Updates

You may have noticed that the header picture has changed. Sadly it's not as great of a picture, but seeing as it was a picture of Vejlefjord and not the current trip to Denmark I decided to change it. This is the street on which my new school resides. Høngaardsvej, my new home.

Lets start with the most important things first: The Super Bowl. Everything that can be said has already been said by the 700,000 people in Seattle for the Seahawks welcome back parade, but I would like to summarize by saying: BOOM!
I was fortunate enough to be able to have Monday off of teaching so that I could travel down to VFS and watch the game with the other American Student Missionaries and some students.  Of course it was streamed live so it started at 12:30 on Monday morning and ended at 5:00.  In our midst their were only two rooting for the Broncos (and one was a pity fan).  It was an excellent time of bonding and probably one of the best Super Bowl parties I've attended.  I'm sure it has nothing to do with my team playing in it.  Although until about half-time I couldn't let go of the feeling that the refs might... have issues... like they did last time. But by the start of 3rd quarter I was able to put that fear behind me. Like 29-0 behind me.

Starting around 9:00 Melissa and I (she is one of the missionaries at VFS from Walla Walla) started making things for the game.  I made guacamole and deviled eggs while she made cookies and some amazing brownies.  And of course on Sunday afternoon we hit up the supermarket to load up on more than our fair share of processed junk food.  Here is a picture of our great Super Bowl party.

The guy in the blue T-shirt that looks depressed was our main Broncos fan

So at 5:00 we went our separate ways to sleep a bit and at 2:00 I woke up and drove back to Østervrå.

During the week classes went well.  Each day I'm getting more used to working with the resources I have and making the best of it.  Biology is the hardest to work with since I can't understand their textbook, so I have resorted to a project based curriculum for them.  It actually works out pretty well because they only have Biology once a week, just enough time to get a nice project finished.  If anyone reading this remembers a cool project they did in middle school or high school relating to Biology please feel free to describe it in a comment.

Then a wonderful present came in the mail on Thursday with all kinds of goodies to help supplement the schools resources.  My wonderful mother went to an education store in Bellevue and sent a huge variety of curriculum books and experiments, and phonics stuff.  Even a bag of Valentine's gummy candy. Priceless :)

This weekend has been very relaxing.  It is the first weekend I have been in Østervrå since I first arrived.  All other weekends worked out so that I was down at VFS.  Saturday night was the New Years Party (Nytårsfest), and no, I don't know why it was in February.  But many church members, community members and kids showed up to a great party.  The food was traditional Danish Smørebrød.  Or as it has been so endearingly translated Smorgasbord in English.  It literally means bread and butter, but it means so much more.  Traditionally you take a small, dense piece of rye bread, smear some butter on it, and I learned it has to be ALL the way out to the sides.  Then put pretty much whatever you want on top of it. Try: fruit salad, cheese, red pepper, pickles, various meats, veggie or otherwise; not all together of course, unless that sounds good to you.

Here are some examples.

Here are some other pictures from the party.

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.

A Turn of Events

As most of you know I was planning on taking a relaxing trip to Germany and Croatia after my time at Vejlefjord. I was supposed to meet my parents in Germany and then head to Croatia where I would meet a couple of other missionaries to enjoy a little sunshine and scuba diving before returning home to Seattle. Well, life had different plans.
As I write this post I am sitting in bed wide awake at 4:50 in the morning. And the bed I am sitting in is in my room in Sammamish that I haven't stepped foot in for over 11 months.  About a week ago my dad was admitted to the hospital with an infection in his leg. As a result of that the trip to Germany was cancelled and I would stay in Denmark a little longer and go straight to Croatia.
On monday as I was hard at work painting and getting the school ready for next year, I had this unsettling feeling in my stomach. All day there was a little voice in my head that told me, "Jeff you need to go home." That evening I got an email from my mom that she needed to talk to me. We decided that it was best for me to come home now, and cancel my trip to Croatia. So after a little frantic packing I was on a plane on Wednesday morning.
Back in Seattle is a surreal feeling. As I was driving home and to the hospital everything looked familiar, yet it seemed like a foreign country. And don't get me started on how weird it was to drive an automatic car after 11 months of a manual. Your left foot feels like a useless tool, and shifting from P to D is equivalent to a mathematical equation. But, I am happy to be home with my family.

To The Students

Its raining now.

It is one day after you all have left. The school is once again eerily reminiscent of those first weeks when we first arrived in Denmark. So much has happened this year, and yet at the same time I feel like it has gone by so fast that I haven't had a chance to do or say anything worthwhile. I will miss you more than I am able to express with simply words. You have become such a close part of my life it feels like something inside of me has left. I am relieved I won't have anyone asking me to open their door (at least until I get to WWU) or drive them somewhere. But at the same time would give anything to take another trip to McDonalds with a few of you piled in the back of Bamse. Unfortunately I know that once I am back in the States, I will begin to recapture my old life and slowly many of the memories will begin to fade. As life continues for myself and for you I am reassured by one thing, even though we are no longer living at the same school, talking about the same things, or going to the same school functions. We will have the this year as a bond between us and will always be able to look back fondly on such a fantastic year.
God Bless,
Jeff

I wish all of the students that I met at Vejlefjord the best in life and I hope we meet again, if not in this life when we get to Heaven.