15 June 2011

Nostalgia and Wanderlust

There are no two emotions/feelings/state of beings in the world that conflict more then Nostalgia and Wanderlust.

Nostalgia - an attachment to the past, a longing for things to be the way they used to be and for them to stay that way.
Wanderlust - a desire to explore the world and everything in it.

There is no way for the two feelings to co-exist peacefully inside a persons brain.

Since Euro tour, and I guess even before that as part of my choice to take part in exchange, I have had this desire to travel, to keep moving and doing new things, exciting, crazy things. I feel like I never want to settle down, I want to explore every place and every way of life in the world. I want to do everything.
Somehow at the same time I'm feeling such a need for permanency. Being an exchange student is such an incredible experience, and I'm seriously having the greatest time of my life.
Hey, lets face it, there's not many people that can say they spent a year in another country, meeting new people, partying pretty much constantly, hanging out with friends all day, not having to (or being allowed to) work and not having any pressure in school. But there is always this thing in the back of my head saying none of it is permanent. All these friends, these places, these routines and lifestyles end in 7 months. Some of it sooner. Today I went back to my first host families house for dinner. It felt so natural and perfect and i felt so at home. People i know, places i know, routines i know. I felt so at home. I just wish that I could have that all back.

So this is my honest emotion post, I promise I'll post about euro tour soon, but it is 1 in the morning and I need to sleep :)

13 June 2011

yes, i am still alive

(no pictures as of yet because a friend has my hardrive, maybe later)

So today i got out my journal, flipped back to the last date i blogged on and realized it’s been ALMOST TWO MONTHS D:
So grab a blanket, some munchies and get comfortable cause you’re going to be here for several millenniums

Alrighty, way back in mid-april...
Wow i can’t believe i haven’t blogged about this yet, is seems like years ago, but me and Gemma decided to go visit Sweden one day. In Denmark popping over to Sweden is very casual, you take a 20 minute train ride to Helsingør, walk about 50 meters, buy a 50 kroner (about 10 dollars) ticket, and hop on a luxury liner for 20 minutes and KABOOM! You’re in a whole new country. The town we visited was quite small, and on a Sunday (good planning past self) there wasn’t much open. Me and gem managed to have a pretty swell time regardless. We checked out this stunning old castle and walked around taking in the sites and doing mundane things such as eating a burger and then saying 'hey Gemma, guess what' 'what' 'I’m eating a burger... IN SWEDEN!' it was a nice day. 
The next notable activity of mine came around 3 days later in the form of TIVOLI!!!. For those of you who don’t know and can’t use Google, Tivoli is a kind of theme park in the centre of Copenhagen, only its more than that, its filed with pantomime theatres and castle like buildings and fountains and this kind of joyful magic. It’s an incredible place. So Gemma’s host family supply the restaurants in Tivoli with fish and as a result they got a bunch of free tickets to the exclusive pre-opening night, which they gave to Gemma, who for some reason decided to take me Laura and kitty, crazy kid. It was tonnes of fun, we went on roller-coaster and ate candyfloss and chilled. Amazing! Since then me and Gemma brought wildcards, which give us free entrance and rides whenever we want, so I’ve been quite a few times. 
The next day was the twins christening so i sat inside and watched that all day (NAWWWWW) 
Annnd, the day after me, Gemma and Laura had a fat day. Basically we all came to my house, brought loads of food, made scones, mars bar slice and honey soy chicken and coconut rice for dinner and sat around all day being tools, watching movies and eating. It was a really great day. It was our 3 months in Denmark celebration... at least that was our excuse.  >.> this video sums up our day perfectly 
The following days involved a lot of hanging out at home and going to my host family’s summer house. It also was the time of the great Facebook hack of 2011. use Australian outbound have a confidential Facebook support group were we can complain about stuff, discuss our feelings and generally entertain ourselves with pointless and often hilarious things that have happened to one another 'the awkward moment when...' anyway we got majorly and brutally hacked by some super skilled ninja hacker kiwi outbound. It was a bit of a kerfuffle, the group was built on the basis that everything that is said is confidential so it causes a bit of a mess. It’s all sorted out now though. 
Later in the week a Mexican exchange student, Fanni, came to stay with us from the other side of Denmark for Easter, Easter lunches here are lots of fun. Tuburg even puts out a special beer you can only buy at Easter called kylling something... and it’s much stronger than a normal beer. Me and Fanni created a drinking game where you drink every time my host dad Nicolaj says 'assimilation'; he had a lot of fun teaching us the proper ways to eat many a strange and disgusting Danish traditional dish. The next day Nicolaj took us on a bike tour of Christianshavn and Christiania, the free hippy state of Denmark, defiantly worth googling if you don’t know about it. After that Fanni and i met up with some of her friends that live in Copenhagen and hung out in the city for a while. We met up with Vicky, Nicolaj and Eva for dinner and then went to Tivoli for a great night of roller-coaster and candyfloss. the next day Fanni and i met with Gemma for a boat cruise around the harbour, we got to get out at the little mermaid and hand out a bit before Gemma went home and we dropped Fanni off at the train station to go home to Jutland. No rest for me though :), Nicolaj and i drove up to Holbaek for a birthday party of a family friend and didn’t get home til verrrryyy late. 
The following day was another birthday party and... Wait for it... MY FIRST STEAK IN 3 AND A HALF MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was glorious.
The next week was a lot of school and the arrival of Livia, an exchange student from Brazil whose last family is Vicky and Nicolaj, she is lovely. We both stayed at the house together for a week and a half before i moved to my final family. But before i moved, there’s still a lot to post about.
Ellen came over to my house for a little movie day, which was quite nice. The next day i met up with Ellen again and we headed out to faelledparken for a huge celebration for the first of May. Half of Copenhagen was in this park with several live bands playing at all times and market stalls and lots and lots of drunk Danes. We met up with Chloe, Sarah and savannah, other Australian exchange students, and had a lot of fun with free 'hugs' signs creating our own version of 'free Australian kisses'. It was a really fun day. 
The next day i got to attend my first rotary meeting in Denmark which was really nice. 
The next few days were my last at the la Cours house as the time had already come for me to move host families. Livia had some friends over one of the nights which was fun, we made food and chatted. One of them was a Danish girl who had been to Australia for a year as a student, not of a program but living with some family. Anyway i had my last dinner with the la Cours and my last breakfast, both of which were really lovely, before driving over to my new host families. It was really hard leaving, you come to rely on your host family a lot, and they really meant a lot to me. My new family is really lovely though. We live right on the beach in my new family so we went walking in the evening with all four of the children. The following week was filled with school and adjusting. I hung out with friends a few times during the week and went to my little 8 year old sister Thyra's school party. I went with Gemma to Tivoli and then slept the night at her house. 
i also had a school excursion one of the days to a park in Vestamager that involved ridiculous amounts of bike riding, more bike riding then the lord of the rings series has walking. Also marshmallows, charades, 2 hours sleep and a 4.30 am start. Oh dear lord, lots of fun though. Once i finally got home i started packing for euro tour, which actually began at 8 am the next day, I’m totally not a procrastinator... >.> 
I’m going to leave euro tour for another post; i think it will be far too long otherwise. Also I’m bored of typing. But i will post it soon i promise :)