The Underdogs

First week down.  I've now been in the Northern Jutland of Denmark for a little more than a week.  I've had all of my classes at least once, I know everyones name, and I'm settling into the routine.  The names were significantly easier this round because there were only 17...not 140.  I suppose you want to know how things went.  It is certainly different.  As you may know the school has had a tough time staying open due to finances and enrollment for the past few years.  With this issue I've discovered that the students don't have access to an abundance of modern textbooks.  Some of the teachers have told me that instead of handing out these outdated books to kids to suffer through, they look through them and find a suitable topic to cover and use the internet to find modern info and just use the textbook as a teachers book for resources and guidance.  I've learned that many of the classes follow this "discussion" style rather simply reading.  I love that idea, as important as it is to learn how to read a textbook and understand the vocabulary from various subjects, a daily discussion would certainly give students the opportunity to think for themselves.  Problem is, I don't speak enough danish (in the danish language you don't capitalize the name of language) to hold a meaningful, educational discussion with them.  So that idea is out the window.  I've looked at the textbooks now to give me ideas, but that is the newest challenge.

On Friday we headed to Viborg to see an book-making museum.  It was actually very informational even for those of us that had to infer a lot from the surrounding machinery and the pointing of the guide.  They had all of us write our name on a card and a little old man behind a Linotype typesetting machine from the mid 1900s cast all of our names out of molten lead and handed us a die with our name on it.  Then we took our name dies over to an old printing machine that rolled ink onto our die and printed it on some napkins. Pretty cool actually. Click here to see some pictures of the machinery, no those aren't my kids.

Then we headed over to Viborg Domkirke, a danish cathedral that has seen a lot of trials in its life time, it was even used as a grain silo in the 1800s.  But in the early 1900s it was restored and repainted inside and today it is one of the most well preserved churches I've seen.  The guide did a wonderful job talking the students through pretty much the entire Bible worth of murals on the walls and ceiling.  I thought the church was a great meeting of old and new, what do you think?

Then we finally headed down to Vejlefjord to play some football.  The weekend was a tournament for 6-9th graders and our school for being so tiny, didn't do too bad (hence the title). It was great to see friends again, even saw some people that I didn't see last time.  While I was catching up with the American's about how awesome the most recent Seahawks game was, they started mentioning how spectacular the Super Bowl party was going to be, and how there was even going to be yet another friend from Walla Walla who's been traveling around Europe.  I started wishing and hoping that I could figure out a way to make it back down next weekend for the game.  Normally it wouldn't be a problem, what I do on weekends is my business, but the unfortunate thing is this: the games are streamed live so they start in the middle of the night over here. And I'm supposed to be in a classroom Monday morning three hours away...not too promising.  So when we got back home yesterday I talked to my host and principal and told her the significance of the game for me and she said, "Well what is your schedule like on Monday?" So I'll be blessed to get to go back to VFS for the third weekend in a row since arriving in Denmark for the Super Bowl.  Awesome :)

Today we had a snow day so I was able to enjoy a day of sleeping in after a long weekend.  Hope all is well on the home front.  Toodles.

Billeder!

My charger has finally arrived here in snowy Denmark so I am now able to show you some pictures of my new home.

The view from my window at home.

My room, fully stocked with family photo albums...not mine.

The morning hang out where the students come in the morning for worship

Our little gym

Church

Huh, imagine that, more snow.

The 1-3 classroom

Below is a few of the kids playing games, we recently received a couple of boxes full of various toys the kids are able to use for a couple weeks. It is some sort of promotional deal, "You play with these toys free of charge for two weeks, if you don't want to buy them, send them back."

An Overwhelming Realization

Over the past few days I have enjoyed seeing my friends at my old stomping grounds Vejlefjordskolen.  I was surprised how many people I still know.  But two years has also brought a lot of new faces, a few times I noticed curious eyes peeking into a room or around a corner, no doubt wondering who this random American was, why he could understand them and why he knew where everything was.  I only met a few new students during this visit but I'm sure I'll meet more. I just found out last night that I'll be back next weekend for a soccer tournament, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

In my communication with the people I would be working with here in Denmark we had decided that I would be teaching English and Math, and that my limited Danish fluency would be sufficient to deal with the classes I would have. However I have spoken with enough missionaries in other fields to expect more than those two. So I did.  Yesterday after church I met my coworker and principal for the first time and drove to their house out in the country. It is a very nice house and they made me feel welcome right away by giving me a room.  Lunch was a bit quiet as I didn't know what to say, and neither did they. But soon after lunch we started to discuss what would happen in the next few months and how to prepare for it. She handed me my schedule and I about passed out. I saw words like "Biologi" and "Geografi" and grades like "1-3".  So this is what all those other missionaries meant when they said, "Expect more."  Now, if this were an English speaking school I would have no problem teaching all the classes to any grade level, but I suddenly began to realize that they think I know more Danish than I do.  And they are expecting me to teach things in Danish. Having everyday conversations in Danish is one thing that I can get by with, but the words you run into when dealing with Biology for example, are a bit more difficult.

I stared at that schedule for a good long while and slowly remembered that I wanted this and it was...is going to be a challenging experience.  I don't know if "challenging" even begins to approach the intensity of the task before me.

Tomorrow is my first day at the school and I imagine I will have a good time getting to know the students and other teachers. As for now I better go look through my textbooks and maybe brush up on a little more Danish.

It's Been a While...

It's hard to believe that it has been a couple of years since my last post here.  I have wanted to return to Denmark since I left, it has become my second home (sorry Walla Walla, you've been replaced).  I wasn't sure if it would ever happen. As much as I wanted it to, it's a lot of money for a vacation, and I didn't imagine I'd be working there. For those of you who talked to me after I got back, I was planning on an adventure to Hawaii to work for a while.  But as fate would have it, I was offered a job as a teacher at a different school a couple hours north.  So I'm sitting in the airport trying to brush up on my danish. Det er to år siden jeg har talt dansk.

I'm headed to Østervrå friskole and will be teaching English, Math, and PE to the mid-oldest students.  Even though I feel ready, there is a bit more of a challenge presented when you involve a different culture and language.  I remember there were some very different things about the educational system of Denmark last time I was there.

This post is going to be short because I need to save my battery to keep me entertained on my flight.

Peace.