Week 3 (Mon 30th Jan - Sun 5th Feb)

Personal Blog

This has been the coldest week to date! We have had mountains of snow and freezing wind chills (-15 degrees) in Vordingborg, so my Hunter wellies and earmuffs (Christmas presents) have been greatly appreciated!  Our classes for Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) and Education studies have not started yet, so we decided to take a bus trip to Naestved; a town  30 minutes away.  We engaged in a brief conversation with the bus driver and tried our luck by showing him our new University of Sjaelland student ID cards.  He examined the cards and then waved us onto the bus without charging us.  Perhaps with the language being a barrier, he decided he would minimise the hassle and effort of asking us what type of ticket we required.  As it was so cold, we ended up treating ourselves and settled for some Earl Grey tea and dessert pancakes in a nice café.  Hopefully the next time we visit we will become more familiar with the town and surroundings.

Check out how the danes are into their presentation of food!

We also explored Vordingborg town this week and visited the goose tower in the snow; which was striking and beautiful, as well as the frozen harbour where the goose tower overlooks.  There is a shop called ‘Rapunzel’ which appealed to us as the window display had handmade, quirky jewellery and as we entered we were greeted by the very friendly and eccentric Guru (a Danish lady).  She seemed eager to get to know us as we were from Ireland and she took our phone number to exchange with her Irish friends that live here. We may be able to meet up with these Irish friends of Guru’s at some stage of our trip.  Her English was very good and she was able to advise us on where the cheaper grocery stores ‘Netto’ and ‘Aldi’ where.  As we have started to notice the significant higher prices of food here, we were thankful to find these shops and buy the same foods for a much cheaper price.

The Goose Tower in the snow

I am really looking forward to starting TEFL classes to get an idea of what content we will be covering and to see how classes are delivered by the teacher.  I’m also keen to know what will be expected of us in terms of assessment in comparison with Stranmillis assessment.  I hope to see a variation in teaching styles, presentations and activities while I’m here, that will add value to my professional development.  I am also looking forward to engaging with the other international students more through these classes; as they give the perfect opportunity to do so in group work.  Furthermore, I want to learn more about the different cultures that exist within this group of international students; the similarities and differences and how people cope with these.

Vi ses!