26 January 2011

shits and giggles

Last night i went with my host mum to a work meeting, after the meeting they had a special guest, a man whose title translates to the laughter king. His job is to encourage people to laugh more as its good for you. so after the meeting all the business men and woman in there suits and ties stood in a circle doing all these peculiar things and laughing maniacally. These things included chanting ha-ha ho-ho-ho whilst clapping, acting like a lion and roaring at one another and and partenering up to say 'TEE HEE HEE' in one anothers faces. Everyone felt ridiculous but it was very funny, particularly for me as i couldn't understand what the laughter king was saying, so it seemed like everyone was doing these weird things of there own accord.  very funny

also today it snowed. it was the first time ive seen snow falling
kinda magical

knus

25 January 2011

jeg kommer fra 'the land down under'

Well hi there, I have been in Denmark now for a whole week and a day, its going pretty damn fast.
Anyway Emily wants me to update you all on what i've been up to this past week. There is a distinct lack of photos cause I haven't taken many, I don't know why, I think I feel like to much of a tourist taking happy snaps every fem (5) seconds. Also a warning, i'm likely to put in an occasional Danish word cause i've just been reading a Danish for beginners book and it makes me feel smart 8).

So my week in a nutshell - its gonna be in a nutshell cause i've done so bloody much this week its incredible - begins on last Tuesday, Tuesday i rode with Eva to school and managed to fall of my bike and rip the knee of my jeans, so my Danish prowess was off to a smashing start. Eva's school is quite pretty, instead of a stairway they have this spiral ramp, which was built apparently so the rich could have there servants cart them up to the top. i guess it makes it very wheelchair accessible these days. Other then that i spent Tuesday chilling at home and strolling casually around Hellerup my suburb.

Wednesday involved following Nicolaj (my host dad) to work in town, some shopping and coffee drinking in the nearby complex and some frantic desperate bike riding trying to find my way home again. thankfully i know the way by now so no more terror when i go into town. After that much of the same lazing about at home and a quick trip into town to take Eva to choir and to check out a one of the local gymnasiums
outside Arken
(high schools) while we were waiting for her.

Thursday was a lovely sunny day, in the afternoon Eva's Farfar and Farmor (grandparents on her dads side) picked Eva and I up and took us to Arken, this amazing art museum. The art was sooo good, the exhibited artist was Hans Scherfig, he is amazing. There was also this really cool exhibit that was like a tunnel with really thick smoke and bright lights so that you couldn't see more then like 30 cm in front of you and all you could see was one colour around you. It started out with white and then gold then blue and black etc. It was really trippy... but sooo cool. :)

Friday i walked to Nicolajs work again, spent most the day chilling at home and then went out in the afternoon with Ane, who was an exchange student that stayed with us when I was like 8 or something. It was really great to catch up with my big sister again :). we went walking through Copenhagen, its so amazing, there's no high rise buildings, just all these little really old buildings  with big open squares and loads of statues. we also walked past Tivoli which is like a famous amusement park that is soooo beautiful. we also saw this cool Lego display of Copenhagen (the Danes invented Lego).

this is actually what Copenhagen looks like,
except not made out of Lego...
After looking round the city we went back to Anes apartment and had 'takeaway'. it was this gourmet pork and mushroom and potato dish with tiramusu desert. ah-mazing!

Saturday was really busy, firstly I joined this gym my family goes to, but i'm chilling on the stepping machine thingo (you can tell im the gym type) when on the tv comes yu-gi-oh, followed by pokemon, then spongebob.... I was just like O.o  so there's all these huge muscled guys pumping iron and watching pokemon... awesome. Then we went shopping at this huge shopping centre. After that was our little trip to christianhavn, where my school is and right in Copenhagen. also my school is directly opposite Christiana, Nicolaj told me I should put safety pins in my ears and shave half my head and I would fit in perfectly haha. we then went a walking to there summer house which is a Kolonihave (there isnt a translation) which is like a little shack in this little locked off community with like 500 little shacks and there's these hedge fences and little cobblestone pathes it verry cute. There community is called 'strandlyst'.
we also went on a ferry ride through the harbour.


opera house (a Danish architect actually
 built the Sydney opera house)

that night we went to a party at Nicolaj and Vickys friends house. lets just say there was a lot of drinking involved and my host parents are very funny in that state. XD me Eva and her friend who's name i keep forgetting (sorry :S) went upstairs and played band hero most the night, but i had a very interesting conversation with one lady who gave some great advice for learning the language

Sunday was sleep- in-and-watch-movies-on-the-couch-all-day day. well except for me, I had to go to a rotary meeting for all the winter inbounds in my district. It was good though, interesting and great to meet everyone and catch up with Laura and Gemma :)

annnndd yesterday i watched NCIS all day, only leaving the house to go to the bank... which was interesting cause i hadn't been there before and had to find it by myself. the most exciting thing yesterday was trying to find the escaped hamster, its tiny and very elusive, its still missing >.> evil little Houdini hamster. though it is adorable...

here are some other pictures i have taken of the house :)




today im gonna watch more ncis and visit the bank again. I can only move 2000 kr (about 400 dollars) at a time because my card is an Australian visa not a Danish visa. ISNT THE POINT OF VISA SO THAT YOU CAN USE IT ANYWHERE /RANT. ok i'm done
farvel, knus Bec





17 January 2011

photos

ok, i just went for a drive to a small shopping center and Vicky (my host mother) took me for a quick tour of Hellerup (my suburb) so here are the photos as promised :)

The shopping center

Driving on the wrong side of the road D: 


Funny Sounding Danish words :P


see that coastline there, that would be sweden O.o




My House  :D


 My Room


i dont know why some are sideways, they weren't before....

happy face :)
xx Bec

here i am

so im currently in the process of settling into my first host family's home.

i left Perth at 5 local time, actually probably a bit later, our plane was late taking off. because we were underage we all had to be escorted through security wich kinda sucked cause it cut into our time with our familys and friends. our first flight was 6 hours and 55 minutes and it was on a fairly new thai airways jet, which ment we all had our own tv screens. we were all sitting together except for gemma and mel, devo for them :P. the flight wasnt to bad cause we all just talked and watched movies and tv shows and played games. they had this awesome game that was a game boy colour simulation, there was a heap of games you could pick from and play including mario bros and the origanal pokemon gold. i have the exact same mario bros game at home on my game boy so that was realy cool :D we got of that flight at around 12 at night and caught the next at about 1 am so we didnt see much of Bangkok airport. the flight to copenhagen was 12 and a half hours and it was on a boeing so no tv screens :( in fact they only showed one movie once the entire flight on the big screens, so it kinda lacked entertainment... i didnt realy mind though, it was realy late so i ended up sleeping for around 9 hours of the flight. once we got to copenhagen airport (finaly) we went straight to the baggage claim where we were met by a rotary rep, and he took us through to the gate where we were met by a barrage of red  danish and blue australian flags. my welcome party consisted of two of my host familys and my cousiler as well as ane, it was great to see her again. we headed back to my first host familys house on the train, there house is AMAZING. its got three levels, the basment and two storys. my room is in the basement and its HUGE and so pretty. it has fairy lights and paper lanterns and is so nice. the whole house is beautiful, as is the family. my little sister Eva is gorgeous, shes so sweet and her english is phenomenally good, especialy as she is only 11. my parents, Vicky and Nicolaj are also lovely and there english is fantastic. :) the weather here is realy nice, at least, ive never realy liked hot weather so i like it :) its about 6 degrees, its quite refreshing. theres a little snow still on the ground but its melting unfortunatly. its ment to snow again later though :) im looking forward to it. the other thing is the colour of the sky, its a pearly grey colour, completly different to what australia gets in cold weather. i quite like it. anyway thats a little update on my arrival, ill post some pictures when i actualy take some :)
much love, Bec

13 January 2011

Two Days

Progress Report:
I'm not packed
I haven't said goodbye to everyone
My speech isn't finished
My visa arrived yesterday
I cant speak any Danish
I leave in two days...

... BRING ON DENMARK :D