10 Months In Denmark

Isaac Hardie Boys

[10monthsindenmark]

The End.

Thought I’d finally get around to this half-promised post…

I’ve been back in NZ for 6 or 7 weeks now, and have slipped back into a normal everyday routine.  It is really nice to be back in the surf, back in NZ, and back with family and friends - however I just don’t feel truly at home in NZ anymore. Everyone talks about how periods of your exchange can be really tough etc etc, but nobody really warned me about the return from exchange…

Over the first few weeks of my return I was often asked “how is it to be back?”. And quite honestly, that can’t be answered in a simple sentence or two. There for sure is a lot I miss about my time away, which is expected after a year abroad I guess. I miss waking up to a day potentially jam-packed with surprise, eye-openers, and new experiences. I miss the adventure, the thrill, and the rush of not knowing what you’ll be faced with each day. I miss being constantly overwhelmed by everything around me. I miss experiencing the new culture and all of its quirks. I miss the beautifully unique language, though often having no understanding of what was being said. I miss walking down the street feeling like I belonged there, despite being on the opposite side of the world to where I was raised. I miss the crisp clear winter mornings cycling to school in the freezing cold. I miss the crazy alcohol fuelled nights out with amazingly welcoming foreign friends. I miss having a year to myself without a care in the world, spending class-time constantly reliving the last adventure in my head. I miss all friends, and I miss my family. I miss the happy times, the hard times, the funny times and the sad times. I miss the whole damn experience, everything included. I almost wish I could just forever live the exchange on repeat, over and over again. I guess you could say I’m homesick.

It's not all that bad though. I managed to score a job in a cafe and am working 4 or so days a week which is really cool, and I am heading off to University in Wellington in February which I am really looking forward to. I think I just need that sense of adventure which university life/fresh start will give me to keep me from losing my mind. I did say that in this final blog post I would try to “sum up the year”, but to be honest I don’t think that is possible in a couple of paragraphs. So all I will say is that; AFS, M+D, and my amazing host family have quite possibly given me the most incredible experience of my entire life. It was all, and much much more than I could have ever hoped for.

It's been one hell of a ride - thanks for tuning in.

Farvel 🇩🇰

[10monthsindenmark]

Last week...

Only five days left in this wonderful country.

I have been asked a lot over the last couple of weeks if I am happy/ready/looking forward to going home, and whilst I would definitely be lying if I said I no, I do not want to leave Denmark at all. Although I am really keen to see family ( 🐶 is a high priority too ), friends, the naki, and the kiwi ways of life again, I have created a whole other life here over the last year, and just having to up and leave it behind is really quite hard. So have been trying to make the most of the last little while with family and friends.

Anyways, On sunday we arrived back from a warm relaxing two weeks in Spain and settled back into the not so warm danish summer 😂. We spent a large amount of the holiday by the pool or beach either playing cards or reading - soaking up the Spanish sun. We did squeeze in a little sightseeing of course, or mum would have killed me 😜.

Amazing view from our balcony.

Came across a bunch of bodybuilders...

A very cool 4 hour river walk through a little ravine with amazingly clear water - you had to walk in the shallow river 90% of the time as it was so tight.

Caminito del Rey lakes, just north of Malaga.

The main shopping street - Malaga

So yea, all in all been a pretty darn good few weeks. 

I have a very busy final week ahead of me, will be spending all my time with friends and family, trying to make the most of the last few days. I might do one final post when I get home in a weeks time trying to sum the year up, although that really is impossible to do properly. So in the mean time...

Vi ses 😎

[10monthsindenmark]

Long overdue for another update, and my procrastinating self has deemed this to be more important than cramming for my exam tomorrow, so here we are!

It has been a very busy but still very relaxed month or 2. Time is truely flying and im doing all I can to stop it from slipping away before I can make the most of everything here. I had my last class at gymnasium last Friday, and have my one and only exam tomorrow morning - then its free for the summer. I am relieved, and yet pretty sad to know I am done with the whole high school part of my life, but with so much coming up in the next few months I don’t really have time to think about it.

I have the final AFS camp this weekend just down the road from me, where it will be the first time all the exchange students are together again since the arrival camp, so it should be pretty crazy. Also have a few family events, a few events with friends, and before I know it I will be at Roskilde festival with some danish mates and a fellow exchanger from the US. Then off to Spain, back home for just over a week, then back to NZ. I have very mixed emotions about leaving - I am so keen to see family, friends, dog, and surfboard again (mostly dog and surfboard 😜), but at the same time I dont even want to leave this wonderful place. 

I will be taking mums advice like usual, and will take a few days to explore and visit all the amazing little things around Aarhus that I have not yet seen. And also spending a lot of time with friends and host fam soaking up the summer sun, which is far overdue!

I do apologise for the lack of posts, I have been busy. I do plan on posting another couple of times before I leave, so keep an eye out for those.

Vi ses 😎

[10monthsindenmark]

Copenhagen!! 

It took a while for me to get all the photos together (and even still some are a little crooked etc) but I finally posted again!

As I mentioned in my last post, I spent easter weekend in Copenhagen with Mariann, John and Laura. In the space of a day and a half we managed to smash out almost every thinkable touristy thing CPH had to offer whilst still managing to fit in a few hyggeligt cafes and food stops. It was an awesome weekend and was very nice to get a good look at the capital (although I still prefer Århus of course 😉).

Also, I have extended my stay an extra month and a half and am set to leave the 3rd of August instead of the 25th of June, allowing me a little bit more summer! We have planned a trip to Malaga, Spain in July for 2 weeks as well which I am very much looking forward to - some well needed sunshine after 2 winters in a row.

Have noticed a massive difference the last few weeks since day light savings started - it no longer gets dark at 4.30pm! It feels very very strange eating dinner with daylight still streaming in the windows - I seem to have forgotten what summer is. And it will only get better from here, although we have been getting many beautiful sunny days, it still is around 10 degrees maximum during the day so there is definitely room for improvement there!

I think thats all... I have a few busy weeks ahead so don’t expect to hear from me again too soon!

Vi ses 😎

Ps. the long hair in the pics is alllll gone now!

[10monthsindenmark]

Ireland

 Last week was spent with my whole gymnasium class in Dublin for our class’ Studietur - study trip. We spent the week sightseeing, eating Irish pub food and drinking Guinness with the occasional spot of school related activities here and there.  We had a week of good weather and a lot of fun with awesome people, it couldn’t have gotten much better!

The “main strip”

The view from the short stroll into the heart of Dublin each day

Trinity College

Day trip to Belfast

Giving our own “taste tests” at the Guinness Factory 🍻

Watching the well known Irish River Dances performing

The full  2.T. Class + English teacher

Shoutout to Asal for the pics 😎

Thats all for now, we have easter break starting this Friday, and next week Thursday I’m going to København with the host fam for the first time (excluding the airport when I arrived 7 months ago) which I am excited for as it is a beautiful city! 

Vi ses 😄

[10monthsindenmark]

Its been a busy few weeks so my apologies for no updates 🙂

Austria was everything I had hoped it would be - we had great weather, great snow and great food! The ski area we were in is called Wagrain and is obviously a very popular ski-holiday destination for all Danes, as I heard more danish than german. It was a very long drive (14 hours to Austria) but it was definitely worth it. 

Coming back to school after a week of skiing wasn’t easy.. but the following weekend I jumped on a train and traveled to Fyn (the island between Jutland and Sealand) to meet up with exchange students Julia (USA), Kai (USA), Seth (USA) and Hlödver (Iceland). We are all real tight, but are scattered around the country so it was really nice to meet up for the weekend with them all again.

I have another post coming very soon - couldn’t fit all the photos I wanted to into this one 🙃

[10monthsindenmark]

The 6 month mark

The last month has flown by at an unbelievable rate... although I cant seem to recall achieving anything very spectacular, apart from finishing all of Breaking Bad in 2.5 weeks (a grand total of 62 episodes) which if you ask me, is a very celebratory-deserving achievement! But anyways, everyone said once the new year started time would fly, and it has. This Friday at around 7pm we start the 12 hour drive to Wagrain, Austria for a week of skiing, then the following weekend I’ll be on Fyn (that little island between Sealand and Jutland) with some exchange student mates, and then a few weeks after that we will be traveling to Dublin for a week with my class for a school “study” trip! 

Also (almost forgot)  had my birthday last month which was very nice, went out for dinner with my family and aunt + uncle, then back home for the traditional coffee and cake. Shout out to NZ fam for the birthday care-package filled with chocolate, couldn't have asked for anything better; ate most of it in 1 day 😘

Snow + School

Birthday dinner and celebrations. The chocolate and marzipan cake tasted as good as it looked!

AFS Winter Camp

Klintevej looking fresh this morning... buuuuut was raining by 10am. Gotta love Danish weather!!

We had a theme week at school and one of the days was black, to be honest I didn’t notice at all until as this is how 90% of danes dress every day anyway!

Okay to be honest the real reason I finally got around to writing is this post is because my level of procrastination is so damn high that instead of starting the 3 assignments I currently have, I put them off for another day and wrote this instead!! Don’t worry mum, Denmark is greatly improving my work ethic 😂

So yea, off to Austria very soon so expect the next post to be filled of skiing pics!!

Vi ses 😎 

[10monthsindenmark]

Christmas & Hamburg

The last 2 weeks or so of Xmas holidays has been pretty amazing, had a well-needed break from school, pigged out on christmas foods and slept to midday for almost a week straight. I was actually pretty useless with taking photos of Christmas etc, but it was surprisingly similar to an NZ christmas in terms of decorations and stuff, except it was only 5 degrees outside.

We celebrated Christmas the danish way - on the 24th. We met with Mariann’s mother and father at the local church for the 4pm service, which mostly consisted danish christmas carols which was very cosy. After the service we went back to out house, and were later joined by John’s parents, and John’s brother’s family. We were a total of 13 for christmas dinner. The Christmas dinner consisted mostly of Turkey with gravy, a traditional red cabbage dish, potatoes (both sugared and non-sugared), and a salad with walnuts and grapes. And of course, “Risalamande” with cherry sauce for desert (similar to rice pudding but more creamy and with almonds).

A nearby street lit with Christmas decorations

Our trip to Hamburg was mostly for shopping, but we also checked out the Christmas market which was very cool - lots of German hotdogs. We met up with the girls’ cousin who was staying in Hamburg at the time.

Sweet deepfried donut doughy things covered in icing sugar - good to fight the cold.

All in all its been a pretty cosy few weeks, and heading back to school was a real battle!

So yea, thats all I have for now

Vi Ses 😎

[10monthsindenmark]

Pre-Christmas in Denmark

 I thought I’d take the time enlighten you all about the danish Christmas traditions, since it’s halfway through the festive season! 🎄😄🌨 The danes have many different different pre-xmas rituals, but I think they intensity of them vary from family to family. For example, there is a Christmas tv show which plays for 30 min every night, and is mostly directed at kids, but I know of some families who watch it religiously. 

These baked dough donut-like balls are called æbleskiver (roughly translates to Apple balls or something). They don’t actually contain any apples however, but are eaten hot with jam, icing sugar, and basically anything else sweet. They are eat as a desert every now and then during December.

Another danish tradition is the christmas candle. This is our one on the 1st of December, and each day you light the candle and burn it down to date it currently is.

The next one is or Gavekalender or Gift Calendar. Some families with younger children give a very small gift for each day of December until xmas, but once you get a little older its usually just one gift for each of the Xmas weekends (the 4 weekends before xmas).

Julefrokost, or Christmas Lunch is also a big danish tradition and most people will go to multiple. I had one with exchange students earlier in the month, one with family last weekend, I have one this Friday with my old class and on Saturday evening ill join my new class for the end of theirs. These events involve a lot of good (and bad) alcohol (more so with class ones than family ones), and a heck of a lot of beautiful food!!! These lunches tend to go from 1pm to late, and all of the time is spent sitting at the table talking, eating and drinking, and if there has been enough of the latter than probably some dancing too! These Julefrokosts are a lot of fun and also a good way to pack on some weight before the winter cold really sets in!

There is a little game played within the class or workplace during December, which I cant remember the danish name of, but it basically translates to “secret elf”. Everyone is secretly given a name of a member of the class whom they have to anonymously give small gifts too once a week leading up to christmas break, and at christmas everyone has to try and guess who their secret elf was.

Being the alcohol fueled country that Denmark is, they have a tradition where a special beer is brewed specifically for Christmas, named JuleØl. Most of the danish beer brands are aboard on this, and from the first Friday of November each year until the end of December it is available to buy. Its basically just stronger with a slightly different flavour, but a cool tradition nonetheless!🍻

I think I have covered most of the pre-christmas traditions but if I remember any more ill edit them in - the Danes have a lot!

I drive to Hamburg on Saturday morning (at some ungodly hour) with my family to see the Christmas Market, which is apparently quite famous! And also ill make another post with the Danish Christmas day traditions after xmas. If you have any questions or anything about it or just want to know anything else, just email or facebook message me 😊

Vi Ses! 😎

[10monthsindenmark]

Winter is coming...

Or actually, it is most definitely here already. 

Although snow is nothing new for me having skied ect for the last like 12 years, waking up on a Sunday morning and looking outside to see a 20cm coating over everything is still very exciting. The snow just makes everything even more stunning! I didn’t take nearly as many photos as I should have unfortunately, as I spent most the day playing and spectating handball. But it was honestly a winter wonderland, and made me very very excited for the family ski trip to Austria we have planned for February. Also picked up a good winter coat and some wintery boots on the same day, good timing. Although it snowed, it was only 0˚ all day Sunday, but then on Monday it dropped to -9˚ overnight and just froze everything solid. 

Ikke sjovt. 😒

It’s very cold and dark, and I know its only really the start of it. But the plus side of it is you can snuggle down and watch a movie never feel guilty about wasting away the day - very hyggelig!

Thats all for now... 

Vi ses! 😎

[10monthsindenmark]

12 weeks

Today (minus 12 weeks....) was the day I arrived in Aarhus. The last 3 months have gone so fast its crazy! I’m making the most of it while its not raining though 😆

It’s starting to get darker and colder here, today we started loosing light at 4.30pm, but apparently in December/January it gets fully dark at about 3pm or 4pm 😮

Ive had a pretty cool week 😎We went to watch the Aarhus handball team playing on Wednesday night which was extremely exciting - at full time the scores were tied, it went into extra time which at the end of (despite many more points on the board) there were still no winners. After going into a SECOND lot of extra time, it was still a draw. It then went into penalty shootout, where the home team came out victorious! It was a pretty nail-biting game to say the least.

Friday night I went out with my new class which was very cool to become closer with them ect ect

I spent most of the day today in the city with 2 fellow AFSers - Julia from USA 🇺🇸 and Hlöðver (noone can pronounce it so we just call him Joe 😂) from Iceland🇮🇸.

Tomorrow (Sunday) I have a handball game at 1.30pm and homework that I have to do if I want my new classes teachers to like me... 😒haha.

Also I received a care-package with some NZ lollies/chocolate ect from the fam on Thursday which was very nice!! 👌

Århus håndbold team

The city with John

Most important item from the care-package 😍

3 musketeers

Denmarks stunning architecture

More of the stunning architecture 😜 

The cycle into town never gets old

So ya it’s been a pretty good week, as is every week here 😎

Vi ses!

[10monthsindenmark]

Term 2

The last two weeks have been pretty quiet, haven’t done much out of the norm. We had a week of autumn holidays last week which I spent half of at a summerhouse with 4 classmates in Holbæk, north Sealand. It was a pretty hygge few days of catching up on sleep and not doing much - a holiday well spent! 

I started in a Danish speaking class on Monday (start of term 2) which I was a little nervous about but my new classmates are all really nice. Its also a good opportunity to make new mates and gain new experiences, ect ect.

Just a small post as I don’t have any photos to post or much to talk about but I didn’t want to neglect the blog for much more that 2 weeks incase it became a habit!

Vi ses 😎🇩🇰

[10monthsindenmark]

AFS Autumn camp for region 1 (Central Jutland I think??).

It was a great weekend reunited with a vast amount of the students from the arrival camp at the start of the exchange. It sucks that it was just our area though as it would have been cool to see all the people in Cph, Southern Jutland and the islands too, but it was still a good time!

Its been over 2 months now and I school is just the daily grind once again and I feel confident and relaxed in my class having made some good friends. Buuuut it is fairly short lived - I am requesting to change class. I am currently in an english speaking line of classes (for danes who want to improve their english) and therefore all the classes are in english. It has been good as I can understand all the work and contribute in class discussions ect, but it is doing me no help with learning the language. Now that the 6 week intensive Danish lessons have finished, its going to be hard to continue learning the language. So thats why I am asking to be moved from the class and be put into a danish speaking class of the same year level. We have a week of holidays at the end of this week and I’m hoping ill be able to start in the new class at the start of next term. It wont be easy, as I won’t know anyone in the class and will have to make new friends and everything again. But at the same time, i will be listening to and reading danish every day, and in the long run that will help a lot with me learning it. Also it gives me the chance to make new friends at the school (outside of my current class) although that isn’t alllllways the easiest of things with Danes haha. So yea I’m a little nervous about that but it shouldn’t be too bad. 

Everything here is still going very smoothly and routinely otherwise, and call me crazy but Im still loving every day of it even as I watch the NZ weather getting nicer and nicer, and the DK weather getting more and more horrible 😂. 

Note to self: get a good jacket, ASAP.

Anyways, det var en mel hyggelig weekend // it was a very chilled weekend 😁

Vi Ses! 🇩🇰

[10monthsindenmark]

Berlin

We went to Berlin for Mariann’s marathon on the weekend of the 26th & 27th which was pretty amazing. Berlin is a very beautiful city, and John, Chris, Laura and I were able to cycle round a bit while Mariann was running (in-between cheering her on of course).

(Last pic is from atop the Moesgård Museum, Aarhus)

1st post for a few weeks and i have a backlog of photos so might be posting a few blogs within the next few days to catch up!

Hejjjj 😁

[10monthsindenmark]

Had an amazing day in the city today, doing touristy things with 2 fellow AFSers who I’m good mates with 😀We visited the art museum, which has an amazing circular walkway around the top, with each pane of glass being a different colour. 6 weeks have past and I’m feeling as happy as ever! 

Keeping it short and sweet with lots of photos instead 😁

Vi ses!

[10monthsindenmark]

One month.

So its been 1 month in Aarhus, yet feels like I’ve been here for so much longer - it feels like its been 6 months. I’m still loving every hour of it. I feel very much at home here, like I’m actually still in NZ. I haven’t had any homesickness at all yet which is lucky as I know some of the other exchange students here in DK have battled a little at times. It’s not that don’t I miss home or anything (I do occasionally), but it just feels like this is my new home. Despite feeling like I’ve been here for a long time its actually a shock that a month has already past, and that I only have 9 left!

I had a fairly full-on week, playing a long game of golf on Thursday evening with Laura and Mariann, a school party Friday night (which get very rowdy in Denmark), and then a Handball tournament on Saturday and Sunday. I’ve only had 2 handball practises in my life and am still learning the rules on the fly, but being thrown in the deep end was a lot of fun and it helped me pick it up faster. I joined a team at the local sports centre just round the corner that my family is very much involved in, and am with a group of guys between the age of 25 and 40. They’re all lot older than me but they are nice guys and are willing to teach me the sport.

School is starting to turn on the heat which sucks, I already have a social studies assignment and have a few coming up in other subjects too. And because I’m in an international class where the subjects are taught in english, I have no way to worm out of the work, haha damnnn!

During the Århus Festival last week a NZ artist, Daniel Belton had his light installation displayed on the new Århus library building. It was very abstract and kind of weird, but was cool to see a fellow Kiwi’s work in Denmark! 

Egå Gymnasium looking fresh.

Stunning view from the golf course.

Daniel Belton’s light installation on the DOKK1 building in Århus

Vi ses!! 😁

[10monthsindenmark]

3 week check in

3 weeks in and I’m still loving every single hour in this tiny country. It been less sun, and more clouds/rain the last week but its okay, just throw on a coat and some waterproof pants overtop of my clothes and cycle everywhere like normal! It is still fairly though warm here which is nice but i know it wont last long, winter is coming. 

Had a really nice weekend; no school on Friday as my teachers couldn’t make class for whatever reasons (and I don’t think Denmark believes in reliever teachers), Friday evening I went into Århus with John for the start of the weeklong Århus Festival before meeting with classmates for a late night/early morning experiencing the Århus nightlife. Saturday afternoon was lunch and dinner with extended family to celebrate my host grandfathers 80th birthday, followed by a game of golf on Sunday and a long nap in the arvo. 

I have my second handball training tonight which should be good. Our team has a small tournament coming up this weekend, but i’m not sure if ill be competing as i’ve only had one handball practise in my life so i might not be need just yet but who knows, I have start somewhere! 

Aarhus cathedral.

The streets starting to fill for the first night of the Århus Festival week (Friday night).

A few people in the main drag....

Putting with a view.

This was just so accurate I had I include it hahaha

Vi ses i en uge 😁