Report from Andrea Kowalczyk , Exchange Student in Denmark

Hej!

Three months ago today I was getting ready and putting away my last things in to my suitcase… So, October is over now and I’ve been here in Denmark for three months. I haven’t switched my host families yet, but I will on November 27th. I’m a little sad, but I’m very excited to switch families.

Anyway, during October my host family took me to LEGOLAND- the original one. It was really crazy to see just how many things that can be made out of Legos… Some of them moved and they had boats that were moving around and floating in the water. It was also neat to see some buildings and things in Legos that I’ve seen in real life.

We visited Aarhus one day, which is a large city about an hour southeast of Aalborg, where we went shopping and ate lunch. While there, I was able to meet up with my friend, Signe, who had been an exchange student in Houston last year. It was so nice to talk about our exchange experiences and things we both miss about America. She and I went to a very “hyggeligt” café and had some coffee. (There’s no direct translation for “hyggeligt”, but it sort of means “cozy”).

On the day before Halloween, my host sisters (Emma and Anna) carved pumpkins. Anna’s is the one on the left, mine is in the middle, and Emma’s is on the right. (Extra brownie points to whoever knows what my pumpkin is). The Danes don’t really celebrate Halloween much- it’s a new thing here. See, people will go to Halloween parties and dress up a little bit, but nobody goes trick-or-treating or puts out scary yard decorations. I had lots of the other exchange students and kids in my class ask me what Halloween is like in America, and you could tell they were all just a little bit jealous.

It’s been difficult getting people to speak Danish to me since they all speak English pretty well, but just last week I was able to finally convince my classmates to speak to me in Danish… at least most of the time. It’s a whole different thing to speak Danish than it is to be able to read/write it because Danish is not phonetic. I’m working hard on both, of course.

Until November is over, vi ses!

Andrea Kowalczyk