I had a very good night sleep following my arduous journey here at the Nordjylland day school. Jonna was already up by time I had awoken and she took me to the kitchen house after I showered for some breakfast. Concerned about my feet, Jonna gave me a big needle to pop the blisters which relieved me a little of the pain I still felt in them. Afterwards, I was taken to house nine where the teachers have a morning meeting everyday and was introduced to everyone. It was decided that I would be working with Lars - a 53 year old carpenter - helping him with the construction of a new meeting room. Initially, I was a little confused as I was under the impression that I'd be assisting teachers and gaining pedagogical experience, but I soon thought it was pretty cool to have experience in carpentry under my belt. It's still a very relevant profession and skill to have afterall!
So having been tasked with helping Lars with his project, I followed him to the building that was being worked on. Although I had to quickly change into old clothes first! Lars and Ole (the mechanic here and also a general handyman of the place, as well as a fantastic guitarist!) gave me a decent pair of work shoes and, also being concerned about my feet, Ole went and got me some pads to stick onto the blisters.
Due to me still struggling to stand, Lars let me take it easy for the day. A student called John was also helping today and I helped him carry over large planks of wood and put down some ground insulation. Much like a typical 9-5 job, we have a short break at 10 and then lunch at 12:30. As it was Friday which meant that we only work for half a day, after lunch I was able to finally move in to my new room and put my feet up, although not before meeting with Gerda first.
Gerda met with me and we discussed my work timetable, what I'd be doing etc. She also told me a little about the place. Dagskolen-Nordjylland is made up of three separate institutions: care homes Nordlys, care homes Norden and the day school. Nordlys is where students aged 13 - 18 stay and Norden is home for the older students. The school has a few classrooms, a big kitchen and dining hall and a workshop - where some of the older students come to learn and work; for example, a student will help Ole in the garage do repairs and we have a couple of students (as well as myself), who help Lars with the building project. When we finish work after lunch, we have afternoon activities; on Monday we go swimming, Tuesday is teachers meeting, Wednesday we do something sport related and on Thursday we have a music session. Afterwards, I stay in Nordlys and help the pedagog of the day with driving and picking up the students, as well as doing any other activity or chore. On weekends, we may go out and do something (like ice skating or shopping), with the students otherwise I just relax and/or do my own thing.
That's been the gist of my work so far here at Dagskolen-Nordjylland. It's nice that everybody here as a more "take it easy" approach to work - an ethos I think that everybody should practice! This is a stress free place because of it, and there's generally a pleasant atmosphere. If I weren't enrolled in the DNS program, this would be an ideal job for me, for sure. Alot of my previous jobs have had me put under pressure to work fast at the cost of my fatigue and efficiency which made me unhappy in the process - something that I think a lot of people can relate to. All for profit.
Another great aspect of this job is that I get to tag along on trips with the students. My third week of being here, Lars and Ole invited me along for a three day trip to Laeso. The initial plan was for me to sail with Lars on his boat and Ole would take the students there via ferry, but due to bad weather, we were forced to change our plans. So instead, it was decided that we would be going to Skagen - a coastal town on the most Northern point of Denmark.
Lars and Ole took the boat while I drove a couple of students there, following behind Shaun in his car. We parked by the harbour and took a walk around some of the town. It's quite a unique and quaint town due to the majority of buildings being a distinctive yellow colour. Many tourists visit the town annually as it's also famous for it Skagen Painters - a group of Scandinavian artists, and so there are some galleries and museums. Due to the annual influx of tourists, prices are very high in Skagen making it an expensive place to visit and live; always an inadvertent negative effect of tourism, unfortunately.
So after being giving tidbits of information on Skagen as we walked around, we stopped to grab a hot drink and breakfast which consisted of a bit of bread and a slice of cheese. Once we finished, we dropped by a supermarket to grab some food then headed back to the harbour to wait for the guys to arrive by boat.
We waited for around an hour before they eventually arrived. Once we put everything on the boat and chilled for a little while, we decided to go for a long bike ride. We rode around the harbour which is Denmark's main fishing port. Smelt like it too. We then rode around the town then heading onto the outskirts, stopping off at a junk yard where we watched a few cars get crushed. It was quite mesmerising watching a huge destructive machine crush once drivable vehicles into small cubes with ease. It's good to hear that these now forgotten cars, no doubt what was once somebody's pride and joy that got them from a to b, were being recycled.
Afterwards we rode back to boat and I prepared myself for a spot of canoeing with a student. Because it was fairly cold and the water even colder, I put on a wetsuit in the case the worst happens - I fall in and get hypothermia. The worst did not happen though and we paddled around the harbour with ease. Ole took one of students scuba diving once we got back and I was offered a chance to try as well. Having never experienced diving before, I was well up for it! It only daunted on me just how scary and dangerous it could be to go deep underwater once I had all the equipment on and thus felt a bit nervous. Ole and Lars instructed me on hand signals to use should something go wrong and I want to back up to the surface, which I put to good use!
Having never "breathed" underwater before, I forgot to, panicked and swam quickly to the surface much to the laughter of everyone. "Breathe in and out gently as you go under. It'll be ok. You have the scuba gear so be calm," I was told over and over again. Humans being underwater is unnatural and so it may take a couple of attempts for the brain to get the hang of breathing while submerged in water. And as soon as I got the hang if breathing and thus going deeper, I ran into another problem: water pressure. If you've been on a plane or even deep underwater yourself, you may have experienced some pain the ear or felt that it is blocked. Usually, you can easily equalise the pressure just by making your ears pop (by closing your nose and mouth and blowing for example), but I couldn't manage it for some reason. I guess my Eustachian Tube is blocked or something. Of course, this caused me some distress and once again I swam up to the surface. Ole was running low on oxygen in his tank by this point, so I only had a couple more attempts before calling it a day. I'm sure there'll be opportunities in the near future to have another go as Ole and Lars are frequent divers. I think I should probably get my ears checked out first though! Evening was now dawning and so we ate dinner and just relaxed for the remainder of the day.
On our second day, once again we went for a long bike ride, but this time we planned to go to the most northern point of Denmark. It was a quite a long ride and we stopped to view an old lighthouse on the way. Once we arrived at the beach, we parked our bikes and trekked along the shore, climbing up some abandoned bunkers that were used during the war. Eventually we arrived at the most northern point where the Baltic and Northern sea clash from either sides making quite a spectacular view. On the way back, I tried some naturally growing berries that grow on thorn bushes on the sand. I forgot the name of them. Cycling back to the harbour, we stopped off to look at an old beacon that was once used to guide (or destroy enemy ships by misleading them) ships before lighthouses were constructed.
After lunch, it was decided that we would head to Albaek and stay there for the night. Once again, I drove whilst Lars and Ole took the boat to Albaek's harbour. By time they arrived, it was time for dinner and in the evening, we chilled by the rocks gazing in to ocean. For our last day, we drove to the other side of the coast and walked through a forestry area and then onto a wide beach that is heavily populated during summer time. On cold windy days though, it's desolate.
And so after we packed our stuff, I drove us back to Dagskolen-Nordjylland and then picked the guys up from Frederikshavn harbour when they arrived. It was a fun trip we had. Twas a shame I didn't get to sail the boat or spend more time trying scuba diving, but as Lars is fond of the ocean, sailing and diving and is something that we frequently discuss, he said he'll take me sometime. I'll be here for a year so I'm sure he will and there'll be plenty more fun and activities too no doubt!
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