Had breakfast w Peter, my host with the most and teacher extraordinaire, and the students and then he took me on a tour of some of the other rooms on the property. We ended up at the music room where 6 students and Bent the music treacher were jamming tunes. They rocked a contemporary Danish tune and when I was leaving they start shedding Fix You by Coldplay. I was impressed. These kids had the rock n roll spirit at 9 am!
Took an hour before lunch to start to think about how I wanted to approach the show and started tumbling into a new song. It doesn't have words yet, but some nice melodies and a chorus. For now it's called "Skals, DK." Made no progress on plan of attack for the show. Oh well.
Lunch with Peter and the students; potatoes with some sort of white sauce, baked salmon, salad. Super clean. Super healthy. So, as the last day before the Easter break, the kids have a HUGE party planned for the evening at the school. Parents were the chaperones. I immediately called bullshit. I couldn't believe that the kids would willingly plan a party with their parents as chaperones. But it's true and here's why... Peter explained that the position of the school is create mature adults ready for university and as such, it's important that these kids, in a sense, learn how to behave and, well, drink.... Drink? Yeah. At this school function, with 120 fifteen to seventeen year olds, beer was going to provided, even served by the parents. Mind. Blown. Everybody at the school, teachers and students, were open about how it was gonna be a blow out and I was like, wait up, everyone is cool with this?? Everyone is cool with this, man. I'm impressed. These Danes got it right. Let kids be kids. Help control the environment and their safety and that's it. Let them be idiots WHILE THEY ARE KIDS and when they grow up and mature, they'll b cool. I just think it's super progressive and just right. Can you imagine this happening in an American high school?! The teachers would be thrown in jail! These Danes... So progressive.
1:00 pm Skals, DK. The auditorium fills up with 120 students who quietly take their seats and stare at me. That's 240 eye balls, people. Danish eye balls, so they are piercing yet kind and 88.9% blue... "Hi, I'm Brian. I'm a touring musician/songwriter. I live in Phx, AZ..." Snap your fingers.
2 pm Skals, DK. It was like that scene in Old School. Will Ferrell. Debate club. Blackout. He comes to... You know what I'm talking about.
The show was cool. I kept it engaging and interactive (id like to think so, at least) I did music trivia with them, like "name all the Beatles," and I'd hand out a free CD. The kids would clap and cheer their classmate. I talked about my journey as a writer, my background, played my songs, played songs that they could sing along to to keep them present... I thought it was a huge success. The hour just flew by. It was fun as hell for me. Even had some friends come all the way from Aarhus to listen. Thanks Ulla!
After the show, they took a little break, more snacks and coffee, and then all reassembled in the auditorium for more singing. The students sang a bunch of tunes; some I'd never heard of "the streets of London" and some I knew "viva la vida" and the "I would walk 500 miles" song. Anway, it was a trip. These kids love singing.
All the singing wrapped up by 3. The kids have the rest of the week off so they split. I reconvened with the staff in the teachers lounge and they had wheeled in some carts with yet more snacks and drinks, but this time, the adult kind. It was go time. The kids were gone so the staff was kicking back.
There is a tradition at the school where all the staff hops on a bus and visits all the houses of the staff that don't live in Skals. There are about 8 folks that live around the area and the bus follows a one hour schedule where they drive around and visit the families of said staff and we snak on various things. I asked Peter how often they do this sort of thing; staff events. He said, well one trip for all the folks that live outside of Skals, one for all the folks that live in town... And don't forgot the summer and Christmas party... I laughed. We loaded the bus with beers and chips and off we went. We literally spent the next 10 hours (no shit, we got back to the school at like 1am) visiting he families of the staff. We'd roll past old Viking burial mounds, rolling hills, little villages, find the house, pull up, snack and drink, and then exactly one hour later we'd all load on to the bus and hit the next house. It was a riot.
One house prepared potato soup, the next cheese and bread, the next pizza (and get this, they had a "shawarma pizza" which led to a lively debate, me being a professional and all). We ate green cake here, fresh fruit and coffee there. We ended up at an old remodeled farm house and played some dice game and ate red sausages.
(Staff L to R: Tina, Peter, Lars)
(Snack attack Danish style: red sausage w Ketchup, mustard, pickles, fried onions, fresh onion... Perfection)
I was so honored to have been included. I felt like I was apart of something so authentically Danish and had an opportunity to get to know so many of the amazing teachers and see how they live. I felt so welcomed. It was really a highlight of my trip so far. I gotta thank my host Peter for including me. It was so much fun! Thank you brother!
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