Close to the finishline, and did you know this about Denmark?

Hello people!

Here I am, in my last week of my Erasmus expierence. I remember the first day here like it was yesterday. The time went so inredible fast! The last 3 weeks were crazy like all the weeks here.

The weekend of 5 december Liz and Thersa visited me and it was an amazing weekend full of parties, food and shopping. It was really nice to see them again and to talk Dutch for a couple of days. After they left I was exhausted and wanted to sleep for a couple of days but it was totally worth it!

Just when they left I had to work hard at my final project. Together with 3 other students we did a research about how we can use drama as a tool to help youth-immigrants get included in youth-clubs. For me this subject is a perfect warming-up for my final thesis next semester which I want to do in that direction. We went to my placement, a youth-club in a multicultural neighborhood, for interviews and some exercises with the kids as an experiment to see if drama is a good tool to support inclusion. The exercises didn't went exactly how we thought it would be going, but it worked and that was our main goal.

This monday was our final presentation and we finished the project with an A which is a 10 in the Netherlands. I am more than proud at my group but also at myself. This final-project represent the whole semester which means that the average grade at my diploma will be a 10. I don't think I could have done better with that ;-).

Oh, last week I was tourist in Aarhus; i've visited ARos Art Museum once again. There were some new exhibitions and I wanted to see the view from the rainbow-roof one more time. And I've also been at Den Gamle By, a small town with houses from 100 years ago. It was all dressed-up in Christmas-style which made it look really cozy!

This week is all about finishing stuff, writing evaluations, saying goodbye, packing my stuff, etc. Unfortunately I have a pretty big cold now, but I will manage that these days, I can rest when I'm home this Sunday.

Oh, and then one more thing. I found out some more things about Denmark and the Danish:

• Did you know it is forbidden to build sandcastles at the beach? According to a tourist-information book it is forbidden because you would mark your territory which is not allowed to do at the beach. 
• Did you know that it is also forbidden to take someone with you on the bike? 
• Did you know Danish are crazy, but really really crazy about Christmas? Since the first of December the country exploded in one big Christmas-country and even on latin-dance we dance on Christmas-songs now.
• And last but not least an explanation about how to cross the street by bike: when you want to go left on a crossing with trafficlights you first cross the street and wait there again for the next trafficlight to cross the street again. They won't be happy if you just take the turn in one time! 

Well, now it is time to empty my fridge and freezer: dinnertime! 

Oh, for my welcome-commité: I will arrive this Sunday at 15:05 in Amsterdam. I would like to have some kaassouflé's at my arrival! 

See you soon! 

Birthdayparties, christmas and the last weeks

Hello people!

At first I have to apologize for the lack of messages this month. I was too busy or too lazy to write about all the nice things I do here.

Let me start with my birthday. I have never celebrated my birthday in a foreign country but even now I wasn't without my family because they visited me! My parents, sister and brother-in-law Rik, 2 uncles and 2 aunts came in Aarhus at the 15th of november to check out where I live and ofcourse to celebrate my birthday. I was a really good weekend with a loooot of food and presents. They spoiled me so much with candies, wine, tequila, beer and Dutch food. I'm still eating 'pepernoten' and I even have some wine left.

At te 16th, my birthday, we went to the deerpark to give some carrots to the deers. Unfortunately, the weather was not so good the whole day with a lot of wind and rain. But the deers were happy to see us (or it was just the carrots) and the wind didn't blew us away. In the afternoon my dad and uncle went to ARos-museum and the rest of the group went to the city to shop. Although it was more window-licking because most of the stores were closed. At the end of the day we went to a restaurant together where my aunt tried to connect me with the waiter by saying I turned 21. Thanks Tante Kiek ;-)

At the and of the day we already had to say goodbye and my parents took already a lot of my stuff, included my bike, back home to the Netherlands. It was the plan to go back by car, but I go back by plane now so I can't take all my stuff with me then. It was a short weekend with my family but I really enjoyed it. It's nice to show them where I live and how Aarhus looks like.

After I said goodbye to my family I thought I could relax, but suddenly my doorbell rang and there were my classmates with a cake! I really didn't expect it and it was so nice of them!

At friday 21 november was my birthday-party for my classmates and friends. I organised the party with 2 of my Greek classmates and one Greek guy. We hired a DJ and around 80 people came to dorm 21 to have an amazing party. We danced, we laughed, we drank; a perfect birthdayparty.

The next day we cleaned everything and went to another party in the centre where we could drink for free from 22:00 to 00:00. It was a big neon-themed party and there were a lot of people. Yet, another great evening!

Last friday (28/11) I went to the centre to check out how they lit up the Christmas-lights and how Santa arrived in the city. There was a big parade with music and 3 santa's (I really thought there was just one Santa...) and at 19:00 they lit up a big Christmas-tree at a square. And after that it was shopping time! The American tradition of Black Friday is also a hit in Denmark and the stores were open till 23:00 and they all had special discounts. I didn't really shop but it was nice to experience it.

This weekend was pretty relaxing. I had to arrange some stuff for when i'm back in the Netherlands. In only 3 weeks i'm back and the 'real life' will start again. That means finding a company where I can do my research for my final thesis, look for an apartment and a job. Lot's to do! But before that I still have some time here which I'm going enjoy till the fullest. This weekend Liz and Thersa will come here and I'm sure it will be an amazing weekend!

See you soon!