One of the main things you need to learn on exchange is, people are going to tell you that the way you are doing things is wrong. The way you approach school work, make friends, learn the language...there are going to be a handful of people who will tell you everyday that you're not doing anything right. On these days you just need to stand up straight, look them in the eye and tell them you're doing just fine. Not everyone is going to accomplish goals the same way, and not everybody has the same goals. Maybe someone's goal is to make one good friend, and the other's is to make 10 good friends. Some may just go to school for the social aesthetic. People are going to do things their own way, and that's okay.
The absolute hardest part of this experience has been the language. Some days I actually contemplate the theory of language, I will be staring at a person speaking Danish and think "They are making sounds, that I don't understand and its a language?!"
Some days it just utterly baffles me the way language works. For my person language learning experience, its been rough. At this point in time I can understand quite a bit of simple questions, I know important phrases, and the basics of sentence structure. That's all great, but there's one problem, I won't try and speak Danish. I am so self conscious about my pronunciation. I KNOW I need to speak it, but I need to get over my insecurity. With the other exchange students, we speak a hilarious mix of Danish and English. We all feel better looking stupid in front of each other because we're all in the same boat. Everyday I try to speak a tiny bit more Danish, whether it's saying good morning to my classmates or telling the cashier at Netto that I don't speak Danish. It's not much, but at least I'm trying.
I've been here for six weeks already, I am not devastated about missing anyone...except my sister. She was the one person I saw Every. Single. Day. This is the longest I've gone without seeing her. I'm not going to lie, it's hard some days. Especially her very first day of high school, on that day it was all I could do to not break down crying in the middle of class. That day was once in a lifetime, and I missed it. I feel like a horrible person because of it. She was the last person I hugged when I left the USA and she will be the first I hug when I get back. I miss her more than anything in the world. As clique as it may sound, she was/is/will always be my best friend.
Since I have been avoiding this subject for quite some time, I think I will finally address it. In the schools here in Denmark, there are NO dress codes. Nothing that says skirts/shorts need to be this long, or that you can't wear tank tops. At first, I generally didn't notice. Until a classmate wore a tank top to class one day. So I asked someone about dress codes at the school. I had a huge grin when my classmate replied that there wasn't any. Three things I have noticed about not having a dress code; 1. Everyone still dresses in a respectful manner, nobody dresses in a "distasteful" way. 2. IT DOES NOT DISTRACT THE MALE STUDENTS!!!! That right there is 99% of the reason high schools in the USA claim to enforce the dress code. I have never once seen or heard of a male student or facility member having a problem with the female's choice of dress. These sexist pigs need to STOP sexualizing young women's bodies. 3. It's an awesome feeling to be able to wear a skirt and not fear getting in big trouble for it. So bottom line is, there is no actual need to have a dress code. They only exist because of sexist pigs who over sexualize and objectify women's bodies.
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