Week 10

Personal Development

Week 10 and I am officially more than half way through my time in Denmark. It is hard to believe that in two months I will be back in Northern Ireland! This week was the second half of our Easter break and the start of our teaching practise, so it has been a very busy week, full of fun!

On Thursday morning, I ventured across town to the airport to pick up my family! I left the house a little too early – it must have been the excitement of having visitors and spending five days at a hotel! Waiting in departures was terrible. Every time the huge automatic doors opened, I was on my tip toes trying to figure out if it was my clan, and every time it wasn’t I got more and more impatient. Finally, my mum, dad, brother and sister arrived! We had a great time catching up and sightseeing. It was so nice to show them around and let them see what I have been up to. I honestly do not think I have ever talked so much as the amount I did in the first few hours of picking my family up from the airport; the poor people were bombarded with everything, from what I have been eating to how to buy a train ticket. I think the best part of my trip was just getting away from our house in Ballerup to stay in a hotel for a few nights as I felt like I was on a proper holiday and I could really enjoy the time with my family over the Easter break. Of course, the time went very quickly and it was no time until I was unpacking in Ballerup. Strangely though, I did not mind coming back to the house too much, as I was excited about getting back into a routine and starting my placement the next day. I will talk more about my school in professional development, but it is really good to have another project to focus on. Greg and I also visited a couple’s house this week. Stefan and Marie-Louise go to church with us and invited us round for dinner. They were really nice and we had a great evening of chatting about university, travelling and life in Denmark. It was so nice to meet some Danish friends and relax with them. We had Danish meatballs, Frikadeller, and vegetables; and Greg and I prepared a Daim Bar Cheesecake for dessert. It was pretty amazing (thanks to mum’s instructions)!

Cultural Development

Due to my family being over, we spent a lot of time visiting landmarks in the city. Now the weather is better, we decided to take a Canal Tour boat which was great. It was good to see the city from another angle and learn some more about the history of Copenhagen. Seeing my family were over for 5 days, I also had the chance to visit some places outside of the city. We went to Lousiania, a museum of modern art, in a town called Humlebæk, Northern Zealand. The museum had some really impressive pieces of art, and included artists like Picasso, Giacometti, Dubuffet, Yves Klein, Andy Warhol, Rauschenberg, Henry Moore and many more. My favourite piece was called ‘Untitled, 1944’ by the American artist Jackson Pollock. The abstract piece reflects the post-war New York School theme and has a lot of depth, but to be honest, it was just the colours and paint strokes that caught my attention. The museum also has a beautiful garden and overlooks the Øresund (the alley of water between Denmark and Sweden). We had a lot of fun just taking in the landscape and enjoying the ‘fresh’ weather, although I think my mum and sister would prefer to describe the weather as ‘freezing.’

On Easter Monday we took a trip to Malmö in Sweden. The train ride only takes 40 minutes from Copenhagen and takes you across the Øresund bridge connecting Denmark and Sweden. With Malmö being Sweden’s third largest city, there were plenty of shops to keep us occupied. Even though Sweden has its own kroner, Danish kroner are accepted and it made purchasing a lot easier – whether that is a good thing or not, I am unsure! After exploring part of Lilla Torg (the town square with lots of cafés and restaurants) we then made our way to H&M – it was nice to visit the store in its home country. Before finishing off with more shopping, we had some coffee and cake in a lovely café which I will be going back to Malmö for – best cookie ever! It was nice to experience another Scandinavian country, and I am glad to say that I have now been.

By now you should have started to see a running theme throughout my blog. Food. I fear bikinis may be a problem this summer holiday. However, Thursday brought another opportunity to try some new cuisine and meet up with friends from our Erasmus class. Some of the class organised an International food event where all members of our class helped prepare special food from our home countries. The menu consisted of German Potato Dumplings, Swiss macaroni and cheese served with apple sauce, Roast Pork, Spanish Omelette, Belgian Chocolate Mousse and Crème Brulée. For Northern Ireland, we decided to make two things – Baileys Hot Chocolate with cream and Shortbread due to the fact that no one was very keen on trying or making Irish stew. It was really nice to taste some meals from other countries – I will definitely be trying out the recipes again. The meal was so good and I was so impressed with everyone’s cooking skills. Unfortunately mine were not so impressive. Our group managed to burn the shortbread (a lot) and, if it is possible to imagine, burn the milk for the hot chocolate. The situation is impossible to put into words, so I will describe the dilemma by saying it took Greg and I half an hour to scrape off 2 cm of black milk from the bottom of the saucepan.

Professional Development

We started our teaching placements in the ‘Folkskole’ on Wednesday. The Folkskole is the state education in Denmark for all children from 6 to 16 years. Children will go to the same Folkskole and stay in the same class for the whole 10 years before moving on to higher education or an apprenticeship. We have the opportunity of experiencing the Danish education system by visiting a school for the month of April and getting involved in the classes. We are split into groups of four people for the placement and I am with two Austrian girls (Julia and Christina) and Greg. When starting the placement this week, it was really good to have other students with me and I think this will benefit us as we move through the next month because we will be able to discuss the comparisons not only between Denmark and Northern Ireland, but also Austria.

We have been assigned to a Grade 7 and Grade 8 class, so the pupils are around 12-14 years old. We were able to get involved in a Maths class, which was very interesting for me. I really love the fact that even though the class is in Danish, Maths is internationally recognisable and all the symbols and signs are the same, so I was able to help some of the pupils who were stuck. The pupils’ English is very good, so it was nice getting to know them through general conversation. The schools are not too much of a culture shock from the schools in Northern Ireland, but one thing that has really stood out for me is the fact that the classes seem very much laid back compared to Northern Ireland. Rules appear to be a lot more relaxed, and teachers do not seem as strict. As far as classroom management is concerned, the teacher sometimes has trouble getting the children to pay attention, but the children are all respectful and I have not witnessed a child having to be disciplined yet. Everybody wants to know why there are four foreigners in school so we have been giving a number of presentations about Northern Ireland. It is so encouraging that the children are all so inquisitive and ask lots of questions, which is great!

Thursday was a great day – we were able to see a rehearsal for the school concert in the morning which was really good. The whole school takes part in the annual event, where some pupils from each will make up their own song and perform it for the community. On Thursday afternoon, we had the chance to get involved with a cookery class with Grade 7. We made Frikadeller (second day in a row – I am lucky I like them so much) and Pear tart. Even though the class had only been with us two times previous, they were very friendly and liked practicing their English with us. I was working with a pupil, Emile, who has been blind from birth. I have never worked with a blind child before, so I was a little apprehensive, especially since we were cooking, and my cooking skills are not the best. However, the class was very rewarding and I really enjoyed getting to chat with Emile. I was so impressed with his English and his polite, enthusiastic attitude. We then got to enjoy our meal round the table where I got to know the boys a little better. It was a great experience and a very insightful afternoon. I am very much excited about what next week will hold, and what I will be able to experience.