Hej alle,
I just gave my first real speech in Danish. Which was technically my second, although still as nerve racking as my first. (The first was a two sentence speech at the first rotary meeting I went to, which was then followed by a 5 minute speech in english.) It seemed to go ok, it was only about five sentences long. The entire speech was about this 2½ page story Marta, my Danish literature, asked me to attempt to read. Now, it took me about 45 minutes to get through the first half page. When Marta came over and asked how I was doing. I told her it made no sense and she laughed and said it was becasue my Danish wasn't that good. And I though "Really, well then I'll just have to prove you wrong" (now I'm cursing that I proved her wrong.) damn my competitiveness! So I translated a short paragraph in my head and said it outloud to her as she read along. Then she said, in Danish, wow Jasmine that was so good! Then she said that I should give a speech tomorrow, a summary of the story... in Danish!!! And what am I supposed to say, "no I'm really not that good at danish"?!? Of course not, so I had no other choice but to agree. The only problem was that last night I also had to finish an English paper. Yikes! So I finished the translation last night and then finished the english paper. Then I wrote up the summary in first class today. For second and third class and lunch I went over to Eva, one of my danish friend's home, and her, Alexandra, and I played Rock Band. So, when I was there I translated my summary into danish, and then had Alex fix it (you know how bad online translators can be) and then had her read it to me so I could get the pronunciation down. So this is what the paper I brought up there looks like
(my transaltion) Denne historie handler om en mand, der benytter sig af en kvinder, der har lavt selvværd. Hele den historie han fortæller, hvordan han kan ikke engang huske hendes navn, og at han bare vil have sex med hende. Hun går sammen med dette, fordi hun har så lavt selvværd og følte, at det ville gøre hende føle sig bedre. Han taler også om hans lille skyld over situationen, men i sidste ende efterlader hende i midt om natten, mens hun sover
(alex's correction) Denne historie handler om en mand, der udnytter en kvinde, der har lavt selvværd. I hele den historie han fortæller, fotæller han hvordan han ikke engang kan huske hendes navn, og at han bare vil have sex med hende. Hun finder sig i dette, fordi hun har så lavt selvværd og følte, at det ville få hende til at føle sig bedre. Han taler også om, hvordan han føler sig lidt skyldig over situationen, men i sidste ende efterlader han hende midt om natten, mens hun sover
(phonetical pronunciation) Denne historier handlar om en man, der unnattar ing kviner, der har la-out selvær. E håle den historier han fortæller, fortæller han vordan han ikke eengen can hoosk hens noun, o at han bår vil håva sex mel hen. Hun finne sigh e dette, fordee hun har så la-out selvær o fulte,at det ville få henne tee at fule sigh belha. Han taler også om, vordan han fuller sigh lidt skooldeeoer situationen, men e seester ende efterlel han henne midt om natten, mens hun so-ar.
I'm just glad it's over now. I love public speaking, I'm just not up for it in Danish yet. My class didn't seem to mind and I think they actually might have understood most of it! But for some reason I think they got some amount of enjoyment form watching me up there. The one time I actually looked at one of the faces in the audience and it just had to be Peter, with this gigantic grin across his face. Oh well, at least I got the teacher to like me :)
~Jasmine H
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
My current situation
Hej alle,
I just thought I would give everyone a short update on my current situatin because a lot of things have changed in the last couple of days. All in all things didn't work out with my first host family and they ended badly. I'm not going to go into details about anything but it just didn't work out. I'm currently staying with Mogen Hansen, my protection/back-up counsellor, and will be until next week. I'm going with Mogen to pack up all of my stuff from Hans and Pia's apartment today after school and move it to Mogen's. Then Caity, who's staying with my second host family, is going to move in with Nina (her third) sometime within the next week and a half and then I will move in with my second host family (Lisbeth and Mic Anchton-Beol.) Hans will still be my counsellor in the fact that I will still get my pocket money from him every month but anything else rotary related will be dealt with through Mogen. This last week things pretty much hit rock bottom. This nice thing about rock bottom is that you can look up and see all of the places you could get to.
They say that doing a year on exchange can make you five years older in maturity level. Well, this week I've hit the point that I think the majority of my friends will hit the begining of their freshman year of college. I've gotten to a point where I'm tired of chasing people around and trying to fix things that I know can never be fixed. Its not giving up, I will always try to fix things that I know can be fixed, it's just realizing that I don't need certain people and all of there drama in my life.
~Jasmine H
I just thought I would give everyone a short update on my current situatin because a lot of things have changed in the last couple of days. All in all things didn't work out with my first host family and they ended badly. I'm not going to go into details about anything but it just didn't work out. I'm currently staying with Mogen Hansen, my protection/back-up counsellor, and will be until next week. I'm going with Mogen to pack up all of my stuff from Hans and Pia's apartment today after school and move it to Mogen's. Then Caity, who's staying with my second host family, is going to move in with Nina (her third) sometime within the next week and a half and then I will move in with my second host family (Lisbeth and Mic Anchton-Beol.) Hans will still be my counsellor in the fact that I will still get my pocket money from him every month but anything else rotary related will be dealt with through Mogen. This last week things pretty much hit rock bottom. This nice thing about rock bottom is that you can look up and see all of the places you could get to.
They say that doing a year on exchange can make you five years older in maturity level. Well, this week I've hit the point that I think the majority of my friends will hit the begining of their freshman year of college. I've gotten to a point where I'm tired of chasing people around and trying to fix things that I know can never be fixed. Its not giving up, I will always try to fix things that I know can be fixed, it's just realizing that I don't need certain people and all of there drama in my life.
~Jasmine H
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Richard III, Informatíon, Drenge, and Karaoke
Hej everyone,
I just got back from my class trip to København!!! It was a blast and I finally had a chance to bond with my class. Don't get me wrong it wasn't with out its ups and downs, but the downs were definitly worth the ups.
We left on Wednesday after school, around 4, from the Banegård (Odense's train station). The train ride from Odense to København is 2 hours which was filled with girlish banter and Fort Minor. After we arrived we walked to the DanHostel and checked in. I ended up in a room with Tessa, Katrine, Stina, Jasmin, and a few other girls. We were the only group of girls that had to share a room with boys. The set up was two small rooms, six beds to each room, that share a bathroom.
The next few hours went by in a mad rush. After getting our rooms we changed for the Theater and went out to get dinner. We ended up finding the other girls at Burger King and I had a grilled chicken burger. They claim that there's chicken in it but all I could taste was mayonnaise and bun. Then we set off on our journey to the theater. Man did it take forever! Might I mention that the entire trip no one really knew where we were going or how to get there. We got there right on time after taking about 37 wrong turns and ended up being the first to arrive, including the teachers. Everybody else apparently ended up more lost than we did.
When everyone had arrived we went inside and got our tickets. The play we were seeing was Richard the Third. Except for the fact that it wasn't Richard the Third it was some weird modern version of Richard the Third and was translated into Danish. So I sat there for the first half watching people dressed in normal clothes scream at each other in danish, have huge monologues, and strangle eachother on a set that consisted of nothing except 17 chairs and a black board. This in turn gave me a blistering migrane. So, during intermission I walked back to the hostel by myself and went to bed while the rest of the class watched the second act and then went out for drinks. They all got home around 12.30 and fell asleep.
If thursday was a painting it would be 300x300 feet and have every color of the wheel. We started out the day with breakfast at 7.30, which means that some of the girls in my room 6:30 and the rest were argueing with the boys at 7.10 over which would get to use the bathroom. I was planning on sleeping until 7.15, needless to say that didn't work to well. Then we went down to the kitchen/bar to each our free continental breakfast. Being an exchange student you tend to learn all of the tricks to saving money, and food in CPH is wicked expensive. *side note: one time a group of exchange students managed to sleep 24 exchange students in a one person hostel room and its bathroom!* So I ended up taking extra food and walked away with a full belly, not to mention a sandwich and a roll for lunch. :)
Then we went to our first museum. I can't remember the name but it had exhibits about things and places all over the world. It was really interesting, they even had a giant room which was based on showing you information by using all five of your senses. Half of the class went to that museum and the rest went to some rich dead person's house. Then after about an hour we switched and my group went to the house. It was interesting and reminded me slightly of a smaller version of the J.J. Hill house. Then we had a break for lunch.
What you need to know is that the girls in my class are relatively divided into two groups, both groups get along but that's just how the cookie crumbles. The only problem is the group of girls that I normally hang out with has a ton of personality clashes. So we all argued over where we were going to go eat and ended up walking 15 minutes across the city. Everyone got falafels and I ate my sandwich and the cookie I had left over from the train ride over and my water that I brought from home. After lunch we all walked 20 minutes back the way we came to go to the art museum. The art museum was interesting and had some really interesting painting in it, the kind that if you sit down and just stair at them you can pick out a back story.
After that everyone split up into their groups and had a 3 hour break before dinner. Some people went shopping, others went back to the hostel, and me and my friends went to a cafe (which of course we agrued over first.) Then we all walked to the Riz Raz which was where the entire class was having dinner. Again, we made it just on time because we managed to get lost. Apparently in CPH there are two Riz Raz restuarants and they're in opposite directions from eachother.
We eventually got there and had a nice dinner, which cost me 150 DKK (about $30). Then we all walked to the a...... KARAOKE BAR!
That had to be the funnest part out of the entire trip. The whole class got drinks, I didn't. I thought it was interesting though how the boys in my class, even though they consumed about the same amount of alchohol, got drunk WAY faster than the girls did. Frederik, a guy in my class, and I sang "all the small things" by Blink 182. And a bunch of girls in my class sung some spice girl, WOOT! I went back with the first group of people to the hostel around 12.30-12.45ish and fell asleep. I was woken up by Micheel, a boy in my class (one of the ones that we shared a bathroom with, sneaking into our room at 4. He was standing over Jasmin poking her. The funny th9ing was that he had his back to me. So I quitelly got out of my bed and stood about a meter behind him with my arms crossed. As soon as Jasmin stirred he jumped and tried to run out of the room, consiquently crashing directly into me and yelping like a little girl. I could smell the alchohol on him.
I woke the next morning to Jasmin screaming becasue there was a fake mouse in her bed. I wonder who could have put that there... Then we all got ready, packed our bags, and went down for breakfast. I did the same thing as yesterday. After we checked out we all walked to the train station to store our bags and took the subway to the newspaper Informatíon. We didn't do much there except for listen to the head editor speak for an hour and a half. Holy crap, I have never wanted to speak Danish more in my entire life than during that hour and a half. I couldn't understand anything except Barack OBama, Thomas Jefferson, and U.S.A.
After that we power walked to the trian station to make our train. The train ride back was uneventful and Iwalked home from the train station.
~Jasmine H
I just got back from my class trip to København!!! It was a blast and I finally had a chance to bond with my class. Don't get me wrong it wasn't with out its ups and downs, but the downs were definitly worth the ups.
We left on Wednesday after school, around 4, from the Banegård (Odense's train station). The train ride from Odense to København is 2 hours which was filled with girlish banter and Fort Minor. After we arrived we walked to the DanHostel and checked in. I ended up in a room with Tessa, Katrine, Stina, Jasmin, and a few other girls. We were the only group of girls that had to share a room with boys. The set up was two small rooms, six beds to each room, that share a bathroom.
The next few hours went by in a mad rush. After getting our rooms we changed for the Theater and went out to get dinner. We ended up finding the other girls at Burger King and I had a grilled chicken burger. They claim that there's chicken in it but all I could taste was mayonnaise and bun. Then we set off on our journey to the theater. Man did it take forever! Might I mention that the entire trip no one really knew where we were going or how to get there. We got there right on time after taking about 37 wrong turns and ended up being the first to arrive, including the teachers. Everybody else apparently ended up more lost than we did.
When everyone had arrived we went inside and got our tickets. The play we were seeing was Richard the Third. Except for the fact that it wasn't Richard the Third it was some weird modern version of Richard the Third and was translated into Danish. So I sat there for the first half watching people dressed in normal clothes scream at each other in danish, have huge monologues, and strangle eachother on a set that consisted of nothing except 17 chairs and a black board. This in turn gave me a blistering migrane. So, during intermission I walked back to the hostel by myself and went to bed while the rest of the class watched the second act and then went out for drinks. They all got home around 12.30 and fell asleep.
If thursday was a painting it would be 300x300 feet and have every color of the wheel. We started out the day with breakfast at 7.30, which means that some of the girls in my room 6:30 and the rest were argueing with the boys at 7.10 over which would get to use the bathroom. I was planning on sleeping until 7.15, needless to say that didn't work to well. Then we went down to the kitchen/bar to each our free continental breakfast. Being an exchange student you tend to learn all of the tricks to saving money, and food in CPH is wicked expensive. *side note: one time a group of exchange students managed to sleep 24 exchange students in a one person hostel room and its bathroom!* So I ended up taking extra food and walked away with a full belly, not to mention a sandwich and a roll for lunch. :)
Then we went to our first museum. I can't remember the name but it had exhibits about things and places all over the world. It was really interesting, they even had a giant room which was based on showing you information by using all five of your senses. Half of the class went to that museum and the rest went to some rich dead person's house. Then after about an hour we switched and my group went to the house. It was interesting and reminded me slightly of a smaller version of the J.J. Hill house. Then we had a break for lunch.
What you need to know is that the girls in my class are relatively divided into two groups, both groups get along but that's just how the cookie crumbles. The only problem is the group of girls that I normally hang out with has a ton of personality clashes. So we all argued over where we were going to go eat and ended up walking 15 minutes across the city. Everyone got falafels and I ate my sandwich and the cookie I had left over from the train ride over and my water that I brought from home. After lunch we all walked 20 minutes back the way we came to go to the art museum. The art museum was interesting and had some really interesting painting in it, the kind that if you sit down and just stair at them you can pick out a back story.
After that everyone split up into their groups and had a 3 hour break before dinner. Some people went shopping, others went back to the hostel, and me and my friends went to a cafe (which of course we agrued over first.) Then we all walked to the Riz Raz which was where the entire class was having dinner. Again, we made it just on time because we managed to get lost. Apparently in CPH there are two Riz Raz restuarants and they're in opposite directions from eachother.
We eventually got there and had a nice dinner, which cost me 150 DKK (about $30). Then we all walked to the a...... KARAOKE BAR!
That had to be the funnest part out of the entire trip. The whole class got drinks, I didn't. I thought it was interesting though how the boys in my class, even though they consumed about the same amount of alchohol, got drunk WAY faster than the girls did. Frederik, a guy in my class, and I sang "all the small things" by Blink 182. And a bunch of girls in my class sung some spice girl, WOOT! I went back with the first group of people to the hostel around 12.30-12.45ish and fell asleep. I was woken up by Micheel, a boy in my class (one of the ones that we shared a bathroom with, sneaking into our room at 4. He was standing over Jasmin poking her. The funny th9ing was that he had his back to me. So I quitelly got out of my bed and stood about a meter behind him with my arms crossed. As soon as Jasmin stirred he jumped and tried to run out of the room, consiquently crashing directly into me and yelping like a little girl. I could smell the alchohol on him.
I woke the next morning to Jasmin screaming becasue there was a fake mouse in her bed. I wonder who could have put that there... Then we all got ready, packed our bags, and went down for breakfast. I did the same thing as yesterday. After we checked out we all walked to the train station to store our bags and took the subway to the newspaper Informatíon. We didn't do much there except for listen to the head editor speak for an hour and a half. Holy crap, I have never wanted to speak Danish more in my entire life than during that hour and a half. I couldn't understand anything except Barack OBama, Thomas Jefferson, and U.S.A.
After that we power walked to the trian station to make our train. The train ride back was uneventful and Iwalked home from the train station.
~Jasmine H
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Do do de do do
Heyo,
How is everyone doing? I'm doing well. Just got back from a movie night with a bunch of exchagne students. We watched Crocodile Dundee then Scream then Flying High. We were going ot watch Edward Scissorhands after that but we Kate's host mom came back home and told us to go to bed because it was 1:30. Then we all went downstairs and just chilled for a while and then fell asleep. Scream was horrible. We all decided that we wanted to watch one scary movie so we put it between two really good comedies which worked well. At least Scream was made in the 90's so there's parts about it that you can actually laugh at.
I got up and had a delicious danish breakfast and then caught a ride home.
It's snowing... just baby flakes and it keeps slipping into rain but it's snowing.
I'm starting to get a little homesickness. I miss my dog and being able to drive alot. That and not being able to be there when Sarah told everybody she was pregnant.
I've been trying to download the new nancy drew video games but it's being bitchy and it wont let me for some reason. Three new ones have come out and I'm dieing over here!
~Jasmine H
How is everyone doing? I'm doing well. Just got back from a movie night with a bunch of exchagne students. We watched Crocodile Dundee then Scream then Flying High. We were going ot watch Edward Scissorhands after that but we Kate's host mom came back home and told us to go to bed because it was 1:30. Then we all went downstairs and just chilled for a while and then fell asleep. Scream was horrible. We all decided that we wanted to watch one scary movie so we put it between two really good comedies which worked well. At least Scream was made in the 90's so there's parts about it that you can actually laugh at.
I got up and had a delicious danish breakfast and then caught a ride home.
It's snowing... just baby flakes and it keeps slipping into rain but it's snowing.
I'm starting to get a little homesickness. I miss my dog and being able to drive alot. That and not being able to be there when Sarah told everybody she was pregnant.
I've been trying to download the new nancy drew video games but it's being bitchy and it wont let me for some reason. Three new ones have come out and I'm dieing over here!
~Jasmine H
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
SO SORRY!
Hej (Hello),
To start, I am SO sorry about not updating the blog in so long. Everything is just so hectic over here! Please do not think for one second that me not updating my blog is anything against any of you! I am simply attempting to intergrate myself into the culture.
The language is doing well. Danish is a very very complicated language as I'm sure anyone who has learned a scandinavian language knows. I was told by my host father, Hans, when I arived that Danish only has five rules and five books of exceptions for each rule. I am currently taking Danish language classes every Monday and Wednesday. My school, Sct. Knuds Gymnasium, is paying for the first two months and then Rotary is paying for the last 9 months. *Note to Rotary: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE LESSONS!* I'm trying to learn as much as possible during the classes but it's honestly so hard for me to sit down and concentrate. I learn much more and retain information much better when I learn it in a normal setting, a.k.a. the dinner table.
Skole (school) is o.k. Again, I'm trying as hard as I can to learn and concentrate. However, I don't understand what any of my teachers say. It's like trying to telecommunicate with a crying baby. It doesn't work and just gives me a headache. What I've been doing is trying to focus for 10 minutter (minutes) at a time and then reading my book for 10 minutes. I'm currently reading Term Limits by Mike Flynn, tis fantastic! My class is good. In Denmark you stay with one group of kids for all of your classes. They have also have school parties once a month! Its a huge change compared to US schools. Its almost comical to all of the US exchange student because the week before our parties you can see work men bringing in cases after cases of beer and kegs. The parties normally go until 2 in the morning and then the class hits the town afterwards (of course I'm always back by my host parents cerfew and I never drink.)
Hølbæck is coming up soon. It is a Rotary event where all of the students across Denmark get together for a halloween party. It should be really fun. Caitly, my best friend from Australia, and I are going to dress up as Vikings!
Other than that there's not much to report here. I'm just having a great time and getting to know everyone and everything.
~Jasmine H
To start, I am SO sorry about not updating the blog in so long. Everything is just so hectic over here! Please do not think for one second that me not updating my blog is anything against any of you! I am simply attempting to intergrate myself into the culture.
The language is doing well. Danish is a very very complicated language as I'm sure anyone who has learned a scandinavian language knows. I was told by my host father, Hans, when I arived that Danish only has five rules and five books of exceptions for each rule. I am currently taking Danish language classes every Monday and Wednesday. My school, Sct. Knuds Gymnasium, is paying for the first two months and then Rotary is paying for the last 9 months. *Note to Rotary: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE LESSONS!* I'm trying to learn as much as possible during the classes but it's honestly so hard for me to sit down and concentrate. I learn much more and retain information much better when I learn it in a normal setting, a.k.a. the dinner table.
Skole (school) is o.k. Again, I'm trying as hard as I can to learn and concentrate. However, I don't understand what any of my teachers say. It's like trying to telecommunicate with a crying baby. It doesn't work and just gives me a headache. What I've been doing is trying to focus for 10 minutter (minutes) at a time and then reading my book for 10 minutes. I'm currently reading Term Limits by Mike Flynn, tis fantastic! My class is good. In Denmark you stay with one group of kids for all of your classes. They have also have school parties once a month! Its a huge change compared to US schools. Its almost comical to all of the US exchange student because the week before our parties you can see work men bringing in cases after cases of beer and kegs. The parties normally go until 2 in the morning and then the class hits the town afterwards (of course I'm always back by my host parents cerfew and I never drink.)
Hølbæck is coming up soon. It is a Rotary event where all of the students across Denmark get together for a halloween party. It should be really fun. Caitly, my best friend from Australia, and I are going to dress up as Vikings!
Other than that there's not much to report here. I'm just having a great time and getting to know everyone and everything.
~Jasmine H
Thursday, August 27, 2009
sorry
Hej,
Sorry everyone for slacking on the blog. Take it as a sign that I'm settling in not ignoring you all. I miss everyone very much!!
~Jasmine H
Sorry everyone for slacking on the blog. Take it as a sign that I'm settling in not ignoring you all. I miss everyone very much!!
~Jasmine H
Friday, August 7, 2009
Danish Rotary = Shots by LMFAO
Hej,
Igne and I went to do aerobics today. The class we went to had a bunch of other Rotarians in it as well as a few other random people. The class was fun, but relatively easy. Afterwards everyone takes a shower. I was one of the first people in the dressing rooms, and I wasn't sure if I was supposed to take off my clothes right before I got in or if I was supposed to take them off at my locker and just go in a towel. I decided to risk it and I took my clothes of at my locker and walked to the shower in a towel wrap. I rinsed off and was done before anybody really got back into the shower room so I figured I was all in the clear. And boy was I. As soon as people got into the dressing room I noticed that they just walked to the shower's stark naked, and I'm not talking about in underwear or in a bra, I'm talking about bare ass, hail mary nakedness. I didn't know that that's what they did.
Anyway, I finished getting dressed and went into the lounge type area of the excersize place. Igne had told me that after excerszing the Rotarians normally sat down and had kaffe together. I sat down and realized that not only was there kaffe and bageuttes but there was a line of shot glasses. I figured it was for irish kaffe or something like that. So, I go on talking to people and drinking kaffe like I didn't notice anything. As soon as everybody had arrived in the room they began to do straight shots of whiskey. Now I woke up at 7 and went excersizing at 8 and finished at 9. So they were doing shots at like 9 in the freaking morning. I got offered some but I figured it was a test, and that I would probably spew it across the room as soon as it was in my mouth, so I refused.
Then Igne and I went home. Velcommen to Danmark!
~Jasmine H
Igne and I went to do aerobics today. The class we went to had a bunch of other Rotarians in it as well as a few other random people. The class was fun, but relatively easy. Afterwards everyone takes a shower. I was one of the first people in the dressing rooms, and I wasn't sure if I was supposed to take off my clothes right before I got in or if I was supposed to take them off at my locker and just go in a towel. I decided to risk it and I took my clothes of at my locker and walked to the shower in a towel wrap. I rinsed off and was done before anybody really got back into the shower room so I figured I was all in the clear. And boy was I. As soon as people got into the dressing room I noticed that they just walked to the shower's stark naked, and I'm not talking about in underwear or in a bra, I'm talking about bare ass, hail mary nakedness. I didn't know that that's what they did.
Anyway, I finished getting dressed and went into the lounge type area of the excersize place. Igne had told me that after excerszing the Rotarians normally sat down and had kaffe together. I sat down and realized that not only was there kaffe and bageuttes but there was a line of shot glasses. I figured it was for irish kaffe or something like that. So, I go on talking to people and drinking kaffe like I didn't notice anything. As soon as everybody had arrived in the room they began to do straight shots of whiskey. Now I woke up at 7 and went excersizing at 8 and finished at 9. So they were doing shots at like 9 in the freaking morning. I got offered some but I figured it was a test, and that I would probably spew it across the room as soon as it was in my mouth, so I refused.
Then Igne and I went home. Velcommen to Danmark!
~Jasmine H
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
