 Louise Keogh who is Mathilde's current host mother introduced Mathilde and her presentation. Mathilde, depite her nervousness, gave an excellent and interesting presentation about her home in Denmark and what she's been up to so far since her arrival in Warrnambool.Mathilde is 16 years old and her birthday is on 24 October. Her family lives in Denmark, Nyborg. She attended a boarding school last year, and before that went to the Royal Ballet School in Odense for 6 years. Mathilde has lots of hobbies, but dancing and spending time with her family and friends is her absolute favourite hobby. Mathilde has danced for 7 years doing ballet and contemporary.
Mathilde's home in Nyborg is famous for being an old city for kings and royal people; its beaches and small restaurants; and the Nyborg slot, a famous castle. The population in Nyborg is 17,000 and Mathilde has lived there for 6 years and stated that the schools are good.
Mathilde's sister Camilla is 19 years old and just started her gap year after finishing sixth form of college in Nyborg. Her mother works as a Senior Manager at Lundbeck A/S in a department doing clinical research, and her father is an automation engineer at ABB A/S.
Mathilde talked about the differences between Australian schools and Danish Schools. The school system in Denmark is from year 0 until year 9 (mandatory); Gymnasiet (not mandatory) but a requirement for university, people aren't called Miss, Mrs, Mr, and there are no school uniforms. Oure Boarding School has 600 students who all specialise in sport and performance (dance, acting, football, biking, skiing, golf and music). They live in houses with 16 other people, both boys and girls. A normal day at Oure Boarding School: 5 periods a day (one period 50 minutes); dance every day (1 hour and 30 minutes); get up at 7:00 am; breakfast 7:15 am; school; lunch at 11:00 am; dance and back to school; dinner 6:45 pm; bedtime 10:30 pm.
Since arriving in Australia Mathilde has visited Tower Hill, Port Fairy and Flagstaff Hill. She has already made friends at school.
She is really excited about:
Learning to surf in the summer holidays
Leaning about the Australian culture and new experiences in the Warrnambool community
Her year abroad in Australia and hoping to get to know each Rotarian individually.
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