"Hej og tusin tak til dig! Hej hAbeT du bar den fint ar! leg har Irerd mal, med min udvexlings til Danmark! Hello and thank you! I hope you have had a good year. I have learned a lot and had a wonderful time with my exchange to Denmark!
Denmark! Home of the oldest monarchy in Europe, the two best beers in the world - Carlsberg and Tuborg - buildings that go back to the very Vikings that ruled all of Scandinavia thousands of years ago, the country that was taken over in WW2 by a telegram. The very country that I can call my second home. Denmark has just over five million people and can easily fit into Hudson's Bay or is approximately 25 times smaller than Ontario. Copenhagen is the Capital, and I lived just a one hour drive to the island I lived on, Mon.
Mon, has approximately 6 000 people and was a very big change for me, no large buildings, no train system, just cars, our bikes and regional buses, but the toughest thing I found about Mon, and most of Denmark, is that everything goes quiet when all the shops close for the day, by 6pm. But the best thing about Mon was the Nabisco factory - they make the world wide supply of Danish Butter Cookies, and every morning when I woke up, it smelled so good!
My first host family, Karen & Kurt Skov lived in the main town of Moo, named Stege - a town with no more than 2 000 people. We lived on the outskirts of town, and my backyard turned into one of the many sugar beet, wheat, and potato farms that cover the island. I had two host siblings, but I was never able to meet them, as Christina was in India as an Exchange Student, and my host brother Kennet was in Copenhagen studying to become a doctor. Karen was a cook at one of the many old age homes around the island, and my host father, Kurt, was an employment officer for the community. There is a little saying, that one of my exchange student friends passed on to me, right before I left: You will always feel like you are four years old at the beginning of your year because you have no language, and someone always takes your hand, and guides you to where you need to go, and more often than not, you have no idea what is going on. It perfectly explains my first month. I was completely lost, and, until now, I only realize what I had learned. Karen brought me out shopping, and to the many historical sites all over Mon, the Royal Castle, the White Cliffs, and the beautiful white sand beaches. Kurt taught me how to fish and cook eel, how to garden the perfect potatoes, and what it is like to watch the sunrise over the horizon in the middle of the Baltic Sea. This was my first week in Denmark, because the six letter word that an exchange student cringes at was quickly approaching "School."
Vordingborg Gymnasium - VU for short was the name of my high school. The Danish school system is either a two- or three-year high school program, and most graduate by the time they are 19 or 20. VU has about 1000 students, coming from as far away as 45 km. I was put in a first year class to help me integrate, but because first year students are trying to find themselves around the school, the administration suggested I move up a year to the second year classes. My new class became my best friends and some as close as a brother or sister to me. The Danish system has the teachers travel to a classroom, so you are with the same people for your entire high school career. Every second year class chooses three subject teachers to travel anywhere in the world, as long as it is in budget for the school. My class had already chosen to go to Toronto, but because every person has a voice in the decision, I told my three teachers, and my classmates that it was too close to my hometown, and would hurt my exchange experience as a whole - I was then put on the spot to try to find a place to go: I picked Rome. So for March break, while my classmates and friends in Canada, sat in the cold... I was in shorts and t-shirt in Rome! Rome was one of the most amazing experiences in all of my exchange, not only did I get to see the forum, coliseum, and learn about the Romans - but I got to do all this, and give my first school presentation, in Danish, to my teachers and my best friends. Rome had taught me about my class, and hit home, that I was in Italy, I was no where near Canada, and even though it was March, I realized, I am on exchange and, I can do this!
In November, I had to change host families, so I moved from the 'city' to the country- with Ivan & Lene Luffe. The Luffe's lived in the middle of two very big sugar beet fields, out in the middle of the island. Ivan is an entrepreneur and he owns a very big company, called Fluggar Farver - it is a paining company- he also owns a beer brewery, three restaurants a, hair salon, bakery and ice creme shop along with three clothing stores. He is well known all over Denmark, not for how successful he is, but because he isn't your typical Dane. My second host father looked like Erik the Red! He has a very long red beard, he is tall, and strong - and he drives a Harley. A lot of my exchange friends, and even my Danish friends were afraid of him but he was the nicest person I have ever met. Along with Ivan and Lene, I had three host sisters. This was a difference for me because, my first host family had none at home, so as you could imagine, they kept me busy. The youngest Natashja, is 12, and she was in love with me, I could be reading a book, or doing some school homework, and she would sit on my bed, and stare at me - We couldn't communicate very well, until, her English teacher suggested that we teach each other Danish/English, so for the whole time that I lived with my second host family, I taught English to my younger host sister, and four of her friends, at the same time, they would be teaching me Danish, this happened three hours every week - and my Danish came along very quickly.
I spent Christmas with my second host family, it was a tough time being away from home, but also very exciting with all the Christmas traditions - here are just a few: On the first, many children and families get Julekalender- Christmas Calendars. It is a very big thing in Denmark to count down to the 24th. There are calendars with Chocolate, little prizes and many scratch cards where you can win money. December 24th, I woke up to a very simple plain house, with no snow and no decorations - my image of a bleak Danish Christmas would soon be erased, at around 4 pm, Natashja and I, went down the road to cut down a Christmas tree. As soon as we got back, and we decorated the tree - the decorations in Denmark are very special as most of them are home-made. There are Hearts, and cones, and snow flakes, and of course a star. They do not put lights on the tree, instead - they have candles! With a big bucket of water in case the tree catches on fire. Christmas Dinner which includes: pork, with salted skin on it, red cabbage spiced and cooked, duck, and of course potatoes. You also Dance and sing around the Christmas tree, its very special, and then you open presents. The whole experience of Christmas is finished by around 1 pm.
Ivan and Lene surprised the family Christmas morning that we would be going to Spain for a week in February to see Carnival, and go skiing. It was a great experience, and I got to see a lot of interesting things in Spain, with my host family. Although I do not ski, I learned very quickly - I've never been to a mountain range before in my life, so the views were breathtaking.
As soon as we arrived home from Spain, it was time for me to move to my final host family. This was very difficult for me, because Ivan and Lene were mom and dad to me, and we did a lot, and a lot of fun, but I soon learned that my new host family would be just as fun. I moved back into Stege, and into my third and last host family, Peter Meller and Jytte French. Peter is the deputy mayor, and city planner, and Jytte is a History and Danish professor at the Copenhagen University. They live on a very special street on Moo, called Grreskevej - because all the houses have a name, and with this street, it is a Greek name, we lived in house Zeta. I had two host brothers, and one host sister who were much older, but they would often come home to visit, and we got along quite well. My third host family made a rule, no English, at all, and I have to admit, it was tough, because Danes fall back on English quite a lot, and so, my Danish improved well.
I was not home a lot with Peter and Jytte, because, I was volunteering for a number of things around Denmark, and even just our little island. Once a week, I would cut the grass of three elderly ladies that lived in town, I also volunteered four times a week at a Theatre School for Disabled youth from the ages of 18- 21. They had mild to medium mental disabilities, and some of them were just slow learners. It was such a rewarding experience, and is one of my best from my year. I remember once, going in, and having a bad day - and Daniel, one of the closer students to me, asked what was wrong, and I told him that my Danish wasn't coming along, and I was just having one of those, exchange student bad days - He turned to me, and said 'That's ok Mike, sometimes I have trouble remembering my Danish too' It made me melt inside, and is a story, that made my year worth it. And, If I wasn't cutting grass or volunteering, I spent a lot of my time at the giant chalk cliffs at the edge of the island. I would write in my journal, or take pictures, or just to watch the sunset.
My final days in Denmark, were action packed, with school ending, exams, Rotary meetings, and finally saying goodbye, and packing all of my worldly belongings again to come back to Canada. In my year, I learned that, there are so many things to see, places to visit, and people to meet, you become overwhelmed, but if you look at it in another prospective, there are 22 countries I now have friends in, the world is really a small place. I have learned that I can do anything I dream, because dreams, as long as you work on them, can happen. I would just like to Thank you, for sponsoring me, and giving me the year, that no one can take away from me, and as we say in Danish - Tusin Tusin mal tak (Thank you, very very much).