letter

This is a letter to my home Rotary club that I copied and pasted directly. It's a bit long, but it's basicly everything. Sorry about the non-posting, but I've been kinda (extremely) busy... værsgo, and enjoy


Sorry this has taken so long, I’ve never been really good at writing letters. I wrote my mom and a woman from my church letters almost a month ago, and I still haven’t sent them!
It’s amazing to think that I’ve been here for 6 months and 17 days already, and it’s even more startling that I have to go home in 4 months and 12 days! (I’m not really counting down, I just happen to have my calendar nearby). I still have so much to do, so much to see, and so much to learn!
I’m coming along fairly well with Danish. It’s a difficult language with many random non-rules, but it’s even more difficult to learn when you’re an English speaker because almost everyone in the country can speak English. I’m can read Danish best, even better than being able to hear and understand it. There are three main accents, and we’re taught the most precise one at language school, so hearing someone from Jylland (the peninsula part of Denmark) speak is fairly difficult to understand. It’s interesting to read packages (of food, and the like), because not only can I read the Danish, but I can make out the Swedish and Norwegian also. In fact, I’m able to watch TV in Swedish and Norwegian (of course, I’m reading the Danish subtitles the entire time). I don’t really like Swedish, but Norwegian just sounds like they’re speaking Danish but pronouncing every letter.
I’ve found that living in a city suits my tastes much more than the country. Not that Odense is that big, but it still is the third largest city in Denmark. I live in a little village right outside the center, but still considered to be a part of Odense. It takes about 25-30 minutes by bus to get to the city center. It then takes me another 20-25 minutes to get to my school on another bus. All the other exchange students in Odense (even a couple living in a completely different town big enough to have it’s own school and bus system) go to school in the city center or 5-10 minutes outside of it. I’m the only exchange student at my school, which is nice sometimes but can be a little lonely too.
I suppose I should explain the Danish school system before telling too much about my experiences with it. The Danish school system has gone through a great change this year. In the past, a student would choose either a math/science line or a language line. They would then concentrate on those certain classes from the beginning all through gymnasium (gymnasium is like the last two years of high school and the first year of university). The second and third year classes are still like this, but the first years started the reform this year. They came to school and took every single class offered to first years- including most of the languages and sciences. Before Christmas break they had to decide what classes were their favorites, and were organized accordingly. After Christmas break they changed classes so they were with people that wanted to study the same things (because they have every class with the same people). In the beginning I was placed in a first year class. During the Christmas break they decided that they didn’t really want to deal with putting an exchange student in any of those classes, so they booted me up to a second year class. There were two language line classes and one math line class to choose from (there had already been exchange students in the other language line class and two math line classes). We decided that science and math is not only better for me personally, but better for all exchange students, because there are too many languages in the language line (go figure), and it might distract me from learning Danish. So, I was moved to class 2.z. I had taken two classes with them before my contact teacher found me and told me I couldn’t be in that class because there were already 29 students, and the limit is supposed to be 28. So, it was back to the drawing board. Finally, I was placed in class 3.x. So, now I’m a third year! The ironic thing is, I was placed in a math line because I like math, but I can’t take any of the math or science on a third year level because they’re about 6 months ahead of me. I’m probably the only exchange student in Denmark that has experienced all three years!
The weather in Denmark is very wet. In the beginning one of the exchange students from the west coast said that Denmark is the Seattle of Europe. When we first got here there were two weeks of non-stop rain. It was either raining, just stopped raining, it was about to start raining, or all of the above. This winter has been fairly wet also, but the snow doesn’t stick very much. The weather can’t decide if it wants to rain, snow, or do both. The snowflakes are big and wet, and land on my eyelashes- getting mascara everywhere. It’s colder back in NY, but it’s so much windier here that there’s hardly a difference. Plus, I’ve been outside a lot more in Denmark than I normally am in NY. There’s much more walking around in the walking streets (no cars allowed and full of shops) and waiting for buses. In NY it was house to car, car to school, school to car, car to work, work to car, car to home. Very little time spent outside. In fact, the only times that I spent a lot of time outside was when I shoveled snow or if mom made me go cross country skiing with her. However, whenever I spent any extended amount of time outside I would pile on the layers. In the middle of winter it was a lot darker in Denmark also. We had about two hours less sunlight than NY, but on top of that it’s almost always cloudy here. We use a lot of candles at night, which makes things seem cozier and also make things feel warmer. We also take vitamins during winter, as there also isn’t a lot of choice for fresh fruits and vegetables.
I’ve talked to Vince and Maria on the internet a couple times, but I haven’t really heard anything from Tori or Andrea. I know that Tori never really got on the internet at home, and Andrea has a hard time finding a computer she doesn’t have to pay to use.
I’m going to miss having tea with the entire family every night and watching TV with subtitles. I’ve learned a lot of phrases and spellings by reading the subtitles. There are some old American TV series, which has been fun to see, and at the same time I’m reading and learning Danish. I’ve turned into a very big tea drinker, because they have some extremely good tea here (the Christmas tea is definitely the best) and make big pots of it at a time. I’ve actually had over 8 cups of tea in one day! I will definitely miss the people, and mixing English and Danish together when I speak to them. Oh, by the way, I want to apologize for my English. My vocabulary has decreased largely, and most of what I say doesn’t make sense in any language. Plus, they use more commas in Danish, and I need to drop the habit before I start writing essays for University! I’m going to miss the delicious cheeses and desserts, and the sauces. I never thought I’d want a sauce every day, but I’ve grown very used to it. I’m going to miss the freedom, including being able to catch a bus any time of the day to get home. Although, I miss driving a lot. It’d be nice to be able to hop in a car and visit some friends instead of trying to figure out which buses to take and how to make them coincide that I wouldn’t have to wait an hour to catch the next bus.
I’ve talked to Maja several times, but getting together just hasn’t happened yet. She doesn’t live too far from Odense, and I can easily catch a bus or a train to visit her. My host sister now was an exchange student in NY last year, and knows Maja well. There are many exchange students in and around Odense with Rotary and other programs. Something I wasn’t expecting was the winter team. People from the Southern Hemisphere (some Brazilians, Australians, New Zealanders) come in January and leave the end of December or early January. So, when we came we had people to show us around and teach us random things about Danes and the Danish culture. They left over a moth ago, and the new winter team came in. Now we’re the ones showing them around and talking about them in Danish. I’ve met exchange students from all over, and I have no doubt I’ll stay in touch with many of them. I’ve met people from as close as Syracuse, to Australia, to Taiwan, to Brazil. We all have a very strong bond with each other because we’re all going through the same thing. It’s going to be so difficult to leave, no only will we miss Danish and the Danish way of life, but we’re leaving behind over a hundred friends that we may never have a chance to see again. We can always come back to Denmark and have almost everything be the same. But, at least I know someone from every corner of the globe now! In fact, I have been thinking about spending a year (or semester, I’m not sure yet) abroad during university. I’m not sure where yet, but I’ve got some ideas in my head.
Now for some random things that I’ve noticed are different here:
· They don’t quite understand what college is…. Which is why I’ve started calling college university. It helps that I’m going to Cornell University next year
· Instead of blond hair with black roots, it’s more common to see black hair (or dark brown) with blond roots. It’s rather weird to see, especially if you don’t know what it is… you think everyone is prematurely aging!
· You can easily see over 100 people at a school function under 18 getting drunk. They actually encourage it, a group within the school is selling the beer.
· People put random things on bread and call it lunch. One time I saw a girl take out brown bread (it’s sort of like rye, but much more rye-y… one of those things that you have to develop a taste for) and all it had on it was sliced potatoes
· Bus drivers are not only talking on the phone while driving, they’re writing and sending text messages!
· They have a show (I haven’t watched it, I just saw a commercial for it) called ‘bling my bike’ instead of ‘pimp my ride’
· There are girls riding bikes wearing mini skirts and stilettos. In the winter. With cigarettes hanging out of their mouths.

Thank you so much for sending me to Denmark! I’m having a blast here, and learning so much. I’m thinking about jobs I could do that would have me in contact with Denmark. This year has definitely convinced me that I should work in international business. Oh, and speaking about international issues- you don’t need to worry about the Danish cartoons that has gotten the Middle East in such an uproar. I’ve only heard of one protest in Denmark, and it was in Copenhagen. I actually have many Muslim friends, but I haven’t had a chance to discuss this with them. I’ve only discussed it with other exchange students, but we feel incredibly safe here.
Again, sorry this has taken me so long! Thank you so much for this opportunity, and I’ll see you sometime after July 3rd!