Meeting my host family! - DAY 3

End of the AFS camp

The last day of the AFS camp has come. We packed our bags in the morning and shared our last tears. The volunteers gave an envelope to each one of us with everything we had to know. It was time for everyone meet their host families! Everyone was very nervous, exchanging phone numbers and facebook profiles, that would later be very useful for organizing meetings and parties with our new all around the world friends! 

The volunteers prepared a small goodbye party with music. Everyone was dancing and having fun. While we were dancing, some host families were arriving to get their students and it was really emotional to see them going away one by one. To each family that came and student that left we applauded and said goodbye to our friends. I saw one of my good friends Mohamed being picked up by his family and I could see the commotion in his eyes. It was truly a beautiful moment.

This camp was truly amazing. I arrived in Denmark not knowing anyone, and after that camp, I had friends from the whole world. It was very hard to say goodbye, but we knew we would all meet again shortly. The volunteers in the camp were absolutely fantastic, helped us with everything, answered every question, didn't judge. We felt we could trust them 100%! I leave some photos from this camp now... and I will never forget everyone that I met.

The Portuguese and Brasilian

Some of the AFS family

Me and my French friends

Me and Joana

The Brasilian guys with Anita from Italy

Our group with the Thailandese

Me and Ana 

Group sessions on the outside

The place where we stayed the night

Talking during a pause

Learning to dance with Mexican Juan

At the canteen

The last photo of the camp, just before entering the bus

Meeting my Danish family

We waited for the buses that would take us all to different places, in which our host families would pick us up. We were all separated into small groups and each one went to a different train station. In the train station that I was, I saw many families arriving, one by one, and I started getting more and more nervous because I knew mine could be there at any moment... 

And after a long time waiting and creating anxiety, one of the volunteers came next to me and told me "Your family is here!" You can't imagine how nervous I was, after talking to them by email for over 3 months and exchanging small videos and photos to talk about ourselves, they were finally there. I went to see them and my heart stopped. I heard all my friends clapping and applauding. I hugged my new family and said a quick goodbye to my other AFS family. It was extremely touching to see everyone waving goodbye, smiling and wishing good luck! 

I grabbed my bags and we started walking to the car to take me to my new home. They were exactly like the pictures and seemed equally nice! I have a father and a mother and 5 siblings, but 4 of them have already left home since they are older than 20 years old. So I'm living with my mom, my dad and my host sister, called Caroline, and she's 17 years old. My dad works in his own company, he's an engineer, and my mom is a nurse at an elderly institution that she also owns. 

Me and my host sister in the station

We had to drive home and it still was far so we had a lot of time to know each other. I told my host family about the camp, about what we learned and about all the friends that I made. We talked about differences between Denmark and Portugal, culture and traditions. They were very interested about how was my travel, they asked a lot of questions and I was very happy to answer them. I was so excited to finally meet them! They taught me about the danish geography. Denmark consists mostly of 3 big lands. The one next to the continent is Jutland, the middle one is Fyn and the right one, where Copenhagen is situated is called Sjaelland. It's a relatively small country.

We arrived at home, in Kolding (Jutland), and my host family presented me their property. We live in the countryside and it's really peaceful here. I was really surprised with the size of the terrain. It was a huge field full of grass and some cows. They also have chickens, little kittens, and a big backyard, where they grow apples and pears, between other fruits. There is a big house where we live, with many rooms, and there's also a house for guests, an office where my dad works and a place for the bikes and the animals. 

I dropped my stuff and they showed me the house inside. It's an old house from 1876, but it has been renewed and it's really modern. It has a lot of space on the inside. Then they showed me my room and I was amazed by how big it was. I used to sleep in the same room as my little brother in Portugal, so this was new for me. I have a bed, a secretary, a couch, cabinets and a wardrobe, and a lot of space. The room has a beautiful view to the outside garden, and it was just perfect. On top of the table, there was a paper and a chocolate. I felt really welcomed.

The paper on top of the table

I have to thank my host family for everything that they've done for me. They are extremely nice, loving and caring. I really think that I was very lucky to have this family and feel that I can trust them with anything. Everything yet has been phenomenal, I can't complain about anything. They are surely a second family to me and they will always be.

End of day 3

I went to bed early that night. We had dinner at 18:00 and talked about a lot of things in the living room after that. I was very tired from the camp so I went to my room early. The next day I would have my first day of school, in a Danish school. I took some time to reflect on what I wanted my experience to be and to calm down. I had put all my clothes in their place. I really had to prepare myself emotionally for all the changes that were about to happen in my life. But I felt ready. I lay down in my comfortable bed and as soon as I closed my eyes I fell asleep.

Waking up in Denmark - DAY 2

I don't remember what I dreamt that night. All that I remember is that I was brutally woken up by some 80's music playing on loud speakers. Nobody can imagine how confused I was when I looked around: it wasn't my room, I heard people speaking in different languages, the room was full of new people that weren't there the night before (these were the exchange students that arrived during the night), and there was loud music banging in my ears, so I couldn't process all this information.

I grabbed my towel and went to take a shower. There were 3 male showers next to each other, with no divisions, and there was a volunteer taking a shower already. I was the second to get there, but soon other boys arrived. In Portugal, I was used to showering naked in a place with no divisions since almost every school and gym shower is like that; but I noticed that many people never showered naked next to other people. For them, this cultural shock was very hard, because in Denmark you have to bath like this in public places. Some asked the volunteer if they could use boxers, to which he replied "no" turning around to face them completely naked. 

I took my shower relatively fast, so I didn't have the opportunity to see the drama, but I was told later that many people took a "fake shower", which consisted of only washing the hair; or taking a full bath, one body part at a time, using tap water.

After the shower, there was some time before the breakfast, so I got into a conversation with some Brazilian boys from my room, Augusto and Bruno. It was so easy to start a conversation, it seemed natural. As we went to the canteen I met even more people. Everything was an opportunity to talk to someone! Everyone was in the same situation so we had so much to share and talk about!

In the canteen, the volunteers presented themselves to everyone. They were all very energetic and nice. I got to see the actual amount of exchange students from AFS in Denmark. We were a lot - about 200 - since some arrived in the night. Just for fun porpuses, the volunteers asked who was from each country, so we could see where were we all from. I was amazed at the variety of different cultures in one room. There were people from Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy (more than 50), Portugal (only 2), USA, Canada, Thailand (a lot from here), Japan, China, Turkey, Tunisia, Brazil (7), Hungary, Austria, Colombia, Mexico, New Zealand, India, Malasia, Croatia, Estonia... Between so many others that I can't remember!

We were separated into groups. Some groups would have group sessions, where they would have small danish courses, discuss several subjects and play games; and others would have energisers, more physical games and ways to meet new people. Later the groups would change. This was a good way to make things more dynamic. The groups were divided by language and/or country. For example, my group was all the Portuguese and the Brazilian, because we all spoken Portuguese. Each group had a responsible volunteer, and we got a very sweet Danish girl called Emilie that had done one year of exchange in Brazil, so she could speak Portuguese as well.

My group started with the group sessions in which we discussed several subjects. The group sessions were throughout the whole day, but I'll try to write everything that I learned from them. It was simply amazing the clarity how the volunteers helped me and others. 

The Danish Language

My group started with the group sessions. We started by learning some basic danish, mostly numbers and important sentences. I had already learned some of that in Portugal, using Duolingo, a website/app to learn new languages. It's actually very useful. But, anyways, the danish language is very hard. Some words are similar to English, but the way the words are pronounced is very different from the way they are written. The grammar is also different.

In some particular occasions, I've noticed danish expressions that seem English. 

For example: god weekend is read as go vegan

                       om lidt (soon) is read as omelet

The whole rhythm of the pronunciation is different.
There are 3 new letters: æ, ø and å.

I really recommend this video about these letters!

And here are the numbers from 1 to 10, just for curiosity.

1. en
2. to
3. tre
4. fire
5. fem
6. seks
7. syv
8. otte
9. ni
10. ti

The determinants are en/et. But if used at the end of a word, it counts as a the.

Example: EN BIL (a car)

                BILEN (the car)

I would try to explain more, but it's too complicated for this blog.

Friends and Family

We then spent some time discussing how relationships work in Denmark.
A friendship in Denmark requires a lot of sharing. You are supposed to give as much as you get. For example, if you get invited to go to a friend's house, you're supposed to invite him later on. Some people think that the Danes are very shy and closed socially. This is true at first sight, but once you get to know someone and they get to know you, they always reveal to be very sociable and very nice people. Obviously, it's hard to create a strong friendship, but it's possible and Danes tend to be very open and helpful to their friends.

The families are very united and use to tell everything to each other. They eat dinner together and use this time to talk about how was the day or any other possible subjects. I'll have to talk about my own host family, but we're still not there in the story... Even tho the average of children per woman is 1.71 it's very common to see big families with a lot of children. The average divorce rate is about 50%, but it has been coming down in the last few years.

How to greet someone in Denmark?

In Portugal, the boys use to do a friendly handshake and the girls kiss 2 times on the cheeks. When a boy meets a girl they also kiss 2 times. This is not the case in Denmark. When someone meets another for the first time, they must do a formal handshake, and when they already know each other they use to hug. This is the standard way of greeting someone. If I went to greet anyone with a kiss, they would feel very uncomfortable. I guess this was a valuable information to know.

Parties and alcohol

Danes like to party. There are parties every weekend and they use to be extremely open in these parties. Everyone is happy and you can be their best friend ever in that night, but be completely ignored in the Monday afterward, in school. It's simply how things work. They drink a lot as well, even since very young ages. It is socially acceptable for a 10-year-old to drink, of course not as much as an older boy, but still, it's part of the culture. There is no age restriction to drink alcohol in Denmark, but there is one to buy, which is 16 for any drink with 16.5% of alcohol or less, and 18 for the rest.

School

There's so much to say about school. Some of it I only learned with experience and the differences are huge compared to Portugal. The education system is so well organized that the average grades are high. The basic education goes from the 1st to the 9th grade. After that, the student has the choice to do the 10th grade, do 1 year in a Boarding School - more socially based school where students live in their own shared rooms and study about more interesting stuff basically - or go directly to the Gymnasium, which is college, and goes from the 1st year to the 3rd. And now comes the best part: you get paid for doing the university! That's right! The university is not just free, IT'S PAID. The money is used to pay a little apartment, to buy food and to travel. How awesome is that?!

In my opinion, just the fact of giving the student an option is a great factor for how great the education system in Denmark is. I think every country should learn from it. It's so different that I will present it on topics:

• School is very simple and practical. There are much more activities outside, doing experiments and discussing a certain matter than just sitting and listening to a teacher declaiming a subject.

• There's a fantastic student/teacher relationship. The students call the teachers by their names! In my country, we just call them "teacher", while in Denmark each teacher is treated like an actual person, sometimes even a friend. They help each student individually and respect their opinion. Yes, wow, right? It is normal to have a different opinion in Denmark and express it.

• Every student has a personal computer and it is used in every class. The education system is computerized, there's a website for every gymnasium in Denmark and everything happens there. The teachers and students can share information, we can schedule an appointment, send messages, justify absences, etc. 

• There is freedom. If you want to eat, you can; if you want to leave, you can; if you want to check your phone, you can. The ambient is safe. I haven't seen any bullying since I'm here. This sense of freedom makes everyone feel at home! 

• Everything is clean. The public toilets seem private ones. There are no graffitis, no vandalism. The whole school looks slick and modern, and I've seen how every school in Denmark is like this. 

• Small workload. The school begins at around 8:00 and ends at 13:00. The schedule changes every week, so sometimes it ends later, other times it ends earlier. Anyways, this gives the student a lot of time to spend in other activities during the day.

• Almost inexisting tests. There are almost no tests in Denmark. They avaluate students by their knowledge and participation in class, aswell by assignments and homework. So, the students don't need to memorize stupid sentenses in order to have good grades, they just need to give their best, to commit themselves to the subjects, to get interested and to actually learn.

And finally...

• School parties. There are school parties almost every month, organized by the students and some teachers, where the alcohol is always present. The parties have always different and fun themes and everyone loves to take part in them. The drinks are sold in a balcony, where they make a shit-ton of money out of it. You can find teachers selling the drinks and having fun with the students. A different DJ is invited to each party. These parties are usually on Friday nights and end up at 1am.

So, to sum up, the school is not just a study place, it's also a social and fun place, which makes the education much more enjoyable.

Costumes and Traditions

One of the main costumes is to work together. Danes like to spend the weekends chilling home and taking care of the garden for example. Boys and girls start to have a small job since age 15. Normally the work at restaurants, supermarkets or stores. They earn money at the end of the year just like an adult, and I got to say it's quite a good amount. Even if a student doesn't work, that doesn't mean he spends his afternoon sleeping (even tho we do that a lot because we get tired). There's a lot of different activities for after school. A lot do sports, teatre, dancing, learn an instrument, etc. In my case, I play the violin, so I'm participating in a string orchestra once a week!

Public transportations

The public transportations work very well in Denmark, almost always at time. There's buses to everywhere, always passing by. The trains are very clean and silent, compared to the Portuguese ones. The whole transportation system has an app where you can see what's the fastest way to get somewhere, what transportations to catch, what tickets to buy, etc. It also gives you a map with all the information. You can schedule a travel and the app will aware you and help you get to your destination. You don't need to get through any gates to enter the bus/train. You just buy your tickets and walk in, or buy a pass which gives you acess to a whole zone, and pay monthly for it. Everything works and it's super easy. The trains use to begin at 6:00 and end at 2:00 max. The buses end at 18:00, since at this time it's already dark (in the winter) and all the stores close.

The danes also bike a lot, which is a very good way of transportation. 

--

End of the activities

After all the group sessions and energisers we all got together as a big group and shared the costumes and traditions from our countries. It was awesome to see all those cultures UNITED. Put all the hate aside, we were one! We talked, laughed, danced, joked around. It was such a good evening. At the end of the day everyone was friends with everyone. We were all connected as a big family. It was the best feeling ever... Every single one of us came to Denmark with different expectations, from different cultures, with different oppinions... and still, there we were, together. Everyone would soon separate and each one of us would have a completely different, rich experience in front of us. We went to our groups for a last talk before going to bed...

To all my friends...

After a lot of reflexions, talks, activities, a lot of fun, the portuguese and brasilian group got together with Emilie to talk about our expectations, fears, thoughts and hopes for this year. It was a very emotional moment. In this camp I met some of the best friends that I will ever have.  Friends so close that I can't even describe. We heard eachother talk, laugh, cry, fully open to sharing our biggest worries. We loved eachother with all our hearts. I felt like I knew those amazing people for my entire life. I met so many people, from all around the world. In only 2 days I made friends for life! We are a family. A big AFS family. It's a spirit of open-minded, of being friendly, of meeting new people, of sharing experinces. And yet, we knew that our path had only began... Much more was to come. In a day, it seemed like it passed 1 year. That was scary. From that moment we all understood how big our experince was going to be, how it would change us, how it would make us live a second life... 

That night I went to bed with this fire in my heart. The feeling of being completed, of loving the world and being loved by him. The feeling that we are all connected. The feeling of the purest love. I knew this was just starting, but somehow I felt so amazed by everything! 

And now, with 100 days gone, and still 225 to go... I feel truly happy. 

I regret nothing and I wish I could share every single moment with these amazing people. 

And I know there's still a lot to come.

Family

Bruno, Heitor, Joana, José, Natália, Ana, Laura, Guilherme

Para as melhores pessoas no mundo <3

José

Natália

Augusto

Ana

Guilherme

Laura

Bruno

Joana

Arriving in Denmark - DAY 1

05/08/16

I woke up at 5am in my room. I didn't have much sleep because of the anxiety but I was suprisely not tired. My bags were already packed, all the documents organized and everything was ready. I dressed the only clothes that were in my room, on top of a chair. I remember looking at my room one last time before closing the door for a year. My parents were already up and had prepared me breakfast. Everything was so normal, but at the same time, every second seemed very profound and meaningful. 

I can't really remember how was the trip to the airport, I can only remember my parents giving me some last advice and my little brother sitting next to me, still sleepy. My mind should be full of expectations, fears, questions and mixed emotions, but for some reason, I just felt incredibly normal. It felt like any other normal daily routine.

We got to the airport where the AFS Portugal president was kindly waiting for me and my other friend that was also going to Denmark called Joana. We had met in one of the AFS camps and we were very excited about choosing Denmark. I'll write about why I chose Denmark in another time. She explained everything to us and our parents about the travel, the flight number, etc. Everything was very simple and easy, which was important to keep the stress out of my parents. I didn't feel stressed nor anxious, just slightly excited and curious.

Flight board in Portugal with my flight

After some time, I had to go through the gates, so I said goodbye to my parents and my little brother. It was a weird feeling. A feeling that I knew I was going to miss them but at the same time of relief, a feeling of growing up and becoming independent. It was harder to leave my brother, who was only 10 years old and I knew I would miss him a lot. He told me he wouldn't miss me but I know that's a lie. My parents had tears in their eyes. It was hard to say goodbye, but as soon as I went through the gates with my friend everything felt just fine. It seemed right. We talked to each other about how we were feeling, kinda confused and a repressed excitement about to explode. But everything felt so casual, it was weird and amazing at the same time!

FLIGHT

We got in the plane and settled in. The engines started and in no-time we were flying. And it was at the moment that I saw the earth from so high just passing by that this all hit me. I woke up to the fact that it was actually happening. Until then I was taking everything as casual. But from that moment I understood that my life had changed, everything was going to be different. I was alone on a plane, without my parents, without any knowledge of what experiences were in front of me. The future was my only present. 

Photo taken on the plane to Denmark

There was no way back now. I felt this anxiety, but a really good one. An explosive ecstasy rushing through my body. I couldn't stop thinking about what was going to happen. I had not really thought about it that deeply. Of course I knew that I would get a host family and go to school, but that's it. What would happen immediately after the landing? I had no idea!

LANDING IN DENMARK

The plane landed. I checked my phone and there it was, the roaming message. It was about mid-day. We got out and walked through the airport halls and every sign was in Danish. I lifted some money in an ATM and I got to see the danish money for the first time. The official name is DKK and 1€ corresponds to 7.44kr (krones). We waited to get our bags and after some long time waiting a really shy AFS volunteer aproached us. He was wearing an AFS blue shirt and the only thing he did was ask us our names. After a while we followed him to the store center and met a group of AFS volunteers that welcomed us very cheerfully. Some exchange students from other countries were there already so we presented to each other and played some cards while waiting for the buses to take us to the camp.

I remember going to the toilet and found something really interesting. The bathroom was for both men and women. It was a common room with spaces to wash your hands, one big mirror and several divisions for both men and women. The taps were also very weird. They had one handle to make the water flow and another one to control the temperature, and even in the public toilets, there was hot water in the taps! This was a surprise to me because in Portugal there are no hot water taps in public toilets.

Anyways, after playing some cards we got handed our lunches, which consisted of a sandwich and a banana inside a bag. I had the chance to taste rugbrød for the first time. It's a typical danish bread full of cereals. I didn't like it at first but now that I eat it every day at lunch I got used to it! The water was also different from Portugal. It seemed less heavy, so I could drink a lot without feeling full. In Denmark, you can also drink water from any tap.

After this, the buses finally arrived and we packed up inside. We were still very few and very shy so the ride was quite silent, except some people talking in their own languages with their friends. We were all very tired and confused with all the sudden changes to our lives, so we slept the whole ride.

The first photo taken in Denmark (on the bus)

FIRST AFS CAMP - FOOD

This camp was from 5 to 7 of August and it was one of the best experiences that I've even had. 

As we arrived at the camp, located in a rented school, I noticed the amount of people that were part of it. Some exchange students were already there, some were arriving in buses and some were still to arrive. I could see people from all around the world, all different cultures and stories, uniting there, to share the beginning of the greatest year of their lives. The danish volunteers were very excited and wanted to help us with everything. We left our bags in the shared rooms, where some mattresses were ready for us. There were 2 rooms for the boys and 1 big room with triple bunk beds for the girls. 

After this we met the volunteers and did some fast presentations in a big group. We were more than 100 but some students were still to come. The day was pretty relaxed. It was good to rest from the travel and to meet some new people. We shared expectations, stories and it was a lot of fun.

The dinner was in a big cantine, where we tasted some really traditional danish dishes, such as remoulade, leverpostej (paté with mushrooms and bacon), kartoffel and frikadellen, served as a lunch, on rugbrød! I really liked the food, since the start. 

Leverpostej

Frikadeller

Højtbelagt smørbrød The presentation of the dinner was like this. Food on top of rugbrød.

I learned that the Danes eat sandwiches at every lunch, mostly, bringing them to school.  The lunch is, for that fact, cold and light, and it's usually eaten at 11:30. The dinner is heavier, usually hot potatoes with fat meat or meatballs and, sometimes, with a salad of fruits and cereals. The dinner's schedule is at 18:30! Super early compared to Portugal's 20:30. It is because the sun in the Danish winter goes away very early and the sky is all dark at 16:30. The breakfast is usually milk or yogurt with corn flakes or muesli. Most adults drink coffee or tea and eat rugbrød or white bread with cheese or jam.

Muesli

After the dinner we were very tired, so our activities were limited to talking a bit and play some cards. After a while, everyone went to bed. A volunteer handed out sleeping bags and towels for a shower in the morning. 

At 23:00 everyone was sleeping, wondering what would happen in the next day...

AFS camps - BEFORE DAY 1

Before strating to describe my experiences in Denmark, it's important to understand all the preparations that I went through in Portugal, since the very first AFS camp.

AFS is the exchange program that I'm in. My parents had the idea of me participating in such program since I was 13, so it has always been a possibility. It's weird to thing about how long it took since the first camp until I actually put my feet on Denmark. All the procedures took about one year. 

First I had to submit a lot of documents, school reports, grades, a letter about myself, photos, etc. Then, me and all the possible exchange students who were selected met in the first preparation camp. We were about 70 people, from all around Portugal. The camp was a full weekend, so we had time to meet eachother, make new friends and do a lot of activities, all very well organised by the AFS Portugal volunteers. We participated in debates, presentations, physical activities, reflexions, tests and games. It was all to test our way of perceiving the world and the society and see if we had the cultural luggage to participate in a program like this. We had a couple of meetings after the first and every single one was really helpful to be ready for the final experience.

In these camps I learned about the different levels of a culture, the way how we tend to make false judgements about things without searching about them. I also broadened my critical thinking, my thoughts about society and friendships. I learned not to be afraid to talk loud about your thoughts but to respect other's opinions and believes. I learned the importance of trust in others and in myself. I was encouraged to think about my personal values and what I really expected with this exchange year. I was given the feeling of being in a culture where the same words had different meanings. I got exposed to the magic of body language and non-verbal communication. All of this and more were the base stones that were incredibly important to enlarge my experience.

For that I'm really grateful to AFS Portugal, to all the volunteers that helped me and guided me through the camps and to all the friends that I made. It had a great importance to me and I'm happy to still hold contact with some volunteers that are now friends to me. If anyone wants to participate in the best year of your life, I highly recommend AFS, has it has helped me greatly and it's such an amazing program.

Introduction - DAY 100

Hi everyone! My name is Heitor, I'm 16 and I'm a Portuguese exchange student in Denmark. I'm staying in a city called Kolding, in the peninsula part of Denmark (Jutland), for 11 months and by the time that I'm writing this post, I'm completing my 100th day in this beautiful country.

I wanted to start this blog a long time ago but I've been so stunned and speechless since I got here that it was just too much to take in. That's why today I've decided to finally start. This blog's main purpose is to share my experiences and adventures with anyone who is interested, mostly my family and close friends, but also for anyone who is thinking about doing an exchange program in Denmark. I want to share this culture with the world, the traditions and people. It's also a good way of answering some questions from friends and family that are really curious and interesting.

As a start, I'll write daily, since so much as already happened and I would literally take 100 days to explain it all. Anyways, I will try, beginning with the first day since I got here. As all begins to settle in I can write weekly and keep in touch with recent events, travels, experiences, thoughts, reflexions and any questions that may occur.

I hope this blog to be a safe box, where I can keep all my best moments in Denmark, with photos and descriptions. My goal is to look back to this is 10 years and still be able to remember every single experience that I had, all the friends that I made for life, my second family, the weather, the long bike rides in the morning while the sun rises, the music, the food, the people. My second life.

The story begins tomorrow.