Over (t)here in Denmark

You might have heard about this, but my entire island of Zealand and the western tip of Sweden was without any power for several hours yesterday. It happened as Chia Ling and I were on the train to Copenhagen for language class, and fortunately it happened while we were stopped at Nordhavn station (one stop from our stop of Østerport), instead of stuck between two stations, like some of the others in our class.

A voice came over the intercom and said something in Danish, and everyone else exited the train, grumbling. I asked a conductor what was going on, and he said that we had lost power. Chia Ling and I assumed that just our train had lost power, and that we'd get it back within minutes, so we waited. And we waited. And we waited. You'd have thought we'd notice the fact that everyone else had gotten off the train, but no. We must have sat there for forty minutes. We were both actually drifting off to sleep when the conductor noticed we were still there and said, "You DO know that this entire island has lost power, and that it's going to take at least two hours to get it back?" So we walked for fifteen minutes to our stop and waited for a city bus. All of the city buses were packed and we had to wait for one that wasn't so full. We finally got to school, and were only about thirty minutes late, because we start out from Hillerød so early, and usually arrive at school early anyway. Only five other girls had made it to class, which we did in the dark. Around 4:40 the lights went on. When we got back to Østerport, the boards usually showing what time the next train comes and it's destination were blank. Finally, after twenty minutes of sitting around in the cold, an A train came in (Chia Ling and I take either the A line or the E line to Hillerød), but it only took us to Hellerup. The trains are the most power-consuming thing around, so when they regain power, the trains are the last thing to resume running. At that moment, the trains were running very sporadically. In Hellerup we met up with Angela, Jess, and Jill. We talked, and decided to go to Ang's house (fifteen minutes walk from the station) and from there we could call our host families and wait until the trains started to run normally again. After contacting our host families, having a bite to eat, and listening to power updates on the radio, her host dad gave us a lift back to the station, where we caught a train going all the way back to Hillerød. I didn't get home until around half past eight last night, and I was disappointed because I had missed my fencing class.

My weekdays are comprised of school, language class twice a week, fencing right after language class, and spending time at the library. I'm falling into a regular schedule (dun dun dun!). Some out-of-the-ordinary things coming up are: Jeni, Sara, Rebecca, and I meeting in Odense, and my first ceramics class on Wednesday, which is a class not connected to school, but a free club I signed up to do with my host sister Katrine.

In my spare time, I like to play chess with my host sisters. I usually win over Maria, but Katrine is a worthy opponent (meaning she usually kicks my butt). Once, a couple weeks ago, while playing chess (skak in Danish), I asked her what the rook was called in Danish. She said it was called a tårn, which, directly translated, means "tower." I, a fanatical Lord of the Rings fan, noticed that we each had one rook left on the board. "Look, the two towers!" I said, referring to the second LOTR film. She laughed, and, abandoning the game, we moved on to reenact the entire Two Towers plot, using chess pieces.

In school, I've made two really good friends. Mette and Maria. I sit next to them in class, I eat lunch with them, and on Mondays and Thursdays I go with them to KFS, which is a Christian club. It's conducted in Danish, but I still like to sit and know I'm with some Christians.

On Friday night, a girl named Neysa, an exchange student from Indiana, came and spent the night. She lives farther north, in Helsingør. We stayed up late that night talking, and on Sunday afternoon, we met Shannon, Claudia, and Chia Ling in Copenhagen and went out for dinner. These fellow exchange students, who I've spent a lot of time with because we have language class together, are my great friends over here. I think that because we know we're all in the same boat, miles and miles from home, surrounded by a language we are only just beginning to understand, and knowing it's going to be awhile before we go home, we sort of bonded. When I was a freshman, my family hosted a girl named Ruby, from Venezuela. In school, she spent a lot of time with the other exchange students, and now I finally understand why.

Ang and I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean last weekend (one of my favorites), and I'm going to see it again next weekend with Jeni, who is also from the US. I live on Zealand, and she lives on Jutland, the mainland, so we are going to meet on the middle island of Fyn, in Odense, on Saturday the 27th. We'll meet early and shop, shop, shop, then see the film.

I'm growing to love my fencing class. They think I'm good enough to practice with the adults now, so I'll be going to later practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays after language class, and some on Sunday mornings, too.

I've recently started to make PB&J sandwiches for my lunch, and it's amusing to see the looks on my host family's and my friend's faces when I pull them out. I'm beginning to see some constants in Danish meals. They eat bread for breakfast, lunch, and dinner(morgenmad, middag, og aftensmad); bread with marmelade and cheese, bread with Danish salami and cucumbers, bread with shrimp and chives, etc. And we have potatoes (kartofler) at least every other night, if not more often.

My last English class was neat because they were comparing the British to the Americans, and they kept saying "no offense" to me before they made a comment about Americans. I didn't take offense at much. Most of what they said was perfectly true.

Today was a sort of field day at school. I, of course, had forgotten about it, and showed up in jeans and flip-flops. I saw everyone walking around in sweats and work-out clothes and thought, "uh-oh." But it was all right. I had arrived just in time to go to this break-dance assembly deal, where all the kids in my year were in the gym and this famous break-dancer taught us this rap-like routine. It was really fun. Why don't we have break-dancing days at home? I managed fine in my jeans, and I just went barefoot. I wasn't required to do anything else, so since I was really sweaty and tired after an hour and a half of bustin' moves, I biked home for another shower, and then to the library. Don't have much planned for this weekend. I might take the train to Copenhagen tomorrow just to window-shop.

I'm at the library on a Wednesday morning because I don't have to go to school. Today, my school goes on strike. Apparently the government is saving money by withholding it from the school, mostly by putting more and more students in one class, therefore there are less classes, which is less expensive. The students go on strike in protest of this. They do it every year, because the government will listen and decide to spend the money, but then plan on not spending it the next year, so the kids have to strike again. Anyway, I don't have to attend. Chia Ling, an exchange student from Taiwan who lives in Fredensborg, a nearby town, and who goes to my school, isn't going to the strike, either. We are going shopping in another town, Lyngby. Train is one of the main forms of transportation here. The towns are very close together, so the train rides are quick. Both my and Chia Ling's Rotary clubs pay for month-long train passes, so we can take the train as often as we like. The passes also work for the bus lines. Another main form of transportation is by bicycle. It seems as though everyone bikes around here! They have separate roads, parking lots, even stoplights just for bikes! Anni, my host mother, is one of the few people I know who doesn't use her bike, so she lets me use it. I bike to school every day, to the train station, to the library, everywhere! Every Tuesday and Thursday, I skip the afternoon part of school and take the train to Copenhagen, which is about a forty-minute train ride south. I and the other Rotary exchange students in my district, who number around twently, attend a language school there, to learn Danish. The school is actually used to teach teenage refugees and immigrants Danish, but once a year they also let Rotary use it. The twenty of us were split into two classes, and we have two young male teachers, Tobias and Thomas. Tobias will teach my class for two hours, and Thomas the other class, then we have a break and the teachers switch classes. These classes last from one to five twice a week. They are really helpful, too. I think I'm really making progress with Danish.

One of the things that never fails to confuse me is the way they use military time here. Instead of simply saying it's 2:24, it's 14:24. I'll never get used to that.
I've been here in Denmark for exactly 47 days. All of them have flown by. As long as I keep busy, I'm not overwhelmed by homesickness. Mostly, I miss the mountains of my Alaskan home, my best friends and family, and Saturday Night Live. And mint chocolate chip ice cream. That's all for now, stayed tuned for more updates on my Danish adventures. Your foreign correspondent, Clamgirl.