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 :)
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
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
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
Monday, January 23, 2012
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 :)
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 :)
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