First of all, I met my Danish visiting family. What is a Danish visiting family? It's pretty self-explanatory. Kids who aren't living with host families can ask to be paired up with a local Danish family, who they can spend time with and get to know. I had really wanted to live with a host family, but that would have required me to take public transportation by myself to and from school every day, and I didn't think I could handle that. Having a visiting family seemed like a good compromise.
Anyway, I went to visit my visiting family for the first time last Wednesday, and I saw them again three days ago. Both times I went to their house and they fed me, so that was already a reason for me to like them. They may be almost as awesome as my actual family. In fact, my Danish sisters are almost certainly cooler than my real sister. The parents are both really nice and friendly and welcoming, and their kids are really great. They have a son in fourth grade who can speak English ridiculously well, and two daughters- one who is in second grade and one who is a toddler- who can't speak English. Which is great, because it means I have someone to practice my Danish on. And they're all blonde, in case you were wondering. We haven't done much together yet, apart from eat dinner and talk and spend time at their house, but I enjoy their company so I'm okay with that.
I may have a picture for you at some point. Right now I still feel kind of awkward about taking pictures of them.
The other major thing that happened in the past week- last weekend, actually- was I went on my first major field trip. This I do have pictures from. Everyone in the study abroad program has a core class, and all of the core classes went on what are called "study tours" last weekend. Most of the classes, including mine, traveled to Jylland (or Jutland, as we Amurricans pronounce it). If you look at a map of Denmark (which you should, because maps are fun and Denmark is awesome) Jylland is the big long island on the left. It's the largest part of Denmark and, according to my visiting family, is seen by the rest of Denmark as hicksville central. Apparently there's a Danish saying that is used to describe anything that seems backward or primitive, which is "that could only happen in det mørke Jylland (the dark Jutland)". Very nice.
All Danish stereotypes aside, my own impression of Jylland was slightly different. This summer I drove with my mom and my grandparents to Saint Louis, Missouri. The view out the window, once you get out into the midwest, is very distinctive. It looks a bit like this:
This is somewhere in between New York and Saint Louis.
And this is somewhere in Jutland. Flat, lots of farms. Jutland basically looks like the middle of the United States, but with colder weather. And with wind turbines.
...Lots and lots of wind turbines. There's a reason the climate change conference last year was in Denmark. They are quite concerned about global warming here. It's really great.
In order to get from the island with Copenhagen on it to Jylland we had to cross over this impressive bridge. It's one of the longest bridges in the world.
Our first stop in Jylland was in the town of Ry, and specifically at the Ry Højskole. This school is very special and interesting because it is one of Denmark's many folkehøjskoles. How's that for a Danish word? A folkehøjskole is a school where students can go for half a year to rediscover the joys of learning. There are no tests or grades. The idea is to simply learn for the fun of it. Many students choose to attend folkehøjskoles in order to explore new interests or find something different to do with their lives. I was ready to move right in.
The school.
The school's lakeside view (sauna not shown).
After we arrived at the school we were greeted by a student walking by and calling "Hello America!" We weren't entirely sure how to react to that. We had a very good lunch in the dining hall and then got to choose between several different workshop options. The one I chose involved walking around Ry and getting to know some of the students. It was really interesting talking to them and hearing their various reasons for choosing to go to the folkehøjskole. Part of the walk involved up hiking up what must have been a mountain by Danish standards. We stopped at the top and looked at the view, which included a glimpse of one of the largest lakes in Denmark in the distance.
The tallest mountain in Denmark is something like 500 feet tall. This must have been pretty close.
See the lake?
After the walk we had dinner, I went to another workshop where I completely and utterly failed to play the guiter, and then I went to bed.
The next morning we had breakfast at the school, attended the morning assembly (which involved singing, which I thought was cool), then we left Ry Højskole and headed south.
Everyone on the bus was very lively.
On that note, it is very late so I'm going to stop for now. I'll continue with this tomorrow, hopefully.
Hej hej!
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