Last autumn holidays I was lucky to visit the most colorful country I had ever seen –

Denmark. The main idea of my journey was visiting my pen friend from Hoerup. I had

corresponded with the girl for two months before my journey. Her name was Ditte. So, I

looked forward to seeing her.

The beginning of my journey was Copenhagen. And I was impressed by its unusual

architecture (a good start isn’t it?). The place of our destination was Sonderburg.

“Wow! It is a really long trip!” - I thought and our train started.

During the trip I looked out of the window without stopping. Yellow, red, brown trees and

bushes, green lawns, clear lakes sped past me. But the windmills delighted me most of all.

I saw them for the first time. We don’t have them in Russia and I was greatly impressed!

They were both on the land and in the water.

Four hours later we arrived in Sonderburg. There were a lot of people on the platform.

First of all, we met the teacher from Hoerup School who had invited us. She started

introducing us to our families. My only thought was: “Which of the girls is Ditte?”

But I need not have been so nervous. We recognized each other.

The next day we went to school by car. It took us 7 minutes to get there. On the way to

school I saw a lot of pupils going to school by bicycles. It turned out that the bicycle is

a very popular transport in Denmark.

All the pupils were very friendly and we chatted with them about everything. I am sure that

we found some common interests. I even can say that Danish pupils are more responsive

than English ones.

We had such a good time with Danish girls and our Russian students! It was fun to go

bowling and to eat ice-cream in Sonderburg, to take pictures of the North Sea with Ditte

and Louise, to watch Ditte and Catherine taking part in a handball match, to visit Louise’s

singing lesson and just have a perfect time at home.

Now I want to say “Thank you very much!” to all of them. I will never forget Denmark!

And, of course, I look forward to seeing our Danish friends in Zhukovsky next May. I am

sure that I will be able to show them all the charm of our town.

Lera Fenutina (15 years old)

November 2010

DENMARK

One day Valentina Mikhailovna brought some letters to school. They were from Danish

children, who wanted to have pen-friends in our school.

I liked Eskild at first glance: he had a friendly look in the picture. He wrote to me about his

home, parents and his country.

The Danish students invited us to visit their school in our autumn holidays and,

of course, we accepted the invitation.

When we came to Sonderborg Eskild and his father met us at the station and brought us

home. There were candles in every room! Eskild's mother had cooked a duck and several

desserts for us. Everything was so tasty!

I stayed at Escild's home with Grisha and Nikita. The next morning we all together went to

Eskild’s school by the School bus. Everybody got a packed lunch.

The Danish school differs from ours a lot. They have 4 lessons every day. The lessons last 75

minutes each and there are 40 minute brakes between them. They start learning English in

the 5th form. And they don't have marks until they are Year 9 students! The school is so

clean that the pupils walk barefooted. They don't get homework! You can run outside

during breaks: the school has a huge territory. Boys and girls have separate P.E. lessons.

The boys have a male teacher and the girls – a female one.

After school Eskild's father showed us the island. We saw the North Sea, the

Danish-German border, the tree under which Andersen had written some of his fairy tales

and the tree where one famous military doctor, who had saved many lives, was buried

Also, we visited Eskild’ grandmother. She was a very kind woman, who had baked very

delicious pies for us and presented us with some articles about Andersen and one of his

stories in English.

The next day we moved to Grisha and Nikita’s pen pals, whose names were Soeren and

Nicklas. We also liked them very much. Soeren played PSP with us and Nicklas had many

funny pets: 2 ponies, a dog, a hamster and a guinea pig.

Before our departure our new friends arranged a concert and a disco for us. We prepared

food for the party ourselves and then we cleaned the kitchen. The boys made a presentation

about Andersen and the girls read some pages from his novels.

We were also on the stage singing Russian songs and dancing. We had a lot of fun in a

special Disco room. We didn't want to leave.

The last day of our stay in Denmark we spent in Copenhagen. We walked a lot in the very

heart of the city and enjoyed the planetarium.

Now I look forward to seeing Eskild with his friends in Zhukovsky.

I hope he will like our place too. I will do my best.

Maxim Nemirovsky (11 years old)

November 2010

This autumn I had a chance to visit Denmark and it was amazing. Firstly, I was lucky to stay

only with one family for 5 days. My family live in Kegnaes, it is an island, so their house is

near to the beach. There are four of them in the family: father Henry, mother Birgitte, my

pen pel Kathrine (she is 13) and her elder sister Astrid (she is16). But, unfortunately, I didn’t

see Astrid because she was in the boarding school. It is a kind of school where you can decide

what you want to do in the future if you do not know yet. But not everybody can afford such

expensive schools.

Well, my family was so kind, hospitable, and attentive to me and very interested in my life in

Russia. Of course, the parents had many questions to me but I answered all of them with

great pleasure. They told me so much about their country, style of life, their traditions, food

and politics. We spoke to each other only in English. In spite of the fact that they are Danish

their English was nice. Actually, I was surprised that every passer-by knew English when we

asked them about direction. It turned out that my Danish parents and Katherine are

Christians and we have much in common. Even the food was like in Russia so I did not feel

homesick.

I‘d like to tell you about the way we spent our holidays in Denmark. As Danish pupils start at

8 o'clock I had to get up very early, about 6: 30. Then I washed and we had breakfast. There

were 2 variants: cereals (mueslis) or toasts with butter which taste in a different way (a bit

salty). Then Birgitte drove us to school. It took us 25 minutes to get to school. While going

there I could admire the scenery. One more thing: as we went to another island on both sides

of the road I could see much water. It was an incredible view. I could see many pupils going

by bicycle. The school was very big with long corridors and halls. I came to the conclusion

that it is not so popular to have high buildings and houses in Denmark. So the school was

modern, with all technical equipment.

We visited lessons of Danish, English, PE, Chemistry and many others. They were very

interesting but it was so difficult for us to study for 75 minutes as we are used to have 45

minute lessons. The same about the breaks: they seemed endless to me and, moreover, I felt

constantly cold as all the pupils had to spend their breaks outside to fresh their brains, and

the weather was windy, sometimes rainy. In that school every class has their own section.

How huge and beautiful their sport grounds are. What really surprised me was when the

teacher said:" Lunch now", everybody took their packed food out of their school bags. Of

course, we had lunch too. And all the pupils started eating, except the teacher. I can add (I

found it out from my family) that if you want to work as a teacher you need to know at least

3 subjects. I think it is a high paid job. So, after school we went home by bus. Every pupil has

their own travel cards which make their trip home free. Isn't it wonderful?

During the whole week we visited different places: Sonderborg where we went shopping,

Dubbol (a historical museum) where we learnt about the Danish-German war of 1864. We

also went bowling together with our pen pals and it was awesome. In the evening we talked

for hours exchanging the information, discussing problems. When our Danish friends visited

us we played table tennis in the activity room of our house, and had much fun.

I am so grateful to my Danish family for the warm welcome. After leaving our families we set

out to the capital of Denmark - Copenhagen. It's a pity we couldn't see the famous Little

Mermaid but we visited the Planetarium. It was marvellous. Huge stars were above our

heads like in the night and they seemed to be so close. Then we enjoyed a 3d video about sea

monsters and it was amazing. After that we returned to our hotel PARK INN. The next

morning we went to the swimming pool and to the sauna to be fresh and energetic for the

rest of the day.

Such a nice trip we had. I think Denmark is a green country with splendid fields. It is also a

place where the government thinks about their people and, what is more

important, helps them. It has a high level of life.

In conclusion, I want to say that it was a great opportunity for me to see Denmark, a modern

European kingdom. But for my teacher of British Studies my dream to visit this country

would not have come true. I thank her very much.

Nastya Chekareva (17 years old)