Blog #8 Getting busy

Hej everyone,

The sun is shining bright and so much has happened the last few weeks. It feels like time is going by faster and faster so let me tell you about everything I’ve been up to. 

Right after we postet our last blog we had Vincent Wood playing a concert at Kulturfabrikken. Sadly there weren’t that many people but it was still really nice. Louie and his friend did a DJ set to open the evening, which was fire. Our friend Paula, who is also a German volunteer here in Denmark, came for the last part of the evening and stayed the whole weekend. We know her from the Training Seminars so it was great to see her again. We went to a cafe and shopping in the second hand stores together. We also decided to make a little craft day and go to Kulturfabrikken to work on some fun projects. Paula and I were sewing and Hanna was crocheting a top for summer. The whole weekend was lovely. The next week it was time for the big Democracy Festival. There were many different organisations and people offering a whole day program with workshops, talks, and information about democracy for youngsters. We were helping Louie with his stencil workshop where people could come to create their own stencils and spray paint symbols or slogans onto a wall. I also found some time to create stencils myself which I really loved. It was inspiring to see the wall slowly fill up with more and more colourful motifs and in the end we had a super cool communal art piece. It was a really long exhausting work day but still enjoyable.

On the Friday after the festival I got on the train in the afternoon to drive through the night and be home in the morning. I didn’t tell my Mom I was coming home to Germany so you can imagine her face when I just walked through the door at 8 am on Saturday. She was very surprised but so happy to see me. I stayed for a week and was incredibly thankful to see all my friends and my family. On the day I arrived I already had many plans. Two of my friends had just gotten back from New Zealand and organised a barbecue with the friend group. We had so much to tell each other and the sun was shining the whole day, so we could just sit in the garden. Later that evening Emil and I went to a concert I had gifted him tickets to for Christmas. The band that played is called Buntspecht and we both really like their music. It was fantastic to see them live and we had the best night. Another thing I really loved being home was getting to meet with my climbing group again. I missed them a lot so it was perfect that I could finally go to train at my local bouldering gym with them again. Everyday was filled with meeting friends, being with family, enjoying the sun or going out to bars and parties. It was a lot but I really needed it. On the drive home I was a bit said to leave all my people behind again but I was looking forward to my last four months in Denmark and more sunny days. I got back to work, preparing for my Chalkbag Workshop and the summer events at Kulturfabrikken. Mette invited us for dinner at her place. We ate amazing sushi and got to see her beautiful house and garden with blooming trees. It really made me happy and excited for a danish summer. On Friday August had his school Gala, so we went to see him arrive in a pretty red car and walk the carpet in his suit. It was really funny somehow to see these Danish traditions. I’m curious about the rest of the graduation rituals they will do here.

Then last week it was Kristihimmelfartsdag and Hanna and I took the Friday after off to have a long weekend. We went to GNIST Festival, an art and music festival organised by young people for young people. Our colleague Ingrid’s daughter is one of the organisers and when she was looking for volunteers to come and help we couldn’t say “no”. We helped set up on Thursday, worked a shift on Friday and had the rest of the weekend to enjoy everything else going on at GNIST. We saw great young musicians and cool art pieces. Everyone was camping, which was so fun even though the nights got quite could. But the whole vibe and community at the festival was wonderful. I met so many kind people and it inspired me a whole lot to see everyone come together to create that experience, laugh and dance.

I am sure there will be much more of that in the following months!

Vi ses!

Lily