Blogs from Denmark, Europe - page 165

On the 13th of December I went with my host mum to Mou school. We left earlier as the girls in her class were doing their Lucia concert at 8am, it was not as extravagant as the previous nights Lucia, but they did a good job and improved in confidence as they went along. They first performed in front of the younger year levels, then to the yr 7’s, 8’s and 9’s and then in front of the Grade 4’s, 5’s and 6’s. After Recess I went with the year 8 class and the interviewed me about Australian Christmases. I then stayed with them and watched their presentations on Christmases around the world. There was one on USA, two on Australia and One on Christmas in Egypt (which had a shortbread like biscuit with icing sugar ... read more

Today I went with Karin to Mou School (as it would be called in English.) we carpooled and seeing the lights of the city from one of the hills was a highlight of my six am start. Mou is a little town about half an hour outside Aalborg. They have students from prep to year 9 at the school and Karin teaches year 6 students. Karin got me to tell them about Australia. They had a project on Australian Animals. Also the girls were practicing for their own Lucia concert tomorrow, so my job was to keep the boys occupied while the girls practiced. So the boys and I played celebrity heads and other games. After school ended, Karin had a few meeting after school so I went on the internet for a while before ... read more

Today in Assembly we went to church. It was the one beside the school (and behind the church is a hospice). At the beginning of our service, the year 7 girls followed the tradition of the wreath with four lit candles on top of one girls heads followed by the rest of the girls in pairs each holding candles and walking one large step at a time, in unison. All of the girls were wearing white and had their hair down. After doing a semi-circle of the church (the church was round and they had entered through a door behind the altar), they then placed the candles and wreath on the Altar. Then the pastor spoke and we sang the school song then the pastor spoke again and we sang a carol. Then the girls put ... read more

Rachel Vanderkruik, my ex-roomie and partner in all cape-cod related summer adventures, fortuitously ended up studying in Copenhagen this semester. She visited me in Vienna; of course I was more then happy to return the favor with a visit to Denmark, especially since my mother's cousin Bill and his wife Susanne live there! It was really exciting both to meet up with Rachel - in Vienna, we literally laughed so much our throats hurt - and to reconnect with my family. Copenhagen is an amazing city. When I first arrived, I strolled around the old city, fascinated mostly by the procession of Danes in these pedestrian, cobbled streets in the old city. I have never seen such an attractive group of people! Everyone is so well put together. And a note on the Danish language: what ... read more

Today was my second day at school. There are around 200 kids here. (0ne class from kindergarden to year 9) and I went with Anna to her history class for first period (they were doing about the invaders of europe, I understood that much from the pictures) then second period was assemberly where the principal officially introduced me to the whole school. ( was competly unprepared as he just anounced that i was here and would I come to the front of the room and then he got me to stand on a stool and introduce myself to THE WHOLE SCHOOL, AND I almost fell off the stool as well. I then went with the principal to his english class and asked everyone in the class questions in english. Then I went into Anna’s class and ... read more