IntroCamp

IntroCamp can be considered one of the greatest weeks of me life. I was surrounded by 172 people who have left everything they know to live in Denmark for a year! These people understand everything I’m feeling and share the same, crazy desire to get out and see the world. Introcamp can only be described as organized chaos. They had a set schedule for us; but controlling 173 sixteen to eighteen year olds for a week is a big task. For example, one of the girls in my class, skipped an entire day of Danish lessons because she felt that getting her beauty sleep was more important. Nevertheless, I had a great deal of fun and now I can’t imagine my life without these crazy people.

If you were following the rules, most of your days consisted of breakfast at 8, three hours of Danish lessons, lunch, three more hours of Danish lessons, two hours of free time, dinner, evening activity, and then free time until eleven. Six hours of Danish lessons everyday seems like a lot, but when your teacher gives you long breaks every hour, its really not. I would estimate that we got closer to three and a half hours, rather than six. We went through the basics, like days of the week and counting to one hundred, and we learned about sentence structure and verb conjugation. I learned quite a bit and can now string together very simple sentences but I can confidently say that my Spanish improved more than my Danish because I was constantly translating for english speakers, and speaking to the Latin Americans.

On Wednesday night, someone pulled the fire alarm and within five minutes, the entire fire department was at Nørgaards Hojskole. We were placed in a courtyard while the firefighters checked the building for any sign of fire. Luckily they found nothing, but our counsellors were furious afterwards. The next morning, our counsellors threatened us with police involvement and asked the culprit to step forward. No one owned up to it, but I will be awaiting to see if there is actual police involvement.

Thursday we went to Aarhus! We visited ARoS, a very famous, Danish art museum then had four hours of free time to explore the city. Claire, Danny, Yu Hei, and I had Sophie, an oldie from Australia, show us around Aarhus. First, she took us to a cheap, Asian restaurant, where I had a bowl of noodle soup. It was delicious! It was so nice to have something that wasn’t full of carbs and super healthy. Then she took us to a thrift shop where I bought a pair of black skinny jeans, a striped shirt, and a dress for less than 100 kroner ($20). On our way back to the bus, we got ice cream and then ran around trying to find other exchange students. Without any hesitation, I can say that this was one of the most exciting and most fun days I have had here in Denmark.

Our last night at IntroCamp, the counsellors threw us a party. All the girls got dressed up and the boys didn’t wear basketball shorts. It started off with each class giving a little presentation. My class made fun of the stereotypes from all the countries. When we got to the US stereotypes, my classmates wore pillows under their clothes and used very odd “American” slang. After this, we danced the night away playing music from every country. Suddenly, the music stops and I hear ‘FIRETRUCKS! FIRETRUCKS!’ Everyone ran outside and, much to my surprise, I realize that instead of ‘firetrucks,’ they were yelling ‘fireworks.’ We all sat outside for about twenty minutes watching as the colors danced overhead. The fireworks were bigger and brighter than anything I have seen in the US. At one point, the sky looked like it was raining glitter. It felt like they were celebrating our arrival in Denmark and wishing us a great year here.

A few things that I took away from this week, besides that vast amount of pins now cluttering my blazer, is that learning Danish is going to be very hard, especially because English is everywhere. I also learned what it meant to be living in a global community,. At mealtimes, you could here three or four different languages and the same table. I love my new friends and I miss them already. But as much as I loved IntroCamp, its nice to be back with my host family, and to actually get some sleep.

Jeg elsker Danmark.

Danielle, Claire, and I.

On our way to Aarhus.

Rainbow Panorama.

Inside the Panorama.

Found my car in Aarhus!

Look at that view.