Our exchange student - enjoying her year!

The same weekend as the Gala I had to pack up life at my second host family and move to my third and final host family. My second family had a great “Going Away Evening” for me, full of awesome food and even a few presents. It was incredibly hard to say goodbye to them, even harder than it was to say goodbye to my first family! But it wasn’t long before I was settled into my new house. They live right in Slagelse, just around the corner from the station, which is so nice! Going from having to ride the bus back and forth to Skælskør to do anything with my friends in Slagelse to being a 5 minute walk from everything was really nice! I didn’t have long to get used to it though, because I was only there for five nights before I had to pack up again because I was going to BARCELONA, SPAIN with my school class!

In their second year of high school, every Danish class gets to go on a Study Tour to another country. My class got to go to Barcelona, and I was lucky enough to get to tag along with them. We were there for 5 days, and it was an incredibly BUSY trip, but it was a great trip. We saw tons of place and did tons of things, but the best part was just getting to be with each other. Every night we hung out and went to town and just got to enjoy ourselves. It was a great chance for me to get to know everyone better, especially the girls! Some of the highlights of the trip included La Sagrada Familia, a lot of different works by Gaudi, The Olympic Stadium, some remains from the Spanish Civil War, Montserrat and lots of SUNSHINE! My personal favourite was La Sagrada Familia church, but I can’t deny that I loved getting to do lots of shopping and eating! The trip went by way too fast and it wasn’t long before we were flying back to Copenhagen Airport and saying goodbye to each other.

It was only one week before my next big adventure started! My best friend from Canada, Aaron, has been studying in England this year and his school finished in the beginning of March. One of his other best friends is on exchange in Norway, so he decided to come visit us both for a week each! We decided on this ages ago, and I’ve been looking forward to it since before Christmas! The week before he got here went by pretty slowly, but was thankfully broken up by a few projects and a fieldtrip to Copenhagen with my afterschool Danish class. While we were in Copenhagen we went to this area in the city called “Christania” It’s a very controversial area in Copenhagen and in all of Denmark. Long story short, it’s an area that was stagnant in Copenhagen for a long time and was eventually taken over by hippies, gypsies, teenagers, etc in the early 60’s. Since then, they’ve made their own community out there. They have over 1,000 residents and all the houses are self-made. It started as a sort of hippy commune, but now they have their own running water, power, schools, sports centers, etc. They also have their own group of people who oversee any questions and problems that arise within the city. They are all very against the government set up in Denmark. In Denmark, it’s a fairly Socialist government. Danes pay ridiculous taxes (some of the highest in the world) from the time they are 18 until they die. However, almost everything is taken care of for them. Everyone has 100% medical coverage, regardless of their class level. University is free, and students are actually “paid” to go to school, in that they receive money from to government to go towards their studies so that the students don’t have to be working their way through school. The amount of money they receive depends on if they’re living at home, their courseload, etc. All city facilities are 100% free all over Denmark, everything from libraries to swimming pools. The downside of this, is that the government has a HUGE role in everyones lives. It is this that the residences of Christania have a problem with, so within Christania they are self-sufficient. Residences don’t pay taxes, and most work within Christania. Along with this hippy-esque lifestyle comes the question of marijuana. Christania is also the only place in Denmark where marijuana is old out in the open on a street called Pusher Street. Sellers literally set up stands where people can see what they’re buying, talk about where it came from etc. As you can imagine, it’s quite the controversial area! The other exchange students and I had a 2 hour tour of the area by a woman who’s been there since the 60’s and still lives there today. It was so interesting, and I learned so much from it!

A few days later, my friend arrived! Having him here was awesome, and I loved getting to show him my new world. We spent a few days in Copenhagen doing the tourist sightseeing. It was funny, I actually made it to a few places that I hadn’t been to before either, so it was a learning experience for both of us! He came to school with me a few times, and we went to visit all my host families too. All and all, it was a great week! Rotary usually discourages us from having friends and family come to visit, but I think in my case it was actually really good. It gave me something to look forward to when I was sad or depressed in the “sad months” (October and November) but because I’m so busy now, I didn’t really have much time to be really sad or get depressed after he left! So it worked out really well and he fit in great with my friends and family.

The day after my friend went home, I had to pack up everything AGAIN because I spent Easter Break in PARIS! Some of the other exchange students and I had signed up for this trip a few months ago with an afterschool group for 13-15 year olds. Even though we were too old, they still let us come just to have the experience. Unlike my school trip to Barcelona, we had to drive all the way to Paris! For those of you not quite up on your European geography, it is a fair ways away from Denmark. We had to drive for 16 hours through Germany, Belgium and Holland. It was long, but we drove through the night so that helped a lot. It was a fantastic trip, but SUPER busy! We saw almost every tourist attraction that Paris has to offer, so we were up and on the road early every morning and didn’t get back until late. Although our teachers had planned a program, we also had a lot of free time to shop and try all sorts of different kinds of food! It’s another trip that I won’t ever forget. The other exchange students who came with me are the ones that I’m closest to here, so we had a few sad moments when we were talking about what our lives will look like this time next year... So hard to think about when it still feels like just yesterday that I got here!! My personal favourite moment was when the other students and teachers let us exchangers stay at the Eiffel Tower until 10pm to watch it light up. We all found a spot on the grass in front of the tower and just sat there listening to music and looking at the tower for over an hour. It was beautiful.

I think that covers the highlights of my last two months or so! I apologize again for falling out of communication, but such is the life of an exchange student! Thank you all again for everything you’ve all done for me. I’ve received a few random emails and letters here and there from some of you, and I can’t tell you how much that means to me! It’s always nice to know that someone from home is thinking of you.

Another little note, I’ll be making a presentation in the fall about my year, but if any of you want to see all the pictures from my trips and adventures, feel free to add me on Facebook under Eilee Repka. I post all my pictures there, though my friends tell me that I’m painfully slow at putting them on!

Blessings on you all this Easter season, and I’ll see you all in a few months (unbelievable!!) !!

Xoxo,

Eilee Repka