Where´s April gone?!

I know that we ESC always complain about time going by so fast, but I really think that April was the fastest month I've been through until now. I have to be honest, I'm not sure about how I feel about this. It feels like I'm 100% into the routine now, but I wish I could still grasp every good thing that's happening even if it seems kinda harder now.

I dove into April with the best mood ever: I finally met Gabi, McKay and Johan, three of the "old generation skaters", who brought a completely different atmosphere at Kulturfabrikken's cafe. They were all in such a positive mood that they lifted everyone's up. They put metalcore on the cafe speakers while chatting around, and for the first time since I´m here, I heard Avril Lavigne and Blink 182 coming from the skate hall speakers: suddenly, I was in Italy again! That´s indeed the music that italian skaters listen to (at least the skaters that I know), and also the music I grew up with. It was simply amazing, and we got so along together that we also decided to hang out the night after skating together. I hope I can see them again soon, but I know they live all over Denmark now so they don't really come often down here.

I also took some skate lessons from Christian, who was so kind and patient to help me trying new things without laughing too much when something didn´t work out, and was also happy with me when I actually succeded. He still laughs at me when my danish pronunciation is not perfect, but I know that the rest of the people can understand me so I just think he likes being mean to me hahaha. Also, now that I finally completed the process to open a danish bank account I think I'll buy my own skateboard (sådan!) so I can practice whenever I want without being concerned of ruining someone else's - and I've already asked some of the skaters for advice to choose a good one to start with.

Then, I spent my Easter in the northernmost point of the world I´ve ever been to: I went to northern Jutland with two volunteers I met at the arrival training. We had the chance to visit some beautiful danish cities and nature: Amina and I enjoyed Brønderslev, where Elena lives, then we had a trip to Skagen to see where the North Sea and the Baltic Sea meet without mixing (and it was magical), went for a night out in Ålborg, saw the cute town of Hjørring and also walked around in Ålborg during the day. I must say it: I totally fell in love with Ålborg! Not to say anything bad about the rest of Denmark that I experienced, but Ålborg was really something that reached my heart and grabbed it strongly. Who knows, maybe I'll move there in the future for a period;)

Never exhausted enough to give up on trips, I went with Mette, Alessandro and Guna to a little tour in Lolland. After a little walk we stopped to admire the Dodekalitten, twelve giant statues next to the sea which are carved in granite, with some kind of electronical music coming out from special speakers at the base of every statue. As the advertisement says, it's an experience you can't describe with words, you just have to live it (and I agree, it really was beautiful: I could have stayed there all day just chilling). Then we drove all the way west, following the sun, and reached Hestehoved Strand in Nakskov: it's a very cute beach with an amazing view where we had a late, delicious lunch and a walk on the dock, admiring nature and enjoying the great weather. Of course, I took lots of pictures while jumping as always.

Tired of my bike flat tire (which maybe was tired of me in turn), I got help from Mette's boyfriend Thomas who guided me in finding the damn hole and fixing it. I did this once with my granpa some years ago, so that moment reminded me of him. You can see in the pic how happy I was when we were doing it.

In mid-April we hosted another concert: this time it was a quite cozy one where guests could have a beer and a chat with indie music in the background, and the artists who played did a great job in entertaining  the audience with their good mood: that was for sure hygge! I took pictures while they were playing (that's kinda my official task now) and I can see that I'm actually improving this skill. We also had another volunteer, Sophie, helping at the bar, and we all had fun because the event was very nice, and the general mood too. Then, Guna draw on a post-it a little sketch of her impression of me when I work at concerts: I can't say that it's not me! It's VERY relatable :)

On Monday 24th I attended an art lesson with a new machine we have at Kultufabrikken: the magic weight press machine! We used dried flowers and leaves, feathers and special watercolors and we printed very cool designs on fabric, you can see mine in the pictures. In the beginning I wasn´t sure of what I was doing (actually everybody felt like me in that picture: pretty worried haha), but when our teacher told us to just try things out following our own inspiration we all went crazy about it and got in a very nice mood, and this led to lots of creative art pieces - I have to say I´m pretty proud of mine.

I´m meeting my italian friends in Copenhagen tomorrow! We´re going to have some fun days in the city and then they will come to Kulturfabrikken, so they can finally see the amazing place where I'm spending most of my time. Also another friend of mine is arriving almost right after them to stay here for the next weekend and experience some of the danish life. I'm truly happy that they all found a way to come and see me here, and I can't wait to make them meet my danish friends and viceversa!

But with all my friends coming, someone else is going away: Alessandro has now finished his project and is ready to go back home to Italy. I know for sure I'm going to miss our evenings at the library playing boardgames and our pizza nights:( I know he´s lived an awesome experience here and I´m glad we shared some months together, but now he has the italian sun and warm temperatures waiting for him! But before that, we're having some little parties to let him say goodbye to everybody in a proper way.

Even if circumstances haven´t been always positive about the next volunteer, I finally got some good news: Soumia is coming on May 18th!  I´m excited to meet her: for sure changing roommate will be a new thing that I will have to "deal" with, but since what I could understand from my colleagues who had the online meeting with her, I think we could get along. There´s a movie night that I´m looking forward to plan, and this could also be her first occasion to get to know some of the youngsters from Nykøbing AND her first workshop.

Speaking of workshops, I´m helping Guna and Simon with their "Running Street Art", a big project for youngsters from 13 to 17 years old who will create a graffiti masterpiece that will be hung in some secret place in the city during the Royal Run. This is a special run organized by the Danish king and queen which every year takes place in different cities all around Denmark, and this year one of chosen city is Nykøbing Falster! Needless to say, I know for sure that the workshop is going to be great: I saw Guna and Simon working together and their ideas complete the other´s ones, they have lots of experience in different types of art and their energy is engaging!

Last two little big things I want to share:
- lately I've been spending more time in the woods around Kulturfabrikken and I started to "breathe" in a different, better way. Not that I didn't do it before that, but being surrounded by nature, the colours, the sounds, the smells, is just something different! I would say it's almost relieving and even healing in some way.
- I´m attending a little show with my dance class on May 20th! I still find the possibility to dance here a great opportunity, and I never took it for granted. It's just something I could never live without and I realized ithere, so it feels incredibly good to know that I can actually dance wherever I want.

Ok people, I'll say bye for now! Let´s update again in May:)

Vi ses!

Deb