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July 5, 2010
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Well, I guess we're all just
yesterday's news, seeing as there is already a whole new group
of exchange students ready to take our place.
I have one month left to go and I feel strange. Part of me
really wants to go home and show everyone how much I've changed
but part of me wants to stay here forever. It's like I want the
days to go faster but not move at the same time, even though I
know neither will really happen.
These days though have been amazing, with EuroTour and all
these goodbye parties. I feel like I've really done something! I
can't even recognize the kid that was me, aimlessly
wandering through the airport, nor any of my friends, here or back
in Florida. I don't even know my friends back home anymore.
Sometimes I even wonder if I ever really knew them, or if they
were just dreams. Dreams of a silly Dane who thought he was from
Florida. I know that's what this tear felt like in the beginning:
one big dream. I think coming home is going to be more confusing,
and definitely more akward, than it was coming here.
But wow, have I changed! Not just by looks but by habits, too.
There are some foods here I am not going to be able to live
without that I would not even have imagined of eating back home!
Everything, even my English (well, especially my English), has
changed. I honestly think I am going to melt when I get back home,
I find it warm here now! I still have my passport, though. That's
the only thing I have to prove (and remind me) that I am from
Florida.
Don't get me wrong, I still do a lot of "wierd" things in
Denmark. I still like peanut butter! But I also like "rugbrød"
now, and I can actually pronounce, "Rød Grød med Fløde"! I guess I
don't belong to any side anymore.
I can say though that I was used to being split between
cultures. My parents are from Colombia, so I had the same deal
everyday that I have now (I understand now why Al said
multi-ethnic exchange students could understand this a little
better). It's just that I lived like that since I was born, but
now suddenly, I became split between three cultures. I guess I
have no excuse to be bored now!
Man, Rotary has changed my life so much though I can't even fit
it all here. I don't even think they realize how big of a change
it's been! But then again, that's how this experience is;
you might not understand things now and you might not know what
will happen, but you just have to jump in and see. You won't
regret it, I swear!
Jeg elsker Rotary og at
være udvekslingsstudent!!!
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April 3, 2010
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March has been great! Snow's finally totally gone and I can
actually bike and go outside without a gigantic jacket. I've just
moved to my fourth and final family and their house is HUGE. It's a
farm-ish kinda house and there a lot of places to bike and walk in
the nearby forest. They have two ponies (I'm going to see if I can
ride one :P ) and two dogs! My parents (and the Rotary club
here) are still a little worried about the dogs because of that
cat-allergy incident I had with my second host family. I don't
feel anything really but the occasional sniffles so it's all good!
We had to present the musical we've been working on since
September. It went really well! After I told them I wasn't from here
many said that they couldn't tell! Practicing for the musical helped
me so much with speaking more fluently and naturally. We had an
after-party afterwards and had fun with the directors too! I love
how things are so friendly in Denmark! I truely believe
that everyone can learn a thing or two from foreign countries!
I'm going to have to present my Rotary powerpoint soon so I'm
finshing it up. It's coming out quite nicely if I do say so myself
:D. It's going to be in Danish, of course, but oddly enough, with
the amount of English and Spanish I've forgotten and the Danish I've
learned, I think Danish is my best language now O.o. Oh well, that
should probably change when I come back but I don't want this
exchange to end! THANK YOU ROTARY! For everything!
Their production of "Grease"
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March 21, 2010
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SEE DAVID'S RECENT
PICTURES
Just got
back from London... yup, London! It was nice to go to a place that
actually has temperatures over freezing point. I could finally use my
normal shoes again! Well, not anymore, I'm in Denmark again but it's
getting a little warmer now that winter pretty much over. I got to go
sightseeing, walk around downtown, see Queen the musical, and see
Buckingham palace and the Queen's park (yeah, she has her own park).
We also got to see Hamley's, which was the world's largest toy store
(7 levels) and is celebrating its 250th anniversary.
Now is apparently the best time to make snowballs because there's
still snow but it'll actually stick together now. I had fun with that.
We got a new exchange student from Argentina! She can't speak Danish,
of course, so she has to speak in English to everyone. Kinda reminds
me of me when I first got here. She's really nice and I get to finally
peak Spanish again! I have this urge to try and help her with
everything like the Australian exchange students helped me. I see the
cycle now, how the student becomes the teacher but then must go away
to make room for a new student!
Since my host sisters are little they get to celebrate Fastelavn,
where they dress up and eat and then break a piñata that look like a
barrel. It's a celebration for the end of Winter and the start of
Spring. They also told me that they hit the barrel because long ago
they used to put a cat in the barrel and hit the barrel to kill the
cat, which was though to be evil.
I also got asked a load of questions at my host sister's English
class. They spoke Danish and I responded in English because they need
to practice. They asked about everything from where I lived to my
favorite color.
Yeah, so so far February's going great! |
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January 5, 2010
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SEE DAVIDS
RECENT PICTURES
Wow, I finally have gotten to
see snow! It was great... "was" is the key word. Now
snow's just cold... But I still love it here.
I've been
switching quite a bit this month. From my first host family to
my supposed second and then back again because I was apparently
horribly allergic to cats :(... I seemed to have developed that
here. Oh well, if that's all I had to pay to get here (other
than the $4000 :P) it was well worth it! I feel so attached to
everyone here and I understand just about everything now! (Jokes
are actually funny now! :D). I can hardly remember what Florida
was actually like. I can still answer the occasional
questions about it but it seems more now like I'm talking about
some foreign kid I don't know from some strange country everyone
knows (and wants to go to, by the way).
Christmas was
really fun. We sang and danced around the Christmas tree (yes, I
felt weird), ate an amazing dinner, and opened presents right
after! No waiting until the 25Th for us :D (Well, actually
Hispanics usually don't do that either). New Years was just as
fun. I got to show everyone my violin skills :P and played an
old Danish champagne song called champagnegaloppen.
I tried to ready
myself for the inevitable nostalgia I was going to feel, which I
actually didn't feel on Christmas. It was just before and after
that were the problems. Before because one thing I kinda forgot
to ready for was a little thing called "Novena", which
is like a long party nine days before Christmas, my family does.
When they told me it started and I heard about all the fun, I
just stared into the computer screen lost in thought. New Years
had 2 seconds of nostalgia in it as well as my host family tried
our family tradition of holding a dollar bill and chugging 12
grapes at 12:00 a.m.
I swear I had a
good time though!
I really want to
show everyone at home how much I've changed and grown and
learned, but I'm seeing more and more that things aren't going
to be the same. I'm seeing less similarities between me and my
old friends (not to mention most Americans) and I still have
many things that separates me from the Danes... I'm not sure but
I think I condemned myself to living between two countries when
I signed up for this. Oops... :P
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November 11, 2009
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I LOVE THE FACT THAT I CAN ACTUALLY SEE FALL!!!
My time with my last host family has been great. When I had to change
families, it felt like I was leaving my real family behind all over
again. This time, at least, I can still visit and am not thousands of
miles away.
My new host family though is great. The live in a suburbian area so I
feel less lost here.They eat cereal and and have that whole surburb
family feel to them. I really have no more hugely obvious culture
shocks anymore but everyday comes with its little "Note-To-Self".
My Danish is going great! i can communicate almost 24/7 with only the
occasional stumble or mispronounced word. I can even ask questions now
in Danish about Danish (although many people still prefer to answer
these questions in English). it sometimes hard to speak danish since
everyone here speaks perfect English.
I'm going to be very sad when I have to go but I'm coming back every
chance i get! Things are just so hyggeligt (That's Danish for...well
actually it doesn't translate to English exactly but it's kinda like
cozy and that "hanging out with your friends" kind of feeling.
Vi ses næste gange!
(See you next time!)
-David Ocampo |
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September 9, 2009
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I have been so busy! All my time so far has been
divided between school, Rotary, and the host family. But I think I get
why, without it you sit with nothing to do. Now that vacation feeling
is over and all that Rotary get together stuff is done, you really
feel like every one is knowing things you don't, seeing things you
don't, and laughing at things that, at least when translated, doesn't
seem funny at all.
Even here, where many people speak English and mostly well, people
will speak to you for a second or two (probably because they feel
sorry for you and/or awkward with you just standing there) and go back
to speaking with everyone else. One of my friends here said that for
him it's just too hard to speak with me as much as he would anyone
else, but with another, who has lived in the U.S for 11 years, seems
to veer off to other people, although she speaks to me a lot more than
others. They seem like they want to be nice and they joke around in
English all they can but it seems difficult or forced or something,
but definitely NOT natural.
It's very helpful but still I can't but want some break, which luckily
I more or less have because my host parents speak English very well.
Even then ,there seem to be new undiscovered differences in living
that would have not been noticed if you just visited. Vacation life is
becoming actual living, but so is the life of a Rotary exchange
student. :)
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August 22,
2009
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Ok so I missed 2 weeks because of
visa problems, but this was sooo worth the anxiety! I feel "caught-up"
already! I feel so connected to people here now. Where before I had to
ask questions for the simplest of things, like using a toilet (the
button is on top and they're 2 different flushes!), now I can do as if
I lived here my entire life. Walking downtown is still a little wobbly
because although there are fewer cars then what I'm used to, these
cars will NOT stop for you (I learned that the hard way :P ).
When I arrived I didn't what to look for. I looked so ackward. While
everyone seemed to look like they knew where they were going to,
walking in straight lines. The lightheadedness and the confused
cicrular walking made me look more like a seasick passenger on a
rocking boat! I knew what they looked like, more or less, but I was
just so confused for some reason. Their sign helped so much! A "David"
sign and a Danish flag led me down to them just fine.
I didn't know whether to speak English or try at mumbling Danish. They
spoke English after I gave them a blank stare when they tryed Danish.
The drive home was a bit ackward so we just drowned it in laugh after
laugh. Thye showed me everything that came to mind or that I asked.
Some of the questions confused them and then I had to go and explain
how going to things would normally run in Florida. It felt cool! I'm
starting to see differences more strongly now that the travel
excitement is wearing off but I'm also starting to see my state and
country differently (or should I say more closely). Now that many
things are different, you're almost forced to see every in detail, for
better or worse.
My friends here speak English to me, but I'm starting to speak Danish
with my host family a lot more. I need to try and speak with my
friends but it seems so much easier to understand adults speaking.
Some people can't speak English so well, so speaking can get tricky.
With just about everyone, whether they speak English or not, some
words that would completly normal in South Florida make people give me
puzzled stares here. I feel my way of speaking changing along with my
vocabulary.
School's great! Students smoke right outside the school which was a
bit shocking to me at first, but everyone is very nice. If you can't
(or don't want to) stand smoke they'll be fine with it and not hold it
against you. School is so much more relaxed here. Sometimes I get
hurried because I'm late to a class and people just walk like
nothing's happened; half the time the classroom is not even open!
People are allowed to drink in class and most teachers don't seem to
mind that you don't listen. People take out their cell phones and
laptops and do whatever but most still listen.
Sometimes I wish we could adopt some of Denmark's policies or
behaviors and some Danes say they wish some things could be more like
Florida or the U.S in general. I now think it hasn't happened and
might not work simply because different in culture. People are not
used to those things and most will not be willing to change. Even
though our cultures are so different, I see the people much alike. I
already knew this before I came here but I guess I never really
belived it. I've never seen something so different yet so alike
before.
I'm going to like it here... :) |
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