2 days to Christmas: Weekend Get2Gether & Christmas markets

There's about two days left for Christmas, and the celebrations are full fledged. There are many 'Julefrokoster' (christmas lunches/dinners) and the decorations are out. Christmas trees have been bought and every house is lighted up with Christmas lights. Danish people associate the Danish flag with celebration, so basically, it looks like a HUGE political party rally. It's snowed only once till now, and although the weather forecasters may deny it, I still wish for the miracle of a white Christmas. It's the perfect possible Christmas I could imagine - sitting in the living room watching television or playing cards with my family, while fire burns in the fireplace and the trees are covered with snow outside.


Rotary Weekend Get2Gether

Our Rotary District

Rotary arranged a little weekend for all the exchange students in our district to meet and have some fun. We toured Odense, H.C Andersen's house and a Christmas market. Christmas markets are the most crowded places I can find in Denmark. Of course, it's not the most pleasant thing, but it reminds me of home. Some of these market are unaffordable, and others are relatively cheap. I haven't found a place as cheap as the dear, sweet, crowded markets of Mumbai, but Denmark is not very expensive if you look in the right places. We spent the weekend in a little camping cabin. On the first day, we got Christmas food from all of our countries and made a little buffet. India doesn't have any Christmas food, so I simply carried samosas. I was pretty lucky since a lot of people brought vegetarian food, but I wish sometimes, that I could taste all the food people offered me. We played pakkelej (a Danish Christmas tradition in which everyone has a gift and you can steal gifts from others if you roll a six on your dice). We also had a little part (without alcohol, of course) and we danced till late at night. I still haven't caught up on any sleep since that weekend, because that's how less I slept. It was great fun, and I can't wait till the next District Event.

Christmas spirit in Odense

Christmas Shopping
Shopping for Christmas gifts is one of the most confusing things that I have ever done. You want to be a bit humorous, but not offensive, you want to spend money, but not too much, and so on. I haven't bought all my gifts just yet, but it is so difficult to choose what to buy for everyone. There are Christmas sales in a few places, but Denmark is expensive even after sales!

My fitness took a little turn since the beginning of December, when I started gaining weight instead of my customary loss of weight. Maybe, it's because of my chocolate calendar (a Christmas calendar with one candy for each day of the month), or maybe it's just the many Christmas feasts and fatty food, but Christmas is sure a month when even vegetarians gain weight. It's so difficult to control your temptations and keep track when you have an array of candy and cakes lying in front of you.

Language check: I'm on a rollercoaster that only goes up!

Santa Claus is coming... to town!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the world!

4 weeks to Christmas: Hygge

Hygge

When most of you read the title of this blog post, you're gonna wonder what it means. Hygge (hyu-guh) is an untranslatable Danish word. Imagine yourself sitting in your living room with your friends and family, huddled up in a blanket, watching television or playing cards in the warmth of your house, while it snows outside. The feeling you get is cozy or hyggelit. That's what hygge is.
Winter is a time of hygge for the Danes. They love lighting up the fireplace (or switching on the heaters), and sitting with their family. Even small things could be hyggelit; for example, a dinner with  a friend, or a movie outing, or a birthday. Hygge may seem good enough by itself, but it is often partnered with cake and candy, and that makes it absolutely great. I wouldn't be surprised if hygge was the reason behind Denmark being amongst the happiest countries in the world. Other
countries have been recently trying to adopt the practice of hygge as it results in inner happiness.

Early morning snow

First Snow

I experienced the first snowfall of my life last weekend, when temperatures reached -3^oC (the lowest temperature I have ever known), and the snow lasted for two days. Ideally, it doesn't snow before December where I live, and sometimes, it snows only after New Year. However, this year, the fields were covered in white, and the snowmen were out in everyone's backyards. It doesn't seem likely to snow again anytime soon, because the temperatures have increased again, but the feeling of holding a snowball in my hand was beautiful. There was just something amazing about waking up in the morning and seeing the streets covered with s

Snowman!

now, or the glow of the snow as the sun set, or having a snow fight with your siblings, or putting a carrot into the snowman to complete it. However, biking to school with frost all over the streets is not nearly as amazing; it's pretty annoying, as a matter of fact.

Almost all the trees have lost their leaves by now, and the landscape looks really bare and dry. Winter is obviously setting in, and the sudden snowfall made that more clear than ever. It is so great the finally know a real autumn and winter.

Language check: I'm beginning to speak fluently now, and my vocabulary increases by one or two worlds each day. I can understand much of what people say, and my friends at school have also started talking to me in Danish. My Danish writing is also steadily improving. It is a bit grammatically incorrect, but understandable. At least my use of Google Translate has tremendously reduced.

I'd like to thank all my readers for staying on and reading my blog every single time. I have a total of exactly 1160 page views on my blog now!

6 weeks to Christmas: First Presentation

Christmas is HUGE in Denmark. There's about 6 weeks left for Christmas, and everybody is already preparing for Christmas. Coming from a country where Christmas is hardly celebrated, I'm completely stoked!

Christmas play

Egeskov Castle

I also went shopping to the Egeskov Julemarked (Christmas market). It was in the premises of the Egeskov castle. There were countless amazing Christmas related things; from clothes, decorations and toys, to dry fruits, jams and drinks. However, it was extremely expensive, more expensive than Denmark already is. Coincidentally, we found a shop for spices, where I bought some Indian spices for a pretty decent price. One could feel the Christmas spirit in the middle of November at that Christmas market. There was a Christmas play going on, and the whole place was lined with hundreds of Christmas trees. It was simply beautiful, and I couldn't help but feel the Christmas spirit too.

We have been singing a lot of Danish Christmas carols in the school choir lately, and I think they are beautiful. Of course, I don't understand much, but they sound really nice and I thoroughly enjoy singing them. The songs are almost always stuck in my head.

First Presentation

Speaking at the school about India

I had to give the presentation on India for the first time on Friday at a school in front of three classes. Despite being really nervous, I reckon it went quite smoothly, and the students seemed to like and understand what I put in front of them. By the end of the year, I am expected to do it in Danish, but I did it in English at the school. It's really shocking how little I knew about Denmark before I came here and how little they know about India here. It was a great experience overall, and I realised, that the exchange program has helped me overcome my stage fright. I don't feel scared in front of large crowds any longer; I have changed a lot without realising it, in only three months.


Language check: I'm able to fluently read Danish aloud (I don't understand all of it, though) and I can also speak faster Danish now. I can type messages in Danish with ease and understand messages with a little effort. I am improving at Danish at a fast pace, and needless to say, everyone is quite impressed.

P.S. For people in my sponsor district (India - 3140) interested in the Rotary Youth Exchange Program - the last date to submit the application form is the 21st of November. You can find it here: Preliminary Form.

Month 3: New family

Adjusting into Denmark was never very hard, with really warm and helpful people everywhere around me. They made Denmark feel like a home to me. But after 3 months of living in this amazing country, I'm not gonna hesitate to say, "It's not like my home, it is my home." There are so many times when I miss India; my family, my house, my friends, the food... but leaving all that for a year is just a small sacrifice compared to what I've experienced in Denmark.

Shifting Host Families

Saying goodbye to my first family

My host families tried to make my shift as easy as possible. I packed everything into 4 bags, and we (my first host family and I) went to my second host family's house for dinner. Later, they left, and we went to sleep. When I woke up the next day, the realisation came upon me that I had really shifted. I live about a 15 minute bike ride away from school. My host family is really nice; they try to talk to me as much in Danish as possible so that I can learn the language quickly. I think that the most difficult thing about the first one week with a host family is that you don't know what to touch, what to use, or what to do. All in all, I'm really happy that I have such wonderful people as host families.

Ice skating!

Choir weekend
A day after I shifted to my second host family, we had a sleepover weekend at school for all the choir members! After school, we met in the choir room and sang some songs (including some Danish Christmas songs). We ate dinner together, later, and played some fun games. I was really tired by the end of the day, and we went to sleep in the school hall. The next morning, we ate breakfast, and resumed singing songs. We went back home at noon, after which I unpacked my bags.

Change of time
The Sunday before the last, the time on all the clocks was shifted back by an hour. It's something that's done every year. I think the reason behind it is that it is usually extremely dark when people leave home early for school or work. When I left for school today, the sun was already out, hence, it was brighter than usual.

Trick or treat?

I tried ice-skating for the first time yesterday. I reckon I was alright at it, although, I fell four times. I also carved a pumpkin (with plenty of help).

Language(s) check: I started French lessons a week back at school, and I realised, that it's even more difficult than I thought it would be, to learn two different languages at once, both of which have pronunciations very different from how they are written; while Danish words are pronounced sharply, French words are pronounced softly. While my Danish is improving at a steady pace, I have a feeling that my English is deteriorating. Kudos to my brain for thinking in 3 different languages!

I can speak English.
Jeg kan tale Dansk.
Je parle Français (not really).

Autumn Break

Students in Denmark have a week off from school. I assumed, before my autumn break began, that I would relax during those 9 days, and that I didn't have many plans. By the end, however, there was not a single uneventful day that went by. It's amazing how many exciting things I did in a week.

-> I found out about three weeks back that I would be shifting to my second host family in the last week of this month. It was a wonderful day that I spent with my host family.

Denmark Open finals

-> The Yonex Denmark Badminton Open was being held during the autumn break, and as my host family had such great interest in badminton, we went to watch a match. My host father and host sister were selected to play in different categories, but my host sister couldn't play because of a sprained ankle. We saw a lot of matches that day, including two matches with Indians (Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu) playing. It was the first time I had seen a professional badminton match in person and it's an experience I will never be able to forget. My host mom won three 'best seat tickets for the Denmark open finals. She gave me her ticket so I could watch the finals, and that's how I got to see the Denmark Open finals sitting as close to the court as possible. It was such a great day.

Harry Potter festival
The Forbidden Library

-> On Friday, I attended the HARRY POTTER FESTIVAL in Odense. I am a complete Potterhead, so this festival, was a dream come true for me. It was probably more fun for children, than teenagers, but there were a few things for people my age. The organisers arranged for so many things, and recreated a lot of the Harry Potter scenes. There were people dressed as Harry Potter characters walking all over the city. They had some really delicious candy at the Honeydukes shop. In short, I had an amazing day.

Harry Potter festival

-> I also went for a Harry Potter concert on Saturday. It was an orchestral concert, but I never expected it to be that great. They involved the orchestra in a little play that they had prepared with six main characters from the Harry Potter series.

A statue of H.C. Andersen

A room that brought H.C. Andersen's
most famous stories to life

-> On Tuesday, I visited the house of Hans Christian Andersen in Odense. H.C. Andersen was a famous author born in Odense, who wrote many popular children's tales, including The Ugly Duckling, The Princess and the Pea, The King's New Clothes and The Nightingale. It was a strange feeling, knowing that the storybooks that I had read as a child, were originally written in Danish.

I had an amazing week, and for some reason, that one week felt like so much time. I did so much more in this one week than I did in a month.

It's beginning to get dark earlier and the sun rises and the first light in my area is at around 7:15 in the morning. It's steadily getting colder, and there is a chance of the temperature reaching freezing point at night this month. Next week, the people in Denmark will set their clocks back an hour (I don't understand why) so it's probably going to be quite dark when I leave home.

Language check: I could understand about the first 10 sentences that the teacher said today. That counts as something, right? I can also speak slowly but fluently now, and reading and writing is becoming easier by the day.

Anyone living in my sponsor district in India (Dist. 3140), who wants to apply for the Rotary Youth Exchange Program, can follow this link to the preliminary form: Click here! People living in any other district or country can contact their local Rotary Club.

Have a nice autumn!

Month 2: Danish food!

Week 6, 7 & 8

The highlight of my sixth week in Denmark was the Rotary 1461 District Conference held in the town of Middelfart in Fyn on Saturday (19th September). District 1461 consists of Southern Jutland, Fyn and some surrounding islands. I am the only Indian in my district. It started early in the morning. We were instructed about the regular Exchange related problems and rules after breakfast. Later, we entered the conference room with our flags and banners, to the applause of the audience. We went onto the stage and held our flags and banners while a Winter 2015 Exchange student delivered a speech. We placed our flags on a stand on the stage and left. We went bridgewalking in the afternoon (yes, second time within one week for me). However, the weather was better this time and it was a different kind of fun doing the same thing with friends, so I didn't find it boring. We went back to the hotel after bridgewalking, entered the conference room again, but collected our flags this time, and exited. I felt really proud to be holding my country's flag. It oddly made me feel like I was really significant in the world. It was great fun meeting my friends again. Dinner was as 'normal' as it gets - burger and french fries.

District Conference

My seventh and eighth weeks in Denmark were nothing out of the ordinary. I joined the school choir, which was pretty fun, because I experienced learning a kind of music that I have never learned before. I made a few Indian dishes for my host family during this period of time.

An Indian dish - Chhole

Danish Food

Who doesn't like tasting food from a different country? Of course, being a vegetarian, I'm not able to taste a majority of the dishes, but they have a lot of vegetarian food as well!

1. Æbleskiver: It literally means 'apple slices'. They're basically mini pancake balls, but sometimes, they don't have apples in them.

2. Flødeboller: Just like the name suggests, they are 'cream balls', but with a slight twist. It's basically really soft cream, put on a thin biscuit, and coated with chocolate on the outside, which results in pure bliss when you bite into it.

How tempting does that look?

3. Rødgrød med fløde: It literally means 'red porridge with cream'. But before you move on to the next item, know, that it is much more delicious than porridge. You basically take some sstrawberry crush, and then pour cream into it. Lækker! (Delicious!) Rødgrød med fløde is also a very popular Danish tongue twister.

4. Tzatziki: It is actually a Greek dish, but it's eaten a lot in Denmark. It's quite similar to the Indian raita. Basically you put shredded or cubed cucumber and shredded garlic in yogurt and voila! Tzatziki is basically the spiciest thing I've tasted in Denmark.

5. Brunsviger: It's a special kind of cake eaten almost only on my Island (Fyn). It's a coffee cake with a layer of sugar coating on the top.

6. Remoulade: It is not a dish, but a sauce/Salad dressing. It's like a cross between mayonaise and mustard sauce and it's absolutely delicious.

6. Risengrød: It is a 'rice pudding' that people eat mostly during Christmas. I don't particularly like it, but it is a sweet rice pudding with cinnamonpowder sprinkled on top.

7. RUGBRØD: There is no way I could forget this Danish 'rye-bread'. It is the nightmare of every Exchange student in the beginning, but the Danes live on it, and apparently, Exchange student like it in the end as well.

Last but not the least...


8. Lakrids: Lakrids or 'liquorice' is a candy that every Danish person loves. Most Exchange student dislike it, but I love the taste! They have so many different kinds of lakrids - salty lakrids, sugar lakrids, lakrids tea...

That was almost all the Dansish food I have tasted till now (there are some things that I can't remember the names of). The Danish food is vastly different from Indian food but amazing in it's own way. In India, I thought that meat, rice and mashed potatoes defined Danish food, but it is so much more than that!



Language check: I'm able to read and frame quite a few whole sentances now. I can understand some things that people speak.

Week 5: School Trip

Week 5

Location of Thorø

My fifth week in the stunningly beautiful country of Denmark can be termed as quite eventful.
I went for a school trip with my class on Tuesday (8th Sept) and Wednesday (9th Sept) to a place called Thorø - a small landmass attached to the island Fyn. Being almost an island, there was water all around it. We stayed in a little building very close to the beach, so the view was simply stunning. While on the trip, we did some experiments like measuring the salt content in the water, finding the highest wind speed on the island, finding out the speed of sound and measuring the proximity to the equator. We had to cook the food, set the tables, clean the kitchen and maintain the toilets ourselves. Some of us swam in the very cold sea water in the evening; the sunset at Thorø was beyond breathtaking.



Sunset at Thorø

On Saturday (12th September), we went to a nearby town called Rolfsted to watch some bikers riding from Århus to Copenhagen stop by. We helped serve them some food and coffee to give them some energy to continue their journey. The total distance between Århus and Copenhagen is about 400 kilometres!





The bikers at Rolfsted

On Sunday (13th September), I went bridge walking with my host family on the Lillebælt bridge between Fyn and Jutland. We were 60 ft above mean sea level and had the most beautiful view of the underlying land and water. We could see the cars and trains passing under us. Even though I'm not afraid of heights, looking down gave me that feeling of vertigo I can't forget. It had been raining before we started, so it was pretty cold on the bridge. Despite that, it was a great experience. I'm going bridge walking again, this weekend, with Rotary. I hope it will be warmer this time.

I also had my first Gymnasium Party this week!

Language check: I'm beginning to understand some things that people speak in Danish, and I can also frame sentences and questions now! I'm able to read a lot of basic things easily now.



Week 3: Intro Camp - 24 hours of Danish

The mascot of Nørgaards Højskole -
Gudar

My intro camp started last Sunday. Intro camp is a 1 week program where all the exchange students meet and get introduced to the Danish language, culture, food and rules of the exchange program. Our intro camp was being held at a boarding school called Nørgaards Højskole. I'm just gonna give a day-wise summary of the intro camp.

Day 1
I took the train from the capital of my island, Odense, to the town of Bjerringbro on Jutland. I met a lot of other exchange students on the train. When we reached Bjerringbro, a bus picked us up from a railway station and took us to Nørgaards Højskole. I met my two Indian friends when we reached and we were accommodated into the same room. After we were comfortable in our rooms, we were sorted into our classrooms and toured the school with our teachers. It was a really amazing boarding school; it had a huge dining hall, a living room, a lecture hall, a party hall, a gymnasium, a billiards room, a bar room, a students play room, a volleyball court and a beautiful garden. After the tour, we went to the lecture hall for a short presentation on the Rotary Youth Exchange and, of course, the 4 D's. The 4 D's are basically four things that we are not allowed to do while on the exchange - drinking, driving, dating & drugs. After a quick dinner, we went for a walk to a small picnic spot.

India meets Mexico

Day 2
We woke up early, ate breakfast and had a short assembly in the lecture hall, after which we went to our classes for Danish lessons. We started with basics and by the end of the first three hours, we were completely mentally exhausted. After the lunch break, we had Danish lessons for 3 hours again. Later, we had a number of activities we could choose from - Michael Jackson choir, Filipino stick fighting, street basketball, Salsa workshop, Danish higgle workshop, etc. I decided to go with Filipino stick fighting. It turned out to be a really fun and interesting form of self defence!

Bonfire

Day 3
We had the same schedule for most of the day. In the evening, we had a bonfire and rock climbing (optional). It was really cold, as it had been raining almost the entire day, and my hands were numb by the time I was back on the ground after rock climbing. We sang songs and talked till it was curfew time.

Day 4

Velvet Volume

Again, we had the same schedule for majority of the day. In the afternoon, we learned about being a teenager in Denmark. We discussed what 'normal' teenagers do in Denmark. It was interesting to know how different teenage life was in Denmark and in other countries. In the evening, we had a concert with the Danish girl band Velvet Volume. They were extremely talented danced and enjoyed ourselves that night. I also figured out, that day, that Ludo (if you don't know what it is, you should really try it) is an extremely popular board game here.

The fog room installation display at ARoS

ARoS

Day 5
On the fifth day of intro camp, we went to the second biggest city in Denmark, Århus, for sightseeing. We visited the art museum ARoS, one of the best art museums I have ever seen. It had a large amount of installation displays (they're basically displays that need you enter them for you to see the art). The museum followed a theme of Dante's nine spaces of hell in the basement, which had nine installation displays. As you went higher in the building, the artwork became more positive. On the roof, was a rainbow coloured passageway, which signified heaven. We went into 3 installation displays: a mirror illusion room, a fog room and the rainbow passageway on top of ARoS. Later, we were allowed to walk around the city.

Sculpture of a humongous
lifelike boy

In the evening, again, we could choose between various activities. I was tired after the long day in Århus, so I decided to sit in the lecture hall and talk about why Denmark was the happiest country in the world. It was an interesting evaluation done by the people in a video shown to us. Click here to see the video

Day 6 and Day 7

After Danish lessons that day, we had a send-off party. We had dance and music till midnight and most of us slept quite late.

The next morning, we met in the lecture hall for a farewell speech, said goodbye to the other exchange students and our teachers, and left for our homes.

Intro camp was an amazing experience. It opened my eyes to the culture of countries around the world. It was frustrating and entertaining to hear people speaking in their own languages and beautiful seeing the colourful flags of so many countries together. It made me realise the reason why exchange students exist - no matter what the political relations in these countries are, we exist to promote friendships between people in these diverse countries. We exist to show, that no matter how many political boundaries exist between countries, we can be the threads binding the small friendships between these countries; yes, w may be just students, but we are not insignificant, because we could be the ambassadors representing our countries, showing others how amazing our countries truly are.

1 Month Observations - Denmark

I've been in Denmark for ONE WHOLE MONTH now! I've had some of the most amazing experiences of my life here in only a month. I've been meeting new and different people for a month now. I haven't seen anyone I've known my whole life for a month now. I've been away from my family for a month now. I've been hearing people speak a foreign language for a month now. I've been learning the Danish language for a month now. I've been a member of my host family for a month now. I've been living in a small town for a month now. And most of all, I've been in love with Denmark for a month now. Yes, Denmark is a small, but stunningly beautiful country with the happiest people in the world. It may have high taxes, but it also has no poor people and free education & healthcare. I've written down a few things I realised about Denmark in this one month from the point of view of an Indian.

The exchange students to Denmark this year

• You wouldn't believe it's the happiest country in the world when you're walking on the street - it's almost like smiling at a stranger in a public place is banned.
• The people can appear to be really cold at first, but once you get to know them, they can be the nicest people in the world.
• They drink a lot of beer.
• Everything cost double the price of that in Mumbai.
• Carrots in everything - everything.
• They love meat (which makes things difficult for vegetarians like me).
• There are no school buses but there are public buses used by students of different schools.
• Everyone waits for the signal to turn green before crossing; even if there are no cars on the road.
• There are special traffic signals for cars, bikes and people.
• They party hard.
• They wear only black, grey and/or white clothes.
• A lot of High Schools are called Gymnasiums.
• No word sounds like it looks.
• In school, it's up to you to study. The teachers don't shout at you if you don't study or come late to school.

Representing my country

Honestly, I can't imagine it's been a month already. It still feels like I've been here for only two weeks. Although, at the same time, I've done so much here, it feels like more than one month should have passed by now. I don't miss my family much yet, but there are moments when I just feel like going home and hugging them. The Danes are such warm and welcoming people; it would have been next to impossible for me to adjust into living in Denmark if I didn't have a great host family, counsellor and class. I can't wait to hygge in Denmark.

And, of course, the customary sentence in the host country's language to conclude the post:

Jeg kan lide Danmark. Vi ses næste uge.

Hej hej!