Friday, June 25, 2010

Farvel

It is the end :/ Tomorrow is Saturday and I will be saying goodbye to my host family and be left at the goodbye camp in Copenhagen, then I'm flying out Sunday morning. That means today, Friday, is my final day in Køge. This evening is the last time we eat together, and tonight is the last time I sleep here. I can say that, "this is the last...." over and over again about everything but I know I still don't get it. I probably won't get it until tomorrow, maybe Sunday. We've been so busy with so much stuff here, It just doesn't feel like I'm about to leave tomorrow in the middle of all of it. But my bag's are packed, my walls are empty, and my bedroom looks like a guest room. It's sad.

A lot has happend the last few days, cool stuff I should blog about. But I don't really have the energy to sit and write about all of it now. I'll try to once I'm in the states again.

this is my last post from this country!

bye

Monday, June 21, 2010

Goodbye Party


Once again quite a bit has happend latley. I've been to Copenhagen in the rain...twice, saw "Youth in Revolt", had a picnic, started packing, went to some goodbye parties, and held my own goodbye party on Friday.
It turned out really well. With about 35 of my closest friends out in a giant tent in my backyard:) Anne is graduating this year too, so they are gonna use the tent for her party next week (after I'm gone). My host mom and I were working on "night food" the whole day, rapping weenies in bread doe and making pizzas and cookies. It all tasted really good. It was a realy nice party. My class took turnes giving speaches about me hah. and my host family wrote a song about me! It's a danish tradition when you have a big party for one person. People make them for importiant birthdays, comfermation, and stuff like that. And there was a kid from the musical who came
with his guitar and played while everyone sang. It was fun.




I only have 5 days left now and I can't see myself really having a chance to blog about much. But tonight is our last day of lanuge school/party. I'm finally done, and I just got 12 on my oral exam (which is the best you can get!) That was a good way to end it :) tomorrow is my last exam at the Gymnasium, that one will probably not end to well :/ and on Wednesday I'm going out to eat with my family for St. Hans day. It's the longest day of the summer and in the middle ages they would burn a "witch" on that day. Now we just have a big fire on the beach :) Anne graduates on the 24th, and the 25th is my last full day here in Køge. I'll try to blog one more time before I get home. then I'll write a couple there too.




We are allowed twice as much logage this time. Which is good, I need the space!







Monday, June 14, 2010

tick tick tick...(thats a clock)

Of corse I've been up to a lot this past week :) DK is treating me greatly,..but I find that my adventures might seem slightly repetitive to you guys, and while I could sit here posting a bunch of pictures, telling you about all the stuff that I've been up to and making you jealous, I think I'd rather change it up a little bit.


The ticking is getting louder and louder and it can be pretty annoying. To be honest, even though this year has flown by faster than I can understand...time is going kinda slow now. I'm having so much fun with these last days (less than 2 weeks!) and I'm gonna miss Denmark a LOT.... but becuase I think sooo much about stuff, I think I'm actually pretty mentally prepared to come home. This year has been by far the most progressive year of my life, but It all has to end at some point for it to really mean anything. After months of confusion, not knowing how I really feel about having to go home, I think I've finally figured it out; leaving Denmark is going to be very very sad...but it's not going to be hard for me. I'm gonna be sad leaving Denmark, and the people I've met, but I can deal with sadness. Comming home is going to be amazing.
I remember my first couple months here, were I would sometimes have nightmares about comming home, haha. And they really were nightmares! There was nothing particularly scary about them, I just wasn't ready to go home, at ALL. But for the last few nights I've been having the same types of dream again. My family is all standing there waiting and smiling just like in the old ones... but this time, in stead of thinking, "crap!, no no nono!", I feel the complete opposite. I get the best feeling you could possibly get. And even though I love my life here, and it's generally way more exciting than my life in Michigan... I really just can't wait for that dream to actually happen in real life.
Comming back to my old life is gonna be great. And while I've heard from some past exchange students that it's only good to be back for maybe a week, I don't think it will be the same for me. Now that I've been able to step out of the whole thing and have all this time to look back on it and see it from the outside, I think everything is just gonna be better when I get back. I'm not the same as I was before and I'm glad I get to go back to high school again and use everything I've learned here about people and myself.
The situation of an exchange student is a very unnatural one to be in. And no matter how natural the life you make may seem to feel after 9 , 10, or 11 months, it just isn't. There is always that other life-- your real life, waiting for you over on the other side of the world, and at some point, it will need your attention again. I've embraced my time here so much and I'm going to continue for the next 12 days. But I'm ready to go home. I'm looking forward to it.

Leaving will be sad but not hard, sådan er det bare




SHOPPING LIST FOR MOM AND DAD

- extra crunchy peanutbutter
- sun chips
- cheese-its
- charp cheddar cheese
- onion bagels
- oreos
- root beer
- kool-aid mix
- Garden fresh chips and salsa
- beef jerky
- pizza rolls
- fago water
- V8 splash
.... i'll think of more later :)





See you soon Lucy!


Monday, June 7, 2010

The sun is always up.


I have less than 3 weeks left and finally, it seems that summer has started and is staying. And just like in the winter time when it was almost always dark, it is now almost always daylight! It doesn't even get completly dark at night anymore. It looks like late evening at 1 or 2 in the morning and the sun is moving up toward the horizon again by 3. Its bright out at 4.30! It's pretty cool, and the days are just gonna keep getting longer until June 23, the longest day of the year.


I've been up to a lot since the last time I've posted:


Last monday was my last day working "praktik" with all the little kids. We took a field trip to a park a little bit south from Køge, and we just let them run around in the mud all day. It rained the whole time. (the summer I've been talking about hadden't started yet then. haha) We took some of them down to the beach too, which was across the street from the park. They had fun :)



On Wednesday my host dad and I ran in a 5k relay race. There were 4 people on every team and we were on a team with people from his work. It was HOT. I ran a 21 minute 5k which is ok considering I havn't been in full running shape for a year now. I was the last one to run on our team so I got to finish holding a danish flag while I ran in. My host mom came to match is too and she was waving an american flag. haha. After that we went to my host dad's friends house and BBQ'd. That was fun.


On Friday I went to Copenhagen with Jason from France and two of his friends from his class. We hung out by the harbor and went swimming. There were a lot of people there. Copenhagen is one of the only big cities in the world where the water is safe to swim in right in the middle of the city. They duild a swimming area a few years ago with a big giant wooden thing you can jump off off. It was really fun. We bought one of those grills you can use one time and ate hot dogs.




On Saturday my host mom road in a long organized bike ride with her sister and some friends. She's been training for it for a while. The ride starts and ends at the habor in Køge, so every year my host family has dinner at our house after. we were about 20 people. It was another perfect day weather wise.

Simon and I went to a party that night and didn't have much time to sleep becuase we all got up early Sunday morning (My host parents, Simon, and I) to go on a canoe trip with AFS Køge. It was the very last meeting with the Køge group which is kinda sad. But we had a really fun time:) We did the same canoe trip I did with my 10klasse last year, but it was better weather this time. I got burnt! Sunday might have been the last time the 6 of us exchange students were all together at the same time, which is weird. We've all gotten to be really good friends, but in a way, more like siblings or just a family of 16-17 year old exchange students. haha

After our day long canoe trip we all went to a resturant and ate danish food, and AFS paid :)

The last couple days have been pretty normal. I've been studying for my oral math exam which is now tomorrow! I'm going to Copenhagen again on Thursday and parties Friday and Saturday so I'm still keeping busy.

19 days!!!!!