Hello everyone!
So far, my stay in Denmark has been absolutely amazing!!!
I’ve met so many amazing people — both Danish and exchange students — and I’ve really been getting better with the language. For example, all my grandparents here don’t speak ANY English except for my mormor (mother’s mom).
One day my bedstefar (dad’s dad) came over and I was the only person home … my youngest sibling wasn’t even home, and at least she’s speaks a little English. On top of him not speaking English, his dialect is almost impossible to understand ... so he came inside and I heard “goddav!” and my stomach just dropped!! Hahaha! I knew this would be interesting. So, we begin a very simple conversation after asking “vil du have kaffe?” (would you like coffee?) which was about his trip with his wife to Switzerland and how it snowed and I didn’t know the word for snow at the moment so that became a very intense game of charades!!
The bottom line of that story is that you never really know how much of a language you know until you’re completely forced to communicate with it.
Throughout my stay here I have attended rotary meetings every Thursday in order to learn a little more Danish.
I’ve connected with my current family very much … I love them so so so much! They have done such an amazing job at making me feel at home and I am extremely grateful.
We have gone on small trips together and yesterday I took my little brother to the city and we grabbed something to eat and he dragged me to MANY video game stores— hahaha!
On this upcoming Wednesday we are all going to the west coast of Denmark to a summer house so we can have a nice trip during the autumn break as a family.
As for school… it is SO different from what I'm used to. In Peru, walking into school is very scheduled and it’s a little like bringing cattle into their pens — very scheduled and all done in a certain manner. Here, on the other hand, it’s a lot like college. I often start at a different time and every day I end at a different time because we don’t have the same classes — it’s so weird. Also, the teachers are really laid back and you call them by their first names AND they swear in the middle of class — hahaha!
I’ve really taken note of how different Danish teenagers are from American/Canadian teenagers. But realizing that has helped me make A LOT of friends!!
Overall, these past two months have been so amazing! I’d love to make a video or send pictures so I can go into more depth about my experience.
Thank you!!
Ashtyn Moore