A Hard Day's Work

I worked my first (almost) full day of work yesterday in Denmark. As some of you may know, I've been volunteering my time at the local international school in Aalborg as a tutor. I work with some of the kids there one-on-one to improve their English skills for a few hours each week, and a few weeks ago, I was asked if I would like to be a substitute there, as well. I agreed, and my first day finally came yesterday.

I'd been nervous ever since they scheduled me to cover an actual class, but the nerves increased about an hundred-fold when I found out last week that I wouldn't be getting the lesson plans for my class until the morning of (when the school opened about twenty minutes before class started). Also, the school has two locations and while I do my tutoring at one, I would be subbing at the other one, but I had never been there before.

I woke up before seven (far earlier than when I normally get up) and set off from the apartment while the moon was still out! (We're losing daylight fast up here in Denmark - come winter the sun won't rise until almost nine!) Upon getting to the school, I found out that two extra classes had been added to my subbing schedule in the afternoon, but the lesson plans were there at least - thank God! I spent the morning subbing for a class of little kids (about six to eight year olds), and then headed over to the other location for an afternoon with a class of older ones (thirteen to sixteen year olds). Both classes were totally wild and didn't want to listen to a sub at all (they are on fall break next week, so that didn't help matters). I can really only say that I have nothing but respect for teachers, and hopefully it will be easier if they ask me to do it again!

The Train to Skagen

Yesterday, Andrew and I woke up [relatively] early and caught the train to Skagen (pronounced Skain). It's a town on the northeastern tip of Denmark, and the beach there is where the North and Baltic Seas meet. It's a very popular tourist town in the summer, and according to one of Andrew's co-workers, it's where Danish celebrities like to go to be seen. I was there with my parents when they visited in August, but Andrew missed it and since we're having a bit of an Indian summer here right now (with some blazing highs in the seventies) we decided a day at the beach sounded great.

We arrived in Skagen and did some shopping and had lunch in town first, before hitting the road to the beach, which is a little bit outside of town. To be specific, it's three kilometers outside of town, but the walk was beautiful and relaxing and there were plenty of other bikers and walkers along the same route. We made it there in about thirty minutes and took a tractor/bus from the dunes down to the beachfront along with the many Danes who were taking advantage of the unseasonably warm day. The beach was beautiful and it really was the perfect day for a barefoot walk in the sand.

Andrew and I both took the opportunity to take a stroll in the North and Baltic Seas, and here he is in each:

 

As always, more pictures of our day are on our flickr page.