So Much Fun Stuff In Denmark!

Hey everyone,

I haven’t updated in a while because I have been very busy doing many different things.  Ill start with 3 weeks ago, a bunch of exchange students got together and went to Copenhagen to spend the weekend together.  There was a lot happening in Copenhagen that weekend and we tried to do everything.  There was a concert at the famous “Tivoli Gardens” in downtown Copenhagen, there was a Australia vs New Zealand rugby match that was being played at the Southern Cross Bar in Copenhagen that many Aussies and Kiwis were excited to see, and a lot of partying and having a good time with people from around the world!  

We started the weekend off Friday afternoon by getting out of school early and catching a bus to Vejle, which has a train station, where we took a train from Vejle to Copenhagen.  It cost about 200 Kroner (40 dollars) but I had a train card that got me 25% off train tickets, which is always a good thing.  We got to Copenhagen and we went to a youth hostel where we would be crashing for the night. The girls got all dressed up, and then we all went to Tivoli to see the concert.  An extremely popular band in all of Europe were playing a show.  The band was a Danish band called Alphabeat, www.myspace.com/thisisalphabeat They put on a great show and it was an hour filled with very catchy pop music that I shockingly enjoyed.  After the show we ventured off to the streets of Copenhagen and enjoyed the rest of the night.

The next day we left the hostel at noon and caught a bus back to downtown Copenhagen where we would meet the other exchange students at the Southern Cross to watch the rugby match.  I have never sat down and watched a full rugby game, so this was a first for me, and watching it with some intense Aussies and Kiwis in the bar was very entertaining.  Australia made it close, but New Zealand came out on top like they usually do in these rugby matches.  It was very fun to watch.  We then caught a train to Slagelse where we would be spending the night at an exchange students house.  We woke up the next morning and made our way back to our respected towns.  It was really nice to see exchange students again.  These little “meetings” and “get togethers” are a nice way to spend a weekend away from home, and just enjoy being an exchange student with other exchange students!

The weekend following was a really relaxing and enjoying weekend for myself.  I travelled down to Korsør to visit my Australian exchange friend I made while in Copenhagen the week prior.  Korsør is a beautiful town, right on the sea and has beautiful beaches and clear water.  The town is a harbour town, where ferrys would come from the island of Fyn, to Sjælland and arrive in Korsør.  Now they have a bridge that connects the two islands.  I stayed at my friend Caitlin’s house.  Caitlin happens to live right on the beach, with her house looking over the water.  It is an amazing sight to see.  I happened to not bring my camera so I am unfortunately unable to show you how beautiful the area is.  There is another exchange student get together this coming weekend, in the same area, so I will make sure to bring my camera and take many pictures to share with you.  It is truly beautiful.  

Now you are almost up to date, but this past weekend I went to district camp with everyone in my district.  It was great to not only see a lot of exchange students again, but to find out who lives close to you so you can get together.  It was very difficult to find out who lives close when we were at intro camp, because of the amount of people that where there (108).  This one was a lot smaller and less hectic.  We stayed at a scout camp just outside of Esbjerg.  It was very beautiful, there was a nice pond close by and a forest to explore.  It reminded me a lot of our camp back in Canada, where all of the out bounds met for the first time. It was really great.  There was a big question mark on what we were going to do at district camp, at least for me anyways.  I didn’t know what to expect.  We arrived around 5 pm Friday and we socialized for pretty much the rest of the night.  I brought my guitar, and we sang songs and just got to know each other.  It was really nice.  For Friday there was no plan, no schedule except for the dinner time.  There was no curfew, no time limits, everything was really relaxed and enjoyable.  Everything was on our own watches which is always great.  Saturday brought an 8 am breakfast and a friendly competition that started when everyone had some coffee in them and were waking up.  We had different stations and challenges to complete with our team. I was on Team 3, better known as Team Awesome.  The team name was chosen by yours truly.  Some challenges were easy, some were difficult, some need brains, some needed luck, but all were fun.  The that was probably the most talked about and the most loved (especially for the girls) was the station where the guys had to shave their legs.  We were the last team to be at this certain station, and I was told that every male before me shaved their legs with out a complaint.  I wanted to have nothing to do with this, and I made sure they knew this.  The other male in the group shaved a part of his legs, and now it was my turn.  Still refusing to have anything to do with this, another team member made a lovely suggestion, that I should shave my beard.  I had been working on this beard for about 3.5 weeks and I was pretty proud of it.  I have had a beard for longer then 3.5 weeks, but it has never been longer, and more full then it had been at the moment.  I wanted to be a team player, and help the team so I agreed.  They pull out a pink, cheap plastic 2 blade razor, and the girls started shaving my face.  I had to teach them how to shave, it was absolutely brutal.  I then have had enough, and said I would finish the job, and I did.  But as always, I needed to have some fun with this situation I was in, so of course like I always do, I kept the moustache.  People loved it, wanting to take pictures with the goofy Canadian with the moustache.  Then before dinner I shaved it off and I felt normal again.  That night we had a lovely dinner and a little party to finish off the weekend.  Sunday we took photos for the last time to remember the weekend that was, exchanged business cards, pins, phone numbers, and hugs, and we were off, back to our towns. 

School is going really good as well.  Im starting to understand words here and there.  I can understand maybe 4-5 sentences a day which isn’t a lot at all, but I’m getting better and learning and understanding more every day.  My classmates are very kind and have been very inviting and want me to be involved in as many things with them as possible.  In two weeks, our school has a week off.  For what reason?  I have no clue, but I am very excited!  My host father Kim mentioned yesterday that we might be travelling to Germany in the week off, which I am so happy about because I have never been to Germany.  I have also been told that there is another week off in February.  My second host family has mentioned that there is a possibility that we will be travelling to Sweden on a skiing trip, which is amazing!  I want to travel anywhere and everywhere so when I get told that we will be travelling to a different country I get super excited and anxious.  I can’t wait to go, but as of now the two possible trips aren’t set in stone by any means.

So as you can see the last three weeks, a lot has been going on, and I have had a blast doing it.  I have noticed that if I keep busy, which I have been doing, everything goes by so fast, its unbelievable.  I can’t believe that it has almost been two months.

Click here for pictures of district camp.

Skål,

Dillon

dillonrahkola@hotmail.com

Great Weekend.

Hey everyone,

This weekend was truly great!  Everyone I know here in Denmark, is going out of their way to show me a great time while I am here.  This friday, my class was assigned to be in charge of the coat check at the first school party of the year.  The party was for first years only, but because my class was in charge of coats,  I was lucky enough to be apart of it.  The school parties in Denmark are a heck of a lot better then the ones in Canada.  First off they serve alcohol, which was a big shock to me, and people actually come to these school parties!  At my school it is always difficult to get students to attend school events, other then semi-formal and prom.  The first years seemed like they had an amazing time.  Every class dressed up in a different theme, which was neat as well.  Guys from my class picked me up, to bring me to the party and we just hung around the school, socializing until the party was over at around midnight.  Then we moved down the street to the local disco (or club).  They insisted that I came, to experience Danish teenage culture.  It was pretty cool, especially because I have never been in a club before.  I left early (2am) and my host father was nice enough to stay up for me and pick me up.  It was a great way to meet new people, lets just hope they remember me at school on monday!

Saturday was looking like it was going to be a relaxing day, filled with hanging around the house and watching the Danish Football match at 8pm.  So, thinking that this is the way the day was going to turn out, I slept in until 12pm.  My second host family (who are lovely people) called me and asked if they could take me out.  I was very excited because I have the cutest little host sister, that seems not to like me one bit, but I'm fine with that.  Hopefully she will warm up to me by the time I change host families.  And hopefully by that time I will be speaking decent danish so I can talk to her!  We went to the top of "Sky Mountain", which is just a big hill!  But its a huge thing in Denmark.  The view from the top is so beautiful, it looks right over a gorgeous lake where we were able to see the worlds oldest working steam boat pull off to pick up more passengers.  We walked down to the bottom of the "mountain" to see the steam boat.  It was incredible.  It is so old but still working beautifully.  Unfortunately I forgot my camera at home so I didn't get a chance to take any photos, which I would of liked to.  All in all it was a great day, getting to know my second host family who are so kind, and such a nice family.

Sunday my host family planned a trip out to the west coast of Denmark to see the North Sea which I was so excited for!  My host father Kim said, "If you are a true Danish Viking, you will go swimming in the ocean with me".  Thinking that he was kidding I agreed to his plan, but of course he pulls out his bathing suit, throws me a towel and sure enough when we got to the ocean we went swimming!  The west coast is very dangerous for swimming.  It has very tall waves and sometimes dumb tourists (Germans) get caught under and drown.  But this didn't scare a true viking like myself, so I ran straight in with out thinking twice.  It was cold.  Very cold, but after being in the water for 5 minutes, and my whole body went numb, it started to get warmer!  I was diving into the waves, and having a blast.  It is something that I will always remember.  

I thought this weekend was worthy enough for a blog update, so I hope you did too.  It was such a great weekend.  Here are some pictures of the west coast.  We also visited Denmark's very first windmill that was made in the country, which was neat!

Click here for pictures of the west coast!

Vi Ses,

Dillon

dillonrahkola@hotmail.com

Intro Camp '08

Hej!

This past week, I at a boarding school in Bjerringbro, Denmark, for Rotary's intro camp.  I was there with 108 amazing friends who arrived in August in Denmark and will be staying in Denmark with me for this year.  I shared a room with a guy from Calgary, and the room next to us was a guy from Edmonton, and a guy from Chilie.  To my count there was about 10 exchange students from Canada at this camp, and they were all very amazing people, and so kind.  We started talking right away about the things we miss back home.  For example; Kraft Dinner, Tim Hortons, hockey, hearing Oh Canada every morning at school and that sort of things.  Most Americans didn't know what Kraft Dinner was which I always think is amusing.

At intro camp, we mostly went to danish class, which was pretty overwhelming for me.  Half of the class seemed to have had language camp in their district, before this one so they were well ahead of the game.  For myself, this was my first danish lesson and they moved pretty fast.  I was mostly trying to take it all in, instead of memorizing things while the teacher is saying them.  I took many notes, that I will study and use in the future.  

Staying at the boarding school, it was easy to spend time with everyone at anytime.  With our free time, we met new people, handed out our information (e-mail addresses, mobile phone numbers) to each other.  There was a swimming pool with a sauna, billiards table, table tennis, and many other fun things too do to keep everyone busy.  We also had organized evening activities in groups, or with all of us.  We had a few camp fires, and fun things like that.  It was great.  

Some days we didn't have danish classes at all (thank God) and they bussed us all out on an excursion.  One day we visited the town of Viborg and looked at a beautiful church (pictures below).  My favourite day was when we all went to city of Århus which is Denmark's second biggest city.  We went to this amazing art museum called ARoS.  It is one of Northern Europe's biggest art museums.  It was truly amazing.  I was in awe.  It isn't your typical art museum, it is very hard to explain.  Unfortunately we didn't spend too much time in ARoS, and we adventured out to the walking streets of Århus to shop and explore.  It is such a beautiful city and I can't wait to go back.  

This friday, my class at Tørring Gymnasium is going to ARoS to see one of their exhibits, "Music To See", which was one of my favourites when I visited last week.  The exhibit shows many different music video's that are very unique and very beautiful.  They all make you think.  They show the 5 "best" video's done by the most "innovative and experimental image-makers within the contemporary music video genre.  It features; Michel Gondry, Chris Cunningham, Anton Corbijn, Spike Jonze, and Mark Romanek.  When I went with Rotary, I didn't get to see all of the videos, so I hope I will. 

All in all, I had a great week and made great friends.  It is amazing how friendly and open Rotary kids are.  It is very comforting knowing that some people are going through and feeling exactly the same thing you are going through.  It feels better knowing that, because sometimes, you have a feeling that you are the only one.  If you talk to many other exchange students, they will tell you this.  That they have the same feelings, doubts, and frustrations that you are going through, so it's nice to have people there to talk to your exchange to.

Click here for photos of our excursions at Intro Camp.

Vi Ses,

Dillon

dillonrahkola@hotmail.com

P.S.- For those people having to go back to school... have a good year suckers!