After watching so many movies in their original versions, and knowing that I had a lot of time ahead of me, I was now decided to learn Danish. Still recuperating from my surgery, I searched for a teacher. I searched the Web, called the best language schools, and spent weeks hoping to find a Danish Yoda to make the best Jedi ever out of me!

Unfortunately for me, Danes are awfully rare in Québec as I said previously, and my research was in vain. My only option was an 800$ or about program, only available on the internet, which meant no contact with someone actually speaking Danish.

*Deception*

But there is no stopping me, and being my stubborn self, I decided to start learning on my own. I gathered pen and paper, and started hunting for the best Danish lesson-giving blogger available. After all, it was still winter-time, and I didn’t have much more to do while resting my aching body. I listened to quick videos over and over again, to aclimate my French ears to my very own Everest. It was interesting, but let’s get real, it wasn’t even close to real classes. I needed direct contact, how could I achieve that without abducting one of the very few Quebec Danes and forcing him|her to talk to me for food and shelter…??

I had been building up my vocabulary with Babbel for a while when I had an idea. There had to be at least one website offering a network of people wanting to exchange about language learning… And there were indeed many!  So I chose one, built my registration and threw the bottle in the sea.

I made myself incredibly clear. I was there to learn Danish. I was open to friendship but I wasn’t looking for love or romance (pushing away the potential Danish lovers out there, how faithfull of me, hihihi). I know these kinds of websites are often full of people that just seek people as if speed dating was convenient just about anywhere. As I feared, I received number of messages from everywhere, from people that most probably couldn’t point Denmark on a map, and looking for a “friend”.

I decided to be proactive, and contacted a few persons after a thorough review of their profiles… Mostly women, sometimes men,but only if they seemed happily married. All Danes, obviously. And I waited. Patiently. For what felt like months. And nothing happened.

I was starting to think my name was on some obscure Danish blacklist.

Until one morning. I had made peace with my lonely learning process, and I was practicing everyday. But that morning, a new message was waiting in my email inbox. My heart skipped a beat.

It wasn’t a lonely asian teenager curious about talking with a North American girl. It wasn’t a North African hoping to fraternise… No, this message was from a Danish young woman about my age.

!

It had to be a joke. Or a lure… Anyway, it couldn’t be for real. If I wrote back, I probably wouldn’t even get a reply. But the mysterious author of the message had put a lot of time into her invitation to exchange, and if there was the slightest chance all of this could be serious, the situation was ideal. She needed some help with some North American translation, seemed interested in helping me with my Danish, and wrote long messages,just like me!

I took a chance…

The next day started an incredible and intense series of penpalling. But most important, a dear to my heart friendship!

My first Danish friend!

P.S. I will not name you my dear friend, but I take advantage of this tribune to tell you that I feel lucky you found my bottled message on your shore every day. Even if we sometimes have things happening in our lives that slow down our exchanges, I still take a moment to thank life for putting you on my path! Jeg elsker dig (not in a romantic way, of course LOL)