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. 

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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