Overwhelming happiness
Almost 3 months has passed since my first day in Denmark. I could say that I don’t know how time could have flown so fast, but this wouldn’t be the truth: this period had plenty of activities to plan and workshops to manage! So here we are again with some updates.
Some weird things happened since the last time you heard from me: I started to appreciate jazz music (kinda had to) since I took pictures at the jazz night at Kulturfabrikken – and I must confess, I enjoyed the concert! And another crazy fact is that I’m still not tired of trying in vain to cook something edible (maybe Alessandro is, but I tend to make my experiments when I know he is not home or is doing something else). The only thing that came out almost perfectly was the cake I made for my birthday (the easiest recipe I know): indeed, I turned 26 in Denmark and WOW, I got one of the warmest little parties ever :) I received lots of gifts from my coworkers, the little scooters sang me some Danish birthday songs and we shared a nice afternoon with sweets and hot chocolate with tons of whipped cream on top, and I went out for a pizza and a glass of wine with Guna and Alessandro.
Then, as you maybe remember from my first blog, I have been to Italy for the weekend to go to a concert – and, needless to say, it was one of the most insane experiences ever. I had already seen A Day To Remember back in 2017 and they absolutely smashed this time too, while it was my first time seeing Bring Me The Horizon live: I must say that these bands were the soundtrack of my teenage years and the new songs are bombs that perfectly fit my twenties, so you can guess how much this meant (and means) to me. The fact is that it’s been ten days but I still feel a hole in my body, because the audience was so crazy and full of energy that I could feel it sparkling from the bottom of my feet to the roots of my hair, and now I miss this feeling so much it hurts. I mean, my body physically was in pain since I only stayed in the mosh pit for pretty much the whole concert.
During the Winter Holidays, I’ve been helping Alessandro and Guna with two different workshops. Alessandro had a great time with kids playing mini bowling, mini football and mini basketball, where they could win some prizes, too: I loved watching their little faces while they were doing their best, they were so excited! I still struggle to understand (or even worse, write) their names at the first strike, but I’m sure I’ll get better. Guna instead mastered the “male på tøj” workshop and I was so happy to be her official helper; as always, most of the energy and the smile that I had during those days came from children. They inspired me in creating cute designs, and it was so fun to try to help them just sitting next to them and understanding what their ideas were, communicating with them through a bit of danglish and also some hand gestures :)
Now listen to this: I finally have my CPR number! Now I can do lots of different cultural things, like going to the library (I know that it’s open at night too, and for me this is like a dream) – and obviously Danish school! The citizen service also gave me free tickets for the zoo, some museums and the middle age center (where our sound technician Emil occasionally works), and I got a card to go to the swimming pool whenever I want. I’m looking forward to doing lots of activities, even if sometimes I get to weekends pretty tired and if I didn’t make plans in advance it’s harder for me to just decide to go out (sometimes I just like too much relaxing at home with a book and some music…). Oh, and I discovered so many different thrift shops so for sure I’ll go there, too!
Another fantastic news: I had the great opportunity to try some dance lessons at the Jules dance school in Nykøbing. I went to a commercial show class and to a disco dance one. They are very different, but I enjoyed them both a lot! However, since I must choose just one of them because they overlap, I think I’ll go for commercial show, which is more about interpretation of the music; indeed, for disco I would have to attend classes with an advanced group where girls train to do competitions, and since I have no basics it would be just hard and frustrating for me, even if the kind of training would be perfect for the modern dance that I’m doing in Italy. I feel truly happy of having the possibility to dance also here in Denmark: together with skateboarding it makes my heart warm :)
Speaking of warm hearts, I feel that the relationship with the skaters and the little scooters is slowly growing – and I’m really looking forward to getting to know them better and to make them trust me, even if I know that I shouldn’t be in a rush. I love how it’s going by now; I understand that they still see me a bit as a stranger, but they are somehow getting that I’m there for them, and my heart is filled with joy when I hear Bastian’s and Malte’s voice mumbling trying to remember my name, or when Louie tries to teach me easy sentences in Danish. Also, I already scolded Mikkel and Ludvig a couple of times because they keep putting the wrong accent in my name, but I always feel guilty because they are so cute to actually try to remember it, even if I tell them that just “Deb” would be so fine. I also got to know Mattias, a nice guy who apparently loves chatting about anything, and I love listening to him. The next step is to ask these big skaters if they can help me with tricks, but I’m still too shy for that… However, I keep practicing with skateboard on my own when the cafe is closed so nobody can see me struggling hahaha (and once I fell while trying to go on a ramp – but at least I learned to go off it!)
By now you know that I love dancing and in general using my body with music, and that’s why I’m thinking of a workshop 100% by me where I would like to create bonds between youngsters, through games that involve collaboration with others and trust, which I think are useful, inspiring and fun mostly for teenagers. Another event that I would really love to do again with skaters is the movie night that Marie first created, I hope we can plan that soon.
Last Friday night (yeah we danced on tabletops… ok no sorry let’s focus) I went out with Emil for a dinner in an Asian all you can eat restaurant and for some drinks after that. He was so kind to show me some of his favourite pubs in the city, it was amazing! I usually forget everything, so I made sure I saved all the places on my Mapstr profile. He also taught me some Danish culture traditions and now I’m looking forward to experience them by myself.
Aaand about the future: as I said before, in March I’m finally going to start my Danish lessons, and I feel like I really need that because I want to be able to communicate a bit better with Danish people. Also, my leader Mette told me that I’m going to attend the “arrival training” from March 20th to 24th: I’m thrilled about meeting other volunteers who are sharing the same experience as me in this wonderful country! Then, my plans for the future also include trying as many pizzerias as I can to find my favourite Margherita: for now the winner is Rosmarino down the water, but we’ll see!
- Deb
