Thore Fisker

2007-08 Inbound from Denmark

Hometown: Odense S, Denmark

Sponsor: Odense Skt. Knud Rotary Club, District 1460, Denmark

Host: North Jacksonville Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida, USA

School: First Coast High School

Thore's Bio

Back in Denmark I was engaged in handball, basketball and drama, and hope to be able to participate in at least the two last ones here. It could also be great to play American Football!

I have had to get used to the fact that everything is bigger here and a lot of other things, especially with regards to culture, already here within the first two weeks of my stay, and that's exactly what it's about! It has been great!

Sometimes when I think of my friends and family back home, I just have to think about my friends and family here! I have had a fantastic welcome, and I have already met a lot of nice people!

September 7 Journal

Departure from Denmark 08/10/07

It was so weird to wave goodbye to your family in the airport, thinking of the fact that you would not see them for some eleven months! But at the same time it was all very exciting, and the journey was great. For one thing, there were no delays, and besides that, it was very nice to travel with the other Danish exchange students.

At 12:18 August 11 I arrive in Jacksonville Airport, and what a welcome!! I thought that my first host family would be the only one there, but my second family, at least five Rotarians, and some cheerleaders from the school with their parents. And all in all these nice people had 4 lovely signs saying “Welcome Thore!” and stuff like that. It was amazing, and I was very overwhelmed! The welcome signs are now on my wall in my room!

The First Couple of Days

My host family is very nice, and I feel very lucky I ended up with them! The family consists of Richard, Julie and Jessica, my host sister, who is 17 as well as I! That is brilliant; we have many of the same interests and she has introduced me to her friends! They take me to a lot of places, and I have a good time! They have three dogs, and a cat, and I have never had any pets, so I have had to get used to that, but that has not been difficult!

I have not been used to a two stories house with pool either, but believe that was even easier to get used to! The most crazy thing is that every person in the house has their own car and Rich even has a motorcycle on top of that (cars are very expensive in Denmark)!

I have already learned a lot of useful stuff. First of all I now do my own laundry, I am very proud of myself haha! Second, I have never tried to go fishing in my life, but my host father took me fishing on August 16, and I caught three fish! That was so cool!

On August 17, Matthew, my club counselor and club president, picked me up at noon to go to my first Rotary meeting! I got to shortly introduce myself and thank them all for this fantastic opportunity I have been given!

On August 18, Jessie and I went shopping, and I got quite a lot of clothes, because it was so cheap here!

School

It was very confusing in the beginning. The school here holds almost 2500 students, whereas my high school in Denmark only had 800, so I was amazed by the crowdedness in the breaks, and during lunch! Beside that, I had trouble finding my way the first couple of days, and one day I accidentally skipped a class!!

But is has been very great to start! I have met a lot of nice people, and I get more and more friends for every day that goes!

But I have had to get used to the school rituals, such as saying the pledge, listening to the national anthem, and make a moment of silence every morning facing the American flag, that there is one of in every room!

Inbound Orientation at Camp Montgomerey!

The weekend of August 24, 25 and 26 all Inbound students in district 6970 participated in an Orientation. There were some announcements, important information, but the core of it all, as I see it, was to meet and be with the other exchange students. We are 31 students from 19 different countries. That weekend was amazing! Instantly I felt like I had 30 more friends! Everyone was so nice, and so easy to talk to and make friends with! Not so weird actually, since they are in exactly the same position as yourself; they have many of the same experiences and challenges! That weekend was amazing, we all had such a great time! We also did some great team building exercises!

Football!

The 27th of August I started practicing with the football team of the school (American Football, not Soccer!). I was quite nervous, but it was great, and again I met some very nice people! The 28th I even got to kick some field goals in their real game simulation and I scored, several times! And then the team carried me in a King’s chair halfway across the field! It was so, so, so, so awesome!!! The rest of the day I felt like flying!

Now not a single break or lunch goes by without me being stopped by one of football guys with the words “yo, Denmark what’s up?”, that is so great!

Friday night the team played, and the atmosphere was so cool! Of course they won! I got to be the school mascot for one evening, that was loads of fun!

School Play

Yesterday (the 6th of September) I auditioned for the school play The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, and guess what, I made the main part as Petrucchio!

September 30 Journal

Friday the 7th of September I went to Phil’s (the exchange student from Sweden) place, and stayed there for the night. It was brilliant, I had a very good time! Among other things we went to Smoothie King with some of his friends. It was very nice, his friends were great, and I got a shake with peanut butter/chocolate–taste, that was fantastic!

The 16th of September I had Kevyn (the exchange student from Belgium) come over, and we had a great time as well! We spent quite some time in the pool, and afterwards we went fishing, and this time, since my host-dad was not around, I did the un-hooking and re-hooking haha, it went ok I think, so I was quite proud of myself! Kevyn invited me to his place some other time; he said we could go kayaking with his host-sister’s husband, who is actually Danish, what are the odds?? Anyway, I would love to go!

Wednesday the 26th of September my good friends Matthew and Shawn (they are both in the play we are doing; “Taming of the Shrew”) came over. We had a great time! Again the pool was very popular haha! But they also listened to some Danish music, which they enjoyed, and we practiced our lines for the play! We even played a little chess! That was great!

Culture

I have now been to the movies a couple of times, and I notice that you can actually buy real food, like a hotdog or Nachos with chili, and you put melted butter on top of your popcorn (only my granddad does that in Denmark!)! I also noticed how it is not only at my place, but everywhere, that you have actual rooms for closets! In Europe we just have a closet in the room!

And why does it cost money per minute both to call and to receive a call, in that you can not control your use of telephone money, in Europe you only pay to call someone.

Rehearsals begin!

Wow, that was the best choice I ever made, to join the school play! Everyone is so nice, and we always have a great, great time every day after school. The director (the drama teacher) is so engaged, creative and motivated, and he is very, very good, and also a great person! The play really is going to be awesome!

Of course there are brilliant lines in the play (it is Shakespeare!), but the play is also very physical, and there are going to be several fight scenes! The role I got (the lead) is a great role, with loads of fun acting to go into, but it is also very challenging, and I really like that!

Fooooooooood!!!!

Ahhhh, chocolate-syrup, what a great invention to top your ice cream with!

I liked Rice Krispies Treats too, but Rich’s homemade version is even better; he changes the Rice Krispies with chocolate balls!

And it really is true, you can put peanut butter on everything!

Rotary Meetings

Every other Friday I attend the Rotary meeting, and I really enjoy it. The people there are so nice, and I talk to new people every time I go. The club really do a lot of work for their community, that is a bit different from Danish Rotary clubs. Some of them are very rich too, and one even owns a private jet!

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Friday the 21st of September Shawn (another leading part), Michelle (another leading part), Brooke (Katherina, lead female), the Director Mr. Carr and I went to see ”A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (another Shakespeare play), a production of Jacksonville Theatre. We had a great night, and got a bit of inspiration for our own play.

November 4 Journal

Since the last journal I have moved to my second host family, and they are amazing! I now live with Roger and Linda, and half of the time their granddaughter Page! She makes sure the house is never quiet, and that something is always going on, and she reminds me so much of my sister in Denmark!

On the 12th of October the Rotary had arranged the inbound fall weekend, and again I had such a good time with the other exchange students. We went to Kennedy Space Center and an Art Festival in Winter Park, which we traveled by train to go to. It was fun to experience how uncommon and special it is to ride the train here, in Denmark it is a common way of travel!

I had a concert with my chorus class on the 30th of October; it all went pretty good, and we were highly credited by almost everyone. (They can not have discovered all the mistakes we made in the last song :p !!). And talking of chorus; we passed the audition, and we are now going to Disneyworld for the candlelight procession! It is going to be so cool, but we now have 11 songs to learn in one month!!! We had trouble learning 4 songs in three months!

Halloween!! So much candy, so much creepiness!! I went to a real Halloween party, dressed up (spent quite some time on it actually!!), and I was so amazed to see how much they decorated the house; it was amazing!

On the 3rd of November I went to a traditional Danish birthday with an 80-year old woman originally from Denmark, it was so much fun to be there and talk a lot of Danish, do all the habits of a Danish birthday (singing a lot, Danish food etc..); it was almost like being home again haha!

I have been here for three months now, and sometimes it has been a little hard. Sometimes you really miss everything you left behind. But I have also had extremely good experiences, and I have made friends from all over the world. I think the Rotary is right about the following pieces of advice; 1) Keep busy in the beginning, to keep homesickness away and 2) the first six months are payment for the last six!

- Never once have I even thought about going back before the year is through!

Sorry it turned out so short; told ya’ I was busy!! :p

December 20 Journal

The Taming of the Shrew

That show really got to mean a lot to me. A lot of the themes, we put into it to make it more than just a comedy, were so close to me, that it was both a challenge and a joy to play it. Wow, I have been working on that for a long time. We were stressed out right to the end (the paint was not dry when we started the show on the first night), but it went very well all three nights, and we got a lot of good critique.

Thespian Society International Competition of Drama

On December 8 my school’s Thespian group went to Orange Park to participate in a district-competition. The competition is kind of like a selection-process; There are many different categories (monologue, duet acting, musicals, playwriting, etc.), all in which three judges judge a performance with following ratings: poor, fair, good, excellent, superior. If a performance obtains at least tWo out of three superior-judgings, it is allowed to go to the next level: the State Competition in April (a very big deal in Tampa, in which the best performers from all over Florida compete against each other). Brooke (who played Katherina in The Taming of the Shrew) and I entered the competition in duet acting with a piece from The Taming of the Shrew, and got triple-superior from the judges! But that was not it; we also got selected to be a Critic’s Choice, that is to say the best duet-acting scene of the day for our room. We were then to compete against the twenty other Critic’s Choices by showing our performance once more on the big stage in front of everybody. The super-judges were then to pick the one best performance that got to represent our district at State by doing our piece at the opening ceremony. And guess what? We won that as well. It was amazing to be up there and get to show what we had in us, and we have never done the scene quite so deep, quite so extraordinary, it was truly amazing. Now I can only say: I look forward to April! :D

Candlelight Procession

In Disneyworld is their biggest live-show whatsoever. My chorus took a big part in it on December 5. We were 300 chorus-members and a 90-man symphony orchestra. We sang eleven Christmas carols in between the reading of the Christmas Evangelium by Monique Something from High School Musical haha, pretty cheesy. It was a big experience as well!

Jul (or in English: Christmas)

Oh, I miss the Danish Christmas! So many traditions I do not have this year. But I will have to live without it. I sort of like the big lighting chains on the houses, we do not have that in Denmark. We ornament the insides of our homes much more. I miss the cookie-baking with my family and the advent-tradition (in Northern Europe the four Sundays in December are called the Sundays of Advent. On the first Sunday you light up one of the four candles in the Advent-circle, on the second two and etc. Then you have a little present exchange and just have a little cozy time with your family. In Denmark we celebrate everything on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day. The whole thing about not being with my family in this special time is very weird. But they have sent me an advent-calendar with 24 presents, one for each day and of course a big Christmas package for the 24th, or that is to say the 25th right? Haha. Besides that, I am doing so well with my amazing host family, so I am sure I will be fine!

February 11 Journal

I moved from my second to my third host family yesterday, and I am settling in. In school I changed to some AP classes, because I couldn’t stand the unmotivated atmosphere in the regular classes. I am in the next school play, and we’re rehearsing every day.

It’s still hard. Sometimes or constantly, dependent on how you look at it. I recently read an article concerning culture shock in one of my Rotary handbooks. I skimmed through it some months back when I first arrived. It held a lot of truth in it, and I am not late to admit that I do suffer from culture shock, still. Whether the culture that shocks me is that of the whole United States or that of the notorious north side of Jacksonville I don’t know, but it overwhelms me. I will not go into details, I just wanted to write something else that the usual “Oh, it’s so good to be an exchange student; look what mind-widening and world-peacening experiences I had this week”. Don’t get me wrong; even if I could, I would not go back in time and have stayed home on the 10th of August 2007, and I am certain this experience will change my life, but not in the “commercialized” way, and not without missing every single aspect of Danish culture while doing it. Exactly how it will change me (or already has changed me), I don’t know; if everybody is right it will show when I return.

None of the advice I have had has been bad, but basically one’s choices are one’s own, and think about this: if you’re not yourself, then who are you?

March 28 Journal

People have gotten back to me for the last one I wrote with different responses. Some said they can see how I have grown over the year and how mature I am, others said it was a very nice complement to the usual, too-perfect journals many students write, another told me how sad he was that I did not feel well, and how unfortunate it was that I ended up at First Coast High. He really caught me off guard by saying that, and it made me wonder whether I did not make it clear in my last journal, that all the advertised personal growth an exchange-year offers simply cannot take place without some hardship, mostly in the form of overwhelming exposures to a different everyday-culture. It is those experiences that grant me with a wider perspective, a wider range of accept, which is the whole point.

Anyway, beside all this I must say I have felt quite amazing for at least the last month; I cannot quite make out yet whether it is an exponential growth, but it is like it gets better and better every day! Now, of course we did the play “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Beckett March 13-15 at my school, which kept me busy, but now it has been over in two weeks. I am less homesick. Well, let me say it this way: I think I may have the same level of homesickness towards everything in Denmark, but my alien feelings towards Jacksonville, Florida get fewer and fewer. It feels more and more like I belong here; it is no longer a question of “standing the pain until I can return to my real home”; I feel more and more settled here; it is easier to be around everyone: friends, host family, people I do not even know… I am beginning to have a closer relationship to my host parents. All of this I think is simply due to time; the time it takes for a person to get used to and thrive in a different culture.

So, what have I been up to the last couple of weeks..? The play, yes, it went extremely well. It was Easter last week, and my two older host brothers came home for dinner; it was a really nice day, in which I really felt part of the family, and had a lot of fun. I went to Laura’s (the Italian exchange-student) dinner-party, in which her real family from Italy came. It was nice to see them together, but so weird to think about the long time of separation. I know a few other students had their families visit them, but I just keep thinking how weird that must be? Even if my parents could afford it, I do not think I would want them to come.