What goes around comes around..

We all knew that this was coming, leaving was all part of the deal when becoming an exchange student. It's funny how leaving comes as such a big surprise even though we get an entire year to accept the fact that sooner or later we leave (We even know the date!).
I'm okay, even though the title I put up might make it seem otherwise.. I seriously can't believe how long its been and it hasn't gone fast at all, I've done more in this year than a bunch of my other years in New Zealand put together (even though this year involved practically no homework or school work whatsoever! :D) I've learnt in different ways though! ... I think.
The question that people keep asking me is of course: "Are you looking forward to coming home??" Now I think this question has hidden consequences in it. If I say "yes" that might mean that I don't want to be in Denmark anymore or that I didn't have a good enough year to want to stay longer. So I tend to just say "noooo" I would stay here for ever and ever if I could even though I really am a little excited to come home. It just sucks that it costs like 2000NZD's to get back here ( I would just be from the country that is the absolute furthest away from Denmark as it could be! haha) It's for this reason that I hate all of the exchange students from Europe, all they need to do is take a train or something for a couple Euros to get back to Denmark! So I guess that's one of the hardest things: I have to say goodbye to people I've known for a year knowing that I might not see them again for another 3-4 years (or possibly never).
Plus I'm not even sure how things are going to be back in New Zealand again, people are going to university so I kinda need to make a new life for myself again. But it's really sweet that I get home in the summer! holidays! (hah take that Danish winter ... ) That could be either really awesome or really rubbish for me.. If I can get a job I should be busy enough to keep me from just sleeping and playing xbox for a month, but because people are moving away I'm not sure if I'll even have friends to see.
Ah well thats for me to deal with muuuuch later :) Right now Denmark is awesome! With all the Christmas parties and goodbyes I have heaps to do. Plus I'm enjoying speaking Danish while I can, I don't think New Zealand is a great place to live if I want to speak Danish... But fuck it YOLO ( yes I just said that.. Deal with it!)

Happy last month exchange students! make it count! 

3.d (shit just got real)

Haha this blog thing really didn't work out for me... 8 months in and I've only posted like 4 times. I can kinda speak Danish now I think. I think people are just getting used to understanding my retarded way of speaking the Danish language haha. When we first got back from the summer holidays, I was getting a lot of 'what?' and 'en gang til (one more time)', but people seem to be just going with what I say now :D  I really could be putting more effort into it right now, my effort peaked around 5 months into my exchange. I'm relying so much on learning Danish by just speaking it all the time.There are still a persistent few that still insist on speaking English to me, I don't give them shit about it though. Ditching English entirely as a language was never gonna be really possible in a country like Denmark. people have got it in their minds that I speak English and its time for all their English training to pay off :)
I think I've been here long enough to be able to say: I like Denmark :) and it would be really awesome to live here at one stage :D after I get the language completely down of course! Until you get that sorted, living in Denmark could be a very lonely affair. I'm not saying the Danes are bad at accepting foreign people into society, of course they feel more 'at home' with other Danish people. But of course I was given this impression coming in as an outsider, to a small country. I have to like Denmark mostly for the people! :) Danish teenagers are like the most trendy fashionably sensible bastards out there! They know what looks good and they somehow have the money to get it. Take my class for example, a couple of weeks ago in New York they were all pretty much going crazy with buying clothes. I was feeling embarrassed to be seen outside (in the same old clothes from Denmark), when all my classmates were rocking the American look! Nike shoes, blazers, Chuck Taylor's, Levis and more Nike shoes (seriously I was like the only one missing a big tick or an N on my shoes!).
New York was pretty amazing though, and aside from walking around with dead feet in the scorching sun was a blast. It was funny to be literally with my classmates 24/7 from getting on that plane in Copenhagen to getting back in Kolding, I learnt a lot about what the people in my class were really like :) Now we're back, and returning to normal life once again. It's getting colder too, and I'm still very much hoping that I will get some snow before I return to the warm tropics of New Zealand in December.
Here's hoping :D

Next up on the exchange?

Ok so today i found out that i would be switching host families soon, I've been going back and forth about changing and finally came to a decison. So as I asked my support person to change, the next night my host parents told me that they wanted me to leave as well, lol. Yeah it was pretty funny and only a little awkward. I'm glad it ended happily enough.
I know that I really should be blogging more, and in Danish (haha) guess I'm just a little lazy with this type of thing. Either way I'm sure that these four months in Denmark have been some of the best of my life. This has pretty much been because my class of my class (2.d <3). I mean I get called names like imigrant, paki mostly by Jan... and Distgusting by Philip on a daily basis ;) just to keep things intresting i guess :P but then they get all touchy emotional about me being in Denmark when their a little drunk haha.
I've had this really annoying 'no drinking rule' with the Damborgs recently, dont ask me why...? but its still really awkward when my classmates actually want to drink with me. (especially Mia for some reason...?) haha. But now that im changing host familes its fair to assume that I can drink from now on, HEAR THAT GUYS?? i can Drink :D (not that its too important to me..)
So pretty much my entire exchange is about to change, with changing famlies and someone going back to Germany, I wonder how the next couple months will be...

Hitting 2 months

So I've been in Denmark for about 2 months now, they time is passing so easily now I really cant believe its already been months since I left New Zealand. Its getting hard to drop some communication with home, and Im always talking about New Zealand as well. My birthday just passed, the Danish way of waking someone up on their bday was pretty damn awesome! My host family wandered into my room waving Danish flags (which they seem to have heaps of...) singing the danish Birthday song, which is (to be honest) sooo much cooler than the English one.. Then straight after breakfast was already prepared with heaps of presents on the table (prezzie eyes.jpg) I thought most of the presents were just decoration, but I was pleasantly surprised :D  and completly blown away with the presents I got from my host family ;)
It was also cool because I got a bunch of letters and gifts from home, including a All Blacks jersey :) which is awesome.
At the AFS camp a couple weeks ago, all the exchange students talked about their class and some of the stuff they do and I was like: BITCH PLEASE my class does way crazier shit than that! (cough..cough.. Philip.. Thomas..) My class has been really awesome even though I turned up at a funny time when there have been arguments, misunderstandings and heated discussions between my classmates. They have still accepted me into the class, and how did I do that? I made them cupcakes with Signe (a classmate) :D its like so important for them somehow..
Recently I lost my bike keys and Im only getting new ones later today, its like I've been handicapped for a week... Its impossible to do anything without it, I've been bothering my host sister, Julie to borrow hers. But finally I get my wheels back tonight :)
Overall this has been a great 2 months, I just need to make more time for learning Danish. I'm gonna start bothering my host family to help me with it more. But to be honest Im understanding a lot more than I ever thought I would after about 2 months, plus Ive already taught my (real) sister how to insult in Danish :D
Plus my host family are really cool and nice to me, I really need to make more time to spend with them. Its just hard sometimes because people come and go in the house so often and sit in their room with the door closed. Which I have gotten used to, but I constantly ask myself what they're getting out of my exchange and I can never think of much. Except prehaps their English is getting a lot better.

Austria: Part 2

Ok, I've been super busy and tired recently so I'm sorry this is so damn late.
We stayed in this little inn/house thingie, that had like a half metre of snow on the roof at all times, which made for good snowball fight times :D Most nights after skiing we went to a crazy ass Austrian bar, which had everything; It had people smoking (weird), random flashing lights and annoying music that went: PUT YOUR HANDS UP IN THE AIR (and repeated). I also tried a famous Austrian drink that tasted like warm wine, yeah I'm pretty sure thats exactly what it was heh. Another drink I tried was a shot, that had 3 different layers of alcohol and was lit on fire!
The next couple days of skiing were crack up because I started to feel like a pro because I was going fast without crashing or anything. But apparently I was doing it wrong.. I was leaning back which screws up your breaking. It took me about 3 days to sort that out, then I could start going on the harder slopes. But even though I was on hard slopes i was going slower than kids that were like 12! haha.
But on Wednesday we couldnt get up to the top of the mountain because of a snow storm, so we went up to the middle site and skiied down to the town. But thats all we could do, so we ended up watching movies the rest of the day. Sadly the next day we wernt allowed up at all so we had one day left to enjoy the slopes.
That day we went down the one of the hardest slopes, which was awesome :D
Then we had an award ceremony which I got a freaken gold medal for slalom (like a boss). We took off back to ole Denmark the next day, this time we went through Germany it was daylight, I actually saw the country haha. Seeing Germany was really weird because the weather conditions were completly different in different parts of the country because its that huge. We started out in snow and ended in Autumn like weather. Overall the trip was so damn great I wish I could go again ;)

The taste of Austrian snow.. Part one:

So as school ended, and I quietly made my way home. I was abruptly greeted by my host family, who were rushing to get ready to leave for Austria. I  followed suit and finished packing my things. At this stage I was still quite keen for a 12hr car drive through Germany as I thought it would be peaceful after a trying week.... how wrong I was :) It was dark and uncomfortable to sit down for so long, but it was still quite fun just talking to my host family, most of the way, until everyone got tired ;)  along with slow stops to get food and pee. In Germany you have to pay to use the toliets, so this was one of my greatest public toliet experiences :) I was driving through fricken Germany and it was too dark to see anything... it was like a tour of Germanys service stations haha. we arrived in Neukirchen, Austria at 6am, with very little sleep. I assumed that we would relax for a while and possibly sleep.... But nooooo we were up on the mountain by 8am haha (which ended up for the best), after getting ski equipment rented etc. The woman who helped me choose my ski equipment, was in a frenzy to get the entire skiing clubs gear rented at once. I told her: Okay i only speak English noooooooo German,comprende??(lol, no i wasnt that mean) she then proceeded to speak german to me when she said she spoke English... so i just smiled and waved :)
when sitting in the gondola for the first time I got freaked, looking down as the small town got smaller and smaller rattled my cage (heh heh). Once we got to the top and stepped out onto the slopes, I was hit with the coldest air I have ever felt! My toes and fingers shriveled along with something else.... (lol). I think i stood out there for like 5mins maybe, and I already felt like crying all the way back to New Zealand. But when we got inside to the restaurant, I had the most satisfying cup of hot chocolate with cream and a pep talk from Ida, Julie and Ole, I was ready to give going outside another go.
Moving with my skis on was so damn frustrating at first, partly due to my feet were a size 45 and i had been given 74 (for #¤%" sake!). So I embarrassed myself with my skiing, i could barley keep my skis from sliding down the slopes... So after my first ski lesson which was hard work,  but it needed to be done I guess. I went down the lift to the small town (and finally mastered my fear of gondolas! thank you) to change my boots out for ones that actually fit me. Only problem is: I had only seen the town at night time and only recognized which was the right direction. After some dodgy directions from one of the locals, i managed to get myself further lost! somehow I found the place that we rented the ski stuff from. This time I was meet with much better service by someone who had been to New Zealand (angel from heaven I swear!)and understood me when I said: *These boots are way too big*, not like the last lady... I then headed up the mountain again only to enjoy some more hot chocolate, ski for 20mins and come back down again :)
Overall it was one of the most intense 48hrs ever, and so satisfying :)

1st couple weeks at school

Hope my classmates dont know about this blog.... haha. In Denmark you have one class for all of your subjects (yes almost like year 9 and 10 in NZ :P). This can either work out in your favor, if you like or class. Or the other way around. Luckily my class is cool but mostly very different to me, this is alguds though. Also in my class is a Danish guy who went to Australia with AFS and picked up a crappy Australian accent :D So yeah i pull out the Aussie accent to talk to him aswell.
To be honest what we were told by Rasmus (at the Danish camp) was so right about Danish teenagers, they are like coconuts... (a very small amount of people will get this.... :P) but are really cool if your out-going and try to talk to them. My Danish at the moment is in an awkward stage, I can say somethings but mostly with the odd word in English, and even then I have to wait to pick my times to say something. Because I dont speak Danish too often people can become confused if i say something in Danish, thinking it must have been something in English.
My classmates can also be lol gross... but aparantly thats normal here, many jokes about dead babies spring to mind. But its really funny that when they want to insult someone they swap to english because it sounds so much more... insulting supposidly :) Everyone in the school eat together in the cafeteria with their classes, and there is a heiracy of year level in place. Except for the IB students(English speaking students) who sit alone away from everyone, which is sad. Luckily I'm not an IB student so it doesnt bother me...
Oh yeah and the girls are hot..... yeah :P

Exchange buddies

And I met some amazing New Zealanders and Austrailians on the way, whom were awsome and kept me in line when I insulted the crappy Danish milk.. (believe me... shit) Exchange buddies are the best kind of buddies ;D I found that when in a country far from home, Aussies and Kiwis group up and make the most noise :@ And bleed together lolol

Into the frozen tundra

Arrived in Denmark all but a week ago, still with the sensation of jetlag..
My three day camp was the least tiring part of my trip in progress as everyone spoke english, the only mind boggler was the cold and driving on the right (wrong) :D side of the road. Still the living quarters were shit, I was almost happy to leave it every morning for a cold communal shower.... Almost :P
Really laxed trip on the train from Copenhagen to Kolding, which was nice but with the sad weather kinda dreary..
The people I've meet so far have had little respect for where they are on the world, Austria has already been described to me as boring and sad :@. Yeah I couldn't believe it! When I got off the train the station was empty, we then noticed a crowd of running people screaming around the corner, twas crack up.After a fast array of pictures being taken (seriously fast! I felt paparazzi'd) We rushed into the car, I don't know exactly why we rushed but what the hell :).
The following day was to be the critical tour of Kolding itself, wit Ida (my host mum). We went to the town square, and the Kolding castle, which was boss. I didnt get any pics tho cause my camera was screwing up :P But the walk around the castle with a semi frozen lake surrounding it, was Amazing!
 First day at school was intense, walking into the classroom and getting stared off. I did a little speech about New Zealand (including sheep of cource :D).
I must say I was expecting people to want to speak more English to me, either some people don't like me or are unsure of their English, either way only time will tell ><.
I'm constantly exhausted mostly from listening to a language I don't understand and jetlag. My host family are really great and include me by speaking English sometimes. Thats how i know people are talking to me, they swap to English :)