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!