Cassie Comes Back from Denmark
Jamie welcomed Cassie back and said we had all been following her adventures through her emails. She had obviously made the most out of her experience which is the key to success and enjoyment.
Cassie started with an introduction in Danish and then an introduction to Denmark - that part, fortunately, was in English. She said Danish is the second hardest language to learn because there are few rules so it's mostly memorization and it has 3 more letters. 5.5 million live in Denmark and about 1 million of them are in Copenhagen, the capital, and it was recently declared the 'happiest country in the world'. She went to their equivalent of gr. 10, but it's a little hard to tell because they only do 3 years in HS, not 4. One class does everything all the way through which is good because they make very good friends but not so good cause you don't meet the kids in the other classes much.
The Danish Rotary Club that sponsored her really supported the exchange students but don't seem to spend as much time on community work as Clubs in Canada do. She stayed with 3 families - in the first she was the youngest, in the second, the oldest and in the third she was the only child.
Trains there are easy, cheap and regular. She used them almost exclusively and was able to book on the internet, which gave her a real freedom and meant she could go to meet friends without pestering her hosts for a drive. The Town she was in was on the south side of one of the southernmost islands and was home to about 30,000. It was only 40 minutes to Copenhagen on the express so she visited there regularly and saw the mermaid, the Tivoli at Christmas all lit up and lots of shopping.
She saw lots of the country, went to cultural institutions like museums and went to a soccer game which was exciting but the Copenhagen team lost. Here's an analogy - they're like the Leafs - lots of fans but not many wins.
She participated in a week long camp with 150 exchange students. In Denmark some start in Jan. and some in June so the newest arrivals always have contacts who have been there 6 months and can help introduce them to the new culture. She enjoyed her trips - to Barcelona and to a friend's aunt's house in Norway. She was surprised to find out she missed the snow and got her fix there. Then, for more, her host family took her to the French Alps for the winter holidays where she was introduced to downhill skiing. They also had an 18 day whirlwind trip with 65 students to 7 countries. The stayed in Berlin, Prague,Vienna, Venice, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. On her trip home she also managed a stay in London so she's seen the Capitals of Europe.
She says the trip allowed her to do so much and to learn about her capabilities, to gain confidence, to make friends and to show her that the world is really a smaller and friendlier place than she'd thought. She says she owed it to Rotary and she thanked the Club for the opportunity. She presented Joyce with a banner from the Club in Denmark.