A Trip to Aarhus

It's 5.41 A.M. and I cannot sleep. I woke up at 3 A.M. and since then I haven't fallen asleep. Therefore, I decided to brush up my blog a little bit, although I've got a feeling that few people are interested in reading it and viewing pictures.
On Tuesday our group of 11 people (me, Vojta, Katka, Viki, Mery, Caroline, Siv Hege, Kari, Ania and her boyfriend and Zeliha) went on a trip to Aarhus, the 2nd largest city of Denmark. We expected a lot but I was a bit disappointed. The weather wasn't very nice and both the Ancient Museum and the Organic Garden we wanted to visit were closed. Also the train and bus tickets were very expensive, there was a long queue at the ticket office and besides the train had a 45-minute-delay. I thought that just Czech trains are delayed constantly. Moreover, we got on a wrong train as there are no signs and you cannot recognize where the train is going and you always have to ask somebody to be 100 % sure.
We bought some pizza in Aarhus and I got sick later so I wonder if it was because of the pizza. I think so..:-(
However, I was glad that we've seen something new. It wasn't a bad day at all, we had fun and hygelige time in one of the Cafés in Aarhus.

A Trip to Legoland

On Saturday 27th March we went to Billund, the town of Legoland. It was the first opening day of the season and therefore tickets' were really cheap (110 DKK). We tried all attractions and had a wonderful time. We arrived home at 20.10, ordered pizza, bught some Chinese food, drank bier and had hyggelige time.:-)

Week 12

Music on Monday was great as usual. We listened to a classical song and then we were supposed to act and say what we think the music says. It was a great activity which could be easily used in classes. We also sang "Singing All Together", which is probably the anthem of this Erasmus Stay. I was playing the piano and other students were singing and it was really a wonderful feeling. I continued playing at home, too. We are so lucky that we have a piano at home!

The last lesson of Special Needs was interesting, too. Bodil was talking about dyslexia and then we presented our presentations about special education. All those presentations were carefully prepared and therefore not boring. Sometimes presentations are really bothering, too long, there are no pictures, videos and so on. But in this class all the presentations were very interesting. I specially liked the Polish one.

On Wednesday we had the last lesson of Globalisation and Citizenship and then we went shopping to get the ingredients necessary for cooking lesson on Thursday.

Cooking on Thursday was really funny and the result was simply delicious. We had potatoe-and-leek soup, lasagne stuffed with vegetables, salad with beet root, carrot, apple and onion and apple cake. And we also tried Røgrød med fløde(I had to google the name:)), which are all red berries you find with cream. Really delicious. I`m really looking forward to trying some recipies at home!

The only stupid thing was that some Danish students didn`t feel like talking in English. But at least some of them did.

On Thursday, me, Ania and Loes were also interviewed by a journalist about how we like the stay here, why we chose Denmark, what is different and surprising and so on. He also took some photos of us so maybe we`ll be on the cover of a magazine.:))

Week 11: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday

Wednesday was probably the most important day of the week. We all gathered in the assembly hall, Jette and another teacher said a few words about internalisation and globalisation and then we divided into groups and each group was supposed to produce something.

Me and Katka were in the group that dealt with English Teaching. We were talking about stereotypes and prejudices and how to include international issues in language teaching. It was quite nice lesson but I was really disappointed because people in my group kept talking nearly all the time, although it was supposed to be an English lesson.:( And its really a stupid feeling when you are the only one who does not understand the language and cannot participate.

In the afternoon we presented our products from those workshops and also introduced our universities to other students. Some people were really surprised how big, modern and nice our university is. That`s probably because of the fact that some people still think that the Czech Republic is somewhere between Russia and Ukraine.:))

On Thursday we were supposed to have P. E., but Jacob was ill and we had literature with Pascal instead. It was quite nice, we were talking about books for children, how you can use them in your lessons and we were talking about some books which encourage internalisation.

Then we went to Ribe - we visited the Viking Museum and did a sightseeingtour in the town. It was great. We also bought some delicious pastry and I must say that the Danes are really good at baking.

In the evening at Student Cafe there was Eurovision Song Contest. Every country prepared a special song and some dancing, there were 3 judges and just one winner - Belgian Girls. But I helped them win because in the course of their dance they asked me to joing them.:) Our Czech group prepared a Czech-English song. We used a folk song for children and translated it into English and then Katka sang in Czech and Vojta in English. But we were so nervous before our performance. I don`t want to be a professional singer anymore, because it`s so stressful.

Friday was the day of saing goodbye to International Students. We had music in the morning and practised "Let It Be" , the other group finished their pocket films. Then we performed the song and then watched those films. They were all great and very funny. After films there was a Danish buffet - so many wonderful dishes - fish, pork, vegetables, pate... But buffet is quite dangerous to your health because you want to taste everything and then you are really stuffed.

But I find out that food is an international topic, because I talked about food with international students and you can talk food for hours and it is still pretty interesting.

Then we had to say goodbye and it was really very sad.:( We met a few international students in the evening in Cafe, but most of them had already left. Saing goodbye is always the worst part.

Week 11: International Week: Monday and Tuesday

I think that the only problem of the International Week was the fact that it was too short. Otherwise, we all enjoyd the programme thoroughly.

On Monday we were getting to know each other - we drew a picture of our nationality and then drew a picture of another nation. It was a great activity and I think we all did our best and the pictures were great and all the importang characterictics were included in them.:)
I also liked dancing lesson with Pia Paustian. It was really funny and all those dances were great. The only problem came when she decided to teach us a Danish song - Danish is just impossible to pronounce, at least for me.

On Tuesday we "learned" how to prepare sandwidches and Karen, our teacher, told us about the tradition of coffe table. It means that you prepare many different sweets, make strong black coffee, invite your friends and then eat and eat until you think you are gonna dien. Then you make a short break and then go on eating. Great tradition, I wanna try it once.:)

Then we had music with Annette, which is quite a nice teacher, but maybe too kind and she lets students do whatever they want. I`m used to teachers who are the only authority in the classroom and they organize activities and so on. It was quite different Annette - she had some ideas in mind but we also did our own activities - we were trying to learn a Spanish song, a Belgian one, a French one and many others.

But the best part came in the evening. Each nation prepared some specialities typical of their country. Then we put it on the tables in the canteen and ate it all. It was so delicious. So many different tastes. We couldn`t move in the end.

Visit to Favrdalskolen

On Wednesday 11th we visited Favrdalskolen together with Bodil, our Special Needs teacher. At first we had some difficulties with geting up and finding the right building but we made it in the end:-)
The school consists of many huge buildings and it reminded me of a maze. I wonder how pupils can find their way there.:-)
We were guided by the headmaster himself, who was very nice, friendly and informal. In the Czech Republic headmasters are usually very formal and they also wear suits.

The school was nicely decorated with pictures, paintings and drawings. All teachers we met were very nice and most of them were really young.
We were lucky to see an excerpt from a children's performance and we also saw2 blind children (a girl and a boy) being engaged into normal classes.
We also visited a class taught by an English native speaker named Tim. He told us that he usually teaches one class for all day and next day they have another teacher.
Tim showed us what he did with children. It was a magical calculator - 7 sticks covered with numbers that enable you to multiply. Incredible.
The school is very modern, though built about 25 years ago. There are many computer labs, a library, a big gym and a theatre hall. They have special classrooms for cooking lessons and for woodcrafting, too.
To sum up: The atmosphere in the school was really relaxed and we all liked it a lot. One visit to a school is 10 times better than one day spent at university.

The last Danish Lesson - the best Danish Lesson.:-)

I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed the last Danish lesson as it wasn't based on speaking but on creating a poster with traditional recipes. Me and Katka worked in group with Viki and we created a Goulash poster as goulash is popular both in Hungary and the Czech Republic.
This activity was really great but a bit time-consuming. Each group created the poster in its own style and therefore each poster is very creative and original.
The Danish teacher was very nice and friendly, though a bit confused as she thought that we had one more Danish lesson next week.
In the evening there was Czech-Polish-Norwegian night in Student's Cafe. We prepared traditional Czech refreshment called "Jednohubky", one version with cheese and garlic spread, one with fish and onion spread and all people liked it. Norwegian girls baked great waffles and Polish girls had 2 funny games (eating apples in pairs without using hands) and feeding a person, while the feeding person is blindfolded. We all enjoyed it a lot.

Tuesday 9th, the best day

On Tuesday 9th we had a wonderful physical education class. I think that we all thoroughly enjoyed it as Jakob is probably the best teacher we've had here so far. We played a great number of enjoyable games from different countries. We also sang some national songs and everything was great. After P.E. we had a break for lunch and then Special Needs with Bodil. Although we didn't learn much new in this lesson, I quite liked it as Bodil is a nice teacher and she allowed us to discuss the key points she talked about.
After school we prepared a wonderful lunch - tortillas stuffed with meat and Mexican beans with sunnyside-up eggs and Chinese leaves. Without a doubt, Katka is the best cook in Denmark!
You can see the picture of our lunch and of me typing posts for my webblog.

A New Month - A New Hair Cut

As Czech People are very economical, we decided not to pay 150 DKK for a visit at a hairdresser's and cut our hair themselves. Jesper cut my hair and Katka cut Vojta's. You can view a few pictures and judge how successful we were.:-)

Walking through Haderslev with Vojta and Katka

Week 8 and 9 in Denmark

On Friday 26th there was a costume party at school and I thoroughly enjoyed it! It was a bit complicated to get a costume here but finally I made it and disguised as a devil. We danced until the dawn and I went to bed at 3 A.M.
We had a rest at the weekend and I visited Belgian girls in their residence and I had a delicious dinner there.
In Week Nr. 9 we didn't have any special subjects. We were really disappointed by the optional English lesson as it was not focused on conversation, grammar or vocabulary, as we had expected, but on analysing a poem. Therefore, we decided not to attend this course any more.
Moreover, we had Special Needs but we didn't learn anything new in this lesson.
On Thursday we day a delicious lunch in the canteen. What's more, it was for free! Great.