PSA: I'M BACK!!!!!

Hello Everyone,

I am healthy again, and back at school. The Danish/English teacher wants me to help teach her first year English class, which looks like heaps of fun. We're expecting snow next week.
On the weekend, we have the first of 4 Christmas dinners, with Marlene's sister, who lived in Australia for a while. We're also going to a museum of Danish history in Aarhus. School, as always, is pretty boring. Apparently, while I was off sick, I missed lab experiments. Damn!
I just got back from presenting my powerpoint to a first year English class. They knew next to nothing about Australia, and I had great fun warning them about Drop Bears!
So this one was supposed to be a few posts ago, but the website glitched.

Sorry, Jack

Christmas Central

Hello and welcome,

Yesterday afternoon, after school, Kristjan and I went into town. There are Christmas decorations everywhere, the shops, the streets. It is amazing. I bought some souvenirs, and we wandered the town. At one point, we ran into a children's marching band. They were walking the streets and going into shops, playing music. We followed them for a while, and I even got videos. I bought a CD of their work (all Christmas carols). This town is older than Australia, and I got lots of great photos of the architecture. Even the cobblestones on the road (which I hate walking/bike riding on. Cobblestones are evil), are older than Australia.
Today, we had the first of four Christmas gatherings, lunch with Marlene's sister, her husband, and her 2 children. The food (roast pork) was great, and the company was too. We made meat pies, which turned out really well, and Marlene's sister, who lived in Australia years ago, loved them. We didn't even bother with dinner, we are all so full.
In other news, it's still cold, and, IT IS SNOWING, I REPEAT, SNOWING. I HAVE SEEN SNOW. I haven't got photos yet, cause it's night, but I'll see what I can do in the next few days.
I think that's all for now, I'll do the photos all at once tomorrow, cause we're going to a museum of Danish history.

Jack R

Some Things

The Danish love Christmas.
On Friday at school, we had a party, and made Christmas decorations. It was so cold that there was ice everywhere, and we had to walk to school, or we would have died on the bikes. I do NOT like the cold. I maintain that if Denmark was moved further south, it'd be perfect. The classroom looks very Christmassy, and it was heaps of fun to decorate. That was the least boring thing we did at school. We made little paper hearts, stars, and chains, to hang from the walls. It was great.
Another thing I've discovered: the Danish LOVE cabbage. It is with everything, especially red cabbage. Also cucumber is everywhere, which is bad for me, cause I don't like it one bit.
I think that's all for now, so I'll post again whenever.

Jack

Hello Again

Well, I'm back, and not feeling as sick as I was. Just to be sure, I have the day off school to get better.

Right, so, Copenhagen.

It was really interesting. Everywhere I looked, there was something older than Australia, which for me, a history lover, was great. We saw the Queen's palace, the Marble Church (called that cause it's made out of marble, so creative), and just wandered the streets for a while. I took lots of photos. On Sunday morning, we left the hostel where we were staying, walked to the metro in the rain (which didn't help my sickness), and rode the trains for about an hour to waste time. I got to see a lot of the outer city.

After that, we went back into town, and walked to the beautiful old railway station, where I had my first taste of Danish pastries, which was AMAZING! The train ride back seemed really long, but it was only 4 hours, and, when we stopped in Randers, we still had to ride to Kristjan's place. I had food, had a shower, then collapsed, after some Panadol to stop my fever. I did NOT sleep well, and when I woke up, everyone was already gone, so I've just been relaxing at home.

Today (Tuesday), I'm still sick (I swear it's getting worse), still resting at home, and I'm going to the doctor tomorrow when Ivan's back, and we have the car.

Aside from that, here's some things I've noticed:

• Everything is really well organised
• There are dedicated bike lanes next to the footpath on all the main roads, at a different level to the road
• There are bikes everywhere
• Again, everything is really quiet, even in the house when everyone's home
• And finally, the Copenhagen metro. It has two lines, with driverless trains. They're building a third line, which is going to take them about a year and a half. Very efficient. In contrast, something like this in Australia would take 5 years of concept studies, a government white paper, 5 years of politicians arguing about who will pay for it, 5 years to build it, then, finally, 5 years of politicians arguing about why it took too long to build, and why it went horrendously over budget. The Danish are really very efficient.

That's about all I have to say for now. I'll be back in a few days, hopefully not sick, and I'll have some photos of Randers, and some souvenirs (hopefully).

Jack Roberts

Photo Dump:

Sunset

Even more sunset (at Kristjan's)

The house is very Christmassy

On the way home

Copenhagen Central Station Christmas Tree

Copenhagen Central Station

On the Metro

The Marble Church

Marble Church again

The Queen's Place

The Queen is somewhere in this building

The outside of the Marble Church

One of the other Palaces

Nice Architecture

A lake

The lake again

Copenhagen Station

Some random tower

Town Hall Clock

Many Many Apologies

Hello Everyone,

So, I am sick, pretty badly too. Thanks to my curse (the amount of times I get sick is so high, it can't just be bad luck), I can't think straight. The next post will be in a few days when I feel better.
Spoilers-Copenhagen was amazing (and somehow colder than Randers).

Jack

Copenhagen Day 1

Wow. That's the only word I have.

So, yesterday afternoon, straight after school, we got the train in to Copenhagen. It was dark when we got here, of course, and then we had to walk for half an hour to get to the metro, to get to the hotel. Once we got here, we crashed pretty much straight away.

This morning, we walked to the metro, and went to the centre of town. It was very cold, and has been all day. In the city, we walked around, and I saw that everything is older than Australia. I got lots of good photos. We walked to a Planetarium, and watched a movie there, which was amazing. It was about life in the universe, and if we're alone (Spoilers, we'e most likely not). They even had an English narration if you bought headphones (Hallelujah I am saved!)Then, we walked to the Amalienborg Palace, where the Queen lives. After that, we went into the Marble Church, which was beautiful, a reminder that you should always look up in these old buildings. Walking around Copenhagen was great fun, but pretty tiring. Tonight, we walked in the freezing cold to an all you can eat buffet, like Sizzler. It was really good. Copenhagen has been great, and we leave tomorrow around lunch. It is freezing cold here, even Kristjan thinks it is.

I am just starting to miss home now, but Denmark is still exciting and heaps of fun.

Photo dump tomorrow, and another blog entry.

Jack R

School and Scouts

Well hello again.

I've had the full Danish school experience now, and, it's pretty boring, cause I don't understand the language. On the other hand, the English teachers are really happy to have me. There's a lot of differences to Australian school, so here goes:

• No uniforms (One of the major ones)
• The teachers come to you, instead of you walking around the school (Just plain weird)
• You can leave the school grounds during lunch, which Australian health and safety laws will never allow
• Everything is in Danish (Not surprisingly)

The people at school have been really nice to me, and there's been a lot of questions about Australia.

We ride bikes to school every day, which is really cold, but nice, because I get to see the town. It is a nice little place, Randers, but it's too quiet. I can cope with the small town feeling, but the people are just so quiet. On the train here, Ryan and I were the noisiest people, and we got death stares from businessmen!

Aside from all that, I've been to scouts twice, once as scouts, and once as leaders. On Tuesday night, we went into the city for a sort of scavenger hunt thing, where we walked around, doing different bases. These were: making Christmas decorations (twice), and a blind taste test, where I got to taste lots of Danish Christmas lollies. On Wednesday, school was pretty boring, but Kristjan sorted out my internet, so I had Netflix!

At Scouts that night, we were leaders of what we would call cubs. We helped them to make a nesting box for birds, which involved a lot of saws and power tools. You could never get away with that at home, thanks to health and safety. Ah well.

It was pretty cold today, but thankfully, the central heating is AMAZING. The view out of my bedroom window across town is really nice, and it looked as though it might snow. It didn't, but there's a chance in the next few days. An observation: nearly every house has a flagpole. I made good use of Kristjan's, and flew an Aussie flag. Tomorrow afternoon, Kristjan and I will get the train to Copenhagen, and stay there for the weekend, so expect lots of photos.

Bye for now,

Jack Roberts

Here's the photo dump:

Kristjan's front yard

The Backyard

Come on Aussie!

Looking out the lounge room window

Looking out the lounge room window

The Scout Den (with a fire!)

View out my window

More view out my window

Copenhagen train station

Dubai Airport

Dubai Airport

Dubai Airport

Dubai Airport

On the way to Brisbane

An Aussie Christmas-my tree at home, put up before I left