Denmark >< America

Foreign exchange student:

Name: Anna Cecilie Jensen

Age: 18 years

Country: Denmark

Languages: Danish, Swedish, little German and English

Grade: 12th

First impressions:
My organization organized that we were 50 students from Germany, France, Norway and Denmark that was meeting in New York. In 4 days they took us from New York to Washington D.C, before we were going to our new homes. Everything was new and very different from Denmark. All the tall buildings, yellow taxies, all the people and chaos on the street.



----> All the exchange students

Fennville High School: I thought it would be very difficult as exchange student to go to a new country and only be able to talk english. But everybody has been very nice and helpful, so I have enjoyed every single moment. The school system is a little bit more strict than in Denmark, we don't have a dress code, we don't need a pass to use the bathroom and we don't turn in all homework. But it's fun to see a new culture and learn new things, so I'm looking forward to the year here in Fennville.

Differences:

People here are doing a lot more sports then we do in Denmark, we don't have sports teams on the school, and people do not support the teams as much as here. I had never seen a football game, when I came, I now I'm going to miss it.

It's going to be exciting when the snow is falling here. If we are lucky we get maximum 1 foot in Denmark every 5th year. So this is going to be a real winter.

Our landscape is not as variable as here, Denmark is very flat, and we have no mountains. We have only 5.000.000 people in Denmark, and our country's geographic size could fit into some states of the U.S.

Some laws are very different, here you can drive at 16 and drink at 21. In Denmark you can drink at 16 and drive at 18. It maybe sounds weird, that we learn to drink before driving, but so far there has never been a big problem with drunk driving in Denmark.

Fastfood is not as popular in Denmark either, we have McDonalds, and some people eat there often, but normally the parents cook food at home.

Two things you as American probably wouldn't be without: Peanutbutter and donuts. This was totally new to me when I arrived. In Denmark black licorice is very popular, but here it is way down on the got to have list.

Danish Traditions:

Instead of Halloween, that we don't celebrate, we do something like that holiday in February called "Fastelavn". The children dress up and go from house to house and sing a little song, to get candy or money.

In spring it's time for easter. I think most of the easter traditions are the same. But we also send small letters, in which we cut a little design and write a poem. Instead of writting our name, we put spots instead. As many spots as letters in the name.. Now the person that gets the poem has to guess who the letter is from. If not then the owner gets a chocolate egg!

In June we celebrate "Midsummer". It's an old tradition, a lot of people go to the beach, where we make a big bonfire, and burn a witch made of corn stalks. Then we sing songs and have fireworks. Normally the students that just graduated burn all their notes on the bonfire, as a final of the last three (hardworking) years in High School.

COOL!

From: www.arla.dk

From: www.arla.dk

From: www.dmi.dk

On December 13th it's time for "Santa Lucia". Here some girls dress up in long white dresses, turn off all lights in the house, and walk around with a candle and sing the "Lucia" song.

Christmas is celebrated on the 24th instead of the 25th. In Sweden you get the presents in the afternoon and eat afterwards. In Denmark we eat first and then get the presents around midnight. We dance around the christmas tree and sing songs before the presents can be opened.

New year is on December 31st, is the last and very big holiday. We dress up for a party, friends meet and eat together. Then we sing songs, play new year games and be social before we step on a chair, ready to jump into the new year. At 12am we get Champagne and a cake called 'kransekage'. Now we are ready to go out and have a lot of fireworks.

From: www.captnswing.net

From: www.hotelprindsen.dk

From: www.historie-online.dk

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