Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Host Family

Hey everyone!

Because not all of you have heard about my host family I thought I would tell you about them!

They are very nice people and live in Køge which is a very old town (then again most towns around here are very old) to the South of Copenhagen on the coast (feel free to Google maps it). They live about a 10 min walk from the town square and the train station. Køge is about a 45 min train ride to the part of Copenhagen where DIS is (I have to leave at least an hour and 15 min before my class starts to get there on time).

My host family has 4 members, a dad, a mom, a 9 year old boy, and 7 year old girl. The dad is a school teacher and the mom works for some pharmaceutical type thing. They are both very nice and speak English very well (they also provide me with food which is great).

I like to spend time with them when I can. I have dinner with them if I am home in time, I sometimes hang out and talk with them at night if I can (I am always welcome), and I have spent time with them on weekend nights because they have family time then. The boy and I are working very hard to collect all the star coins in the new super mario bros game for the wii (which is extremely difficult, we have a long way to go). The girl likes to play board and card games so sometimes I play cards with her (and board games if I can understand what is going on). Because the kids are so young they don't speak any English  and I have to communicate through their parents. So... I think I spend an okay amount of time with them.



So, that is my host family! I think I got very lucky! So far I already feel like it is a lot different of an experience living with a host family than with other American students. I have already been introduced to many more Danes because of my host family than most of my peers in DIS student housing. Additionally, if I ever want to know something about Danish culture, it is very easy to find an answer and it has therefore been much easier for me to get a sense of how Danes live. Also, because my host family knows the area really well they are able to tell me about cool things near by such as the study spot near the beach, or the bike trail that is close by, or the good (and cheap, which is extremely important, everything is really expensive) cafe nearby, or the cool local bar with 150 beers and medieval atmosphere (because the bar is literally from medieval times). On the flip side, it has made it a lot harder to hang out with DIS students because I am not around them during the evenings that often and I didn't come to DIS with any friends (I have still met a ton of DIS students just through classes of course). Personally, I think I made the right decision in living with a host family but there are definitely positives to living with American students.

So... That is post number 3! I'll write another post pretty soon because I think I am already behind on things I want to tell you guys about. So, talk to you soon!

Nick

5 comments:

  1. HOW MANY OF THE 150 BEERS HAVE YOU TRIED

    ReplyDelete
  2. Man, I almost missed this post because it doesn't have any sexy tags! How many awesome antique structures and whatnot have you seen around, aside from that literally medieval bar? One of the things I dislike about our country is that it's so young so we have no castles or other relic.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree with Erik, we are in great need of castles! Hehe, but we will have to survive with those in Disney World and Disney Land. So, have there been any serious misunderstandings (language wise) with the children or any other person from Copenhagen, where you were like "lets play cards" and they think you mean, "lets go dragon hunting"?

    ReplyDelete
  4. How many star coins have you collected so far? Also in this old town is it like oldold like they have goats in their kitchen and slaughter them every morning for breakfast goat tacos or just old as in they have a garden? ALSO BUY A DISPOSABLE CAMERA PLEASE OR HAVE YOUR PARENTS SHIP YOU A DIGITAL ONE.

    ReplyDelete
  5. How many times have you accidently gone dragon hunting when you meant to play cards? It sounds embarrassing!

    On a less serious note, how is the commuter rail system? I know Eurostar is pretty kickin, so I assume that local stuff is really good too.

    ReplyDelete