Home, sweet home!

I've been waiting for this day for so long. Finally coming home for Christmas.

When I was sitting in the bus, driving to the airport, everything felt quite unreal. I felt like I've been away from home for far too long. And I could hardly remember what my life in Germany looks like. I just wanted to come home and stay as long as I wanted. I knew that it would be hard to be back home and then leave again but on the other hand not coming back for Christmas seemed to be even harder. The bus seemed to drive way too slow and the flight (which took only 1:15 hours) felt like it lasts forever. When I finally arrived in Frankfurt I was almost running into the arrival hall where the first thing I saw was my sister smiling at me. It took me exactly five seconds and three hugs to feel like I've never been gone.

Julefrokost!

So guess what we were doing this evening.... Celebrating Christmas again! And yesss...of course we were playing Banko as well. But appearently we are not the only ones getting tired of all the traditional Christmas partys, so this time the "Julefrokost" was a mottoparty. The motto: Octoberfest. Yes, you read it right: OCTOBERFEST. Please don't ask me how you connect Christmas with the Octoberfest! I don't know and it was definitly not my idea, but it was a looooooooot of fun! Of course we were all dressing up accordingly, wearing our "Dirndl" and had "Schnitzel mit Kartoffeln" for dinner. Danes know how to party. And that's all I'm telling you haha.

Julebanko!

One thing is for sure: Danes love Christmas. And they love to celebrate, eat together and on Christmas it is usual to play Bingo (here: Banko) together. So that's what we did today. We were had traditional Danish Christmas food, played Banko and danced afterwards. Most of the students don't know the numbers and need help. I know the Danish numbers now, but under this pressure of time during the game it was a big challenge for me to fill out my own and some student's bingo plates.

The traditional Danish dessert for Christmas is called "Risalamande" which means rice with almond. It is basically made with milk, a special rice and cream and you mostly eat it with a warm Cherry-sauce. When you finished cooking "Risalamande" you throw one or a few whole almonds into the mash. So at least one of the people eating the dessert will find an almond in his or her bowl. The person finding the almond in his/her bowl get a present. So actually everyone eating it is searching to find it. If you find an almond in your bowl you are supposed to hide it from the others until everyone is finished eating, so everyone - besides you - still thinks the almond could be in their own bowl. Afterwards you show that you have it and get your present. Today I was the lucky one:

Connect group

This evening I finally managed to join the connect group that I was invited in. The group consists of nine girls who meet every second week. We talk about the 'ups and downs' of the past weeks, pray and worship together, have some cake and coffee and enjoy a "hyggelig" evening in one of our homes.

It is pretty complicated for me to get there since all of the other girls live in Aalborg. It takes about 2 1/2 hour to get to most of their homes by bus. So I am at home around 24:00 / 00:30 o'clock.

Anyway, I will continue to join the group. I'm so thankful to be able to be part of it. I really missed spending some time with friends like this...

Dinner in Aalborg

After work I took the bus to Aalborg to meet a friend of mine (one of the girls from church). We went for a walk and then had dinner together at a Chinese restaurant. Afterwards we took the bus and went to her connect group. I had to take my bus home very soon so I didn't spend a lot of time with them but anyways it is so nice to get connected to Danish people.


It's so easy in Denmark to get to know people from all over the world - but (in your privat life) you hardly spend any time with Danes (sounds so weird but it's true). So once again I am so happy to become part of their church community.


Although they might not be mentioned in any trip-advisor you seriously have to visit Bethelkirken when you come to Aalborg!

Tour to Vejle

Tania, me and some other Volunteers spent this weekend at Sara's house (the house of her host parents) in Vejle. We were seven girls from Italy, Spain, Austria and Germany.


On Saturday Sara picked all of us up at the train station. She had to drive twice to take us to her home. In the afternoon - after we had talked for hours - we went to buy food and drinks for the weekend. We had some Spanish omlette (made by Tania) for lunch and Italian pasta for dinner. Afterwards we had a good time talking and watched a movie together.


One of the best things about the European Volunteer Service is that you will get to know a lot of other volunteers in the country you go to. Thereby you meet people from all over the world (even if you don't have any roommates). The camps that I also wrote about earlier are mandatory and part of an EVS. It might sound boring to be forced to go on camps, but it is actually a lot of fun and soooo easy to make new friends since all of the people attending have something in common. You're in a foreign country, you may miss your home, you may find certain things strange, you might have some problems in your project or host family and so on....... but I can guarantee you that whatever it might be: you will not be the only one. And the camps are a great opportunity to share and talk about your experiences (and get some advice if needed).


We've had such a nice time during this weekend and I'm sure it's not the last time we visited each other!

(The picture above is a screenshot of a video that we were recording earlier. We were singing "happy birthday" in our different languages at the same time and sent it to Fatou who turned 25 today)

Æbleskiver!

Today the Music class (the class that I work with in the moment) was visiting our apartment. We were making a traditional Danish dish from the old days and ate them before we had to go back to the school.

Æbleskiver are traditional pancakes in a distinctive shape of a sphere. The name literally means apple slices in Danish, although apples are not an ingredient nowadays.  In Denmark it is common to eat them at Christmas and over the days leading up to it. It is easy to make the dough but you need a special pan for their shape. I enjoyed learning how to make them and of course even more to eat them in the end. :-)

Christmas lunch at Bethelkirken

Today I was taking part in the "Julefrokost" (Jul= Christmas ; Frokost = Lunch) of Bethelkirken in Aalborg. We had a lot of awesoom food and fun games. (As I wrote before... The Danes are crayz about Christmas and their Christmas parties haha!)




I  really enjoy to be part of this loving community and I am very thankful for today.

French Food

Today we had some of the students visiting our apartment. Fatou was cooking Ratatouille for us so we could taste some French food. It was awesome!!

On-arrival Camp

Although we've already been in Denmark for almost three months now we had our "on-arrival camp" this week.

The camp took place in a so called "Højskole". Denmark had 76  'folk high school bording schools' by the end of 2009. The concept of these schools was inspired by the need to educate those not fortunate enough to have an education and the poor who could not spare the time or the money to attend a university. It is still very common to attent a "Højskole" e.g. between graduation and university.

During the camp we were allowed to use the gym, fitnesstudio and other rooms of the students.

We talked and learned about a lot of different things. We started presenting our EVS projects to the others and had some time to talk about our experiences so far. But we were also discussing why the Danes are who they are and where their different behaviour comes from. Or we were trying to figure out which of our thoughts were actually limiting to us and how we could use our talents to start our own project in our working place.

But as you can see in the pictures below we also had time to bake Christmas cookies, play games, make some music, visit the city and have a lot of fun. :-)

„MARIEEEEE! IT’S SNOWING!“

Ever since I’ve been living with a French and a Spanish girl I have had a lot of fun discovering the differences. The three of us use to laugh about each other because it’s so amusing to see how much our view on all sorts of things depend on our nationality. 
I’ve had one of ‘those moments‘ yesterday evening and  I thought it would be a good example to write down:
I was sitting at my desk, drinking some coffee and talking to my boyfriend on Skype when suddenly I heard the other two girls talking loudly in the living room. It was easy to hear that they were shocked, excited or angry for some reason. Not even five seconds later I was pulled out of my thoughts by a scream: „MARIIIEEEE! MARIIIIIEEEEEE!“.  I was pretty sure it must be something really important because we usually never call each other when we know the other one is talking on the phone or Skype. Another scream: „MARIEEEEE! IT’S SNOOWIIIING!“. Wait. In the school they talked about snow this weekend. But REALLY?! SNOW?! NOW?! I was running out of my room. It was kind of a surprise to all of us but I was laughing so hard about the tone of Tania’s voice. Well, I didn’t expect it to snow tonight but snow in November is nothing sooo special to me. If you grew up in the South of Spain it is apparently a reason to freak out as soon as you discover the first snowflakes. When I entered the living room the girls were standing outside of the door to the garden, watching snowflakes in the size of a 2-Euro-coin falling down, covering the grass and everything else. You should have seen the excitement in Tania’s eyes sending voice messages to her friends or family to tell them the winter has finally fully arrived in Denmark and we are watching the first snowflakes powdering Løgstør.

"Hygge"

Here in Denmark I have the feeling that Christmas spirit fills the streets as soon as Halloween is over. The towns seems to shine even brighter every day as there are more and more lights put up. As you walk in the streets you can litteraly see candlelight in every living room, people enjoying the afternoon at home, drinking a lot of coffee, eating cake & cookies, spending time with their loved ones and making the best out of the Danish winter days. To me all those small things seem to counteract the heavy cold, the storms, the steady rain and especially the darkness. Actually I have to say that it works pretty well. Surprisingly I have never even once felt depressed by the Danish weather so far. I basically just started to enjoy every sunshine that touches my skin and every hour of light and every cup of warm coffee. All this is part of a feeling that the Danes call "hygge". It is really hard to describe the meaning of it. You just can't translate it with in one word. And even if I wrote a book about it - it is something you have to experience. It is about spending time together with the people you like to be with, inviting friends (or a stranger) for a cup of coffee, sitting next to a fire, spending an afternoon in your living room, being wrapped into your blanket and a lot more... It is kind of a special "coziness" that plays a big role in the life of the Danes in every season - but especially in the wintertime. It makes people happier, draws them closer to each other, makes their homes nicer and helps to get through the winterdays. It is one of the things that enables Denmark to be one of the happiest nations on earth. It is one of the things that I really enjoy and appreaciate. It is one of the things that I will definitly try to bring with me when I get back to Germany.

Hyggetid

Today we went to the westcoast to be at the Northern sea. We went from place to place to take some pictures/ record some videos and to see more of Denmark. Here you can see some of the pictures/ places we've been to. It is actually getting really cold now and although the sun was shining most of the time we were still freezing a lot. At the sea it is even worse because of the strong wind. But we enjoyed being outside anyway. 

Welcome to Løgstør

After we slept in today and had breakfast, we went for a walk in Løgstør. The weather was really bad. It's so windy you think you are going to fly up and away and the icecold rain is punching you steadily. But still, we didn't want to just stay at home so I showed him the my working place and a part of the beach.We were lucky and it stopped raining for a while when we were walking to the beach. And btw: We've seen a lot of rainbows today.

Dreamcake

One of the Danish specialities I have tried so far is the 'Drømmekage' which means something like 'Dreamcake'. Since my boyfriend is going to visit me this weekend and we want to celebrate his birthday I thought I could try to make a Danish cake. Danish cakes are very sweet in my opinion - but still not too sweet to enjoy a piece together with a cup of hot coffee. I am looking forward to try my selfmade cake tomorrow and to see wether it tastes like the ones made by real Danes haha. :-)

ICYE AUTUMN CAMP

 This weekend we are on the so called Autumn camp of our coordinating organization ICYE. Here we are working on different dissamination projects and getting to know a lot of other Volunteers from all over the world. There are more than 100 people taking part in the camp. It is awesome to share all of our experiences and to hear about all their home countries. The dissemination project is done by everyone doing a European Volunteer Service to show that all of us really deal with the things we experience in some kind of way. Tania, Fatou and me decided to make a movie about our lives as EVS Volunteers in Denmark. So next week we will start collecting material and recording our work place and daily activities. I am looking forward to finish the movie in January.

Juleøl release!

"Juleøl" Means "Christmas beer" and is another kind of tradition in Denmark we are experiencing right now. The official release date of the 'Christmas beer' is the so called 'J-dag' (engl.: J- day) which is the first Friday in November.  Every year on 'J-dag' at exactly 8:59pm the Danish brewery Tuborg releases their 'Juleøl'. It is a nationwide event which serves as kind of a jump into the Christmas season. On J-dag the whole nation is going to the bars, celebrating the beloved tradition and enjoying their Danish 'hygge'. In a lot of bars the first Christmas beer is for free. I haven't been to a bigger city tonight because we're going on a camp tomorrow, but a lot of people told me that the bars in the cities are totally crowded with excited people, waiting to finally start the Christmas season with a 'skål!' (which is the Danish way to say 'cheers').

To be honest at first I thought it was a joke when they told me about a so called "Christmas beer" and its' famous release date (and it still seems to be kind of funny to me) but I love to experience all these traditions that you won't find anywhere else.

Language school

Finally we had our first Danish lesson today! We're now attending a language school in Farsø - a town which is about 25 km from Løgstør. We are able to take the school's car to go to language school after work twice a week. The lessons lasts 2 1/2 hours and sometimes it is challenging to pay attention since it is late in the evening and we don't have a real break between work and language school, but our teacher is so funny and very motivating so it will be fine. It  sucks that I understand what people say in Danish but mostly have to answer in English so I am really looking forward to be able to answer everyone in Danish!

Tania's 'Fødselsdag'

After we got home from the dinner at two o'clock last night we slept in this morning. After breakfast Tania went to the supermarket and we secretly put all the presents that we had prepared for her- together with some candles and a Danish flag - onto the small table in the living room. So she was surprised when she came back home. In the afternoon we had a coffee and ate the plumcake I had made before we got ready for our trip to Aalborg in the evening. In Aalborg we went to a bar to have some beers. At 1:30 in the night I got really tired and I knew that the trip home was going to take 1 1/2 hour so I decided to take the next bus. I was so happy to finally be able to sleep soon when I arrived to Løgstør at 3:30.

Dinner with the staff

This evening we were invited to have dinner with the staff of 'group two'. One of the teachers put her house to our disposal so we could have dinner at her home. Everyone had to bring his/her own drinks and we made the food together. Therefore, we divided the group into three teams: Some of us were responsible for the starter, some for the main meal and some for the desert. I was in the "starter team" and made a lot of pizza bread. For the main meal we had different salats, grilled meat, roasted potatoes and sauce. As desert we had coffee, applecake, vanilla ice cream and chocolate brownies. The food was awesome and we had a lovely time with a lot of laughter!
At 00:00 o'clock we sang a birthday song for Tania who is turning 25 and they told us that it is a tradition in Denmark to be powdered with cinamon on your 25th birthday if you are not married. When you are still not married at your 30th birthday you will be powdered with pepper. But they were nice this time and just gave her a cinamon stick.

Halloween preparations

Tomorrow the students will have a halloween party in the school. So today, when I was working in the evening, we started to to some of the decoration.

Another Sunday in Aalborg

This morning I went to Aalborg to go to the church. After the service they told me that there was another service in the afternoon so I decided to stay the whole day. In the afternoon service I asked them not to translate the service for me, because I wanted to see how much I understood. I don't know why and how this worked but to my own surprise I understood the whole service and was able to take some notes in Danish. Furthermore the girls invited me to join their connectgroup whenever I find the time to do so. I am so looking forward to be there!

Nationalpark Thy

Together with Fatou, her boyfriend and Tania I went on a trip to the Nationalpark Thy today. The weather was not really good, so everything looked less colourful than it actually was. I am sure we will go there again next spring, when the weather is better. But still - it was a nice tour and at least we saw something new and now know another place to go to next year.

Limfjord's Lobsters

After we came back home from the camp yesterday we were happy to be able to sleep in today. At four in the afternoon we met two men we got to know (near the habour in Løgstør) two months ago. One of them - a fisherman -  invited us to try fresh Lobsters which he had caught in the Limfjord two weeks ago. It was the first time that I ever ate Lobsters so I really didn't know what to expect of this dinner but of course I wanted to try. In general we really enjoy to try different Danish meals.  Since we're not living in a host Family and mostly cooking ourselves (and we cook the Spanish, French or German things we're used to eat...) it is always something 'special' to get to know typical Danish food. And I really appreciated his invitation. The fish and especially the Lobstors from the Limfjord are so expensive (!) so it was a 'big thing' for us to be invited to eat Limfjord's Lobstors prepared by the fisher himself. We ate the meat of the Lobster on a toast together with a selfmade remoulade, herbals and butter. I don't think that I ever ate something similar before so I don't know how to describe the taste but I really liked it! We also had some Lasange and burned figs with selfmade cream as a desert afterwards. Soooooo good! I had eaten the desert here in Danmark before and I really love it although I never really liked figs. I am looking forward to taste some more Danish food the next months.

Efterårsferie!

In week 42 -the past week - the school was closed and the students, teachers and some pedagoges had their "Efterårsferie" = autum break. About half of the students went home to spend the week with their parents. The other half took part in one of the two autumn camps that the school offered for those who could not go home for a whole week. 

One of the camps took place near Grenå, which is a town at the Baltic sea. So all three of us (Tania, Fatou and me)  joined some of  students and pedagoges on their trip to Grenå. We were living in a holiday house where we spend a lot of time haning out. There was a big living room, a kitchen and shared rooms for all of us.

Every day we went on a trip somewhere before we went back home to enjoy a cozy afternoon and evening together.

Although for us it was actually work instead of holidays, it was so good to see the students during their holidays and to experience how different they behave when there are less things going on so they have more time to relax. I think we - as well as the students - had a very nice week together.

Here you can see some of the pictures taken on the trips. I will upload some more the next days.

Medieval Market

 
Today we visited a special market in a town near Løgstør.

People in medieval dresses were selling different handmade things in tents.
 
You could buy a lot of different things. From cheese to handmade beer jugs to goat horns (they use the horn as a cup - you drink whatever you want out of it)

Nibe

Nibe is a town next to Løgstør. When we came home from our last trip we decided to stop there to have a coffee and walk around the habour. Here's a picture of the habour. And by the way: In the summer they have a big music festival (see more here: http://www.nibefestival.dk/) that a lot of people told us about.

Skywalk Lovesang

This morgning I took the bus to Aalborg to be part of Bethelkirken's 175th birthday. We had a service and lunch after that. I got to know some of the other girls my age who have been and are part of this church.
After lunch there were different small concerts. 

At 3p.m. I went over to the EuroLifeChurch to be part of their service. I've had good conversations and enjoyed the time there as well.

Afterwards I went back to Bethelkirken. The Youth went to a restaurant not far from the church to have dinner together. 

The highlight of the whole day was the Worship evening. The band Skywalk - which is the most famous Danish worship band - played in the church. It was kind of funny for me to meet them because I knew them even before I came to Denmark. Some of them were surprised that a German knew their music. Although it was Danish worship I really enjoyed the concert and understood more than I thought I would.

I definitly had another blessed sunday today.

Kanutour

Today after work Lena - the social worker in the protective workshop - took us with her to her home. 

[The protective workshop is a group of disabled people who are older than the students - e.g. former students. They do a lot of diferent creative things from modeling to creating theatre plays]

Lena and her husband have their own Kanus and invited us to a Kanutour.

The current in the Fjord was too strong today so we decided to stay on a small river and stop before the river opens out into the Fjord. 

All of us have been Kanuing for the first time. It was a lot of fun and we could really enjoy the nature around us since the weather couln't have been better.

Afterwards we had dinner and a relaxed time in their house. The food and especially the company was so nice. We had an awesome day and I'm pretty sure this was not the last time I've been Kanuing.

Goodbye

This morning my parents and I had to say goodbye again. Saying goodbye is something that I will probably never get used to. I really didn't want them to leave yet.

When I woke up today I got ready and went over to their apartment so we could have breakfast together. 

They packet the last things and we loaded the car.

Afterwards we went for another walk along the Fjord and had a coffe and a piece of cake in a cafe next to the water. 

Looking back we have been so lucky with the weather the past days and had a wonderful time together (although it went by way too fast).