#afs2015

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.

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!!

 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 😊

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... 

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 😎

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!

- 5th to 11th October -

This week I thought I would be super productive and give you a detailed description of each day but that idea didn’t exactly live up to its expectations so here is a detailed description of ( some of ) this week.

MONDAY: Today was one of those days when I really (excuse my French), ‘got shit done’. Woke up early and went on the exercise bike which made me feel like a super athlete (even if it was just for thirty minutes). Had a great day at school with lots of laughs and actually did homework for the first time!

TUESDAY : …..

WEDNESDAY: Wednesdays are always a bit exciting because I only have four hours of school and get to eat lunch at home which is one hundred times better than canteen food. We had gnocchi for dinner which is my new favourite food. I have being seeing a lot on the news about the current refugee crisis in Europe and its really getting to me. We really don’t realise how lucky we are to have the right to live life freely. There is a quote I read “a parent only puts a child on a boat if the sea is safer than the land”. Who are we to deny others the right to a life, a life without constant fear and violence. So there’s my little rant that I just felt I just needed to get off my chest. I really enjoy dinner times because I talk with my family a lot. I am learning lots about them and vice versa, Its great that they are interested in New Zealand and my culture. On a side note I saw my first squirrel today which, believe me, was more exciting than it sounds.

THURSDAY : I have grown to hate my alarm noise that wakes me up from my sweet sleep every morning so, I changed the sound to 'Just haven't met you yet - Michel bublé' which is the perfect slightly tacky yet happy song to wake up to. I woke up feeling so much nicer and ready for the day! (It’s little things like this that can make my day). School is finally starting to feel like normal life apart from the fact we had a 4 HOUR break today. yes four hours with no class. I had two hours of history in the morning and two of English in the afternoon and couldn’t go home so i just hung with friends which was nice. In France it is normal to have two hours without class but four hours (which is nearly a whole school day in New Zealand) felt very weird!

I have being learning a bit of French history because it really interests me and I feel like while I’m here I have a good reason to understand French history. France is such an old country dating back 50,000 years ago which really makes me realise how new a country New Zealand is. I also leant a sad fact that there was a Jewish camp here during World War II , well not so much a camp but an area where the Jewish slept for a few nights before going to concentration camps by train. Children were separated from the rest of their family and taken to gas chambers. No many how many times you hear it, information like that makes me so sad and so grateful.

On a more cheerful note I made dinner with Cecile tonight and it was delicious!! The food here is very different because there are many more vegan foods to make non vegan recipes vegan (vegan creme, vegan meat replacements)... It's wonderful!!

OTHER DAYS: well it’s now Sunday and I have just realised my plan for a post each day definitely did not happen. Yeah, sorry about that ! Yesterday It was veggie pride 2015 which is a vegan March/protest that in Paris. It was school cool to be with so many other like minded people. It wasn’t violent but actually very joyful with musicians and there were thousands of people. It felt so amazing to March the streets of Paris spreading awareness. There were also vegan food stalls with vegan crepes, cakes and handbugers that were heavily! I really feel like I am settling in now and can’t explain how grateful I am for my host family who are just so kind caring and understanding of me and the fact that I do miss my family ect. This coming week is the last week before the school holidays which I can’t wait for, mostly because we are staying at the BEACH!! also I am going to Paris for another Afs camp which will be exciting.