Hello again, I'm already up to 200 pageviews! Thank you so much to everyone who takes the time to read my blog. It means so much to me that someone out there is keeping up to date on my exchange. I hope you like it!
I am exactly 4,312 miles away from home for approximately 10 months. Most days are great and I absolutely love everything. But some days I just want to crawl back into bed and hibernate for the rest of the year. Monday mornings, bad hair days, and when my host parents cook something that's not my favorite make me want to be home. These are all little, insignificant things that really affect my mood. But looking at all of those things, they would happen whether I was in India, Australia, or even home. Bad days are bound to happen no matter where you are, that's just life.
I've been talking a lot about school here, but I have never described how it works. For starters, it's on a block schedule. Which means each class is an hour and 40 minutes long. Now we don't have the same classes every day, some days we have two classes and some days we have four. There is no definite schedule, so I need to check every night what classes I have the next day. Some times classes get canceled (that would be the cause of the less than four classes a day). Also, a class is never in the same room twice. You constantly need to check your schedule to make sure you are going to the right classroom. In order to find out your schedule, you need something called Lectio. Lectio is a website/app that has your schedule, daily homework, and messages from your teacher/classmates on it. It's a fantastic app, but I haven't quite figured it all out because it's in Danish.
This past week we had some guests in our English class. One was a group from Spain, and the other was a group from Austria. They were here Monday to Friday to observe Danish culture with their English teacher. These groups came into our class and we broke off into small groups with one Spaniard or Austrian per group. We were given a sheet with questions on them such as "What does religion mean in your country" or "What are some political issues in your country right now". Everyone had to answer on behalf of their country. My favorite part of having these foreign guests was that it united me with my fellow classmates, we were all excited to learn about this new culture. Also, these special guests had no clue I wasn't a Danish student, until I spoke with an American (Minnesotan) accent. That was a happy moment for me, for once I fit in here instead of standing out.
Usually when I talk to an exchange student, they talk about how much they are going to drink and party. Every time I heard someone say "Oh man, you are going to drink SO much on exchange!"
it made me vaguely uncomfortable. As a general rule, I don't like drinking. I never have. Before I came, I began to get more and more worried what my exchange would be like if I didn't drink and party like the rest. Would I not make friends? Would my entire exchange be spent sitting home alone on Friday nights? Well the answer came to me this last Friday night. Some friends and I wandered around Copenhagen, no real plans but to go to Nyhavn. We wandered aimlessly around and eventually stumbled upon a small pizza shop off the main road. After examining the prices, we decided to get some pizza. As we were eating, we came to the realization of what exchange really is. It's finding your way in the city and finding somewhere to eat that isn't a tourist trap. It's all about acting like a local. The next day a friend and I wandered around Gillijelle and found an adorable coffee shop to sit at. At that moment we both agreed that this was what being on exchange was REALLY about; living like the locals.
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