School, Scouts, and Christmas

Hello everyone, and Merry Christmas.

This is gonna be a long one, so here goes.
First, we had the last Scout meeting as leaders on Wednesday. We finished the Christmas presents they were making, and played some Christmas games, and generally had a great time. Scouts Australia could take a few lessons from the Danish way of doing things-it's a lot more organised, with more hands-on activities, and less paperwork.

Anyway, school.
The last few days of school were great fun. No one did much work, and it was very Christmassy.
On Thursday, which was the last day, there was a giant present game slash quiz, that involved the whole school. I couldn't understand a word, but it looked like great fun. I have roughly three days of school left in the New Year, and I will get photos with all of my friends.

On Friday, we all stayed home and relaxed, and Kristjan and I walked up the street to buy a Christmas tree. A REAL tree, which is something that I am not used to. When we got home, we left it outside, so the branches could fall down to normal places, after being wrapped up for ages.
On Saturday, we decorated the tree, with lots of beautiful ornaments, as well as some wood carved Aussie animals that I brought with me.

Eventually, Sunday came around, and it was finally Christmas. 'Santa' delivered a lot of presents. I should add that, every Sunday in December, the Danish 'Nisse' (elves-sort of) delivered a present for all the children in the house. Anyway, back to Sunday. Around 3pm, people started arriving, and we all started getting ready for dinner. Danish Christmas dinner is a very organised thing, and starts with roast duck, which was prepared the day before. I discovered that I really like the taste of duck. Next came the roast pork and pork meatballs, everything accompanied by a healthy helping of potatoes, gravy, and potatoes coated in sugar and fried (didn't like those). After we gorged,  we let that go down, and then came the next course - Ris à l'amande. It is a rice pudding with sliced almonds mixed in, and is served with cherry sauce. The Danes only eat it in  December, so I'm very lucky that I'm here now, because I love the stuff. I am definitely getting a recipie.
After all the food, everyone (roughly 14 of us) sat and talked for a while, before it was time for yet another Danish tradition-dancing around the Christmas Tree.

Well I say dancing, but it was more like walking, and singing out of tune, but it was still fun. I was forced to sing Aussie carols as well, which went pretty well. We all had a great time.
After that, it was time to open the presents. I got some exercise clothes, which will be very useful when I go home, for the gym.
My Sunday finally ended around midnight, when I went to sleep.

On Monday, we relaxed and recovered from all the food, and Tuesday was another day to laze around. I did have to pack for Scout Scoop, however, so I hope I didn't forget anything.
Tuesday afternoon was spent at Ivan's mother's house, an adorable little cottage in a small, quiet village. We had afternoon tea, which was biscuits and cake, and stayed for dinner, which was soup. All in all, it was a great way to spend an afternoon.

I haven't got much more to say for now, other than that we leave for Kolding, and Scout Scoop, tomorrow. I'm all packed and ready to go, and I promise to take lots of photos.
All the photos from the last few weeks will be uploaded on the second of January, in one enormous photo drop. I really don't feel like doing it now.
 I might do another post during the week, as there's apparently wifi at Scout Scoop, but I think we'll probably be too busy. We'll see.

Bye for now,

Jack R.