I arrived in Denmark early Thursday morning, which would be 3:30AM in the U.S. and 9:30AM in Denmark. Let’s just say, I wasn’t too perky, but definitely excited to be off of a plane and finally in Denmark. Waiting for me at the airport was one of Dr. Larison’s friends, Jakob (pronounced Yakub in Danish), he was so nervous about finding the right person even though he was the 1st person outside of the gates holding a sign that read SHANNON. He had already called Dr. Larison 3 times before I arrived. Haha! Jakob and I had coffee and then he put me on the train to Middelfart (yes, my 1st city in Denmark, how great!). When I boarded the train I was slightly worried because there was nothing written in English and all I knew was that I was going to a city where people relieved themselves. This was quite interesting but thankfully Dr. Larison had informed of how the name of the town was spelled and said in Danish so that I would hopefully arrive at the correct destination. & I did! I had to wait at the train station for about 15- 20 minutes before Dr. Larison and the rest of the American’s arrived. Then, we didn’t stop until late that evening, when I completely crashed at my host parents house.
My 1st day in Denmark was quite interesting. When I arrived at the train station Dr. Larison assumed that there would be somewhere there that I could store my luggage, because most of the time there is. Unfortunately, this was not the case in Middelfart. So, the entire day, from having lunch on the pier, touring the ceramics museum, meeting at the library and dinner back at Café Razz, my luggage was in tow. Did I mention it was really cold and raining, not sprinkling, pouring rain, the entire day? Yes , so much that much of Denmark was flooded by the torrential rain. Thankfully I have a decent suitcase that withheld the rain for the most part, only a few damp items in my suitcase. I think I just left it up to fate as my last name is Marshall and things like this do tend to happen to us.
My 1st evening here I got to meet my incredible host family. They are terrific, unfortunately because I arrived late to the program I will only have 2 nights with them. I live with Les, MJ, Jakob and Simon. They are a fantastic family that live out on a farm. Yes, a farm, who would’ve thought I would be put with the host family who has horses and sheep!?! But at least my gift for my host family was absolutely perfect, a horse platter! They simply loved it. (Thanks Katie) I was able to spend my 1st night with them, unfortunately I crashed nearly immediately after getting back and showering.
The next day was a fun experience, I saw the school that some of the other girls have been working at for a week. One group of girls was traveling to Ireland for the weekend so we did not have class Friday morning and I went with 3 girls and 2 professors to Odense, a slightly larger town nearby. We had a great time at the Odensa Zoo and Hans Christian Anderson museum. We then met the school principal who took us to the mall for some shopping and dinner. Of course, we all know I was simply thrilled! The style here in Denmark is amazing so the mall was great. However, the only things I purchased were a belt (which I had forgotten) and a winter jacket (did I mention it’s collddddd?). That night a group of us went a concert at a local high school, to see a band called Cody play. Noone knew quite what the band was like but didn’t think they were traditional Danish musicians. Turns out they were Bluegrass!! Haha! How ironic, so us Kentucky girls rocked out to some ohh so familiar Bluegrass Music. It was so much fun. That night I stayed with a different host family since so many people were out of town.
Tina is an amazing host Mom. Saturday she took a small group of us to LegoLand, because Denmark is where Leog’s were created. Thankfully, the sun finally shined on Denmark and we had a fantastic day at Lego Land. Unfortunately I do not have many pictures of any of these events because my camera was totally dead and I had left my charger at my original host parents house. Opps! But, I did buy a few post cards to remember the scenes by. After returning from Lego Land we had a fantastic dinner at Tina’s (she’s a great cook and always goes to the bakery for us!) then a girls night watching Mama Mia! It was too fun.
Today (Sunday) has been rather relaxed. I am back at my original host parent’s house, I just got here a few minutes ago. The girl I am rooming with and I are making a traditional American meal for our family tonight, meatloaf and scallop potatoes. Needless to say I sure hope she is a better cook than I am.
Tomorrow we are leaving for the Northern part of Denmark and I will not be at the same location for more than 2 nights anytime in the next week. So, who knows when I will update this again but this one is long enough to late for a while.
Note to Mom – I have eaten more bread since I’ve been here than I have in my entire life. It’s amazing! The bakeries are wonderful and I love the bread.
Be blessed and enjoy all of that heat in the States,
Brrr from Denmark!!!
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