25,000 pumpkins to decorate the park, and it really felt like an American theme park.

Annemette and I went on several rides together and got lunch there, but they also allow you to bring your own food and cook it there! Many families brought sausages and grilled them while in the park, so the only expense was getting in. After lunch we went on some more rides and went into a witch's school.

We then went into a haunted house, got some Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream (Yes! It's available in Denmark!) and proceeded to head home.

Thank you so much to Annemette for bringing me to Djurs Sommerland, I'm so so happy I got to see it and spend more time with you! 

And thank you to one of the donators to my GoFundMe:

Mike Block, thank you so much for donating! I would not be here without your support, I'm so thankful for your donation! 

Danish Word of the Day:

græskar- pumpkin

Distrikskonference

This weekend my Rotary District had our District Conference in Grenå. We left at around 7am and met with all the other exchange students and ate breakfast together and then went for a walk along the beach. It was a very beautiful beach, but it was very windy and cold and I hadn't brought a jacket because I didn't know we would be going outside.

After our walk along the beach we went and got waders and took them into the ocean to look for fish and crabs. It was super cold, but pretty fun.

After we went out in the ocean we looked to see what we had caught. We caught some crabs, a few fish, and a lot of shrimp.

We soon returned back inside and ate some lunch and went into a big classroom where a dance instructor had us do some warm ups, and then we learned some songs to preform for our Rotary representatives. It was a lot of fun; I think we have a really good district.

District 1440

Min Fødselsdag

Yesterday was my birthday! I was woken up by my family singing the Danish birthday song (at about 6:45am) and went downstairs to discover they made a very nice breakfast and had decorated their house with flags. On one of the plates there were some little presents for me and a card from my host family.

 I went to school and was my class sang to me (twice!). The Danish birthday songs, even though they are much longer than ours, are so much more fun. Thank you to all of my classmates who sang to me and wished me a happy birthday. You're all so sweet!

At lunch, I went to go eat with some of my friends and they had some little gifts waiting for me on the table. They gave me some sweet little plants (that are now living on my windowsill) and bought me a cake! Thank you SO much to all of my friends, you are so kind and thoughtful I love you so much!

After school I came home and my family had bought some cake from a local store and we enjoyed it in the sunshine. I've been told that in Denmark if there's good weather on your birthday then you've been a good person for the entire year...I must've done something right, because it was absolutely beautiful yesterday.

After cake we started making dinner. We had mashed potatoes(!!!) which I was so excited about because I LOVE them. My host mom made such a good dinner and I feel so lucky that I got to live with this family.

While dinner was being made, my host father was very busy in the backyard trying to start up the hot tub. They have one which requires a fire to be built, and it takes awhile for it to heat up.

It's definitely worth the effort. At around 9 o'clock we all went out into the hot tub under the stars. It was a beautiful night, with no clouds in the sky and the stars were very bright. From the tub could see the Big Dipper (though they call it something else in Danish) and there was even a shooting star at one point!

All in all, this was one of the best birthdays I've had, and I hope to remember it for the rest of my life. Thank you all who wished me a happy birthday, it was truly a great one.

Danish Word of the Day:

Fødselsdag- birthday

Last Day Being 16...

Tomorrow is my birthday! It's crazy to think that I've already been here a month and a half, time just flies by...

For my last day of being sixteen, I went on a walk with my family at the castle ruin called Kalø by our house. It has a really interesting history; it was founded in 1313 by a Danish King to counter the ongoing rebellions of the Jutlandic nobility and peasantry against the Crown. If you want to know more about the castle, you can read about it here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kal%C3%B8_Castle

It was a little cloudy, but very beautiful. It's about a five minute car drive from our house and is easily within walking or biking distance. We brought some dinner with us and sat on the beach to eat.

We brought along our dog, Ziggi, who ended up wandering off at one point and we had to go find him. There were a lot of cows near the ruins as well just wandering around.

Ziggi

This was the view while we were eating:

Not a bad way to spend my last day being 16, if you ask me.

Danish Word of the Day:

hav- sea

Food Festival

Today one of the Rotarians took Andrea and me to a food festival in Aarhus. It was full of little tents making all sorts of food and handing out samples. I had some really good sausages, tuna, granola (made of seaweed, insects, and chocolate), french onion flavored worms, and pickled herring.

Andrea and I also found this really good ice cream vendor, and I had some vanilla ice cream with nougats and caramel.

It was a really fun day, thank you to Erik and his family for bringing us, I had a lot of fun and ate a lot of good food! Also thank you Andrea for taking so many pictures.😊

Danish Word of the Day:

kål- cabbage

Intro Camp

A week ago all the Rotary exchange students in Denmark went to Bjerringbro for a week long Intro Camp. This included Danish lessons, different activities every night, and a trip to Aarhus.

The day that we got there we were separated into different classes and got to know each other better. I think there were about 156 exchange students from 17 different countries.

It was a lot of fun to see how we differed from each other and how we were similar. I made some new friends and got to learn a little bit about different cultures.

On Wednesday, we took a trip to Aarhus (the second largest city in Denmark) and went to the famous museum ARoS. It had really cool exhibits about the environment and how we value things. It also had an interactive rainbow room at the top where you can literally walk through a rainbow and look over the city.

It was a really cool museum, and I want to go back and spend more time there. After the museum we met up with a few other exchange students who showed us around the city. I'm so happy that I live so close to Aarhus so I'll be able to go back and explore more. It seems like a really nice city.

I'm really glad we went to Intro Camp, and I got to meet the people I did and share these experiences with them. I'm excited to see them all in the future and I wish them all a good exchange.

Combine Harvesting

Yesterday Andrea and I got the opportunity to ride in a combine harvester to see how they harvest rapeseed. One of the Rotarians owns a farm and let us ride in the combine harvester and see where the rapeseed is taken after being harvested.

Combine Harvester

I got to ride in the combine harvester first, while Andrea was taken to see where they store the rapeseed once it's been harvested. It was really cool to see how the machinery works. First, it cuts the rapeseed and spins through these blades into the machine. Next, a cylinder separates the grain from the seeds. The seeds are stored in the harvester and the grain is disposed behind the harvester as it drives. 

If you would like a better understanding of how the machine works, you can read about it here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combine_harvester

The machine moves pretty slowly, but it's impressive how much it's able to do. When I arrived there, they had already harvested 86 tons of rapeseed, and they still had another field to harvest.

After being in the combine harvester, Andrea and I switched and I went with one of the other farmers to see where they deposited the rapeseed after it had been harvested. We drove in a little tractor pulling a big container filled with rapeseed to a little area with stables and people riding horses. They weighed the container before emptying it, then again after emptying it. They also had to take a sample and test it to see how much water was in the seeds. 

Rapeseed

Although we didn't get to see them today, they also had pigs on the farm. Erik, the Rotarian who owned the farm, works at the Danish Crown which is a Danish food processing company dealing primarily in meat processing of pork and beef. It is Europe's largest pork producer. He was telling me that Denmark relies primarily on exporting their goods to the rest of the world. According to the Danish Agriculture and Food Council, Denmark exports 90% of the production of pigs and pig meat. 

"Exports of pig meat account for almost half of all agricultural exports and for more than 5 percent of Denmark’s total exports. More than 70 percent of Danish pig meat production is exported to other EU countries, and the remaining part is exported to countries outside the EU."

(http://www.agricultureandfood.dk/danish-agriculture-and-food/danish-pig-meat-industry)

Denmark produces approximately 28 million pigs annually and slaughters about 20 million. The Danish population is around 5.7 million people, so the ratio is around 4.9 pigs per person. If we took that ratio and set it to the population of the United States (323 million), that would be around 1.5 billion pigs. So the Danes produce a LOT of pigs.

We also got to see an old farmhouse on the farm. Some Danish houses, farms, churches, etc. are preserved so that people can see what they looked like many years ago.

I'm not sure when this one was built, but it was very interesting to see how people were living in the past.

Thank you so much to Erik for letting us see your farm and ride on the combine harvester. It was really a very interesting day and I won't forget it. Thank you also to Per for arranging this, it was a great opportunity and I'm really glad we got to do it.

Danish Word of the Day:

gård- farm

  

Last day of Summer Holiday

Today was my last day of summer holiday! I can't believe I'm starting school already, time flies so fast.

Today Andrea and I went to our school to meet the four other exchange students in our class from Germany, Italy, Slovenia, and another Rotary student from South Korea. They were all super sweet girls and I look forward to getting to know them better and sharing this experience with them.

We met with a teacher who put us into two classes; a more arts oriented one, and a more science and math oriented one. I was put into the more arts oriented class, and I'm so relieved and excited. I also got to choose an elective and I chose to do a course on Film & Media. Apparently students study and create films which I'm really excited about, because I wanted to take a similar course at my high school in America, but it's a 2 year course so my exchange interfered with it.

After our meeting at the school, we said goodbye to the other exchange students and Andrea and I went back to my house and had lunch and went on a journey in Rønde to find some school supplies. 

After entering and exiting many stores empty handed, we met two lovely girls who recognized our pictures from the banner put up at our school, and helped us find what we were looking for. They are in the grade below us, but I hope to see them around again. Without their help we may have been walking around for a long time before finding what we were looking for.

Andrea and I both bought some basic school supplies; paper, pencils, pens, etc., and went about exploring the city.

We were able to find the bus station, which was very exciting for us, for we plan to make many trips together to explore more of Denmark, and visit some of our other exchange friends.

I'm very excited and nervous for school to start tomorrow. I hope it will be a good experience for me, and that I will be able to meet a lot of new friends and learn a little more Danish every day.

Danish Word of the Day:

vindue- window