It's been x how many months since I posted, and I literally haven't been able to sit down and write a single word during that time. Now, I'm back at school, which gives me hours of time to kill, so I thought I'd stop drawing little vikings all over my book and dreaming about frikadeller, and put this time to good use.
So what have I been doing? Well... what haven't I been doing is really the better question.
Commence highlight reel!
Before I had to say goodbye to all my friends from Eurotour, I commuted over to the
concert capital of the country, Aarhus, for the Northside festival. I met up
with many, many people on that cold and rainy day. Team up your best friends, and your
favourite band, you no longer care about the weather! (Even if you have to
wait 3 hours to keep your front row spot) That's right, I saw my favourite
band, the Arctic Monkeys, for the first time EVER - after being in love with
them since I was 10 years old. What an experience. I still can't fathom
that I was less than 8 meters away from them !! AAAHH!!
 |
| On the way to Northside! ft. DJ Sleepy Laura |
Next, came the amazing Studentergimlie… that being the
graduation of the seniors at our little Nakskov Gymnasium. Two very special
people were graduating, so, I bought two of the traditional single red roses
you give to them as soon as they are given their special hat… a hat that looks
good on ANYONE. I waited at 8.00am at the school with my two respective
families on two different days (everyone graduates separately during the week
and then they have a ceremony at the end of the week for everybody), and waited
for them to finish their final oral exams. They receive their mark 10 minutes
later, and they are given their hat by the person/s of their choice. It is a
great honour to be the one chosen to place the hat on their head.
After this, we gathered in the school garden for champagne (yes, it was 8am, I
had eaten nothing) and then all went back to their houses for brunch.
Everyone writes on the inside of the hat, and then bites the
cap as hard as they can to wish the graduate good luck. It REALLY hurts your
teeth.
The graduates are given masses of presents, all precious gifts such as leather-bound notebooks, the famous Royal Copenhagen ceramics, and gold pens. After the ceremony at the end of the week, the class below decorates a horsecarriage for them, and the students go around to everyone in their class' house for drinks and nibbles. For a whole two days. After this, there are masses and masses of parties and the like. Long story short, a looooong hangover is in store for these happy kids.
The graduates are given masses of presents, all precious gifts such as leather-bound notebooks, the famous Royal Copenhagen ceramics, and gold pens. After the ceremony at the end of the week, the class below decorates a horsecarriage for them, and the students go around to everyone in their class' house for drinks and nibbles. For a whole two days. After this, there are masses and masses of parties and the like. Long story short, a looooong hangover is in store for these happy kids.
 |
| Der er kun en rigtig hue, den er rød! Tillykke Sofie! |
With the Studentergimlie, the summer holidays began!!
I spent the first couple of weeks were spent relaxing with my family in their summerhouse in Langø, hosting and going to barbeques or 'grillaften' as they're called in Danish.
I spent the first couple of weeks were spent relaxing with my family in their summerhouse in Langø, hosting and going to barbeques or 'grillaften' as they're called in Danish.
The Danish system of barbequing is very strange.
1) They ALL have Weber barbies. If your barbeque of choice is not Weber, you need to throw that ish away and go and get yourself one, son! Cause you're not doing it right!
2) They ALL run on coals, not gas. That means that there is smoke EVERYWHERE. It's gross, actually.
The coals also mean that it takes at least 30 minutes to start
the thing, and when you eventually do, It is impossible to regulate the
temperature, so it is very easy to end up with a charred chook.
Needless to say, they were super fun anyway. I adored the Danish summer. It was fantastic to see everyone outside, enjoying nature, and coming out of their winter shells. The sunshine boosted everyone's moods and was reflected in the atmosphere around town :)
Needless to say, they were super fun anyway. I adored the Danish summer. It was fantastic to see everyone outside, enjoying nature, and coming out of their winter shells. The sunshine boosted everyone's moods and was reflected in the atmosphere around town :)
 |
| Vi hygger :) |
The summer also meant I finally got to go horseriding with Julie! The place they chose was Møns Klint, one of the most beautiful places in Denmark. This famous cliff is pure
white, and to look down was to seriously spike my fear of heights. I was on the edge of a cliff, on a freakin' horse! Don't tell me that's not terrifying.
Our guide took us through a Danish National Park, with fields of flowers leading into ancient woods with huge, old trees. I really felt like I was in a period piece on the ABC. On the way home, we made several stops, going into an town that you are not allowed to bring your cars into, going inside the tomb of a Viking king (terrifying), and went into a Danish lakrids (licorice) factory. Yuck! Sometimes the black heart of Danes (meaning that it is made of love for licorice) makes me wonder if I picked the right country. I. Hate. Licorice.
 |
| First time on a horse in 11 years... help. |
Our guide took us through a Danish National Park, with fields of flowers leading into ancient woods with huge, old trees. I really felt like I was in a period piece on the ABC. On the way home, we made several stops, going into an town that you are not allowed to bring your cars into, going inside the tomb of a Viking king (terrifying), and went into a Danish lakrids (licorice) factory. Yuck! Sometimes the black heart of Danes (meaning that it is made of love for licorice) makes me wonder if I picked the right country. I. Hate. Licorice.
August kicked off with a tour to Femø for the annual Femø Jazz Festival. I can only say… I have never seen so many drunk old people in my life! That being said, we had perfect weather, great food, and a fantastic 2 days of classic, feelgood music. It was a very good idea that I brought my friend Gabby with me, because it felt as if we were the only people over 10 and under 35 there.
We slept in the smallest tent in the world and it was not nice waking up in there.
I haven't been as humid a place since January, when I left my sauna of a hometown.
Temperatures dropped in the night and soared in the day. One day was definitely enough.
 |
| An overly-artistic photo of a smelly campground... |
During the summer, I also got to have a run of Danish concerts. I saw Marie Key, Fallulah, Thomas Helmig and Tina Dickow! Lucky, lucky me. If there's one thing that's great, it's a Danish concert :)
 |
| Tina Dico!! |
It was a special flight... they didn't even turn off the seatbelt sign.
Anyway, all of that was to go and be reunited with this guy!
 |
| A little bit of home! |
Denmark-Cairns, Cairns-Denmark. It was just SO GREAT to see Emil again, on his side of the world this time! We completed the circle, me in his hometown, after he was in my hometown. I feel like we should get medals or something.
We had a hyggelig time as he showed me around Aalborg... with me on a broken bike and him on a bright orange pennyboard. It was unorthodox, but, if anything, that is a pretty good analogy of the life of an exchange student. And like the travel-crazy teenagers we are, we managed.
I loved Aalborg and I can't wait to go back and see that beautiful city and the wonderful people that live in it ASAP.
So, thank you Emil, for letting me visit! You've created a monster!
There is more to this story, but I'll save your eyes and patience; I've chopped it in two! So stay tuned, this is going to be two fast updates!
Until then,
Vi ses,
Georgia xo
No comments:
Post a Comment