These first couple weeks have been jam-packed with activity and and exciting things. I was met at the Billund airport by my counsellor Jette, my host mum Anne and my host sister Antonia who is a German exchange student. It was so nice to see familiar faces after a long journey to Denmark. Overall flight time was around 25 hrs so I was pretty ready for bed. After an hour to hour and a half drive to my house in Odder, I had some dinner and talked for a little while then headed to bed about 12am and got a solid 11hr sleep. The rest of the day was pretty relaxed and Anne and I started to look at applying for my visa but everything was so confusing.
We had to get up pretty early to get everything ready to leave for Germany around 9am. Anders's biggest hobby is hunting so this trip was for the reason of catching up with a big group of friends and going hunting. To get to Germany it was a 5hr drive and it killed my legs, but the scenery was beautiful so compromises I guess haha. When we arrived at their house there, I was lost for words. It was MASSIVE. For privacy reasons I cannot show photos of this house but I'll try describe it as best as I can. It was red brick with old exposed wooden posts for the exterior. There were three stories to the house and had a big turning bay at the front of the house. Inside there was the typical Scandy wooden floors, kitchen cupboards, stairs etc all made from the wood of the trees in their forest. Things relating to hunting such as antlers from deer and decorative animal heads lined the walls which was just amazing to look at. In their library/ study area they had a big fire place which added to the cosy "hygge" feel to this home. I'd say there were about 16-20 bedrooms and a beautiful black piano situated on the second floor landing area. Outside they had a deer enclosure where they had wild deer. They have one tame deer called Elenor and an alpacca called Kendrick Llama. That's the best I can do for you guys so onto what we got up to over the three days. As we arrived around 3pm we had to help with the last of the set up before the 42 guests arrived. Antonia and I played cards for a couple hours while we waited for people to arrive which was fun. At 6pm we had to get changed into our "classy" clothes for dinner and then we headed down to everyone. Dinner was a mushroom soup for entree, boar schnitzel and deer for main and a lava/mudcake thing for dessert with salted caramel ice-cream. It was so much fun but I was really tired so it was hard to keep talking to everyone. There were people that played tunes on a horn for each of the animals as a sign of respect for the animals or something along those lines. The next day everyone went hunting except for Anne, Antonia, myself and two other ladies. We went into their deer enclosure and said hello to Elenor and Kendrick then made our way to an old church down the street. Around 12 we met with the hunters at another house for lunch and then went back to their house again. They finished hunting around 4pm and brought all the animals back on trailers and even used a digger because there wasn't enough room on the trailers. 70 animals were shot in total which was a lot. The horn players played the tunes again for each species of animal and then we had a party in the barn with mad (food), øl (beer) and Flødeboller. That was the end of the day and the next day we just had our long drive home. I had my first day of school the next day (21st Jan) which was really cool. The school assigned me 2 buddies that have all of the same classes as me and they're really nice. I am now a part of their friend group in class and everything which has been good to meet a lot of new people and start to make some friends. Most of my teachers are really nice. Tuesday (22nd Jan) was my first Rotary meeting which was a bit crazy. I had to meet 60 members so I was repeating "Hi nice to meet you! Yes I'm great thank you, and yourself? That's good! Hi.." It was tiring but I got to meet my other 2 host families which was cool. The night was also a wine tasting so I got to participate in that. Quite a few people from the club had been to NZ already so that was nice to talk to some people about that. Thursday to Sunday I had my intro camp which was so much fun! Everyone from the winter team (people that arrived in January like myself) went to Bjerringbro where we stayed in a Højskole. There are 26 of us: 3 from NZ, 4 from Argentina, 2 from Brazil and 17 from Australia. I became really close to 3 Australian girls, Teagan, Zaza and Lexie and we did nearly everything together in our spare time. The intro camp consisted of Danish language lessons, Danish games, Hygge, Soccor, Music, food and a big party. It even snowed while we were there so we had a massive snowball fight which was so much fun. I was covered in snow and my hands were blocks of ice but you couldn't wipe the smile off my face. Zara, Lexie and I were really close by the time we had to say goodbye which was sad but we talk everyday and have plans to meet up soon and eat Tim Tams and cheetos haha. My time so far has been nothing short of amazing and I have made such great friends already; both with Danes and other exchange students. On Saturday I am babysitting my neighbour's puppies which are so cute! And next Tuesday I am giving my full presentation to my Rotary club so I'm quite nervous about it but so excited to show them my amazing country that I miss so much. Enjoy the small amount of photos I have been taking (surprise, I know). I've been too busy in the moment to remember to take photos but I hope you are all doing well and soaking up the sun. Until next time, vi ses!
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Day 1 (12th Jan) - Wow. What a start to my exchange. After all the hard goodbyes and continuous streams of tears, everything started. There was no time to think about what people were doing back there or how they were going to be when they got home because we were so caught up in each other and making it to the gate. None of us really knew each other apart from those in our district, so there was a lot of mingling and questions. By the time we came to our seats in the plane we were pretty comfortable with everyone. All that was left to do was buckle up and deal with this 11.5 hour flight. Sleep on the plane was practically impossible. My long legs plus a seat really close to me does not equal comfort. I managed to get about 1.5 - 2 hours on and off, so landing in LA was a relief. We were all so nervous about the American customs and how strict everything would be but it was actually very fast and easy. Once we were all through, we got loaded into a van and transported to the hotel, Holiday Inn. We had time to settle in and get change but then we were off to Santa Monica Pier and wow that was amazing. There were so many stores and games as well as a few rides. Everything was super expensive though so people mostly just got snacks. They have this really good ice cream that is like little frozen balls and it's nothing like anything I've eaten so that was cool to try. I then met up with a girl called Ella N (we have 3 Ella's in our group) and we really clicked so we walked around and on the beach together talking and taking photos as the sun set. For dinner, some of the Rotarians from the Winchester Rotary Club took us out to a place called Shakey's which is very American. We had massive plates of fried chicken and chips to start, followed by 4 rounds of huge pizza's. All of us were so tired we were falling asleep while eating but it was a lot of fun.
Day 2 (13th Jan) - Today we had a really early wake up of 7:00 am. Enough time to wake up, have breakfast and get ready for a fun filled day at Disneyland. All 31 of us was loaded onto our bus at 9:00 and started the long drive. It took us about and hour to get to there but it was really good. Our group is very musical so we had people playing music on the speaker and everyone knew the songs so we sung our way to Disneyland. Once at the carpark, we had to take a Toy Story shuttle bus to the park which took about 5-10 mins with traffic. The first thing I noticed about this place was that it was HUGE! Two separate parks to go into and only 7 hours to do it in. I was in a little group of 4: Ella N, Fanny, Madita and myself. We stuck together the whole time and encouraged each other to do some of the rides because 2 of us are not fans of rollercoasters. Our first ride was Goofy's flight school which looks are deceiving. Looking at it I was thinking "Yea this looks good I'll do it" and on the ride it was "This was such a bad idea." The ride had several pin needle turns and the cart was going so fast it felt like we were going to tip of the side or get thrown out. If I wasn't with my group I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much but it was actually okay. We were waiting in line for it about half an hour to 45 mins and a lot of the rides were the same. I managed to go on 4 rides in total the whole time being there: Goofy's flight school, The Little Mermaid, Finding Nemo's Submarine Voyage and lastly It's A Small World. As you can tell 3/4 are nice slow rides so that was great haha. But to me my highlight for Disneyland was just walking around with these amazing people. We talked about anything and everything, took photos with and for each other, did rides together and just enjoyed every moment there shared. I would 100% do it again and I wouldn't change a thing. That night we had dinner at a school with some people from Rotary Interact and some of the American students and teachers so that was nice to ask questions and talk to them. But once again, all of us were so tired after a long and exciting day. Day 3 (14th Jan) - Universal Studios and tour of Hollywood today and of course it's raining. Today we left at 9:00 and only had until 3pm to do everything. Our group today was 5, the usual group plus my hotel roommate Maija. Once we got through security we headed off to Harry Potter world first. "Wow," is the only way I can describe it. The castle was huge and there was a whole town set up with owl post and sweet shops as well as the famous wand store. There were only two rides in this area so we headed to the rollercoaster first. I was really nervous about it because there was a big slope (for me at least) but I told myself before I left for LA that I had to do at LEAST one ride that put me out of my comfort zone so I did it. Man it was so much fun and it didn't go as fast as it appeared to. We decided at the start of the day that we would do all the rides we could then look in the shops after so we headed to the second ride right after. Once I read the description and warnings of this ride I decided it was going to be too much so Madita and I held the other's stuff while they did the ride. Then went and had a look around Krusty's world from the simpsons but it was mostly arcade games and cafes so we headed on down to the Dreamworks theatre ride which was Kung Fu Panda. This was like a 3D ride where you sat on seats that moved and wore 3D glasses. It was pretty cool but definitely made for the younger ones. We then went and did the Despicable Me ride which was exactly the same as Kung Fu Panda but with A LOT more movement. I'm talking about you felt like you were falling head first and bouncing off walls, the lot. It had us all pretty dizzy after but still grinning ear to ear. After that we decided we wanted to challenge all of our group by doing the Walking Dead walk through. Now that...was scary. There were walkers that jumped out and ran at you, in cages and stretching to grab you. It had us all screaming and shaking at the end but as soon as we got out we all burst into laughter. There was a walker at the end that gave me such a fright that I ran right into a wall and bruised my shoulder. It was hilarious. Thing is at the start they say you aren't allowed to run because of how slippery it was and safety reasons around props so it was more like I jumped into the wall. But we all did it and we gave ourselves a pat on the back and treated ourselves with the free hot chocolate provided. We had done every ride in the upper lot basically so we headed down to the second lot where Jurassic Park world normally was but it was closed for maintenance which sucked. But they also had 2 other rides: Revenge of the Mummy and Transformers. Madita and I didn't do the Mummy one because it had lockers to put stuff in and said that you can't have anything on you because of how fast and "violent" (for lack of better words) the ride was. When the other 3 came back from it they agreed that it would've been horrible for us because for them it was even a bit too much. Together we decided to do the transformers which would be the second ride today that was outside my comfort zone (going by the description). I don't know how to describe it apart from half a rollercoaster and half a sit down 3D theatre. We moved along a track and swung around but everything we saw was 3D screen projected. I loved it. We were throw everywhere and bouncing off walls, spinning around and quickly zooming all over the place. Maija, Ella and Fanny told us that the Harry Potter ride that we didn't do was exactly the same as this one so we headed back to it. After this ride it was nearly time to go so we went pin shopping as a souvenir to show we have been. From Universal Studios we went to Hollywood Blvd and walked along all the stars and went into La La Land which is a souvenir shop with everything including American snacks so we all spent a bit of time there. The driver was very nice and also offered to drive us around Beverly Hills which wasn't on our schedule so that was really nice. That night we also had dinner at the Winchester Rotary Club and presented our gifts to them. It was really cool to see what people brought and what they had so say about it as well as see what the Rotarian's reactions were. After that we sung a Maori song for them and the boys did a haka which was amazing. That brought the day to a close and left us looking forward to the next leg of our journey beginning the next day. It also brings this entry to a close as that's "all" we got up to in LA. I'm really going to miss everyone, especially my girls but we aren't far apart so we'll see each other again. Until next time, hej hej! With the 12th only two sleeps away I have been spending as much time as possible with my family. When I last posted, I thought that I would want to do so many things with my family before I left to make the most of my time here, but when this final week came around it kind of snuck up on me. Packing my bags and stressing over making sure I have all important documents printed has been taking up a lot of my time as well and finishing the last of my pins and seeing my friends. Mum and dad have been asking me what I would like to do with my last days and all I could say is I don't know or I don't mind. But to be honest I just want to spend as much time with them as possible regardless of what we do. However, one place I had to go to before I left was Whangamata, so we went there for a day trip. We took Maria with us and spent the whole day boogie boarding and soaking up every ray of sun possible. I had an amazing time and I'm so happy I got to do the thing I love most.
Some other things I did this past week was: Having an impromptu "party" with just my mum, dad, sister and myself, Had a sleepover with my girls (Chelsea and Alyce), Had a shopping day with Mum and Pia, We also went to Waiheke Island for a day to celebrate my parents wedding anniversary. And today we took a road trip to Raglan. I'm so excited to start my journey already but it still makes me nervous and anxious every time I hear an aeroplane. Now that the leaving date is creeping closer and closer, I have been getting a lot more information about where I am staying, my school and my host families in Denmark. It's been a while since I've updated so I'm going to start when my counsellor in my host club emailed me on the 30th of November. It was the first direct contact I'd had with anyone in DK regarding my exchange so even though it was a simple email with an introduction of her and saying they were excited to be hosting me, I was over the moon. Since then we have been emailing when I have some questions or when she has more information for me. She is so nice and I think I have been very lucky to have such good communication with her before my arrival. In an email later that morning she also informed me that I would be attending school at the Odder Gymnasium which I later found out is 10 km from my first host family's house.
On the 2nd of December I had the Pre-Departure briefing with my district which was reviewing rules, expectations, how to be an ambassador and also presenting our final presentations for some last bits of advice. This made it all feel very real right there because this was the last time I would be seeing everyone formally before we leave on the 12th of January. On the 3rd of December my Rotary profile was updated and had names and contact details of my first host family which, as you can expect, was very exciting. The next day I emailed them just introducing myself and asking them if they wanted to call on Skype or something else one day soon. Days went by with no reply and the anticipation was killing me because I got this information pretty late so I wanted to start forming a relationship with them before I leave. In the mean time, on the 7th of December my district had Auckland day. We had to meet at the Fire Station in central Auckland at 7:50 am which meant a 5:15 wake up for me. Such fun. At the Fire Station we got to go up in the fire truck crate where they rescue people as well as see their hazmat suits. We then went and saw the Mayor of Auckland, Phil Goff, which was quite interesting actually. As we all introduced ourselves and what country we were from or what country we were going to, he had something to say about all of the countries which was really cool. Then we went from the Mayor's Office to the Police Station. They showed us the police dogs and how they take down people and also showed us the Armed Offender Squad room with all of the different tools for knocking down doors and etc. That was a lot of fun. Lunch was scheduled after this and then we had our scavenger hunt. For this we were put in pairs of the countries and giving a list of places to go and questions we needed to answer. Each place we had to take a photo at and each question was worth a set amount of points. I personally thought we'd get lost because I'm never in the City but we manage to answer everything and get to the Ferry Building in plenty of time to get out ferry to Half Moon Bay. We had dinner at a Rotarian's house and watched a slideshow someone had composed for one of the inbound leaving in January. It was emotional but the whole day was just so much fun. Finally, on the 10th of December I got a response. This email got me even more excited to leave which I didn't even think was possible. My host Mum's name is Anne Marie and the Dad's name is Anders. Anne and Anders run two farms, one is a Christmas tree farm and the other farm sounds like one that grows crops. Anders is also a member of my host Rotary club so it will be great to be able to go frequently with him in the beginning which will form that strong Rotary connection which is really important for me. They have three children, two daughters and one son. Kirstine is their oldest child and is 20 years old. She studies literature in the University of Copenhagen so doesn't live at home. The middle child is their son, Johan, who is going to be 18 years old when I arrive. Their youngest child is Inge Marie and she is 16 years old. Currently she is on exchange with Rotary in Canada so she won't be at home when I stay with them. My host Mum also said that they are hosting another exchange student currently and will still be hosting her when I arrive. Her name is Antonia and she is from Germany. She is 17 years old and is doing her exchange through a programme at school not Rotary. They also have the cutest dog so for those that know me well will know the dog will be mine by the time I change families. Their house is also not far from the beach which is amazing so hopefully I can go sailing some time or even have a go at fishing as a first. So far it sounds like I'm going to be so busy when I arrive because my host family has already organised a trip for me to go with them to Germany 3 DAYS after I arrive. It sounds amazing and I'm really looking forward to it. On Sunday 16th December we are planning on calling and I'm very nervous but at the same time interested in finally talking to each other. Date: 20.11.18
Tonight I attended my last Rotary meeting in the Pukekohe Rotary Club. I had so much fun with talking to everyone and they're all so interested and really nice. Gary (my club counsellor) introduced me to everyone and then I presented a couple minutes on myself and what I was hoping to achieve on this exchange before saying a huge thank you to the club. Without them this dream wouldn't be becoming a reality. I was then presented with my Blazer, Badge and Hoodie along with a few gifts of kiwiana from the club president. I'm so lucky to have such an amazing club and counsellor for this exciting journey and I'm so thankful for all they have done for me already. So finally this past week has provided me with some very exciting information. On the 7th November I received an email from the Danish Rotary which was telling me to make my profile on their rotary page. This is where they can see my information and also update me on the information I have been waiting for. On the 10th November I found out my host district which is 1450, which is the district I was hoping for. I'm so happy about this because within this district I have my Dad's mum, sister and one of his brothers. This means if my club allows me to see them, they are not too far for me to travel to. Then yesterday, 12th November, I found out my host club which will also be the town I will be staying in, Odder. Hopefully soon I will be sent an email of confirmation as well as details about my school and host families. It is all becoming so real and very fast. I'm having to organise my time between all of my friends here that I will be leaving behind as well as juggling exams and work. My bank account is also about to look extremely empty as I have to pay for my flights by the 15th. Thanks for all the support everyone and also the very generous donations I wouldn't be able to do this without you so big shout-out to you guys!
Today was a great day. I met Viki at the train station and we walked to Mission Bay from there. It was a stunning day and we got some strawberries to eat along the way. We spent the whole day together just talking and laughing which was really nice. She's a great friend and our friendship is already very strong.
While we were lying on the beach I actually got a message on Instagram from a girl called Grace. She is from Australia and had messaged to see if I was an exchange student going to Denmark next year. We got to talking about the exchange it was just so cool. She managed to track me down because she saw a post of me fundraising on my rotary district's Facebook page and decided to reach out. I just thought it was so cool because she's in a completely different country and still tried to find me and others going to Denmark. So far there are 6 of us, 4 from Australia and 2 from NZ. The days leading up to this weekend I found hard to concentrate on because I was so excited to go. I would get to meet all of the current inbound students in my district and I was really keen to finally meet the girl exchanging from Denmark. During break time at school, Lily (French Exchange student) and I would talk about the weekend and both complain about how slow time was going. But finally Friday came around and before I knew it, I was standing outside the Marae with all the outbounds and inbounds. We were then welcomed onto the Marae by Nan (elder Maori woman) and another lady called Corina. Once inside, a man called Kevin, who was one of the original men that helped build the Marae, told the story behind it. Then we sung a waiata (song) for them called Pokarekare Ana before we settled down to listen to the useful presentations our outbound coordinator presented to us. This was followed up by the really interesting presentations of the current inbound students. It was very cool to see where everyone was from and how different each of their lives were as well as the similarities. This pretty much concluded the first day and we all headed to the dining room with stomachs grumbling, eager to scoff down some tacos. After dinner and clean up for some of us, we played some games with some students that are part of Rotex. At 21:00 we had supper and free time and I think this was everyone's favourite part of the day. The one moment that stood out for me was when Viki (Austrian Exchange student) and I had set up our beds and were chatting about anything and everything. We laughed for a solid 5 minutes just over our different descriptions of what noise a rooster makes. I have no idea why we were even talking about this but we had so much fun. By 22:30 no one was objecting when they were told it was lights out and time to sleep, we were all exhausted. Unfortunately for some of us it stayed that way. I woke up every hour in the night because I was hot or cold and then someone was snoring so I couldn't sleep or I'd wake up because of it.
In the morning, with the wake up of 6:30, those like me who got no sleep looked like zombies. None the less, the idea of hot breakfast drove us out of bed and to start the day. Saturday was going to be a busy day. We learnt 5 songs as well as the actions to go along with it. For one of the songs we had to learn how to use the poi and for another we were paired up and had to learn how to use sticks to form a beat. It was hard but so much fun. Everyone was out of their comfort zone because it isn't a language we are familiar with speaking but we all gave everything a go, laughed at our mistakes and made the most out of it. Everyone's favourite song to sing and perform was Te Aroha and E Papa (with the sticks). Learning all of these songs and actions easily took up half of the day. After this, we were taught how to weave flax flowers which was very difficult but still a lot of fun. When we all had finished, lunch was ready. After lunch, all of us outbound students had to do our 10 minute presentation to the inbounds and "judges" that would later give us feed back. I was so nervous because like a lot of people, I hate public speaking but when I spoke to people after my presentation (I went last) they said I sounded really confident and like I had practised it many times. The rest of the night went very fast and like the first night we had dinner then Rotex games and free time. The next morning we were woken up at 6:15 because we had lots to do, but technically it was 5:15 because overnight daylight savings came into play so the clock was moved an hour forward meaning we lost an hours sleep. The morning consisted of setting up for the day, practising our songs over and over again before putting on the real performance for our parents when they arrived at 9:15. It was so much fun and the parents loved watching it all. The rest of the day was basically just a meeting about travel insurance and information about our departure. Over all it was just so much fun, I made friends with a lot of the inbound students and got the closest to Viktoria or Viki (Austrian Exchange student) and the Danish exchange student Maria. |