I've had the incredible opportunity to teach every day this week! Monday I taught biology all day - the lesson/lab about bacteria. Tomorrow my students get to look at their results and from the sneak peek I made on Friday, I think they'll be pretty excited. Also - it snowed!!!
Very excited at seeing the snow after we got out of school (our school in the background)
Tuesday, I taught more about first crushes with Michael in our 9th grade English classes. We also all had the opportunity to attend a full staff meeting, which was extremely informative. We ended the evening by watching Denmark beat Austria in the European Handball Championship, which is currently going on here.
Wednesday, Michael and I gave presentations on the U.S. to three classes that had prepared questions for us, so we had a great time trying to answer everything they ever wondered about the United States. Sometimes it feels like a lot of responsibility - we're just two Southern Californians trying to tell people about this huge country! We try to do our best to represent the country while also representing ourselves. Sometimes that can be a challenge. After school, the four of us got to attend a meeting about Special Education here, which blew our minds. More on this later.
Thursday, Michael and I taught a lesson in our 9th grade English classes called "I think I might be gay." It was a pretty powerful topic for an English class. I didn't really register until we began how important this topic was to discuss in a class and how lucky I was to be in a place where I could! At times the discussions felt a bit superficial, but overall it did what it should because it gave the students a chance to grapple with this topic in an academic setting. Michael and I also returned to the 7th grade English class we'd worked with the week before because they'd requested us to return! There they were writing letters to their brand new Canadian PenPals.
Friday, Michael and I continued the topic in our 9th grade English classes by showing them two "It Gets Better" Project videos because some had been wondering about the attitude towards being gay in schools in the U.S. I thought the videos would be a nice way to exhibit current stories and trends. In our 7th grade English class we worked more on food vocabulary. One group and I played a game where we taught each other vocabulary! It was fun to practice some of my own Danish food vocabulary, while testing their much more advanced English food vocabulary.
After school on Friday, Allison, Brendan, and I went along with some of Allison's host family to Randers (a city just North of Hadsten that is the sixth-largest city in Denmark). We had hoped to go ice skating, but apparently it was snowing too much to keep the ice clear, so we had to abandon that plan. We did get to walk around the city of Randers, which is very cute.
Saturday was our big adventure! The plan was to go to Skagen, but we the snow had been increasing, so we weren't sure how far we would make it. We set out early Saturday morning and drove a pretty harrowing drive to Hjørring, which is in the Northern part of Jutland. There we had a break at Thomas's father's house (Thomas is my host father) and then he joined us and became our driver. Since he grew up in that area and is a driving instructor, he felt relatively comfortable at the wheel despite the ever-increasing amounts of snow and lack of visibility. Our next stop was a hill in a town called Bjergby (Mountain City). We all climbed out and eagerly began frolicking in the powdery snow. It was deep snow and the perfect type for playing in. We climbed up to the top of the hill (often very deep into the snow on the way) and from there could see all around the Northern part of Jutland. Apparently, if it had been clear, we'd have been able to see the ocean (and Skagen).
Allison at the top of the hill.
Brendan frolicking in the snow.
I love snow!!!
Our next stop was a summer house that is owned by Thomas's family. It has a direct view of the ocean and the Northern coast of Denmark. Here there was also a lot of snow and it was so strange to wade through snow to get to the beach and then once there to walk on frozen sand to the ocean. It was a breathtakingly magical experience I will never forget.
The beach.
The wind had created this pattern in the sand, but the cold had frozen it in place.
Allison coming out of a German WW2 bunker that it right by the shore.
Michael frolicking in the snow.
Berries covered in snow on the walk to the beach.
We ate lunch there and then continued our journey to Skagen. The town of Skagen is beautiful. It is the Northern most city in Denmark (and we were soon to be standing pretty much on the Northern most point of Denmark). Skagen sticks way out, so as you drive there the land becomes narrower and narrower. It feels a lot like driving to P-town on the Cape. The town is also reminiscent of the Cape because it's clearly a summer town and was pretty quiet at this time of year, but still cute and beautiful. Most of the buildings are yellow with red-tiled roofs (see the Wikipedia page I linked to earlier). Skagen itself was breathtaking and a magnificent example of the force and extreme beauty of nature. My phone died while there (I think due to the bitter cold wind?!) so I'll have to steal Allison's photos and post them in a later post. I did get a few photos before my phone refused to deal with the harsh weather.
You can see the tip if you look closely.
The light here is beautiful and why there are many famous artists (especially Impressionists) who call(ed) Skagen their home.
Stones that look like they are rushing somewhere because all of the loose sand has been blown away and all that is left is the streak of sand protected by the stone. The stones themselves are perched above the rest of the sand, so as you walk, you step on the stones and not the sand. It is hard to explain, but not when you are feeling the force of the wind on your face.
Our final stop was Råbjerg Mile, which is a moving dune (read more on the Wikipedia page). It was also breathtaking - particularly with the snow and the wind. I will let pictures describe it.
*Note - I did not use any filters - the light really did change this much while we were there (it was getting dark - around 3:30pm?)
"And now for something completely different..." Sunday we went to a rainforest! Yes - you did hear that right! We went to a rainforest in Denmark complete with monkeys, snakes, parrots, and more! It's in Randers and is essentially a giant conservatory - Randers Regnskov. Here, I met a few friends and got to wear a T-SHIRT (my TEP Science Cohort t-shirt to be precise)!
My friends in the rainforest...
Now off to bed, so I can teach my 7th graders how to write a lab report tomorrow! Considering the language barriers, this could be difficult, but I'm excited for the challenge!
What a week!
P.S. I think I forgot to mention we also went to the only school in Denmark that trains people to become roof thatchers and talked to the future first person with a degree in thatching roofs using seaweed, who also happens to be a philosopher who quotes Shakespeare. Denmark - what a place.
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