"This Saturday or Sunday, you can expect an entry summarizing the week's events." -August 9th 2017, Callum Arnold
Hej!
So... Yeah. I underestimated things a good deal. Denmark is keeping me busy! It's the middle of the third week of August, and things are still accelerating! My schedule is by no means empty and there will be a plethora of things for me to wax eloquent on during the months to come! I'm sure you're all starving for more information, and so I will now feed you a abbreviated account of the past two weeks, more or less.
Week 1
I arrive in Copenhagen, get picked up by my new host parents and become acquainted with my new quarters.
It's quite a nice room, and you can refer to the video I posted over a few days after I got here if you don't believe me, but of course, I'm a creature of habit. Thus, any space I inhabit must as an inherent law pertaining to the Callum-Force, become cluttered and as disorganized as the contents of my eclectic brain.
My host family took me to the beach, to swim in the Kattegat bay? Fjord? Body of water? It was salty anyway, and full of waves! I haven't got any pictures of the beach yet, but my host mom Lani has said that we can visit the beach on a windy day with lots of waves, so I'll be sure to bring my camera and post when we do.
It did not take me long to realize that school would be beginning a lot sooner than I'm accustomed to, and yes, that's correct. I'm in school, RIGHT NOW. That being said, I don't actually have to be concerned with school during June, when I'll be on the EUROTOUR!!! (HYPE!) Which means that effectively, school begins in the middle of August, and for yours truly, ends in May. I may as well discuss that as I seem to have brought it up. I've already been here two weeks, and it feels as though I've only been here two days. I'll be back in Canada by the 17th of June. Even in ELSS, the time seemed to fly as the year went on, and I can't imagine how much quicker it will go here in Denmark.
Because I'm a giant nerd, this idea reminds me of Dr. Manhattan;
He's a comic book character who, among other things, experiences time non-linearly. Essentially he witnesses events in the past, present, and future simultaneously. For us regular mortals, the same can actually be said as being true-ish. Insofar as that our experiences of the present are so fluid that we perceive the illusion of stillness, while in reality we're really swimming through time. Only, time is in something akin to a fourth dimension, and I'm tangentially wandering towards Einstein, physics, and supremely inexpert approximations of science, so...
TL;DR: My exchange is really flying by, and it's catching me off-guard.
Like I already mentioned, I'm in school. This school specifically;
And I'm making friends!
The rest of the first week of my exchange after going to the beach, trying Rugbrød, playing Scrabble in Danish, as well as Ludo, was spent in introduction days at my school. Friday night, I had an evening dinner at the school after which I came back to my house to participate in a farewell party for my host brother Scott, who is currently on exchange in Bolivia. I should add that Scott is a year younger than me, but also cooler than me, more fashionable than me, and a really stand-up guy. Shout-out to my bro Scott Bavnhøj! :D
Week 2
This week is fresher in my mind, obviously. It began with me going to school, in earnest. I'll take this opportunity to expand on the subjects I'm taking in school, at least for the first three months (I'll explain in a sec).
If you thought I was going to have a time of things learning Danish on my exchange you'd be correct. Thus my participation in a Danish class (alongside a language school outside of the Gymnasium) would be a given. You might also, if you're Danishly literate, be aware that many Danes speak English quite fluently. So you'd be right in guessing that I also happen to be taking English which is definitely not a burden for this smith of speech, this reciter of rhetoric, this proselytizer of prose. What probably none of you could guess is that I'm actually taking Spanish and Latin too. Oh yes. It's awesome. I didn't realize that in going on exchange, my goal of becoming a polyglot (speaker of 5+ languages) would be closer than I thought. Assuming I gain a measure of competence in every class, I'll be able to converse in English, French, Danish, Spanish, and Latin! GLORIOUS LANGUAGES! I AM A GIANT NERD!
Oh yeah, and Spanish and Latin are being taught in Danish. Has your jaw hit the floor yet? XD
The rest of my curriculum is decidedly mundane, by comparison. I have two science classes, Geography and Chemistry. I have a math, music, and physical education class. And I have sociology.
At least until November. You see in the first year of Gymnasium, students are given three months of general tutelage before they are given the choice of which path they desire to pursue. Science, math, business, language, etc. Can you guess which path this self-avowed language nerd has already decided to take? So I'll definitely have a blog post (honest!) talking about that in November.
Anyway as to the actual events of the week, I was party to Scott's departure, spent some time with Lani's mother Malfrid, Scott's grandmother. She has so many old books in Danish, and she generously loaned me two on the subject of Viking history. It was also from Malfrid that I learned that my host family's bloodline stretches all the way back to the first settlers of Iceland! My host mother and her mother are descended from Ingólfur Arnarson, a Viking settler who was the first man to live in Iceland! They have a book of genealogy that goes back to the year 900! I'm staying with members of a 1117-year-old Viking family. If nothing else indicated it to you, this fact more than any other qualifies my exchange as a success, and a decision I am INCAPABLE of regretting.
So to sum up the rest of the events of these past two weeks, I visited my town's library, attended my first Rotary meeting (forgot to mention it, that was during the first week), purchased a book in Danish to practice reading, visited the Fælleskabet (market street in Frederiksværk), visited a havn (port) and had some seafood, and a ton of stuff I'm forgetting right now.
Today
And so today, I had my first real meeting with my fellow inbound exchange students. I connected with many of them, and am eager to continue to do so during my intro camp which will be taking up the entirety of the next week. My only other thoughts on the camp; Crap, I need to pack! And do laundry! And finish writing this blog post!
We explored Christiania, the anarchist, alternative, bohemian neighbourhood which sprung up out of an abandoned military industrial area shortly after World War II. And there's this infamous street we weren't allowed to take pictures of. Let's just say that you wouldn't be out of place wearing a rasta cap and blasting reggae, if you catch my drift? The busiest time of day on this particular street is 4:20? Okay, so basically they smoke the Devil's Lettuce.
But that particular street aside, Christiania is beautiful, idyllic, and placed near the heart of Copenhagen. They've developed a really interesting society, which while I have my doubts about its success on a larger scale, seems to be working for them. There's tons of history in such a relatively small area of square kilometres. And yes, essentially the reason why we're required to be accompanied by a Rotarian or our host family is entirely because of the street where people #420Blazeit. But our guide through our little tour of the neighbourhood explained that the police often raid the street due to the illegality of selling marijuana, and while he essentially made it clear that Christiania didn't condone their presence, he also explained that everybody was allowed to come into Christiania as long as they obeyed the rules of the neighbourhood which were agreed upon by all of the residents as a community. Thus they can't exactly kick out the marijuana sellers, because that would compromise their principles of supporting a free society for everybody to cohabit in. So all in all, it was a mightily intriguing and eye-opening stroll through what would otherwise be just another regular neighbourhood in Denmark's capital city. I highly recommend that you visit if you get the chance, and I will probably visit again myself before my exchange is over. Especially considering they have these people called the Kvindesmedien, or in English, the Woman Blacksmiths of Christiania. Now I won't go into a nerdy rant about why I need to go back into their shop and ask if I can poke around, but according to our guide these women provide smelting services to the entire neighbourhood. If you ask me, that's pretty badass.
The actual intro meeting we had after the tour of Christiania was pretty standard, and we just went over the rules and had some of our questions answered. I did learn that I have a district conference and talent show coming up though, so again, more things to look forward to!
Conclusion
So in closing, I hope I've made it clear how much has happened in a fraction of the time that I've been on my exchange. It really seems like I to be choosy about what I blog about, and really captures the milestone moments in my exchange. So don't expect me to blog about the mundanities of classes in school, or the day-to-day grind. I'll try to play to my strengths and make it memorable for you the readers, and for me as well. After all, I'm going to probably read through these entries and remember much of my exchange year through the lens of these written words. I truly can't say how much I'll be writing down, or whether I should try and meet a quota of words. I can actually say with more confidence when I won't be able to write for the blog, like next week for example.
Still, I hope I'll be able to capture enough stories on here to preserve the essence of what this exchange is like for me, in the moment. I've already got plenty of material to go off of, and more coming, even as soon as tomorrow in the form of a visit to Kronborg Castle, to see a live performance of Hamlet! Heavily abridged no doubt, but no less significant for that fact!
I wish you all the best, my readers, whoever you happen to be. Myself, of course, and most likely several others near and dear to me, though those in particular can expect personalized correspondence, which is yet another thing on my to-do list. I leave you with all the promise of more stories to come, and the extended offer of a look at some new writing I've begun while on exchange to keep my pen-nib sharpened, so-to-speak. I won't put it up on the blog but if you're curious, you can contact me on Facebook or by e-mail and I'll send you a private link.
This is Callum, reporting in from Frederiksværk, Halsnæs Kommune, Denmark! Signing off for now...
Venlig hilsen og godnat min venner!
