Christmas Update!

Hello Algoa Bay

I have been given the opportunity to send you a little Christmas-note, which is wonderful. So much has happened since I left you in June and I can truly say that there has been very little spare time to think about SA! I do of course miss you all very much and my experiences in your beautiful country have marked me for life. (In a good way, obviously!) This I can clearly see from the past 5 months where I have been a terror for my family and general surroundings when I wanted to show them my 16 GB of photos! But I have not only spoken to my friends and family about South Africa, I have also been doing quite a few speeches on the topic. My Rotary Club and our Rotary Anns of course wanted to know everything about it, but also my old school and my new class mates asked me for a presentation. Recently I showed my best shots at assembly at my school, which was wonderful. I’m really advertising your countryJ

I can also tell you that my own club is going to host an exchange student this upcoming year. Her name is Riley, she’s an Aussie and she will be spending her first 4 months in Denmark with me and my family. I’m sure I will be an amazing host sister and I will try to give her as great an experience as my wonderful host families gave me!

Besides this, it is good to be back home for Christmas. I have added a picture from my old school which was closed down for a few days last year, because of snow. Thought it would be fun for you to see. So far we haven’t had any snow, but I’m still hoping for it. It will be quite different from the warm, sunny Christmas in Bluewater bay, but I will still try to make of some Lynda’s amazing mince pies..

My family and I are also planning to visit you next year in July. As soon as the World Cup is over you will be run over by another bunch of tourists, namely me and my family!

It would be great to hear a little from you all, and I really enjoyed writing this little piece for the bulletinJ

Merry Christmas everyone

Amalie

Hello Everybody!

My dear Rotarians

I sincerely apologize for not having written to you more frequently . After my return to the Danish shores I have been caught up in events, deadlines, parties, projects and a lot more! As an example I can say that I am now in possession of a brand new drivers license! To be honest, I am not sure how I passed the test, considering that my hands were shaking badly because I was so nervous. But now I am making the streets unsecure in my mom’s car, driving my sister around. (Apparently, she hates to drive?)

Beside this, I have of course started school again, which I am enjoying. My new English teacher literally think I am a godly creature, strangely enough nobody at school thinks I’m cool when I wear my white Matric Jersey. I wonder why;)

I have added a few photos to this post, the one where I am wearing a very strange tie is form my school’s sports day, where we had to dress up in a fun way on order to score enough points. Actually your class can only win if you cheat and bring chocolate for the teachers..

Anyway, I hope everybody is doing well.

Chat soon!

Love

Amalie

Being home..

Hello everybody

Even though my year is officially over I would like to keep in touch with the club, and which way could be better than doing it here on the webside? Therefore I will just like to inform you all that I did make it home in one piece, even though British Airways lost my two suitcases somewhere on the way! I have now gotten the both of them back, but there were a couple of days where I had to steal some clothes from my family. Sometimes it is really useful to be a twin.

The weather back here is wonderful, when I arrived it was 28 C, which is really warm for us. Since then we’ve had some rain and the grey, cloudy days but the temperature is superb. In 11 days from now I will be going to France with my family and some friends before school starts on the 12th of August. Maybe I can even get my Tan back! I have also started learning for my driver’s licence and so far I haven’t killed anybody, damaged myself or the car, so it must be considered a sucess!

Here I have added a picture from my welcome-home party with my family and a picture og my twin, standing in th doorway.

Love to you all!

Amalie

Ps. I can’t speak Danish anymore. Thanks a lot..

Sitting in Jo’burg

Hello everybody

Would just like to say that my first flight didn’t crash and I  m now sitting at a Café in Jo’burg International with a wonderful cup of coffee;) Thanks to everybody who were there to say goodbye to me last night, we truly had a blast of an evening!

Love

Amalie

A little Note

Hello out there!

Feeling inspired after a wonderful Rotary-evening last night at Lake Farm to write a little note regarding my arrival in SA just about 10 months ago! As it was said on the meeting yesterday afternoon I have unfortunately only got 47 (now 46 and counting!) days left in this amazing country before I am to be deported back to DK to what will probably be the coolest and most rainy summer in more than 30 years. (How can this possible be a cause of global warming, I’m just asking?) Anyway, this means that I will soon have to get going with this planned description of my exchange year so without futher delay here it comes:

The 16th og July 2008 I arrived in PE airport after what was approximately 24 hours without sleep and/or proper food and coffee! As seen in this photo, which was taken in Gianna Doubell’s house shortly after my first experience with South African Coffee Shops (again with Gianna), I was pretty tired! Also bearing in mind that I missed my connecting flight in Jo’burg early that morning and the wonderful welcome-committee had to delay their observation of my grand arrival, my personal well-being had been greater. But this would of course change very quickly as soon as I was greeted and welcomed by my first host parents Lindsay & Noelle Pearson, whom I soon learned were in positions of authority, AKA being presidents of respectively the Algoa Bay Rotary Club and the Algoa Bay Rotary Anns. I had landed in the the club’s epicenter! I already at that stage expected a very special year.

The next chapter of this exiting story will of course follow very soon. (Hopefully) I believe the best way to do it would be to outline what I have been doing from month to month, as I’m sure too many details are of less than zero interest to anybody. Therefore: Look out here in my Bulletin for the next post! And I will of course do my best to find best/funniest/most embarrasing photos from this year, as I’m tired of looking at pictures where people desperatly are trying to look ‘their best”. (Their best apparently being very big, fake smiles?:P) Natural pictures are much more fun.

BONUS FEATURE:

FIVE-MIN. COURSE IN DANISH

Hello/Goodday: Goddag (said in two parts: Goo-d-Dag)

How Are You?: Hvordan har du det? (directly translated more like: how are you feeling/how is it?) (hvor-daan haar due deeh?)

I am fine, Thank you: Jeg har det fint, mange tak (Jaej haar deeh fint, maang-eh tak) (”tak” being the Danish word for ‘Thanks” and “mange” equivalent to the Afrikaans “miir”)

Is it raining today?: Regner det i dag? (Danes like to talk about the weather!) (rej-nehr deeh ih dag)

Are you going to the Rotary Meeting tomorrow?: Tager du til Rotary-moedet i morgen? (Tag-ehr due til Rotary-mo-e-deht i mor-eehn?)

The lunch is delicious!: Frokosten er delikat! (Frook-os-ten err de-li-cat <–Pressure on the first part of the words here!)

Goodby, have a nice day: Farvel, hav en god dag (Far-well, haa en goo-d dag)

If anybody is interested in having a specific sentence translated (primarily to impress somebody?) feel free to write in here or ask me at the next meeting.

Thanks to everybody who took the time to read this far! It is truly appreciated

Love

Amalie

Welcome

Hello Everybody!

Welcome to my bulletin here on the club’s wonderful, new website. I am not actually sure what I am supposed to write in here, even though I have been shown the great honour of being given a login and my own category on the menu! I take this as a permission to write exactly what I like and upload embarrassing pictures of everybody, which hopefully will be a source of entertainment even after I am back home in the cold rain and snow.

But first I would like to take the opportunity to sincerely tell you all how much I appreciate everything each member of the club has done for me and for the wonderful opportunity you have given me by just allowing me to spend a year in this wonderful country. Even though it will soon be coming to an end and I would have liked to be able to post various notes, descriptions and maybe even sort of clever thoughts and observations on the website all through the year, I will try to use my hotspot here to tell you about my experiences in the past 9 months. I feel the time has been far too short and especially in a club with 72 members (and growing) it is hard to get to know everybody, even though the opportunities from your side have been overwhelming! Again thank you for that.

So the punch line of the paragraph above is that I, to the degree that time allows it, will write a little about what I have done each month since I arrived very tired and confused in PE till now.

Lots of love and a good weekend to you all!

Amalie

Amalie

Fun Times