Hello from EDB-rum!

I'm in the computer room next to the filming room, waiting for Sarah to come in and announce that she is indeed ready to be filmed. This week is Open Project Week, Gordon and I are busily getting the Frontrunners dvd ready. A variety of things including our country signs for specific things, a tour of Castberggård, a summary of FR, interviews, the movies we made and so on. I guess only a select few of you will actually get to see it though!

The last time I wrote in this was a week ago, not bad at all! This is probably one of my last entries before I head home so I guess I have to make it memorable! A hard task...

I shall start with our 'long' weekend in Copenhagen. For a lot of this, I will use what I wrote in an email to my family and friends so my apologies to you if you're reading this again!

OnThursday afternoon, we went to Copenhagen for the weekend. On checking in the hostel, I pretty much embarrassed myself within the first five minutes. The woman told us to go straight and down the stairs. Iwalked straight but I just simply could not find any stairs?! I found myself in a dorm room, with a big group of boys looking at me strangely. I'd walked into a dorm looking for the stairs, lugging my big backpack as well as Ronan's backpack. That was..embarrassing! It doesn't sound as bad when it's written in English but....heh... The hostel was different to all the other places I've slept in. I remember checking in and waiting for the woman to give me a key of some sort and she was looking at me like 'yes?'..I was all 'ah, key?'. She said 'You don't need a key'. When she said that, I was like 'ooookaaaay'.The hostel was actually similar to a big house, bedrooms with bunkbeds, a communal living area and three showers and two toilets for all 85 beds! Heh...it was a youth hostel. You had to be between 16 and 35 to sleep there! Jerome, Ammy, Ronan and I were in Room A and the others were in Room E. Not really important information for you but still...wanted to say so!!!

Jerome, Ammy and I went for a walk around the city, Stroget to be specific. Stroget is the world's longest shopping strip!!! Very cool,just wandered around looking in souvenir shops. I bought a couple of things....Sat in this really cool/nice cafe for an hour or so. We all were really tired so we just sat and talked. We also made a list ofwhat we needed to do for the next day...Went to sleep pretty early, around 10 or 11....I woke myself up onFriday morning, SCORE!!!!! (For those that know what I'm like in the mornings, you'll know that it's a huge achievement!!!!) Ammy and I showered and left the others sleeping, went to Stroget once again to SHOP cause the night before, the shops were closed, only souvenir shops were open... We had breakfast in this delicious cafe.. Cafe Norden. Sarah and I had eaten there before but I wanted to share it with Ammy. Expensive but delicious. All in all..worth it, definetely.We started to shop, and my god..it was really hard. I stressed out about the tiniest details. I wanted to buy everyone in my family something that they'd actually like. I also bought someof my friends small gifts....as much as I wanted to buy them all something, it was just..ah, impossible! We shopped until 1:20pm and laid down with bags, we made our way to the place that we had to perform...

What/Why did we have to perform? Weeellll, I'm glad you asked that question. Denmark has this award thing from this foundation that they award every year, I think!!!! This year, it went to Liisa Kauppinen, awoman from Finland. Liisa Kauppinen has been involved in so much over the years. She's the official deaf representative for the United Nations, she's involved in the WFD and numerous other organisations and projects. She's someone of 'high standing'. We had to perform something to commemorate her...we chose to express ourselves through a poem of sorts. Each of us had a letter that spelt out HUMAN RIGHTS...but we were jumbled, had a powerpoint presentation that unjumbled itself at the end...

I was 'I'...Initative. I said something that went like "Liisa has been involved in numerous organisations and projects. Examples of organisations- the UN, WFD and the Nordic Council. Examples of projects- fighting for deaf peoples' rights, culture and sign language. Working to remove the barriers."

I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO nervous, my left leg was shaking....and we had to step up to the stage, I thought I would die!But everyone did an awesome job!!! We went back to the hostel for awhile before going out to dinner at this Pakistan restaurant. It was a very pleasant dinner, the seven of us just eating and chatting.. (Seven being..Ronan, Sigrid, Christophe,Ammy, Sarah, Gordon and I)... We went back to the hostel and relaxed then Thomas arrived and suggested the deaf youth club which was a 10 minute walk. Ronan, Christophe and I went along with Thomas for a couple of hours. It was nice to mix with a different group of deaf people. I knew no-one there, the people I've mixed within the past were of different groups.

On Saturday, we faciliated two workshops. The morning session (Sarah, Gordon, Thomas, Christophe and I) was with both DNR and DNUR. We started off with an explaination of Frontrunners. Thomas and Christophe then explained briefly what Genocide was, I explained what Linguicide was and Sarah/Gordon explained what Ethnocide was. We spilt everyone up into three groups, a variety of countries per group and asked them to think up arguments of why whatever word they were assigned was best to describe what was happening in the Deaf community. We then had each group explain their side and then let them debate. No decision was reached but everyone ended up agreeing that the 'fight' could be fought from all sides, using solid arguments.

The afternoon workshop was with the DNUR group...about Nordic camps, I wasn't there for long because I was really really tired, I thought it best if I had a nap so I left.

Saturday night was an awesome night. I REALLY enjoyed myself. It was Dovania (Deaf Sports Club)'s Christmas party."Julefrokost!!!"... We ate, we drank, we laughed, we hugged, we danced and just had so much fun!!! With dinner, they gave us three shots of.......I've forgotten the name but it's apparently a Danish thing...around Christmas time, I think it's "akevitt"...I'm going to see if I can bring a bottle home! You know the lollies, Fisherman's Friend... They actually have a liquer...!!!! Shots of Fisherman's Friend...It was actually very nice...We played this dancing game...swapping partners by giving the girl a towel or the boy a broom...and whoever had the thing in their hand when the lights came on was OUT....I...WON THE GAME! There were other games too, quite fun. Got back to the hostel around 5:00am.

Sunday was just relaxing, Sarah, Sigrid and I left Copenhagen at noon, arrived back around 3 and...SLEPT!!!!

This week has been Project Week like I said, everyone's busy working on their part before the end of FR. We also had Asger on Monday, to finish off our SWOT stuff...We also discussed High and Low Power Distance, Asger gave so many examples!!!!

I must run...lots to do..My to-do list is a mile long..once again!!!

K xox