Scout Scoop

I have had a very busy past few days, so lets get started on Scout Scoop 2012/2013.

On the 27th of December roughly 35 scouts and about 10 leaders arrived at the train station to begin Scout Scoop 2012/2013.
We even got to meet an Australian Rover named Matthew who had participated in the SISEP program 5 years ago and was back visiting.

Straight away we were put into patrols, given a map, and sent off on a 20 kilometre hike.
Throughout the hike we continuously got lost, and all in all ended up walking about 30 kilometres.
We arrived at the scout hall meeting place at around 10pm that night and had some dinner. The staff decided it was far too late for us to go door knocking for a place to sleep, so we camped out at the scout den for the night.

During the evening I got quite sick, and was unable to complete the second day of the hike, and got driven to Houens Odde Spejdercenter (Houens Odde Spejdercenter) and spent the rest of the morning resting.

After lunch activities began, our first was an app race (like the apps on an iphone) we were sent to multiple different bases collecting letters to play the final game that would determine a winner, a giant game of scrabble.
We were extreemly proud of coming second for that activity.
That evening we had a night activity.
We donned our warm clothes and prepared for a night of fun in the icy rain. The evenings activity consisted of a giant game of cranium (as in the board game). In our patrols we went around from base to base collecting tokens, answering questions, and moving our piece closer and closer to the end. By the time we had finally rolled a cranium to finish the game, we had come in third, which we were quite happy with.

The nights activity was followed by a large indoor campfire (with an electric campfire and projector screen with lyrics to songs). We had a great night filled with challenges, singing, and lots of fun.

The next morning (the 29th) we were awoken nice and early by the staff playing gangnam style extremely lould. After breakfast we attended parade. The Danish parade was very different form that our an Australian one. As the flag was raised we all sung, and saluted, and then the flag was lowered, signifying the end of the parade.

Our next activity involved us going from base to base doing jobs, and collecting money to buy parts to build a chariot. Sadly half way through this activity I felt extremely unwell with the flu and spent most of the morning sleeping, however not before I got to participate in a few challenges including taking our shoes off while holding a bucket of water with out feet, building lego via a walkie talky, and a game where we had to get the whole patrol to the opposite planks without having two people of the same plank. It all turned out to be a great deal of fun.

We spent the afternoon creating an outdoor cinema so that we could sit back, relax, and watch a movie in the night to come. We spent all afternoon making it, and i have to say it looked pretty good by the time we had finished (though i still don't trust the giant platform at the back).

Tying lashings.

Our completed chairs (well without mattresses)

So that night after dinner and an evening activity of talking about what it takes to be a good scout, we set off down to our outdoor cinema to watch the kids film Brave, which was rather good. 

The next morning we had a great big sleep in (which was much needed) and after lunch set out on our activity for the day it was a tv and film race.

The challenge was a master chef challenge. We had to go from tv and film bases collecting ingredients. At our final base we would cook our dinner, and be judged on it based on creativity, presentation, and taste.
After spending the afternoon at bases such as Top Gear (racing remote control cars), Gladiator (hitting each other off a beam with foam sticks), Indiana Jones (hitting cans off a fallen tree with balls), and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (My favourite! receiving two blocks of chocolate per patrol filled with hazelnuts and having t suck all the chocolate off) we arrived last at the final Master Chef base.We were half an hour late, we missed out on a fire (and had to use a portable cooker), we also missed out on some of the ingredients we wanted, but it didn't matter, we had our recipe in mind and were ready to give the challenge everything we had.
Our plan was to make Aussie meets Danish burgers (since we hadn't had burgers on the camp), consisting of damper buns (damper is a kind of campfire bread made from flour and water) with meat patties, tomatoes, and of course beetroot. It was such a challenge to cook all the food in time, e even had to borrow another groups fire. However after a long day of challenges it was time to submit our food to be judged...
And we won!
we were so happy with all the odds being against us, and the large amount of effort we had put into our meal. We were exhausted and ready to head back to camp and watch a movie.

Our delicious burgers! 

So we sat down to watch avatar, and halfway through the movie I got stepped on a a member of staff as we were told to put on some warm clothes and head down to the activity centre as there was an emergency. We all knew the truth though. There was a night race (this was at about 10 at night).

We headed down to the activity centre, and were given our mission to find information out about a child murderer. Each patrol was sent to bases to try and find the clues to what happened to him. The bases were fun and this was probably my favourite activity! Our first activity was to head to the rabbit pen. Once there we found a code written on the stomaches of two white rabbits. The night continued like this, we went to bases such as a makeshift gay bar (where we found the australian staff member), climbing trees blindfolded, getting past lasers, and setting off fireworks.
By the end of the nights events everyone was exhausted and ready for the few hours of sleep we would get.

We woke up on the 31st ready to celebrate New Years Eve!
Today we had no activities planned, however were given the task of creating our own New Years Eve party. We split up into four teams. One for decorating, one for cooking, one for entertainment, and one for taking down the outdoor cinema. After breakfast we all got to work.
I was in the decorating team and we were given the dining room to decorate for dinner.
And that is what we spent the day doing. By the time we were finished the room looked like this!

We were rather happy with the final result, and were ready for a party.. we even brought out Maurice the inflatable kangaroo...

By 6 o'clock everyone was dressed in their new years attire, and ready for the last night of 2012.
We all sat down to a delicious dinner filled with speeches, strange dancing, and delicious food. We started with a carrot and orange soup, followed by tasty steak and potatoes, and finished with a delicious chocolate brownie, vanilla ice cream, berries, and chocolate... it was spectacular.

Aidan (one of my fellow Queensland scouts) playing games at the dinner. 

Some reminders of the dancing at the activities firm the previous night. 

We then moved out to the main party room where we watched the Danish queens speech, and danced into the night. We all had such a great time, and when the clock neared 12 o'clock we all sat down to the Danish tradition of watching the 1963 film 'Dinner for one'. We then climbed up onto tables and chairs, and when the clock struck 12 we all jumped into the new year.

People hitting the dance floor. 

Some strange photos i found of Maurice the kangaroo.

Breaking out the dance moves. 

The first official photo of 2013.

We then headed out to an area down by the lake to burn the numbers 2013. Sadly this didn't work too well in the rain, so we set off some fireworks aswell. And that was the end of our night, we stayed up talking for about an hour and eat some delicious marzipan cake, and then headed to ed for another early start to our final morning at the camp.

Burning the numbers.

Burning the numbers.

New Years Fireworks.

New Years Fireworks.

Traditional Danish New Years marzipan cakes. 

On the first day of 2013 we woke up at around 7.30 to finish packing our things, eat breakfast, clean up the camp, and at around 11, set off on a half an hour walk to the front gates of the camp to meet the bus that would take us to the train station. 

The walk was tough after a long camp, however i did manage to get some nice photos of the camp site on the way and of course a patrol photo just before we got to the front gates. 

I have to say Scout Scoop 2012/2013 was definitely one of the highlights of my trip to Denmark. I had such an amazing time getting to know new people, and just doing fun, awesome scouting activities. 

The stunning landscape of the camp site.

The stunning landscape of the camp site.

The stunning landscape of the camp site.

Our patrol 

(from right to left: Jeppe, Me, Anna, Mads, Anders)

And finally the Australians 

(right to left: Matthew, Natasha, Me, Aidan)

So i guess thats it for this post, thankyou to Natasha for letting me borrow a few photos. 

Well until next time. 

A very cold Christmas

So i know it has been a while since I have posted, but all for a good reason. Over the past few days we had had Christmas and I have been attending a camp called Scout Scoop. So I have had a very full on week.
I figure that if I put it all into one big post it will be ENORMOUS so I will post about Christmas and my tourist adventure tonight and tomorrow I will post about Scout Scoop 2012/2013.

Copenhagen at Christmas time. 

So lets begin.
Christmas was very excitinhg. After the guests arrived we sat down to a delicious Christmas dinner of potatoes, duck, cabbage, and duck sauce. It was spectacular.

This was followed by the traditional meal of rasalamande (it is like a rice pudding). A bowel of the rice pudding filled with chopped almonds and one single whole almond was placed on the table next to a bowel of Italian cherry syrup, and we were instructed to eat until nothing was left and the whole almond was found.

Nina finally found it and we moved on to the Christmas tradition of dancing around the Christmas tree, singing traditional Danish songs.
We then opened presents and spent the rest of the night relaxing with our gifts, and I spent most of the night calling, and wishing a very Merry Christmas to friends and family back home.

As Christmas eve (the 24th) is the day we celebrate here in Denmark, Christmas day is a very quiet day for the rest of the country, so we decided to go sight seeing as all of the shops are closed.

Our first stop was the little mermaid. The statue was smaller than i had expected and as we approached the small mob of tourists Lisbet (my host mother) explained to me that she had had here head chopped off three times over the years.

After taking our tourist photos we moved on to the Royal palace. Sadly we were too late to see the changing of the guards but we did manage to get a few photos of them anyway. On the flagpole, the flag to say that the queen was home was up, which was very exciting.

This palace, Amalienborg Palace, became the winter home to the Danish royal family after the original royal palace, Christiansborg Palace, burnt down in February of 1794.

Our next stop was the Frederik's Church (Frederiks Kirke), more commonly known as The Marble Church due to its architecture. The church is located just down the road from Amalienborg Palace.

The church was absolutely stunning and stood out among the dreary, grey buildings. It was made completely form marble  (apart from the later renovations made from limestone).

 We then went to have a look at the stunning old buildings of the trade centre and parliament house.

Parliment house. 

The trade centre.

And that was it for the day, after freezing in the cold day we headed home for some nice warm cocoa, and spent the rest of the day relaxing. 

So tomorrow i will post about my amazing adventure at Scout Scoop 2012/2013.

Goodnight. 

Merry Christmas

Hello everyone
First of all, these last few days have been quite busy so i have not had a chance to post.

ITS CHRISTMAS EVE!!!
I hope everyone is having an amazing Christmas form us here in Denmark!
So lets start this post form back on Thursday evening.

On Thursday evening the school had their Christmas dinner. Everyone got dressed up and met in the dining hall at around 6pm. We started the evening with a delicious dinner of pork and crackling, followed by the traditional rice pudding. Hidden in each bowl of rice pudding is a whole almond, if you found the almond you would receive a prize.
We then played banko (the Danish version of bingo). Played with exactly the same rules. I did manage to win a prize in this game which turned out to be a bag of corn chips.
We then played a game to decide who would end up in the kitchen. There were two plastic cups with a die in each one, when you rolled a 6 you could pass the cup on to the next person, when the to cups caught up to each other that person would be sent to the kitchen. However only two people could be in the kitchen at one time, so our group ended up doing no cleaning at all because we had to keep swapping.
After the cleaning was done we had tea and biscuits and headed down to the gym to dance around the christmas tree singing a traditional Danish song. We then ran around the house, everyones hands linked, up and down stairs, and then back to the gym. We then headed up to bed.

Our Christmas dinner table.

Our delicious Christmas dinner. 

Make your own snow! You mix the crystals with hot water and it makes snow!!!

On friday morning, at around 8, ,we dressed in our warmest clothes and set off down to the local church for a christmas service, in hand torches of fire to light our way. (yes it was still dark)

The service was quite quick and involved a lot of singing in Danish. 

When we arrived back at the school the rest of the day was spent cleaning.

We then caught the bus bus back to Copenhagen, and had a very early night.  

On Saturday we spent most of the day in town shopping for late Christmas gifts. We were having an early Christmas eve (as well as our actual one) so that we could celebrate it with her two eldest brothers.

In the City.

The citys Christmas lights.

Christmas trees.

When we got back from the shops that evening a Christmas tree was sitting in the lounge room waiting for us to decorate it.

Our Christmas tree.

Nina putting decorations on the Christmas tree.

An Australian decoration on a Danish Christmas tree. 

When Ninas older brothers arrived we sat down to a traditional Christmas dinner of rice pudding with cinnamon and sugar followed by a game very much like the one we played on thursday night, but a little bit different. 

There were wrapped gifts in the middle of the table and we sat around it. A cup with a die is passed around the table. When you roll a six you can choose a present form the table. If you roll a 1 everyone passes their gifts to the right. When all the gifts are gone form the middle one person sets a timer 

(of a time that only they know) and we continue playing, but when a 6 is rolled you can choose to take a gift from anybody sitting around the table, and when the timer stops you get to keep the gift you have in front of you. I ended up with a build your own truck kit. 

We then progressed to opening presents, and then spent the rest of the evening talking, and watching The Nightmare Before Christmas, before heading to bed at around 12pm. 

Yesterday was Sunday and we spent the day at Nina's aunts birthday, and it started snowing! There was a massive snow storm, and I really hoped we would have a white Christmas. 

Sadly when we awoke this morning it was 5 degrees and most of the snow had melted. 

Todays has been a very relaxed day. In Denmark Christmas is celebrated on Christmas Eve, so we are getting ready for our celebrations.  

So i'll let you know what we do tomorrow 

So I hope everyone back home has a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

And i will update you all tomorrow. 

A day in the City

Before beginning this post i would first of all like to apologise for not posting in a while as i have been extremely tired, anyhow, lets talk about my weekend. 

On Friday evening we jumped on the bus to begin our 4 hour journey back to Copenhagen to spend the weekend with my host family. When we arrived we had an excellent warm home made dinner and headed off for an early night. 

When we awoke on Saturday we got ready for a day out in the city, we dressed up for cold weather (and it turned out to be only 4 degrees) we left the house to go shopping in the nearby plaza before catching the train right into the city, we headed to Freetown Christiania, a self-proclaimed autonomous neighbourhood consisting of about 850 residents. 

The Freetown has been a source of controversy since its creation, as narcotic sales was tolerated by authorities until 2004, and a still continuing, therefore we couldn't take photographs inside.

Looking up a river.

Looking down the same river.

Standing outside the back entrance of Freetown Christiania.

Outside the main entrance to Freetown Christiania.

 

Standing next to a statue of the Guinness World Records tallest man (who happened to be Danish) 

And that was about it for the weekend, on Sunday night we headed back to the school, and had a very early nights sleep. 

Midnight walks and tobogganing

SO last night as we were about to call it a night when we were called down to a meeting in the gym, when we got there we were told to change into super warm clothing as we would be going for a walk (this was it 10 pm by the way) and they didn't know when we would be back, we rugged up in our thermals, and  warm winter jackets and set out into the -16 degree night.
We walked for ages before getting to our first base, where we were told to sing a Christmas carroll.
After receiving our peppernut candy reward we turned down a street and continued walking.
Our next base involved a game called Shulp (I am assuming thats how it's spelt) where you basically mulch yourself to someone else by touching them. The game ends when pretty much everyone falls over, kind of like twister.
Once again we received a peppernut candy as a reward and continued on to our final base which turned out to be a tea and coffee base, where we had a rest and then turned back to walk the way we had come.
We got back at around 12pm after walking the whole 12 kilometres in the -16 snow.

This morning was pretty much the same as any usual day (though we got to sleep in and didn't have to go for a walk in the early hours of the morning) we had breakfast and then classes.
After lunch we once again dressed up in our warm attire, grabbed our bikes and began a freezing one and a half hour bike ride to a very hilly area where we went sleighing.

The stunning view from the top of one of the hills. 

Our lovely sleighing attire.

The first time. 

Shouting at Alice as i attempt the big hill.

Alice and i sliding down the hill.

The horrid climb back up.

Pause for a photo.

Coming up behind me.

I am forced down the painfully icy part of the hill.

Alice and i attempt snow angels.

Alice and i attempt snow angels.

My angel.

Alices angel.

Our exhausted attempt to get up a hill. 

Running down snow covered hills. 

Looking at the hills. 

After our very eventful (and successful) sleighing, we exhaustedly biked back to school, to sit next to our very warm heaters, and that was it for a very full on day. 

And this is me done, and very ready for bed. 

Tomorrow after school we head to my host family's home on Copenhagen for a very full on weekend (and f course we are going to see the hobbit)

Well until next time. 

~Brooke