Mandø Og Als

This last weekend the family and myself went to two different places.  We got to borrow the grandparents car and see a little of Denmarks finest sites.  I was not sure really what to expect at first, but I thought that any time spent traveling with the family would be great for our relationship... thus we sat almost silently to our destinations, and I don't know why but they would not turn on the radio. :(

Mandø Island

Mandø Island

Mandø island is a fun journey.  This is because the only way to get there is by tractor.  It is an island, but the water never gets deep around it.  Over the years many tourists have had major damage to their cars while trying to go to this island, because the tide may come in and take the car away with it.

  

Lucky for us we stayed far away from the water below.

Mandø is one of the Danish Wadden Sea islands off the southwest coast of the Jutland.  The Wadden Sea is a part of the North Sea.  The island is only seven and a half kilometers square and has 62 people living on it.  It is about 12 kilometers southwest of Ribe where I visited earlier to buy my bike.  Mandø has a rich history and this is why it is a popular tourist attraction.  During a flood in the early 17th century, everybody died due to a flood... wow... okay.

The enjoyment of this trip came from our many long meals and family times.  Each time we ate we sat for an hour.  We had home made bread, which is all we ever have, with cheese, jelly, peanut butter, butter, ham, and liverposti.  Not all of that together of coarse.  We sat and drank coffee, and for me hot chocolate.  It was cold at times, but it was a very fun journey as I had said before.  We returned late saturday night.  

Before returning home we decided to stop and wait for the Starlings to come flying over.  There were a lot of people all waiting, which is really strange.  They call it a sun blackout.  Cause there are so many Starlings, but none came and we went home.

Als Island

Going to Als Island the next day was a very different type of adventure.  We were going to Danfoss Universe, a science park.  You can click here to see a virtual map of the park in english.  The highlight of the day however was riding around on segways.  If you don't know what a segway is, it is a small vehicle with two wheels... ummm... they are just amazing, take my word for it.  The park was filled with interactive science exibits, in fact, there was nothing you could even read in the whole park, just a lot of stuff to do.  So Boris and myself ran around from one place to another acting like little kids, it was fun!

Danfoss is a large company that makes water pumps.  This is why one of the main exibits was a large blue building with water running down the outside of it.  It was neat and had ice, lava, and lightning inside, or at least videos of lava.  I am not sure I learned anything while being there, it is not like our science museums where you read each exibit, but it was a lot of fun.

After the day had ended I felt like doing some poses.  It was a good weekend and then I had to start school again.  I am not so afraid of going to school anymore, if I make a mistake then I just ask and try to figure out what is going on, there is no point in stressing out about grades, when grades have no difference in my life right now.  I am here to learn so much more then what they teach in class.

-In addition I would like to say that I am now taking language classes at the local language center and will start tonight at 6 until 8:10.  I will have this class 2 times a week every monday and wednesday.  This is not what many of the other AFSrs are doing, but I think this is the best for me.  Many other AFS students are taking the class during the day instead of going to school, this gives them 16 hours of language a week compared to my 4 hours of language.  This is okay, I will have a lot less stress because I will be going to school instead of having to catch up with school work later.

københavn extended

So this was in Tivoli.  It was a lot of fun just hanging out with the group in such an amazing place.  This was right before the concert and we soon went over into the crowd.

When we first arrived there where a few people to meet us but mostly we walked to our hostel.

We basically rocked out before the concert.  Most these people are the brazilians!  YAY ^_^

I met so many new people on this trip.  It was a good time!

København

Hej friends and family!

Yesterday I came home from a trip out to Copenhagen.  It was an exchange student trip planned by some Rotary students.  I was fortunate enough to here word of the trip through a girl in Rotary who goes to Vejen Gymnasium og HF, the same school I go to.  It was a very fun weekend and I learned a lot about being more comfortable with talking to strangers and with transportation.  It is required to learn to talk to strangers.

While in København most of the exchange students went to a concert in Tivoli.  Tivoli is an big park with roller coasters and other fun things almost directly in the center of København.  The concert was Alphabeat, which I didn't know of before I decided to go.  I think there music is pretty good though, and very european.  I met a lot of new friends and met a few people from Canada and USA.  I had a lot of fun while I was there and gained a lot of new experiences.  I will list the new things that I learned from my trip.

1) How to get a train ticket to travel across the country.

2) Never rent a hostel called CPH Airport Hostel (it is hardly even a shelter)

3) How to ask directions from 500 people and still be lost even though they are saying the directions in english.

4) "Du taler engelisk?" and normally they will say "Yes I do"

5) Don't order any drinks ever... they cost more then the meal.

6) When you get on a train, find the section that says your destination or else your cabin of the train will go somewhere else.  And find the section with the least amount of sleeping people.  (this prevents them from waking up and yelling at you in Danish)

7) Rotary is bigger then AFS, so pay attention to their events as well and sneak in with their groups.

8) It's okay to meet random people who are on exchange and pretend you already know everything about them... exchange students are your best friends.

9) Latin Americans kiss on one cheek, Italians kiss on both, and everyone else... try not to kiss them or they freak out.

Maybe I should explain some of these learning experiences.

I left Friday morning after first period to go to the train station.  I had my backpack with enough cloths to make it through the weekend.  I felt like such a world traveler getting on a train in a place I now call my home town and going to the big city in a country that I consider myself a part of.  It was really cool.  So we traveled the two and a half hours on train to the city and met a few people there.  We checked into a hostel called DanHostel.  A very nice 19 story hotel.  We had rented the whole room so it was not like more people would come in and sleep with us.  I had reservations at another Hostel, but decided not to go after going there once.  (It took an hour to get there by train then bus, then a half hour walk, and it was not a very nice building... with a cardboard sign)  So I took the safe path and just stuck with the hotel that seemed safe and close to where we were hanging out.  

The first night I had the concert with Alphabeat.  After that I found one of my friends from Hungary who had been on the same soccer team as I was at introcamp.  We decided to invite some girls and go walk the town.  We walked for a few hours and then split up the group at about... 1 am.  Thats when I went with 4 of the girls and we went to a club.  It was a very boring club.  The most exciting thing all night was a fight between a girl and guy where a lot of anger went into a really really hard slap.  I just tried to get out of the way.  So that was friday night.

Saturday was basically a long walking day.  Some of the guys went to get breakfast and ended up at a really nice place.  The only problem was there was no menu and there was no english speaking waiter.  So although the buffet was easy enough to eat from, I really wish I had not gotten the 30 kr chocolate milk.  I guess all drinks cost that much, including water, but still, that is 5 dollars for water or pop or milk with no refill ever.  So it was a bit confusing to order food that day.  Then we walked that night to and I met a nice girl from the States and talked with her while the group of 16 of us walked around all night.  I split from the group and went home around 1 that night, so I got plenty of rest for the train ride home.

Over all it was just a lot of walking.  It was a lot of fun though, and was cheaper then going to a big city in the USA.  

If you have any question just write a comment... cause I still need more comments, and you don't have to sign up to post a comment!  Sorry I can not post pictures from this weekend, my camera is doing some weird thing and won't turn on... BLAH.  I will post pictures if I find some from facebook off my friends photos.

Cya

Trip So Far

Photos!!!

Early on in the trip I visited the giant white statue people!  I was with Gus and Tove my contacts from Børup.  We went a lot of places together.  Right after this we went to the other coast!

This is us on the beach.  Tove and Gus.  We were crawling around in old German bunkers and were talking about all the history from the war.  It was very informational

Me and Boris - Event entitled Open By Night in Vejen.  The stores stay open until 11 at night and everybody shops a lot.

This is my whole family.  YAY!  I am also working on my beard so that I can fit in better.

This is a group of my peers.  Friday nights are always fun to go and meet new people, so this last friday I met these guys and tried to play pool.  There were lots more I met and could not include in the picture.

Home is a word that is difficult to define.  Home is not just a place, it is a feeling.  Being able to say that you are at home is saying that you are comforted.  I know that I can make it here, as long as I find a home.  It has been hard settling down here, even though my bags are unpacked and my room smells like Kyle.  Without routine or constant friends it is hard to know who you are and if you don't know who you are, then you will never find home.  Can home be a friends house?  I think that home can be anywhere that you know you can be yourself.  I may have found my home and my comfort.

I had a lot of fun with Simone the other day watching videos.  It was nice to get out from home, but still be able to relax.  I think she had fun too.  We walked around Bække where she lives and she taught me all of the fun activities to do in town.  I also dominated her brother at Guitar Hero.  I can say that with pride, ha.  

On another note, I have not taken my first Danish lesson yet, very very disappointing.  I want to take the class really really bad and all the other AFS students are taking it, and I don't know how to sign up for it.  I ask all the time about it, but I still don't get information about how to sign up.  I am also taking my first ever piano lesson today at 4.  Also very exciting.  I hope to have lots to tell everyone when the message me on Skype.

Facts and other things

Welcome to KYLE-TOPIA

So I really don't have much news today.  And thus I don't know why I am blogging.  Here are some interesting facts that I have discovered while here.

1)Junk food is expensive because it is taxed for being bad for you

2)McDonalds has different health code regulations

3)School days have no pattern to them, every day is different

4)You can buy alcohol at 16 but can't drink until 18

5)Everything is about twice as expensive, except clothing which is four times!

Yesterday I went to the first band practice.  I was very happy to see that we were in a room that was easy to find within the building, and very nice.  I wasn't missing anything, and everything went very well upon arrival.  When I received the music, I was also very happy.  The music is at my level, and was a bit like high school music, without the cheesy titles.  I had a good time and music is the same everywhere so I was very comfy there around all the other players.  About half were missing though, so it was just a few of us.  Fun fact,  they were drinking beer while playing.  haha, I don't think that would be good for an instrument.

At the moment I am sitting in a random house in Vejen.  The internet was not working at school so once again we got permission to leave school, so I will begin studying soon.  I am doing a research project on Bull Fighting in Spain and a connection to its culture.  I am doing the project with emphasis on animal cruelty and if it is right to protect culture.

I am going to sign out now,

Cya

NEW NEW NEW

School is so Crazy!

As you can see I have a totally new format for this blog.  Welcome to new and improved DKShriver!  A few of the new things include posting comments without needing an account and the new format of the page which i think is working out very well.  I hope to see a lot more comments from people now that I have updated these features. 

These photo's are of our school principal being a stud at a school party

Our school on the inside

Yesterday I had the most fun of my trip thus far.  It was a really nice day, except for walking home in the rain.  It was warm for most of the day and I went into Vejen with a friend from class named Simone.  We went to the store and bought some stuff.  After that we went to the library where she had some Swedish books on hold.  She is Swedish by the way.  After that I waited as she went to the eye doctor to have her eyes checked.  Then we sat down and had a cup of tea and some bread at a shop in Vejen.  I was so nervous and she was also nervous when we thought about it, because of the language barrier and just normal nerves going on, but once we started talking it just all flowed very well, and there were no silences the whole day.  

When I think of Vejen I think of Oxford.  It is very similar but very different.  The shops are similar and I think the size might be only a little smaller.  There is a train station in Vejen, and a bus stop, so whenever I need to travel I will park my bike at the post office and travel.  It is a nice town, they keep it very clean, which is surprising with how many parties there are.

Plans for today

Today at 7 pm I am going to Kolding on the west coast to play in an orchastra.  I will have more information to tell later on this subject.  But it should be very fun.

CYA

Kyle

WOW

Dad, you said you wanted to teach in a school like this... no dad, you don't.  You would never feel like the students are paying attention to you, basically because they won't.  You have no power over them, no detention slips or anything.  Ha, ok, I thought I would through that out there.

This week is a really really strange week.  It is called AT.  I don't know what it means, but we learn one subject all week and then at the end of the week give a report.  I have been torn out of my usual class because they are all doing german, so I am in my 2.C spanish class.  

So tomorrow (Tuesday) I have a party.  It will be fun although the next day of school will be really rough.  I won't go into it, but I will have some pictures to post after I get a few cables for my camera, which my mother is sending.  It will be fun, we are having it because our class has to put on a skit the next day during our wednesday assembly.  I don't know what our skit will be yet, ha, I will figure it out.

Now I have decided to point out one fact about Denmark each blog I post.  Today's random fact is that in our school there are no such things as detention.  For example, a student in my class poured a bucket of water on our teachers head the 3rd day.  She was really mad and left.  The next day he was told to leave, so his displine was being sent home for a day.  The only reason that is bad is that he got 3 class absences.  This isn't bad though.  Worse would be getting more absences then classes you miss.  Well, that's the fact.  

Kyle