last week =(

On Tuesday it was back to school: it feels so weird walking around in school, knowing that this is my last week.

I started the first 2 hours with preparing some things.
Then I had a lesson with the 7th graders. Carsten didn't know if I had prepared something so he wanted to do a quiz. Fine with me: It was some kind of pub-quiz. There were 10 questions and the pupils were divided into 5 groups. Each group had 2 pages where they had to write the answers on. First they had to come up with a name for their group: the winners - The smoothies - Rainbow suckers - Grillpower and Flower Power.
The second question was one about Belgium! Kriek beer is made of which fruit? Cherries of course!! :)
When the quiz was over, we had still 10 minutes left. I told the pupils that this was my last week and that I had 2 requests for them. One is a group picture on Friday and the other one, was that they had to write their names on my Danish flag. They all did (except the ones who were ill).
I also had a lesson with the 5th graders today. We continued where we stopped before the Easter holiday: introducing your family to the rest of the class, using pictures. There are still 5 pupils who have to do it on Friday but very short because I have other plans with them: I also introduced my family and they thought it was so cute! They were also very enthusiastic about writing their names on my flag.

On Wednesday, I only had 2 hours. Two periods in the morning with 9y. This was my last lesson with them. They had to continue working on their exam preparation because they are having exams next week.
At the end of the lesson, I asked them if they wanted to write all the names on my flag. A picture was quite impossible because a lot of them weren't in. But I have all their names ;). I also gave them a box of Belgian chocolates as a goodbye gift. Carsten asked my afterwards why I didn't tell him earlier that it was my last lesson in that class. I just said: well, you were busy and it's not a big deal. He answered back; we'll make a big deal on it on Friday.
When I came into the teacher's lounge, one of the teachers came to me and she said that she probably didn't have enough time on Friday, so she wanted to give me my present now. I was like: what? Present?
She gave me a box of Danish chocolates and a nice card. She said she enjoyed talking to me. She is so nice! Her son is doing his Confirmation (= receive Holy Communion) and she asked me a while ago of I wanted to make a short video message congratulating him in Dutch.
In the afternoon I went to Dampark to meet Anna; I met Anna the first week I was here in Denmark. She's German and she lives in Flensburg, right across the Danish border. Anna helped me out the first week. I had some problems with my Belgian phone so she gave me a new phone (one she had at home), she ordered the charger for me and she drove me around to find a new cheap sim-card. She was so friendly, it was really touching. We said back then to meet again and so we did yesterday. We drank hot chocolate and ate a great chocolate cake. It was so nice seeing her again. She brought a classmate because she had to drop him off at home. First she dropped me off after our chocolate and I gave her a box of chocolate and a card to thank her. In the evening I received a message on Facebook from her, that she was so pleased with it. I spend most of my evening in the kitchen, baking things as a goodbye gift for the teachers at Sct. Severin. I also went to a cafe with Anke and some Erasmus students. It's also for them the last week, so they all meet quite often. Today, I had cooking class but not a regular one. The pupils had to search on the internet what they want to make next week. I just walked around until Bente showed me some tricks on the smartboard. I spend some time trying things out and wow, it's just amazing. All these things you can do, so easy and with just 2 clicks.
I want it!!

Well, it's already Thursday, so tomorrow will probably one of my last blog messages. Time flies when you're having fun..

Easter Monday

On Easter Monday, we went to Aabenraa. It's a town, around 25 kilometres from Haderslev. 
There lives Rikke's mother. We were invited for an Easter lunch. 
A lot of people were there. Rikke's sister and her boyfriend. Her brother with his wife and kids and we. 
We had a lot of fun. 
We had a typical Easter lunch with smørrebrød with fish. I also tasted the Danish schnapps. It was a bit too strong for me :D. We sat outside a lot. Played badminton,...  We also went to a nearby field where we threw the frisbee and where we played baseball with a football. Another version but still a lot of fun. When we came back to the house it was coffee time. There was cake and coffee and chocolate. Yes, even Belgian chocolate!!! :D
After that, the children could go and find the chocolate in the garden. 
It was a very nice Easter Monday but also quite exhausting. 
The difficult part was saying goodbye. I haven't seen these people a lot except for Rikke's mother a few times and her sister 2 times. Still, it was hard knowing that I won't see them again unless I visit them again. They told me I was more than welcome and they would like to see me back one day. 

I'm not good at saying goodbye and if this is already hard, what will it be the following days then?!
Well, one thing is for sure, Danish people are so friendly and open!!

Ribe - Esbjerg - Crazy Daisy - Rømø

We (Lasse, Anke and me) left around 9 o'clock in the morning for our trip to Ribe. First stop was the Viking Museum. For those who have read my blog thoroughly, know that I've already been there but only in the children's museum. Now I wanted to see the real thing. 
It wasn't as big as I expected it to be and it wasn't really related to Vikings. A bit of a disappointment but still I'm glad that I finally saw it. 
After the museum visit, we went downtown. Today was Good Friday and they also 'celebrate' it here. A lot of the shops were closed but we didn't mind because we weren't here to shop. We had lunch and then we went to the cathedral. 
As almost every church here in Denmark, it's a Protestants one. I liked it very much. After a few minutes walking around in the church, we went to the tower. I counted 238 stairs (Anke counted 245 on the way back and some children said there were 240 stairs) Well; I counted them once and that more than enough. I couldn't feel my legs anymore when I reached the top (Yes, I know, I have to start working on it). The view on the other hand was amazing. We could see Ribe, the oldest city of Denmark from above and it was so nice. When we were back with our 2 feet on the ground, we bought ourselves a real Belgian waffle, because we did so well. Although we already had had "Belgian" waffles yesterday, Lasse wanted to try this one as well. 
After that, we left Ribe and went more up north, to the West coast to Esbjerg. Esbjerg is according to Wikipedia the fourth largest city of Denmark.

We went to the beach. A beach where 4 giant sitting men are watching over the sea. We paddled a bit and Anke found 2 oysters. She wanted to see if there was maybe a pearl inside but no luck. So what did we do? We ate the fish. :)
I never thought that I would eat an oyster and then one that comes right from the sea. Well, I did: p. it didn't taste that bad actually.
After our oyster adventure we posed in front of our 4 giant friends.
Then we drove more back north again to a town called Ho. In Esbjerg, you can find a museum that you can compare with sea life. You can see seals and so on but it was rather expensive. Lasse said that you can sometimes see seals in Ho so that's where we went. Pity that we didn't see any.
We rode back to Esbjerg, but this time we went into town. We found a very nice Greek restaurant. The food was delicious.
Around 9o'clock we were back in Haderslev. It has been a great day!!

 

finished ! ;)

On Saturday, we had friends over here for brunch. It was very hygge.
In the afternoon, I went with Anke downtown. There was a lot going on and Lasse was going to play the guitar and sing. He especially sung the song Grenade by Bruno Mars. After the concert I went with my family to the Dampark. There we took a boat trip on the lake. It was not really a boat, but such yellow things where 2 persons have to do like their on a bicycle.

In the evening it was party time!!!
Anke and I went for the last time to the disco, Crazy Daisy. We had so much fun and we danced until the next day.  It hurt a bit when the alarm clock went off at 9 o'clock but that's the thing if you're going on a trip. We ate breakfast, dropped Anke off at her place and we went to Rømø. It's a small island on the west coast. You can only take 1 road to get there. :)
First we just did some (window)-shopping. Then it was lunchtime and we were right in time for the show of Rasmus Klump. (Pol, Pel en Pingo in Dutch) The children just love them. After the show, we went to the beach. The Belgian coast is nothing compared to this one. You can drive your car all the way up to the water. The beach is gigantic because you can't even see the sea. There a lot of tourists here, especially Germans. There are no life-guards (every year, German tourists die because they are not used to the sea). I just loved it. I went paddling, lying on the beach, looking for shells.
Too bad that if you're having a great time, it goes by so fast...

Easter holiday :Fredericia - Belgian dinner

Easter Holiday in Denmark is only one week, but to be honest I don't mind. I'm having the time of my life at Sct. Severin Skole so vacation is welcome but it doesn't have to take too long.

On Monday, we just relaxed because we were still a bit tired from our trip to Legoland. We spent most of the day outside and I went downtown for a while, just to walk around and so on.

On Tuesday it was Michael's birthday ( fødselsdag). We started the day with singing the traditional birthday song and waving the flag.
Then it was time for breakfast and presents. After breakfast we left immediately to Frederica. It's a nearby town and we would met the grandparents for a cosy day. The weather was great and so we went to a giant park where children can play in the playground, there's a little farm with goats, horses,... and you can barbeque there, if you bring your own meat. When we arrived, we ate breakfast (again), now with special bread. After that, the children went playing. We also went to take  a look at the animals : the goats and the horses. Then it was lunchtime. We brought our own meat, so it was barbeque time. It tasted really good. The children played some more and then we took a ride in a train. It went round the park and it was quite relaxing. After the train, I played with the children and we ate an ice-cream. I even fed a duck :p. It was a really nice day but I was glad to be home again.


 

On Wednesday, we relaxed again. In the morning, I went shopping with Anke for groceries. We are planning a Belgian dinner night for our host families and why not do it together then. Lasse and his girlfriend will come to my place and Anke and I will cook dinner for 9 people (including ourselves). we bought a lot of food and the dinner will take place tomorrow. In the afternoon I went downtown to do some shopping and bring some books back to the library.  It was really warm again but that made it even nicer to be outside.
In the evening I made the dough for tomorrow's dessert and then I went to Anke's place. We watched a film ( Eat, pray, love) and I stayed over.

On Thursday, Anke and I walked from Starup to Haderslev. It's about 4-5 km. It was a nice walk but a bit warm. Around 2 o'clock, Anke and I started to prepare the food. We had a lot of fun in the kitchen but also some curious noses (especially the children). Around 6 o'clock arrived Lasse and his girlfriend. Anke and I were ready. Rikke had helped us setting the table. We made a menu card, with of course the Belgian flag on it and everything in Dutch and English. Our starter was tomato with shrimp. Then we had French Fries with stoofvlees and some salad. In Denmark, not all families have a fryer so most French fries are baked in the oven. It doesn't taste the same, so Anke and I cut almost 5 kg potatoes in the shape of French Fries and we borrowed a fryer from one of Rikke's friends. The result was super ! Everyone liked it !!
The dessert was waffles with sugar on it. They all liked it ! It was just a hygge evening. After the dinner, Anke and I did the dishes and I went home with them. Tomorrow we're going on a trip and it's easier if we leave from 1 house. :) 

Legoland !!!

Sunday, it was  D-day. We went to Legoland in Billund. 

For those who really know me, know I'm not very fond about lego. When I was little I fell on lego with my face so that you could see the shape of a legobrick in my nose. It was even bleeding back then.
From that moment on, I promised to myself never to come near Lego again.
Well, Sunday, I conquered my fear :).

We left early in the morning. The weather was really nice and it wasn' t too crowded. I thought the entrance would be bigger but it was still nice.
We started with a small tour in a train. I was impressed sometimes about the things they made. Really great !!

We had a lot of fun. We went into spinning barrels, a ship that just sailed around, ...
We also went into a boat and we could shoot water to the people who were just watching or passing by. Something funny: they could also shoot back. We had a lot of fun but we were a bit wet.
We also went into an Egyptian temple. There you had to sit in a car with 2 persons and shoot the coloured diamonds. We did it 2 times and that was good because I didn't quite know the first time what I was doing. I also went with Michael in a very cool attraction. It was a robotarm. When you entered, you got a card and you had to insert this one in a computer.  Then you had to choose how fast you wanted to go (from 1 to 5). Then you had to choose 6 things you wanted the robot to do with you. Spin you around, hang upside down,... So we choose 6 things and we got our card back. When it was our turn, one of the people inserted our card and we had to take place in the seats. Then the robotarm would do what we asked it to do.
I also went with Michael in a water attraction. In Belgium we always refer to the "boomstammetjes" or here the canoes. We got a really nice picture ! :D Actually I duck a bit so he got all the water :p.
I also went with Rikke in a really cool attraction. It was called extreme racers. It was some kind of rollercoaster but it didn't go upside down but it was still very nice. The picture was hilarious.

We also took a small walk into mini lego land. It's actually a small area of countries (the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark) and everything is made of lego. The windmills of the Netherlands as well as Amalienborg, the royal palace in Copenhagen ( which I didn't see live but now I've seen the legoversion)
Special and new from this year was Star Wars. Everything was made out of Lego.

Even when we went to take a look in the aquarium, in the water you could see a submarine, made out of Lego. Amazing !There was also a great activity for those who love to play fireman. You play in teams. When a bell rings, you have to push open the door and jump into a firetruck.
There's a pump and 2 people have to control it as fast as possible so that the truck goes forward. Then you have to jump out the car and start pumping water, also with 2 people and a third one controls the water and tries to extinguish the fire. When the fire is gone, you have to jump back in the truck and drive back by pumping. The one who gets back first, wins. I can tell you this, you have to be in good shape to do this, because it can be quite exhausting.

In the evening we had dinner in legoland and we went home. Tired but we had so much fun. And actually I was kind of proud of myself. I spend a whole day in the neighbourhood of lego and  I didn't fell on it !! =D I was a happy girl.

Proof that I've been to Legoland: =D

Star Wars

Aquarium

Mount Rushmore

Ghostwalk in Gram

Friday was a great day. After school we went for lunch downtown which was very good.  We spent most of the afternoon outside and I made macaroni with ham and cheese. J

In the evening we went for a “ghostwalk”. We left Haderslev around 20h25 and we drove to a nearby city called Gram. Of course the little children stayed at home. We arrived at the castle at 21h05 (a bit too late but it didn’t matter). In total there were 10 persons for the ghostwalk including the guide. It was unfortunately in Danish but Rikke tried to translate most of it for me. It’s a good thing; my Danish is improving so that I understood small pieces of it.
Gram Slot is an old castle, but still alive thanks to the legend of the White Lady. The legend goes that there was a man who owned the castle died and his widow stayed behind. Her name was Anne Sophie Shack. She stayed alone for over 41 years. In the meanwhile, she did have some lovers who came to her room once in a while. One day she got pregnant and she stayed in her room for the whole period, 9 months. When the baby was born, she told one of the maids to throw the baby into the water that surrounded the castle. The maid did this. But that’s not the only thing that happened. Anne Sophie Shack also killed 2 of her maids. One on purpose. One of the maids was bound up the oven while Anne Sophie went to church. The reason for it: the girl was sitting on a window shield while she actually needed to clean the room When she came back the maid was dead, burnt to dead.
The other maid who was killed was probably an accident. One of the maids was undressing Anne Sophie when the last one suddenly saw that she would get a visitor. She pulled her dress out the hands of the maids and gave the maid a hard punch. The girl fell backwards and hit her head on the oven. Bloodstains were found on the wooden floor.
I found it very interesting. The legend says that you can see the White Lady (Anne Sophie) sometimes. The guide also said that there have been psychics in the castle and they don’t like to be/stay in the kitchen in the basement.

When we walked to the castle around 9 o’clock, we actually parked at the wrong side. So we went to a little gate and over a small bridge, to get to the castle. The small bridge was a way over the water. When we wanted to go back to the car, we went round the castle because it was in that water that Anne Sophie had thrown the baby.
When we wanted to leave Gram again, there was a problem with our car. I made a joke that Anne Sophie didn’t want us to go home anymore. In the end, I ended up pushing the car together with Michael so that we could leave.
Rikke told me in the car that she was reading a brochure at the end, while the guide was talking with the other visitors. She saw the name of the guide in the brochure and he has the same name as Anne Sophie. Coincidence?
Well, she asked the guide afterwards if he was family and he claimed not to be. She said to me that she felt like being in a film at that moment. Who knows, the guide might be a ghost as well. We’ll never know…
Anyway I had a good night sleep afterwards J

Here you can take a look at the website of Gram Slot ( in Danish)
Gram Slot

Kolding - Grenade - quiz - goodbye

On Wednesday Carsten was back and we had 2 hours in the 9^th grade. He asked me how it went in the 7^th grade. I looked at him and I said well I think they have a problem with me or so. I explained what happened and he looked a bit surprised. I told him that I thought that I might be the problem or so but he immediately said that I was doing a great job and so on. That was nice to hear but still. I told him my idea for Friday and he agreed. So let’s see if they still behave like this.
I left school around 9h50 and Anke and I took the bus to Kolding where there’s a big mall. It was shopping time. We had a lot of fun!!!

On Thursday, I had 3 hours of cooking class. This is actually the same class as I have for English so I was a bit concerned about how they would act today. All the pupils were there so there wasn’t a group who really needed my help. While I was walking around, 2 pupils came to me and asked if I wanted to join them for the “dinner”. I was a bit surprised but it was very nice. So I said yes and I also helped them with the preparations. We made a vegetarian meal and a pineapple cake. The ones, who know me, know that I don’t eat pineapple. But I tried it because I didn’t want to be rude and I actually liked it!!
After cooking class I had one free period and then I had to teach the 8^th grade. It was a lesson about nouns, verbs and adjectives. Jørgen had given me a book with activities. It was an activity where they had to listen to the song “Another day in paradise by Phil Collins and they had to note down as many nouns, adjectives and verbs they could hear while listening. I changed the song but kept the activity. I wanted a more modern song so I chose Grenade by Bruno Mars. We first looked at the activity also to make sure the pupils know the difference between a noun, adjective and verb. We did that by asking them to give us some examples of nouns, adjectives and verbs. I let them listen to the song twice and we then corrected it. Then I had 2 activities of Madlibs for them. One was just a story and the other one was an Easter story, because it’s Easter holiday, next week. They really enjoyed this activity because they found it so funny. I also let some of them read their story out loud. At the end of the lesson, a girl from 8B (I teach 8A) came in and asked Jørgen why I couldn’t teach their class. I can tell you this was a bit touching. So I agreed with Jørgen that I will teach the same lesson in 8B after the Easter Holiday. In the afternoon I went to the hairdresser. =D new haircut, a new colour ;). 

On Friday morning I had to teach the 7^th graders again. First of all I asked their postcards but I only received 5 of them.
Then I told them I needed 2 teams. They could choose in which team they wanted to be. I also told them that if they wanted they could just play: boys vs. girls. That’s how it went. Boys vs. girls. I told them we were going to play a game, a game about the USA. It was also to check if they paid attention during my previous lessons. I saw some scary faces at that point.
I made a PowerPoint. The background was the American flag. I had made 5 categories: presidents, buildings, history, culture and miscellaneous. Every category was divided into 50,100, 200 or 500 DKK. So they could earn “money”. The rules were quite easy. One team chooses a category (e.g. presidents 500DKK = this was the more difficult one). They see the questions and they get some limited time to answer the question. If they answered correctly, I showed them the answer and gave them the money. If it wasn’t correct, I went to the other team and asked the answer. If the other team could answer it, they would get, half the money (250 DKK, in this case). They really enjoyed it. Also Carsten found it really great and he asked if I could send the PowerPoint to him as well.
Three free periods later, I had my last lesson of the day. English in 5A. They were late because it was also Singingday today. So the lesson started at 11h00 instead at 10h45. When the first one came in, she said to me: ooh you’ve cut and coloured your hair ! And then she ran out to tell the rest. That was quite funny because I’m not really used to that. They had to bring a picture of their family today and I think almost everyone did. The pupils though were  bit sad because one of the pupils changes school after Easter so this was her last day. Their presentations were really good but not everyone had the chance to present their family because we only had 30 minutes. At the end of the lesson, I asked the pupils if they wanted to pose for a group picture because now everyone was still in the class.  They absolutely didn’t mind but they also wanted some pictures of me. I also got a chocolate cupcake from the girl who’s leaving.
After this lesson, Easter holiday could begin !!

Yellow butter, purple jelly; reading comprehension and USA

Monday again. When I arrived in school I saw that Carsten was ill. I immediately volunteered to be his substitute for the 9^th and 7^th grade. That was no problem. The 9^th graders had to find texts for their exams and write something about it. Some of them went looking for a text, others were writing. One girl asked my help. She already had  2 texts but one of them was a bit too difficult for her, so together we found a new suitable text for her.
At ten o’clock, I had a lesson in the 5^th grade. They were really enthusiastic about me teaching them again. We started with a text from their textbook called Grace Darling. It’s a text, actually a legend, about a ship wreck. The pupils read it out loud, also because this is the way they work here. It doesn’t matter if you make mistakes, you have to try. The teacher corrects if they make mistakes. Afterwards we looked at the vocabulary. I said the English words and they said the Danish word. This was quite funny. Then I told them we were going to do 2 things. They were divided into 4 groups. Every group got a paper and they had to write their own story. The paper was divided into 3. First they had to think of a hero, then about the place and last but not least about a plot. I explained everything that was on the paper. Then I told them that I was going to take one pupil outside and tell her a sentence. She had to pass the sentence on to someone else and so on.  [The sentence: Yellow butter, purple jelly, red jam, black bread, spread it thick, say it quick.] It was a bit chaotic and I couldn’t check how the sentence sounded now because the lesson was over.
After my lesson in the 5th grade I had to hurry to be on time for my lesson in the 8th grade. I didn’t have to teach them myself because they had to do a reading comprehension. Jørgen challenged me to take the test myself. It was quite funny because the test was actually quite tricky. I made a few mistakes although I don’t think you can really call them mistakes. You had to find the right headline for a short piece of text. Jørgen thought that I had a few mistakes but I think it’s just the way you interprets the text.  J
Well, in the afternoon I had a lesson in the 7^th grade. Carsten was ill but t I had to teach this lesson anyway so I didn’t mind. We went on with the USA. I wrote 5 categories on the smart board: presidents/buildings/celebrities/sport/films. The pupils had to come up with 5 things for each item. When that was finished I told them they had to choose one 1 and try to speak about it as long as possible. There was one catch, when one item was chosen; no one could choose it again. Carsten gave me this idea and I thought they would be very eager to do this and to have an item that they know. But they didn’t. They didn’t really want to speak but I told them they had to do it now or tomorrow. We also made an extra category: food because this was a bit easier. At the end of the lesson everyone had talkedJ. I asked them if there was anything they wanted to learn about America, because then they could tell me know and I could try to fix that. They told me they wanted to learn about New York, buildings, people, culture, food and cars.
So their wish was my command.
On Tuesday, Carsten was still ill and they had chosen a substitute. I told Lasse that I had to teach that lesson anyway so I could easily substitute. When I came into the class, the pupils were a bit surprised about the fact that I was there and no the other teacher.
We started off with a listening comprehension. The pupils had a small map and they had to act like they were on a tour boat. I read a text and they had to follow the route I told them and complete the activity. They had some small pictures of the special things they passed and they had to say what it was. They didn’t look very enthusiastic but I thought it was just because it was the first hour of the day. (They had the first 2 hours off.)
Then I had a worksheet about buildings. I made small boxes with some information in it. It was written in the I-person so that it looked if the building was speaking. They also had boxes with the names of the buildings/statues/… and then they also had the pictures. They had to match the 3 things together. In the meanwhile, outside was a music class but the pupils were playing music in the hallway which made a lot of noise. The pupils did what I asked but again without the enthusiasm. After we corrected the exercise I showed them a website. It was the website of post crossing. There you can make an account and then you receive an address of someone in the world who’s also a member. The meaning was that you write postcards to each other.
I had printed out some postcards and I told them they had to write a postcard. They could choose to write a postcard to a good friend or to me or to someone else. On the other side, they had to draw something or they could print something out and paste it on the paper. I thought this was a nice activity because it was a free activity. But at the end, one or two postcards were flying through the class and so on. They didn’t really care about it. After that lesson I was so mad. I put a lot of effort to make fun activities and to make boring things interesting but apparently they just don’t care. I started doubting if I was the problem. Did I do something wrong? I was quite down and I thought that I wanted to make one last effort for that class.
In the afternoon I had the 5^th graders again and that’s no problem.
I asked the 2 pupils if they could still remember the sentence. They could but it was not completely correct. Only the girl who was the first one to pass the sentence through could remember. This way I could explain them what a legend was. Then every group had to read the story they had written. Some were really funny! J
I also told them a legend about my region in Belgium, the legend of “het alvermannetje”. They liked it a lot and they were listening with a lot of attention.
Then I told them that we saw a family yesterday in the text of Grace Darling. I asked who the family members were and they still remembered. I gave them a worksheet with a family tree on. Only one name was filled in. They had to fill in the rest by reading a very short text. They liked this a lot. Then they had a small vocabulary exercise. They had the English words and they had to translate it into Danish.
It was also the end of the lesson when they finished their exercise. I told them that I had some homework for them for Friday. They were like: Nooo. I laughed and said: well if you do your homework, I’ll do mine as well. I told them to bring a picture or more than one of their own family. If they did, I would also bring some pictures of my family. When I said this, they were really enthusiastic. Some of them even came to me on my way out to ask if it was okay if it was on USB or if it was a picture with their parents and so on. J

Århus - Aarøsund

On Saturday I went to Århus. It’s the second largest city in Denmark. We left quite early in the morning.

First we went shopping J. Then we went to see the Cathedral of Århus and we did some sightseeing.  The Cathedral was also very pretty. It’s a protestants church like almost every church here. Very special is that every church has a ship hanging from the ceiling, with Danish flags. The meaning is a bit difficult to explain because it’s a bit unknown. Most people say it’s because the church was built in the shape of a ship but I also heard another explanation. If you’re a member of the Church, you will be on a ship. A ship that never goes down because God will protect you. I think this is quite a nice thought.

It was a warm day so it was really nice being outside and enjoying the sunshine.
Then we drove to “Den Gamle By”. This is the old town, the old Århuss. This was so beautiful. You could see all the old houses and you also could go inside.
Try the doors – they might be open
Look into the yards – behind the houses
Gaze up at the façades
Ask questions
Read the signs and Placards
Set your curiosity free

Quite simple : Enjoy !
This is what says at the backside of the small book: discovering Den Gamle By.
You could walk here for ages !

On Saturdays all the shops close at 14h in the smaller towns, like Haderslev but in the bigger towns they close at 16h. Except the giant mall. So that’s where we went after Den Gamle By. We went there for an ice-cream which tasted really good especially when it’s so hot outside.
I also saw a shop which is quite fun. It’s a shop and it sells “Hoptimists”. This is something typical Danish and it’s actually really cute. Here you have the website of the company.
Hoptimist
We took another way home and we stopped at the beach for a few minutes. Really nice to see but it wasn’t a real beach like the ones we know from Oostende, Blankenberge, … .
We also wanted to have dinner there but for some reason we couldn’t, so we ended up in McDonalds, which I didn’t mind ;).
But my long day wasn’t over yet. In the evening I went out. We went with some other Erasmus students to a concert in a café. It was a really good band called Notch and they sung a lot of covers so we could easily sing-a-long. We had a lot of fun.
       
On Sunday, it was really early. I went to bed late but the small children here, don’t really care ;). Well, you get used to it.
It was again a beautiful day so we went to the beach of Aarøsund. I laid down on the sand and enjoyed the sunshine. Too bad it was a bit windy there, but still very nice. We went home around 16h and while the children played outside, Sonja lay on the grass, while listening to some music. Just  relaxing ! This was really great. For dinner, we had a typical Danish dinner: potatoes with red cabbage, sweet potatoes and pork. It tasted good ! I really like the Danish food !!
Too bad the weekend is already over, but I had a great weekend and next week it’s Easter holiday so also a lot of fun guaranteed.
Pictures of Aarøsund :

 

Comenius - rød grød med fløde - Byggøl

On Wednesday, I really had a busy day: I had the 9th grade for 2 hours normally but I only followed them 1 hour. The next hour I went to see a Danish lesson. Jørgen wanted to teach the Comenius pupils some Danish and I thought it would be fun for me as well. I ended up, not following the lesson, but assisting! Apparently my Danish is good enough to do this. So they learnt to introduce themselves (my name is ..., I'm from ....)
They also learnt to ask each others name and where they from. Jørgen and I did the role-play first and they the pupils had to do it. They also learnt to count to 10 and say good morning/good evening/ good night. It was really fun. Then Jørgen sent the pupils to the 2nd grade. They are around 8-9 years old and the Comenius pupils had to talk with these pupils to show what they had learnt. In the afternoon we all went to the city hall to see the major's office. Then the 8th grade had to guide the Comenius pupils through the city and the Comenius teachers were guided by a teacher of Sct. Severin. I followed the last group, because although I've been here now for over 2 months, I still discover things. In the evening there was a dinner for the teachers and I was also invited. It was really huggy! The food was really good and we laughed a lot. Especially when the dessert arrived. There was lime pie but also a typical Danish one : rød grød med fløde. Try to say it ! It's almost impossible if you're not Danish. It's really nice but it's a very sweet dessert.

On Thursday, I only had cooking class because the 8th grades were doing presentations for the Comenius people. So only cooking class. We made chicken with potatoes and cucumber salad. As dessert we had French waffles. These were really good!
In the evening I had to be back at school. There was also a delegation of the UK and the headmaster of that school, Paul Prest is a really inspiring man. He told us about Academy 360. It was really interesting. Especially the way how they encourage pupils to read was inspiring. They use iPads. And when the pupils read the book on the iPad, things happen. If it's a horror story, blood is dripping from the pages and so on. How longer the pupils stays on the page and reads it all, the more happens. They also introduce Second Places/Life which is a virtual world. I also followed a session of this yesterday and it's really interesting. The 8th graders have their own virtual world with the Comenius pupils so they can still be in touch even though they are miles apart. They can also share materials. Maybe a good idea to do this as well?

On Friday, I didn't have any of my regular classes. The Comenius people were going on a trip and I was invited as well. First we had a lecture about energy and how Denmark is provided. This was actually a bit boring. Normally we would be going to a power plant afterwards but due to some issues in the power plant, we couldn't go. Instead we went to Byggøl. It's an old town and it's famous because it's the place where in 1864, the war was held between Germany and Denmark about the border. Denmark lost the war together with a large part of the country. It was so interesting, especially for me. Too bad there was a little storm outside. The wind was blowing so hard and it was really cold. Around 15h we had lunch in the local gym of Haderslev. I also exchanged email addresses with a Comenius teacher from Greece because that's what Comenius is all about. Exchanging things and gather new things.

Pictures of Byggøl will follow.

Friday evening I went with Anke to the Friday café. It was really nice although it was a bit dangerous outside. They mentioned on the news that tiles were flying of the roofs. But nothing happened!

one busy week, but one tough Monday

On Monday a new week started and I knew it was going to be quite a busy one. I had to teach but there were also some visitors. The Erasmus students came to do their practice.
Beside that we had guests from Norway, Greece, Poland, UK and Italy. They are also in a Comenius programme just like me but another one. Together with Denmark (or more precisely Sct. Severin Skole), they visit each other every 6 months. This time, Denmark was the host. In October it will be Italy. These people are here for one week and there are teachers together with a few students. They offered me to join them in some activities because it is also Comenius.

On Monday I had 2 classes instead of 4. The 9th graders were working on their exams (finding texts,...) so I couldn't do a lot. Then I had a class in the 5th grade. I really love to teach these children. They are always so enthusiastic and excited and ready to learn. Last lesson I told them when to use do/does. So we repeated it again (with some difficulties because it had been more than a week) but with a little help, they managed. Then we played a game. I told them to go and sit in groups of 4. Each group got a board game, a dice, and 4 pawns. On the board game, there were boxes and every box was divided into 4 colours: green, red, yellow and blue. Every pupil got a worksheet in that colour. They had to throw the dice and the number they threw, was the number of sentence they had to complete. When they reached the finish box, they had to come to me and I would check the answers and talk with them what the right answer should have been. Then I gave them some points: one point for every correct answer. If a group was ready they could play the game again and try to complete the other sentences. They really enjoyed this game. It was so nice and they were very enthusiastic. The teacher came to me and said some pupils didn't want to reach the finish and tried to solve more sentences so they could get more points. :). So cute !
I didn't have a lesson in the 8th grade because they were making presentations for the Comenius people.
Then I had a lesson in the 7th grade which I had to teach. The subject was the USA. Today I would tell them a bit more about the history and about the 50 states. I made worksheets and I put a lot of effort to find a fun way to tell them a brief history. I found an American song on YouTube, a rap song and I made worksheets. The pupils had the lyrics and a box with 11 events in American history. While listening to the song they had to match the specific part of the lyrics with the event. Then they learnt about the 50 states. Again I worked with YouTube. One song to learn all the 50 states in alphabetical order and they had to complete the list and the next one, was with the animaniacs. Yakko points at every state on a map and says the capital.  They had to try to do the same on a map.
I thought it was a nice lesson and so on, but everything went wrong. When I asked a question, no one would answer me. They didn't participate in any way. I felt so bad and I didn't know what was going on. I told them that they had to answer. Even when I teased them a bit they looked so angry at me and I just felt so bad. I didn't have the opportunity to talk with Carsten and that made it a bit worse. I was so angry and sad at the same time. Lasse told me in the evening on facebook that I shouldn't be so stressed about it. He said: " you can drag a horse to the water but you can't force it to drink" and that's true but still... .
So the next day I had that class again. I talked with Carsten before the lesson and he said that it all went well yesterday. They were just shy he said. I looked at him and I was a bit surprised but I still didn't feel at ease.
We started the lesson with singing Happy Birthday to Nanna. And then I did something I normally wouldn't do, I think.
I told the pupils how I felt yesterday and I asked them if there was a problem. They said no. I told them that I only have 4 weeks left here and I want those weeks to be fun and enjoyable for both sides. I told them that I liked their class, because they try to speak English, they are friendly and they are willing to learn (except for yesterday then).
They all looked at me and said that they wanted to work with me and so on. I felt so relieved and the lesson went quite well. It was again USA but this time about American school traditions and the school system. I compared this to Belgium and Denmark. I even showed them pictures of my X-mos and prom.
This lesson was more based on reading comprehension because all the information about the USA was given in texts.
I must say that I felt relieved after that lesson and I was surprised. I never thought I could be so open towards pupils and talk with them and it just felt so well. Thanks to the Danish way of teaching !!
Last lesson we played the board game and they really liked it. I divided them up into groups. During the board game they were also in groups of 4 and everyone had a different colour. Now I made groups based on the colour. All the yellow ones together, the red ones ,... I showed the rest of the class the worksheet on the smart board and the group who was in front of the class (e.g. yellow) had to do the exercises and explain why they use do/don't, does/doesn't. After that we revised it again and the pupils could play the board game once more but they had to choose a different colour. When I told them I wouldn't be in on Friday, they got a bit angry. I told them I was going on a trip and they said: you can't go on a trip, you have to teach us. The feeling when they said that was amazing. They like my way of teaching and that is just so nice. I feel like I can't do anything wrong, also because I can teach what I want, (thanks to a very open curriculum) and how I want. Playing a game is no problem and even the language, well they work on it.

Sunshine –picnic – circus

Time to update this blog again. It's been a long time because I had just a very busy week. A lot of work, fun, not much sleep and not really the time to update. But here we go now :)

When we woke up on Saturday, the weather outside was just beautiful. So around noon, we packed our stuff together and we went for a picnic in the Deer park. We sat outside and we didn’t have to wear our coats or our scarves because the sun was warm enough. It felt just like summer. After lunch we went for a walk in the deer park. Also the deer were enjoying the weather and I saw a lot more of them, than the first time. I even saw the famous white one.
After the deer park we went to the Dampark to get an ice-cream. Then we went back home and played outside with the children.

On Sunday we went to the Circus. It was the only day the Danish national circus was in town so a lot of people went there. It was a good thing we already bought the tickets because the queues were quite long. We got some good seats and we were ready for 2 hours and 20 minutes of laughter and entertainment. We saw a lot of things : an elephant doing tricks, 3 lama’s, 2 camels, 6 horses, a lot of dogs, …
We also saw some impressive gymnastics and for me, the most exciting thing was with 2 wheels in the air.
There were 2 giant wheels, connected to each other and they were up in the air. In every wheel was a man and when they started walking in it, it also turned. Law of gravity. But at a certain point, one of the men, crawl on top of the wheel and it went very fast and he jumped and did tricks and it looked like he was falling off a few times, but he didn’t. Really impressive.
I also had a lot of fun during the break. Small children could ride on the elephant. One time the elephant was going round and there was a little child sitting in the audience and she just had a bucket of popcorn. One minute it was in her hands, the other minute, the elephant had eaten it. It was so funny but the child didn’t agree and she started crying. It was a bit sad for her but apparently the elephant was a bit hungry.
I really enjoyed the show and I also bought the DVD, so I can enjoy the show back home.

Here  you can see a video I made of the thing with the wheels. If you see it, you know what I mean ;).
Youtube: Cirkus

Project week - Ribe

On Monday a new project week started. Every grade works with a special theme and the normal lessons are cancelled.

On Monday I followed the first grade. They worked around healthy food and exercise. The first graders were divided into 4 groups and every teacher does a special activity with the pupils. There is one teacher in charge for cooking healthy food with the pupils and another one is in charge with healthy exercise. I followed Rikke today. She had to teach the pupils something about exercise.
First we went to the gym. Rikke had invited a football player from the local team here. Sonderjylland. The pupils were really enthousiastic. Then they got some information about the planning of today. They were going to do some exercises and they had to measure their pulse. Rikke had borrowed the equipment. a belt with a watch. I helped the pupils putting those things on. There was only one problem when we wanted to start the activity. the equipment didn't work. Rikke had tested it at home on Sunday and it worked then, but now it didn't, so we skipped that part. Pupils had to other activities like running and see how long they could keep doing it.
On Tuesday I followed the 5th grade. Their theme is the Middle Ages. Today we were cooking medieval food: soup and pancakes. We really did it like in the Middle Ages: outside on a big fire. I was in charge for the pupils who had to boil tea. The pupils had made ceramic pots and they were going to drink their soup out of these cups. But first we had to make the cups stronger and we had to boil water first to make tea which we could pour into the cups. this would make them stronger.
It were only boys and it took us quite a lot of time to make a big fire. But they managed ! After the tea we baked the pancakes on the fire. It wasn't such warm weather so the warm fire was more than welcome. Around 12h30,  we could drink the soup and eat the pancakes. The soup was really good, there were a lot of herbs in it. Then it was time to clean up. Some boys joined the girl's teams to play the medieval games. I helped the cleaning team. It was a really nice experience because I was alone with the pupils almost the whole morning and they had to speak English and I had to look after them and so on. During the break, one of the boys was kicked ( by accident, because they were playing football). I was the only teacher around and for me it felt like a big responsibility to be there and look after them. The boy appeared to be okay, he didn't want to come inside and after 1 minute he was running again after the ball.
In the afternoon, I went to Anke's place. There was an intercultural evening at the college and every country had to cook a special dish. There are a lot of Belgian Erasmus students and Anke had asked me if I wanted to join in. I helped her with making stoofvlees (stew) and baked potatoes shaped as French Fries. We had a lot of fun and it was a nice evening with delicious dishes.

On Wednesday I went on a field trip with the 5th grade. They were going to Ribe, the oldest town in Denmark. We left at 8h20. A bus was coming to pick us up. But apperently something went wrong in the communication. There was only one bus for over 80 pupils and their teachers. Pupils had to sit with 3. I also sat with 2 of my 5A class where I teach English. We talked the whole trip and I even taught them some Dutch. they wanted to know how to say: my name is ... and I like icecream. They also taught me Danish.
Tak = Thanks (I already knew this one ;) )
hest = horse
When we arrived in Ribe, the pupils were divided into 3 groups. Every group would visit the same things but just in a different order.
My group first went to the Sct. Katarina Kirke. A protestant church. It was built maby years ago but it started to bend over to one side. You can still find one of the screw jacks in the church. Then we went to the museum. I was really looking forward to this because it is a famous Viking museum. But actually I got a bit disappointed. I didn't see the museum, I only saw the children's museum. Still, it was interesting but it would have been nice also to see the real museum. The children's museum is really fun for children. They enter the world of Kristine and Rolf, 2 children who live during the Middle Ages. Rolf can go to school and Kristine can't. Pupils can dress up, play with the swords, go to the market. It's really fun. The pupils had to answer some questions. I walked around a bit and I noticed something. Every particular place had information in Danish, English, German and Dutch ! But when I started reading the Dutch version, I was shocked. There were spelling mistakes everywhere, the constructions made no sense and some words weren't translated. It was a Dutch sentence with Danish words in between with a lot of question marks next to it ! Apperently, they used google translator, but it was so funny and shocking at the same time. After the museum visit, my group got a tour in Ribe. The guided tour in the church and this one, were both in Danish. I can understand Danish now and then but I was happy that one of the teachers translated it all for me :).
Then it was time to head back home. Now there were 2 buses so there was room enough for everyone.

 

On Thursday I helped out in the 3th grade. They learnt to work with excel. the teacher had a meeting of an hour and then the pupils would be on their own so he was happy to have me around. Pupils start learning English in the 3th grade so it wasn't really easy to communicate with them. But thanks to my limited vocabulary Danish mixed with English, it worked out just fine. It was again a nice experience. This is a younger age and still with some Danish and just using my hands and feet to explain things, it worked out.

One of the teacher came to me afterwards and she told me that one of the pupils told her that she had tried to explain to me that she had to go to the dentist and she liked it that I understood here. It was so funny that the teacher came to tell me this. Although those pupils don't have me as a teacher, they really wanted to talk to me and it's nice if they are proud about it afterwards.
Thursdaynight, it was Eurovision Songcontest at the college. First we had a typical Danish dinner together: hot-dogs with chocolate milk and afterwards we had the songcontest. Every country had to prepare somenthing.
Here is a youtubefilm so you can see what the Belgian delegation did.  (This is just an example film and we used this to learn the dance ourself.) We didn't won but we had a lot of fun. First the Belgian delegation did the dance and then we all took one other person so everyone was dancing !! On Friday, I prepared the lessons for next week.

Odense

On Friday, after school, I went to Odense. Lasse, Anke, Kito and me, left around 12 o'clock. Odense is a 1 hour drive from Haderslev and it is the 3th largest town in Denmark. The reason why it is so special? It's the birthtown of a famous Danish writer. The ugly duckling, the princess and the pea, the emperor's clothes,... Rings a bell ? It's Hans Christian Andersen.
When we arrived we first had lunch because we were quite hungry. We ate kebab with French Fries. This was one of the few times the French Fries really tasted like the Belgian ones!
Then we went to the H.C.Andersen Hus (=museum). It was quite impressive. It is a really big museum and I learnt a lot about H.C. Andersen. There was a room introducing him, who he was, how he looked like. Then there was a library with his fairytales in  different languages.(I have no clue how many languages, but there were a lot !) Even Dutch was presented ! H.C. Andersen travelled a lot, so there was also a room with a giant map where you could see where he has been already. He has been in Belgium 6 times, but never in Hasselt :(.
There was also a room with his special attributes. There was one thing I will never forget. H.C. Andersen travelled a lot and every time he travelled abroad and stayed in a hotel, he had a rope in his bag. Why ? Because he was afraid that there would be a fire in the hotel and by having that rope (9 meters) he could always escape.
They also built a replica of his birthhouse. It was quite funny because it was quite small and definetly not made for large people.
H.C.Andersen is not only famous for his fairytales. He also made amazing papercuts. There was a small room where children could make their own papercuts and watch the fairytales. We also tried it :), but we will never be as good as the master himself.

After spending a lot of money in the museumshop we went on. We went to see the H.C.Andersen's garden. It would be very pretty in Summer. We also saw the cityhall of Odense, a magnificent church and another statue of H.C.Andersen. While walking through the shopping street we also found some statues representing the fairytales of H.C. Andersen. To be honest, I really like the fairytales but I didn't know any of the 3. The woman with the eggs, the flying trunk, the shepardess and the chimneysweeper sounded quite unknown. After a tour in Odense we went to the birthhouse of H.C. Andersen. We already saw a replica in the museum and know we saw the real one.
After some walking around (seeing the Odense Theatre and the trainstation), we went back to Haderslev. We had dinner together in a Chinese restaurant and then we ended our night in the Fridaycafe. It was really a great day and I had so much fun !!

   

 

 

On Saturday, Anke came to pick me up to have lunch in the Dampark. The weather was really nice so excellent timing. There was also another Erasmus student from the Dominican Republic joining us.
Then we went on foot to Starup, the town where Anke lives. It's 4 kilometers from Haderslev. It was all the way up hill so I was so tired when we got there.
We watched a film together (17 again) and later that night we had dinner.
Lasse had invited some friends and we had a cosy evening with candles, fire and other good things.
So we also participated in Earth Hour. no lights on, only candles. Hygge !! (a typical Danish word but it's difficult to translate, but if I really have to translate it, it means cosy.)
[Anke is the Belgian Erasmus student who stays with Lasse, my contactperson and also a teacher at Sct. Severin ]
On Sunday we were invited for a Spanish lunch with the parents of Lasse's girlfriend. We had paella and it tasted really good !!