Hey

Dear all americans

We all had a great time hosting you and we can't wait to go to Philly! 

We hope you had the best time here. We miss you all and Tara especially you, and your baking skills:D

See you in march. 

- Cille&Mathilde 

Six more months :)

HELLO fellow Americans! 
Greetings from Denmark the happiest country on earth!
This blog post is posted by Kristoffer, Nils and Sylvester.

We hope you have been feeling better about the jetlag and that you guys enjoy being back home. We have all agreed that it suddenly feels weird when you guys are not around anymore. We got use to your great company. We miss you and we're looking forward to visiting you guys in march 2016.
It has been and interesting and very giving experience for us Danes, and we hope that you feel the same. We believe that we have made friendships for a lifetime, and we will try our best to stay in touch. We hope that you have learned something about Danish culture and that you come back in the near future.

Best Regards
Your Danes from 2.y at Ordrup Gymnasium 

Vi ses!

Vi ses (see you soon) 

This has been an amazing experience, which we will never forget. We hope that you have enjoyed our wonderful Copenhagen, and that you had a great time. We are looking much forward to come and live with you in Philadelphia. 

It´s gonna be fun experiencing the american culture in a different way, and to see how americans live.

See you soon from Nanna, Sandra and Anna Sofie. 

Beavauis ketchup 

At the bellevue beach

Eating at Wagamama in Tivoli

In tivoli

See you in March!

Thank you so much for an amazing week with lots of great experiences. It was so much fun getting to know you all! We enjoyed showing you the danish culture and hearing about the US. We can't wait to come wisit you all in March.

Here is one picture of all the fun we had with you in Denmark:

 In Tivoli!

From

Clara, Christina, Sofie og Caroline :)

Thank you for an amazing week

This has been a very unique experience, and I'm glad that I participated. 
It was fun to experience an exchange week, I've never tried anything like that before. 

I learned a lot about the American culture this week, and I made new friends that I am looking forward to seeing again in March. 

This is a great memory from when we went to Tivoli in the beginning of the week. 

Hey guys! We are already missing you a lot! We all had so much fun hosting you in the past week. It was such a pleasure getting to know you, and we are all looking forward to be having fun with you guys, when we come to visit in march. Also a special thanks to David, Jack and Matthew. You gave us a new friendship that we are very thankful for. 

Our best regards,
Anders, Axel & Daniel!

Ps elmo is a pivert

Experience of a lifetime

Denmark was such a great experience. The memories made will last a lifetime. I truely can't wait to have all the host over in philly. Going to tivoli, looking at all the sights, and playing soccer made this trip so memorable. Being immersed in the culture and eating all the foods allowed me to have a appreciation for Denmark that I would have never had if I just went and stayed in a hotel. My host, Tobias, gave me the best experience and I can't wait to return the favor. 

Free time

During much of our free time after school, we went to the local park to play soccer. At the park there are many fields and a fenced in futsal court. We have had fierce competition between the Danes and the Haverford boys. In addition to playing soccer, we also went to the beach where we played some "beach volley" and threw the frisbee around. Although there are many subtle differences between the Danes and the Americans, our love for sports and hanging out is universal.

Vi ses Denmark!

I had a spectacular experience living like a Dane for the past week. I will never forget the amazing new foods, places, people, and activities that I tried and loved here in Denmark. Thanks to everyone for such a memorable adventure!

winding down...

Today the students were busy participating in Ordrup's Holger Nielsen Day, the school's annual celebration of sports and physical education (named after a graduate of the school who invented the game of handball!). A soaking rain took up at least 1.5 hours of the morning, so I'm hoping everyone had a good experience nonetheless. Yesterday was beautiful -- a perfect day for our trip to the town of Helsingor (Elsinore). We learned a great deal while touring "Hamlet's castle..."

...and the Maritime Museum of Denmark...

The Haverford and Baldwin students have been great. We are looking forward to tonight's potluck dinner with the host families, and to a *very* early morning tomorrow to make our flight. See you all soon!

Sports Day

Today we had sports day at Ordrup Gymnasium! Each of us chose an activity that we participated in all day. Bria, Hannah, Cassandra, and I choose fencing and learned the basic of the sport. Bria was amazing and won the entire tournament! It was an amazing expirence and we are so happy that we participated in it!

-Tara  m. 

Helsingør Museum

Today, we visited a museum that taught us all about the ships and sailors of Denmark from hundreds of years ago. The museum was called M/S Maritime Museum of Denmark. We learned about the waters that surrounded the Kronborg castle and the daily events of a Danish sailor. 

 

- Tara M.

Helsingør

Today we took the train into Helsingør. Once we got there, we went to Kronborg Castle and had a tour throughout the beautiful rooms inside. 

Kronborg Castle

After the castle, we went and got some lunch before heading to The Maritime Museum. We had a tour of the museum and are now heading back to Ordup to meet back up with our hosts.  

Morning at Ordrup: English Lessons and the Key to Happiness

This morning we were fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to sit in on an English class at Ordrup. After hearing our hosts speak practically perfect English for a few days, it wasn't very surprising that their A-level (highest) English class was not so different than ours. We spent the class analyzing and annotating poems, a task very familiar to Baldwin girls! While the Danish students preformed impeccably, especially considering that English is not their first language, it was still fun to help them discover some new vocabulary words such as ‘remorse’ and ‘stifling’. Not only was it interesting to see English taught in a foreign country, but the class also served as a transition into the fast approaching academic school year! 

A sign that greeted us in Copenhagen's airport

After our English lessons, we participated in a lecture/discussion led by the English and Phycology teacher Mette Morell visiting from Nørre Gymnasium, another gymnasium in the Copenhagen area. Although we were slightly disappointed to discover that Denmark is unfortunately no longer the happiest country in the world (currently it stands in third place), we were excited for the Danes to reveal some of their happiness secrets. 

We discussed the role of both freedom and money on one’s overall happiness level. One of the main points presented in the lecture was the fact that money can in fact buy happiness, but this sort of happiness is only short-term- we were fascinated by the fact that a paraplegic is happier after one year than a lottery winner. We also considered that in Denmark, people are generally given equal opportunities and there is a rather small gap between the income of the top 20% and bottom 20% of the nation, creating little room for jealousy and therefore improving the overall happiness of the country. While Americans can definitely take steps to improve the USA's happiness levels, perhaps we will never be as happy as our Danish counterparts. New research has possibly found a 'happiness gene' in Danes- perhaps happiness literally does run in their DNA! 

Overall, we had an enjoyable and productive Wednesday morning and everyone left the Ordrup campus with some new insight! 

-By Cassandra S.

Downtown Copenhagen and the Beach

Yesterday afternoon we all went into downtown Copenhagen for a treasure hunt and canal tour. During the treasure hunt, my group went to the top rundetårn and saw some beautiful views.

The view from rundetårn.

After, we continued to walk around the city and met at nyhavn around 12:30 for the canal tour. We spent the next hour on a boat enjoying some more views of the city, including the statue of the little mermaid.

Nyhavn

The Little Mermaid

Next, we took the train and met back up with our hosts. That night I enjoyed a delicious dinner consisting of traditional Danish fish and then a bunch of us met back up at the beach. 

At the beach.

Copenhagen Canal Tour

Copenhagen Canal Tour

Today we explored Copenhagen through a "treasure hunt" (take pictures of buildings and sights), before going on an awesome canal tour. 

    New Harbor

Little Mermaid

Bricks, Bikes, Boats and a Bath

     Today we started the day excited to continue our Danish adventure into Copenhagen. First we had a workshop at Ordrup Gymnasium about democracy in each of our countries. We compared and contrasted the political systems and governments of both Denmark and the United States and answered dilemmas  about democratic issues after debating and discussing each topic in mixed groups of Danish and American students. 

     Following this activity we took the train to Copenhagen in order to visit the harbor city as a group. We kicked off by arriving at the train station in the center of Copenhagen where we found ourselves completely surrounded by bikes. We then started walking around following of a scavenger hunt in which we had to find certain buildings throughout the city. We really made use of the pedestrian streets and the paved roads which are dense with bakeries and clothing stores. As we were walking around we noticed how similar Copenhagen was to other European cities we had been too, but we all agreed that some things, especially the heavy use of bikes, are unique to Denmark. We admired the architecture of the city, making note of both the use of the red brick and the high spires on not only churches but also government buildings or ordinary housing. When we were done the first part of this visit, we went walked to Nyhavn (New Harbor), where we boarded a boat that took us on a ride through the canal streets and under the bridges of Nyhavn, Christianshavn and more from where we had an opportunity to see the colorful houses and the very common houseboats from a different angle.From the boat, we got a chance to see the famous Little Mermaid statue which was a lot smaller than we thought yet still attracted a good crowd. Once the tour was over, as some of us went home, others walked around some more and got some delicious crepes which we enjoyed before taking a train home.

     We all had dinner then met back in the evening on the beach where we listened to music, played beach volleyball and frisbee and some of us even took a dip into the frigid water of the Øresund (The Sound) which is the strait of water that separates Denmark and Sweden.

The Memorial Anchor at the end of Nyhavn commemorating the deaths of Danish Navy soldiers during WWII

St Petri Kirke (St Peter's Church) is a German church in Copenhagen

Brick buildings and paved road alleyways

Danish Brick Architecture

Stork Fountain in Højbro Plads near Amargertorv square (both major pedestrian zones) and the Christiansborg Palace, the seat for the Danish government, in the background.

The Egmont Clock Bridge and bikes

Nyhavn's famous colorful façades and tall sailboats

On the Tour Boat moving up Nyhavn

In the canal

A sea of bicycles outside of Nørreport

Downtown Copenhagen

Today was a great day in the heart of Copenhagen. During the treasure quest, our group explored some of the most important statues and buildings in the city. While walking around, we also grabbed fruit drinks (mine had strawberry, banana, and apple in it) and chocolate banana crepes. Another great part of the day was the canal tour around the city, where we got great pictures and had a fun time playing odds are. Overall, it was an exciting day in downtown Copenhagen and I can't wait for tomorrow! 

-MT