Besøg i Aarhus

Artikel skrevet af eleven Jonas fra Staatliches Gymnasium “Albert Schweitzer” i Erfurt

Goddag, my dear readers,

My name is Jonas and I am one of 29 students from the Albert Schweitzer Gymnasium Erfurt who visited your beautiful school. In this little article I want to present you some of our impressions of Aarhus and its people.

Starting off with what our schedule looked like to give you a better insight into our exchange trip: seeing Den Gamle By, the harbor, the Rådhus, Mindeparken, Aros, Moesgaard, the beach, as well as attending English and Danish lessons at Marselisborg and visiting an Arla dairy, were the main points and attractions that were part of the plan.

Our journey started Sunday morning in front of our school as we headed to Denmark at 6’o’clock. The bus ride was supposed to last 10-11 hours; well, since one of our tires popped it took us 13 hours to get to Aarhus. Anyways, all of us had a safe trip and were looking forward to meet “our” Danes. Arriving at the school we saw a bunch of model-looking young adults which made all of us hesitate to get out of the bus. After leaping that first hurdle we were happily united with the Danish people hosting us for the next week.

Foto: Kenneth Madsen

That night we got to the houses of our host families and spent some time together with them. That night there happened to be a few football games, one of them being Denmark versus Armenia and the other one Germany against Scotland. Considering that being our first night with our new Danish friends, it could have hardly been a better start. Especially because Germany won (as usual) and the Olsen-Banden shaded the game owing to the terrific performance of Lord Bendtner who assisted the winning goal.

The first full day of our stay was Monday. We had a tour through the city, seeing Den Gamle By and the town hall, for instance. Every one of us liked the looks of Aarhus and many of us got an impression of Aarhus as a really clean, nicely-looking city. Just like most of the other days, us Germans spent our past-time with our Danes – not the whole class together, but in bigger groups for the most part.

On Tuesday and Friday morning we got the opportunity to attend one of your English lessons. The great majority of us were stunned by how well all of you Danes talk English while back in Germany many students are struggling with simple sentences. Everybody met in Mindeparken on Tuesday night for a get-together of all Germany and Danes to get to know each other better. Again, many of us were amazed by the beauty of this place. Talking, barbecuing and playing some football was a good way to bond with our Scandinavian companions.

Foto: Kenneth Madsen

During our short stay in Aarhus, we had one Danish lesson at Marselisborg (of course separated from the Danes), so we could learn how to properly thank our host parents for the meal and other small talk vocabulary. That was on Wednesday. Most of us enjoyed it, but did not keep much of that. I guess, it is true when they say that you only remember the bad words. Now we call each other names in Danish here in Germany – what an achievement! However, after that little excursus into your language we got to enter the Rådhus, go up its tower and listen to a Danish politician speaking. Kristian Würtz, member of Aarhus’ city council, gave us a presentation about the future of Aarhus and what political decisions are being made to improve the city’s infrastructure and appeal. I, personally, thought it was a great presentation and got much out of it. The presentation intensified my great perception of Aarhus.

Foto: Kenneth Madsen

Wednesdayhad a lot to offer for us, because after learning bits of Danish and having a politician giving us a speech in English, we got to visit Aros, the famous art museum. Although you could have spent days in that enormously big building, all of us had a good time walking through Aros and getting a more than a glimpse of what modern art looks like.

Foto: Per Thaaning Fløng

To get an insight of a successful, traditional Danish association we visited an Arla dairy on the outskirts of Aarhus on Thursday. We had a look at the production and were given the opportunity to taste almost limitless amounts of 14 different dairy products that Arla produces. 1kg of yoghurts, milks, Skyr and other groceries later, I can claim that I went through all of them and had a really hard time picking my favorite, but there is no doubt that all of them were extremely delicious! That very same day, our Danish exchange mates showed us around the harbor to give us an impression of what is being built at the moment.

Foto: Kenneth Madsen

As I mentioned before, we had another English lesson on Friday. After that we saw something that none of us had witnessed before: Morgensamling. It was madness! As you may have noticed some of us have participated in it, too. And it might not be that special to you, but we haven’t ever seen something like that in a school before, nor did we think that something like it would be possible to be held in a school. Anyways, only a one-word description for that: AWESOME! With Friday being our last full 24 hours, we had planned a lot for that day. So after Morgensamling was done, we got on our bikes (actually bikes that we borrowed from our host families – thanks a lot, fellows!) and headed South to Moesgaard. Well, the museum was not opened, but it just worked as an intermediate stop on our way to the beach. Despite the cold water temperature some of us went swimming and we were all enjoying the sun shining on us and our beautiful surroundings. After a couple hours at the beach we went straight back to Marselisborg and then home, so that everyone had a few hours before a party in the teachers’ room started. At 6’o’clock all of us brought food and got together. There was a lot of beer and a lot of water being drunk and everybody was having a great time. It was an all-around perfect way to end this trip!

Unfortunately we had to say good-bye to our new friends, to our great host families and to Kenneth and Birgitte. At this point, I want to thank many, many people that made this exchange as amazing as it turned out: In the name of all German students I want to thank the teachers of both schools that have been making this exchange possible over the last years – so as of 2014: tak, Birgitte and Kenneth; danke, Ellen and Rico! Also in the name of us Germans, I want to say a great thank you to all the hosts, meaning our Danish exchange partners as well as their families that made us feel home in a different country, with a different language and a different culture! Mange tak!

Jonas

Foto: Per Thaaning Fløng